School Committee: January 22, 2025

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:15 hi Al how are you good good how you doing oh fantastic living the

0:27 dream so um I am going to call us to order at 1 p.m. just to let everybody know we are live streaming which will go to an automatic um upload on um the website and I will open it for public comment if anybody has any public comment if you could just raise your hand all right I don’t see any public comment um that will move us to the facilities update for the districtwide update um if you can take over on that Mike sure so um I think we’re at the point where we need to make a recommendation to the school committee or the subcommittee should make a recommendation to the school committee on which option we uh see ideal for the roof and HVAC project at the mobile head

1:16 high school so um just to kind of dial this in We believe We have the majority of the funds for the roof already allocated the additional funds there would be some additional funds needed for design and um installation and removal removal and installation of the old HVAC and and install the new HVAC uh I did meet with Alicia a little very briefly um the the difference the amount we need for the hbac work is about $8.6 million that’s what we’re pretty much uh short from the funding um she’s hoping that we will be so here’s here’s the situation is the brown school has not closed out yet and when that closes out we should see about 1.6 milon from

2:02 the brown school that we would go to town meeting and ask them to reallocate that $1.6 million not spent at Brown School on the high school roof the problem is is that we won’t be able to do that until next may may of 26 because msba will not close this will not have this project closed out before we get to town meeting this year so in order to do this the right way we would need to if we went with option option A or A1 which is re-roof and do all the HVAC work we would need to go to town meeting this year and ask for a dead exclusion for $8.6

2:46 million at May town meeting of next year before the debt exclusion is closed before we’ve borrowed all the money um we would have the brown close out completed so in May of 26 they would ask that the 1.6 from Brown be reallocated to the high school to actually bring that down to about a $7 million Deb exion we were hoping that we’d be able to do both at the same time but the msba is a little behind about two years behind right now on Closeouts uh so we cannot guarantee you and we don’t believe from what they’ve told us that they would have the um Brown close out completed uh by our town meeting of this year Mike can you just I just want to make sure that the point is really clear because I I’ve understood

3:31 you’ve explained it really well to me um but I’m I still think there’s some misunderstanding um out in the community this additional portion is for the correct me if I’m wrong this additional portion is for the h rooftop HVAC units which were not part of the original project scope at all this was determined once boots got on the ground on the roof this was not part of the original scope so this is that portion is a new portion of the project that was not previously um bit out or or know uh correct so um actually we haven’t gone out to bid on anything yet um so we we did work off of an estimate we talking the per per the uh group Wii I wasn’t

4:19 here but there was a Wii that the school department um and uh had gotten some rough estimates on the roof project uh without consideration for the HVAC so the majority of this $8.6 million the vast majority is directly related to uh needing to do the HVAC work at the same time okay so I think that’s the big thing that that we have to make sure it’s really super clear to people when we talk about this is that HVAC portion is that that was not um part of the original bond that was issued that Bond was for the roof in a boiler which is the boiler is what’s in the boiler we have four I think four boilers at the high school and it was for one boiler in the Boiler Room which um is totally

5:06 separate that from these hbac rooftop units this is a new element um okay Al do you have any

5:16 questions okay um Mike what would be your profal

5:23 recommendation sorry what was that thought I was saying something I said um I just asked what your professional recommendation would be uh so my recommendation is that we would uh I believe we have a placeholder for a warrant article for debt exclusion not an override a debt exclusion um and we have no amount set in there yet my uh professional opinion would be that we would do that debt exclusion for 8.61 million and uh with the anticipation that the following year that number would be reduced um to about $7 million once the brown close out is done if the taxpayers if the the voters the town the town spoke uh agre to slide the brown over to the roof the money borrowed for the brown over to the roof I mean it’s it’s I don’t want to call it a game or a

