[Unidentified]: Welcome everyone. I'll go back to our agenda. I'm hoping everyone can hear me.
[Jenny Graham]: So, uh, this is going to be a whole bunch of questions. We'll go through them in a minute. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. We're going to start with the first question. I mean, it's been a long time, but I D, which is 7. Well, speaking to. I'll let, you know, with the. For the limited matter, redundant. Topic and there. I want to reach out two ways. The audio issue has been improving post-Zoom. It should be okay. I'll get the mic. One second.
[Unidentified]: And they're saying they can hear you. Can you hear me better now? Perfect.
[Jenny Graham]: Um, okay, it is so encouraged to shout in the common ways regarding the projects. There you are looking for this official response by the project team. You can email us at MHS project. If you just want to share respect with members of the committee. We have an email that is autoforwarded to all members of the SBC, so you can send 1 email and it will reach all 25 of us. Oh, it's not great again. I'm saying, but now things better now.
[Unidentified]: I'm going to hear me better now.
[SPEAKER_04]: You got to keep talking.
[Jenny Graham]: I can't tell. Okay, I'll keep I'll keep reading. Is for the committee, there's an email forward to everybody. And that's the age. As he heard that came out and a. And let's see, I'll make sure it's just no time.
[SPEAKER_04]: I also want to hear. It might be that person. Do you have your phone on? Let's see. Anybody else? Just mine.
[Luke Preisner]: Let's try it now. How about now? Is that better?
[Jenny Graham]: So comments and perspectives you'd like to share with all members of the building committee can be sent via email and your single email will be auto-reported to everybody at mchsbcedford.k12.ma.us. Okay, I think we're back to action. Okay, now that you can all hear me, I'll call the roll. Jenny Graham, here. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Present.
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. Galuzzi. Here. Marta Cabral. Here. Ken Lord. Here. Jen Belanger.
[SPEAKER_09]: Here.
[Jenny Graham]: Libby Brown here. Maria Dorsey here. Brian Hilliard here. Tracy Keene here. Paul Malone here. Nicole Morell here. Liz Malone here. Aaron Olapade here. Luke Preissner here. Bob Dickinson here. Kim Clinton here. John Fallon here. Dr. Hodgson here. Fiona Maxwell, Lisa Miller, Bill Pizzelli, Paul Rousseau, Bill Santos, and Dr. Talbot. Here. OK, so we have 12 present, three absent, and that is a quorum. So we can get started. The first item on our agenda, or the second item on our agenda, I guess I'll say, is approval of the minutes from August 25 2026. Is there a motion to approve the minutes?
[Luke Preisner]: Can I ask a question about the minutes? So there is a typo. The last sentence of the last paragraph in part four, chairs, we spell chair-y. So that's one. There was a discussion at the end of that meeting where we talked about parking and authority to make adjustments. Part of that conversation, the SMMA expert indicated that 500 spots would be a decision point for whether or not to consider a debt. That was part of the discussion. I didn't see it in the minutes, but it's important as a decision-making factor. And so I wanted to bring that up and see if other people agree it should be incorporated in the minutes so it's captured somehow. And then I have a third point. It's probably the most significant. We voted on reducing the digital art photography space, but that in this case was in our category A from the list back in April, and it was approved. It was moved for full deletion, and we unanimously approved deleting that space in April. And so I don't know how it came back on the agenda. I didn't catch it until afterwards, but I wanted to raise that in case that's something that we have to take up to resolve.
[Jenny Graham]: So those are... Were there two spaces in the very original plan and one came out originally?
[Matt Rice]: I believe that's the case. Go back and look at the record. But I don't think we were... We were re-modifying something that had already been removed. So we can sort out sort of what that nuance was. May have been the fact that there were two... That's correct. If you give me a minute, I can find it.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay. So... The title can be corrected. That's fine. Is there a motion to approve the minutes as with the amendment that you suggested?
[Luke Preisner]: Oh, yeah. So I guess I would make the motion to add a 500 discussion because I think it's important to capture. Yeah.
[Jenny Graham]: So there's a motion to approve the minutes with the amendment about the 500 parking spaces being a decision point. Is there a second? I'm Maria. Any other questions about the minutes? Okay, I will call the roll. Danny Graham. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Tripalusi. Yes. Marta Cabral. Yes. Ken Lord. Yes. Jen Belanger. Yes. Libby Brown. Yes. Maria Dorsey. Yes. Brian Hilliard. Absent. Tracy Keene.
[Unidentified]: Abstain.
[Jenny Graham]: Paul Malone. Yes. Welcome, Paul. Bill Morell is absent. Liz Mullane. Yes. Karen Olapade. Yes. Yes. We have. To ask them one thing. Well, then the affirmative. Actually do that backwards. Okay. We have the next agenda item is approval of invoices. I think if you go to the next page, Matt, there's a summary of our budget so far to give people some sort of big picture understanding of what's going on. And then we can look at the invoices for this period specifically. So I'll turn it over to Jen. Yes, thank you. So here you can see the overall budget. This does include the invoices that are up for approval tonight, just so you can see how that fits into the overall budget. You can see the three lines, the rows on the left here, budget categories for the OPM contract, the architectural engineering contract, those are both for basic services, and the environmental insight line, which is also followed under the architect contract. We have this line in yellow to show where we are, what remains uncommitted of the original $3 million feasibility study budget. We have a healthy $226,370 left uncommitted. And then if you could follow across, I guess follow down one more line, which I think is supposed to be green, but it looks a little grayish here. This is the MSB reimbursement that we have received back to date. This does go back into, I believe it's free cash, went on its way back in from the MSBA. So this, we've been working with district once a month to submit the invoices to get that reimbursement back from the MSBA. This is what we are tracking so far. We do, we're approximately at 33.5% of that reimbursement that is expected on that full $3 million number. So their anticipated total max grant for feasibility study is that $1.6 million number at the bottom right. So in our opinion, we are doing really well, tracking well against the budget at the moment, and on track with our MSPA reimbursement, which is always good news. So things are looking very hopeful for our feasibility study budget. Any questions? Any questions about the overall budget? Let's talk about invoices. All right. Up for approval this evening, we have two invoices. The first is for left field based services during the month of August in the amount of $25,000. The second is for SNMA based services for August as well in the amount of $90,000 for a total up for approval of $115,000. Is there a motion to approve the invoices? So, I can is there a 2nd. Hi, Dr Lucy roll Jenny Graham. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Luke Preisner]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. The art photo lab was cut, but one of the maker spaces are becoming digital art photo lab or vice versa, however, where we want to look at it.
