Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
August 21, 2024 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
Ryan is with Solar. Joanne is our board chair. And Caitlin? We are all set. Alright. Alright. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the Andover Elementary School Board of Education special meeting for 08/21/2024. It is 07:02, and I'd like to start with the pledge of allegiance. Don't worry about it. 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. Okay. Did you like this person and face? Sorry about that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We'll just give a minute. Yes. Right. I'm crying. Hi, Gloria.
Alright. Comments from the You'll find it. Or engineer Louis Blerino was a pioneer in this field. Yeah. Kimberly Persand, comments from the public? Okay.
Brad, do you have any comments? Hi. Good evening. How are you? Good. Thanks. So this is your opportunity during the meeting. We have comments from the public. So if you have any comments, would you like or or you don't have to, but we do have an opportunity at the end
from the public on agenda items. So if you'd like to wait or if you have anything to say now. No. I oh, so that's why I'm here. Okay. But not on the agenda item. So that's why I said it's Okay. That's the perfect time. Okay. Alright. Go ahead. Thanks. Okay.
So I'm just here because just over a year ago, I started receiving phone calls from from the principal, kinda bringing into question my status as a resident of Andover. And I was very confused, and I repeatedly asked why and how that was. And I wasn't really shown anything in writing as to, like, where that stance would come from. And that started the whole process that lasted until essentially, like, the very last day of October. So it was the majority of August, all of September, and all of October. And it was so stressful for me that this is the first time I've been able to come here and speak to you all.
And so I'm hoping to get some closure, but but it's it was really uncomfortable, and it led to multiple conversations between me and the superintendent. I was told things such as my son would be physically removed from the school if he was brought into the school on Monday following this phone call on Thursday. And so then that Thursday and the following Friday morning is when I learned that when claims like this are brought against someone, they have the right to to see the board of ed or a selection of the board of ed or representative of the board of ed for a hearing. So that Friday following I'll open that. Brett, I officially requested a hearing. That hearing never happened. And I also learned through the next few weeks following that that when these accusations or claims of me not being a resident or first brought, it's my understanding that state statute shows that or calls for the person being told that they cannot send their child to the school should be told that there's a hearing process, and it should be explained to them that they have that opportunity. And it was not explained to me. It was something I had to learn sometime in September after I'd already had multiple conversations with the superintendent about it. I've been told such things as in order for my son to attend school, he has to live in the town and sleep there for four nights of the week. And that's and so then I informed principal and superintendent that that's not possible for either his mom or for me because we have fifty fifty custody. We can't split seven days of the week into two. And so I I said things like, I mean, can we talk about two week intervals?
Like, 14 is visible by two. Like, he, you know, is here, but, theoretically, he's not at either home more than 50%. And I was told that that the superintendent or representative of the school would have to enter my home and see where my son
plays I'm gonna in interrupt you, and I very much hesitate to do this. But it sounds like what you're talking about is maybe something that involves legality. And as a lawyer on the board, I'm just wondering you're absolutely allowed to make comment, and I very much hesitated to interrupt you. But I'm wondering if this is really something that might require legal response or whatnot, and so whether we should have our counsel here or something like that. That's one of reason I interrupted you. I apologize. Yeah. I mean,
so I haven't had closure. Mhmm. So the very last correspondence I received was via a letter, and that was after this meeting for superintendent and the resident officer of Andover to enter my home against my request. And that meeting was canceled, and I wasn't informed that it was canceled. So I rearranged my schedule and my son's schedule and my ex wife's schedule so that I could be there. And then I was elect waiting in my driveway. And no one who I was supposed to meet with answered my phone calls or responded to my emails. So then I went to the post office. That was on Friday. I was supposed to meet on Tuesday. I was able to pick up a letter from the post office. And the last couple sentences of that letter stated that our superintendent was dropping these accusations and would not seek it further, but that she reserved the right to bring it up again in the future. And that to me read, like, I should always stay on my toes. I'll be looking over my shoulder.
And, I mean, I was at the point where I was waking up on Saturday mornings and I was shaking. Like, I could not concentrate. These conversations usually happen on Friday, and then I would have no resolution over the weekend. So that was all the month of September and October. And it's hard enough being a same father. But then being here, it's been really difficult. You know, I continually have to correspond with the principal and the superintendent and to see you all, and it's hard. And so my partner and I tried coming to the PTA a few times. We're like, maybe we'll be able to feel like part of the community, and we were welcomed by the PTA, but it was very difficult being in the same room. And it just, like, trying to act like everything was was okay. I never did get to meet with I never did get to have here. And I never got any sort of, like, anything near an apology. And and I never really got any sort of explanation as to why I was just immediately asked to pay the $1,700 a month. Immediate. It was due immediately, what the letter stated. And I was like, I don't understand. I mean, I paid my taxes when I bought the house. Right. So,
Brad, I and, again, I I I don't wanna cut you off because I this is an opportunity for you to be heard, and this is why we do public speak. And we don't engage in public speak. Usually, the person speaks, and then we move on. But I feel at this point, I think it you would be better served with having a meeting with Valerie and with Taylor to go over your concerns. We've all heard them. I definitely, as the chair, will follow-up with them to make sure that meeting is held with you and your partner and whoever you want to be there. But I think at this point,
I'm just gonna respect respectfully ask that we cease your public comment at this point and that we follow-up with the meeting with Taylor and with Valerie, and I will make sure that that happens. Thanks. You're welcome. But, yeah, it it would need to be with with other
people there as well. And I and I I will make sure of that. So And I'm trying to avoid, like Yep. Bringing in lawyers.
Yep. Well, both. But we will. We Yeah. I'll follow-up with them. We'll make sure that happens. Okay? Alright. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. Just just the last part. Okay. I
really I learned over this process that I was consistently told things that are not in line with the state statute. Okay. And I'm afraid that that could happen again in the future if it's not Okay. Rectified. So that's one of the reasons why I wanna bring it up to all of you all because it really was inappropriate. Okay. Like and I was told things that are very much explained to not be true within the documents available online that explain the state statutes from the state. And I spoke with the lawyer of the State Department of Education. Okay. And, like, they very much informed me that I I was I was being told incorrect Alright. Procedures.
I will make sure that we follow-up with this. Okay? Thanks. You're welcome, Brad. Thank you. Just for the record, the clerk's gonna need to know your last name. I don't know your last Yeah. It's k e l l e. K. Great. First name is Brad. Brad? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. Alright. I don't think anybody else locked on. Okay. And Ryan is the guy from the solar company. Correct? Okay. Okay. Alright. Communications. Does anybody have any communications? No? I
have I'm sorry. Yep. I have one. I did receive one, but so did you. It was addressed to the both of us. Yeah. So
So Valerie and I, along with the town clerk, received a communication from Steve Fuss. So I'd like to read it into the record, dated, 08/21/2024. Dear members of the Andover Elementary School Board of Education, I'm writing to formally announce my resignation from the board effective immediately 08/21/2024. This decision has not been easy, but due to increasing demands from my professional career, I find myself unable to dedicate the necessary time and attention that the board, staff and student body deserves and requires. It has been an honor to serve alongside each of you. I am proud of the work we have accomplished over the five plus years and the positive impact we have had on the children and staff of Vandiver Elementary School. I'm confident that the board will continue to thrive and uphold the high standards we have set for our students and teachers. I urge the board to continue to work together with the community as a whole to promote the needs of our school. Please accept this letter as my official notice. Thank you for the opportunity to serve our community and for the support during my tenure. Sincerely, Steve Bus. I responded back. I said, good afternoon, Steve. Thank you for your email and for your note notification of your resignation. I will communicate it to the rest of the board at our meeting this evening. On behalf of the board, we thank you for your time and service, and we wish you success in your new professional position. Thank you, Celeste, BOE chair. So Wow. Yes. So Did you know this is coming?
No. No. No. No. That's two and two days. So All I can resigned from the board of Selective. Yeah. Wow.
Okay. So I I talked to Valerie, obviously, about this. So what we'll do is we will post the opening like we normally do, and we will talk about we will talk about who whoever decides to volunteer to to fill this opening.
I'd like to put it on our September 11 meeting agenda. Okay? Should. Because that'll be within the thirty days that we have to Yes, ma'am. To fill it. Yeah. Great. Okay. Great. Okay. Does anybody else have any communications? No? Okay. That's enough. Any celebrations? Let's do that one.
Yeah. It was a great opening. You were there taking the photos, so let's celebrate that. Yeah. The opening of the community center. Yes. It was. Very well attended. Lot of champagne. Yep. That was left over. So, no, it was just great. And It was. I it was it was Yeah. Well attended. It was very nice. We had our state representative there,
and I thought I thought it was it was it was it was really done beautifully, and it's it's really great for the town. So I appreciate it. Thank you for bringing that up. Sure. I'll have a celebration. Absolutely. I think it's somebody's birthday at the end of this month. Oh, what's it like?