6:10 shell game but if we don’t spend the 1.6 on Brown it’s going to come back and then we’ll still spend 8.6 on the roof so One Way Or Another We’re going to spend about $7 million additional for the HVAC whether it comes from either the brown so people could get a refund on the brown and then not get the roof I mean and then pay the full amount for the hbac or can offset the HVAC by using the brown proceed uh leftover funds so it’s it’s not it’s very confusing but it’s not um you know regardless I think we need to get the full 8.61 million committed and whether that comes from a whole new debt exclusion or using part of the brown debt exclusion plus a lesser amount for a um HVAC exclusion

6:55 it’s still going to come out to 8.61 million okay and I know we had talked about asking um left field to see if they could get some of the hbac units on site for this summer because we do have the money for the roof um already allocated but it doesn’t as it’s been explained to

7:17 us um as it’s been explained to us it doesn’t make sense it’s not efficient to to go on and off that roof twice in one year because avoids the warrant yeah it’s it one of the things we looked at was do we we do the Fieldhouse this summer with the roof and the HVAC um and left field came back and said that the earliest that they feel like they could get HVAC units on site would be December um and as we all know the the Fieldhouse gets its primary use in the winter months uh basketball and some other sports uh athletic events that occur are in December and it would be down for probably a solid month if not longer and working on a roof in the winter is not ideal for anybody um so you know the earliest they felt they

8:03 could get the hbac units ordered in so they have to be designed bid ordered delivered the delivery they think after all of the other work was done would be December okay because again these are custom units it’s not like I think a lot of people keep equating it to their house or small business like these aren’t units that you that are ready made and just ship here bu off the shelf no yeah just to specifications okay right and we and we don’t have the full specification yet that’s that’s part of it the architectural work needs to get done to design out what tonnage you know tonnage and different BTUs or whatever whatever terminology they use has to be identified then we have they have to create bid documents go out to bid have companies bid on it

8:49 that’s that’s probably a a six- week process between designing them going out to bid and awarding the bid they don’t feel like they could even award this to late summer if they started right now and then it would be at least December before we saw units on site all right so um you will be at our meeting tomorrow night and I think the committee will have some questions for you as well virtually if if need be does that work for you I think I think I’ll be on site okay um because I think the committee will want to ask you directly but um I I hear your recommendation and I actually I I agree with it wholeheartedly after seeing the presentation and hearing about how the the roof would be warranty would be

9:35 voided um if we were to you know go back in a year or two out do this um Alan I just want to make sure I’m circling back and giving you an opportunity if you have any questions or concerns to address with that yeah I guess I mean I agree that we need to do both and I guess there’s no option that allows us to expedite the timing because the HVAC units um so yeah I guess it’s just so we’re talk talking probably an implementation of what during the warmer months of 2026 yep it would be over the summer of 206 you know again may start in may uh as I’ve already told left field that they should not intend to do any work on the Fieldhouse section um until after graduation

10:21 because the Fieldhouse is the backup for um weather related events during graduation so it couldn’t start until after that so if they if they really got on site you know earlier in May um or or later in May uh they’d have to focus on a different area staging and stuff like that but they couldn’t be near or on the Fieldhouse uh anytime around graduation we have any idea this might be a little crystal ball type question but you know we are having issues with the roof currently so we have we’ll have to continue to deal with those issues again you know for a little while do we have an idea what that expense is going to be yeah we cover that out of our operating budget there is a facilities operating budget um for roof repairs and you know anything could be Plumbing

11:07 electrical hbac roof repairs uh doors windows um you know a broken piece pane of glass I mean there there is a budget um for this so we have been utilizing that budget to do roof repairs we do have a Contractor on on uh under contract to come on site within 24 hours or so um you know the important thing is is when we do have a leak we need to get them on site while there’s still water on the roof so that they can identify where it’s penetrating uh coming out on a dry day is not really beneficial to anybody so um that’s the key thing is is identifying where the leaks are get them patched up um and you know fortunately we’re at the place where the roof still can be patched uh in small small areas uh seams can be you know um patched over relatively quickly it’s just identifying