[Unidentified]: Just like when we cut the black box theater, one of the large group instructional spaces can be kind of like take that purpose with some equipment and materials.
[Luke Preisner]: OK, so in April, we have a maker space.
[Unidentified]: We have two maker spaces.
[Luke Preisner]: But one of them was named the Digital Art Photography Lab. That's correct. So we reduced that one. And then later, we renamed the major space the Digital Art Photography Lab. So it becomes that. And in August, we reduced that by two.
[Unidentified]: But the darkroom part.
[Luke Preisner]: There's no darkroom. Oh, OK. OK. OK.
[Jenny Graham]: We are going to move forward with any design updates that the team has. I don't think that we have any particular design updates tonight, except for the space that we should see for them over, is that correct?
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, we have the, this is a schedule overlay, just to give a little bit of a sense of how we're going to be moving some of the design topics forward, but there's no content to share necessarily.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay.
[Matt Rice]: Right.
[Jenny Graham]: Do you want to do that now or do you want to do that at the end?
[Matt Rice]: Why don't we do it at the end? Just go anywhere that we have here. I think it works.
[Jenny Graham]: So continuing on our journey around the building. Tonight we're going to look at dining and food service. We're going to look at the spaces for the current high school, and then we're going to look at the Medford Early Education Program, which is LEAP, which is Pre-K. And there's a handful of slides, so you'll sort of see a similar point of view on each of these spaces. So I'm going to turn over to Matt and let him talk us through and we'll take any questions about each space as we go.
[Matt Rice]: And this is really a continuation of the series of what we started doing at the last meeting. We have been continuing our discussions from a programming perspective and in each one of those programming meetings, we do talk about efficiencies for the programs that we're covering. So we have three of those today to review. The first one being dining and food service. This constitutes both the servery, the kitchen, the main baseball kitchen, as well as a cafeteria space and sort of the ancillary space that serves the cafeteria. So incorporates all of that. So we did have some detailed decisions about each one of the items that's here. As an example, The cafeteria which is size needs to be sized to accommodate 3 lunch periods at the design enrollment that we have so we take the total population. We divide by 3 and that's what generates the size of the cafeteria that is prescribed by the MSBA. That is what we're meeting. But there is the reality also that the school currently has 2 lunch periods. That's how the schedule is formed and constructor. So there will be a change to the schedule that will have to be made before the new building opens. right in front of us in terms of the timetable for it. So there's a little bit of time to plan and think that through. Things that impact the schedule are tremendously important in terms of how the school day operates. So there's no change to all that square footage is reimbursable from the cafeteria. We'll just note that we have pulled 400 square feet out of that sort of larger cafeteria space to create a quiet dining space, which is just an environment that allows students that are not comfortable in that larger, noisier cafeteria to have a quieter space to eat. But it's part of the overall seating capacity. So we're not adding it in. We're just bringing off that piece of the square footage from what's otherwise reimbursable.
[John Falco]: Are there any questions, Paul? Thank you. The quiet space, is that the same quiet space that would be used for students on IEPs and have that in their IEP? Is the current client space we have now strictly just for the students?
[SPEAKER_05]: To my understanding, arrangements are made with school Councilors and other providers for students to use that space. OK.
[John Falco]: So it does not have to be right now. OK. I just mean, can any student just pop in and start using the space? And is there any way that we ensure that they're actually not just running into their private not quiet space.
[Unidentified]: I mean, how is that possible? We have it monitored by a sport adjustment Councilor that oversees it. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: I think we'll have a lot of opportunities as we go forward as well. We can increase transparency between quiet dining in the main cafeteria as well. So it's maybe more surveyable from like a single staff position as opposed to having multiple staff just to increase some operational efficiency as well. Thank you.
[Jenny Graham]: Are there questions about dining, Eric?
[Matt Rice]: Can I just clarify what the scramble serving area is? So there's two different sort of models of a servery in the high school or really any school environment. One is more of a line servery, which is what everyone is familiar with from like an elementary school. You walk up, there's a window into the kitchen, you get whatever is offered for the day, and then you move along. So that it's just characterized by of align and sort of an impersonal interaction with getting your food for the day. A scramble server is different. It's probably more akin to what people would experience in like a college university setting where you walk into a larger area and there's different options that are available to you. Some of them are pre-packaged. Some of them would be actually cooked and made fresh that day within the kitchen and served. But the idea is that it gives students agency and variety in terms of picking the food that is desirable to them as opposed to just getting what is served sort of on a tray from one location. So it is trying to elevate the dining experience for students. That was one of the things that was noted initially as a challenge with the existing servery, which is a single line and window type of servery. And just to follow up on that, so the kitchen that's designated in this image, that's just the actual equipment and staff students would actually be congregating to collect. Yes, and there may be staff members in there doing serving. There is a nuance in terms of the reimbursability of the servering. So the MSBA, it's a very idiosyncratic piece of it, where they listed out in the template as scramble servering, but they give you 600 square feet for that scramble servering. And if you can imagine, if we take our 1,400 student population, you divide that by three, you say maybe you have 50% participation in lunch. 200, 150 students into a 600 square foot area, it doesn't work. And so we, on every project, we have to upsize that scramble surfery. But, and then the way that the MSB deals with that is that 600 square feet that's in the guideline is reimbursable. Everything above and beyond is permissible, but not reimbursable as part of it. So that's the situation that we're in here as well. Thank you.