You don't eat sugar. That's what that meal, a meeting agenda for Yeah. Okay. Just
for something? For you that you are in there. Alright. We will do something. Thank you, Jerry.
Alright. Any any other celebrations? I'm just gonna say one week till school starts. There we go. Celebrate that. Right? I like that. Like that optimism. Okay. Approval of minutes. Did everybody have an opportunity to take a look at the Yeah. Okay. The meeting minutes from July 17. Does anybody have any Yes. July 14. That's
on the agenda, but on this is so what is it? Was it was July
2023. The seventeenth? Seventeenth. Know. But Yes. It was the seventeenth. It was the seventeenth. Okay. Perfect.
Know. But that is wrong in the agenda. That's minutes of the
meeting on July 17. I second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Abstain. Right. My camera here. Okay. So that's one abstain and 3 Aye. Okay. Alright.
That's 124. Okay. So 4. Yay. And then one abstain. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Chairperson's oral report. Alrighty. Okay. I don't have too too much. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I was gonna mention that school starts next week, so thanks, Mike, for for bringing that up. I think we're we're gonna have a wonderful full school year. Thank you, Brad. Bye. And I hope everyone can make the time to do the read alouds. Thank you for bringing the book beforehand. I think that's helpful. But just speaking from experience, it's it's wonderful. So if you do have the time to do it, I really strongly encourage you to to make the time. And and it doesn't have to be on the first day of school. No. Okay. It could be whenever. So great. I just, again, wanna remind you of the CADE conference. It's August. It's gonna be in November. So sooner rather than later, it's gonna be here. I strongly encourage all of you to go. I will definitely be there on November 15. It's a Friday and a Saturday, but it's it's it really is
wonderful to go, and you do get a lot out of it. So I really encourage all of us to make some time to go. Are you going both through? I'm gonna just go Friday. Went Friday last year. Yep. When is the early in when does that stop? Yeah.
Yeah. We get the lowest price on it if we tell them by Friday. So Okay. Okay. If if you guys do know, Caitlin, if you guys do know you're going, you know, just I I can go on Friday. Okay. And you just want Friday. Right? Yeah. Just Friday. Yeah. Alright. Mike, do you know what or both days?
And then, Shannon, you'll find out. I'm hoping I can go both days. Okay. Good.
Alright. So just let let Valerie know by Friday because we get the special discount. Okay. And then I just wanted to bring up this, because I know this has been mentioned in a couple public meetings, and I just wanted to talk about it. So I had been contacted by Jeff McGuire about the possibility of opening up a STIF account. STIF stands for short term investment fund. And I have I just I printed out some some information. So if you just wanna take one and and pass it down. So, essentially, the the the town has opened up these this account, and they it's a short term investment fund where you put money in, and it's a high rate of return. So they've been making quite a bit of money on their interest. And Jeff Maguire had reached out to me to see if this is something that the board that the board of ed wants to do. And I had I talked about it with Val. Number one, is this something that a board of ed can do? And if we do it, what, you know, what are kind of the parameters, how this would would look, how this would kind of operate and function?
I am on a listserv email. So I I emailed all of the chairs in the state and said, is anybody is anybody doing this? And if so, you know, I'd like to to talk to you. I got a lot of responses back, but it was that they all have 2% non lapsings, which is what we have already. So so I I don't know if any other towns in Connecticut are doing this. I wanna research this a little bit further and be prepared to talk about it at the September meeting. I know Val has talked with our our auditor kind of preliminarily,
and I, you know, I just wanna have a kind of a deeper conversation about it. So I provided you with some some of the information that I got off the website. You're welcome to go on there and take a look. That was just kinda two things that I printed out. But so we'll put that on the agenda for the September 11 meeting and kinda talk about it in a little detail. But I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention because I know it's been mentioned in a couple couple of meetings. So that's all I have. Val, you're up.
Okay. So you'll see that there's a couple of topics now after superintendent report and principal's report. These are probably the, things that were asked of us most, you know, during the course of the last year. And we kinda both talked about, you know, moving forward into the next school year, how we can make sure every month that there are things that, you know, maybe people didn't think anything was going on with curriculum or PD if Taylor didn't mention it. Maybe people thought that things weren't necessarily going on monthly with grants and facilities. So those are gonna be, on there every month now so that, you know, people can understand that, actually, this stuff usually takes place on a month to month basis, not just once a year or something like that. So so that's why they're on there, and they'll remain on there to help us out. Alright. So I'll try to go through as quickly as I can with them because a couple of them are a little bit further down, and they're under Ryan. So, I'll try to hold some of it for Ryan for, I mean, so that Ryan doesn't have to to wait, until we go through these things. Okay. First and foremost, now on our website, which is still being updated, if you go to the about, there's the under about, it says operations. And under that, if they log on, they see something that looks similar to this, and it does need a little bit of updating, but it will look like this. It says asbestos management plan, school,
safe school climate plan, green cleaning, and then school facility survey. So any of the things that we do talk about as updates on a monthly basis will be in there. The IAQ letter and explanation, which is is under there, there's only currently one of the completed IAQ reports that are on there. So over the course of the summer, we did have, you know, quite a few things, as you guys know, that we were working on. So we have it, as I said, on the bottom, but the things that we were working on for the summer is, looking at, in terms of updates. Hera, I sent that to you guys, and we'll talk about it down in board business. But, you know, districts right now are working on making sure that they, meet obligations when it comes to, asbestos reporting. Doesn't necessarily mean you have it, but reporting them that you don't.
And so we'll talk about that one. The HVAC, that five year HVAC new, state mandate that came out, we'll talk about that in a few minutes too, but that's something that we were working on over the summer, making sure that we can get together some more information so that we can move forward with at least some plan at some point in the coming months. Tools for schools tools for schools is that IAQ checklist that there were six of them, and, I have, almost three complete now. The other ones will probably hinge on the asbestos, the HVAC, and or, you know, any of the other service things that we do here, with plumbing and and, things like that. So in terms of the indoor air quality reporting, that's where we are for those six is we're still kind of in limbo on those. The school safety and security plan that gets updated every year,
This is what it looks like, as you guys know. This one is being updated as we speak now, and and this one, Taylor, has been doing quite a bit of that. This one will be turned into the state the end of September, early October. And this is the one that gets signed off by all of the members there at the town. So this is an update. That phone's copy? Yep. Yep. Yes. Is. Yes. Yes. It did. This is one. Yes. So so we have busy doing that. Other things that we've been working on that need to be done, we have a cross sectional drinking water examination inspection that needs to be done and filled out. Our regular, water people are Lafran Boy, and they go through Millennium Water. It's the same guy, and they will make sure that that requirement is met. They do the, testing, and then they fill out that cross sectional, testing paperwork, and we send that in. So we've been doing that now too. Let's see. Other updates. Radon. Radon is done
regularly. Radon is done every three years. The testing is done, and the reporting has been in compliance with us. Our last one here is twelve of twenty one was when the test was done. I've already scheduled. They'll be here November 5, so we have no worries that we are out of compliance there, and then the reporting paperwork will get sent in. So that's another one that's being done. Copper and lead, there's paperwork that needs to be filled out and updated to let them know that we have had, no other changes, to to to things that have been done, on our property. That'll probably be one thing that we will have to have done as part of any next environmental testing that we do if we plan on demolitioning something. No. No. Kate. So,
yeah. So that would be something that would pop up again in a hazardous billing material consultation consultation that we do. So, when we get further down, you'll see then that if these are the things that appear on our website as as important things, these are the things that we're updating. As you know, we have a new, head custodian, who was our number two custodian, Scott, and he's done an amazing job this summer. You know, we can't give him enough kudos. You know, he was great before, he's really, like, stepped up and and taking great pride in being the lead here, making sure that the outside everything's done on the outside, doing a lot of cleaning up in the office, taking inventory of materials that we have in terms of tools. And there were a few things that, when Steve retired, that he did take with him. He owned them. Mhmm. He had just brought them and and used them here. So there's a few small things, not very pricey, but a few small things that we've had to replace. But as he takes inventory, at least then, if it turns out that there's anything else that we need that's not, you know, of a small price, then we'll know that as well and be able to put that on our wish list. So, you know, kudos to him. He's overseen
our two other custodians, Anthony, who now has the second shift, and Nick. And the building is is great. I mean, everybody's they said how how nice it looks as they've come in. So we'll be ready certainly for next week. All the waxing has been done. So those are the updates on that, and we will make sure on a monthly basis, you know, that that we're just a little bit more aware of that at at every meeting as part of my report. In terms of grants, we finished up that summer grant that we were working on with pool, and that's all set. We've got all of our documentation. So, you know, that's that's ready to be drawn down. We're good. The grants that were two year continuation grants, all the paperwork's been filed so that, now we can roll over to the next year. So that school mental health specialist grant that we've had,
we've filled up paperwork on that, and, they've approved that again. We knew it was coming, but you kind of, you know, don't count your tickets before they hatch in case something happened. But now they've been fiscally approved, so we know that that money's coming. The summer mental health grant, we didn't spend the whole thing on that program that we had here. So some of that money will roll over, and we get it again next summer. So, we can start doing some planning. I know it sounds early because we haven't even come back to school yet, but those are things that we'll wanna work on the planning for with for next year and with pool for next year. We don't have any new offerings of grants beyond the ones that we've already talked about at board meetings, but we're seeing signs. We're hoping that the next round of grants that are offered will include some early childhood grants, so fingers crossed on that one. We're hoping they're they're sending out surveys and asking some questions on things that usually lead to them them putting together the results and saying, okay. Here's the need. So we can all keep our fingers crossed on that one. And then the last one that I know will be talking about PD, but the last one, that we'll be finishing up, by September 15 is the one that we got, the IDEA TSA, which was $5,000 for use for Paris for professional development. And so I won't rain on her parade in telling you about that today that we have part of it, but, we will be able to spend all $5,000 and make sure that all of our paraprofessionals,
you know, are starting the year highly trained. Care educators are trained. So we're we're excited about that. So those are our grant updates. Those are facilities updates for right now. We'll get into more specifics when we get down to d, e, and e. Thank you, Valerie. Appreciate it.