11:53 where those those uh seams or leaks are occurring

12:00 from and Mike just um so thinking about getting the hbac units in December that’s assuming we ordered them at what point that would so that would assume that we gave them the green light today to design for the I’m sorry so this is for just the Fieldhouse to design the Fieldhouse roof and HVAC units to do a full architectural design right now they’ve done some preliminary designs in order to do some estimates but they don’t have to do exact designs um they would have to start them today they feel like they could probably get them done at two and three months within two or three months time then they would have to create the bid documents go out to bid um award the bid that you know

12:45 every step in the process takes time um the the idea behind doing it all next summer um would be that they’re going to start some of that design work now um based on school committee’s recommendation tomorrow night uh if School wants to go move forward that warrant uh for town meeting for debt exclusion they would start the design uh they obviously would not complete anything until after town meeting to make sure that all the funds were appropriated but we’re hoping that at that point we would be very close to going out to bid um and get everything ordered so that everything would be here in May okay so it sounds like we don’t have to wait until the the war is passed in order to start some initial design around this so that’s really not delaying this anymore than it’s already

13:31 already delayed uh no Tom meeting right now is really not delaying it I mean ideally we we ideally we’d like to do it over the summer when there’s fewer students in the building anyways uh it would have been great to do some work this summer but I think we’re just too well I’m told that there’s we could we could possibly push the roof in this summer but then we’d be cutting right back into it in December to put in hbac units okay you just you know I is there a possibility if they were to do the roof um have all the design done do the roof this summer because again we have the funding for that if we were to do the roof this summer could they do the Curbing and everything they need with the specs for the future units coming in and then switch out without

14:17 having to cut in if the Curbing and everything’s there or no um so I can’t speak professionally to that but I I can tell you that when they cut those holes in the roof for the for the HVAC units they would need to be covered with something whether it’s a you know just a a roof or something you know with some or or additional material or something there would be additional cost in order in order to do the roof now those holes would need to be covered right now they’re covered with units as is the deplorable condition those units are in they’re at least they’re weathertight for the most part um once you take that roof off and then take off the HVAC units in re roof it’s ideal to put the you know there’s got to be something covering those holes in the roof I don’t it’s hard to say but it’s hard for people maybe to imagine but

15:04 some of these rooftop units are the size of a small shipping container um they’re probably you know 8 by 20 um 8 foot wide by 20 feet long by uh 810 feet high um they need to be craned into place so to cover a hole that’s at least 8 by 8 by 20 is probably going to require um something that’s even I’m just thinking about if you put a shed roof on there just a shingled shed roof or something you’re going to have to Anchor that down which means you know securing it to the roof that you just put down it’s not it’s not an option I was me to me it no it’s not people want to get this moving but but let’s do it smart not do it quick yeah no that makes sense I think you know I in full honesty I’m asking because there’s this tremendous push from the community

15:50 get it done now and we have the funding for the roof we could do the roof but it’s not the smart thing to do we really need to do them both in my opinion at the same time otherwise it’s going to be more money over the Long Haul and will be voiding a warranty and damaging a roof so um it doesn’t make sense yeah and I think I think the left field and RDA um they they did do an estimate in order to to break it into two separate projects to First do the roof and then come back the following year and do the HVAC uh it was about $2.5 million more to go that direction yeah because that you have to immobilize everything twice um okay well I I’m comfortable with the recommendation we’ll bring that forward tomorrow night um that and you will it will be the will of the committee um now

16:36 for the district because I said we were starting with districtwide but it’s it’s okay we’re just gonna hop back um are there any other districtwide I know Todd’s not with us today so we may get those at our next meeting I had a few questions I had about things the community had brought forward or that I had brought back from my sa meeting um one was the Brown School fence when we first designed the Brown School it was designed to have new fencing all around it um some members of the committee at that time had really wanted to cut cut back and have some savings um and didn’t replace the want to replace the fence around the full perimeter of the parking lot um one of those fences is in complete disrepair is I would argue it’s

