bob okay good evening and welcome back to the Thursday April 17th 2025 meeting of the school committee we have just returned from executive session uh we are both live and being recorded so for those of us who who are here who may
come into the audience later just to be aware that we are being recorded i would ask for those here in the audience to please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right so first on our agenda is the public comment i do not see anybody here from the public to comments so we will
uh move into recognitions is there anybody that would like to offer a recognition okay then that will move us into reports and Savannah we've got you up first goody um on March 21st we were lucky to
host 19 Japanese students from Yamagata High School and this was in collaboration with Ambassadors Club so visiting students got to shadow ambassador club members throughout the day and we had a couple students in my Spanish class and they got to tell us about their trip to Boston all the colleges they toured and their favorite
subjects at home what school is like in Japan and then we also got to share what our day-to-day is like not in Spanish of course and then our sports and extracurriculars this is one of my favorite things that Ambassador Club does because we don't typically learn about Japan and their culture and
schools and language but with this we get the opportunity to learn about it directly from Japanese students on April 2nd our school celebrated World Autism Awareness Day so we kicked off Autism Awareness Month by wearing blue to support our friends and family with autism and who are
neurodeiverse spring sports have also started and going into April vacation practices i wanted to highlight unified sports um because unified track had their first meet against Holl I believe and this sport has always been really successful but this year there's a lot of people because I think Chip Collins
and the officers have done a really great job promoting and organizing events and sports this year for example now we have unified tennis which is exciting students in the art department have been awarded five national medals in the 2025 Scholastic Art Awards competition their work will be showcased
in an online gallery and National medalists and their teachers will be honored with a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City so not only is this a great example of the talent that we have at HHS but I al also think it's a great testament to how incredible our art teachers are as a person who has taken
art classes for all the years at high school I can wholeheartedly say that our teachers show endless support and enthusiasm for our projects and our artistic passions but also also show the same amount of care for our lives outside of school we recently had an invention convention
where students in engineering classes BTE Capstone and inventors club got to show showcase their inventions in the Massachusetts Invention Convention State Finals tongue twister um during the 2025 science fair HHS state science fair
competitors won first second and third and Dylan Streak and Anushkin won the Regeneron Biomedical Science Award last week Spanish Honor Society kicked off with the induction ceremony making it making SHS our fourth official honor society at the high
school last Friday GSA Club presented the Day of Silence this day happens annually when participants take a vow of silence to protest the silencing of queer voices as well as bullying and harassment in the LGBTQ community i commend all the students that take part
in this day it takes a lot of strength to stand up for those being silenced especially in a time when that's happening to so many valuable voices on Tuesday officers hosted our last student council meeting where we played games and did a recap of what we did this year our goal for this year was
to build a strong base for next year's student council especially considering the new initiatives and ideas that they already have planned and I'm happy to say that I believe we did just that on Wednesday the community service club hosted senior tea for residents of the Fairfield Senior Center and all week
there were opportunities to get hours and create art and bouquets and cards for the afternoon that was filled with refreshments music games and conversations and at the end of the event residents got to take home some of that art that same Wednesday Dylan Andreola and I both members of student
council had the opportunity to propose a bill regarding pharmaceutical access costs and transparency in the state house this was a long- aaited event to cap off our Senate Youth Advisory Council experience every month we met with members of Senate President Spila's
office to talk about how our government operates and what we can do as citizens in our Commonwealth after our presentation we got to speak with Senate President Spila about her experience in Yak as well as her job how she got there and what it's like being the third female Senate President
finally we're going into April break so seniors will be starting their senior capstone project when we return a lot of the projects this year focus on social and emotional experiences so there are a lot of art projects and physical activities that focus on well-being which I believe shows that students have
retained a lot of valuable information from our wellness classes school assemblies or guest speaker presentations on the importance of well-being thank you oh that's great yeah it's a lot really great things i don't know if you know offhand i just was thinking
they've been doing the day of silence for a long time at the high school do you know how long i do not probably as long as I want to say GSA has been a thing because I think it's a national like a nationally celebrated thing that's great
great there are no other questions that moves us into the superintendent report okay thank you so this is a superintendent's report for Thursday April 17th 2025 um and I know that when we had reviewed my goals earlier uh there's a question about the Metro West
uh adolescent health data and so that's what I've kind of put together for you tonight uh this survey was administered in the fall of 2023 so that's the data before you they do it every other year so they will re-servey our students
again this coming fall in 2025 so who takes that survey uh when they took the survey we had 900 middle school students and 1,028 high school students who took the survey uh you can see the
breakdown of males and females 461 females 436 males at the middle school 296th graders 319 7th graders 285 eighth graders and at the high school 510
females 514 males 276 9th graders 277 tth graders 280 11th graders and 194 seniors one of the things that they do for you the Metro West uh folks is they put together um something called a
highlight sheet and so I've uh given you screenshots of that so the first one is on mental health and what you're seeing there is um the percentage of middle school youth who in the past 12 months
say that they um have experienced dis depressive symptoms so there were 12% of middle school students and 16% of high school students and then students who experienced serious suicide suicidal thoughts um and that was 9% of our
