[Applause] [Music] uh I'm going to call the meeting to order tonight is Tuesday February 11th 2025 we ask that you just silence uh all
cell phones for duration of the meeting because I have a motion to officially open second call Mr yes M yes Mrs yes Mrs yes and Mr H yes thank you and we'll start with the Pledge of
Allegiance na indivisible andice okay the first item is our consent agenda everything listed in the consent agenda was distributed in advance of the meeting does anyone have any requests for something to be removed from the
consent agenda and discussed or voted on separately may I have a motion to approve and accept the items listed in the cons agenda move second and Mr Hood yes Mrs Downey yes Mrs yes Mr yes and Mr H yes thank you
motion passes do we have anyone signed up for delegation so I don't see any old business so Dr Bailey I'll turn it over to you for new business um first up we we have the Ford Middle School discovery Grant and I
would ask miss reer our director to come up and present um event that we have and all the wonderful things that we're doing in the Middle School good evening Mr chairman and members of the school committee I'm also
calling up Michelle Sylvia the FMS principal um so we're here to announce our acceptance of the applied learning leadership ship Discovery program Grant which is a grant that is funded through the 1 18 foundation and we're very excited about
this opportunity for the Ford Middle School um so just a little bit about applied learning there are uh the five core tenants of Applied learning are that um The Learning uh possesses meaningful real world problems and it
pairs content with skills so it's not just content memorization but that's students are gaining uh soft skills as well it requires iteration and persistence it prioritizes collaboration and communication and it provides a
professional frame for the work that the students are doing so when they're doing this type of learning they're acting as a professional in the field might act when they're in science they are acting as a scientist they're running experience experiments inquery based
learning running trials collecting data acting as a scientist when they're in social studies they may be acting like an archaeologist and doing that type of work so um we have appli we we currently
already have some applied learning programs at Ford Middle School we've been adopting them over the course of the last few years we started with open Sayed which um we have uh the science curriculum for grade through 8 we're in
year one of the democratic knowledge project Civics curriculum and then we've just been accepted to the leadership Discovery program that's what we're presenting on tonight so out of there's 700 uh schools in the state of
Massachusetts that have accepted 18 grant funding for Applied learning and we are one of 20 teams that were selected to participate in this grant because the 18 Foundation has been coming out looking at the work that we've been doing um implementing these
programs and they feel as though we're doing it with great Fidelity and that we're just our teachers are really rising to the challenge and that they're challenging the students and applying those five tenants in just such a beautiful way um that they have come out
we've had other schools come to visit we are a we actually are a model for um this applied learning so we're really excited about that so the key objectives of the applied learning Discovery program is
that it would allow our leadership team to explore strong um applied learning practices and we can reflect on opportunities to bring these practices back to our schools so that even though we have these dkp and um open SED
curriculum but that we're you we're applying this type of learning to all area all subject areas and not only those where we have had the specific training um in those curriculum programs so extending that into Ela and math and
other subject areas so um we'll be doing um School visits to other schools that have applied learning taking place and this is to Spur new thinking and for us to determine steps that we can take to implement these strategies further
within our school and the 18 Foundation cover covers the cost associated with the program participation so the program that we're participate ping in the Discovery program it started in January with a
virtual kickoff and then in February just last week we went to two different School visits one at Randolph Middle School and another at Boston Collegiate in Dorchester in the b in the Boston area um and we were able to to visit
multiple classrooms we were with teams from the 20 other or 19 other school districts um we were just making great connections with other school districts hearing about the great work that they're doing in their districts gaining ideas of what we can bring back um
looking at some really engaging student learning taking place um so it was it was really an amazing opportunity to see what other schools are are doing and and then in April we'll also have a a visit
where we'll be going out of state to Denver Colorado and we'll be observing schools in the Denver area um and that's a two-day visit in April and then in May we'll have a reflection on learning
opportunity and I did miss picture retake day so um please [Laughter] but this is our team um We Have Allison here I'm going to let you actually introduce the team so Ali bow is our FMS
math interventionist we brought her along our science teachers are already in the thick of this they're actually presenting that Community Day for open Sayad in March for all the open Sayad Educators across the state they'll be presenting um there so that's fabulous
our eighth grade civics teacher Karen Bentley is also part of the dkp program and she's also called upon for her expertise and knowledge in the assessment area so we want to bring us to other areas so one second we also had a student last spring yes go to the
state with the dkp so with our Civic showcase last year we have the state we had our school one then we had a state one at bridgew State College and then from there we had one individual who went to the National social science convention in November in Boston and she
presented there as well with you know under the with the dkp curriculum so it's really getting us places and bringing us out there so we're like who do we bring on the team we're going to go with our math and we did observe some math classrooms um this past you past uh
last week Christine dimer is our academic coach who is a big help in implementing it and bringing it down and you know you know really getting into the classrooms given suggestions I have other the health teacher went in and observed open Sayad and all of their
thinking practices we have other individuals in the school going to other classrooms to observe you know the thinking processes going on and then the ngni as well yeah and I do think that part of our success with the with all of the one
um applied learning that we put in place has had a lot to do with our academic coach so I do want to recognize that because she has also been attending the trainings and then delivering that to the teachers and helping them we it has not been a small
ask what the teachers have done to implement a full new curriculum in such a timely manner um and to do it just so I guess it seems seamlessly to us but I know for them it has been a heavy lift
um but they've had a lot of coaching support and that's where um the coaching comes in to help support that in other areas in other subject areas where the one 18 Foundation may not have currently at least um grant
opportunities so what is the 18 Foundation they are a venture philanthropy and consultancy group um they seek to transform classrooms in Massachusetts alongside educated Partners to provide 21st learning opport 21st Century Learning opportunities to
students um and so they're providing very high quality professional learning opportunities to our Educators for free um and this is on open- Source or very low cost s standards based curriculum so this is
another piece that we really like about it is that they're giving us the training on um the high quality lowcost curriculum because we know how expensive curriculum can be and so if if we can take the time and really learn about and
Implement some good high quality free open Source curriculum then that's an amazing opportunity and when we're talking about them providing us professional development we're talking about you know thousands of dollars worth of
professional development and so here is just how we're aligning this to the aps District strategic plan any questions question um how was this found was it through research through what was it we
do we do a lot of listening and digging as we go places throughout the state and um I tend to to watch other school committees and see what other schools are doing um and I knew a local school was
doing this we went and observed them open say the year before we worked with their team we're like okay we're going to go for it we're going to go for the grant and then because we stay involved and we have the coaches come to us and ask you know and say do you want to try this do you want to try that why not the
grant gives us the professional development in depth in great detail two days professional development three times a year it's nothing right so for each unit that a teacher is about to teach a new unit in a curriculum they'll
they'll have the teachers go to a two-day professional deel velopment where or three or whatever it might be but like an in-depth and the teachers actually are um acting as a students at these professional development opportunities and they have a they have
somebody modeling what the teacher does and how they deliver the unit um so they're getting that student experience and then they're also kind of seeing what the teacher is doing and then on top of that we then have our coaching our coach who is available to help them
unpack the units he that's an additional step that we're doing that's not necessarily part of the grant but that um the coach works with the teachers to help them unpack and prepare for the units um so yeah it's been it's been pretty good and now we're at the point
where 18 Foundation reaches out to us so they all say they just got us the other day actually they said we have another Grant opportunity are you going to apply um so we did so we did and we're waiting to hear back on that and you know it's as uh Mr jiri mentioned we know that the
cost of curriculum is high so anytime we can get these freet open source curriculum and if it's high quality and we have the teachers buying in the kids love it because it's a lot of Hands-On applied learning so they're loving it um another way we find out about these
things is through our professional development so when we go to conferences um we are constantly looking for these opportunities for our students students in our district so I have to uh give a huge shout out to the teachers to the
administrators um the coach everyone who's been involved because it seems like we did one and then it just you know it was contagious the excitement we did another one and now you know we're on the third one and um teachers seem