17:21 not even a fence anymore because it’s it’s toppled over and it’s just you know pickets laying on the ground it prevent or presents a safety risk if we had um any students that were uh loping um due to any type of you know crisis situation um we really need that secure barrier so I’ve I’ve come back a couple times originally I’d come back and asked to bring it out of the brown close out because it was specked as part of that project it just was not completed um I know I I mentioned it to you a little while ago Mike um are you in the process of working on getting that quote so yet yeah no I have not really done much with it and and it to me it’s been my understanding that these fences are on

18:10 private property owned by the the homeowners who AB but the parking lot of the brown school um that’s how it was explained to me I think we just need to work with them maybe we offer to replace it but they I I don’t know that we replace ours and leave theirs in place you know do we work with them to say hey we need you to we need your permission to remove these dilapitated sections of fence in order for us to put up something that is um asafe and aesthetically pleasing um but I understand that there are there are probably three or four houses maybe just two I’m looking at an over oversight right now it’s two maybe two maybe three houses one’s really really bad and then there is a second but there’s some pools back there too so it really is a safety concern I know at the time one of the reasons additionally that um the that

18:58 that building committee um or the M the you know people making the decision at that time had not wanted to do it was there was some issue with if I recall correctly the fence line actually was could have been moved back further into their yards we owned some foot square footage into those yards and the issue was people didn’t want to put a fence up without and make it seem like we were forfeiting that land but to me it’s not about retrieving back another foot or two of land it’s more like student safety is the priority so if we can just compare the plot plan with the fence line and figure out where we are on that and just get a straight answer I just want to make sure that there’s some safety barrier there yeah it might be a

19:44 conversation I should have with left field and RDA um just to kind of see where the property lines are um and again I’m really only showing two two houses that are that are really on that property as far as I’m looking at a Google map overview um one one I can tell does have a swimming pool in the yard it does look like um the other one I can’t see one doesn’t mean there’s not one there um and then there’s a couple over on the corner that that might be a third house that that could be affected um yeah actually there are three on the parking lot that I can see and I don’t know if one in particular is is in worst case uh in in worse um shape than the others but I mean if if we’re working with three homeowners I think that you know it’s always been my experience that if we open up those conversations and

20:29 dialogues the homeowners and say hey look how do we work together to make sure that a your property is protected and B our property and our students are safe and um instead of saying hey we’re putting up a fence like it or not here it comes yeah that would be great if you could pursue that and I and I believe um leftfield has all the ab Butter’s contact information so they should be able to help you with that sure I can find it too can knock on doors when it’s a little warmer there you go not today um and then that was one question the other one at the brown school as you’re leaving the property um exiting onto Dartmouth Road this had come up at the sa meeting as well and I referred back to the original um plot plans that we presented to the planning board and there should be a stop sign and a

21:15 crosswalk there um for whatever reason they didn’t get put in I I honestly think the reason is um that at that point it may be that our highway department needs to do it that it wouldn’t be the construction crew that was doing the school because that I think that’s actually on Town property at that point but whoever needs to do that it does present a safety risk um for students entering and exiting Walkers and bikers as cars go through that drop off line so if we can just address that um and get back to us as well on um any work that’s going to be done so I I think my screen’s up isn’t it y y so this this crosswalk exists on our property this is coming down the sidewalk I believe at this point we are

22:03 now on Town property yes um and the idea was to be to put a stop sign here Y and put a crosswalk across to here connecting this sidewalk with this sidewalk if I zoom in there is a sidewalk here it looks like there’s a wooden barrier I’m not sure how that or there’s some type of barrier here it looks like oh maybe that’s just a white it’s restriping no it’s just rping white white line yep um so put a crosswalk across I don’t know I would have to work with the town um they may need to do something here for um a ramp for handicap it looks like it’s a sidewalk with covered surrounded by grass so they may have to do something for ADA compliance to to cut a um to pave a little bit more here which is very minor I think in my opinion very minor and um but it does have to be handicapped accessible and I don’t know over here