middle school youth and 9% of our high schools uh for the middle school we have to take note that they ask that question for any time in your lifetime for the high school they ask it for in the last 12 months uh they talk about the fact that there are some youth who are at higher
risk of mental health problems for example middle school girls versus boys girls are two times more likely to have depressive symptoms and 2.1 times more likely to consider suicide high school LGBTQ plus youth
versus nonLGBTQ plus youth 2.7 times more likely to have depressive symptoms if you identify as LGBTQ as opposed to your non-LGBTQ plus peers and 3.8 times more likely to consider suicide
poor mental health is also linked to higher substance use so among high school youth with depressive symptoms um the students who said that they had depressive symptoms 10% of them reported vaping nicotine without depress
depressive symptoms only 6% reported vaping nicotine 24% reported to drink alcohol 15% without depress depressive symptoms said that they drank alcohol and using marijuana it was 12% for depressive symptoms and 6% for without
depressive symptoms um we take note that some of our youth are getting help but there may be others who are in need of support so for example 39% of our middle school students and 38% of our high school students say that they have talked to a
counselor at school and 31% of our middle school youth and 43% of our high school youth say that they have talked with a counselor outside of school and when they say talked with a counselor or a mental health professional about emotional challenges or problems that would be within the
last 12 months um when we say um depressive symptoms they define that as feeling so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing some of your usual activities within the 12 last 12
months so adolescent digital media use this is also one of our highlight sheets so frequent use of a smartphone which is uh defined as three or more hours per day 33% of our middle school kids say that
they have used a smartphone greater than three hours a day and 45% of the high school kids frequent social media use again defined as three or more hours a day uh 22% of the middle school kids say that they are on social media more than
three hours a day and 24% of high school students um that breaks down differently um among girls and boys frequent smartphone use is reported by 39% of the girls but only 28% of the boys frequent
social media use is reported by 27% of the girls and only 17% of the boys and frequent gaming is reported by 13% of girls and 26% of boys and I think you see these similar patterns if you read something like the anxious generation so
our um percentages are kind of parallel what we see nationally and internationally um digital media use can have negative consequences on your school performance and your physical health so 25% of our middle school students say that uh digital media use
does impact their attention in school and their high school counterparts agreed with that at 38% 41% of middle school kids say that digital media use impacts their sleep and 51% of high school students said that in terms of physical health
19% of middle school kids said that digital media use had a negative consequence on their physical health and 22% of the high school kids said that um social media use also has some benefits 65% of kids said that they felt more
connected to their peers 22% say they get support during challenging times 53% find people with similar interests or hobbies and 19% speak up about things that are important to them um frequent social media use is
also linked to poor mental health anxiety symptoms are reported by 36% of the frequent users versus only 18% of the less frequent users in middle school and depressive symptoms are reported by 24% of frequent users and 13% of
non-frequent users in high school and I know that you also asked about substance use and so this data includes all students grades 7 to 12 so cigarette smoking in the past 30 days less than 1%
nicotine vaping in the past 30 days 6.2% alcohol use in the past 30 days 16.3% marijuana use in the past 30 days 7.2% and misuse of a prescription drug
1.1% so you may be wondering how that has played out over time the Metro West folks give us uh data that dates all the way back to the very first Metro West adolescent health survey which was in 2006 so you can see that alcohol use um
has declined from 34% in 2006 uh more than half to 16% in 2023 uh nicotine use has also gone down i think it probably had some high years at 19 and
14% uh marijuana use is down to the 6% that we talked about and the uh nicotine vaping doesn't start until 2014 but even that has been on the decline i think its high point was 14% so um it's really
nice to see that it's gone from 14 to 11 to six in the last three iterations of the survey and then if you want to just see substance use um by high school students you can see cigarette smoking for freshman sophomore junior senior same
thing for nicotine vaping alcohol use marijuana use and prescription drug misuse all right how do we use that data because the data is nice to have but it's important that we use it and what high school did with their 2023 data is
they use it in their school improvement plan so one of their actions is to say that during the period between 2024 and 2026 they're collecting and analyzing student climate data from a variety of sources those sources are the HSA
data school climate data uh the PAG survey you remember that Dr judy Martin came here and shared with the pathway after graduation data and then also the Metro West adolescent health survey data in 2025
their prediction is that they'll see a decrease in our female population that would be reporting that life was very stressful over the past 30 days and also they would like to see a decline in depressive symptoms over the last 12 months and we've seen those declines
over time so we're hoping that 2025 is better than what we've seen in 2023 based on the kind of work they do on the survey uh after they get the survey results and that's all I have for you tonight it's just Metro health data thank you is
the data shared with the students as well uh I don't know if the students get the data unless like you look at it in like health classes or we haven't looked at the data but in school we had somebody come in and analyze the data with us and like something that is really big in school council and one of
the initiatives is working to decrease that disparity between female and male populations when it comes to like stress and depression okay when you look at what at the presentation does that align with what you would have expected knowing students
at the high school and I'd say so and I also think um it's kind of on par with the national and international data yeah i think some of our substance use data is lower than what we would see nationally yeah but I think for um like
social media and um stress obviously I think it probably is Yeah thank you Savannah any other questions i think that brings us into the school committee chair report uh warrants 25-
094S 25- 096S 25- 097S 25-99s and 25-100S have been approved included in the folder are there any reports there's a youth commission meeting happening