really happy about it um so question where where does the funds originate for these grants with the it's with the 18 foundation and they private Foundation private foundation so they receive
donations just one like I think the Buy in coming from the teacher part of me is the professional development that comes with it so often like we come into the school year and there's a pile of curriculum on my desk and it's like here you go this is your new Ela this is your new so that's why you have the Buy in you have the Buy in because you're
providing all those opportunities that's right so like I think it keep doing that it's incredible like I would buy into that to have a lesson shown to me before I do it and what it's supposed to look like that's why they come in and watch us and they come in and you know they
tour us and give us feedback and it is a complete hands on I love that it is and I also give principal syvia Kudos as well because the teachers are now watching each other you know they're doing observations of each other it's really come full circle with this
curriculum so thank you for purchase of the curriculum is one thing but then the added professional development the level of PD that we wanted to give to our science teachers on our old curriculum wouldn't have even it would have been a small fraction of the number of days and we were looking at $20,000 and you think about those PDS to
train you those are more of a sales pitch than they are training or us that's what I in my 20 years of teaching that's what it's been it's been more of a sales pitch to te it's not how to do it it's what you need to do so it's great I love that idea that's awesome so just from a from a budget standpoint and
just from you know reminiscing from you know five six years back so Michelle you as the principal got information about this curriculum and then you pulled our curriculum director who's a full-time curricul director about this program and then both of you were able to
collaborate and you were still able to be a principal and do your portion and still make this happen because we have a full-time curriculum director because if we didn't have a full-time curriculum director this never would have come to fruition and that's what I'd like to
just let the audience know this is that you know I'm sure in the past like gu when I got on 10 years ago we had a part-time curriculum director who wasn't able to bring any new curriculum any new anything not even review the curriculum that we currently had because they were too busy doing their other job that they
were doing but and that's why it was so important to make the the money available to have a full-time director curriculum director to come in and make these programs available to our students and to have the full-time academic coach as well oh yeah yeah huge because the
whole support team the whole support team yes I can learn as much as I can but if I miss getting into that classroom because something else yes yes exactly so you know when they come in from dkp or1a and uh I know
that Christine Dez can just will take them through if I can't and it it works seamlessly I would add to that it's another example success story of um our leadership here plugging into other networks right
through their own professional development opportunities um you guys have demonstrated time and time again of either a free curriculum coming forward or you know a grant opportunity like this because you went to your own professional development and did your
own work right to plug into what other districts are doing and that's so important that Lear you know that you guys are doing so um I just want to underscore that too that you know having money in your budget to allow our
leadership to have their own professional development is also really important and that's why we're here right is to educate our students and if we don't have that Cutting Edge cost effective programming you know we we just get stagnant and our our students
won't go anywhere and we already saw that 10 15 years ago where nobody was moving forward and now we're seeing that and just kudos to you and I add to that that prior to me coming it was a report from desie that kushit was not paying attention to teaching and learning in
the curriculum and it's the opposite now that you see the status quo is not happening here in a cushion it I feel like these ladies and the team has put a cushion it on the map I can tell you that a cushion gets less money per pupil
spend uh spending right for each student and yet we're still outperforming the state that is because of the good work that the team is doing so I I want to thank you again um we have some very hardworking people in this District very
hardworking I mean I always see them here late um but I just want to thank you because I see the difference it's making in the school as well with our students so thank you very much yeah thanks for the presentation if you need any uh school committee members
or go to Denver there's probably a couple we we did say we wish we could bring more people because it's really something to see yeah but we'll be able to Showcase look forward to hearing more
thank thank you ladies um next up I'd like to call um Patrick McIntyre our business manager up we have the air environment quality project and we have Representatives here from TR but I would have
introduce representative train all right good evening school committee um as you all know we've been working on um performance Contracting over the last I don't know it feels like a year and a half or so anyway um in order to address some of the concerns
that we have in our school buildings um we wanted to bring the conversation back to light publicly um to H highlight the project now that we've received the final investment grade audit on the project and um you know talk about next steps before we enter into uh phase
where we start planning our public hearings and Joint meetings with the board select board and finance committee so this is a little bit of a refresher um there's going to be time for a Q&A at the end um if anybody has any questions or just looking for updates on the status of the project the timeline of
the project so on and so forth um so without further Ado I'm going to introduce um more Paris and Max ma from train Technologies who have conducted the investment grade audit and then we also have Beth uh green black from Beacon integrated Services who's remote um and she's going to be unmuted for the
presentation in case she wants to trck in as well as for the Q&A towards the end so thank you and just to clarify Beth is our consultant for the district who's really been helping us and steering us with this project welc thank you so much thank you
for having us uh Mr chairman and thank you to the committee and thank you for the introduction Mr McIntyre and thank you very much to Dr Bailey for her support throughout this entire process um as we've already had a fantastic introduction by Mr McIntyre but um we
started really engaging with the cush at Public Schools uh towards the middle of last year and our primary goal was really to investigate opportunities in your buildings to create safer more efficient and more comfortable spaces so that's really the mindset that we came
in with um it figuring out how we can do that in the most cost effective and streamlined way so today I have a quick agenda of introducing the project team both on the pushit side and the train side talking a little bit about the why and and getting
a little bit more detailed into uh why we were brought to the table give you a schedule update on what we've we've done thus far and where we are now um do a quick review of the results of our investment grade audit and what we found as some some initial scope items that we think need to be addressed
um a review of the financials and in budgets and then closing with Community benefits and a Q&A with that works we'll dive right into it I already mentioned uh Dr Bailey Mr McIntyre and obviously Miss greenblat have been super supportive of and and
really integral to the entire process of getting the necessary information so that we could do a proper analysis of what the existing situation here is at of kushit um on the train team it's it's primarily myself or in Paris Energy Services County Executive I'm
essentially the Project Lead so I have have dealt with the project and kind of walked it from start to finish as it relates to scope development Energy savings um really understanding customer goals and all the way to financials and and hopefully contract execution and I
have Max ma here with me Max want intr my name is Max ma uh good evening I'm a project developer was train I work together with Morgan make sure that um the customer receives information on the um best solution that also considers um Financial aspects including uh any
applicable incentives any ongoing uh rebates from the utilities any other considerations with regard to the building with is specific to the Project X is the smart one so the the why of why we're here today and and what really our goal was
is going in is is primarily looking at the indoor environment um and making sure that when we were looking at opportun unities for improvement in these buildings we were specifically targeting solutions that would bring the indoor Environmental Quality up to to really good standards um specifically at
aishan elementary school with the humidity concerns was our our number one um after that it was really addressing longterm infrastructure needs so related to phys the physical heating plant um heating ventilation and air conditioning systems and building management controls
because those really all tie in together to also create a proper indoor environment that's both safe and comfortable um part of that is when you do number one and number two you extend building longevity so you create buildings that are can last for many many years and are inhabitable and
really conducive to good learning environments and fantastic programs like the one that was mentioned before ours that really create students that are making better in the world uh optimizing green communities funding was also something um that we were focused on we
understand that a kushit is a green community and really wants to continue um through the green communities program which requires a certain amount of of energy reductions over a couple years addressing deferred maintenance um was also clearly something that was core to this project and over time a desire to
reduce energy consumption and demand so I mentioned we started this last year a little earlier in last year February 2024 so I have in the in the bucket in the in the box where we are now towards the bottom so we've been through a a rigorous bidding process
through a request for qualifications through the D we were selected as the Energy Services Company in May of 2024 by a Christian Public Schools we entered into an investment grade audit in July started developing most detailed scope of improvements July to August engage
stakeholders and that's really kind of still the process that we're in right now in deciding on that firm scope of work and defining ultimately a project that we bring to town meeting to hopefully have pushed forward um so that's the current state and hopefully the goal is to um move forward with a