22:50 maybe right here they cut in a uh handicapped accessible on the on the granite uh curbing um so there needs to be a curb cut here somewhere also to connect the two ends of the crosswalk has to be a handicapped accessible so it certainly can work with the town on that that’s not a problem um but yeah I mean it’s not I don’t think it’s as simple as drawing some lines and throwing up a stop sign I think they just you know the ADA compliance requires that there be a a ramp at both ends okay all right so just at our next meeting maybe give us an update on that and then my last item on my to-do list here was I had some inquiries about the the light at Village in the front parking lot yeah but just before I close out my screen this is the side of the parking lot you’re talking about right on the brown

23:35 I’ll I’ll zoom out a little bit just to see where we’re starting from so I count I count this house does have a does look like it has a pool in the backyard this house would be number two and I think this house up here is on a different street it’s a different address it’s not on Arland it looks like it’s on Baldwin um that would be probably a third house that we would probably be talking with I don’t believe number one Arland is um it’s not one Arland is not in a butter the number the house that you called the number two house that is the one where it’s the biggest breach in the fencing and actually it’s kind of presents now as an obstacle course if you will with some pickets laying down and and so if that could be address that would be great that one right there is the biggest number five yeah I don’t know

24:21 what the actual address is but yeah that helps right there I Google’s calling it number five I believe uh number nine is the one with the pond I just want to be confirmed over on this side of the parking lot yeah those are secure okay I just want to make sure that we’re on the same page and this house right here is um that’s owned by the gas company and there’s an iron fence around that okay perfect all right so that covers that that side of the of the uh building okay good so it looks like two or three homes like I said um just the one on Baldwin and the two on Arland okay all right so I’m sorry I’m sorry before we go to Village so the funding for this for the fence and potentially the the crosswalk should that come out of the leftover funding of

25:07 the brown school or should it be a separate item it should have but we’ve closed that out we can’t now um this is something that you know there was a few members that were really vocal about let’s finish it correct and let’s do this and it just it’s very large committee it was like 22 folks um and but you’re saying it can’t come out of the 1.6 no done we’ve done middle I I think once the msba closes out the project we could utilize some of that 1.6 and I have to check with Alicia um but that would be money again taken away from the the other side and and I don’t know how much you know how much we’re talking like $10,000 here we’re not talking Millions yeah I don’t know how much it’s going to cost to run

25:53 a fence you know three backyards um you’re right it’s probably not no it’s probably it’s probably under $20,000 it’s probably something that we can handle in the operating budget yeah this is this is minuscule but the impact for student safety I think is is um great yeah this was brought up by some of our Educators at the sa meeting so I told them I would bring It Forward here so I just want to make sure I’m doing that yeah and that’s why I brought it up right because of safety concerns for students and to me I had to choose between if we could use the 1.6 I think it should be used towards that if there wasn’t other funding available but it sound sounds like it’s not a big expense that we could take out of operating so that that was my concern so yeah okay um and quite frankly I

26:39 think the stop the stop sign and the crosswalk will come out of the Department of um the town Department not us because saf it will come out of Highway Department it won’t come out of ours it shouldn’t come out of and we also have a smart routes to school and and complete streets Grant so it may actually come out of grant funding because I think this would meet those needs or meet those qualifications um all right so and then the the light in that front Village it looks like something hit it um my understanding is you are working on that so yeah I noticed that a couple weeks ago um I was informed that it happened on the weekend that we had the first light snowfall um I did ask um our technology