right now oh I'm not there it's hard to be in two places at once it really is i don't have anything um I was going to try and do we're going to talk about later the school
building or um Chris is presenting in this okay um but that's really the Hopkins it's the Hopkins one not the um not Charleswood not Charleswood i was wondering if I could um so it was a long Charleswood meeting the other evening
um discussing a variety of things the um stream that was found was an discussion for the um there was a stream found on the property that wasn't located before interesting they went to conservation commission conservation
Commission would like them to do some work and come back to them so the engineers are doing what their due diligence um that is delaying the bid for the project for a little bit about two weeks I
believe um so that's interesting we we the most exciting of the evening we got to see playground render renderings um for the two playgrounds that are attached in the back of the school which is very excited one being an adaptive playground um that hopefully will
complement the adaptive playground that hopefully will be going into marathon school um so that students can um enjoy both tune into town meeting tune into town meeting yes [Music]
um I'm trying to think if there's any other and then then the discussion about because of the stream there there's a butter effects so they're talking about the street improvements and the plantings they're
doing i think that's about it that's a quick summary of a long meeting good stuff um just in terms of email that I have received uh I think one of them everybody was copied on is that there may be uh some sustainable
green things coming um to talk about yeah things in town i I think possibly one of the next two meetings would be the goal for that the other um thing is the trails have requested some time um so we're going to do that
and have uh Mr pson here to also be able to to speak to that so that is all I have um on my end that brings us into new business the we are seven minutes ahead are we too soon is Chris not He is
in the Zoom he is okay somebody does anyone have the Zoom going behind you isn't it that back there i'm here if you can hear me hello there he is um if that's my introduction to start
I'm happy to get started um so we have two items of business to bring before you tonight both concerning the Hopkins project the Hopkins project has hit the point where we are beginning to consider our um technology purchases and so I'm before you with a number of technology
purchases that have been developed uh in concert with the um with a Shoke uh I forget Ashoke's name off the top of my head but the director of instructional technology and these really relate to um a couple of things um they relate to
purchases that we intended for the project from the technology budget that was set aside specifically for that uh purpose in the town warrant that authorized the project and also some technology related costs that relate to the construction um that we're moving
sort of from the construction money and from um the sort of move transition money that we have set aside to deal with those concerns so I'll throw up on the screen here there's uh ali all together there's four items that um we're looking for approval this evening
[Music] um so the first item is uh wireless access points for the new building and also for network switches uh after discussion with a shoke about the best
way to procure that he encouraged us to seek them as part of the state's -ate program so the -ate program allows you to procure the technology and then receive a discount upon what you procure so included within your packet um should
be the the budget that I have displayed on the screen but also the actual rate purchases i asked um him if he could highlight the ones that were specific to Hopkins i believe the rest of them are part of the town warrant this year um but we are looking to fund the Hopkins
flagged ones um as part of the vote tonight as you can see it was in the neighborhood of $58,000 but with the - discount it ends up being $35,325.60 in addition to that we also have proposals before you um for
projectors within the uh new building and also a few of the renovated rooms within the existing building so we're attempting to procure almost the entire uh projector package now we'd like to get ahead of any tariff impact if at all possible um so this is based on a couple
of things it's the new projector install but it is also the removal and reinstall of the projectors that will facilitate protecting them during the course of the summer work that we're doing this um beginning in June it um also includes
going in and uh fishing through the cables that will connect the teacher's laptop to the projector we'd prefer for the projector manufacturer to own this work although in the construction bid it was originally owned in the construction project so we're seeking a credit change
order for that um it may be a slightly higher cost but by doing it this way you ensure that you have a sole source of responsibility should you have any issues when you turn those projectors on and are attempting to use them um we debated the impact of that and both the designer and um the school thought that
that was the best way to move forward we also have about 18,425 of that 13635 overall um and that is for the removal and then reinstall at the end of the construction period we have a proposal for phones
from um the school's uh phone supplier this is to provide phones for the new rooms that are part of the addition and also as a preventative measure where um we have a proposal from performance cable to remove the wireless access
points that were recently purchased and store them during the course of the construction so that they aren't contaminated with dust and we don't have any issues with them uh becoming damaged during the course of construction that's a preventative measure that you we usually see with technology um on most of the school projects that we do when
we're doing a renovation really ensures that um your the added construction dust that can be stirred up during those construction periods doesn't affect the technology in the long run so all of those together I just realized that I don't have the um single
the math done but I think it's on your um uh I think it's on the agenda for tonight so all of those together add up to um $150,000 and 999 or $150,999
um for the uh vendor packages that we would be authorizing and then $35,325.60 for the -ate purchasing that you would be authorizing and that would be a transfer from the Hopkins budget to uh fund the -ate that purchases that
relate to Hopkins that will be combined with the um should it pass the warrant article that would purchase the firewalls and other things that aren't highlighted within that um that rate so this is just uh clearing that the project is okay with the project paying project related things if that makes
sense and with that I'm happy to take any questions great thank you does anybody have any questions no thank you thank you so does anybody need to make a motion to
approve the technology purchasing package totaling 150,999 and transfer it to cover rate purchases totaling $35,325,60 second motion by Kyla second by Jamie
