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uh good evening it's um January 13 2025 uh 7:04 p.m. I'll call the um School building committee meeting uh to order
um as we always do do a roll call vote so John Cohan here here Mark Lauren here uh Carrie Hurley here gr Terk here Glen Hoffman here and Sh work here um perfect uh second thing on the agenda is uh citizens speak um so any um citizen that's in the audience or present which I don't see any um that would like to speak please just raise your your hand
and you'll be recognized we ask that you uh state your name and address and limit your comments to uh 3 minutes so just give it a minute all right seeing none can you pull up the agenda yep sorry it's just tough all right so uh item three on the agenda is approval of past meeting minutes from Monday December 16
2024 uh so those were distributed in your packets uh from PMA uh so just give it a minute see if anybody has comments or edits they want to make
hear no comments no edits just waiting I'll make a motion to approve the school
building committee minutes second John will second any discussion not hearing any uh roll call vote because we're remote John coane yes Mark Lawrence yes kry Hurley yes Scott ter Shack yes Glen Hoffman yes and Shan rck yes uh all right so item four o business a i is review of msba module one progress uh so as everybody knows accepted
msba uh our official invite starts May 1st we're working on doing um some initial um homework ahead of time to get ahead of this so uh we have school building committee has one article for feasibility study which is actually Item B we can discuss that also at the same time uh and the other one that we'll have at town meeting is the school building committee formation per msba guidelines so essentially school
committee has proposed a article um that essentially would augment this committee with a number of non- voting members to kind of fill out the roster for uh msba um so with that I'll just leave it open and see if anybody has any questions and comments on that I did ask for it I did ask for the um select board meeting to list voting members to because there's nothing in the original
article that talks about voting and non- voting so y um I think Nick's working on that that's fine yeah I I saw that essentially an amendment to there yeah we talked about that school committee and thought it was more a formality thing like a procedural not a substantial change so no school committee had had concerns with that yeah and it makes sense too because the original committee when was formed just assumed all vote all members will be voting so the new one having non- voting members makes 100% sense yeah yeah doesn't doesn't change
um yes sir I did have a question on the warrant the other warrant this is I was able to kind of B item Four B yes there we go um I was able to watch the last the most recent select board meeting and I know John and watching at that meeting I was surprised because you spoke against the Warren article that this committee voted unanimously in favor of and presented a select board
and I'm just I was confused because again you voted for the warrant article within this context within this meeting when we talked about it and I feel like this is I'm concerned that this is becoming a pattern of within this context we are discussing something feel like we're on the same page moving forward and then I watch select board meeting and you were like the one Advocate against this article like you were my was my perspective
looking at the meeting and I think as our representative on the select board that just continues to surprise me and continues to feel like you are not appropriately representing this committee at the select board and even to the point of like again perhaps I'm I'm taking this wrong but actively working against kind of the goal of this committee and the decisions of this committee as kind of a joint body
is making and in that case like that unan the committee unanimously made which included yourself and so I just I I'm not understanding what the disconnect is between the conversation we had here I know at one point within select word meeting you said you were waiting on the language of the vote when in the meeting Sean Sheamus presented the language of the vote up there we all looked at it again we all voted for it and so again I'm just I'm concerned about how continue to be represented at
the S one of the things is I'd like to have a copy not just up on the board of these things so so when when I can get them but that's to your question I think you read that wrong it's just the list that we have for the eligibility phase this is the last item on the list right no huh for the steps progression yeah the feasibility study
agreement is the very end of the list I thought you meant the school building Comm no no you're are talking about the school the feasibility AG you said I'm going to the other other article right yep yeah what are you talking about I'm talking about feasibility study article talking funding the article that this committee voted on which is the funding we I'm clearing it up with we're talking about that right right so I mean it's the last item on the list and and it's it's it's
this money is not needed until we enter the feasibility stage right so why are we rushing why is this the first thing we're doing it's the last thing on the list of of of action items right with the invitation letter am I not correct well it's not so I am correct no no no no no hold up so it's not a sequential process that you have to go one by one by one you could do them all you could well I mean but we're going to present
to we are going to have to present to them in that order they just it's a checklist and whether or not what you do it in okay we there are many things this is something we can't do without town meeting right we can't go off and just make a Tom mcarthy Tom McCarthy can go off and make a report on maintenance and preventing main schedule now he doesn't need anybody else right we need town meeting to vote on this
you're right it's it is possible we could wait but why why wait and waste time we have the opportunity to get in front I think that's in my mind and also again you voted for the article in this meeting last time we met and like so I I don't understand the change of pace and I don't understand sorry that's fine yeah the language I want added yeah not K you be able to resp not killed the language I want to added is that none of