[Luke Preisner]: So I'll ask, so explain that it's It improves the quality of the experience. It's certainly not mandatory, but it's something that the MSA does reimburse up to a net. That amount is 1,650 square feet, or is it 600 square feet? How do I read it? Because we're proposing 2,250 feet, but not all of that's reimbursable. What's the reimbursable part again?
[Matt Rice]: 600 square feet is reimbursable. So I think that's math. So if you had 1650 plus 600, you get to the 2250.
[Luke Preisner]: So just to be clear, this space, which improves the sort of quality of experience, it's not mandatory for lunch. The MSBA reimburses for 600 square feet. We're proposing for 2,250 square feet. So quadruple the reimbursable size. And I wanted to ask if any other members of the committee would want to explore reducing the size of that, given our overall size problem, or at least IV or large size problem.
[Jenny Graham]: So people are welcome to raise their hand and provide comments and respond to Luke. In response, I do have a question for Matt, which is operationally speaking, can a traditional surgery serve this number of students in 25 minutes? If we were to go with the standard number and go back to the kind of cafeteria experience that exists today, can the allotted space operationally work for us? And did you have any conversations with food service here about operational impacts of such a decision?
[Matt Rice]: So we did not. So with the food service staff, we discussed the scramble surgery being a very high improvement to the experience. So we didn't go down the road of really fully vetting the line or very approach in terms of what it would be. I would say if we're talking about one or the other, I think reducing the size of the scramble surveyor really isn't viable because making it any smaller will not make it functional, it would just be crashing into each other as they're trying to get whatever they're making. So I think it's really more of a binary decision to say either there's a scramble survey that elevates the food service experience or there's a line and then That line, it would stretch out, right, as it does today in the cafeterias to wherever it's due to accommodate. And I think you would probably have the same exact issues you have today, which is that some students don't get their lunch until five minutes remaining in the lunch period. And they're stressed or they're eating and they go to their next class. That's part of the challenges with line experience.
[Jenny Graham]: And do contemporary high schools put line cafeterias in?
[Matt Rice]: So we have never put a line cafeteria or line servery into a high school cafeteria in the schools that we visit.
[Jenny Graham]: Anybody else have any questions about food service? Let me clarify my question. So we don't know that a line would fit into 600 square feet anyway. I know you haven't done this stuff, We're not even sure 600 is enough for that anyway. That probably gets more.
[Matt Rice]: I would suggest you would just take away the servery all together, and it's just going to be a wall along the front of the kitchen, right? So you would be giving up that 300 reimbursable square feet.
[SPEAKER_05]: Lisa, I just had a question and clarification on the diagram. The area that's above and to the right of where the dining hall is, to me, it looks like it's hatched. Would you explain what that is?
[Matt Rice]: So at the time that this was generated, again, this is a vintage of the PSR report that is under constant evolution as well as design and programming conversations. Those were a series of stairs. That is going to be a location somewhere in that vicinity of the vertical circulation arc through the school. It will probably not look exactly like that at the end of the day. It's more of an early conceptual placement.
[Jenny Graham]: But the stairs are considered part of the dining hall?
[Matt Rice]: They're not. No, it has a slightly, it's tough to read on the screen here. It has a slightly brighter yellow color we designated as vertical circulation as opposed to dining times. There's actually, there's also like a slight delineation of the color in between. So some of it is actually circling through the dining space and some of it is dining space, but it all sort of works together spatially.
[Jenny Graham]: Are the stairs typically used at like I remember some of the schools we went to stairs are often used as like a place for students to sit down.
[Matt Rice]: It can be if we go down that path and we'll certainly look at some options that do that and do not and talk about the advantages and opportunities that exist there. It wouldn't happen on the stairs themselves but some tiers that might be adjacent to the stairs that we refer to as learnings as often try to do some sort of multiple functionality with them.
[Luke Preisner]: Yeah. I'll mention Arlington has what you described in some reason. So if you go to Arlington High School, you can see this information of kind of a step or terraces almost, or steps leading to the cafeteria floor.
[Unidentified]: And they're not accessible. They're not EA. Oh, OK. They're not accessible for all students, I would just say. Let me look for it.
[Jenny Graham]: I was going to mention that. And it's also, I think it's becoming harder to do it, but the big, like short results and, you know, building inspectors, which I know would be bad for it because we can't, it's not equal, but students can't get to the church. So yeah, I'm going to spend a lot of them. I think they're kind of going on the way out with you guys about the same experience, but.
[Matt Rice]: We are still designing them in, we do have ways of designing accessible seating positions, the top and the bottom. So there is distribution. It's, it's not too different than like stadium seating in movie theaters as well. And sort of take that same approach. So we haven't run into any issues with them. We'll talk with the building department in advance.
[Jenny Graham]: Other questions about the dining room service spaces?
[Luke Preisner]: Yeah, so I wanted to ask about the kitchen. Those that are 3295 MSBA, 600 is not reimbursable. What would your informed evaluation be the result from cutting down to what the reimbursable size is? There are some, I think, pressures to kind of get down to reimbursable quantities.
[Matt Rice]: go through that paragraph at the bottom that explains this, but what we did as part of the food service program meeting is brought our food service consultant in and had them generate a very rough layout of just areas of equipment, not getting into the specifics yet, but trying to understand how much space is really required. And so that's where that number comes from, that 3295 and why it is 63 net square feet above that, the maximum MSBA reimbursable number. And so it's really a question of functionality of the equipment that is going into the kitchen. So if we were to compress it, we would need to remove some functionality from the food service operation. I think that would be sort of the result of it. I couldn't say exactly what is going to be removed at this point. It's a little bit too early in the design process to understand that, but that would be the net impact. The other one that factors into sort of similar categories, we can talk about in the same breath, is the dishwashing space. So that is not allowable, not allowable, it's not included in the basic square footage that the MSBA gives you. A full dishwashing operation does require space for the actual dishware itself and for the management of braze and silverware and cups, everything that's going to be going through the washing process. So that was a sustainability decision to incorporate dishwashing into the cafeteria operations as opposed to using disposables to limit the amount of waste that the cafeteria operations generate. And so that additional square footage was laid out by the kitchen consultant as what that equipment requires.