27:25 department to see if they could pull any uh video and I need to follow up with them I to be honest it slipped my mind again uh I’ll follow up with them to see if they were able to pull any video of the incident of what might have damaged that poll uh and Todd is aware of it I I will follow up with Todd to make sure that um there is something in the works and again I don’t I mean I’m not sure how old those light fixtures are and if there’s something that we can actually get to match identical um but I will work with Todd further on I did add it to my to-do list today all right perfect thank you Mike um do you have any other concerns Al okay um that BRS us to capital projects update in planning we had the the update on the high school roof

28:13 already um Mike you had your meeting with I believe the townwide meeting for Capital planning correct me if I’m wrong on that usually happens about this time of year um do you have an update for us yeah so let me just I’m going to bring up another spreadsheet just for my own reference um we we did um meet with the town yesterday we gave our priorities and I’ll just tell you what we we listed as items that are on our radar um so these are ranked from importance uh the first one is the Glover HVAC in the cafeteria there is uh no there is no air conditioning in the cafeteria and the windows do not open the building was designed in the cafeteria that they do not open so when you get the afternoon Sun hitting I believe it’s the afternoon yeah it be the afternoon Sun hitting in

28:58 there uh it gets very very uncomfortable in that area so um Todd believes that we can um put some cool air in that area for about $70,000 so I did ask um for that our number one priority uh a second priority would be the Glover School playground uh adding a second structure over there um so we we did ask that for our second priority and our third priority is to reupholster the seating in the pack the veterans Auditorium reupholster the seating and while we have the seats out and being reupholstered to paint the ceiling and and possibly the walls of that facility also that’s great and I have always thought since the pack is really a

29:45 townwide space we use it for town meeting that um a portion of that should be considered uh you know Under the Umbrella of town Capital needs not just schools because that is a space that we’ve always been very forthcoming to share with the town it’s our only large Gathering space I understand um the other things that were on the list um these are all smaller dollar items so let me just down the facilities for right now um at the high school in the Fieldhouse our fire alarm system is great in the Fieldhouse except it uses lasers it’s beam it’s a beam detection so uh occasionally um something can cross that beam be it a piece of athletic you know football or a

30:32 baseball or something um can cross that beam and set off the fire alarms or also when our when our team goes up to do any type of Maintenance in the ceiling area they need to do um as somebody else said yesterday um kind of the Tom Cruz um you know dance under the beams in order to get through so without setting off the fire alarm so if anything interrupts that beam it sets off it triggers the fire alarm um so um that that’s a priority but it’s not a high dollar amount um relative to the some of the other items um both of the Vets floors at in their gymnasiums uh need to be refinished every year we do um we we polish them and maybe put another coat down but these actually need to be sanded down repainted and uh refinished

31:18 uh so both the Vets floors and uh the Vets uh variable oh fvfd is variable something uh it’s for distribution of heat AC uh those need to be be replac it they’re called bfds um that was an as but that was a third priority then we had Rolling Stock um we did ask for a first priority for Rolling Stock a special education 7D van this is a uh mini it’s a uh T typically a Ford Transit type vehicle that will hold up to uh seven passengers uh can be made with a ramp or without a ramp um it is primarily used for special education Transportation it does not require a CDL license it requires a 7D license which is it is a

32:04 step above a typical class class one Whatever license we all have to drive our cars uh it is a step above that but it’s a much more attainable license to get and um so we did ask for a special education 7D van uh that was our onea priority and then 1B priority would be a minibus uh yellow minius um probably uh something here’s I think issue right now is that the streets in Marblehead are very narrow and some of these neighborhoods to get into with a big bus are nearly impossible um I especially this time of year when snow seems to take up some space and people can’t get quite as close to the curb as they’d like to get um so uh small bus is

32:50 also a priority um and then F further down the priority list uh items numbers priorities two and three um looking at um work in plow trucks pickup trucks uh heavy duty pickup trucks with plows um some of our fleets getting old and uh there was a request it’s a request number level three would be a transport trailer uh in order to uh we have some lifts in town that we use to do ceiling work and um you know High spaces that we can’t get to with the ladder um we have landscaping equipment sometimes we need to move around we don’t have a transport trailer to get that stuff around so uh that would we we rent one when we need it it’d be nice to have something that we own and not paying rental fees for so those are just the items that uh we