project that works for everyone and has the the full support of both the school committee here and also the folks at the town as well uh once the the project and the contract is executed we would immediately move towards implementation and construction uh depending on the
timeline of that construction could be either this summer or next summer with lead times it is kind of changing rapidly um so it'll be more of a an on thee-o decision of of when we are able to move forward with construction and then once construction is complete it's all about
maintenance and measurement and verification of savings so making sure we're keeping up to date with proper maintenance of the systems throughout the investment grade audit we investigated a number of comprehensive measures so this is just a quick snapshot of everything our team
looked into Max and folks um when we walked through both of your school buildings it was everything from lighting and building envelope upgrades and controls all the way down to uh solar Renewable Energy Systems Transformer upgrades and air purification measures so we really looked at a lot not just things that
would save you energy but also things that would make your buildings better and safer and more comfortable so we targeted a bunch um hoping that we could really provide you with solutions that worked for you a targeted project is what out of
this um so I'll go through a couple different items that are included in that targeted indoor air quality improvement project um but the first is what really is the main component of that which is indoor air quality improvements for a cushioned Elementary School um and that's made up of uh
variable refrigerant flow heat pump systems and Integrated Controls and what that's going to do is is really help temper the indoor environment and make it so that it's not so humid uh and really create not just a Band-Aid solution but a long lasting solution for
a comfortable environment in the elementary school um it also includes electrical infrastructure upgrades and structural upgrades that are needed in order to make these adjustments to the school building um so we took all of that into consideration
consideration and also as a note you know as part of this because we're putting equipment on the roof it was brought to our attention that the roof warranty was was a question and a concern um we've reached out to multiple roofing companies that are certified in
mule hiide mu mu hiide systems which is the product which is where the manufacturers roof manufacturers warranty lies and as long as we're working with a roofing company that is certified in that material they will maintain the roofing warranty so we're confident that our solution will be
acceptable did you have anything else to add here no cover so basically my analogy would be if you purchase a new vehicle as long as you service the vehicle the dealership that's the same brand right it's you don't necessarily have to go back to the vehicles original manufacturer even though you may want
you may prefer that right so we have other options uh basically the warranty is with the product and we uh we have uh check checked with our partners we have check with our internal team so we are confident that we have multiple options so we're comfortable on that front and
also in just talking about this solution here today too you know we did not immediately jump to this solution as the ultimate one evaluated multiple different options and at the end of the day taking into consideration the long-term solution the cost and the
efficiency and the available funds and rebates attached to this solution this one came out on top um so there was a lot of consideration that went into to selecting this as as the targeted project and tailored with that I also mentioned building management systems so
this is really adding intelligent building controls to these new and existing systems um that are planned for installation that is taking out obsolete controllers so controllers that you can no longer find parts for or do software
upgrades on um it's including funds to upgrade some failed equipment so we're going to put our new controls on this piece of equipment what if then we realize that one small piece of the equipment is failed while we've included some additional funds in order to cover some of those Replacements that are
needed afterwards um and this system this control system is actually required in order to get Mass Save funds um for the initial VF heat pump system um so it is really a package deal and provides the maximum incentives in order
to buy down the initial cost of the project pretty well now next on the list is is building envelope improvements this was a a big one that came up as part of our investigations during the investment grade audit I think you guys remember um us coming in and talking about this last
time and that's really tightening up the building envelope so that you can really improve um the air circulation and control of the indoor air quality in the building already so it essentially keeps you know the air from coming outside in and keeps our healthy clean air from
going outside right which makes it more efficient and easier to control decreasing both infiltration and exfiltration and there's a couple pictures and photos showing you know places within between the roof and the wall and between the doors where
we can make those improvements oh and I think that was my video but we don't need to do that duck sealing um this is also a way for us to both save energy and uh make some improvements into the indoor quality um so really you have these long runs of
duct um and you have naturally some leaks that happen over time so this duck ceiling is a way to go in and seal up some of those leaks so that you're not wasting energy wasting good um clean controlled air um where you don't have
to um and and it does that in a couple different ways um but it's a it's a pretty interesting new type of product that is is doing this in a really really great way and we also have some coating of the existing hot water coils that will provide additional benefits uh that
just make the coils last longer do you have anything else to add here no that captures it I would also mention that dark ceiling is also a way to make sure that you the delivered air right conditioned air goes where it's intended to go because if it goes into UNC conditioned spaces it could exacerbate
uh problem such as humidity right condensation in unwanted spaces so it's it's both from a comfort Energy Efficiency perspective as well as preservation of the building prolonging the life of the building mhm are we going at a good Pace does anyone have
any questions good okay air purification um also Al similarly an indoor air quality improvement um to really create um additional safety measures within the air handlers which are sitting in the
kind of mezzanine of the building um active filtration of the air coming through the air hamler before it enters the doct and ultimately enters into the classroom I think that's as seamlessly as I can explain that but if you have any other yeah this is um essentially a
centralized solution to the uh existing solution of having in room air purifiers right uh so this solution makes sure that um for one maintenance is centralized right which is a big benefit and also it's energy efficient uh it sits in the space of the existing air uh
filter it has um it's all low low power source to ionize the filter and capture contaminant to a efficiency M 14 equivalent performance which essentially means it can capture really small particles and therefore providing cleaning air cleaner air to the
classrooms and then lastly kitchen walk-in uh both refrigeration and coolers is a scope of work that we've looked in as well um it's five total proposed systems in both schools um and really the improvements
here are increased insulation um ECM motors which are more efficient type of Motors um evaporator fan controls um LED lighting demand controlled for both the electric defrost and and the door heaters um the doors
were just found the the whole um walk-ins were found to be just really aged um and and requiring more than just maintenance or a simple renovation so we looked at full replacement here and can definitely quantify savings from what's existing to what we would be able to
improve and and replace it with and then lastly here's here's the slide just summarizing the financials for both projects so you have the indoor air quality project on top um totaling of not to exceed of 4.2 million um we're
currently working with eversource on finalizing what the incentives might look like um both partnering with eversource and a technical assistance vendor who's who's double-checking and essentially verifying the work that we've done and um is attempting to give
us a a pre a pre-study uh understanding of what an incentive might look like so they have all of the information right now they're just I think churning in the back to figure out out um how much they're they're willing to give um but that will hopefully buy down the cost of
that 4.2 if we estimate it somewhere up to uh 500,000 that would bring it down to 3.7 um after incentives and rebates um we also applied for a green communities grant for this the decarbonization grant because of the technology that was selected for the
project it allowed us to apply and that could be somewhere between 250,000 to 500,000 there as well we have not heard back on whether um a kushit has been selected yet still waiting um but fingers crossed hopefully that that gets added to the list as well and then
there's also the Green School Works implementation funding project that is specifically focused on funding these types of projects as well so decarbonization Focus projects um where you're installing VF heat pumps is is something that complies and it also supports the necessary electrical
upgrades that would need to be done which is something that we've considered as well so they would help financially support not just the project but also essentially the ancillary work needed to support the project too and then the kitchen Refrigeration project is down in
the bottom right um summarized that it's it's 461 150 um for all five at the two schools um and that we've been told is is to be funded via available Food Service program funds that are already in hand um and ready to be spent so
really the contract and this Energy Management Services agreement provides the opportunity to do either and both if possible of these projects um so having the contract available having a project
move forward allows you the opportunity to do amendments or future projects through the same agreement it is available via the legislation for up to 20 years so that makes it just more flexible easier to use so that you can amend it for for future
and then lastly um just to summarize the the fiscal social and environmental uh benefits of a project like this really fiscal is these are needed upgrades um where you're spending and your your staff really are spending time and energy to walk through each
classroom to let out filters and let out condensate that's doing the work in each classroom versus pulling together a customized solution that is central for all of the building um so it's really a fiscally responsible way to approach this taking into account incentives and