all those in favor I and it is unanimous uh and is approved uh thank you so much for bringing that forward nice to see you uh I want one more because I think I'm next on the uh the agenda
um so let bear with me as I get this um so we've hit the point I'm sorry I need to need to share we've hit uh a good point in the project where I thought it made sense to come before you and talk about budget and talk about um where that budget sits
and what we can do about it um so overall I think uh Hopington remains in a very good place on both projects um every month we give you as part of the invoice package um this budget summary
and um we wanted to just speak a little bit to sort of what makes up this budget summary so when you look at the budget summary it's all of the various categories of the budget that were divided out and how we're progressing with them and what's really most
important um for tonight's discussion is to to look at sort of the the the top and the bottom of that budget because when you look at the end of the budget we're currently showing that of that overall budget we have um that started at
$52,400,000 we've committed we've entered into contracts for about $45.4 million worth of that and of that amount we've spent about 11.6 6 million of that what's remains is the left to spend which is the amount of those committed
contracts that the school has not yet paid and this available column and what that available represents is it's uncommitted funds that right now is a blend of both um available contingency
for spending and a blend of some other things so I've sort of broken down by each category what those differences are and so within the um owner's project manager um category the other administration category the architect and engineering
category those are really reserved for specific uses whether they be administrative functions like the move or um reimburseables or potential for addition design services we also have um miscellaneous project costs and furnishings and equipment those are
things like what you just voted on tonight for the technologies within that million dollars for furnishings and equipment miscellaneous project cost also has some of those other move related expenses and other um just general expenses that are likely to come up over the course of the project within
there we also have the construction contract has available funds and the contingencies have available funds the construction contract available funds represents the money that um the project's GMP came in under budget so um the we were in a great place at the end
of the GMP negotiation with a significant amount of money below where we originally forecast the project to be and as we've moved forward we've also been in a good place as it relates to where those um where change orders have ended up change orders are inevitable
part of public construction they're almost unavoidable but we've been very um lucky in not discovering very many unknowns and um the contractors done a great job of working with us when we have discovered those to figure out um solutions and keep change orders reasonable
so as we move forward we like to at milestones in the project or at um periodic intervals in the project after we've been working for a while go back and look at what are some of those remaining risks that we can use to um forecast where we are from a health
perspective on the overall project so when I com combine both the construction um savings and the contingency for construction savings we end up with about $5.3 million that remains available in the budget to be committed
for various purposes that may come up this may be change order risks such as the $36,000 that we're tracking for current change orders for various purposes um in terms of our estimates of those amounts or it may be a potential change order risk will often use a
percentage of what remains in the um in the actual construction contract and use that as a forecasting tool to figure out where we would fall overall in the construction there's also other risks that are less clear that may not be tied to construction we have some concom compliance and we know that um Hopington
is very aggressive in how they approach um concom compliance and so we find it's useful to hold a place order for those things in case there's some costs that come up that may be outside of the project that we need to deal with we also know that tariffs are a real thing right now and so we looked at um the
remaining budget after your authorization tonight and we're applying a 5% upcharge for the tariff risks tariffs are still a little bit of the wild west in terms of public procurement uh they haven't been around um and as uh strongly enforced um for very long we
only can look to how they were enforced um 6 to 8 years ago and um make predictions about how they might affect the market so by having a 5% placeholder there if the furniture has some tariff impacts uh it gives us a little bit of
um a cushion to cover those types of things we also have the um potential technology budget overages and so I had skipped over this in our last item but at the bottom of the summary I gave you is a breakdown of what remains in terms of what we're forecasting for the
technology and within that we have the setup for the digital art room that was incorporated into the Hopkins project because that's available currently in the sixth grade at the middle school we also have some classroom technology that remains some miscellaneous printers and projectors that remain um and some some
of that classroom technology is staff computers and other things we may not buy $102,000 of staff computers and classroom charging carts and other things because there are existings that may be able to be repurposed that are in fine shape that's been one of the
ongoing discussions but when I compare this to the overall budget that was set aside for specifically technology purchases we are current we do currently have that $18,000 deficit so we would track that in a place such as um a risk register that um now I got to find a
PowerPoint slide a risk register and that would represent this uh potential $20,000 overages so when I look at those overall risks these aren't real things these are what I like to call ballpark estimates of where we think these might fall which are conservative estimates
that are based on our experience not really hard numbers um we're looking that there's about $2.1 million of potential risk with the understanding that things like this change order risk may continue to diminish over time so it
may be that right now we're tracking that almost $2 million of change order risk but 6 months from now we might not have hit at that 6% level and so there may be more money available in the future i think that's an important concept to understand as I go into the
next topic so when I look at that forecasted risk versus what's available we have about 3.2 million contingency that is available for other purposes it can be a give back to the town at the end or it could be scope that was