33:39 requested for the uh Capital committee yesterday and hopefully we’ll hear back from them as far as what they’re going to push forward to town meeting shortly okay Alan any questions on that okay um School owned properties we’ve already put a warrant article for coffin um so we’re pretty well set with that um we’ve been talking about Evis in an early childhood Learning Center um this is something that’s been coming up for a couple years now uh Mike do you have any information on kind of where the msba or could you get us some information on where the msba is with engaging in early childhood Learning Centers yeah I’m just checking my email I did send a follow-up email to them

34:24 this morning I’m just gon to check my email really quickly here I’m almost at the top of my email I don’t see anything from the msba but I did reach out to them um my experience has been with the msba that they don’t typically fund Early Childhood centers prek specifically um that they if it’s part of a building like it was part of the Brown Construction then they will cover it but to do a standalone Early Childhood Center has not been in their purview um I believe that that tide is Shifting because of mandates around Early Child prek specifically um but I did reach out to them and said is the msba entertaining uh allowing submissions or statements of interest for Early Childhood centers and I

35:09 haven’t returned received a return yet on that uh the window is now open and we have about two or three months in order to make a submission so I’m sure I’ll hear from them at some point this week if not I’ll follow back up with them again um okay but um yes I have got a call into or an email into msba to see if they would entertain uh know Childhood

35:32 Center go ahead I’m sorry as part of that um you know let’s say the msba was open to it do we have to do a lot of the homework around the business case and justification for it before then I mean I understand it makes sense see if it even makes sense to use the msba but I’m wondering like can we even meet the window if they say sure but you have to have the justification for this all set before really talking to us about the facilities component of it yeah absolutely and um I’ve written several sis in my former districts um statements of interest statement sis for the msba um depending on how much time you can dedicate to it to a day it’s really probably a 20 hour project to write a statement of interest but but it’s you know that’s that’s great if you can set

36:19 aside 20 hours consist consecutively and have all the information you need um you know there’s several aspects to it I would have to have Todd um provide some information on those condition current building condition of the ath and um you know things like that I’d have to get some feedback from uh special education and um curriculum as far as what the you know what the curriculum would be what the educational value would be what opening at Early Child Center would bring to um to the students of mobel head um but a lot of it is really um you know you know what is our Capital plan what is our maintenance plan stuff that we’ve already done for other projects that we can compy pasted into the SOI for for this so I’m not saying it’s a quick turnaround but it’s C certainly

37:05 something if I heard back from msba within the next couple of weeks that they would accept an SOI for An Early Childhood Center and I got the blessing from the school committee I could write the SOI um then I just need to go before the school committee and the board of Selectmen I’m sorry the select board I apologize for that um the select board to get them they both have to approve the submission all it is is a submission we’ve committed no money other than uh a little bit of time to to create the submission my experience is also been that typically takes two or three tries with the msba they usually don’t accept your first submission um they want to see if this actually if you’re just fishing or if you’re seriously in need of something so um if we did something

37:50 my my guess would be it would take a couple of cracks bites at the Apple in order to uh get them to agree to come out and take a look um at that point once you are accepted in then you know it could be one year it could be two years it could be three years it could be 10 years um that then they would we would do what’s called a feasibility study is it you know what’s the population that would go there how many students what’s the current facilities condition is it an ad I’m sorry is it a renovation of the existing property is it an a add Rena which is an addition and a renovation or is it a whole new building tear down and in stock a new building um so those are usually the three options that come out of it and they they break out the cost of doing each project and what the