[Luke Preisner]: So on the dishwashing category, we currently have a dishwashing space at this building. designed for 3,600 students. That space is 300 square feet. So this proposed space is 50% larger than our current space, which was designed for 3,600 students. Have standards changed, or what drives us to 450 as opposed to preserving the existing space?
[Matt Rice]: Size of it. It's really just the equipment. We lean on a food service consultant to tell us what is functional. So I don't have the nuance of exactly what about it has changed since 1970 today, but I think it is separate. I think it's, there might sort of bins for composting as part of the process. We can certainly pull that up and circulate it around if the committee is curious to sort of see the nuances of it.
[Jenny Graham]: Any other questions? Lisa, the cafe snack shop,
[SPEAKER_05]: Two questions. It sounds like that would be part of the media center where the media center ends up. Is that, has that been discussed? Is that something that we want? And then also, is that reimbursable? I can't, I'm not sure if I'm reading. I don't see it there. Is that reimbursable space?
[Matt Rice]: That would be reimbursable as part of the media center's square footage. So we're given an allotment there. And typically with the media centers, we carve them up into different parts and pieces through that reimbursable square footage. So it would be reimbursable under the umbrella of the media center.
[Jenny Graham]: In your experience then with school, did you have food sort of there in the media center? Is that something that is welcome? Is that something that there's spills and are causing problems? I mean, I'd be curious about that.
[Matt Rice]: So the best example that we have of that is over at Waltham High School that I know a lot of the committee members saw as they walked through. It's a really vibrant area where teachers and students are all using it as an informal dining opportunity. It's outside the normal cafeteria space, so it has that sort of side dining, but it's a differentiated experience from the main cafeteria, which I think a lot of people like. We also went through one example of it at Bell Rica High School where that space was not used. I don't think they had used it since they opened the building. And I think a lot of it gets into sort of just the commitment of the staff at the school to be able to support it or the food service staff to to really serve it as well and make sure that it is part of their process. There was there was optimism and excitement about it from the Medford food service staff as part of the overall food service picture. and trying to just improve the accessibility of students as well.
[Jenny Graham]: I'm just going to add on, and it did come up in our visioning sessions as well, with some of the staff that went on the tours and some students. This space was brought up in surveys and visioning sessions, the media center as being the most, the space in which the students felt the most welcomed. And so there was a discussion around like the flexibility of the space.
[SPEAKER_05]: And some of that conversation too, um, was around, uh, maybe through the bistro or culinary, as well as through some like special education opportunities for students. Uh, also this, um, snack shop, um, in the movement center.
[Jenny Graham]: Hurry up. I'm a member of the Mass School Library Association, and the comment that we all have is that we welcome work, allows the students to feel comfortable in the space. To have them in here at lunchtime is great. A lot of students come here and they don't have lunch because they can't bring it in. The biggest thing that prevented us from having food in this room is the cutting. So as long as, you know, the flooring is going to be cleanable, you know, I think it's great. And especially when there's testing, which goes on in here, some of the students need to have snacks during their testing periods. And, you know, they've had to leave the room so that they're not disruptive of the students by eating.
[Unidentified]: So I'm definitely pro having food in this room, definitely. And it's a common thing, because I know the Waltham High librarian, as well as Bill Rickon.
[SPEAKER_05]: We all feel the same. It's whatever the students feel most comfortable.
[Jenny Graham]: Any other questions? Is there a motion to approve? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. By Dr. Galusi. Is there a second? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Luke Preisner]: Just to be clear, so we're being asked whether we agree to it. This is the recommendation. Yeah. OK. No.
[Jenny Graham]: 12 in the affirmative, 1 in the negative, 2 absent, the motion is approved. OK. Next topic is me.
[Matt Rice]: Let's do Curtis Tucker so I don't have to go back and forth on the subject. I might have switched them around at one point in the process. So we had our dedicated programming meetings with Curtis Tufts staff, he was there obviously, but also district leadership as well. So we did a really sort of careful review of every one of the program spaces that is represented in the Curtis Tufts program moving forward. It is important to note that where they are in the existing building is that existing building is 18,600 square feet in terms of size. When that program is being brought to the high school, there's a great deal of efficiency that we are going to be able to realize operationally from an overall school perspective. So I think that is noteworthy. And even with that being said, we were able to find some program elements that were listed out initially that upon further review just didn't seem like they were the best fit in terms of how curriculum would be delivered. So one of those was the games room, And then the other two were the breakout rooms. So the games room was really intended to provide cognitive breaks for students, but it was noted that there's going to be other spaces within the Curtis Tufts suite that could incorporate elements that would otherwise be found within the game room. Again, we're not removing things, opportunities necessarily. We're just finding spaces where those things can happen elsewhere. And then similarly with the breakout rooms, we just identified that those The act of taking a small group out, already a small classroom, and small number of students per teacher was not something that happened in sort of the daily activities within the school, nor would it have to happen moving forward. So that was seen as an opportunity to pull those cases out entirely. So the total reduction there was 600 net square feet, which again would gross up to 900 square feet at that 1.5 multiplier. In terms of the rest of the spaces that are in there, there are traditional classroom spaces that would be organized around the community lunchroom so that there is a centralized community space for the Curtis Tufts program itself, and then easy access to the classrooms, but that space could be used for breakout activities that would not happen in the room, or it would be used for actual lunch and just easy access to the surrounding spaces. Certainly a sensory room for deescalation type activities, awaiting reception with an administrative assistant in terms of open meetings when they would arrive. The principal's office, two adjustment Councilors, because there are two adjustment Councilors associated with the program, and then a dedicated conference room space. So I think overall, a very sort of compact, efficient program. And then also we were able to find some efficiencies here.
[Jenny Graham]: Questions about current tasks, Paul?
[John Falco]: I need to know this, but how do they get their food there?
[SPEAKER_09]: Do you want me to tackle that? The cafeteria staff from the high school, I ask them what they want with their choice, and the cafeteria staff brings both breakfast and lunch to us.