dropped from the project over the course of it or it could be other capital needs that you're aware of that are best taken care of while we have a CM mobilized we met with the um the school and discussed potential opportunities to revisit some of those earlier VE
decisions as also some and also visit some of the other issues that are out there in terms of um potential costs that are would come up potential opportunities that could come up and potential needs that might have played out differently than we expected the
first one that came up is temp kitchen um needs while we're in that transition stage at the um Hopkins School right now we're going to do some work in the summer but that work will conclude we're going to continue building the addition
until February of 2026 when it will open but when the addition opens we'll also be closing the existing gym and the existing cafeteria when we close the existing gym in the caf and cafeteria we're not going to have a kitchen to
support Hopkins within the building during the five-month period when we transition from opening the addition to the end of the school year we have discussed multiple ideas uh preparing food at another school and busing it in
and as we've worked through those issues with the uh district's food service staff we keep coming back to the challenges and limits of both logistics of transporting food and also um the limited options for menu that would be available in such a diverse community as
Hopington and we've ultimately settled that we think the best course of action would be to actually bring in um a company to set up a temporary kitchen um there are companies that will do a kitchen trailer and park it in adjacent to the building we'll hook up some
utilities to it and that will serve as the meal preparation for the Hopkins School for the 5-month period um while we're in that transition we have a rough budget of where we think that falls and ultimately it comes to about an expense of about
$380,000 that will cover um setting up the kitchen trailer uh providing for the utilities to that kitchen trailer and some of the loose equipment that may be necessary within the building to actually serve the food keep it warm keep it plated and um a small
contingency just because this isn't a professional estimate and we find that it's good to be conservative in those respects we do think that we may be trending under this amount but this would be about a $380,000 um expenditure if we or sort of
ballpark estimate if we were to move forward the second one that we flagged is um the loop road as someone who over the course of my time in Hopington working with the um the school travels the loop road a lot as I head to the
site um it's in rough shape it's I believe original to the um school itself so it's it's getting up on uh 30 plus years and it's um it's due for a rehab we looked at a
couple of different options the simplest being to just scrape off the top layer of asphalt and repave over top of it um to really completely gut the area and start over including um revisiting a lot of the drainage and the middle ground which is represented here which is to do
a full depth pave of the road itself of the um sidewalks but not of the parking lots so we would we may have to reset some catch basin um manholes but we're not trying to replace any of that existing system it's really a replace in
kind with a new graded road um to replace the loop road we know that this is on the current um 10-year capital plan and we've talked to Commodore and they believe that they can complete this in the summer of 26 as they're wrapping up the Hopkins edition for right now we're looking at
about $150,000 for the design estimating and permitting because this road crosses through multiple wetlands we'll probably have to do environmental permitting similar to what we're facing now with the um the Charleswood project and then in the future in 2026 we would have to
commit about um the current estimate we have is about 1.2 million but um we would lock that in after we finalize the design and so I have a small contingency there as well the ballpark estimate for this would be about $1.45 $45 million to
repair the repave the loop road and um it would be something that as I mentioned would come off of the 10-year capital plan the third option is something that's in the future but I wanted to flag it now um we talked when both with
the Charleswood project and also with the Hopkins project that to complete the Hopkins project we're going to be taking the four classroom modular from the Elmwood building as it is now after it shuts down which is one year after the um or two years after the Hopkins
project completes and we're going to relocate it to Hopkins at the end of the building it's currently permitted that way we've gone through all of our process it really gives you those final four classrooms to hit the um 800 students that the building's going to be designed
for we had not identified the funding source for that as we've talked about it it has always been sort of a place holder off in the distance i think that there may be based on where um the budget is falling groom within the Hopkins project itself to relocate that
modular from Elwood to Hopkins after the fact so it would be part of the current budget authorization and that would avoid it needing to go back to town meeting or needing to become part of the Charleswood project's budget it's something that doesn't really have any upfront cost now it
would be committing for it to be a watch item and it would the fact that we would move forward with that would inform other decisions as more funds become available so we're brazing it in that context so in summary you end up with um what I
have before you tonight is basically seeking a consensus that we would pursue the two immediate costs which would be the temp kitchen and the design for repaving of the loop road we would come back to you if there were additional costs such as authorizing repaving of
the loop road after it has gone through the design process and we have a firm commitment on the number and with those two items alone it would spend um it it would be a total of $1.83
million if all of that was spent um for just those two items which would leave you with about $1.38 um million for um what would be currently 1.5 million of the modular now
as I've presented that I want to also hint at the sort of changing of these risks as we move forward so currently change order risk has not met that 6% expectation we find that when you're first getting out of the ground that's when you find a lot of the unexpected
things buried rocks um higher than expected costs related to that site work or foundation work and so far we've been trending at about $400,000 with our change orders versus what would have been at 6% 600,000 so
already the conservative risk that I'm assigning is probably more than you need so you should generate some more money over time the other thing that's likely to come up is as a CM at risk project within that GMP that guaranteed maximum price that Commodore has provided for
you there's currently about $2.4 $4 million in holds allowances and contingencies and unspent amounts of that are credited back to the owner so in the event that this money right here has 25% of it remaining you have a