Taylor, take it away. Alright. Well, I will start with PD and and pick up right where Val has left off. So, obviously, we are in full force and getting ready back to school. And while our first PD day is Monday, we've had other PD happening this summer. So today, we had 26 paraeducators and teachers here doing PMT training. So that's de escalation strategies, ways to help kids who need to be able to manage big emotions, as well as if any hands on events ever occurred. So that was fantastic as part of that grant, and it was great to see, some new staff get together, and we were able to have, another district join us. So kind of have that, like, cross, chat, which is just good when you're in a small school to get that, availability. And the trainer was able to come to us, which was great. We've also have CPR training that happens. We have, the state has decided to, fund, something called three two one Insight, which is a paraeducator, professional development portal, so to speak. So they have bundles of PD already ready on different topics. So things like, special education topics,
behavior management topics, some early childhood, preschool, working with teachers, lots of different topics, and they've put that into bundles. Six to ten minute videos, but discussion questions, which is phenomenal. We, as a school, it's nice to have that state put together some of those materials or or at least they didn't put them together, but fund them from place that our paraeducators will be getting to take advantage of some of those. We also have the state has increased some of the requirements in their state mandated trainings this year, which, is is obviously with great purpose but does require more time. So we have, we always do the mandated training, for all of our staff so they know, when to report child abuse or neglect. But we also now have, sex trafficking and sexual misconduct and title nine. And while those aren't fun topics that I like to bring up, I think it's just important that the board knows that we are, of course, making sure all of that training gets done and, following all of those regulations. So some of our teachers have already, started to kind of engage in those in those materials. We will also as we've talked about a lot in the spring, we will start our new curriculum, bookworms, for literacy. So there'll be some PD on that in the next couple of days and certainly ongoing. It's not really a one and done type of PD, but they'll be getting information on that. And then we, of course, always start by looking at all of our data. So we, as a school, will look at assessment data, survey data. The state does plan, they say, to officially release that publicly certainly soon, I think, in the next week or so.
So once that happens, I'll be able to present more info to the board as well, and then parents will get their SBAC scores that those come home in the mail to them. So we have a lot to do in just two days, which, of course, is not possible. So we we do it's good to know, I think, for the board, those kind of trainings and things happen continuously in those first few months of school. So whether it's actual PD time on the calendar or teams have data team meetings every week, they have common planning, it all kind of goes into various, locations to get it done. So that's that's exciting. The only other things I thought I would mention is September 19 is our open house, our big, back to school event. So that's exciting. We will have, the classrooms open. Teachers, parents can come in, meet the teacher, see what's been going on. We'll have the pizza truck, the bounce houses, all the fun that we normally do. So that will be that starts at? Yeah. At 05:00. We got our book fair. Shit. Right? The book fair. All of a sudden, I was like, yes. That's what I heard. So you talk
do you want a fire truck here? They always ask me. Why not? Okay. I will Who wouldn't be? So
we have all that fun happening. I'll get Mindy in touch with you. Yes. And we are going to continue our monthly family events. So because we are well, we're bummed to see the after school grant go. One of the big hits that we'd like to continue is that family one. So in each month, we'll have for example, in October, we're gonna bring back the pumpkin carving because that was a hit with families where they can come after school and do their pumpkin. So each month, we will still have that one family event that we're looking forward to as well. Awesome. And then that the last thing is just the meet and greet. So next weekend, Tuesday, we will have families come in, and they get to meet their teacher and their see their classroom from one to two. So we're excited to welcome them.
September 19. Yes. '19. Yep. No problem. Thank you, Taylor. Does anybody have any questions? No? Okay.
I did see on the the front page of the
the school calendar. Oh, yep. Yeah. There's a video. Yes. Yep. If you haven't checked it out, thank you. So we added a one of those, like, kinda moving calendars, not like a PDF from, you Scribe it. Yep. I should have pulled it up. So that that can be updated regularly. We know well, there's a lot of pros of CSO, and we like this communication. As we all have in our own lives, it's easy to lose track of things. So this calendar is just live updated. So parents and it's right on the home page. So when you open the home page It's great. Like events, we'll throw the spirit days on there. Once the sixth graders pick them, all that stuff that is so easy to lose track of, we're hoping that's a nice landing. Like picture days, the twenty sixth. Right? Like, it it it's on there. So we're excited about that. It's one of those things where I'm like, I don't care if it looks clunky. Let's just get it No. It's great. It just Parents need that stuff. No. It's Yeah. Parents
speaking, that's great. I know. Yes. Absolutely. Thank you. Mhmm. Alright. Does anybody have any questions or anything for Taylor? No? Caitlin, do you have any questions? Anything? Nope? Okay. Alright. Terry, take it away. Okay.
In your packet this this time around is the final expenditure report for the last school year. And keep in mind that any surplus, we won't have final numbers until after the audit. And at that time, we will ask the port of finance to move any dollars into either the 2% or other accounts that are available to us. Did did anybody have any specific questions? They're pretty straightforward. For early in the year, we also have the expenditure reports that started for this year this year, and, I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary in that packet either. Cherry, do you have a question,
with regard to expenditures and whatnot? And I'm pretty sure I know the answer. But for 2024 Okay. Are the other professional services board, are those almost all legal fees on March 4? Yes. Yeah? Okay. And it looks like we've been doing a lot of work, like repair maintenance on grounds and stuff. Yes. Because that took us into the negative. So, yes, that's what's been going on. Mhmm. Okay. Playground. Mhmm. The playground. Okay. Great. That's all I had for last year. I just wanted to clarify. And and and we've already, I noted, expended almost all of our board, outside expenditures already to date, and I'm imagining those are legal fees for professional services. For what year? On the very first page, we've already expended 92% of our professional services. Is that legal fees? I have to look at the details. Oh. Oh, yeah. Will look at the details.
Because it's for there's, like, five or six accounts that it's broken down. Oh, yeah. Let's see. That is not accurate.
Yeah. So it's showing I'm trying to figure out where it's picking that up from. Okay.
No. We have a you're talking about other professional services o 02340? It's always staff training. Oh, no. Facilities. It says facilities. No. I'm
looking at 30. 03:30. Yeah. 03:30 is a staff training. Right? Oh, staff training. I'm sorry. I'm looking at the wrong set of staff. It's at, like, a $104. That would make sense then.
Yeah. Because that's because we've got training. That's training. Okay. Yeah. We would normally spend most of our money for training at the beginning of the year. Yes. Great. I should have looked at the details. Sorry. That. No. My fault. I should have looked at the wrong object code.
And the summer school, we've already expended all of our stuff.
Mhmm. Yes. We have. And I heard that was great just to put a plug in. Yeah? Yeah. We had a school camp was fantastic, and then we also had our ESY services. And preschool. And our preschool two week camp. Okay. It's really awesome. I'm the summer camp. Thank you. That was great.
That's all I had. You're okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Does any Mike or Jerry? I'm good. You're all set. Caitlin, do you have any questions for Terry on the financial?
Yes. Stacy. I don't have any questions. No. I'm good. Thank you. I'm good.
Thank I'll take it. Okay. Liaison reports. Any school readiness update?
Nope. Right now, it's just the school readiness is doing a lot of polling right now, a lot of kindergarten age changes, just things like that. And so we are hoping that as funding increases in that early childhood. But our spots are filled. Good. That's that's fantastic.