[Jenny Graham]: They deliver it.
[SPEAKER_09]: And can I just make one point about coming out of classrooms into the community room? So a lot of the curriculum is project-based. So it's tailored to kind of the questions they're asking. It's more personalized. So it's really coming out of smaller classrooms into a larger room that students are collaborating and working together.
[Jenny Graham]: I just wanted to add that. Any other questions? Aaron?
[Matt Rice]: It's a question, and this might be part of the ongoing discussions. With them coming potentially on campus and to the food question, would the plan be for them to follow a more similar schedule to what is the typical schedule here on campus as of now so that for lunchtime and breakfast time, they're able to access it the same way? Or would it be a separate time where they're able to collect their food from the cafeteria at a different time than the general population of students? It's obviously getting delivered as of now, so.
[Jenny Graham]: I mean, I think operationally, we would have to talk about it internally. Currently, all staff with our students, we all eat together. Yeah, I mean, they don't necessarily love a large space. So I don't know if it could be delivered. And I don't know what that would look like operationally.
[John Falco]: Paul? So it seems like, but here's a good point. But when we were first talking about bringing the pairs of cups and all of them, and I know that adjacencies wise, I don't know where anything is at anymore. But we had talked about there being a, that it was adjacent to the cafeteria, not to the kitchen. Do you represent me on this?
[Matt Rice]: So I think I know where you're going with it. There's a couple of things in there. One, we have talked about within the community room integrating kitchenette. So that either as part of instruction or for students that just want to warm up something that they brought for home, they have access to that resource where they are. But I think also just going back to Aaron's point in adjacency as well. So Curtis Tufts is currently planned to be on the third floor with a separate discreet access. But because they are on the third floor, that's the same level where the main kitchen and the servery are. So it would be very easy for a warming cart to be prepared in the kitchen and just a bowl down, no elevators, anything in between. So it would facilitate easy transfer of food product over to Curtis stuff. So I think it's, it's in a good position for a lot of those other issues.
[Luke Preisner]: Hey, can I ask, I don't see a triangle, but I see a black line that is a wall. Is that a dedicated entrance for Curtis Tufts or is that above ground level? I can't tell.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, sometimes we can't tell. It's a lot of different levels. We have four different levels of grade. Level three at this particular point is one floor above grade. So the heavy black line represents the exterior of the building as it circles around. So the vision for students is that entering dedicated Curtis Tufts entry point. is to come in at level two and then move up one level, either the elevator, dedicated elevator, or a stair.
[Luke Preisner]: Now, what I recall about level two is, and it's probably on one of the later slides, you have all your unique classrooms immediately below, right? And so there's an entrance on that second level. Does that entrance share? Does everybody that uses that lane use that entrance? Or are you talking about a separate entrance? Can you provide some clarity there?
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, it wants to be a separate entrance for the early childhood center in the Curtis-Tufts space, because it's just, it's not a good connotation for either group to be entering in through their other entry, right? We don't want to give an implication that Curtis-Tufts high school students are coming in through a preschool entry door. So there, as part of this, and the MEEP preschool classrooms are actually located to the south of where Curtis-Tufts is. directly below this area is high school program. And we are planning for discrete entrances for both Meep and Curtis Tufts that are separate from each other. So it's tough to visualize on plan, just looking at level three here without the other floors in level two.
[Luke Preisner]: Yeah. So in an emergency though, certainly if that's not the Curtis Tufts, they got to get out through that black line on the northern part of their blue zone. Yeah. Presumably that's not a wall.
[Matt Rice]: That's a door, right? Correct. Yes. No, there will be access control in between to limit the ability for Curtis. Curtis tough students didn't move out into the high school and also for high school students to move into the Curtis tough space. So it is so in and out through that hallway. Correct. And then there is a great access as you get further at the edge of the dining commons grade does actually rise up as we move north.
[Luke Preisner]: And I'm not really familiar with the operations of Kurt's house, but Are there like regular interactions with external agencies outside of NTS that are factored into the design? And what are those specifically?
[SPEAKER_09]: We have outside Councilors who come in, kids may be attached to TCF, DYS, and they have outside providers who come in.
[Jenny Graham]: So that's one of the reasons we can use the conference room too. We have, we're doing a ton of service learning now that we have a van. And so we are having people come in and have those conversations. We're hoping for a community garden where they're connected to the fells and everything that's going on in the fells with our biology teacher. So it's going to be nice to have that access here at the high school. But yeah, I mean, the more that we can bring community in and service providers in, the more access and entry points students add to their final future. and getting support.
[Luke Preisner]: So there is regular interaction, and it's through the dedicated entrance that we'll see probably on a later slide.
[Kimberly Talbot]: But if that's a vision that changes, as you know.
[Luke Preisner]: And do students typically take the bus to school? Do they walk? They have to take the bus.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's only public transportation. Some are transported. by a van service. Some walk, some ride their bikes, some get dropped off by their parents.
[Jenny Graham]: We have two students who actually drive, who are 18 and they park behind Curtis Tufts.
[Kimberly Talbot]: So there's lots of stuff going on in terms of transportation.
[Luke Preisner]: All of the above. All of the above. So similar methods, no restrictions. Right. Same thing you see with our system.
[Jenny Graham]: Libby? This is just sort of a question for the future. I do pull up an old plan, I think, of how they get in and then come up with four years period. And I know this is an early plan, but I'm just, and I'm sure you're thinking of these things, but I'm really curious about what the identity of this stuff is, what this entrance feels like. In my early plans, it kind of feels like they come in a side door, there's a corridor, there's other things out of the corridor. So, and I'm not gonna say what I think is right. I'm sure you guys are having these conversations more involved, You walk in, you feel like you're already in the school, and you walk in that corridor, and you're walking up the stair, that feels like it's part of the courtyard stuff, like you're finding a stairway and discovering it upstairs. I think this is, my guess is it feels important to have a clear identity when you're entering that doorway, but I'll let those involved decide what feels right for that.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, it's exactly on point, you know, in terms of the thought process that we're going through, and you're right that we are evolving the design When we're where we were for the PSR plans, which all these snippets are taken from was very much just trying to make sure that we had enough rooms for footage in the building. So we just didn't have the ability to sort out everything, nor could we, right. Cause we're going through this process.
