5:00 pm and this is a meeting of the Christian board of selectment a joint meeting the board of selectman and finance committee with our friends from old colony are here to talk about the um November 18th vote to uh question before
voters of five communities to consider um funding the construction of a new school. So with that said, is there a motion to call the selectman's meeting to order? >> So moved. I'll second that. All those in favor? >> I then I'm an I. We are the selectments
meeting open. I'll turn it over to the finance committee to open that meeting. >> Thank you, David. Um, good evening everyone. This is a joint meeting of the finance committee and board of selectments to discuss the old colony building project. It's Tuesday, October 27th, 2025.
This meeting is being audio and video recorded. Do we have a motion to open our meeting? Make a motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you. >> Um we'll just ask folks at the table from Old Colony to identify yourself, but from what I understand, this is one
of uh 36 meetings that have been planned since August 27th. I know that you've been done the road show. You've had a number of meetings uh at the school with various stakeholders. um you've seen, you know, a fair amount of interest, but
I think now's the time to really step it up from a education standpoint with uh a little less than 3 weeks or so uh up until an important election. U so we wanted to make sure we provided this opportunity for residents who to come in
person to ask questions. Uh but also this will be memorialized on YouTube TV and we will uh get this out get the word out as much as possible. Um just by way of background um Old Colony has put forward the school district has put
forward a question as to whether or not the voters in five towns will consider will approve or disapprove funding for construction of a of a new school. Um and with that comes budgetary considerations. uh not only for the
municipalities but the individual voters. Um as a member of the board, I've served on the the school building committee, feasibility committee, and the one thing I can attest to is just the process. There's been a thorough process. Um there's been a number of
meetings in that regard. I'm one of I think what 25 people or 20 20 plus on that committee who in each person there whether they're an elected official or an appointed official the one thing that was first and foremost you know with the
obvious of serving the needs of the students in the the student population but every person at that meeting uh has taken into account the taxpayer and how it'll impact them and how it'll impact their municipalities budget. So, I just
want to at least share that with you. With that said, I'll turn it over to Mr. Palansky and you can uh do the introductions and lead the discussion. >> Sure. Um, we'll take a moment just to we'll take a moment just to uh follow through with introductions. Aaron
Bolinsky, superintendent, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School. >> I'm Walter Hartley with PMA Consultants. Uh we are the owner's project management team. Uh also a resident of Rochester. >> I am a resident of Rochester. I am a
school committee member from Rochester and I am currently the chair of the building committee. And my name is Shirley Burke. I probably should have put that in there somewhere. >> I'm Sarah Griffith. I oversee the finances for the school district. Good evening. I'm Mark Adrian. I'm with
PMA Consultants. We're your owner's project manager. And I'm >> Chad Ken, also PMA Consultants, owners manager. >> Just quickly, >> everybody knows Mr. Gasper. We just want to make sure we >> elect Kevin Diaspora. David Ward, finance committee members, please.
>> Mike Bush, chairman of the finance committee. >> Pete, finance committee. >> Eric Chu, finance committee. >> Lisa Orski Tomlinson, finance committee. Great. Thank you. Just ask that you talk into the microphone for the whole presentation because this way it'll get picked up uh for the uh video.
>> Sure. >> So, real quickly, what we'd like to do is show a brief 10-minute video which will catch everyone up to speed on where we currently stand. Uh it's a synopsis of the longer 1-hour presentation uh that will spare you only because we'd like to spend a majority of the time
answering some questions and providing clarity uh around a couple of items that were brought to our attention. So, we'll begin with the video and then we'll proceed with some Q&A. On November 18th, Old College Regional Vocational Technical High School will
ask our member towns a Kushnet, Carver, Lakeville, Matapoet, and Rochester for voter approval of a new high school building project through the Massachusetts School Building Authority or MSBA. Old Colony is not just an educational institution for our five
member towns. We're a partner in service in labor market solution and a destination for many to take advantage of a community focused outreach that happens each and every day. Old Colony students have been responsible for projects like the construction of the COA shed and installation of electric
car stations in a Kushnet, the Carver Junior Senior High concession stand, construction of Lon Pond Lodge in Ted Williams Park in Lakeville, renovation of the American Legion, Holy Ghost Grounds and Dunce Gardens in Matapoet, and construction of the COA shed, work at Plum Library, and the upcoming
addition to the Rochester Council on Aging to name only a few. With the addition of a plumbing and HVAC program, Old Colony will become a fully operational construction outfit with direct additional benefit for our communities and taxpayers. In this video, we'll show the
opportunity we have to secure more than $125 million in state funds through the MSBA to fund the project. We'll review how we got here to the key inflection point of public approval by reviewing the steps we've completed in the MSBA process. We'll share the schematic
designs of the new high school and describe the vocational, educational, and community benefits of the project. We'll detail the project scope and budget for the new high school, including the amount that would be financed on our local tax roles. and we'll explain how public approval of the project works, including the
implications of yes and no votes on November 18th when polls will be open from noon to 8:00 p.m. Old Colony and its member communities have a rare opportunity to fund a new vocational technical high school with the MSBA. The MSBA is a state authority
that helps local school districts pay for the design and construction of schools. For every dollar spent, one penny of our state sales tax goes to the MSBA, and it's funded more than 17 billion dollars in statewide school construction since 2004. The program is
highly competitive. Only about 15% of school districts that apply are accepted into the program each year. Old Colony was accepted into the program in March 2022 and has spent the past 3 years meeting MSBA requirements, hiring a project team, and gathering public
feedback. The MSBA process is rigorous but ensures that our project not only meets the highest standards in 21st century vocational technical education in the most fiscally responsible solution. The payoff for this work is significant. If voters approve, Old
Colony can have about 55% of its eligible costs reimbursed by the MSBA and another 5.7% paid through incentive points for maintenance, efficiency, and sustainability. Meanwhile, the cost of repair and renovation of the existing 50-year-old building with no additional
programming and no expanded enrollment estimates to more than $130 million on longer timelines and with no reimbursement from the MSBA. Here's how the Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School got to the point of public approval with our
communities voting on November 18th. The school was selected into the highly competitive MSBA core program in March 2022 because the existing school building has reached the end of its useful life. Opened in 1975, the building celebrated its 50th year in
service this year. And despite incredible maintenance efforts to keep the building in good working condition, the building's size, design, and space no longer serves the needs associated with the 21st century vocational education. With significant space constraints for existing programs that
do not match enrollment demand, do not provide room for vital student supports nor room to expand vocational offerings like HVAC, plumbing, and dental assisting, which are in high demand in our communities. To begin the process, Old Colony School building committee consisting of school and town leaders
and resident volunteers conducted a feasibility study, hired a project team, which includes an owner's project manager and architectural design firm, and embarked on a comprehensive effort to hear from the community throughformational sessions, focus groups, and most importantly, an
educational visioning process where anyone in our communities, including our students, could help capture the needs a new old colony should serve. Our school building committee took all of this feedback to create an educational plan which directed the design team to create several options of renovation, addition,
and replacement of the high school. The project team presented 40 different scenarios to evaluate which the school building committee evaluated with a detailed scoring system to identify the most financially responsible solution which supports Old Colony's long-term educational goals. The school building
committee identified eight options for the project team to develop further, including various options of repair, renovation, addition, and new construction. And in December 2024, the school building committee selected a new construction option for 776 students as
its preferred option to build an entirely new building adjacent to the existing school. Here's how our design team took months of planning, public feedback, and guidance from our school building committee to design and scope out every inch of a new Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical
High School. The new two-story building will measure approximately 270,000 square ft located adjacent to the existing school building. This minimizes disruption to school activities during the construction period and saves time, money, and resources that a phased in
construction would require. The building is laid out in four main wings, arrayed around a central hub at the heart of the school. The gymnasium anchors the health and wellness wing, which will also house new science labs, our health careers program, and a new dental assisting
program on the second floor. The wing south and west converges with this one to provide a complete offering of publicly accessible spaces including the auditorium and cafeteria hubbed with the culinary program along with cosmetology and business on the first floor. On the
opposite side of the site layout, automotive, machine and tool, and metal fabrication are located in the southeast wing and share a working courtyard with their neighboring wing to the north, which hosts the construction cluster, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and carpentry. Academic classrooms are
located throughout, including a dedicated music space, and room for breakout sessions, counseling, and integrated special education. With room for 776 students, this expanded capacity provides a more equitable way to meet demand for in-
demand vocational programs and meets the key educational goals and objectives reflected from our communities through visioning and our school building committee's educational plan promoting personalization, connection, and ownership. A culture of learning
vocational learning that happens in clusters. School as a community resource. a secure and welcoming place, adaptability and sustainability and design, and both indoor and outdoor learning.
Here's the project scope and budget for a new Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School under the MSBA process. The total project budget is approximately $288.7 million. This includes careful contingency planning for rising costs
and demolition of the existing building, which will be converted into additional parking space. If approved by our member communities in a November 18th election, MSBA would contribute about $129 million to the budget or about 60.5% of an
eligible project costs. In addition to Old Colony's base reimbursement rate from the MSBA, the project will get another $11 million in mass save rebates and IRA tax credits, leaving about $148 million to be
financed on the local tax roles of our member communities distributed between the towns based on annual enrollment date. Here's how we propose to pay for our portion, which will require our community's approval in a five town election on November 18th. a debt
exclusion, which means the tax increase is temporary and expires once the bond is paid off. A 30-year bond using a conservative interest rate of 4%. This is a fixed amount until the bond is repaid. You can see the average single family assessed home value in each of
our five towns to see the average annual tax impact or use the tax impact calculator on our project website to input your home's value and estimated tax impact. In order to unlock MSBA funding, the new high school project now requires approval by voters in our five member
communities. Aushnet, Carver, Lakeville, Matapoet, and Rochester. Each town will hold its own special election on November 18th with polls open from noon to 8:00 p.m. just like any other town election. However, the results are not five separate elections. This is one
aggregated vote where a simple majority would approve the project and its funding. If it does pass, the new high school will go through a year of design, development, and construction documentation, then bidding and construction with the goal of cutting the ribbon and occupying the new school in the fall of 2029.