Yep. Mike or Jerry, do you have any curriculum updates? No? Just PTA. We're we're ready to go. I I I've given Taylor all of our dates for the meetings, and thank you for updating the the page. I appreciate that. Thank you. Hopefully, we can get the meetings on the calendar. Yeah. Oh, perfect. Thank you. That'd good. See, now we're, like, thinking of things. Like, what can go on there. That would be great. Yeah. The Zoom link, I'll be your best friend. Thanks. But, no, we're we're excited. Hopefully, we are hopefully gonna get this playground to the finish line. So so we're we're working on that. So, hopefully, we'll have an update for everybody soon on that. So we're we're ready to go. Great. Alright. And I'm sorry. Go ahead, please. I was gonna leave. It's fine. Yeah. Thank you, Sheila. It's okay. It's okay. So just as the policy liaison, a couple things.
Don't know if we've actually recorded it, but we successfully concluded our teacher, contract negotiations. So we're actually done with that a year in advance. We did it early because their union liaison, retired, and so we were able to do it. Teachers were incredible. We did it in two meetings, and I spent a lot of time just making picky and grammatical changes and whatnot. But we're almost at the finish line on that one, so that's great. We were supposed to start, unfortunately, our mediation. I don't know if I should say unfortunately on the record, but with the noncirgs today. And, unfortunately, our attorney got very, very sick, and so we were not able to proceed, but that's where that stands. So we are going to mandatory mediation on that, and we'll have more to report at our October meeting because our first mediation session is not until after our September meeting. And I'll report more on the triboard committee policy because that was a substantial part of the Board of Finance, which I participated in.
And there was no CIP this month because there was nothing to address. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you, Shannon. Appreciate it.
Okay. Alright. Kinda moving down here. Items for discussion and action. Seven a, BOE goals. So we talked about this at our last meeting at our professional development, and we came up with the with the proposed goals that are on top of the agenda. This agenda. And if you so these are these are what we came up with. I know, Mike, you you were not there. But so these were the proposed goals. So I'll just give give you a minute to take a look at it. And what I'd like to do is just get a vote to accept the goals, but, Mike, I'll give you a minute to to take a look at them. I'm good. I I looked over. You looked over? Sorry. If it's just waiting on me, Phil. No. Okay. I just wanted to make sure you had an opportunity to take a look at it because didn't know where Thank you. Alright.
I make a motion that we accept the twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, BOE goals. I
can second. Thanks, Caitlin. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Alright. I I'm
gonna I'm saying I I read these goals, but I would rather see them more kid centered. Okay.
You know, I mean, capital plans for facilities. I mean, that's a great goal, but I think that as a board of education, we really should be focusing on the kids. That's just my own feeling from being in the classroom for eighteen years.
Okay. I mean, you were you were at the professional development, though, and we we talked about this. But, okay, if you wanna abstain, then okay. Then that's fine. Okay. Alright. But those will be the proposed those will be our goals for 2024 and 2025. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Update on solar. You're up, Ryan. Hi, everyone. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes.
Thank you so much. So my name is Ryan Lanieris, and I'm with, GreenSky's Clean Energy. It looks like you you do have a a packet there, I believe, that Titan Energy, I believe, provided for you. So I could provide an update, and then we could get into a slight redesign that we're looking at. So GreenSky has submitted for the state incentive program, and this is essentially like a lottery to get selected, and this was for this building at the school. And I think it took probably almost two and a half years to finally actually get, have our name selected out of the hat, and we were we received an award for this school in the spring of, of twenty twenty four. So that's a really it's a major hurdle to get over, and we're finally, on our way to, beginning the engineering process. Once that incentive is in hand, it enables us to start spending money on on engineers of record, electricians to come out to the site, which we did this summer,
and, study the roof of the building as well as, look inside the electrical room and be able to, really, basically un unscrew the cabinet and look at what we're dealing with in the inner workings of the of the building. So after a lot of due diligence and having our electrician and electrical engineer going out to site, what they, what they noticed was, that the school is being powered by a single phase equipment single phase power rather than three phase power, which most most schools, out of the hundreds of schools that we've built solar on here in Connecticut, I believe this is one of the first that we've seen with single phase power. That was interesting to us, but it wasn't a deal breaker. We were able to, actually able to structure the design of the array so that it could accommodate that that change in power load at the school. So what this means for our design is it reduced slightly, probably around, like, 16% in size, Essentially, western portion of the school cannot support solar on it. It it requires us to reduce how much power we're producing, And it also requires us to swap out some equipment, and we're fortunate that, the award happened this spring because now there is a technology that will enable us to to interconnect behind a single phase,
building. And by doing all of that and, you know, dropping the system size and bringing in new equipment, it does come at a a cost to GreenSky's. And although there's no money out of pocket to the board of ed or the school for this project, it's all financed through GreenSky's. It does impact the the our ability to sell power at the the rate that we have a contract for, which is 8¢ a kilowatt hour. So what we're asking in this meeting is to adjust the price per kilowatt hour that we sell, power to the school for.
So what you'll see, I believe it's on the fourth page of the the packet you have, is the original proposal, and this was prepared by Titan Energy who, I believe, buys power for for the school district. So when this original proposal, or contract was signed, it was for 8¢ a kilowatt hour for all the power that is produced on the roof. And at the time Eversource was or you were you were buying power for around, 15.5¢ per kilowatt hour. So the savings in year one, was around $21,000 a year. So what our change in the proposal looks like because of these added costs, can be seen on page five. What's interesting here is that as everyone is probably aware, just in your personal residences, Eversource has increased the cost of power pretty drastically. Based off what Tanya has provided, it looks like it's all in. Your cost is around at the school is 19.5¢ per kilowatt hour, and our solar power purchase agreement would be at 11.24¢ per kilowatt hour. So still, it's, close to cutting your bill in half. However, it is it is an increase. So we we just, in order for us to be able to build the project, this is the, reality that we're we're dealing with here.
I think over the life of the the project, with an 11.24¢ per kilowatt hour power purchase agreement And, you know, holding flat for twenty years is a really nice hedge against whatever sort could potentially impose, you know, ten years or fifteen years from now. And that's what we're accounting for in these these models here. So that's Could you repeat those numbers, please? All about that.
Yep. So page five, are you referring to? Yep. So, page five. I could just run down the the sheet if you'd like. It's, first first column is the year one through '20. Solar production is the next column. So that's how much, this the solar will produce on-site. And as you can see, that, depreciates over time, which is what is, we base it off. It's kind of a warranty that they provide to us. It will degrade by about half a percentage point a year. So we're accounting for that. Then there's the Eversource cost, and that's what you know, if if solar wasn't on-site, and what you're currently buying power for is is is 19.5¢ per kilowatt hour. That's the generation and the distribution to get the power to your site. So it's both, the supply and the delivery. And what that does is it escalates, and this is from Eversource. It escalates at about two and a half percent per year. And in this year, you can see it escalated probably closer to, like, 15%. And then the solar dollar per kilowatt hour, this is what instead of you buying power from Eversource, you would buy it from the solar array,
and this comes out to 11.24¢ per kilo kilowatt hour. And what's great about solar is it's a flat rate. So this is what you would buy power for twenty years from now. So it's a as I was saying before, it's a great hedge against utility inflation prices. So and then the most important column here is the annual savings, which, in year, year 10 is probably the best or the average to look at, which is about $22,000 a year in savings. Cumulatively, it's it's close to half $1,000,000, $466,000 in savings, just for installing solar. Thank you. Yep. So it looks like
I have a question. What happens after the twentieth year?
So after the twentieth year, what's interesting is our our the warranty on our solar panels is a thirty year warranty, and we're required to buy our panels from, the the leading manufacturers here in The United States. So what, in most cases, we would probably, us and, you know, assuming the board of that is willing at the time, we could negotiate a new power contract. At that time, utility rates will be close to 30¢ per kilowatt hour. So it would probably be advantageous probably for both parties to enter into another contract. However, no one's obligated to do so. So if if we cannot structure a new power contract deal, it's our responsibility to remove the system from the from the group.
Ryan, I had a question. Well, two questions. So because we don't have triple phase, we have single phase. If during the life of the twenty years, we ever did upgrade our power system here, our electrical system here, is that something that could be accommodated still with solar?
Yes. It it could. Unfortunately, it won't it won't be able to change Right. Our power contract because we're gonna have to buy the the very expensive inverters to to accommodate single base, but it won't restrict you from an electrical upgrade. We've looked at we looked before we presented you with this offer, we've looked at what that cost may be, and it's it's, yeah, it's a sticker shock. So I I wouldn't even want to, present you, with that. But, you know, I I think it's probably something that Eversource should be doing, especially for a school. Single phase power is, I I don't think I've seen it before for school, which is interesting.