also Energy savings for socially it's improving the indoor air quality of the schools naturally we want to create really really healthy spaces for students to be learning in positively impacting Comfort um and then lastly it's environmental so this is the type of technology that the state of
Massachusetts is really excited about for its environmental benefits so that will allow us to measurably reduce the utility consumption in your buildings and really look at the greenhouse gas emissions that come from displacing some of those fossil fuels and I think that's all we had open
the floor to Q&A a couple so first um can we Implement I think you mentioned this already but you can Implement um the project in phases to see like partial imple implementation solves the problem and then like go on to the next step or
is it something that we have to do all at once you the legislation certainly does allow for a phased approach um but I would say naturally you know for some of these the longer that you wait you know do are there are increases in both
equipment and labor so there is something such as not only you know time time of money but also uh economies of scale as well so if you take a comprehensive approach of addressing multiple uh pieces all at once um that does provide some additional benefits but there's also the benefit of phasing
and it it is flexible for that as well and have we thought about what this is going to do for our electric bill going into the future has that been considered in in all of this I don't know if that's a Patrick question or yes so that is a component of the the process actually is
for us to look at the implications of the project that we're recommending onto your utility bills and with that project that I just showed you of the improved energy conservation measures uh the building controls the building envelope
paired with the other project where you're um installing VF heat pumps in order to improve the Endo a quality it actually comes out roughly even with a little bit more energy savings um so you should in theory be spending Less on your utility
bills yeah I can add to that too just uh in in general right we're creating a solution that decarbonized our schools so our boilers will still be used to heat uh classrooms to an extent until the the vrfs can kick in and efficiently
you know pick up and start heating the the classrooms and the building spaces you know annually we're we're buy purchasing over 100,000 gallons of oil so you can do the math at you know $3 $3.50 cents a gallon so there's savings
from spending on fossil fuels but those will translate to some extent into energy into utility expenses um so as Morgan shared it's not an even exchange there will be some savings but it's not as simple as saying we're going to save
every dollar that we're you know by implementing these Solutions and I like to think of it visually you know if we could see you know the energy if you will that we're using and consuming and seeing all the holes in our systems and watching it kind of leak out here and
there and and money really go out the windows we wouldn't sit here and just be okay with it every day you know what I mean we go through a budget process where we're nitpicking every every penny and I'm not even you know exaggerating so if we could see the energy you know
escaping these windows escaping the ventilation duct work you know all of these things we'd be going wow we're throwing money right out the window so all of these measures come together as a comprehensive solution to adust that and maximize the efficiency of our buildings while also
saving actual money um so so it's kind of toold if that sense I'm not an expert inary but as I understand that like you know there's certain temperatures right where the heat pump would be more efficient versus a boiler and this will all be integrated so that those kind of
cut offs and one kicking to it would all be kind of happening automatically right integrated yeah that that's exactly right and that's why we always recommend that the equipment replacement comes with the controls upgrade right because then you can most efficiently use your
new equipment you don't want Heating and Cooling equipment to be fighting each other you don't want different areas to be not optim optimally controlled maybe the moisture is migrating from one area to another right uh so that's why we uh recommend the the comprehensive nature
of The Suite of solution and to your point exactly right when um outside there uh temperatures are more mild heat pumps are typically more efficient right they are essentially uh air conditioners that can work either way either Direction with controls with proper controls uh modern technology allows
heat pump to operate down to 0° um but depending on the economics because at0 degrees it might not be efficient right so we have that Boer still available as a backup in fact all the hot water coils are still uh in
place we are not removing any of that so you gain improved redundancy and you also gain the Avail uh the the availability to use either oil heating in the current form or electrified heating U Mass Save which is the utility incentive program um would like to see
as much possible feel displays as possible right so uh to that extent we're also working with them to help them understand our controls to help them understand our capabilities are sizing all the technical aspects of the solution so you're absolutely right now you uh with this uh technology you have
the option uh to have both electrified heating all the way down uh to as low as our controls parameters and um we can program it into it but also have fossil fuel as fully redundant backup
sorry a couple more questions um so we have all this new technology um what are the um is there training involved with our maintenance people and also in addition to that do you give additional support to this training after the initial training is done and then
thirdly third question and final one um what about 10 years from now are how much is it going to cost to upgrade all of this stuff do we have an estimate do we have we even thought about that my questions I I will speak to the piece uh
yes we have a training plan in fact we have a training plan detailed in the investment grade audit report for anyone who's interested to look into the details of specifically what pieces are included with each measure that we recommend um for the other pieces Morgan I'll let you yeah just as a a note again
on the training um our goal is to have a longstanding relationship with chrisan Public Schools um the the worst way that we could do that is leave you with a system and not tell you how to run it operate it understand it right so our job is to make sure that you leave
feeling comfortable with what's been installed and part of that is doing really intense and integral training and that's all part of this it's all part of it some some of it is um you know more related to the control system but some of it's also related to just the systems in itself um and I will personally say
that I have a couple um clients that I work with were 10 years 13 years in and they said we just brought someone new on staff could we do another training and I said absolutely so we block off four or8 hours and we do a full training where our technicians or our our team comes in
and sits down with anyone who wants to be trained on the new system existing system right so it really it's it's more of an ongoing we can provide any additional training as it's needed as things arise I I might also add to that um part of our contract has the measurement and verification component
right and and um part of that is to provide the schools uh with our our clients with the information on how they're buildings up performing right because we have V the interest in making sure that the Sy system are performing as we design them
and so that's a continuous feedback loop right to the school district in terms of um which systems are performing well which systems need attention so that's another um I would say another Avenue where schools can get continuous feedback on information on how the systems are
perform and then that other question of 10 years from now or five year later oh to read right so technology changes all the time oh completely understand it really does so as far as our control systems go um I 5 years is not an issue
I don't even think 10 years is an issue um there's always S software upgrades um because there data protection and other things that need to be regularly maintained so that it stays safe for everyone um but at some point every system goes obsolete I they do not consult
unfortunately me on when they want to make new systems um obsolete but I think it's it I don't see it being within you know 5 to 10 years that all of a sudden this SC system that we install which is the main controller becomes
obsolete yeah yes I um listening to the solutions when we go to a town meeting there going to be 50 doubting Thomases on this issue and uh and we going have
three three minutes in order to convince them uh convince the the body uh to support this project M so it we have to in the present presentation what building problems are
we addressing how acute our experience uh experiences and this is why we want to go ahead with this project is that the problems are acute and they are affecting staff are affecting uh student
performance are affecting probably student health uh and so someone so we got to address that issue as important not not that we want
to have uh student comfort no nor employee retention that this project will never set never sell at a town meeting with with those type of objectives but objectives is that we're
basically addressing some very acute health issues that could to you know in in in in this building and want want to move forward secondly of all the time is now explain why we
have to do it now and not delay next year the year after so I I I so so I think that in your presentation and I'm sure uh that that that is the main issue and I think you only got three to five minutes in
order to really put that put that ball over the over the over the fence line M I think that's a great Point yeah Mr H you bring up a great Point as you know we had mold at the elementary school and there were people complaining
about their health we had students and staff um impacted by that we obviously want to keep a very healthy environment right now and I'm sure Patrick can get more into the details of this but we have 4 some OD dehumidifiers working dayto day in every single classroom
they're loud so it's a huge distraction to the teaching and learning they have to be emptied manually every single day and they have to uh the the workers have to come in on the weekends and vacations overtime so that they can empty those
things and keep those going um so that's a huge concern then we have teachers at times and you know I don't fault them for this but they're shutting them off because they're too loud and then the facility side of things that's not good because we have to keep them running to
keep the air healthy right so it's not efficient um and that's why you know I'm a big proponent of this project because spending 3 something million is much better than spending over a 100 million on a new school building which correct