[Jenny Graham]: So I don't think that's important since you're coming in at a different level. Yeah. All right.
[Matt Rice]: One final question for me. So I just want to clarify. I know that right now the population of Curtis Tufts is anywhere between 10 and 15-ish or so. I know that generally speaking, this space, I know in the plan, this was planned for like 20 plus, or it describes that the space would be offering for 20 plus students. Is that currently the standard in here?
[Jenny Graham]: We said 40. We're hoping for 40. But it's all, it all depends on kids who you know, it's on their IDs and whether it's recommended or not. So that's why the numbers can be seen as well. We'll have 16 on Monday.
[Luke Preisner]: And so the plan would be that this can support the 40. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Other questions?
[Luke Preisner]: Last one. So 40, do they have to be exclusively from MPS or can we help other districts by mostly
[SPEAKER_09]: That depends on the vision of what we're going to do. I mean, currently we don't accept out-of-district students. I mean, I think we want to build a program that will depend on what the vision is and what we want for that school. I think right now we want kids to just from MPS get into the building and feel like it's theirs, but certainly it does generate revenue when you accept students from other districts.
[Luke Preisner]: Yeah, if you have space to fill one, I felt it.
[Jenny Graham]: But that comes with problems too. I mean, you have to look at the pros and cons of it. Yeah.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Question through the chair.
[Jenny Graham]: Mayor?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, thank you. I'm also questioning the 40 as I know of the Curtis Tufts since I went to Medford High School and don't recall. anywhere even close to the number 40. So maybe my question is, what is the average that we've had over the last five, 10, 15 years? And is 40 too much to build for?
[SPEAKER_05]: We might have to partner in this response, but Joan Bowen mentioned there has been a time in which this was the enrollment was much higher than it is now.
[Jenny Graham]: And it was up at 40. I mean, last year the enrollment was 21. So I think like there is a definite ebb. And flow. And flow of the enrollment at Curtis Tufts. Um, and so there's like a wide range, but I know there has been higher enrollment before.
[Unidentified]: I just don't know how long ago that was.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think like the nineties, eighties is when it was, wasn't necessarily labeled a therapeutic day school, but it was an alternative school. I think there were more students, but don't quote me on that. Since I've been here, it's gone up from, I mean, from 10 to 16 to like Suzanne said, 21.
[Jenny Graham]: We can at Curtis Tech currently, we could have eight kids in every classroom and have 24 do it very, you know, easily.
[SPEAKER_09]: But it also depends on the student being on an IEP and whether or not you need You know, a couple of days, well, and that's outside.
[Jenny Graham]: I am recalling the conversations where we, um, did the eligibility study documents. There were like a couple of variables that people were concerned about. One was there are students who would benefit from Curtis simply just can't agree to go to Curtis because of the isolation of that building. So being there, you know, they are technically entitled to all of the things that are available to them here in this high school, but that's like impractical. And so there are kids who could benefit from like crops enrollment opportunities who are not electing, like whose families not electing to put them at Curtis Tufts. because of there's something here at the high school that is like more valuable to them. So that was like one thing that we talked about when we talked about the sporty. And I think the other thing that we talked about, like if you look at this space, there's four classrooms and that's like, there's subject areas that are associated with those classrooms. So you would still need that many classrooms, whether you have final students or 40 students. So cutting it in half does not cut the spaces in half because There's only four classes to begin with, four subjects. Is that correct? That's correct.
[SPEAKER_05]: And are the credit staff students in the, if they're here in this building, is part of the goal that they would have some students in the CTE programs? Or is that not part of it? And if so, does that affect the design in any way? I do think that's something we need to discuss operationally. because the building will be housing mobile programs, and generally the level of need for students at the very subs may require a substantially separate program for their entire day. So if a student was ready to engage in more genetic education opportunities, we would probably consider third-party programming for those students and not a separate program. But we're still discussing columns below when the program is up. or the schools.
[Jenny Graham]: Other questions about the process, Paul?
[Matt Rice]: I don't expect an answer to this now, but we are talking about 6,000 square feet in the new project to replace 18,000 square feet in a significantly older building. It also requires the maintenance and operations and to fire everything. And I just Maybe it's academic at this point, but I would love to know how much less we would have to go towards that to counteract the fact that we are taking on, it sounds like some pretty good benefits by prohibiting. And I would just love at some point to know if that's even possible.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, I think that's a great comment. And there, you know, we have a item in a couple of meetings, three meetings or so where we're talking about some of the feedback from the Curtis Tufts evaluation study that the mayor's team has been doing to understand what that building is, what it needs, and what is possible in that building with a question of, is there a programming that we're considering for this high school that would be better suited at Curtis Tufts for some reason or another? That requires a space study and thoughts about renovation. To your point, looking at cost, To build this here, it's going to cost whatever it is, $6 million and change. If we are going to leave it at Curtis Tufts to bring the building up to code, that's something different. So there's a lot of cost comparisons to be made in the coming time. But your question is that when we talk about energy efficiency savings of this building, we need to wrap in what we're not going to spend at Curritops for its maintenance, because it would no longer be needed from an educational perspective if all the things presently in this building stayed there. So yeah, that is to come.
[Luke Preisner]: And I think, you know, costs are super important. I like that idea. And I think we should also roll in the revenue opportunity, because if you build it, they will come. And if you have like 30 empty spots that you could fill with other strips that produces revenue, that has to be factored into any cost analysis. Um, if we do it, um, I think we could include the revenue generation.
[Jenny Graham]: Well, there's a policy decision about accepting outside enrollment that would have to come before we do that. Um, because that's not a decision this body can make.
[Luke Preisner]: Some reason to justify 40.
[Jenny Graham]: It's the same square footage, whether it's 20 or 40.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: But through the chair, we could be saving maybe 900 square feet where we are trying to lower costs.