significant you know $600,000 that would also be available in the future in addition to whatever you save in terms of change order risk because we know that is likely to occur and we'll continue to track that um for things like the modular move we are looking at
other possibilities that could fit within the scope of the project one is the replacement of the existing boiler potentially cleaning up some of the ad hoc renovations for projectors over time there's some extension cords some exposed cabling that could be moved into the walls and also modernizing the
elevator so those are things that we can begin a discussion with Commodore about how they would fit into the overall schedule and a discussion with the designer about what it would take to pursue those but those the decision points for pursuing those aren't as immediate and so we feel we have time to
work on those today we would just be looking for the um the authorization of the temp kitchen and repaving of the loop road so I know I've thrown a lot at you there um I'll take this off the screen for a minute and I'll answer any
questions that you may have i do other people have questions i have a couple but go ahead so the the temp kitchen in particular do we have a sense of what the cost of the other alternatives are i know they're less convenient and a
little bit unknown in some of them but but do you have a sense of what the cost differential would be between a temp kitchen and it's a very hard it's a very hard question to answer and I don't know Susan if you did
any um cost estimating it's it's not so much facilities as labor mhm and it's um for lack of a better term quality of life um I don't I I think in the
discussions that we had with the school there was a sense that we didn't want to only be able to offer bag sandwiches and a bag of chips as your daily lunch for five months and the scenarios that we came up with
to avoid that all led back to problems that we couldn't overcome um like to to have serving we would have to install um facilities that we didn't plan for like a three- bay sink within the building and as we
looked at the code implications of all of this we kept running into um roadblocks i don't know Susan if you have more to share on sort of the the internal process within the district yeah I you know in terms of logistics going to another kitchen prepping the
meal packaging it and then transporting the number of students that would eat both breakfast and lunch transporting we we don't have a vehicle so we would have to rent a vehicle to transport the food
um just the logistics the amount of food you would have to be taking from one kitchen travel unpack and put into another kitchen um didn't make a lot of sense like for the quality of life for the
students this makes the most sense to give them an appropriate meal for both breakfast and lunch thank you does the temporary kitchen um Okay um will that require them to like I know
you said it's next to the building will they have to be like walking outside to bring things in i know it starts in February so we're starting So So we're starting to look at some of the logistics around that um we are gonna reach out to the next step if this is
the direction that's approved by the committee would be to reach out to the health department and begin a discussion with them about what they would require there's the potential to tent the area from the door um we're planning to use the multi-purpose room so if you I don't
have a plan handy but if you think of where the gym is in the building there's a long narrow space above it that's really going to be our temp kitchen and so we're going to um basically set up a little covered walkway or if it doesn't need to be covered that'll be discussed
as as we finalize the plans but it would be immediately adjacent to the door i think it's required to be 20 ft away from the building so that we don't get into any codes but if we have to if it's necessary to have a covered walkway to get that food from the trailer into the
um the building then we will obviously provide one and I think we can cover that within the amount that we um we are requesting or um suggesting thank you
any any questions no so I I I love the fact that we've got savings to be able to include other things that are going to save the town money down the road um in terms of the looking at the road and moving the
modulars and figuring out the logistics around um lunch which I know has been something that's sort of been an unknown the one concern I have um tonight specifically having nothing to do with the proposal itself is that it's not listed on our agenda as a vote um and I
we have two school committee members who are not here i if this is not timesensitive to tonight I would prefer to delay it to our next meeting in two weeks to take a vote on it and is that I don't know if others share
would rather that sounds like a good idea is there a time-sensitive piece that two weeks would cause a hardship the only timesensitive piece would be entering into a lease with the kitchen um vendor
um for the unit itself so that it is not rented by someone else we've discussed multiple units that we could potentially use and I believe um that amount probably falls under the authorization that um we we're planning to do this
through the CM directly and I believe that amount falls under the um authorization that the chair and Miss Rothermitch have so the um if the committee was comfortable with that um
and what we've outlined we could begin those discussions so that we can finalize the lease and at that point um return back to authorize the remainder of it if if that was if the committee was amendable to that
so it the two weeks what I'm hearing is the two weeks would cause a potential loss of the ability to rent the unit that the unit that we have re there's multiple units available on the market right now the unit that we have available right now meets our needs with
a specific vendor um so we would like to lock up that vendor but they will not be providing any of the work for um I don't know how many months it is till February until February essentially so we would just be
committing to the lease in the near term and that falls within the amount of money that is um that when we talked about I believe it was 125,000 was if the um the associates uh assistant superintendent
for um business and finance and the school committee chair agreed so I would like to move that part forward just so that there's no ambiguity about um being able to enter into that agreement so it it's it's 380
is what I I thought no no it's so uh Oh bear with me um it's 380 but it's made up of multiple parts so I believe it's less than 125 for the actual amount that they've given us for renting it for 3 months so we
would just need to commit to one month's rent which is a fifth of this amount and a mobilization charge so the initial is only probably about $60,000 just to enter into the agreement and then the rest of this could
wait so I think if we enter into that $60,000 though that it kind of brings us to the 380 without we're kind of committed to it at that point would that be accurate Susan if
we if we lock in a lease for one month that would if we don't do the other costs associated with it we will have essentially thrown $60,000 away but