I'd like to hear about how long this will prolong the life of the building I'd like to hear about the noise level of what it's going to do when um we stop all these individual dehumidifiers from running in the classrooms that's not a normal classroom environment when you
walk in we've got fans we've got dehumidifiers it's not a apprpriate for teaching and learning it's not ideal so what will this project do for that environment is that what you're talking about yes I think that is the main issue
and also also we've addressed this issue be in previous meetings that we've talked about temperature versus the rate of learning there's all sorts of research showing that that children if it's too
hot they just don't learn we're wasting our time trying to teach them and if we and we have to address that issue otherwise we're wasting taxpayers money if we don't address the environment the environment and and a controlled environment which was which
we have Solutions in in great dep in depth but we basically got to we've got to basically have raise the awareness among all citizen that they they're aware of how acute this this issue is this is why
want to move forward y I can tell you that from classroom to classroom the temperatures vary in both buildings so you can go into a classroom and people feel the need to actually wear their winter jackets um and and then you can go into the very next classroom and it's like a sauna that is not controlling the
temperature right now um so if you could address that today right now that would be helpful I think well I just want to add you kind of stole my thunder but I just want to remind people how how we that's a good thing right it means you know we all know what we're talking about I'm sorry Patrick no no you're
doing great too Mr um just a reminder how we got here you know out of nowhere you know we we couldn't control the environment we couldn't control our buildings and humidity took over causing problems in the form of molds and discomfort and things like that we lost Staffing we lost you know we had student
absences everything cost money everything impacts teaching and learning um we were fiscally responsible enough to be able to solve the problem temporarily with Sesser funds that it didn't cost the town a single dollar it cost us you know $300,000 in Sesser funds but no one complained about that
right um but we combed the problem and we put a Band-Aid solution in place which still exists so if anything we should be commended for that right uh we have dehumidifiers again that we purchased on our own air purifiers that we purchased on our own we're maintaining them we're paying for the overtime we're you know we're coming up
with all these solutions to continue to operate but let's face it it could break at any single time and when it does we do not have those Esra funds to fall back on we do not have any other Solutions it it will be disastrous um and it can happen because again this is
a Band-Aid problem um so you know we got to this point via performance Contracting to build a comprehensive solution to take advantage of any and all incentives that are out there related to energy which you wouldn't get through normal Capital procurement and
we're putting our best foot forward I mean they're build Building 100 million $200 million schools everywhere um msba is denying projects at a record Pace you know it just this is what fits the mold here and it's the most Equitable
solution for us for the town to preserve these buildings to get more life out of it so we're not looking at you know rebuilding um and I just want to say the town next door to us had a a fire a major fire with a dehumidifier
plugged in we have 40 something dehumidifiers plugged in they had to cancel school for several days we don't want to find ourselves in that situation at all you know this is just not how our classroom should look okay well I was just going to say so I
think going back to it some of your questions are unanswered about how long will this preserve or prolong the life of our buildings um I don't know bath or train and the noise too if you can address the noise I mean the noise is simple right we won't have those units
in existence in the classroom anymore there won't be any Replacements needed for them there won't be filter changes there won't you won't need that labor to to maintain it to empty it to you know work on it it will all be built into this comprehensive solution that we will
build into a maintenance plan with or without the assistance of train but with the education on how to and sustain you know the equipment that we have so that we don't run into issues um so that that in simplest form there will be no noise in the classroom anymore um but I I'll
step aside for feedback from the others I'll add my perspective um to to add to everybody's uh input right from the noise perspective now all the equipment will be centralized in the mechanical room as a properly designed engineering system should be right uh so that in the
classroom the students don't face the distraction as anybody who works next to window air conditioner would know right air flow noise compressors these are distracting elements from a maintenance perspective then uh we don't have so many distributed systems to take care of and this uncertainty and the replacement
the maintenance with all that uh from from a student um from a student learning productivity perspective right learning environment uh we we took into consideration all these considerations to say that this is a indoor air quality
improvement measure not just a add cooling measure even though it does add cooling because adding cooling is really the most cost effective way to control the moisture and to control the indoor learning environment we've seen in today's meeting how um how the school district takes pride in developing
curriculum in developing the uh the quality of the teaching staff right U you know equally important is to make sure that the students are at their best and the most productive one in our learning environment and that includes so much more than just thermal Comfort which is you know cooling right A lot of
people think of it as cooling but it's also our solution part of our controls also as CO2 sensors in for each space so that the units know how much CO2 is in the space and whether to increase outdoor ventilation currently that is done somewhat in uncontrolled way
through opening Windows and with opening Windows you get unfiltered air you get humid air you get outside air fighting with your dehumidifiers in all sorts of ways and that is not good for the students right from a health perspective now with the CO2 sensors we can make
sure that the oxygen level in the rooms um is is optimized learning environment right uh we can make sure that noise is minimized right by removing all the in room equipment uh we can make sure that disruption due to maintenance issues or
due to unforeseeable um some piece of equipment that breaks down maintenance must come and and fix that right with that um ideally with the new control system the uh maintenance staff would have visibility before the teachers even have to make a call right and there they
can proactively um fix whatever uh equipment that needs fixed so there are sweet of of benefits to that and that that all speaks to what people observe as the as the issue um we do consider the solution in a holistic
manner I just wanted to open the floor to miss greenblat if you had any additional comments as well I feel like we've been talking we didn't give you a chance to bre and talk thank you Morgan I I think everyone is hit the nail on the head the
building has existing conditions that impacts the indoor Environmental Quality um realized by students and Educators and to the extent we can remedy that situation remove as Patrick said the
Band-Aid equipment that is a a a weak point for failure for sure um and focus on making the school the the the classrooms more more productive more comfortable um more balanced and
controlled certainly should lead to higher um scores if you will or better education it's just a Better Learning environment for students and Educators and and as as you know Dr Bailey has said preserving the Integrity of this
building by not allowing the moisture to build up by maintaining the air quality and Environmental Quality of the spaces will preserve the Integrity of the building structure and potentially avoid what today may be a $100 million school
but tomorrow could you know certainly be upwards of $150 to $175 million I mean it's as Patrick said that you know msba is is rejecting lots of requests for new schools because the cost is just
prohibitive for taxpayers thank you so thank you um maybe one more question for me then maybe it's for Dr Bailey and Mr McIntyre so Mr alcra raises a good point I think um time is limited at the town meeting
it's not really the the forum for a informational session it's a forum to to answer a few questions and have a vote so so maybe you can talk a little bit about at a high level just what are some of the things that we are thinking about doing so that we can help take our uh
community members along and EXP explain to them why this is so important would be helpful enough yeah so I mean uh I was in Dr Bailey's office I think last Friday and we're trying to map out dates between all our committee meetings or
you know negotiation meetings or or you know a budgetary meet I don't know where to end uh debt exclusion meeting so on and so forth but the goal is you know the timeline looks like this like there's a ballot on April 22nd this project you know it's no secret that if
we move move it forward it will be in by ways of a debt exclusion um which will impact the tax rate so we want to engage the community educate the community and let them know what the impact will be um So the plan would be to engage with the finance committee and the the board of
Select select board you know relatively soon and then in March with enough time have a public hearing to to go over exactly what we just did in more depth with more opportunity for question and answer and again educating everybody on
the project on on how we where we started how we got here you know again why we went the road of performance Contracting so that would be March um and then again prior to the debt exclusion on the ballot on April 22nd we would want another one in April for whoever couldn't make it in March or
people that were able to digest it watch it on TV come with more questions in April um and then again be able to vote educ have an educated vote on the process so that that's what it would look like if it pass on the ballot it's still not a sure thing it would still
need to pass that town hall um two articles one to engage in a contract with train and then a second article to actually fund the project Via de exclusion um so it is a long road um and it's a short amount of time but we have
the right Personnel um we have the right data we have the right reports to begin to educate everybody with factual information we appreciate your presentation thank you thank you thank you very much thank