I was just asking because I wanted to make sure, you know, and for the board to hear that if, let's say, at some point in the future, there was some grant offer for us to do upgrade, that this wouldn't stop us from applying and being able to do that because we have this. I just wanna make sure we weren't limited. And then my second question is, Jeff, I wanna make sure I'm reading these charts right. So with the original proposal, it was year three that we would have seen the solar cost at 8¢ versus the Eversource at $16.04 5 $16.01 3, then we would have, at that point, been paying half as much with solar per kilowatt hour. And with the new proposal, because we're single phase, that still happens, but not until we get to year eight. Correct? If you're reading the chart on those proposals, that's how you read that chart. Right?
That's how I read that, and that's assuming that Eversource doesn't have any more tricks up their sleeves. But, yeah, that's that's correct. So
it is so it's a slower process because we're single phase, but we get there still by year eight where we're 50% of what we would have been paying otherwise.
Thank you. Ryan, have to answer a question too. What is the impact of the solar panels on the roof?
Yep. So what what we do is there's two ways to attach the system. On a flat roof, it's much different than what you'll see in a typical residential install where they they penetrate the, shingles of the roof. In this case, what we aim to do is a bal fully ballasted system. So, we'll put the racking, the silver racking on the roof, and you bring up, they're basically, like like, small cinder blocks that you're doing to hold them down from the wind, but there wouldn't be any penetrations on the roof. And that's just, what we have to do next is do a structural analysis of the building, and that's done by a third party structural engineer. And it does require that there is a decent amount of pounds per square foot that we can install the ballast system on because when you're bringing in small bricks, you're adding a lot of pound poundage per square foot. The alternative is no ballast, and it's a penetrated system, which for every penetrated system we've done, it's always maintained the roof warranty. So a lot of these roof manufacturers are are used to or dealing with solar companies, and that's something that we work directly with them on to ensure that the warranty remains in place. So we we try to go the ballast route first. And, usually, older buildings like this is, they're built, the structure of them are actually more sound than what you'll see in some of the newer schools.
So in these cases, we tend to stick to a ballistic system.
Thank you, Ryan. Yep. Does any does anybody have any other questions for Ryan? Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate your taking your time tonight to present this to us. Thank you. Of course. Does
anybody have any other questions? So I just wanted to clarify. The next step, Ryan, is a structural engineer assessment. And any idea on the timing of that?
Yeah. So what we've done, as soon as the the electrical issue was discovered, we hit the pause button button on additional work, because we wanted to resolve this this, pricing issue first. But what will happen is our we've already flown a drone over overhead, which is very important to understand all of the roof structures on-site. We've done the electrical review. So what is likely next is going to be a structural review. What we try to do is have people in the school either on the weekends or a holiday. And knowing that we're going into the school year, we're not gonna, we're not gonna go in when when students are in the school. So that will be our next step, and then it's gonna determine what type of racking component we can install.
I think first,
yeah. For so the immediate next step would be to try to adjust the the power purchase agreement, and then the next step would be to coordinate a structural analysis of the, of the building. And that's done by a third party?
Yes. And that's a requirement so that the obviously, there's no bias with, you know, the the company. And so we we hire a third party to do it, and we also will have to go get a building and electrical permit with the town. So they're gonna review all of our drawings and make sure that the the system is to code. Okay. Alright.
So I think what's next is that we just I think the possible action that we need to take tonight is just to notify the town of our intent to follow through with this. So I think that that's what You need a motion to that effect? I think so. I think that that probably is that do you think that yeah. Okay.
I'll move that we notify the town that we're intending to install the solar panel. Okay. A second, please. Thank you, Mike. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
Caitlin? Caitlin? Okay. Obstention. Obstained. Okay. So four four yes and one abstention. Okay.
Who who notifies them? Do do you notify them, Val, or how does this Sure. I'll put a letter together. Okay. Let them know, and I'll contact Ryan for the details so that the letter is accurate. Okay. And then I'll send it to you, Celeste, and and, you know, you can certainly send it over. Okay. Alright. I'll sign it or or help. Okay. Alright. Beautiful. I'm I'm sorry, guys. I had to step away for a second.
Just and my phone is charging. So do we have we had to revote on the solar? Or
No. So we made a motion to notify the town of our intent to follow through with solar with the solar prod So just to approve the motion? We're just looking for your vote. Yes.
I'm yes. Alright. So all in favor. Okay. Thanks, Kate. Yep. Okay. So 500. Okay. Alright. Okay. So, Val, you'll put together a letter. We'll send it. Okay. Thank you, Ryan. I think we're all set for tonight. Appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Have a good one. Thanks. Bye. Okay. Before on July town meetings. Okay.
I'll try to make it as quick as possible. I I would I greatly appreciate that you put this forward, Celeste. I think it's a great idea. I would like to add to the idea. Okay. And the idea is that whoever is responsible for the board meetings each month should be responsible for looking at the agendas ahead of time to determine if a board of ed as the a board of ed representative, you might need to speak during the meeting. So I was able to do that with these two past meetings. It's it's very different if you just are watching it afterwards and then reporting to the board of ed, but I think there needs to be a whatchamacallit, an affirmative action that needs to be taken, proactive action,
to see if if there's an item on the agenda that you might need to speak on on behalf of the board of ed. Okay. But I would caution, though,
speaking on behalf of the board Yeah. I couldn't have said that one because that's up to you as our spokesperson. Right. I guess what I would say is when I commented, it was they did ask me questions about the tribor policy, for example. Right. Right. I was thinking more in the sense of just being there to be aware and public comment. And if there is a question of the board of ed, not being the spokesperson, but being able to answer questions. So for example, Joanne Hubert was on, and because she often comes to our meetings Right. She was able to clarify something about something Eric said at the board of select meeting, for example. Right. Board of select meeting. So that's just an idea. Okay. I mean, I I just think it's important Yep. To look at the agenda ahead of time and see if what's gonna be on there about the board of elect. You know? I I agree with that. I I think that that's that's good. I just I just
would caution just engaging in comment and and representing the board because it it's it it it it's a slippery slope. That that's all I'm saying. Absolutely. But I totally I totally agree. Yep.
Okay. So at the board of selectmen meeting, Celeste has already clarified this, so we'll talk about this next month. But Jeff McGuire for selectmen did talk about this diff account. The only thing just to add to what Celeste passed out tonight is that I would have a question about is when he talked about combining AES funding into the account to maximize the interest, what's he talking about? So that's the question there because we just separated our bank accounts, and I think it's important that we continue to have separate bank accounts. So are we looking at the stiff account maybe being from our 2% nonlapsing, which is pretty steady, or maybe the capital fund that that we're creating? So that was my only question there. Okay.
It wouldn't apply in the operating budget. Well, that's the question.
So I I that's what I don't know, and that's for Celeste to talk about. And I that's the deal with when we talk about this diff account. I just wanted to put it out there Mhmm. That for our consideration, I think that's something we we need to question. Because Jeff has said on the record that he wanted to have as much combined money, including the AES balance in this DIF account to earn as much interest as possible. Okay. And then Eric commented on alternatives that he and the treasurer, Cheryl, have been considering, and I'll talk more about that when we talk about this diff account in our September meeting. Now board of finance meeting, was really good that I was on there, because they spent a lot of time talking about the triboard policy. And a lot of it was, responding to Eric's statements to the board of finance about the triboard policy. So bottom line, I I can read through all of my notes, but I don't think that's necessary. My basic sense and Kim is oh, Kim is no longer here. Okay. My basic sense is that there is tremendous support on the board of finance for allowing us to have a capital fund, which feels great.
They talked about how it's not the 2% nonlapsing account. And by law, We're we don't now need the board of finances approval on that. And I think one thing that was really important, and I'm trying to get my notes so I say it accurately. Mark, as the chair, I thought it was really great that he said it would not bother me for the board of ed to put extra money from its budget into a capital fund. So that's kinda getting at what we've been talking about, which is if we have money left over, not just being able to put in the 2% nonlapsing left you, but to also being able to put it in our capital fund, which would be great. So where that now stands is I'm now sending that to the town attorney at the board of finances request. They're gonna consider it hopefully at their next meeting after the input of the town attorney, and their meeting, I believe, is next week. And then I'll pass it. And Eric asked that I I provided to him. I thought I already had. And then but then we'll put it forth for the board of selectments consideration. The only question that the board of finance had for itself is whether it needs to be compatible with their purchasing policy, but that's up to them to determine. And the final thing that they discussed was the schedule of school, quote, unquote, means. And what that meant, I was a little concerned when I saw that on the agenda, is the monthly distribution to the board of ed,
which is budgeted. Our budget is divided into 10 equal payments. And why we had not been paid by the time that they had their meeting on July 24, according to Eric, was that the treasurer hadn't felt comfortable making the payments to the board of ed, without a schedule that had been approved by the board of finance, even though they'd done it last year, in that manner without such an approval. But they approved the levy schedule at the Board of Finance meeting on July 24.