yeah I if there were another viable alternative um sure but I guess I would rather have the school committee it it's not a matter of not liking or not liking this specific proposal right i don't like the idea of myself and Susan
enter committing the school committee because technically I I we we could do that with the 60,000 i think that would I would be more comfortable having it come from even if it's just the three of us and then delaying on the the other
two until the Do we have an idea of how much in demand the temporary kitchen rentals are it's it can go it can go quicker than you think but there's no I don't know
that there's a hard and fast rule [Music] um we wouldn't want to miss our opportunity the the unit that he's speaking about has the equipment layout and size that
works for the number of meals that we're trying to prepare so there are a number of units out there but they don't necessarily fit our needs so I think that's what Chris is speaking to yes that's a better way to put it than what
I had said it does seem like this is the only viable option that you know making food at another school in transporting it over in February and transporting it over is not
going to be a viable option so I don't think that we should wait on this so I would like then just to request that the committee the three even if it's just the three of us that we go forward u with it just to make it a little cleaner and I apologize for writing poorly
writing the I had added it to the agenda as discussion and consensus on the additional scope items that that's okay i we you know we're here and we want to make sure that we're not impeding the progress um but I I do just feel more comfortable getting the committees
committees behind it so can make a motion that we approve what was the amount 130 approve a budget of 130,000 for temporary trailer temporary kitchen okay second okay all those in favor i I All
right thank you and then we can the loop road repair and the relocation of the modular from Elmwood that is not pressing the um the if there was consensus on this I was going to use
that consensus to just seek proposals from the design team that's great um and and then it they would come back to you they would come back to us i I I am in agreement with that i think those two things potentially save the town money um in
the long run that's very valuable very valuable the loop road is very much needed someone who runs on it several times a week and I feel like we had discussed that piece as we were waiting on Hopkins to
be the the addition to be completed so the construction vehicles aren't on it but yes um I imagine So right now there's a lot of construction vehicles a lot of a lot of construction vehicles on there now um but that could save money um in an unexpected way so keep keep in
mind also that that is a summer 2026 activity so we would not be paving that until the end of the project sure but that's great sense makes sense um and it it will fix a problem that's probably going to be worse in a year
from now than it is this year all right so we will look forward to to seeing those proposals okay thank you thank you thank you everyone have a good night good night Chris you too
okay so that brings us down to the school physician contract okay so you know we've talked about um Dr bodor's um school physician contract um I'm looking for you to request the approval of her contract for the 2526 school year i
believe it's a 3% increase over last year in the amount of $8,21464 okay i just want to confirm that we're not that we are broadcasting this out because it does say on the screen that we're in executive session no you're not all right do do we want to
wait a minute just let Do you want to repeat that once we're back to broadcasting all set but do you have something you want no no thank you all set okay okay great thank you all right so I'm looking for the school committee to approve the school
physicians contract for 2526 um Dr stephanie Boater is our uh school physician and I think we talked about a 3% increase over last year which would make her contract $8,21464 for 2526 okay that's great and
just for folks at home that it is a requirement that we have a school physician i don't know that everybody realizes it because it's not something you see as you walk into the schools but Mhm all right is there I'll make a motion to approve the school's position contract for 2526 in the amount of
8,214.64 second all right motion by Kyla second by Jamie all those in favor i and it is unanimous thank you to Dr boder yes the cafeteria workers contract here next so we have successfully negotiated
another three-year agreement with the cafeteria workers um and so I am recommending they have ratified their contract um so I'm recommending that you do the same um so that you vote to ratify local 888 association of cafeteria workers contract for 25 the
school years 25 to 28 i'll make a motion to approve the cafeteria workers contract for 2528 second motion by Kyla second by Jamie all those in favor i I I uh and that is unanimous and with many thanks to our
cafeteria workers and um it was Chris that was negotiating on back or was then I do I have that reversed chris did the cafeteria workers it was Thank you to him yeah thank you to him all right so the nurse negotiations uh we are going to pass over for tonight and come back
to and for folks at home uh you may notice that we are down a couple of members due to some illness and in travel uh but uh we this piece is just to appoint a member of the school committee to um serve in that capacity and we did not want to have the other members miss out on the opportunity to
express that so we will come back to that the next item on the agenda is the superintendent evaluation and just for people who followed our process last year uh the superintendent evaluation process is lengthy it takes up all of
one meeting um that is dedicated just to that and then it takes up another meeting um the following meeting a chunk of that and in the meantime uh there's a lot of writing that has to happen and a lot that has to take place mhm the purpose of the superintendent evaluation
or or the two things that I think we stand to gain uh when we do the superintendent evaluation is looking for ways to um provide feedback to our superintendent so that the following year uh we can see kind of where things went well and where things maybe you
know we want to see something different the I in looking at our calendar ahead and what we are doing uh what we are required to do um for the department of elementary and secondary education is we
can do one of two things one is we can determine that spending the amount of time that would be required to evaluate uh Dr kavanaaugh um might be lovely for you to take with you in your re retirement but it doesn't really serve a purpose for the school committee um given the amount
of time that it takes uh I actually had reached out uh to Carol to see if she had thoughts on this uh ahead of time before suggesting that we put this out for discussion um my recommendation or my my thoughts and I'm one of five would
be that we do not engage in this lengthy process this year because it doesn't serve um the committee and I had asked Dr kavanagh if she felt like it would provide something meaningful for her to take with her since she is retiring um and and moving on to other things it