you Patrick while you're up there um under other items I would love it if you could go over the solar project because while we mentioned it a year ago and then it sort of fell off we're kind
of back to looking at it again um um and again we don't want to go into a huge in-depth discussion tonight about solar but I wanted Patrick to update the committee on where we're at with with the solar project yeah so um you know we talked
about a power purchase agreement in years past and you know trains here and we asked them to analyze uh you know put put together a solar solution for us through the performance contract as well to see what was feasible I mean at the end of the day we're trying to get
creative to create some sort of funding offset um in this town U we we looked at recent reports from the Town Administrator that show 5 six seven eight years of history and the the revenue is stayed flat around 500,000 annually well we know you know cost of
living inflation all these other measures are kicking costs way way up yet our revenues are just staying here everything else is on a trajectory you know up um so it's not sustainable so you know we we talked about this in past we're reev Reviving it again um with new
smart incentives that that have changed recently um to to look at a solar array on campus a canopy and or roof or both um to to bring some offset costs to to to the town really to the schools uh
however you want to spin it um so again train put together a a solution and we realized it's probably not feasible we were transparent with them through the process you know we wanted to entertain any and all options owning it just doesn't really make sense for us between
the maintenance the cost you know the infrastructure the whole n yards so through select there's a power purchase agreement where they're essentially leasing the space on our roof and the space in our parking lot to generate solar and then they sell it back to us at a discounted rate that we would
normally pay you know our our eversource or constellation or supplyer delivery um so I'm going to skip through we don't need to go through the Spiel that would have given by being select but you know a map of the two solutions look accordingly so on the left would be a
canopy over the middle parking lot um we talked about how that would also protect you know staff um and students from elements you know parking um there' be a water uh um management system with it for proper drainage and things like that you know we we're constantly back and
forth between both schools so it provides protection that way but it also you know it's going to generate energy for us and you know money for us to save on our energy bills and then on the right would be the solution on the um AES roof um again with all warrantees
intact things like that um we can get into those details at a later point but at the end of the day they're forecasting for just the AES roof with prevailing wage and you know I assume that these numbers are inflated to some
extent it's based on a a utility escalation of 2.5% annually we don't really know what that's going to look like in 25 years but assuming such you know we would save $1.7 million um on our energy um and you can see that it
kind of escalates because we would get a fixed fixed payment if you will or fixed rate at you know 04 cents or 4 cents excuse me um versus the the projected 15 cents and you'd say 50,000 all the way up to
90,000 in the last year if projections were accordingly um there's debate on whether these projects need to be prevailing wage or not ultimately it would be up to Town Council on how they want to proceed um and and you know how they made that decision without prevailing wage they'd
be looking at a 1.85 if I can read that correctly uh savings on the same roof so you know you without prevailing wage you would gain about if I can see that CLE clearly you know 50 to $200,000 in savings can you
explain what prevailing wage is prevailing wage is just the labor rate that the state requires you to pay workers based on you know the region that you work in so that these companies can't grab these jobs and then just short change their workers you know they take a an average I guess if you will um
and say if you are to be if you are to contract one of these jobs or win one of these jobs you have to pay your workers at a set rate you know that's not below this amount um and then we're required actually uh to track their payroll records and things like that to make
sure that they they're following accordingly so without prevailing wage they obviously can pay their workers what they want with prevailing wage there's potentially an escalation in the cost or an increase in the cost um and then here's the
the canopy project would forecast about $1.2 million in savings um with prevailing wage or 1.5 without again I'm struggling to see but that's what it looks like so you combine the two projects we're talking
about potentially $3 million in savings over 25 years um however you want to spin it for the school or for the town you know um and I think it's time to bring this conversation back it it was approved to enter into a contract with select at the May 2023 town meeting so
that article existed it was voted um next steps would be to sign a letter of intent which is not legally binding it's just you know we we're going to put our best faith forward and and finding a project that works for us um and they would begin you know electrical
engineering utility applications contract process so on and so forth and then from there you know you you would sign a contract and you would begin construction and things like that um I believe the timeline would not be until the summer of 2026 at this point but
again I think we have to consider everything on the table with the growing expenses in the town and school district and and the lack of Revenue growth um and again this wouldn't be a cash payment that we would receive it's a savings so would it would be a reduction to a budget line um
essentially but you know nonetheless 3 million over 25 years is substantial when we're talking about putting forward a $4 million project over 20 years and I could argue that it's close to a was um so we wanted to bring that back up we've attached this support and in board dos
for your review um there's draft letters of intent what I'm working with is um discussions with the town to to see what sort of capital reserves there are to to be able to actually afford you know having Beth greenblat with Beacon integrated Services review these
proposals and contracts which again she's an expert in to make sure the forecasting is right the language is what we need it to be um and then in a position to to move forward um with some sort of project if that's in the interest of the school committee if if the school signs a letter of
intent and then the project doesn't move forward for some reason are we committed to anything penalty no again it's it's not legally binding it's just it's the presumption that we will engage with you if you know everything works out and and it kind of kick starts them to start the
process and pulling permits and getting in line with ever source and all those things for in connectivity um and then from there you know we would negotiate contracts our Council would look at it Town Council look at it um make sure all the terms are right discuss prevailing wage or not prevailing wage and then
once that contract sign that's it so what is what are the next steps are we going to bring this back to so we I I think you know we can talk about this a little more in a workshop or off record without a quorum um and put forth
or at least we can put it on the agenda for next meeting to to vote on a letter of intent to be signed or not to be signed and then we can have discussions at that point um if that makes sense we can also bring in select again if you want to hear anything from them um we can we can drag Beth into this um
whatever way we want to go with it again to me it's opportunity right I would ask the other Committee Member it's been a while since we talked about it so it might be good to refresh but yeah and remember that we did bring this to the town and the town
gave us the blessing to explore a plan right so I don't I mean I think why not explore our options and just get more information yeah and the town you know the town is still well aware of it I mean I'm not
sure how how close it is on their radar but I know Town Administrator R to select at an MMA meeting you know there was a little bit of discussion there um I know when we originally brought this up they were kind of reaching out to me to say hey can can you get selected to talk about adding this to a to a couple
of our town Town buildings or the golf parking lot or so on and so forth so you know I hope that the conversations would still be cordial and and you know they be interested too but um it's it'd be tough to understand and know when again
it's it's savings for us us being the community the town the district so would you like a presentation again from select I know the project looks a little bit different right it's a little modified but I I'm the understanding that it would requir school committee
signature for that letter of intent also the town right yeah so I believe it'd be a letter intent from us a letter intent from the select board and then ultimately the select board would would be signing the agreement the contract um based on how the article went forth in
in 2023 if if we're just voting on a letter of intent and the letter of intent is not lock us into anything I don't feel personally if others feel different I'm happy that we need another presentation I feel like that presentation probably needs to come
before we we go in any further beyond the letter of intent okay that's my I agree yeah let's not waste any more time yeah so do you want to put it on the agenda just for that vote then for the letter of intent and we'll have that ready for you in March sure Patrick and
then after we'll have a presentation because I mean I'd like to hear I mean like a refresher good I know in the past we talked about wanting to see you know better renderings of what it would look like the Camp you know now we're the roof we haven't really had much discuss on that outside of train and equipment
with train and solar with train um you know if the the performance contract moves forward the air quality cont uh project moves forward there's going to be equipment on some of the space of that roof that I imagine select's going to be planning on adding solar so there
would need to be a collaboration um so definitely you know it's not Signum do there there's more work to be done um but yeah I don't think the letter been 10 hers we can put that forward um and I can talk to select about elaborating on
the project and the process in the future thank you okay any other questions on that okay next um the school calendar um I really didn't think we would vote on this tonight as um I discussed with the
chair this is um the proposed calendar I did notice one mistake um in the June you see this the 16th is highlighted as early release last day and then on to the right it says 6117 so we just have to make that correction if anybody else