If the project is not approved, Old Colony has just 10 business days to submit a plan to the MSBA to remedy the failed vote. It may only schedule another vote with the MSBA's approval. Otherwise, the MSBA's involvement would cease, and any future MSBA involvement
on a future project or repair effort would require the filing of a new statement of interest by old colony. We would go back to the beginning of the process if and when the MSBA accepts us back into the program, which is historically a 5 to 10year process. Without the MSBA, Old Colony will have
to address the repair and renovation of the vocational technical high school through its regular capital improvement process, where taxpayers in our five communities pay the full cost without state assistance. We estimate base repair and code improvements to the existing high school at $134.3
million. 100% of these expenses would have to be paid with local tax dollars. The cost of maintaining the school would continue to rise and would not address any of the existing space issues at the school nor provide capacity to open new vocational
programs. At Old Colony, our project vision for a new high school is to foster opportunities for integrated vocational and academic learning in a modernized facility that's designed to maximize student voice, independence, and exploration. We've compiled every design detail and
document as well as a tax impact calculator for you to review on our project website. That's old colonybuildingpro.com. >> So, at this point in time, I'm going to turn the mic over to Chad Kitten from PMA, and he'll start with a few slides that will address uh some of the
questions that have been posed. Thank you, President Vansky. Um, so again, my name is Chad Curtin. I'm PMA consultants, uh, owner's project manager. Uh, so we were here not too long ago, a few weeks back. Uh, and we have a long presentation. We can kind of
jump around that. We're not make you sit through the entire hourong uh, slideshow deck again, but uh, wanted to show you some of the updated new material. It's been just kind of refined to answer some of the questions that have been uh, have surfaced since the last time we were here. Um so you heard in the video um we
looked at over 40 options. We narrowed that down to eight finalist options. Um right now at this point in time the MSBA is is on board. Their board of directors are uh in full support of the new build option. They see that as the most uh financially responsible solution that meets the district's educational
programming needs and goals. Uh so really two choices left at this point in time. Either we move forward with the MSBA or uh we do not move forward with the MSBA which is kind of the status quo. also left to repair that building uh as time goes on. Um you can see here side by side those two options. So the
repair cost you heard in the video $134 million. Um that's the today cost. That's the do everything at once and sort of rip the band-aid off and uh go at the entire building in a very long phased uh occupied renovation. Uh on the
right side you see the cost to build new. Um this is broken up into three different sections. So the bottom darker gold is uh $148 million. That's the district share to uh build a new building. Above that you see a smaller slice that $11 million. So that is the
mass save rebates and IRA tax credits that that new build would be eligible for. And then on the top there you see the MSBA's contribution of $129 million. Uh so the the choices before us now is really what direction we're going to go in. Do we uh repair existing or do we
move forward with the new build? New build is about a 10% higher district share cost. Um but it's a much uh more suitable building. It gets you that minimum MSP 50 plus years. Uh repairs uh in our experience end up being a little bit of a death by thousand cuts. So once
you start to peel that onion, you find more and more issues. Uh so certainly a lower risk option. We'll jump over to the next slide. Uh so one of those challenges with the repair project um lots of code triggers that we run into. So the question we get
is why not just address the building's core needs now and then uh address additional needs as they arise. Uh so there are lots of needs right now um failures within that building that need to be addressed. Uh the way that the uh
520 CMR regulations read, once you exceed 30% of the building's assessed value, you're required to bring the building up to full 521 CMR code compliance. Assessed value 17 million. So that 30% trigger happens around $5
million. So just attacking some of the the core problems, the water issue we know about. Um we know that there's failed plumbing underneath the slab. you're going to be brushing up against that trigger right there on 521 CMR. We jump to the next slide. Uh so that hits
a whole bunch of other triggers and it really is a chain reaction. So 521 CMR once you hit $5 million makes you accessibility compliant. Um think about things like wheelchair turning radius, uh slopes, door frame, push pulls, frames that are recessed into walls, uh
forward reaches, sideways reaches, all that stuff. So in order to make that compliant, you're going to lose real estate. Bathrooms have to get bigger. When you make a bathroom bigger, you took away space from the room that was next to that bathroom. And we're already constrained for space. So really is uh a
full chain reaction. We also have IECC, which is the international energy code uh requirements in there. At some point, you trip 780 CMR uh which are the structural uh code upgrade requirements. So think things like snow roads up snow
loads up on the roof, sheer and seismic requirements um within the structure of the building, things like brace frames. So a brace frame is uh a giant best way to describe it is a X made out of tube steel that has to go in select locations in the building. So imagine the structural engineer says that needs to
land in the middle of a big shop space. Now you just lost some more square footage. Uh fire safety is an important one of course 148 CMR. So once you affect 33% of the building's floor plan, you uh have now triggered 148 CMR. So lots of code triggers that you run into.
The first one that you generally hit is that 30% of assessed value threshold for 521 CMR. And then once you address that, it's snowball effect and you run into the other code triggers. Uh we did do a hypothetical. So we said, what if these code triggers didn't exist? So the
question came up a lot. We said, okay, let's look at it. Uh we know that the cost to repair is1 $134 million and we said, "Okay, let's do 10% of the most critical needs every 5 years and see how long it plays out before we financially
made the wrong decision." Whether or not the building is complete or not, different situation, but uh so we said, "Okay, let's uh let's map that out." So each of those bars is the 10% of the repair cost. So 13.4 million. Uh what we did is we escalated at 4% annually. uh
the Massachusetts market is probably nearly double that escalation rate, but we wanted to run conservative numbers. And we said, okay, so 2026 we'll do 13.4 million, 2031 we'll do 13.4 plus the 4% annual escalation, so on so forth. And we'll map that against the green line,
which is the district share of the new building, which we bonded over 30 years. Um so you can see where the red and the green line cross. Um you really hit that break even right around the 20-y year mark. So, you've addressed by 2041 40% of your building needs and you've
already hit the cumulative cost that you would have on the uh debt service and then from that point on it just gets worse and worse. Uh so by the end of that 30 years, the new building debt service, you're looking at $147 million district share. Uh in order to repair
the building over that same period of time every five years, you spent $182 million and you only completed 70% of your necessary repairs. Now you're 30 years into the future. So who knows what other repair needs popped up in that time.
>> Jump over to the next one. One of the questions that came up in our last meeting was around operating costs. And so what we attempted to do was map out what a perspective and these are just projections or estimates um but what our operating costs from staffing
perspectives would look like. Uh our baseline is 560. we'd be looking at an additional 54 students per year. Uh in year one, you'll see the addition of the vocational areas. So, one instructor in plumbing, HVAC, and dental,
respectively, and one instructor in music and art because those currently do not exist. And this would allow for space to offer those programs. That number um would remain consistent for the first two years. And then we would add an additional plumbing, HVA,
AC, and dental instructor in years three and four. uh to complete the staffing for those respective programs. In the academic areas in year one with the addition of 54 students, we had we would add half of an ELA teacher, one
math teacher, one science teacher, uh and half a history position. Uh those would remain static. In year two, class sizes would increase. We used a tipping point of 25 per class. Um, in year three, we would add an additional
teacher in those academic areas and carry that through to year four. Uh, the same model is used with special education. So, that gives you an idea of what the staffing would look like with the addition of 216 students total on both the academic and the vocational
side. Next slide. Uh, in year one, we proposed the addition of an admissions director, a school psychologist, and a co-op coordinator. uh the square footage of the school is going to increase from about 107,000
square ft to 270,000 square ft and that will require an additional a large group of custodial staff. Additionally, we would anticipate separating uh a shared clerical position and establishing a new clerical position. So that's a plus one
and our business office uh at some point would also experience a plus one. Growth of the cafeteria staff is budgeted through the cafeteria program, but we would be remiss if we didn't show the growth in that particular area as well. And from a transportation fleet
perspective with the addition of 54 students per year, we would we would uh estimate uh two buses in year one and an an additional bus in each year for a total uh change of approximately five buses. Again, these are best guess
estimates. uh it's hard to zero in on what the exact needs will be. Uh but this gives a somewhat of an overview of the uh increases to the operating budget. Next slide, please. And I'll turn this over to back over to you,
Chad, if you'd like. >> Thank you. Um so some of the cost for a new building will actually come down. Uh a new building comes with essentially a one-year bumper-to-bumper statutory warranty. master any building, it's going to have that. Um, certain systems
will have longer warranties carried within that system. For example, a new roof warranty is 30 years. That'll be specified for the product that's uh being currently carried in the estimates. Uh, operational costs, you would think building gets bigger, operational costs would go up. Utility
cost, gas and electric. Um, so we did study that and uh we took the historical bills over the past year. So historical over the past 12 months, uh, gas and electric cost is $232,000. Working with the engineers, we have them project what that utility cost would be
for that new building in today's dollars. Um, so I came in much much lower at 41 cents a square foot. Uh, so $112,000. So there is a savings associated with that utility cost. I'll jump over to the next slide. And uh so
we take all this information, all the um the teaching, the transportation, the support and admin, the utility costs, uh all those items and um Sarah here was kind enough to crunch them all into her budget. And we mapped out two scenarios.
Again, the red bars show uh no build scenario. So just showing a 3% annual growth uh year-over-year right through FY34. And then the gold bar shows uh what it would look like with a new 776 student
building. Uh so this is all operation cost. Doesn't factor in any uh chapter 70 or chapter 71 state aid. Uh so you can see on the far right if we fast forward into FY34, you're looking at about a 14.8% increase in uh total
operational costs. If we dive to the next level of detail and we now factor in what that uh projected chapter 70 and chapter 71 state aid looks like, uh the costs increase is is a little more subtle. Um so that same period FY34
um with the new 776 student building, you're looking at an operational cost increase that makes it back to the districts of around 6%. Uh so you're increasing your enrollment by around 40% but operational costs in that same period are rising by 6% after state aid
is factored in. >> We can jump I think that's probably uh it for the the new slides. I think at this point we're happy to turn it over to any questions, comments, discussion items. Um we have lots more material that we're happy to run through.
Uh, quick question. Just just because just back and forth and back and forth. It's >> tap it on your head. It'll work. >> Yeah. So, just because we're looking at the operational cost and you broke it down after the aid, which is great, but
we're looking at big numbers there. So with the addition of the new 200 plus students that you have, what's our operational cost or our annual cost per student going to be? And I asked that since Kushner currently has 35% of your overall student budget.
>> Do you want to in general like karaoke? Yeah, I know it was a 6% increase. I'm just wondering what that translates into dollars per student. >> Yeah, roughly. >> So, I don't have that breakdown right now available. Um, but based on the
projections that we did, um, that would depend on how many students you had in the school district. So, we don't know what's going to happen with the Kushnet. And >> I'm not asking for a cushion. I'm just asking what your your average annual growth is going to be in cost per student
>> once you've got your full complement of 224. >> Yeah. Um I would say it would be about 6%. Based on what that's showing right now. >> Well, that's your overall operating cost. Your operating cost is 6% but you're adding students into it. So I'm
just wondering what that is per student. >> So that is actually the the cost projection is um a per pupil cost projection. That's 14 million. So if we divided 14 million by 700 students, that doesn't come up to the right number.
>> 775 >> 185. >> Yep. >> Which is about what we're at right now. I mean, that's not it's a little bit of an increase every year, but that's not very different from what I mean, every town is different based on their minimum
local contribution. >> Yeah. So you can take our budget and you can divide it by 776 students, but that does not equal the cost of a student for that individual town. So the first number you have to factor in is your minimum local contribution, which is set
by the state. Their proportionate share of every single town's assessment is based on how many students they have at Oak Colony after a minimum local contribution has been set by the state. So it's driven by that. So a per pupil for
a Kushnet and a per pupil for Matapo are very different because the town's ability to pay is different. >> Right? >> I have a quick question. What's with the new Massachusetts regulation of everybody being on lottery system only?