That's all. Awesome. Thank you, Shannon, for doing that. Appreciate it. Sure. Thank you. That was a great idea. You're welcome. Does anybody have anything to add? Or I know it's it's for for discussion. I'm I'm still seeing there.
Minutes from the agenda from the beginning on August 12.
So we're gonna talk about August next month, if if that's okay. Or That's fine with me. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk about we'll put August on September and then and then so on. We've got a lot there. Yeah. Okay. So what's it who's next month? Your next month? So he's August. He's this month. I'm September. You're September. Okay. And then the next meeting, we'll sign it in September. Yep. Yep. Okay. So My guess is it's gonna be a special meeting before a slut hand. Okay. Before September. I think before August 31. Okay. For the charter revision stuff? I believe so. Yeah. I would imagine so. Positive. Yep. So if you could just prepare everything for the next meeting for the August for for the meeting. Like I said, this one here is next to it. Okay. Yep. And I'll go to board finance. Okay. Great, Jerry. Thank you. I appreciate it.
And Thank you. Yeah. And I think we'll definitely looking after we've done it ahead of time. I just think I just think talking in a meeting is just it's it's a slippery slope. But Yep. But thank you, Shannon, for for doing that. I appreciate it. Alright. So, Jerry, you're up for August. I'm up for September. And then in September, we'll assign the months for for for the rest of the Great. For the the upcoming months. Okay. Building inspections. Okay. Go ahead, though. So
I will go through a little bit more detail. I sent you guys in front of you. You have Yep.
Yep. Which one do have in front of you? The two. You want the HVAC or the bathroom?
Okay. So let's do the HVAC one first. So the HVAC is the one that is that new mandatory requirement that came down. It needs to be done once every five years. They did extend it so that because districts have, obviously, lots of schools, they changed. They altered the legislation just a little bit to say 20% of your schools. Well, of course, we're only one school, so it's be our one school. And they did say that you did not have to begin it until the end of next school year. However, I mentioned this once before. I do want us to consider doing it before the end of next school year because right now, DAS has funding. So if it's done, there's corrective action that needs to be done, we can apply for grants. You cannot apply for a grant or use, a grant to pay for the actual inspection. But what you can do then is apply for a grant for the corrective action. And so you do need an agency that does these sorts of inspections. I will tell you I know it's an entirely separate school, but in Scotland, I had met with my board there and said, like, we're never gonna be able to afford to do this. So if we do it now and there's corrective action that's needed, at least, you know, we could apply with DAS. And so when they came out, this company here, Fuss and O'Neil, when they came out to do the initial, quote, it was actually within two weeks of when there was an opening. And they've been doing them in some larger districts. They've been doing them down in Fairfield County,
and those were the districts that probably didn't need the funding, but had been applying for the funding. And so we had made the decision over there that we were just gonna jump on it. And we jumped on it, and they actually did do it the week of August 5. So I'm lucky that I have a little bit of information to give you as to what it is that they do do when they come out. So they had, they did testing and balancing. They had one of their, contracted companies come and do field measurements of the HVAC system and the ventilation rates. Basically, they come in and they look and they see ventilation rates there in or out to make sure that those rates are in accordance with, you know, guidelines. And they did physical measurements of the outside air delivery rates for every room. So they take a map, and they go room by room, and they keep their calculations. They did verification of the appropriate conditions of the ventilation components, again, you know, making sure that everything was within working order.
They did documentation of any observed deficiencies in the system in addition to so anything that was broken, anything that needed to be fixed, motors and things. And then they identified which system serves each space, so they kinda followed things through for the airflow in each area. And then they come up with a BMS, a b a business building management system reading versus the actual readings. So when they came through of course, yes, I had to have them write it down for me because I'm like, okay. Can you write that down so I can remember that? Because I know I won't. But one thing for the board to consider is, we do have to have it done. It's not optional. And so I I think that it that is something that we should consider contracting with and then setting up a timeline for because it did take them for they were there probably from eight till, like, one, one thirty, four days for them to do us. And they do like to because they go room by room, and they've got a template, and they, you know, comprehensively are making sure that everything's there. And they did come ahead of time to, like, pick up the plans and make sure that they were, you know, in the know prior to. So that is something I I would like you guys to consider.
I also do feel that, the ventilation evaluation and the IAQ reporting, since they go hand in hand, as I mentioned to you, I keep saying those last three reports, I'm gonna need help with. Those last three reports, I'm gonna need help with. Going with an oversight company that is doing these throughout the state has its advantages because they can help with those three. We wouldn't have to hire somebody else to come in and help with those IAQ reports. I could have those IAQ reports filled out as a result of this. And I did inquire with Buss and O'Neil. If there's corrective action that needs to be done, will you help with the grants? And they say that's part of their job too. So,
built into their, cost is for them to take us through, what is your plan for corrective action. And what I do with these things is I go to the state website, and I pull out, what needs to be reported just like I've done with this one. When when we have the the tools for schools, those six, I say, okay. What is it that they are gonna ask us to report? So I was able to pull that report from the state and see, you know, how how much do we actually have to report. And you do. You have to tell them what the qualification was of the
certified person that was doing evaluations. Did you have corrective action that needed to be done? What was it? And so that is what needs to be reported to them every five years when you're moving forward. So whether you act on this or not tonight, this is something that in the short term, I think we absolutely do need to do. There isn't, you know, any local person that's gonna be able to do that. We are definitely going to have to have, somebody do that. So that's the HVAC one, for building inspection. The other one is at the Ahara, the asbestos as I was referring to before. And when, we talk about that asbestos one that I had sent out to you guys Yep. You emailed that one. I may email that one to you. When I was preparing that, I went back through, and that has to be done every three years. So I went back through all of our records to try to see, like, you know, what was it like for us prior to? Because there wasn't one done in 2020, 2021, and I'm guessing that because school was closed at the end of twenty going into '21, and there were so many other guidelines that the state never notified districts, like, you're not in compliance.
And they're just catching up to that now. We did have a very valid asbestos hazard, Viajera, asbestos hazard emergency response act plan, in 2018. This is what it was. This is what it looked like. And, ironically, it was done by Foss and O'Neill. That was in 2018 who the board decided at that time to go with, and it was comprehensive. The only thing I will say so there's a lot in here that will help them to prepare one if we went with them again. But they've come up with a management plan in 2018 that, didn't at that time include, and I don't think it had to to the same comprehensive level that it has to now. It didn't include the training for either a custodian or another facilities and operations person that has to do the periodic inspection, the surveillance inspection, they call it, that happens on a three month basis. So from that point in 2018, I would say that's probably where we fell off the compliance, you know, railroad there, and they just didn't say anything. I then went back further and said, okay. So if we had Fuss and O'Neil do our 2018, who did our one three years earlier and three years earlier, and lo and behold, the two prior to that were also not my fuss and o meal.
So it would be my recommendation to the board since they've been literally doing it here since 2012 that and we were always in compliance up until then that, again, whether it's something that's already gone now or we wait till, you know, the the near future, that we have them come back and, you know, repeat what they have successfully done because they did take care of this property for, over six years. Anyways, two full ones. So that that would be my recommendation there. And then the good part is if we put ourselves in compliance with this, the new new head custodian, Scott, would be that point person that would go through the training and then make sure that we, in house, do the surveillance every three months, six months. And then we wouldn't have to worry about this again moving forward for three more years. And what I would make sure we do is keep that on the radar for budgeting purposes, potentially, either in our budget the next year that it has to come up or in putting money into the capital account, as an unbudgeted something that every three years comes out of there. And so, you know, that that we can talk about that when the time comes. But so that's why I sent you the one from Fuss and O'Neil, and that's what I would suggest with that one for the asbestos. Okay.
Oh. Yeah. But she hasn't tried. Right? I didn't miss her. No. I've been I've been looking. Sorry.
No. Go ahead, Jared. I'm sorry. Did a lot of research here. Yep. Had a lot of experience with this company. She had good experience with the company, and they seem to work to a quality of presentation of what they find in the building, and they should they support you as well as doing the work.
That's why I put that motion out there. So so your motion was? To allow the superintendent
to hire Disgust. Plus O'Neill for the what is it, hazardous materials? For the Avera asbestos. Yeah. Second
motion to have a contract. Yeah. I was gonna say I'll second the motion so we can have a discussion.
You wanna just do it for asbestos, or you're do it for Well, that was my question.
So what did you want to do it for? I know Ahora So HVAC.