notices anything um this has been vetted out through the school system and then you would have a month to look this over and then my plan would be to have this on the March agenda for a vote for a final vote Dr Bill are there
any like major CH like this looks like relatively it's the very similar timeline till last year there no major changes yeah so I think the one thing that people may like is we actually would have the Christmas um vacation the two weeks because of the way the holiday
falls between Christmas and New Year's that's a little more time than what we typically have but I didn't think it made sense to open the building and heat the building for one day you know what I mean so other than that we have the town elections in April and um
that's that but yeah it's as you said it's relatively the same the same start and did school start on the 27 when did school start this year it was C on the Wednesday the same it's always the last Wednesday in
August or it has been for several years now the teachers start on the Monday and the Tuesday and the uh students return on that Wednesday okay so we'll plan to bring this back for yeah if anybody has any questions concerns comments please you
feel free to email me or call me prior to the meeting but my intent will be to put it on the March agenda for a vote any questions not okay and then under one more other um items I just we
talked about this at policy subcommittee meeting and I just thought it was important to bring up to the full committee that the Attorney General's office is going to be drafting legislation to be in cell phones K to 12 and we know that cell phones are a huge
distraction in our schools mostly for us it's mostly at the middle school huge distraction um our plan right now is I reinforce it obviously but our plan right now is to work on some Logistics with the administrators um continue to enforce it
with students um but really you know we'd like to see how this gets rolled out there are some guidelines coming down from the SE um there's no big presentation on this at this moment but just to let you all know this is what we're looking at um and I did bring it up with our
policy subcommittee meeting uh at the meeting recently um and that is the plan as of right now A sense well I would being a I would like to start working on it right now and implement it what it's taking them so
long right we don't have to wait for the state we honestly don't have to wait for the state we can create this policy before the state implements any of theirs um I was thinking personally that
it we should work on it as Dr Bailey is doing with the teachers and the principles and and get a a plan in place to have it implemented for September regardless of what the state does because we all know the state takes forever so I I feel like the sooner the
better for the cell phone policy it's really important to me as a parent to get these cellones out of the school and if I could just ask I know the public is watching this now but parents if you could just refrain from
calling your kids during the school day that would be appreciated cuz I mean that more than you would realize and again it's a distraction to the learning environment and you can most certainly call the offices at any either school at any time obviously if there's an
emergency please call us we will get your student um a message but it's just we find them not just the parents calling and contacting the students but it's student to student it's a lot of distraction and drama that we don't need
so yes we are working on it and there's going to be legislation my understanding so I just wanted to let the full committee know that this is the plan and there's different ways to go about this but this is something that we will certainly be uh in discussion with the
policy subcommittee meeting as well as our Administration to find out the best way and and parents and and kids I mean we want to know what is the best way to do this I know that people get very comfortable and attached to their cell
phones you know I wanted to underscore Mrs Gomes you know the you know Point she raised that we should have a full implementation by September 1st I think it's my first me
me out theand I agree I think it's doable and we will definitely report back to you prior to the beginning of next school year if not by the end of this school year with where we're at I know the principes are in the audience right now they're taking it all in they're
listening and they know that Sarah's taking all the phone calls start a hotline for all the parents that are yeah Sarah they can always call the school and I think a lot of parents forget that that and the child can call home if there's yes on our school office
pH I I can honestly say my son is not allowed to use his phone in the school and he calls me maybe every other week telling me he doesn't have ssca or he he's not feeling too well or you know I mean not that every child can do that but I mean there is
communication between the home and students if needed they don't need their cell we never had cell phones right parents we never did and Old Colony does not allow cell phones in their school so my son goes all call me he doesn't even bring his s with him doesn't need it
he's 16 and the reception is horrible anyway so I get annoyed with it when I'm driving and my radio shuts off but that's so I just wanted to bring that to light and we'll report back on that and that's all I have for tonight thank
business manager report structured as usual um fy2 budget chugging along I want to skip over that and sort of highlight the FY 26 budget process um putting we are putting the finishing touches on the superintendent's recommended budget so that we can meet
with budget subcommittee one or two more times um you know Loop the finance committee in on that and then be able to present at our next meeting the superintendent's recommended budget um for transparency once the departmental requests came in to sort of build our
budget um they came in at a little north of 11% um some of those had placeholders in there so you know we're not considering that reductions or Cuts but by the time everything settled it was closer to 99.5% um Paul Dr Bailey and I had had
preliminarily cut those figures down to in the 6% range um and then we presented to the budget subcommittee and just kind of talked about the challenges with the town finances and where we're at and that you know we got to figure something out one
way or the other um and you know we've been advised by budget subcommittee to try to get under 5% um and our focus on is on you know keeping flat costs for you know PD for for supplies if not reducing it somewhat um and really just
maintaining level Services if we can um knowing that a lot of our costs are fixed again that's unfort unfortunately the nature of our keeping the quality of our education right cuz why go back we're not going backwards right so I
mean the bus increases were about 11% on its own you know our high school tuition increases are four to 5% every year out of our control we have to send our kids sowhere um you know contractual increases with our bargaining units
those are fixed um special ed costs mandated and and Rising um so there's not a lot there um so we're working through that we're we have a budget subcommittee at the end of the month actually which again we hope to be below
that number and present um but it's is the town aware of what you just explained to us that you know we started here we went here we're now at here and we're trying I mean have they been
updated as we've been going weate them this early in the process it's it's more so once we have the superintendent's recommended budget but you know we have the chair of the finance committee and and co-chair attend a budget subcommittee meeting where we we talk about it you know and a lot of it's
about our budget but a lot of it's just about the the the components of the town and what the other departments are doing where our Revenue growth is or isn't and you know where again where can we get creative to sort of build something that's sustainable because right now
whether in our control or not it's not sustainable because we have fixed costs that increase and again everything else is staying relatively flat you heard it earlier in the the the meeting tonight you know we're getting creative to try to find these open source free curriculums um to be able to implement
and get Buy in and see and see results so that we can cut the three threeyear you know $80,000 $100,000 curriculums but it takes time it takes Personnel it takes coaches it takes buying it's a
collaborative effort so um you know we have to try to do all these things within our means but we can't do it all in one year um you know chapter 78 is staying low you know we're hold harmless you guys have heard me say that for
three years now um so we got minimal minimum pupil is what's projected a 1 Point uh oh I have the wrong figures here I apologize but it's a 1.1% increase we're talking $80,000 more than last year that we're getting you know that doesn't cover
anything and then they're expecting the town to Pony up a larger share of the foundation budget um and it's it's just it's setting ourselves up for challenging TI seems to get harder this is maybe uh the silliest question I've
ever asked but and I know the last time or a couple years ago when we were doing transportation we did make some changes to maybe the types of bus that we were willing to have TR I know how this works but is there anything other changes anything we can do that would open it up
to make that process more competitive because we it's just the transportation cost so transportation's tough um I know it's a sort there sort of you know the the business manager world you
know I don't want to speak for everybody but we kind of assume that there's these invisible lines drawn in the sand where other bus companies aren't going to bid on other districts if they haven't had them in the past so we're kind of at the control of the bus company um we
Tred to get creative to change the tiering structure of our buses I added a fuel escalation charge uh increase escalation or deescalation which has saved us you know $4,000 to date this year and it doesn't sound like a lot but guess what it's savings and we're trying something different um but I mean we're
even seeing just the rates that they give us for field trips um you know $3,000 to go to Boston and back with a couple of buses and now we're going wow we have to evaluate where we put our put our kids on field trips to um so unfortunately the the number of buses
that we contract is pretty much the minimum because of our student population and timing that we have to get students here then to AES then we have high schools um in the future you know if we can grab a community to kind of put out a regional bid if you will to
to have one company come in and know they're going to get one or two or three or four schools that that's opportunity but I can't I don't know I can't promise you that that's going to decrease the rates it might increase them because you know they're the only company big enough
to handle it all and now you know I we just don't know it's Uncharted Territory we're thinking everything when it comes to transportation and we're just very limited um you know there's we we've talked about student fees um and I know you know the school committee doesn't necessarily want to entertain those but