Doesn't that isn't that going to fluctuate? Like we're not going to have a set amount of students that are going to come from Kushna and in Rochester. It's going to be on the lottery system. So we can have as many students as any other town, right? >> So that's a good question. We actually have a video online available on our
Facebook page just to give a deeper explanation of the work that was done to protect to protect against an excessive draw. Uh we had concerns about excessive draw for all of our municipalities because let's say by chance you were to
draw 150 students from one community, that would be devastating to the municipality. So what we did was we took two numbers. We call them a historical number which is the number of ninth grade students over the past three years averaged. That gives us 50% of the quota
that will be created. The next number is going to be called the predictive number. The predictive number is a K through 12 enrollment. I'm sorry. It's the eighth grade enrollment um for the member town compared to the eighth grade aggregate from all member towns. That
percentage is multiplied by 150 seats or the number of seats that we'll be accepting in that given year and that gives us the predictive number. We take the historical and the predictive numbers, we combine them and we divide them by two. What that does is it
maintains a quota for every single town. If a student from a Kushnet says, "I chose not to attend," that seat is filled with another student from a Kushnet and not another member town. If a town exhausts uh or does not exhaust
their seats and does not use all their seats, every seat will rotate through the remaining member towns to ensure equal distribution and to avoid overwhelm for any municipality. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah, because I've been I went through
it. My son was went into apply for you guys and he also was eligible to apply for BP. >> Sure. >> And he got into BP first and then there was an eligible seat in in Old Colony, but he had already started. So, we stayed in BP. Sure. >> And just off peak, I'm going to have to say that it's best to build a new school
because these kids need to be as competitive as all the other schools because BP is has had all their construction while the kids are going to school. And I'll have to say there is no interruption with the school. The school is going to be absolutely gorgeous and it's going to give them way more opportunities and it's time for Old Colony. My oldest son went to Old
Colony. It's time for Old Colony to move up and get more more more aspects. So, they need to have more trees. These kids want trees. >> My son is uh also a freshman at BP. >> I can tell you that uh during a a drop off in the morning, um I'll share
openly. I I called Chad about a a meeting we were preparing for and he said to me, "Uh, where are you?" I said, "I'm dropping my son off at school." He said, "Do you want to take a quick walk and see the building?" I said, "I would love to." And we threw on our PPE and we walked through the construction and I
I'm a taxpayer. I will tell you 100% I was filled with a sense of pride because it's an investment. And second of all, I had a little bit of trepidation and jealousy because this is a big ask. It >> and Kevin made a valid point at the last meeting and that was the impact um of
what we're asking is significant and we recognize that. we hang a sign on it. And so I think everyone here is doing their due diligence uh to make sure that they can answer the appropriate questions. We're doing our due diligence to try and provide the best forecast
possible uh in a transparent manner. I think the FinCom uh and the select board have always been partners in our planning process. So during our budget process, we'll have folks in, they sit with us before we ever go to a final final with our budget to bring to the
town or our member towns. And so that will continue. There will be collaboration. Our job is to present a worst case scenario with hopes that we can come in with numbers that hopefully are a lot better. Uh for those who aren't familiar, PMA and HMFH are the
same team at Bristol Plymouth and they came in tens of millions of dollars under budget. So I Chad has a slide actually he can speak to that. I don't know if you want to >> Aaron just before you go there while we're talking about um you know
how many numbers from a cushioned amount of poison just off hand you know the the numbers of cushioned applications over the last few years the number of actual bodies in seats and how many students were there ones that were turned down because we didn't have
because you didn't have the uh you know >> so I don't know number of applications uh I can tell you it's in a prior slide that we have shown to the select board before and I want to say it was in the 80s or 90s in terms of number of applications but the number of
students accepted from a Kushnet over the last three years have been 53 and 20 uh our 101 numbers for 23 our 101 numbers were 60 for 24 our 101 number was 52 for 25 our 101 number was 53 the
average of those three years is 55 and that will be the historical number used for the predict uh for for the data. The predictive um eighth grade number right now is 106 which means nothing until we have the remainder of information from
the aggregate because we'll have to compare it to the aggregate if that makes sense. But I believe we've had a large portion of the accushnet freshman class apply to Old Colony every year because I think in terms of the options
um students like to leave their option open. Just because you apply a doesn't mean you need to attend, right? So that's one piece and b just because you apply um doesn't mean that you necessarily get in. Right now, the move from a merit-based system to a
lotterybased system makes it much easier to apply, but much less much more difficult to predict whether or not a student will get in. And I will openly share that I had concerns about moving to a lottery. I'm a strong believer that
if students are working to earn an opportunity, it's not a bad exercise. However, the pro the positive side of this is that with the lottery, every student will have an opportunity. Uh, but there's no way to predict outside of the town by town which students will be
provided that opportunity. Um, if you're a resident, you have a question, I just ask that you come up to the podium, identify yourself just so it's easier for people to hear and whatever. So, anybody else have questions? Um, sure, please come up.
My name is Ken Sylvia Northwest Street. Not so much of a question, but I want to mention that Old Colony has been a member of this or Kushner has been a member of Old Colony for 50 plus years, for 50 years. And they have served our
community with excellence. We have many, many students that have gone through Old Colony that are very, very successful in their careers. We're talking about a new building because the existing building is too small. They're bulging at the seams. The infrastructure of the
building is obsolete. You're going to spend 200 plus million dollars in the next 20 years just trying to catch up and renovate the building. Now, it's going to be 70 years old. And we're going to be throwing that money away because we're going to be looking for a
new school then. Uh yes, it's a big ask. It's a big ask for the taxpayers, but we need to invest in our children, in our students, and give them the opportunity that we have had through our lifetime.
The existing programs are excellent. They're going to be adding programs. We're talking about the building. We're not talking, of course, we're talking numbers of students, how many viz, how many students are going to count, what's the lottery going to look at? Of course, we're going we're looking at that. But
to throw money into an old facility, might as well throw it out the window right here because you're not going to get it back. 30 years at a 4%, I don't think you could buy that money anywhere. It's very cost effective. The planning
has been uh very very well sought after, looked at, studied. Um it's not something that okay we decided let's try and do this we did we thought of it ne last week now this had been in planning for years they
have jumped through all the hurdles to get to the point of where they are right now concerns from other communities um spending a lot of money of course but again we've had a community that opted out of old
years back and they're very very sorry that they did that because they know they should have stayed with old colony. You're looking at educating the future of our children. You're looking at a new building. Again,
warranties that are will be existing a lot more efficient. Um the school that we currently have, you're going to have to add on. You're going to have to spend a ton of money. We're looking at a facility here where the student uh per
square footage meets the recommendations where currently they don't. Okay? They're crowded. They're overcrowded. Vocational education in Massachusetts has been a leader throughout the country since the inception of vocational education. Let
us not forget that. I've I've had um people from different parts of the country admire the educational facilities programming that we have. We are the best of the best. Our students
deserve the best of the best. You're talking a new facility where they're going to be able to breathe. your health, safety, electronics, everything will meet the codes that are needed. Give our students
a chance. Of course, you're going to look at numbers, but give our students a chance for their future. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Anybody else from the uh the community? >> Hi, John Tevs. Glorious way. Um,
I guess I'm probably not specifically in in opposition, but I have questions about the cost. Um, we've got a $288 million price tag on this proposal. Um, and we have recent
projects to refer to such as uh Bristol Aagi and the project of BP. You've got BP houses nearly twice as many students and it's only I think what was it? 305 was
the cost of that project. This one's 288 with a proposal for about half the students. Okay. Um Bristol Aggie is about 105 million and they currently have about 600 students. So I'm trying to reconcile
that. >> Yep. Yep. >> Okay. um the utility costs going down. Okay. I think there's some of that stuff embedded in there, meaning we've got to build this building at certain
requirements in order to meet certain deficiencies and things like that to qualify for this um for this type of a bill through this program through the MSBA. And I think it's probably going to take decades to rec to
recoup that that's embedded in the cost. Um, so I'm trying to reconcile that. There's other parts of this that I have a problem with. Like, so for example, my taxes for my home is going to increase about $1,200 a year. Whereas if
I own that home in Matapoet, my increase would be about $142 a year. But my vote counts. Exactly the same as the vote for somebody in Matapoet having a problem with that.
Um the additionally if this building that we build lasts 50 years this is just math. So, if this building lasts 50 years, like the last one, at the proposed student increase rate,
we're paying $8,000 a year per student per year for 50 years. I'm trying to reconcile that. So, if we've got the the cost is already 185, we've got another 8,000 on top of that.
If this was private pay, who's paying $26,500 a year for a kid to go to Okalin? So, because that money is just in a in a pile, right, from from tax funds, it's a
little bit it's it's it's it's different to think about it as if it were private pay. That's what we're paying. And by the way, the $8,000 per year per student over 50 years every single year. Um, again, that doesn't include any
maintenance, operational costs, and any, you know, and by the way, even 30 years from now, we're going to say, "Hey, that building's outdated. We're going to be doing lots of repairs to that building." Um, so I'm having trouble with just the project
costs and how it's being proposed. And it feels like I mean we we had a recent vote in town and it was you know we've got other issues with other schools in town. Okay. And you know we're looking at hey we've got mold issues and we've got to fix that. This feels a lot like
that proposal where they came to the board and they said hey we've got a $4.2 million fix for a problem that can be solved for under a million bucks. It feels like that a little bit. So, just as as a taxpayer, I feel like, you know,
everybody, yeah, we want we want a school. We want a nice place for our kids to go. We we understand that the vocational uh school needs are are are huge, but do we need to spend $8,000 per student a year for 50 years
on that? And um you know, just me as a taxpayer, that that number doesn't go up. I'm paying over $35,000 over a 30-year note. And that also decreases the amount
or the value of my home. Okay? Because um because it's a reduction in affordability for a new buyer in terms of the the tax outlay. Somebody's gonna I sold my house today. Somebody's going to have to pick
up that burden. Um, so you know the and and by the way this happened in Don. So Dyon was one of those communities that got hit with the uh Bristol Aggie and they got hit with the BP the Bristol
Aggie. I think it was very small. It was like 46 bucks a year. They were able to use the town levy to manage that in in operations. I don't think we're we're not going to be able to do that in a Kushnet. Um, and then immediately after
that they they got hit with the BP. Uh, and the average taxpayer there is paying 255 a year for that. That's I'm way lower than what a cushion is going to get hit with on this one. So, I'm looking to reconcile some of those things. I I hope that you guys can
answer some of those questions. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, all excellent points and I I think uh we have some material should put your mind at ease on on each of those. I'll run through them kind of point by point. Um, feel free to interject if you have any questions. Work. We're actually going to go forward
slides. I'll start with this one. >> You got it. >> Uh, so cost for building a K- through2 school in Massachusetts that they're through the roof. I I'm completely on board. I don't think anyone in this room will argue on that one. Um, all we can do is try to be the most coste effective
project that we possibly can be. So these are uh every project that is similar in size, scope, scale to old colony going back over two years. So you have to go back 26 months to try counting in August of 2023 to find one
that matches Old Colony's target cost per square foot. So we're trying to build as efficiently as possible. Um some of these like the one below it, Lexington's going the same MSBA. So that means they're in the same step of the MSBA process as uh Old Colony. They're over $1,000 a square foot. We're seeing
that a lot in schools now. So that it definitely a challenge. And we can jump back a slide. These two kind of go hand in hand. Um, so the yellow box you see up there is where Old Colony lies. Each one of those little blips is a K through2 projects in project in Massachusetts funded by the MSBA. I
think there's about 300 blips on that screen there. Um, BP Tech is actually one of those blips, Mark, you can point at it there. Um, BP Tech, you're right, that came in at $530 something dollars a square foot. Um back when BP was at this phase, we had the same exact concerns
from Dyon and Rahobit and Berkeley, Delbaro, Taton. Um really all the communities. Um our our goal when you have numbers and we do these projections. >> Did you I'm sorry. Did you say BP was 500 what per square foot? >> 530 a square foot. >> And where was 829?