[Jenny Graham]: Where would we save 900 square feet? I'm not sure I'm following.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: 950, I'm sorry. If we reduced it by one classroom.
[Jenny Graham]: But where would those kids go to school?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We have 21 right now. This is accounting for 40.
[Jenny Graham]: Aren't there different subject matters in each of those files? Yes, it's the fours. So one classroom is science, one classroom is English, one classroom is science, and one classroom is social studies. So the minimum reimbursable is 8.5. These spaces are reimbursed in a completely different fashion because they are governed completely separately from the typical space guidelines. All of this space is reimbursable.
[Luke Preisner]: Well, to the mayor's point, if you want to go smaller because we don't have 40 kids and we need four rooms, then we make the rooms smaller. So if it's 950 now, then we make it less, and we can size it for the amount of students. I think it's a point she's making, and I just want to clarify.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, what I'm saying is I don't agree with that assessment of how you would change this space. Dr. Pelosi?
[Unidentified]: I just will say, I think at this point, we can have a conversation about classroom size.
[Jenny Graham]: But I would say in this one area, with all due respect, I do think some of this is, you know, Lori and Kim are the experts in this area. And in a therapeutic program, you need a little bit more space to be able to allow students to move around the room, to have smaller like breakout areas or group activities. This is a completely different population of student, and it does require a larger, a slightly larger space. You can't say that this is typical 21 kids in a class, and now let's make it smaller. This is 21 students that have, that need a substantially set program, and they need the space to learn.
[Luke Preisner]: I can kind of worry about sort of bringing them to the campus, but then isolating them on the third floor in this group of rooms. They get their lunch brought to, they can see out the window, they can see nature, they can see everybody outside, but they're kind of confined in this area. I wonder about the psychology of it.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I would move approval and ask that the class sizes just be explored. further through October 6th.
[John Falco]: Paul? Am I correct that students with a mobility disability can't go to the parents' counseling? It's not ADA-fined, correct? Correct.
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, we can have a meeting because there's a ramp in the basement.
[John Falco]: So that's another You know, I don't know how many students that sometimes affects, but when we don't have the opportunity to send the student there, we send them out of district at five times the cost for something. So, yeah, that just is something that, as someone who signs the bonds, I see sometimes these kind of district placements, and I'm not saying they're not worth it, but I do sometimes wonder, are any of these kids that actually could just be here if we have the right facilities? Um, and I can't ask that question and I can't get an answer, but knowing that the Curtis cops is in fact completely impossible for. That seems like that has happened.
[Jenny Graham]: So thank you. Um, there is a motion to approve by, uh, Mayor Lungo-Koehn. Is there a second? I will call the roll. Jenny Graham. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, and the classroom size be explored was part of my motion.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes. Dr. DeLuzzi. Yes. Marta Cabral. Yes. Ken Lord. Yes. Jen Belanger. Yes. Steve Brown. Yes. Maureen DePriest. Yes. Brian Hilliard. Tracy Keene.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Paul Malone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: COB, Bethany Collins. COB, Bethany Collins. COB, Bethany Collins. COB, Bethany Collins. set of questions or an approach that people are wanting this team to investigate, please send a note to the team. The team met yesterday to do that exploration. So if we're asking them to go back to the drawing board, it would be helpful if anyone had any particular suggestions on how to do so to go ahead and send them to Macalino so that we can investigate.
[Matt Rice]: Okay, Meek. Meek, yes. So We're going to start off with the plans here just because there's a few more spaces that we'll talk about in terms of the list on the next slide. But as a general orientation, we're again looking at the southern end of the building in that area that on the third floor has the welcome center and central office currently. So this is separated, programs are separated out in general. And on the very first floor of the early childhood center, is the kids corner and member family network spaces. There would be some need support spaces potentially located down at that level as well, because there's just more than are be able to fit on the floor above on level two. But on level two is the main collection of the classroom spaces. The program would have its own dedicated entrance, but that would come off of the early childhood center. There is the concept, and we'll show you some of the spaces where the early childhood center has some shared resources, both in terms of the centralized entry point from a security and entrance management perspective, but also for things like stroller parking, if there's those types of just resources. So we'll go through what those are on the next slide. And so on the left-hand column of spaces are the dedicated WEEK program spaces, and on the right-hand side are the shared early childhood center spaces, some of which are going to benefit WEEK as well. So we just thought we would talk about them in this breath. Just to start off in terms of the topic of reimbursement for the preschool spaces, the way that the MSBA treats preschools when they are co-located with high school is that they reimburse for the preschool classrooms themselves. None of the support spaces that go along with them and not the FF&E, the mature fixtures and equipment that go into the preschool rooms. I don't know particularly why that is the policy. If that is the policy, that's what follow, that's what we get back from them when we submitted the PSR report in their comments. So that's what we anticipate. So the reimbursable square footage here is at 13,200 net square feet and at a encompasses 11 preschool classrooms that have a toilet within each of those rooms in size for 15 students. They're integrated classrooms, so they have seven students that are in IEP, and then they have up to seven students in IEP, and they would have the rest would be gen ed students mixed in, and that's part of the IEP, having that integration of educational learning modalities. So the rest of the spaces there you can see are support around, reception waiting, director's office, a team chair, office space, an evaluation observation office. That was one of the reductions that was identified here was reducing from the original quantity of two spaces that were called out down to one as that was found to be Adequate in terms of providing the necessary observation from that particular office. Related service offices, so a speech language pathologist and PCBA, and I cannot remember what PCBA, it's board-certified. Behavior analysts. Okay. So again, related services for the preschool students. Conference room for either IEP meetings or other associated push-in service meetings. an OTPT combined space. There was a playroom that also designated as well for gross motor and differentiated activities. It was determined that there's enough other support spaces that will provide that type of opportunity. And there is within the building, the opportunity for students to leverage the gymnastics gym as well during the course of the day. So that was seen as something that can be removed in its entirety. There is a sensory room, There is a room per staff kitchenette. We do have a lot of classrooms here. So just keeping everyone contained in their classroom all day long was not ideal from just a staff experience perspective. There were breakout rooms or two breakout rooms that were also identified as potential efficiencies or eliminations in this case. only because the preschool students are just not going to be in the same, they don't have the same ability to go out into the hallway and work in small groups that a high school student might have, right? So that, that particular space was not seen as being beneficial. That activity, that type of activity, if it happens, will happen within the classroom where students and teachers would all be already sort of providing their oversight in terms of activity. So then for the early childhood centers, the shared resources that are really provided at the entry point, one is a reception space. Again, we're still sorting out the exact staffing model as to whether or not there will be sort of a campus monitor located there, whether it would be an intercom back to the central campus monitor. There's a multipurpose room. So this is one of those shared spaces that allows the playroom itself within the program to be eliminated overall because there's additional functionality that can be shared between Kids Corner and MEEP. It's indoor recess and we implement weather and that type of resource. There is a dedicated nurse's office that will serve Kids Corner, MEEP as well as the Bedford Family Network and sort of that shared access rather than creating another rather than having those students that are in the preschool area, the early childhood center, sort of going back and forth to the school nurse's office, the mother's room, stroller parking, and then the laundry space. The laundry space, it's not noted here, but it is something that we will be investigating as making it smaller. I think the 250 square feet seem like that was probably above and beyond what would be required for the types of laundry activities that would be amongst Kids Corner overall. So it's probably we're looking at a washer and dryer and a counter next to it, as opposed to something that's more like conference rooms. So the recommendation there really represents the removal of the playroom, the two breakout rooms, and the reduction of the evaluation observation from two to one.