you can charge for grade seven and grade eight bus transportation anything else 6 grade or lower is is you can't charge buy lot it has to be free um so you know that's a direction that we we could take
if if desperate um but we're we're trying everything thing um and we want to maintain the level Services um you know we're we're trying to bring PD in house so that we're doing more you know uh teaching teaching the training the
teacher teaching each other train the trainer train the trainer thank you teach the teacher um and I want to be clear like I didn't ask the question thinking that we weren't looking at Alternatives but no the cost of the transportation just continues to rise
it's becoming astronomical unfortunately I think a large piece of it has to do with the high schools now we have to transport students to New Bedford and Fair Haven um at our expense um you know we have high school tuition
contracts expiring maybe there's opportunity there to to share the cost or reduce the cost um again you know I think we have to have those internal discussions before percentage rolled into the tuition agreement I mean for people right me we're paying School
schols to send our kids there and then we're paying for the for the transportation to also get there so maybe there's an opportunity in these next contract negotiations to to roll in some kind of percentage per student that contributes to the cost of their
transportation as well yeah it will always be our responsibility to transport our residents great IDE those same schools are having the same budget problem I understand yeah I understand that yeah we're looking
undering we're starting our own company yeah we could do that too but why not I don't know got the capital up front to to buy and leas buses and higher get some investors but you know moving forward to
you know the state the legislature is looking at the Chapter 70 formula um trying to find holes and things that fix to fix these budgetary issues in the town and schools Alik so um it's challenging but if anything anybody
listening we're doing everything we can um and you know I I think we're doing our part truly we can't control how much money we make or the town makes but we can control our costs and we've kept those down over you know looking back you know the past few
years so and we continue to explore other opportunities we have at least two more meetings for the budget sub committee to go through things and we're going to make some tough decisions but I mean we have to make sure that you know we're working with the town and as long as we're transparent and the town is
completely transparent on their financials um you know hopefully we can work something no and I think that's an important Point too um you know we're looking at the vacancies over in town hall and looking around asking questions about the figures that they have and
there's only a limited amount of personnel that can answer those questions we we have to trust them as they have to trust us um and then we have to collaborate to find a way to move things forward so that raises another question me I apologize I didn't see if it was in the fine print in your
business manager report do we have like a town accountant or we still do not have a town accountant or an assistant Town accountant or assistant Treasurer as far as I know um which begs the question like how can
any Department really budget anything when we don't know what's happening at the Town level I mean let's just be transparent let me clarify I believe we have a part-time Town accountant working but um makes me feel better not it was to close out the books for FY
24 and submit the balance sheet and things like that I don't know the extent of what else they're doing or if they're doing and P lack of Staff do they can they certify free cash I believe that's what this individual was brought on to help make sure they could tackle I don't
want to speak for the town I don't I don't truly know and I don't want to misinform yeah and I'm going to presume Patrick that perhaps that puts additional some additional burden on you not the fact that they don't well and all of us trying to figure out a budget
and what we I mean we don't want to make we're making Cuts now that are are hard and that we shouldn't be making if we if we don't have to so we really need to know what these numbers are you know to to be able to you know numbers you want
to get a sense of what what they across departments they're just increase they want us to stay in the town of what what's coming in where everything's going like what the preliminary usually what they're telling us is really happening you know I think
that's the value in the joint meeting that we have with the finance and select board is is kind of hear it all at that point in time whether that's too late you know with the finance committee which is very helpful if but at this point for this
year for me I'm not sure they know what's happening because again we don't have the staff there looking at all the figures so that's that's something that we will be discussing at that meeting when is that meeting oh that is this week right uh when are we doing
that budget we don't know yet our next budget subcommittee is February 25th um and we're working with the date with the finance committee to see if they can attend that Finance got it got it we are attending the finance committee meeting tomorrow night Dr Bailey this have to
talk about um the debt exclusion specifically and I'll be there as well so that'll I'll paray right into that unless there's other questions around the 26 budget um so we obviously had trains presentation tonight um and we have some planning to do to make sure we
can inform the public you know here on out uh and and not only the public the finance committee the select board each other um and we're going to keep working at that you know while we balance all these other competing priorities um I have been kind of racking the numbers I
don't want to you know go on record officially that it's set at this but looking at the equation the assessed value in the town and you know a preliminary forecast of what the amortization schedule would look like for borrowing the $4.2 million being the
ceiling that we're willing to borrow um it it's about $18 per 100,000 assessed value home so you know if you the median in town I believe is $400 to $450,000 home so the impact as a tax increase would be about $80 a year for an
individual um for 20 years per year per year so um well it would actually decrease year over-year because the highest this is their first year with the highest principal amount as you pay it down it will dwindle that in the you know the the back half of this bar Ian it would
be minuscule but you know we have to be um sensitive to everybody's you know ability to afford even a dollar change um and I want to make sure we get those numbers right before you know we put anything out there and again it's tough not being able to work with the
Personnel in the town to be able to do so but we've had conversations with the Town Administrator the town clerk the town assessor um and we're we're trying to dial it in i l you know collaboratively
um so that's that's on the uh the the train project and in Deb exclusion front um we also know we have a a failing wall SL roof in our gym closet over at AES we've known that um for
about a year now and we've been working towards a solution we've tried different things like recocking um you know coating different measures We Found Records that this is been existing since 2004 um we're stuck to deal with it um we had Gail Associates in come in and
actually cut out the brick that we've talked about this they found that the the three- wall flashing behind the brick was actually done correctly when it was installed um and because we're not experts in designing a solution you have to go towards a design build
procurement so they're the engineers they saw what it looked like they quoted us that for $40,500 you know the small price of $40,500 they'll actually engineer the solution bid it out subcontract the work but the
missing component is the cost of construction so you know they would do all of that they would own the project they'd see it through to the end make sure everything was done up to spec but we we don't know what the true cost of the project would be um until those bids came in um can they give us a have they
given us an idea I think in the the meetings that we discussed they said easily you know $100,000 um just cuz the L linear footage of of that closet and the flashing that they saw existing um so 40
so 40 would commit us to just getting the information and then if we don't have 100,000 Plus or or whatever the ballpark amount is six figures I don't know to address to address yeah sure so to to address the project then we just paid $40,000 for information um so we
need to discuss whether you know we take that into consideration as a capital ask or see if there's a reserve somewhere but again this is you know water seeping into our buildings due to poor Construction in the past um which if it was addressed timely or noticed timely
or reported timely it would probably would have been covered under warranty um so that's another battle um and then we talked about a potential solar array um with select which again you know maybe that helps pay for the closet had a minimum put a
solar panel on the we're trying to pull pulling out all the stock so I'd argue that we've seen our fair share of sag R rain that you know yeah that's cre leing outside the box CH you need a
motion to wow all right that was all I have thank you thanks Patrick I have one update but are there any other school committee the director oh no that's part of our P oh can I say one thing about
the shoe drive go ahead we are still having the U aush PTO shoe drive for the eighth grade um people can bring their gently used shoes or new shoes to the front door of Ford middle school and they'll be let in to put in the donation
boxes there and that is going to be happening through um February 28th so please bring in your gently Ed shoes or new shoes for us to raise some money for our uh for Middle School 8th grade so I would just say that um
negotiations are ongoing with the ATA so we continue to meet um with the predetermined schedule that we set at the beginning of the process and so there's no new updates at this point but when there is obviously we will update everybody on where that stands goad um tomorrow is also dout
night at Wendy's in Fair Haven for the Ford Middle School 8th grade so anywhere from 5: to 8 please have dinner at Wendy's and 20% of your order will go directly to our eighth grade for the dance and the ceremony and all that fun
stuff tomorrow 5 to8 everybody get Wendy's in Fair Haven really okay baven that's tomorrow tomorrow 5 to
8 you don't need a flyer okay are you done all right so we had a a communication information packet number of things in there uh technology update personel report new so and so forth we will not have uh executive session so I
will ask for a motion to return so so move we we'll do a roll call Mr H yeah yes yes yes and yes a
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