>> 829. Okay. >> Yep. And that's just a function. So the orange line there is that trend line that we're seeing right now in the market. Um, so we're well below that. I mean, the architect, the design team are going to have to be very creative and
aggressive in the ways they implement. One of the things that we're doing here that uh the same thing was done in Bristol P. BPAC was the highest hard the most expensive hard bid project in state history. So, a lot of people told us that that was impossible, but they saved $40 million right out of the gate from
going to hard bid. Um, when we had these meetings at Bristol Pulmet, their district share projection was $179 million. Uh, fast forward to today, right now we're projecting another number $35 million less than that. So, there's a substantial savings for the taxpayers of BP. But one thing that's
completely out of our control is the cost of um construction in Massachusetts. It's just been >> it can't have gone up that much in two years. >> Uh, I mean, this is the day. It's right from the MSBA's website. But but again, I'm just I'm having a tough time reconciling that.
>> Yeah. Well, BP, remember, didn't they're not two years ago. We've been in construction for two years. So, their authorization was in 2021, >> right? >> Remember, BP houses 1,400 students. >> It does. Yeah. >> Right. Okay. >> Right. Cost per square foot. >> What's that?
>> It's a cost per square foot. >> Right. So, you can have lots of square foot like this has lots of square footage, but if you build four kitchens in here, it's it's very expensive, right? But you could you don't have four kitchens. So the cost per square foot is very different. So I don't really
appreciate that metric from from in terms of figuring out you know how efficient we're being in the build. Um so you know that's that's you could have a giant warehouse that's a million square feet, right? So again it's just cost is
determined by what you're building within square footage. So, um, to me that's I still look at 288 million for 760 students or 305 million for 1,400 plus. That's tough.
So, I I I just think that in the project there's something we're we're losing efficiency somewhere. There are so we are the project managers for Bristol Plymouth. There are way more bells and whistles I can say 100% honesty in Brussel than are in this whole colony scope. I mean they they
really >> now you're making me but now you're making it worse. >> Right. Right. >> So boy now I feel >> well I mean what I mean is Bristol Plymouth has they have turf fields they have concession stands. They have baseball fields. There are things in Bristol Plymouth project scope they
needed >> that don't exist in our colonies. >> Right. So again, >> because we're trying to be cost conservative by not addressing those fees. >> I'm I'm just having a tough time reconciling that. So >> thank you. Thank you. >> Can you come back?
>> Thanks, John. >> Did Did you have a question? Are you good? >> No, I just Mr. Mr. You know, when there's an opening on Flamecom, you can seriously consider joining. I I serve my I serve my three years and when when we're talking about local
schools like we just like Lexington I think that's a fivetory school right so I price per square foot I think goes way up when you start going higher >> renovation >> stories and then what's built into this project at the 288 is price per square foot are we upgrading equipment is that
all built in because that's part of the the article I guess we'll call it article the vote petition for town meeting. It's the furniture and everything else. So, there's probably there could be things that were built into MP that we'll build it in, but we're replacing a lot more equipment. You
showed a slideshow for crying out loud. I I'm not even proud to talk about this, but I was I'm a graduate in class of 87 from Old Colony, and you showed the machine shop with a guy still putting on a manual chuck, right? >> Like, um I did CNC as soon as I
graduated. I went to CNC actually. I was the first junior in my class. I on co-op >> um in 1986. Okay. Um and I went straight to CNC. And you're still showing me a slideshow of manual machines. So how
much of the $288 million cost is upgrading equipment to bring us because if that's still what you're teaching, you're about 40 years outdated, my friend. So to your point >> on what you're teaching for machine shop, you're way out behind the curve
and and I know that I'm not going to compare certain students because we had >> certain what was that that thing that we competed in back in the day. >> Skills USA Skills USA. >> Yeah, I think it was called something else where we would go compete against
the Vic. That's what it was called. Vic, right? And I'm not going to say that Old Colony produces the smartest kids as a earlier gentleman said because that's that's a false statement, right? Um we were in competition with some really smart individuals from other vocational
schools, right? It was just we had our smart students, right, that stood above and beyond and that's why we were picked for Vicar to go compete against other students from other schools. So I mean how much of that 288 is incorporated? Would you know is is 80 million equipment because we're so outdated. I
mean, is that part of this? >> So, I can share a little bit uh that everything that you that's an all-inclusive number, first of all. The other thing we're doing outside of this number is as recently as this week is we're submitting additional competitive grants to try and secure funding to your
point. The grant we most recently uh completed and we'll be submitting before the 30th of October is a request for over two and a half million dollars of equipment to address exactly what you were just talking about because to put that into a capital request for our
member towns. You can imagine what the impact of something like that is. It's significant. So we have secured close to $3 million in grant funding over the last decade to offset those costs to our member towns. But those competitive grants come up
periodically and when they do, we put our name in the hat with hopes that we'll be able to secure funding to offset those costs. But rarely do we put in significant capital requests. We tend to be a little bit more conservative in our planning. We have a water tank. It's
50 years old. Certainly, we have concerns about how long a 50-year-old water tank would last, but to replace that water tank right now when a building project is going to be voted upon on November 18th would be fiscally irresponsible. You don't replace something of that nature
when you're waiting to find out about a vote. If a vote passes, the water tank will be taken care of. If the vote doesn't pass, that's one of the first items we'll need to address, things of that nature. But to Mr. Gaspar's point, there are areas that are antiquated that
require a true need. However, we're hoping that this need that we are um outlining, this all-inclusive piece will help us to address that. That's not to say that there aren't pieces that are in perfect working condition that will result in a saving to our savings to our
member towns too because we don't want to be frivolous. So, one of the examples is we had a choice about where we would build the building. One of those choices was on our athletic fields. If we had built on our athletic fields and looked to build new fields, that would have
been a $10 million addition to the project. We decided to maintain the status quo, hold our existing fields, and build off of the fields to result in a $10 million savings. All of those considerations came up as a result of
the 40 different options that were discussed by the building committee during this process. This process has been a very detailed multi-year probably five-year process. On December uh December 5th, 2019, we sat in the
cougars's den. You were with us and we met with all of our member towns. This was not a snapshot. This was not a quick uh decision. As was mentioned earlier, I will articulate that this decision took place over a lengthy period of almost
six years to date with plenty of communication, significant consideration in the selection of who would represent our member towns on our building committee to ensure a conduit to every select board in Fincom we serve. It was not an
internal school building committee. It was an external committee that consisted of municipal leaders to ensure input so that no snap decisions could be made. And I'm proud of that, extremely proud
of that. And we have absolutely built our foundation around around transparency. Every year when you see our budget that Mrs. Griffith puts forward. It's a line by line overview of every single item in our budget. There
are no generalities. You could literally pull out every single line one at a time if you wanted to. Mr. Bonoid is shaking his head. Eric shaking his head because we've had conversations routinely about how transparent Old Colony is in our operation. We're well planned. We're
communicative. We make phone calls beyond email. We ask questions and then we respond. So we bring this to you with with considerable thought. We bring this to you also by hanging a sign on it and acknowledging exactly what Mr. Gaspar
said. It's a very big ask. We know that. We're very well aware of it. To say otherwise would absolutely be be misleading. We don't come here to be misleading. We do come here to tell you that we don't want to deliver a heart transplant to a 200year-old. Right?
That's just poor poor decision-making. What we want to do is we want to look at a 50-year-old building that is beyond its useful life and make a sound fiscal decision about what the next step should be. If there are questions, we're happy to answer them and we we are so appreciative that this many people have
attended this evening. So, thank you for the opportunity. >> Of course. >> Excuse me. >> Yes. >> Before we go on, can we address the manois comparison? a gentleman that said that if he lived in Matapo, if his house was in Matapo,
it would be a sliver of an explanation. >> Sure. The matter the the number that you see is based on enrollment. So everything that we do is based on enrollment. So when you are when you receive an assessment, 90% of that assessment is based on your enrollment at Old Colony. 10% is based on your K
through 12 enrollment in your entire district. Those proportions are used to determine assessment. I'm actually uh I hear very often we are the Yushnet High Schools. PE very many a lot of people say that to us you know you are the when we were at the apple peach festival a
lot of people came up and said you know you're a Kushnet high school and I take a lot of pride in that uh simultaneously we know every year that the the bulk of conversations will be with uh the towns that are most highly represented because they feel the
biggest impact and that's just the truth. So we have to take into consideration when those towns come to us and say this is a big ask. We have a responsibility to to conduct ourselves in a fiscally responsible manner and to listen to what they have to say.
>> If you look at the screen I don't know what what you can see the enrollment of matter is only 6% of our student enrollment. Therefore, their cost on the capital projects is a sliver of what the
other tenants are paying. So, but I just want to comment. So, yes, they're only paying uh $19 on $100,000. Okay, that that explains what the difference is. But I also want to point out what my community is. I live in
Rochester. I have half of what you have. I'm $100 less per 100,000 than you do. It is an impact across the board. Uh it is an impact in
Rochester because we don't have commercial industry. >> I guess my question was more in regards to why they chose a process that would make everybody's vote equal because it would be No, no, no.
I know that there was a choice in which direction to go with that, but it's it's a requirement with based on the direction this project decided to go. Correct. >> We can let me answer your question about why we chose the vote structure that we did. Can you go to the 16D 16N slide
that shows the different yeses and nos? >> So, we had a choice uh between a 16N or a 16D vote. A 16D vote is when you go town by town and if one town rejects the vote, you then go to a 16N. If you go to a 16N, it would have added $8 million to the project, but you'd go
to a 16N because you wouldn't walk away from a million dollar feasibility study because that's fiscally irresponsible. We knew that if a 16D vote were to fail that we'd go to a 16N and it would result in a delay and an $8 million increase to the project. So, we said
we're going to forgo that and we're going to take one shot and not delay the outcome because a delay of the outcome would be an $8 million price tag on the project, which is a fiscally irresponsible approach and it upsets the people who said no.