Right? I think yes. I do think that the board should consider utilizing them for both. Like I said, for the Gahera, for the asbestos simply because they were the ones that were the caretakers of this building for multiple times. And and I understand you're short people tonight, so, you know, just we could we could do whatever we need to do with that. But I also would like them to be considered for the HVAC inspection as well because they are I know that there are, you know, probably other companies out there doing the same thing, but I I feel like they would take us through that new five year process. We haven't had to do it before and be able to help us through potentially receiving grants for DAS. Well, you've been proven track record with them. Right? Well, we do here with they they were the ones that took care of it, those other mandated inspections before. So if you guys do wait till September, one other piece that I could offer you at that meeting is the results of the one that they're doing for me in Scotland right now. So that may be helpful for you to actually be able to see what their report is and what they were reporting with corrective action and those sorts of things. So we would have an advantage there, you know, if you say, let's pull off on that. I'd like to kinda see how it ended up for you over there, not midway, and I'd be glad to, you know, kinda share what it is they were able to do in the end. But the motion is for Arahiro. Right? Right. So, mean, that they've done it four years or three at least three years that we know about. Well, it's every three years that it gets done. So they actually did it for us for 2012, 2015, and 2018. From '20 they they did the first inspection in 2011.
Okay. And nobody's done one since. We didn't have one in 2021, but they took care of it from 2011 to 2020. Okay.
Yeah. It was big. So it just makes sense with the cost benefit analysis. They already know the building. Right. They're probably just doing an update. Yeah. I'm wondering if there would be a grant for this. You can't ever do a grant for,
the inspection portion. Okay. And based on and I went through our reports. Based on what our reports looked like with the last inspections, we shouldn't have corrective action for the asbestos one.
So how are we paying for all of this, though? Because I'm looking at the estimated fees, and the total is $48,000.
No. No. That's the bathroom. No. I'm looking The one that you're looking at for Okay. Right. 22,000.
Okay. The one that okay. The bathroom I have, the HVAC I have. I don't have the inherent That one went to you guys. Oh, yeah. That's by email. Yeah. Okay.
But how are we paying for all of this? So the
asbestos one first of all, that whenever we do do it this year, it's it's a mandate anyways. You know? Yep. That one, because it's a mandate and it's nonbudgeted, whether it comes out of capital or whether it comes out of our budget this year, I would say that it could also come out of 2%. Okay. So it's a you know, it's it's it's something for the building. I would say that the and that one, again, we don't have to have a the school closed for a week for this one. I would say with that one, that it would be viable to run that line over. And in our budget, with a note on there every month that says due to the AHARA inspection due to the AHARA inspection. And at the end of the year, if there is surplus money in there, we transfer it from the other portion of the budget and move it to there. I know someone might get nervous with us saying that, but in the five years, that this board's well, no. Not everybody's been here for five years. But four years, anyways, that we've all been together, we have had a surplus of $10,000 at the end of the year every single year. So I think that the chances are very good percentage wise that there would at least be that money there to transfer over there to Cottaback. Okay. So you know? Okay. And then the HVAC one is 22. Right. The HVAC is is higher.
And I know that because that's based on square footage. Yeah. It's a certain amount of money per square foot. And, again, that one, we'd be doing early. But we'd be doing early so that if, in fact, we did need corrective action. Again, they couldn't even put us on a schedule. I mean, if you think about it, Christmas, April vacation, or the summer. So waiting on that one is right now, I think the conversation needs to be here, and we need to figure out if we're gonna go with them. You could always say, let's do Fuss and O'Neil for the, asbestos and see if we like them, and then move forward on the other one. We could wait because they have the school has to be closed during the week for them to do the HVAC. So our options, we couldn't even get put on their calendar right now. Anyways, we missed the summer window. So it's September, October, you know, either of those two meetings, would be acceptable as well for us to bring that back on. The the Ahara one is the pressing. That that one is Well, they're both pressing, but the Ahara, we don't have the same time limit, time frame. You know, we can't say, well, we've got three, four more years. That one we do have to do because we're not in compliance with that one now. Okay. So that one we really need to have done by the end of the just add in the proposals, it says that
these are only good for ninety days. So that this would only be good until October. Yeah. And I don't I you you sent us the the asbestos and school buildings, the the compression stuff, but I don't
I'm looking for It said July 16 on the top. July 16. Hazardous building material consulting services. I'm
sure it's just Yep. Gonna Yeah. Can give you this message. I
got it. I got it. You got it? Yeah. I got it. Thank you. Yeah. So
okay. So I just have one. Okay. So the the corrected action funding for corrective action for the HVAC, you said Yeah. There's possible Yes. There's possible grants. There is still grant money with the AF. So does does the HVAC have to be done by a certain time? Yes. If it's about there's a timeline, when we get that done or to be qualified for any grant funding? No.
There's to be in compliance, there's a timeline. Okay. The grant funding is just gone when it's gone. So as long as you're you're you meet compliance within a given time frame
Yes. You're okay? Yes. But if grant funding comes so we have three years, is it? On that one, you have five years. Five years. So if there's a grant fund Grant money available now. It's there won't be grant money after that. Right. So that's why I bring that to you guys now. I could say, oh, we'll wait for that next year's Well, tell me how much time is there that that grant fund's available for? It's still gone. That's it. So right now, if 50 districts in the state of Connecticut are doing it right now like I just did in Scotland and everybody applies for it, when that money's gone, it's gone. See, like, I hear that to me. It says if if we gotta do it anyways at some point, so you do it as soon as you can. Like, if you wanna meet a corrective action And that's why I said No. I mean we actually, like, jumped on it over there,
because the first electman and the board chair and I were talking about it, and it's like, if we wait, we're never gonna afford it. So it's not like you can say, well, well, let's wait and see if we can afford it next year. So the town, First Selectman over there had said to me, like, listen. If you guys run your budget over and at the end of the year, you don't have enough and it's, you know, pencils down the end of June, we give you permission to take it out of the capital account because I'd rather have you do it now when you have an opportunity to to get grant funding.
That's for me. Yeah. I would do this ASAP. I would do it. Well, you need to amend the motions.
K. Do you have to amend the motion? I would do them separately. You could do steps. Make another motion. Okay. So the motion right now Is the Ahora asbestos, whether or not I can move forward with scheduling
that with return the permission to move forward. And I second your name. And you seconded it. And we had a discussion. Alright. Excellent. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Alright. Four zero zero. Yep. Okay. And then
do so we wanna make another motion? Make a motion separate for the HVAC. Mhmm. So I motion to approve, the superintendent to go through with the, work for the HVAC verifications and evaluations project. With the With Fresenonia. Certainly.
K. And you just we've we've discussed it. So all in favor? Aye. Aye. 400. Okay. Excellent. Thank you.
So and, again, during the course of the year, we'll run that line, but Cherry will probably, at some point, you know, just keep reminding you, you know, where we are. I I say on the pluses and the minuses. As grants come in where she says, okay. It's not done yet, but we do have this money in this that we'll be able to transfer over. Okay? So we will make sure that we add that every month Mhmm. To kind of where we are with that so that you guys know. So Great. Thank you. Great. That's awesome. Thank you.
Alright. Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. Plumbing project. Keep on going. Moving along. Yeah. Okay. O'Neil here. Yep. So
what we were working on for the past couple of months with that bathroom project is remember, let me just go back for one sec. So we had Aztec, and Aztec was for let's see. Aztec was for oversight of the planning process for the plumbing job that needs to be done. And you guys know we you know, it was dated June 10. You have this. The conversation with us and the board was whether or not this was the the company that we wanted to go with for oversight. It was brief, and it said, you know, hey. This looks a little high for what's in here. Just to reiterate, some of the concerns, you know, that we had here on this end were in phase one on that Aztec plan. They talked about drawing developments, but not for architectural designs. They had talked about working with, and this was a reading word for word from their original proposal there, work with the town to develop. And they had said that on three occasions under the assumption, I think, that we had, like, a facilities and operation department like some towns do and some schools do,
where we would have our own oversight people. So that was kind of a little bit of a concern. Under contracts and documents, they did talk about, a detailed scope will be developed using the SD phase, but this proposal is based on the following likely scope items. And so they did talk about, a scope of of a small number of things, leaving the window open there for if it was more than that, the cost would go up. So these were some of the things that we were concerned with here at the school. Under the construction period, they said associated sketches. It were fired, but they did not mention us having, again, architectural drawings. And they did say that they would attend a couple of up to two site visits to review progress of the construction and to confirm to contract documents. What we were really concerned with was the things that it didn't include. It didn't include structural engineering designs. It didn't include specific front end contracts, which said would be prepared by the town, and we don't have a person to prepare those. It didn't include HVAC, fire protection, or electrical upgrades, which, of course, that doesn't it's probably not gonna be included in anybody's, any upgrades.