these funds are expended until we're invited into the feasibility stage what is the problem with that so on my end so to be clear there's no problem with that because inherently in the language of the warrant article it says it's for a feasibility study correct so essentially we can't spend any of that money if it's not to for a feasibility study with msba right but it doesn't say msba feasibility study it's the intention of it I get I get it I get
it but everybody reads things differently after the fact but that that lends itself that you think we would spend the money on our own yeah I I don't want to leave that up to chance I I would like it to be is that when we're gonna spend the money cor then what's the problem back back to the original there's no problem with that I have no problem with the there no but it's it's for me it just gets to the political Optics of it of you know I mean this has been a lot of work and you know
as was said at select board the msba looks for towns that have political backing for a lot of this stuff so when they see the school building committee representative voting against it on a technicality that they've already approved I just that's I I I just I think that's what you're saying or that's some of your concern I I mean yeah I mean we it doesn't seem you make our committee look like hold on just to to respond our committee look like we
don't have our stuff together right it looks you go there we're saying hey we have a unanimous approval from this warrant here's the warrant and then you spend the meeting talking against the warrant that we all approve this idea if you had brought the idea to our group for our group to discuss potentially agree with improve upon whatever that that is what a committee is supposed to do and so I don't have a problem with you creating a suggestion that this committee considers to then propose the select board I don't even necessarily have a problem with the specific
language I have a problem with the process of you sitting at this meeting agreeing with all of us voting in favor of something and then us I assume I know my assumption was when that gets to select board it's gonna be great right Nick will talk about it John will talk about it not that John's going to work to kind of tank approval of this and actually vote against the same worn article he already voted for it's not a good process you even could have come back to this committee and said hey upon further thought I have like a friendly
amendment I think maybe we should make and talked about this here and then we could have even adjusted the article here and sent it back and that wouldn't have changed much but I do think there's an implication as Sean kind of referenced that you're essentially saying you think this committee because nothing is going to be spent unless this committee approves it and so you essentally think this committee would kind of deceive the voters deceive folks when we're saying hey we want funding for the msba
feasibility study and we're going to get the money and actually we're going to spend it anyways like outside of the msba feasibility study which in my opinion like brings into question you were questioning my ethics the ethics of the other members and that just doesn't that doesn't feel good especially when again it went outside of the committee to do that and it's not something you brought up within this two things I need to see things soon I mean we just talk about being them being up on the board I
in order to give me time in order to prevent this from happening I need to see things sooner now that that that's the main thing and when when I see something rush through early when this is not at the top of the list we have the school building committee to form we have a whole bunch of things that are are very important I get suspicious yes okay why the rush so so the touch on you to touch me into two points that it was only seen at the at
the meeting it was emailed the day of so and the reason it was emailed the day of is hold on doesn't matter what the reason if I could respond go ahead it doesn't the reason it took a while was Town councel Town Administrator and our bond Council while reviewing it once they reviewed it and had it approved through those three people that's when I sent it to everybody which was basically the day of the format of the article is directly
from msba we had actually presented the format of the article previously and pointed everybody to the msba website yourselves have on multiple occasions have said you dove into mba's website it's a wealth of information so I'm sure you saw the language under there before so it wasn't something that just came out of the blue we presented it now to the point of rushing it I actually take offense to that so and this is a the overcrowding in the schools is a serious problem it's a
serious problem it's been going on for six years we just got invited to an msba you know thing that's it's amazing to the town it's a great thing they're giving us the opportunity to get ahead of this not wait 270. five days twiddling our thumbs to do something we can do now we can do this in February have it have it ready to go most of the time you got to understand this module that you're seeing there the 270 days that they give you is because there're starting completely from scratch as a
town they haven't had a committee that's done all this work so if we as a committee can leverage the work that we've done to get ahead of a 270 day window put the escalation on the project at 270 days how much money does that save us you just said we're rushing it for no no problem whatsoever and now the lights SC nobody is suggesting this is a one-year period we'll have this looking at other towns we will have we be through the eligibility period in a year
at most we can go faster than a year that's what they're we can but if you look around at others November is the best I've seen we all we have to do is once we check all these boxes and the reason they give 270 I'm I'm just you're saying 270 days and I'm not you're throwing 270 days at me like I'm not I'm thinking that you would just say we could wait 270 days no I just said
that this is probably going to take till November this this this phase it's eligibility phase what is the argument to wait hold on no I'm just saying this is the argument to wait the hardest thing to do here the hardest portion to do out of this flowchart that we're looking at that's shared on the screen is the last one for for funding do you think that's the hottest that's why they give you 270 days to I didn't think it was the hotest then let's pass it and move on then let's then yes but I want