We didn't want to upset the people who said no. We wanted to do it one time and if people say yes, they say yes. And if they say no, we have 10 days to figure out whether or not we have permission to move forward. So that's the answer to your question about why the vote structure was what it was. >> It was a it was out of consideration of
what would happen if it was a no on a 16D. >> Can can you go back? You that that scenario played out a little bit earlier and even I'm a little bit confused about >> Sure. >> If the community say no, you got 10 days to figure out what what does that mean? >> I'll pass that to I I have not
experienced it. So let me pass it to Chad so he can speak more eloquently to that. Happy to say I haven't experienced it either. Um but uh so the MSBA failed vote policy basically states if a project remember the MSBA has skin in
the game. They've already funded uh feasibility schematic design. So they have money state money out there. So they're looking for the project to move forward. Uh so when a project fails, they do give that project an opportunity to go back and address their failure. If
they can demonstrate to the MSBA satisfaction that there was a misstep along the way that led to the project's failure, maybe the community outreach wasn't what it should have been or maybe there was a a field included as an alternate that the community didn't support because it was synthetic turf or
something like that. So the MSBA, that's what the field goal policy is. So if the vote is no by five member towns the majority because that's what this is a majority right majority of yes cumulatively from the five communities majority no cumively by
>> 50% plus one we'll call it right >> what whatever it is right you said simple majority so that's all that it is right >> so if it's a no how would MSBA even though they have skin in the game so are the five member towns doing the study
MSBA 8 is not in my opinion can override the will of the people is that that's not what we're talking about 10 days to figure out what they're going to do like you know if if there wasn't enough you use something about communication and
outreach and all of that stuff I mean you folks been doing this quite a bit you know what kind of outreach you need to do I think that would be a failed excuse to say to MSBA yeah we kind of didn't reach out enough right so I don't know what other kind of legitimate to
supersede the the will of the people. In other words, because it it irks the crap out of me when the state legislators did it with their audit and they said, "Yeah, no, we're not being audited." Right? And they supersede the will of the people. That's BS, right? Absolute
BS. Um, and I don't like when people start, you know, instilling the fear factor into my constituents and saying if you say no, it's okay cuz we're going to come back and within 10 days and say we're going to retake that vote. I mean, that's just >> it's quite the opposite. We we actually
there's no fear factor here. We just >> That's what I'm trying to I don't want >> we we actually made a decision early on that there would be zero fear factor around how we promote this. That is not acceptable. Uh people should be stepping to the polls, making decisions that they
feel are right in their heart, and that's up to them personally, but there should be zero fear factor. This is not about fear factor. It's about an aging building. It's 50 years old. It's beyond its useful life. And our job is to present factual information so that
people can make informed decisions, not to in not to instill fear. Like Kevin said, that's not okay. And as a matter of fact, that's the reason why we selected the vote structure that we did because we didn't want to be in a scenario where someone says,"Well, why did they go back?"
We already said no. We just didn't feel okay with that. So, I would agree with you 100%. I don't think that there have been any inaccuracies presented at any time by the select board by Old Colony. The collaboration and the
the attempt to try and provide realistic information has been sincere. The questions have been sincere. It's what should be asked and we're going to do our best job to provide that information. If people need additional information and you go to our website
old colony us click on msba project every document from the last 6 years has been shared there so that people can actually do a look back in the spirit of full transparency. In addition the www.oldcolonybuildingpro.com
website has all it will take you right there. It has a a category called documents. If you don't find an answer that you need, I would just encourage you to call the school and ask for me. And if I don't have the answer, I will find it for you. But we'll just give you
real answers about real questions. That's our job. That's what we owe everybody in terms of our work around this project is just real answers to real questions. So, we're here to do that. We will meet as many times as you need us to. Tomorrow night we'll be with
the Kushnet Lions and tonight we have a team going back to Old Colony at 6:30 to meet with another group. So we we're doing everything we can to have boots on the ground in as many places as possible to provide thorough information for
people because again we know it's a big ask. There's no you cannot downplay that at all and our job is to simply acknowledge that. >> Thank you. I I I actually have a question that's gonna that'll be my question and I'll
bounce off what somebody else has is spoken on. So I I just like to know how much influence the state has had on this project due to MSBA funding i.e. size of building, amount of new shops, amount of additional students. What impact did that have in in the decision-m of the
design scope that these gentlemen have put forward? >> Sure. So we looked at uh recommended uh shop sizes for the for the building size. The other thing we did was we actually um looked at four different programs. We
looked at plumbing, HVAC, dental assisting and biotech. Those were the four uh the state gave us the option of of looking at we had to study the status quo and in terms of growth they gave us
a framework of up to 810. During the process we said 810 uh we're going to scale back because of the potential impact on our sending districts. We settled at 776 so that we could be a fully operational
construction program, HBAC and plumbing. And for those who don't know, we're 60% male, 40% female right now. And we felt the dental assisting program would create equity. And we wanted to make sure that our female students also had additional opportunities that are
reflected in the Southeast uh labor market blueprint. Dental assisting was one of them. So all of that planning took place in consultation with um a recommended shop sizes and classroom sizes, b uh through consideration of
what impacts would be to our member towns and then c the scale back took place because there were people who were advocating aggressively for the 810 and we said we'd like to scale that back. We think the 776 addresses fully construction, fully operational construction equity and also allows us
to make a bigger impact when we're out on projects. Right now, we have to partner with uh Greater New Bedford VO if we want plumbing or HVAC. This allows us to go into our communities and build fully operational structures as a full construction operation. >> Dr. Buché, I'm sorry, my I have one more
question and I'll get to to the article after Mr. Cru, but does the estimated impact per average single family dwelling include interest on the remaining balance of what is not paid by the MSBA reimbursement? So when you break out that 148, somebody said a
cushioned share would be somewhere around 50 something million. Is is this $720 $721 for a cushion per year on that average assessment? Is that include interest on our 50 something million
dollars or was interest not included in that? Because interest would be roughly about on that amount of money for 30 years at four 4% would be somewhere in the realm of another $8 million. >> It's in this run. So this is at 30 at 4%. >> So the 721 includes interest on our
share of well I know you bundle it all up and then you broke it out. So it would be something like 60s something not the 50 something. >> The district pulls the bond and then it's uh principal and interest payment annually is recalculated. Um, one thing that is important to note in this scenario, Walter slide 63 again, uh,
this assumes, so one, it doesn't have the mass or the, uh, tax credits captured. So that $1 million savings right out of the gate is not in these numbers. This is on the full $159 million district share. Um, the other important assumption to remember in here
is this assumes every single dollar is spent on the project. So we do have a healthy owner control contingency of $17 million baked into that. there's millions of dollars for things like furniture or technology. Uh any bid savings reduces that number. So that's generally like when we talk about the
Bristol $35 million projected savings that would pull those tax impacts down substantially. >> So you just use the $1 150 something million. I thought it was 148. >> So that this is run off 159 million. The 148 is after 11. >> Is that minus that 11 million for the
targeted amount save? >> This nope not in those numbers. So it'll come down from those numbers. So real >> this is worst case scenario. >> The real number is 150 something. >> What's the number? >> 148 after Massie and IRA. >> But those don't.
So that's after the 11 million. If you get the 11 million >> No, these don't include the 11 million. The projection doesn't include the 11 million. So the numbers >> 148us 11 if you get those savings. >> 159 gets the other 148. >> I'm pretty sure that's what I said, but
okay. So what 48 if you get the 11 million >> right? >> Yep. But the scenario is not >> and that's all interest has already been embedded in that number. >> It's in there. Yep. 4%. >> So 30 years. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Dr. Searin.
I I understand the need for the project, >> but this is definitely a big ask for our residents. Um especially residents that are on fixed incomes. That's just the debt exclusion portion that they'll see on their tax bill. What's more
concerning to me as chair of the finance committee because we go through this struggle every year with balancing the budget is the annual assessment from Old Colony. Now last year I believe it was around 3% or around $400,000 that we were assessed um to the town. Um,
now if that doubles to 800,000, cuz I think that's if we go from 55 students a year to 106, then the assessment the annual assessment is going to double. So, I'm just assuming our assessment is going to be around 800K. Um,
that's that's what's really concerning to me is how are we going to balance the annual assessment cost. Um, and factor that in to our to our other budgetary expenses that we have obligations to. Um, every year has been a struggle for
us. The past year was a struggle. Um, the last thing I want to see us resort to is tax overrides to fund our operational budget. I know other communities are resorting to it, but I don't want to see us doing that. Our there's enough on our backs of our taxpayers already.
>> Um, and just I don't want to see it. >> I think you're in a unique situation in a Kushnet because your students have to go to school somewhere, >> right? >> So, money follows students and there's either tuition somewhere or there's tuition at Old Colony. Call it an
assessment at Old Colony, right? But money follows students. there's offsets in revenue that come in that actually impact numbers and projections. I share your sentiment. I don't think you're off the mark. I think that right like I 100% >> I'm not speaking for or against it. I'm
looking at it from a numbers perspective. >> I think from a holistic perspective, we have to think about those things. Right. It's real. >> We do finance committee is we just assess the numbers >> um and try and make it make sense. So our job is to our job is to give you a worst case scenario and then to work through those worst case scenarios and
underpromise and overd deliver. Um you know a comment was made in a meeting not too long ago u about my increase and I'll tell you publicly I actually rewrote my contract and took a percent less last year.
I had I had an amount in my contract. I took a percent less in my contract because of the comment that had been made as a show of good faith during a dur during a a negotiation. So, I'm a man of my word. Um, I feel very much
tied to our five member communities. Um, what I do at Old Colony is my is what I live for. Uh, this is not small potatoes to me. This is very important. The students I serve every day. I I have six
at home, but I have 560 that are in front of me every single day, and my job is to treat them like my own, and I want what's best for them. Somebody over here said, "Our kids are competing with other schools like Bristol Plymouth." And I think she hit the nail on the head. Our kids deserve opportunities like this.
Um, and I think that my job is to do whatever I can to provide people with as much information as possible to make an informed decision and respect whatever the outcome may be. But if it means 37 or 50 meetings to make sure people have
all of the information they need to make an informed decision, then that's what we'll do. >> There's no doubt you're passionate about this and you should be and I appreciate the detailed line item budgets every year. Uh we always use your budget as an example >> for other budgets in our town u because
it provides a lot of transparency. Um so we we can see everything. Um but there's It's not it's not easy. This is not what we do is not easy here. Um but I understand I recognize the need. Um
>> I have a question just >> on do we have we have to pay to for our students to go to Haven High School. Correct. >> All right. So what is the budget on that? >> Because most of our students go there or old colony and very few go to be at Bristol AI. That's part of the school
budget. >> It's part of the school budget. >> Okay. Now, when the gentleman that left said something about the about having an increase per student per over 30 years, if you take that and you say, "Okay, let's just get them to a regular high
school, no technical high school where they're going to graduate and then they can go on to a career." Let's say now you have to pay for a college education. It's going to be costing a lot more than that over 30 years. And they come out with a lot more debt. and this they get a career when they leave.