38:36 benefit is um and once we have that then then we would decide on whether we wanted to renovate do an additional renovation or do a whole in new building so I did um ask David sandon he’s our he was the OPM on the Brown School um what you know what would be the scope of a of a feasibility study for a project this size um because of course the one that we’re all familiar with the most previous one was the brown school and that was $750,000 in scope um he said that this would be much smaller and he anticipated a feasibility study on this being around 880,000 he said it could go as high as 110 but he felt it was going to be probably around that 80 $90,000 Mark um and just for your own knowledge

39:22 Mike if you do go down this path with the statement of interest um we our statement of interest for the Gary School project what it was originally named then it became um the Brown School the msba in their the response noted that it was one of the most comprehensive thorough statement of Interest they’d ever seen and we were really applauded for for how complete that was so uh I’m sure we can dig that up um somewhere and actually I say cop copy paste beg borrow steel don’t recreate the wheel well and actually the gentleman that wrote that was Jeff St George um who’s been on our our um facility subcommittee um but so those those are all things I I do think

40:09 we one of the things about msba the plus and the minus is unfortunately our reimbursement rate is not what you would see in like a hail or a Lyn um those districts see something higher like an 80% reimbursement rate here it’s it’s much much lower and when you do get it this is kind of what we ran into with the Middle School roof and why we decided not to utilize the msba the mspa puts additional pieces on that you might otherwise not do in your project um and sometimes it’s still beneficial to go through the msba and sometimes the additional cost for the pieces that they’re asking for actually bring the project cost up that even with that small reimbursement piece it still is not a financial benefit to your

40:55 municipality so we’ll just kind of maybe want to think about that um what projections are for escalation costs and things like that moving forward um and think about whether we we want to do a statement of Interest my feeling is always it doesn’t hurt um and also look about look at potentially starting a fusibility study um if there is some additional funding available um for that yeah I would concur since you know I think um core projects I typically would not do one regardless of the Community without the msba support um a roof project Hit or Miss depending on how big the roof is whether I’m going to go with msba support or not in a boiler project i’ I’ve kind of resigned that I would not be doing projects with

41:41 the msba on a boiler project just because um it’s it’s over $200,000 typically just to do a boiler project with the msba where you can typically do it for $100,000 on your own uh because it doesn’t require all of the same architect and OPM and things like that so um I I would lean ww’s not doing a boilet project but it’s nice that they have that project for those districts that maybe get a larger amount of funding uh reimbursement you’re right bobbleheads um reimbursement level is far lower than um communities that are in higher Financial need yeah um okay so are there any other questions Al it sounds like we’re going to proceed with this um and we’ll work with the msba to see if that makes sense

42:27 but it sounds like there’s an appetite to potentially do it without that obviously the feasibility study would verify whether that made sense or not so I just so it sounds like we’re going to work both avenues for now um I guess it’s just I’m not sure when we start to put together a timeline around this um because the fund you know we will need funding for the feasibility study right well yes and no if it’s if it’s at 80 to $100,000 range for instance um last year we had a surplus that we turned it back to the town over $900,000 that is a fee that we could use if we’re getting closer to our close out usually around April we have projections that are pretty tight that show us where our closeout will end and if we’re looking like we have some Savings in various

43:14 line items um we would want to talk as a committee to see if we would want to utilize that funding for that rather than burden the taxpayers more and I think I think the other part of this is if we if we are permitted to submit an SOI and we do a feasibility study once the msba accepts Us in they’re going to have us redo a new feasibility study they they have their own requirements so I’d hate to bang the Bang the Drum twice but if certainly if they say that they’re not interested in um this time working on Early Childhood centers who funding child Early Childhood centers then I think um us I think it makes sense for us to do a feasibility study um just so that the town folks know what our options are okay that sounds good um it sounds like we have a lot of information to bring forward to the full committee tomorrow

44:02 night um and they can you know ask questions for that if they if they will um this brings us to any new business subcommittee announcements and

44:18 requests um okay then I will adjourn our meeting at 1:44 p.m. see you guys tomorrow