And it was based on being limited solely to the plumbing and general renovations, architectural only. It didn't include issuing, submitting your to the state's school construction or facilities office for funding approval. So they also talked about the fact that they were not and this was their initial proposal, of course, but that it it didn't include them knowing what what the ADA requirements were for school in their visit. So that's why we reached out, to somebody else. The one that Brie had suggested we reach out to, she gave us the name of it that last meeting. Were yeah. They were, like, a construction company, not an oversight umbrella, like, an MEP company. And so, you know, they would have been a company that would have bid underneath whomever it was, either Aztec or a Fuss and O'Neil or one of those companies. They were not the the top dog. So then I had sent to you for the bathroom, I had sent to you the one that came in as your fuss. And, again, I know you are probably absolutely not ready to make a decision on this,
especially short people. But Short people.
Well, I'm a short person. Oh, Caitlin's not gonna read that.
Right. I'm just She's teething me. Being a shattered. Oh. But some of the things for your review of this It was late. It was just a guess. I'm so sorry. It's a feature that I do want you to notice in theirs because I did send this, to you guys, and their scope sequence and oversight was way more comprehensive. So it included the things that were in as text and then some. I can suggest that we have somebody from FUSS, like we had Ryan tonight Mhmm. Come next meeting so that they could answer some of those questions for you guys because, so under the schematic design, that phase one, if we were just looking at where some of the differences were from the more limited one that we got in Aztec to this one, they talk about conceptual layouts for the bathroom. So they're about designing it as well, not just, you know, oversight of, bringing in somebody for an RFP. They're going to say, let's look at what would a boys bathroom look like for a pre k to six. That's one of the things they asked when they came for the visit. Who uses this bathroom? So so that conceptual layout is there, with this one. On the phase two, they thought they, have in here on the contract documents, the CD, addressing ADA requirements if if it is required. So they are about compliance and about making sure that we look at,
all of those compliance issues. Under number two on phase two, they do address with contract documents submission, permit level drawings for architectural and plumbing systems. Those are your a drawings that not only we keep, but then you submit on the town site as well. So the, those are all included there, which they weren't in the other proposal. Bidding support, same as with Aztec, that they're there for pre bidding conferences and and RFPs. Construction administration, so all the way down through to construction inspections as well. So when I asked the vice president of the company kinda what you mean by that, I said, so are we looking at you are then the oversight person for us, us and O'Neil would be with this proposal all the way through until they start the demolition and do the renovation? And she said, yes. That is what we're proposing, that we then become that oversight for you guys all the way through to that point. The other thing was on the next page there, on page three, they were very attuned to mandates like we were just talking about with asbestos, with HVAC, with things like that. And on number five, it says hazard material inspections or abatement designs are not included. However, they're required by law, and F and O is submitting a separate proposal for that, which they did for our HVAC and our asbestos. Mhmm. So by doing HVAC and asbestos with them, we wouldn't be paying again to have that done because they would know the state of affairs. Okay. Aztec never mentioned that,
and that was one of the concerns for me is that they were talking about coming in and overseeing a project without looking at environmental concerns on a bathroom that's very old. And so I hadn't thought of that until I met with Elizabeth Landry from Fosse and Oneo. She said, you know, a little concerned that you haven't mentioned that yet because that is something that would have to be done. And I thought, she's absolutely right. I hadn't thought of that. And so I do like that all of those things are thought of in in here. So I I do think that, you know, it it is it is a big chunk of money. But I feel that if we look solely at the price with the other ones, similar to Aztec, and I'm sure we probably could have found four companies to come in with something price wise as similar as theirs, that we'd be looking at more money in the long run once we took one of those companies because the comprehensiveness
just isn't there. So I do feel that this is a very upfront quote that says, yeah, sticker shock 48, but we're gonna take you through this, this, this, and this and hopefully have nothing that is unforeseen. And then it also says that the school would like to replace the sink in the janitor's closet. The janitor's closet's in
the there so when you go upstairs, I think you walked through with us. So the first girl's bathroom has currently two toilets in it, and then around, it has a slop sink right in there Okay. Cool. For cleaning, which is not ideal. And then when you look at the plumbing, before you hit the boys' bathroom on the other side of that door, there is attached to the same plumbing, another little closet. When you open the closet, there is a sink in there. That's a slap sink for the custodians. Okay. So, yes, absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up, but it doesn't make sense to do the boys' bathroom and the girls' bathroom and that single stall one that's in that other room without making sure that that one it'd be like doing a and c and d and not b. So yes. Because the purpose here is that we'll probably get this done and never doing these again in any of our life plans here. That's right. Maybe like maybe like me. So
I don't know if we'll still be on the board the next time they do that.
You know? Thank you. I am. Hello. I was looking across the street, and I'm so sorry. I know you might have.
I'm getting plenty. Okay. I'm okay with this. Okay. But I would like to just pause on this because we don't have Brie here, and we don't have Caitlin here. And there's there's yes. There is a sense of urgency on this because these bathrooms are We have other bathrooms, Celeste. But we have other bathrooms. And I just wanna give time and attention for Brie and for Caitlin to look at it. So What's
that? Suppose we don't end up in I don't think we No. We won't. Good. And and if we just put a minute in question. Yeah. Would you like me to invite
somebody from that company for the next meeting? I think so. I yeah. I mean, for what we don't we don't have too much on September, so I think it would be helpful to just have it, but I don't I don't wanna do anything on that's my that's what I wanna do. I don't wanna do anything. I I think it's different. Like, where's the last thing you're talking about? Brand funding being time sensitive. That's what I'm saying. This is Agreed. Question. Yeah. Yeah. We got time. We're paying for this. Right. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So
okay. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate the Yeah. Participation. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I will. I'll invite somebody to come next month. Because at the very least, no matter what your decision is, whether you're gonna use them for that or not, they will be able to explain a lot more so that if you guys had chosen to go with somebody else, at least I know what you're asking for too. You say to the next company, you know You do this. We need you to include this in your proposal. Like I said, the fact that they were talking about, environmental stuff wasn't in Aztecs, we would have to ask another company. We would like this included. It's it's definitely informative and educational for all of us. So thank thank you, Val. Thank you. I didn't mean to cut you off. No. No. No. Okay. Alright. And and I do want us to publicly remind people that we have other bathrooms that we are using. So please do not think that there's not enough bathrooms here to use right now for the children. We are okay. We are okay for right now. It isn't ideal, but it's absolutely right now fine. Okay. Thank you, Val. I appreciate you saying that. Thank you. And for right now, I think we'll just put this on hold. We'll put it on the September 11 meeting.
And if you could have somebody move us on, that that would be fantastic. Thank you. Okay.
Comments from the public on agenda items. I don't see anybody here. Okay? Okay. I'm gonna make a motion, Celeste. Yes. It is quarter of nine, and we are missing two members. And as much as I would love to do the evaluations, I'm questioning whether or not we wanna do them or need to do them, and I just wanted to put it out there.
So I share that concern as well. I don't know what happened to Caitlin. I know she had said something about
about Then you can delete something from the agenda. You don't have to proceed. I know it's a special meeting, and we have to follow the agenda, but I don't think we have to proceed if we don't wanna proceed. So maybe we can make a motion to go into executive session. We'll come out immediately, but if that's what needs to happen procedurally. I just wanted to put it out. No. I just I I I'm tired of it. I think you guys are here. We don't I don't know what happened to Caitlin, and I I think definitely
in what we're going to in the last year. Correct. I think we need to have our our members here. Mike, do you have any feeling No. I mean, I I think that having more people here to talk about those two things would be effective. So as long as there's no issues with
Proceeding with that. Yep. You know? I don't see Okay. Problem with it. Okay, Jerry. I'm okay with it. Okay.
Do we have to go in and out? Why don't we do that? I'm going we go into executive session for the purpose of the board of education self evaluation and superintendent evaluation. 846. Second. Second. Excellent.
All in favor? Aye. Okay. So that's four zero zero. Now? So Yes.
Okay. We are now out of executive session. It is 08:55.
I would like to make a motion that we add to our September agenda that we have an additional executive session for the same purpose to continue with the board self evaluation and the superintendent evaluation.
K. Can I get a second? Second. Jerry, thank you. All in favor? Aye. 400. Thank you. Okay. Upcoming meeting, which is going to be on September 11. At that point, we will have report on August town meetings from Jerry. And at that point, I'll assign. I have September, but then we can assign the subsequent months. I know we talked about Russ and O'Neil coming in September. It might be better to have it in October. Does anybody else have anything that they that they can think of right now to be on the September meeting? I know the account. The STIF account. We'll talk about that. And then also new board member. Yep. Okay. So I have STIF account. I have a new board member, and we have the executive session. And we'll move the bathroom rental to October. Okay. And assign the meeting months. Okay. Anything else? Motion again. Shannon, thank you. Very good. Thank you, Jared. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Zero zero. Okay. We are adjourned at 08:57.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks. Sorry about