The other thing with you saying about the anti anti antique equipment or whatever, I'm a hairdresser. I taught hairdressing. Also, no matter what, you always have to go to your basics. You learn from your basics. And when you get out in the workforce, they teach you the extras. This will allow them to have a
little bit more extras so they can go compete. If you go to BP and you look at what they're proposing and what they're doing at BP, it's outrageously amazing. Even something that was done a little bit of years ago, New Bedford Voke, go check their vocational school out. They're by far ahead of us in every
step. Every step. >> That was my point about what I made about antiquated machine shop equip. >> Yeah, but you need to lo you if you if you're in the trades, you know, you need to have your basics. You can't you you have to have your basics. That's how you get your licenses. You get your basics, you go out into the field, and you get
you >> I'm very I'm very well versed. I I graduated from the from from the vocational school as I told you, but I can tell you right now >> there there's mom and pop shops. There CNC shops, right? You have you might have a large um titleless corporation
that might have a few small manual machines that they're just whittling up a onesies and twzies pot um to fix a piece of equipment. Other than that, most machine shops aren't using manual equipment because by the time you're done making that piece on your manual piece of equipment, I'll already program
that machine and I'll spit out a hundred of them by the time somebody's done making one of them. Totally a lot of background and experience on what I'm talking about. And I'm actually saying to the school, if that's still what we got, I can see why you need >> He's being he was being nice when he
talked about I think three million bucks in equipment. Oh, yeah. So, I was in the business for a long time. I worked for multi-billion dollar corporations. I can tell you right now, one CNC piece of equipment is probably the cost of your house. Okay? So, there's a lot of money to be spent on equipment and it's not
for every shop. Machining is is a little unique. Welders and things like that. >> Well, I'm not I wasn't arguing with your point at all. I was just saying that they do have antique stuff. So, they are putting more more equipment into >> I I get your point. So basic, you know, freshman, sophomore, you start off on
the manual machines and then junior, senior, you want to get them out of the gate and be ready for the industry, >> right? But that's that I was making the point more so that yes, they have the antique stuff. So if we did propose this and they do go ahead and do the project, then they're actually getting better equipment.
Yes, they will be getting better equipment, which they will be head of the rest. And the other thing too is with the MS thing project, if I'm to understand, if they get a no vote, basically they're they're going to go back and they're going to ask why they
got a no vote and they might give us like another chance to try and get a yes vote. But if it's a no vote, then they just take their money off the table basically and they'll put it into something else, some other school. That's pretty much how it works, right? So if it's a no vote, it's not it's not like they're threatening us. It's just
like, okay, so this money will go to another school who says, okay, >> correct. >> That's that's what I was wondering. >> Yeah. No, you're correct. >> That's that's Yeah. So, it's not being like, oh, you don't say no. >> Basically, basically, if we if we
uh do have a building project, then the the penny on the tax dollar that we've been paying in, we become the beneficiary of, >> right? So it it becomes a direct benefit back to us. >> That's why the pipeline
is so significant and why it's so difficult to get in because they can only select a certain number of schools to be a part of the program. Minute man uh regional was on the list for I believe 11 years before they were approved in the pipeline.
>> Um we we did submit a request to go into the pipeline. We were rejected the first year, we were accepted the second year. >> And and that was, I think, a result of um Jack McCarthy, who at the time was the executive director, who walked
through our building and saw firsthand >> when my son was there when there was that exploded on the ground and there was one whole wing was flooded >> when my son was there at college. So, >> so I I think that if folks have a chance to see it firsthand, there's a deeper
understanding. We did put slides online that show some of the real capital needs so that people who might only see a 10-minute pro uh process or a 10-minute presentation could actually see a more in-depth overview of the of the real big capital items that that are in in dire
need. You know, we snaked a culinary um drain a year and a half ago and we pulled dirt out, which tells you the infrastructure has disappeared underneath. Right. >> The pipes are breaking. >> Yeah. So, uh, but the on the flip side, we had out of two potential, uh,
percentage points for reimbursement, we received 1.7%. The average is about 1.25. Is that right? >> One and a half. Yep. >> One and a half. So, we're above the average by a significant margin in terms of what we receive because of the job
our maintenance team does in upkeeping the building, what's within their control. When you walk through our building, it might look like an older building, but it's very wellmaintained. >> And I want to say on record, I'm not embarrassed by anything that we do, nor
am I embarrassed by what we provide our students. >> Um, I'm very proud of the work that they do and what they turn out given the nature of what they what what they're working with. But I do believe that we could do better to Kevin's point, right?
And I I think he's spot on when he says >> nobody's operating a lathe by hand >> at title list, right? And so that's what we're trying to alleviate. Yeah, >> that's what this is going to allow us. >> This has been productive and I I appreciate where the conversation has taken us. So thank you.
>> Anybody else have any questions? >> Go ahead. >> Uh Jesse Ellis out of road. Um, I think one of the things that's really concerning for me, knowing a lot of people who do have limited means, they have fixed incomes, is there's a lot of unpredictability when it comes to
year-over-year costs per household with this project. The way I see it, partially related to expansion of the um headcount in the school, growing by over 200 students, but also more importantly because of the lottery system that's been implemented. Now I only have very
limited understanding of exactly how that lottery system is going to be administered and my understanding is that it's somewhat of an evolving process still. It's not fully baked. Is that accurate? >> So did you say Jesse? >> Yes. >> I don't know if you were here earlier when we touched on the historical and
the predictive data for the lottery. >> I missed the first probably 20 minutes. >> We can take that offline if we need to. >> Yeah, no problem. Um, but to your point, what we've tried to do is make sure that it's as predictable as possible. And if folks remember a few years back, I think it was uh five and a half or six years
back, Freetown left the district, right? And that that was a 100 students over a four-year period, we saw 100 students depart. So if you take that and you look at what the impacts were with a 100 student
departure because we backfilled that don't forget with our five member towns and nobody really blinked in a major way. There were impacts and they were felt and we made adjustments but nobody really panicked and we did
okay. And so I just want people to understand that we've been through this in some way, shape or form already with the departure of Freetown because when Freetown left again, 100 students from out of district, 25 at a time came into
the district. We're talking about 54 students instead of 25 in a quarterly fashion, a spiral plan that will take place over a period of time that will be predictable to some extent, right? And that impact will be uh certainly
mitigated by the fact that our quotas are predictable. So they're more predictable than what we've dealt with ever before because by with the merit-based system, you couldn't predict who was going to get in and who wasn't. Within the next three or four weeks, I
should be able to call Doc and say, "Hey, doc, I think I have a ballpark of what the preliminary number will look like, right?" and then we can plan accordingly. Historically, it's always been an email and we had an increase of 11 students this year in a Kushnet. Anytime it's over eight, I get on the
phone, I send an email and I say to folks, just so you know, you're at plus 11 for budgeting purposes. So that out of the gate, we have a plan together. It's always together. There's no surprises in the way we operate. So to your point, Jesse, I think the
predictability is more so than people understand. I think we've been through the exercise in a smaller way. Um, but I do also think you make a valid point around being able to anticipate what may be coming down the pike, but the lottery is more predictable than a merit-based
system. >> That's very good. >> And Jesse, you know, you know, as an elected school committee member, >> right? The perception in a cushion because for generations we've never had a high school. >> I think the perception is that we're just a K through8 school district and we know that that's wrong. It's morally
wrong, right? It's a K through 12 school district. It's not once the kids walk out of Ford junior high, we're done with them, right? And I think that's in some ways that I think why it's hard for people to get their head around this decision because it's really the first
time in generations where the voters of a Christian are going to have to say we're going to really have to lean in and invest into our high school education for our students. Right? And if you're if you've cycled out, like if your kids have already gone through high
school and you're you don't have grandchildren or great grandchildren, this is really tough if you don't have any skin in the game, right? This isn't it's a it's a it's a big ask for people today, but it's a vote to set the town up for the next 50, 60 years, which again,
that's a tough ask for a lot of people because you're living people living paycheck to paycheck. Totally understand that. You know, my I'm a my kids are fifth generation living in this town. I went to Catholic school my whole career. My grandparents, my my mother, they paid taxes in in a Kushner. Didn't see one
return on their investment from an education standpoint, right? But that's what we do. We pay for things that we may not use because we know that that's part of a civil society and that's what we have to do. Y >> but I will say this, David, real quickly. The COA shed in Aushnet,
our kids did that, right? The projects that you see throughout the town, our kids do that. The electric car charging stations, our students do that. If you walk into our culinary department on a Thursday or a Friday between the hours
of 11:00 and 1210, I know it's only an hour and 10 minutes, but that's lunch, right? It could be a little bit earlier. You will see people from a Kushnet who may not have children in the system, but they're there because it's a destination.
The new destination will be different because the front-facing part of the building has been constructed to ensure that people don't have to walk through the building. Right? When they walk from culinary to cosmetology, and I only go to culinary, you can imagine why, right?