does not seem that it it serves a meaningful piece for her right the one thing that we would have to do would be just to submit to Desessie that that we think that she is proficient at at that she has met our expectations we cannot say more than that because otherwise we have to engage in the the process to
um say that you are outstanding in many of the ways some of us may feel but we would not be able to say that i was looking for um feedback from the committee yes when I saw this on the agenda I had similar thoughts as to this and
um I had wondered if it would be of any use but we're going to go through a whole process with the new superintendent where we set his own goals and so yes I feel focus forward and and to allow the time to be used on the Yes the pressing yeah I agree that
makes sense so I would seek a motion then um to uh allow me to submit to to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that in fact um Dr kavanaaugh is proficient and has met our expectations um but not to have a full
evaluation i move to allow Nancy Kavanaaugh to submit to Desessie that Dr kavanaaugh is proficient and has met expectations motion by Jamie i'll second second by Kya all those in favor hi hi well thank you i appreciate that very much it It
works well for us it does yes uh All right so that brings us uh into item F which is a scholarship okay so we have a new scholarship um that we would need to you to approve um this is interesting um I'm going to read
you a little bit of what the family has uh shared with us um this scholarship was essentially established in 2014 by Ellaner and James Broofphy longtime residents of Hopkin and this scholarship reflects their commitment to helping students discover their potential upon
their passing um Ellaner and James created this fund to benefit graduating seniors from Hopping Hopington enabling them to pursue their education and achieve success after high school the scholarship is awarded to a graduating senior who has demonstrated solid academic performance and achievements
and who also requires financial assistance to realize their potential at a college or university in light of the scholarship's generosity candidates are required to submit an application essay detailing their strong academic performance and accomplishments as well
as their financial needs and any obstacles they have overcome during their four years in high school they're going to give three scholarships in the amount of $5,000 each so it is a very generous scholarship and I understand that they have been doing this for some time in Framingham and maybe Malber as
well so very nice that um this is being offered that is phenomenal uh it really is i I love when we have feel good things at the end of the agenda yes that's right great opportunity for our students
it is very grateful to the family i move to approve the Heras family scholarship for three seniors at $5,000 each motion by Jamie i'll second second by Kyla all those in favor i and I apologize if I didn't pronounce the name correctly i have no idea i don't I do
not know but uh it is very generous all right so the Hopkin Music Association donation Dr okay so Mr was able to find a Lwig Cooper Shell Tony and a Yamaha Con concert bass drum um
for a very reasonable price and the Hopkins and Music Association I believe were very generous and they they bought those for us so you simply need to accept that gift in the amount of $3,500 it's phenomenal i uh love to see
the number of instruments that are good uh being either acquired through direct donation or in the Hopkin Music Association purchasing them on behalf and this is for use of the high school and middle school or just high school or um I don't know the answer to that okay
i don't know if it's supposed to i will say that um they just had auditions um and I did go see the eighth grade concert bands audition their percussion was amazing yeah this is really I hear we have a very robust We sure do um
percussion section yeah yeah so this is exciting this is very exciting i'll make a motion to approve the donation from the Hopkins Music Association second motion by Kyla second by Jamie all those in favor i and that is unanimous and passes with many thanks to the Hopkins
Music Association that brings us into old uh business policy JA field trips this is a third reading it is and so you um you know that we have two policies tonight and they both really deal with field trips and financial assistance so when we say
that this is a third reading um unfortunately we did take a look at this in April of 2024 it fell off our radar so it came back on April 3rd a couple of weeks ago and now it's here for a third reading and really all we are changing is that if we're talking about the
category three extracurricular uh field trips which are the ones where you know teachers very frequent will take their students on kind of an overseas trip like examples are Iceland or Normandy you know those are the kinds of things we've seen in the past that we would not pay any portion of those out
of the school operating budget and if a student did need financial assistance with with that um it would be very limited and it would have to be based on availability of gift money and you know very high demonstrated need so that is
the change to that policy okay we have not heard from anyone in terms of feedback and my recollection from a couple weeks ago was that we really just wanted to hold it to have another reading since it hadn't been looked down for so long and there was no we were waiting for any feedback and appears
there was none okay so I move to approve policy I J O A field trips i'll second it second by Kyla all those in favor i that is related right do we just go right into go right into move to
approve policy JLB financial assistance policy i'll second that motion by Jamie second by Kyla all those in favor i i and that is unanimous and so passes and that brings us into items by consensus okay as superintendent I uh recommend the school committee approve the items
by consensus as outlined in your agenda okay i make a motion to approve the items by consensus second motion by Kyla second by Jamie all those in favor i I and it is unanimous uh and I would then uh seek
a motion to adjurnn so moved second motion by Jamie second by Kyla uh all those in favor i and we are adjourned at 8 I'm going to call that 8:11 to round up a little bit there uh our next meeting uh date is May 5th
which is the school choice public hearing and regular meeting uh then we the May 1st and then uh from May 5th to 7th we have annual town meeting uh we can debate later on how many days we think town meeting will go this year um
and then and then on May 15th is our next regular meeting it is not the reorganization meeting because the election is not until the 19th i will be late to that meeting because I have graduation for my graduate students that fabulous okay i mean not fabulous you're late but fabulous that you're
doing yes it'll be a lovely evening we'll hold all the exciting things for when you get Thank you all right thank you everybody for tuning in and have a good night