that Amendment as I said as I said at the beginning I have no problem with the amendment I mean but you just need to hear from us that I'm heing that the context by which it's presented by saying you know the concern that this money would be spent elsewhere is concerning to a lot of people because there's a lot of people that are been there's a lot of people that been here for six years working the first four years we had $40,000 we stretched that over four years we we didn't spend it we
we were really tight on everything what is my ultimate most important responsibility as a so board member I I think your responsibility is to understand what's Happening Here get things flushed I'm asking the question to answer it it's fiscal responsibility well it's not what it is it's not just that I think it's beyond that hold one that if there views like you rightly
said if you have the time to review this we should have flushed that out here I think you have the right definitely have the right to say I want this language there and even after you have noticed it I think maybe you didn't know at the time I'm assuming you could have called Sean hey I'm going to block this you don't want this embarrassment let's have a quick meeting you're supposed to be our am communicating with the cele so I think it's beyond
physical um prodence I really want the same thing you want I think that's the same thing everyone there's no we and them we're one house so let's have a process where your thinking is captured so that when you're leaving you're comfortable to represent that before your colleagues I think that's the lessons learn here Mark and then I would ask you know whatever comments Mark has if you want to respond I I just want to move on yeah
I I you know I mean well I get I just you I feel like there's I'm still not clear on what your concern is because you say fiscal responsibility and that makes me think are you saying you don't support allocating the million and a half like that's not fiscally irresponsible to allocate that and you're not supporting that or is it just that you want this I think I understand can I answer for you he wants a language in there so that
forther interpretation after this meeting is not misinterpreted that's all you want right yes okay as I said at the beginning I have no problem with the amendment or anything there was there was just the process by which it got there I I I think that that essentially sums it up and I will admit that I should have brought it here first no it's F I should yeah so in the future if anything comes up just email us we the problem is and maybe I'm starting it this is what caused be to bring it up here you know
what I'm saying I'm just saying so you know well to touch on that if you had a friendly amendment to to the article when we're doing it we could have this discussion I jump through it when it comes out it select board and the other 11 eight members of the committee hear it there and react to it that's where that's that's where the problem comes in and that you know you as a select board member carry a lot of weight your words carry a lot of weight so when you're saying at a meeting that we're voting on something
that we never even saw that's that's an incorrect statement so and that that's that's where members of of the committee hear that and go no we were emailed it the day of mainly because it came from so go my words were incorrect last minute yeah it's totally fine but yeah yeah and we're doing our best to get things as quickly as we can to everybody but you know I mean and I'm doing my best to I got you and you know as as
let's close this agenda item kind of move okay all right so yeah Sheamus can you just share the uh and can I just say one last thing no way this assuming this is taken 270 days that's not that's came out that was not correct goal is to move as quick absolutely absolutely all right all right so that's item 4B the feasibility site any other questions not not on comments or anything like that
but just so right after this meeting I'm going over to Warren committee presenting to them on the feasibility study uh school committee's over there right now doing the school building committee formation um so you know I'm just going to walk them through the process by the modules and basically end on feasibility study and how we came to the number that we're asking to so yes sir I know you have said this should move on but there room to put his comments in the the document is always
are we passed where we can have those comments so my understanding is the recommendation that comes from the warrant committee yeah we'll have that those commentaries in there again yeah great got talk to Nick about these motion sensors whatever it is yeah right above us but it doesn't want to see us the camera is still picking and up so it's good good but essentially what happens is the um the recommendation from Warren committee which is up to
them to provide would have that language in there Nick's checking with msva to make sure there's no problems with that additional language okay as part of there but I I'm not anticipating will this pass through the U Town Meeting yes so so even at that point we could have that language as a friendly Amendment so we haven't passed a point of no return yeah so I know I know okay so we we have a warrant article the recommendation is what will get edited not the warrant article but essentially in that recommendation it locks you into kind of
what what it could be expended for thank you okay anybody online with questions or anything Carrie is got and not seeing any none all right cool all right now to the easy stuff and approving invoices uh PMA is part of your packet we got two invoices for PMA November 2024 and December 2024 um and just confirming nothing from Arrow Street left so yeah I I also included just the budget up so we confirmed with AOS Street a
Street's fully paid they're all they're all set chali confirmed that VI email earlier this week okay just want to make sure we were you know yeah so a street squared way okay so yeah I'll make a motion to approve uh payment for pma's invoice for both November 2024 and December 2024 I'll second that motion okay just one second sorry it's given Town Council
um all right so motions made and seconded any discussion seeing none uh roll call John go yes Aqua yes Mark Lauren yes Carrie Hur yes Scott terach yes and Glenn Hoffman yes and shaa work yes all right and yes all right do you need me for forum for new business uh no we're good so if you want to head
over that's fine commit all right so at this point uh we're going to be exiting General Session or Open Session and going into executive session we will not be returning to open session um so we'll be AJ adjourning from executive session so uh for those of you online if you could please sign out and then we'll lock the meeting thank you
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