But when I when someone goes from culinary to cosmetology, they have to walk through the building. That's not fair to our elderly population. What we've created in terms of our planning process is a front-facing building where the strip that serves the public will be accessible for those people who use it
most. >> Yeah, >> that's the population we're talking about. So, we do serve that population with pride and it's a wonderful way for our students to prepare for life. There is no better training. When I was a kid, if I wanted to call a friend, I had to
talk to their parent, right, Mr. Mr. Gaspar is so and so home and he'd say, "Oh yeah, hold on. How are you doing here?" And I'd say, "Oh, I'm doing great." Right? And then I talk to the parent. You know what kids do now? They text each other with two words. They'd never have to talk to a parent. When our kids are in culinary and our elderly
population comes in, they learn how to talk to people. It's an awesome It's an awesome exercise, right? So, we're not only serving our population on a multitude of levels, but we're providing our kids with real experiences that are
so meaningful and there's a reciprocity and we're going to be able to do more. And I'm proud and excited about that. And and for all of the equipment we may not have, we turn out some pretty phenomenal human beings. Lauren in the other room, Lauren's one of our
graduates, right? And she's doing a heck of a job here. so good she's not even in the other room anymore. >> Yeah. I mean, you know, just kind of closing out my my thought process here, you know, realistically speaking, I I think it's probably understood that a
vocational school simply is just not going to have the lifespan of a a traditional high school. It's just not I mean, it has a more robust infrastructure. It's a much more complicated building. When shops get replaced, you know, there's a lot more cost that goes into it and often times there's going to be expansion. A lot of
times we'll also see some shops maybe have to get discontinued over time. I mean there are, you know, programs that have been in place in the past that very soon are going to be replaced by, you know, large language models and AI and there's not going to be much value in the labor market for them. >> So I'll tell you, our school's 50 years
old. Could it go 5 10 more years? Probably. Is that the lifespan of a traditional high school? It actually is. So there's similarities. I would actually argue that it does last as long as a traditional high school. But I do think to your point, we've already
considered the flexibilities necessary for certain spaces so that when we build, we don't have to disassemble. So we're we're already considering the flexibilities and where the market will go in terms of vocational education. Because to your point, anybody here who ever took screen printing as a kid in
middle school when you used to cut out the plastic, peel back the design, and then run a squeegee over it and make yourself a t-shirt. That used to be graphic design. graphic design is all on Adobe computers now, right? And so we've evolved, but our HBAC systems haven't
because you need a different HBAC system in graphic design than you did with a squeegee. So we're considering those flexibilities when we build so that we don't run into situations where it's a constant iteration of infrastructure. The only thing that should be iterating
is the is the equipment and the furnishings because we should be creating and setting a table. and the gentleman who was here earlier who said, "Well, why a cost?" Well, those costs allow you that flexibility, too, right? So, it's been a very thoughtful process. I don't think we've left many stones
unturned for people to have questions and for this team to be able to pull up a slide every time there's a question is indicative of thorough preparation. It's not a it's not a fly by the seat of your pants decision. It's thorough preparation that took place over six years. So, I'm passionate. We're here to
answer questions, but to your point, um I think a lottery will be more consistent and b I we're looking to build infrastructure that will last. >> Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I I would just say that, you know, this is the the last time that I in my lifetime will most
likely have to vote on a replacement vocational high school. I mean, not to be morbid, but probably even the youngest people in this room, and I'm probably one of them, will probably be have passed away by the time a replacement school is necessary. I'm going to be paying off the note for this
that said beyond my retirement age. So there's there's kind of a dual line of thinking here like doing the best for the kids that we have and for future generations and being fiscally responsible and seeing the preparations that have gone into the project. I do think that that has been done. So, I congratulate you especially on all the
preparation that you've done to be able to answer these questions. >> And hopefully when you make your last payment, you'll hire an electrician who graduate from >> if we don't have robots by then. But hey, who knows? >> So, um Jesse,
>> I appreciate appreciate your concern and Mr. Bush's concern. Well, I think the fin and all of us, everybody in this room, including Mr. Bansky and the OC team. You know, I think one of the biggest struggles for me and I've been around for a little while and I've dealt with OC. I was a lesson on from 2005 to
10 when I was on Fincom. The biggest struggle when I heard about this project and the exorbitant cost for this project is I talked to a lot of people as you could imagine in this community, right? I'm a pretty well-known person. I speak with a lot especially elderly people. um in my I don't know if I've had such a
difficult decision to make and I know to some people it it seems pretty easy depending on what side of the fence you're on, right? But what I'm trying to say is I struggle, right? Because I I'm extremely passionate for the elderly, right? Our senior population. Um and I'm
almost there. Um and but I'm also very passionate about our children, right? I mean, you you you can get my you get to my heart two ways really quick. A senior person or a small child and you help me, right? And and that's where I struggle
is the balance between trying to figure out that decision is and look and and I know for a fact I've sitting in many seniors homes in this community and they are living as Mr. Warner said paycheck to paycheck, right? And and my biggest fear is is a senior citizen losing their
house, right? Because they they spent their life building this community along with everybody else. And there's a good chance that they can't afford the extra if it's going to be 700 bucks. Depending on what kind of house they live, it might be only 400 bucks. But to some
people, I can tell you this, $400, $500 a year is a lot of money. And I can also tell everybody this that we've questioned on that budget and I don't know if it was Sarah that made the comment might be $500 more a student. I don't believe that number at all my friend. Um the number if the cost per
student right now is roughly $16,000 for an education at Old Colony. Okay. I got some paperwork in front of me from 2011 that says the cost per student is $8,800. So figure it out. I mean the numbers jump dramatically. has basically doubled
in 15 years if you want to call it 15 years. It hasn't even been 15 years. It's it's it's not a dig on old colony of the cost per student because when we talk about and other people have brought up fave and I be I don't know the exact number. The last time I checked it was
somewhere around call it 12 13ish >> for an education over there. So when we talk about well maybe we're going to send 2550 more students to colony. So if that money and it's too bad Kristen Flynn wasn't here, she was part of the school probably she would know more
about this. They're carrying some of that money. I don't know if it's all the money in their budget existing, right? Based on the population of seventh and eighth graders moving forward that we figure out where it's going to go. So if you look at it, if they are carrying a certain amount of money based on a certain size graduating class, what I
told said in the last meeting is you got to look at the difference. If it's 12, if it's 13,000 to send somebody to another high school and it's 16,000 over here, then you're going to take those two 10 kids. If you're pulling that money from the school department's budget, right? But you got to remember once it's gone, it's gone. It's going over there. Now, school department's
only got so much money in that kitty. Again, you take those 10 kids by the three grand. If that's the difference, it's 30,000 bucks. >> I think that one important thing to think about there is it's not a matter of simple math. We can't just take 10 or 15 kids from Fair Haven High and send them to Old Colony. Really, it comes
down to the programs that Old Colony is providing and whether or not they generate the interest of the kids to attend that school. Sure. Now, granted, middle schoolers going into high school, they're not necessarily taking career a career mindset to it. A lot of it is going to have to do with where did my
parents go, where are my best friends going, how early do I have to get up in the morning. Sorry, Bristol. Just the way it is. So, you know, it a lot of it is going to depend on what is being offered at the school and how many kids it attracts. So, there's a lot of
unknowns in there. Uh it could very well be that the school is so so robust that they end up earning 60% of a Kushnet kids interest, 70% of a Kushnet kids interest in five years, 10 years. We don't know, >> right? We talked about that too. It
could drop, right? It it depends on so we know Mr. Benoy if you want to help me out with this one on the master plan committee sur they said our public schools enrollment has been decreasing >> it's decreased 8% for the middle school
it's decreased 8% over the last five six years. So if if that's the case, we keep talking about more kids going to high school, but how can that be? If our enrollment's dropping in our middle school, that means less kids are graduating from the eighth grade class
to go to ninth grade, right? So we don't know what that is. It might be one of my other biggest concerns is say we have a robust next after the school's all built, we have a robust six-year period and we we get to that capacity and then all of a sudden that all drops off and
they've loaded school teachers and all these administrators and everything else, the population can drop. We're still stuck with all of that staffing because like I said before, sometimes it don't matter. You have 20 kids in the classroom or 10 kids in a classroom, you still need a damn school teacher, right?
with our administrator. So, it's really that's really where my concern would come. If we stood robust, 750 kids, solid, not a problem because, you know, that's what the budget was built on. But if you went get gang buses and you built that budget for all of that new those that new staff that we talked about last
time, that's where it's really killing us, right? >> And like I don't have a crystal ball, you know? I But if you take a look at population growth, this is really getting in the weeds, but if you take a look at population growth statistics, it's almost unarguable that enrollment
in schools is going to continue to go down over the next 25 years. People are having less kids. People are having kids a lot later in life. Now, what that ends up there's a lot of and I don't need to get into that, but long story short, it's we're probably going to continue to see enrollments decline over the next 25
years. It's just the way it's going to be. >> If I can show you an enrollment trend chart, this is 10 years of old colony. You'll see the lower piece of this chart is September. The higher piece is August.
The blue line, uh, the low line, the last dot is at 300. The average applications fall between 300 and 360 students per year for 150 seats over a 10-year period of time with an antiquated building.
>> I'm not worried about a drop off, and our decision was made based on trends over a decade. Yeah. >> So, I just want you to know when you talk about worrying about where kids will go, I'm worried about where kids will go, too, because the kids who want to come to Old Colony can't. And we've
got to limit the number of kids we say yes to. But the reality is that that's a 10-year trend that addresses exactly what you're talking about. >> So, the trend supports the growth and even with the growth to 776, there will be kids who still don't have the
opportunity, but it will be better. >> Yeah. I mean, if you're getting 2x the applications that you're getting admissions, with the new school capacity, you might see, you know, maybe 65% of accepted applications. Yeah. >> One way or another, this is going to be that many kids going to the school. >> But it was not a it was not a randomized
decision to end up at 776. And I just want to show you that the the thought that went into this is is considerable. Um, it wasn't, you know, there was no we didn't just pull out a pin and close our eyes and and pop it somewhere. We gave some considerable thought we
scale back, right? Because if you're getting that many applications and you build to 1120 um that what's the impact of that? That's not acceptable. So, >> thank you. That's all questions I have. >> Did you have something? >> Yes. Anybody else?
>> Yes. >> Paul Martins from Margaret Street. I'm not sure how to uh present this question. So all the towns we need a high school. So of all the five towns need a high school. It's going to cost
$288 million. I know we as in living in the Kushnet we we're paying a higher rate. So is there any way I know I'm I'm a dumb guy. I'm an HVAC guy. I worked at vocational school 30 years ago and the Hback >> You want a job?
>> We're going to be looking for an HVAC teacher. So if you want a job, give us your card. You're not a dumb guy, by the way. No, please don't say that. >> But uh so since all the towns need it, why doesn't all the towns pay for the school? Because that's we need the
building. That's the big thing. So make it equal for everybody. Then I know it's going to be even more for us during the operating budget. That's another thing I'm worried about. What does that operating budget going to be? It's going to be a lot higher. So, but if everybody
pays the share for the new building, the building itself, which we need, I think that would be some fair, but I'm not sure if it works that way. So, it's you said Paul, right? It's it's based on our district. We have a
regional agreement and the regional agreement outlines how we approach any type of capital. And in the agreement, it says 90% of capital is paid based on enrollment at Old Colony. 10% is based on K through 12 enrollment. So, it's really dictated by the district agreement. To answer your question, same
thing holds true really when we're assessing our member towns. That formula is used. So, um a mentor of mine years ago said money follows students and that's basically what it what it comes down to is because Matapoid has a small percentage of
students at Old Colony, they're paying a smaller percentage of the assessment. What that protects against is if let's say you had zero students your cost shouldn't be the same as every other school district as every other member town if that makes sense. So it protects
against that um in some capacity. The K through2 number ensures that you still have some stake in the game because your me your membership is maintained but the majority of the number comes from the enrollment at Old Colony if that makes sense. >> Yeah. Erin, I think we discussed this
last time, >> which is if for some reason the numbers change >> over time, y then things reccalibrate. Correct. >> Correct. So, this is an annual assessment and that's really important. >> Again, to Jesse's point, that's why I
actually think the lottery is going to work in our favor in terms of predictability because it's much easier to predict and that annual assessment will dictate where we go. It's not static. So if for some reason there's a fluctuation in
enrollment that assessment changes with the fluctuation in enrollment um but as of right now and for some time if you look if you do a historical look back a cushion has always been a very very large piece of our population
what like Mr. Uh Gaspa said there's a lot of elderly people. By the time this thing gets paid off, I'm going to be one of them elderly people and I probably would never live to see it, but I'm going to be in the same boat they are because I'm going to be retired soon. I'm going to be on a fixed income and
it's a big ask for that amount of money. >> I think it's a big ask, but I think if you're an HBAC guy, then uh I can guarantee you'll have a job when the building opens. >> I understand that. I'm glad they're doing it because there is when I started
in the trades, they were saying that the trades are falling apart. There's no not enough people in the trades. That was 30 years ago. So, I'm sure it's even higher now. And I'm glad you guys are doing that. And I think it's going to be a great thing with the school. And I to
Mr. Gasco's point, I you have to have the newer stuff, new technology to work on it. I know you somebody said about the basics. Yeah, you get the basics. You always have the basics. You never forget them. But the way technology is going, HFAC,
you're you're a electrician. You're a pipe fitter. Uh you got to do control work. So there's different things and aspects that you got to learn. So that's if you don't have an experience when you get out of high school, they're going to say, "Well, sorry you don't have enough
experience." Paul, Paul, one one last thing I just want to offer up is that the board of selectmen recognizing that this potent, you know, this question was going to come on the table, we've taken some action over the last year, right? We adopted uh with Mr. Gasper's uh
insistence the Heroes Act for veterans that if you meet a certain income threshold, you get a reduction on your tax. We have what's called a senior work program where if you meet a certain income threshold and you're willing to volunteer some time uh at town hall or any other town department, you get a
reduction on your taxes, right? We we see abatements. Uh we've also we've done things where we've um waved medical fees for people who are in, you know, in a bad spot. So, we've in in addition, we even talked about reducing the CP uh the
Community Preservation Act obligation. Even it's a a half a percentage point, but we recognize that this is a big ask. So, we at least tried to do some things to at least show to you in good faith that we understand what you're up against that it's not just, hey, open up the the wallet that we at least try to
do some things for those who are the most vulnerable in our town. So, >> I'm a recipient of the Veterans Act. I get a ab aaitment on my taxes. So I appreciate the town does that. That's >> thank you for your service. >> Thank you. Uh so yeah, I'm glad that you guys are looking through different
things and to you not sure your name is. I'm sorry. >> Aaron. >> Aaron, your presentation was spot on. You guys are like you got answer for everything. So you did a lot of work. I appreciate it. I think a lot of people do. >> Yeah. So thank you,
>> Dr. Bush. We got one more and if there's nothing else that'll be the we'll we'll close it there. >> This is my last thing I promise. Um Aaron, the last time we met and we we we were in this room. I had I had asked about um speaking to some of our elected state officials, right? So I was
fortunate enough to be in a meeting with Senator Montgney regarding our elementary school project. Um and I asked him and I just posed this question. And I said, you know, with all the tax dollars we spend in this state, because it drives me nuts, cuz we're one of the most expensive states to live in this in this country, right? I said, why
why doesn't our state have a separate infrastructure stabilization fund specifically for projects like this for schools, for public education where we could tap into that and have more money available so we can ease the burden on our taxpayers. And all he said, all he said was all we have is a general stabilization fund. There's nothing like
that. And I just it drives me nuts because it's like where's all our tax dollars going that this is specifically where I would want to see it going is for something like this so we don't our residents that are sitting in here aren't worried about paying their property taxes
>> or so amen to that doc let me just say uh first of all I was off mic amen to that uh David and I went to the state house and I asked him because he has children at old colony and he's working on the select board. So I did ask him if
he would accompany me on the state house floor and we presented to the education committee about almost exactly that. MAVA I'm the president of MAVA. It's the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators. I'm the president-elect of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent.
We're working diligently to advocate for funding to make up and account for the differential required for the building of vocational schools. And so we've asked for people to give consideration to that type of differential. We've mapped out an entire presentation so
that people would have answers similar to what you've seen tonight to show the cost uh for FFN for square footage differentials. And we've advocated on a multitude of um levels. I was in um Senator Lewis's office. He heads the education committee
to have conversations around this. Um but it's been tireless. I promise you that uh the advocacy doesn't stop at a vote. The advocacy continues because our job is to secure funding to the best of our ability to offset the costs of a
project like this. If we're successful in securing the $5 million that we're requesting in our grant later this week, that $5 million comes off this project, right? So, we're we've been extremely aggressive uh in our pursuit to try and
secure funding for offsets and that will continue. I assure you of that. But you're I think you're spot on. The other thing that people should consider is when you're looking at towns like a Bristol Plymouth, right, or a Southshore Vogue, they're sharing pieces of the pie with a much larger number of people.
They have more member towns. So, one of my advocacy pieces in a letter to every single legislator that serves our five member towns is our pie is cut into five pieces. How can we help because we only have five pieces, right? Other schools
have nine or 11 in a larger in a much larger group to share that pie with. So my ask recently was is there anything we can do either through fair share funding or something of that nature to to somehow alleviate the burden that we
know comes as a result of a large ask. Right? So, I just want people to know that we're not sitting sitting idly by. Um, our efforts have been tireless in the advocacy around things such as what what you just mentioned, Doug.
>> You know, they they need to they need to draw a map and go right to the state stabilization fund where there's $8 billion sitting there and say, "Why don't we take a little bit of that money and help out the folks that are building new schools?" Right? I mean, that's
where that's where the money's sitting. They collect an exorbitant amount of state sales tax. Give me a break sitting on $8 billion. We can go on about how they funded other ridiculous things. But again, if you have $8 billion sitting in the kitty, Mr. Bansky's over there
saying, you know, I'm going to ask for $5 million. I was just going to yell at him and say, well, you should have went for $50 million, right? >> The limit was five. But we have we went to the max. But we have had amazing support from our legislators on every,
you know, like literally all of our legislators have been phenomenal in their support of Old Colony. Uh we we feel blessed to have that level of support and even in our member towns. I just want people to know that when when tough questions come our way, people are doing their jobs. Please don't ever
misinterpret that for a lack of a relationship. We have a wonderful relationship with our five member towns and there is very very tight collaboration between us and every fincom and every select board and every legislator who serves our well-being. Um and we're proud of that. You know I
think that that has developed over the years but it's comfortable enough to have difficult conversations and that's how you move forward because people deserve to hear answers to difficult conversations. So, I I just don't ever want that to be misinterpreted as, you know, a strained relationship. It's not.
It's what we received questions tonight before we came. That's part of the reason why we're prepared because people said, "We're going to be asking you some questions. Could you please make sure you have answers?" That's a courtesy that that was offered to us and we have an obligation to respond to those types of things. But that's also called a
functional relationship. So, you know, the credit goes to the group, not just to Old Colony. We work collaboratively and we always have and we'll continue to do that. So, thank you. >> Erin, just one last time, the website. I know this was a lot of information to digest and I was told tonight not
everybody's on Facebook or Instagram or whatever. Everybody pretty much can go on the internet from what I understand. I've heard that. So, what's the website? Uh www.oldcolonybuildingpro.com. >> Okay. And we can at least we'll put that out on like all things are Kushnet. If you can put that out there, then all you
got to do is click on that. That'll give you everything you need to know about. You can go on the tax calculator, all the above. Ultimately, this is a gut check for everybody in this community. They know you know what you can and cannot afford, what you're willing to invest in or not. Not for me to tell you
what to do, but I can only attest to the process has been thorough, and I'm willing to put my name behind that because of the process. So, take that, please. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I meant to ask a question earlier. Um, real quick, this
won't be very long. So, thank you so much for your your presentations. Um, you've been very transparent with the board in the past in our annual budget meetings. I want to personally thank you for that. So, this probably should fuel
more information for people. What if this doesn't pass? What are your big projects that could happen if this doesn't happen that could impact our budgets going forward 5 10 years? >> So the water tank needs to be taken care
of immediately if this were not to pass. I need people to know that. That's I I feel like I'm playing Russian roulette. Every day I come in, I go like, "Oh, is this water tank going to live or is it not going to live?" So that would be an immediate ask, right? The other thing we're we're talking about is bringing
water from Middleboro into Old Colony because we have no redundancy. We have no fire protection. We're dependent upon a singular well. That to me is a nightmare. If something were to go wrong with the well, that's a problem, right? So, that's going to happen regardless of whether the project happens or doesn't
happen. We need to figure out what that infrastructure looks like. They've already tied into the Eddie Maximum House on North A. And so, it would be an extension of that line. And we've already had conversations with Middbor. approved it at their town meeting last spring. So, that's another example, Eric, of some of what you might see. Our
phone lines, if you walk into the basement, I you may have been down. Uh they look like they're from 1975 cuz they are. Um we have to order parts on eBay to replace our phone lines. It looks like the old switchboards um from back in the day. So, you know, I I
always picture, is there someone down there saying, "Oh, hold on. I'll connect you to the call." Right? But it's that old. um those need to be replaced. Our speaker system through the school, absolutely not up to snuff. That needs to be replaced. We're talking about huge
ticket items that we live with. They're subpar. Um but the flip side is we got really happy kids who love coming to school. And so I don't want I don't want to ever paint a picture of it being dismal. It's not dismal. It's just that it needs repair. Um but those are just a
few examples. The asphalt absolutely devastating. When you come in to the driveway, stay to the right. We do our best to patch, but stay to the right. Um, windows are failing. The seals on windows and some of the old hardware on some of the doors failing, right? Cracked infrastructure and the brick.
There's only so much you can do with that. >> Basketball. >> Uh, the B Yes, the basketball floor. So, there's pictures online, Eric. But the priority, I'd say step one, water tank. Step two, water line. >> How much does that tank cost? Have you had any estimates on on the tank?
>> Not not recently. Sort of throw a number out would be frivolous. I think at this point uh we'll be shopping if we need to on November 19th. Right. >> Right. Just one one quick thing. I know.
>> Sure. It's not a game on Jesse. >> No, no, no. Um what sports? What are those? Um anyway, so just a quick question. So I've got a a real mindset of stewardship. you know, we build this new school, we want to make sure it's wellmaintained as you have maintained the existing school. There's no doubt about that. We're going to have a
honeymoon period after this new school is built where there won't be any or very minimal capital expenses. So, has there been a process um or is there already a process in place to sock money away into a capital expense um stabilization fund that'll acrue interest that way once we do hit that 10
year 12 year whatever that time frame is where we can start dipping into that savings that we've been socking away for that initial 10 years >> there is yet we have a stabilization fund Sarah implemented that upon hire um and that stabilization fund is growing
uh but that takes time part of our feasibility ility was paid out of our portion of feasibility is paid out of stabilization but that will continue to grow uh and I think from a fiscal planning perspective yes there is a stabilization >> that's all >> they have they have a budget you still
have the ED budget >> um >> or did you convert that stabilization >> some of END goes to stabilization some of END does not go to stabilization so uh fourth quarter assessments our talents got money back um in some situations that's the case right but
sometimes When we have our END, we'll put some of that END and stabilization to Kevin's point. It's just good fiscal planning >> and OPEC. >> And OPED. Yes. >> Nothing else. Mr. Gas, there's a motion to adjurnn. So move a second.
>> All those in favor? >> I passion. >> Thank you. >> Thank you all. Second favor. I