[Jenny Graham]: Thanks, Matt. Questions of me, Karen?
[Matt Rice]: That's a great question. Why the reception waiting area between MEEP and EEC are just, there's a hundred square foot difference. Is it just because of the population that are using them? Yeah, it's sort of like a funnel of space. Like, so we have three different like visitors, students, parents from three different programs coming into a central area. So we need a little bit of space as just to allow them to congregate. And the reason that we have another reception within MEEP is that's where the administrative assistant who would actually be interacting with families as they're coming in would sit.
[Luke Preisner]: So I'll make the observation with 250 feet, start around dramatic. My laundry room is eight by 10 feet. That's probably at least seven. Right, so that's the concept in terms of reducing it in size for sure. So what's the demand signal to bring it back to the high school? I used to be at the high school in the pre-K program, right? And then I thought parents wanted it at the neighborhood schools. I wasn't involved with that, but my understanding was people wanted it in the neighborhoods for the convenience of it, because typically they would have an older kid, say at Brooks, going to first grade, and they had a sibling that was two years younger, and they wanted her to have pre-K. So they would like it at the Brooks. Same, this took for like a little while. I think it was offered at all four elementary schools. Now it's just in Mississauga and Brooks. So are people, like, unhappy with that and asking to pull it all back here? Because Winthrop Street, I don't know who drives Winthrop Street, aside from myself, but it's horrible. Like, it's so bad in the morning. I don't know if, like, I was younger and had to deal with dropping my kid off at, say, the Roberts, and then bringing their younger sibling over here for the drop-off, if I, you know, would keep my sanity. It's bad. So what's the demand signal for pulling it all back here?
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. Lewis, do you want to answer that? I would love to answer that. I think there's lots of layers. First and foremost, we start at 9 a.m. So I think one of the things we're going to have to have big conversations about are the tiered arrival times with the different programs that will be housed up here. But you just also just said it right there. So there's growing population, which is wonderful at the elementary levels. But the reason we've had to move some of the programs out of other buildings is because of a capacity issue.
[Unidentified]: And so the governor and the secretary of education are making a big, big push for universal pre-K.
[Jenny Graham]: And so just this right here is not going to be able to meet the demands of universal pre-K. So at some point, I would say We may still have to have some pre-K classrooms in our elementary buildings, but we're trying to meet the agenda of the community. And then what we see coming down as universal pre-K requirements. And then the other piece I would say is yes, and. So all of our pre-Ks, and Clinton can speak a little bit about this more fully, also have specialized programming. And so if you are a typically developing student, you may be able to attend a pre-K classroom that's near your residence. But if you are a student that has specific needs, you are going to the school that houses that program for pre-K that are going to meet your specific needs. So the ability for us to also have an ECC is going to allow us much greater flexibility, but also ability to meet demands and the varying demands of what we see our student needs that are coming to our schools and allow for like resource in a way that is a little bit, you know, so demilated right now.
[John Falco]: Okay.
[Luke Preisner]: So, so the demand signal is the expectation that universal pre-K will be levied and you would like to address it in a centralized fashion. If it were levied and it were at the neighborhood schools, you'd still have to address it. But you would have to address it at the neighborhood schools. So this is a job.
[Unidentified]: We do not have the space for it.
[Luke Preisner]: Sure. But I'm just saying, if you didn't build it here, and that regulation came down, hopefully it would come with money, right? Because a lot of it would be hard. It's not usually how mandates for schools work. Anyway, so I guess now I'm understanding why it's being proposed as a centralized facility, and it's being expanded. It's in anticipation of legislation that people, I guess, anticipate.
[Jenny Graham]: Right now, just for point of clarification, now we have seven classrooms. This is just going up to 11. Yes, but it's not a modest. in my opinion, a modest increase. I would also say the other things that we talked about before we talked about universal pre-K was the increased quality of services that you can provide when they're centralized. And the fact that most of our, like a lot of our pre-K programming is like for two and a half hours a day. It's like completely untenable for a working parent to enroll their kid in a classroom for two and a half hours a day. And so the clear other demand in the community is full day access to these kinds of programs. And we cannot do that with the number of classrooms that we have right now. So that's the other part of the shift here is to give us the space and the flexibility to shift from what is a really outdated model that doesn't fit everybody's needs, that doesn't fit the students' needs, and it certainly doesn't fit the needs of working families. And then pre-K, like to me, pre-K was like the third or fourth thing on the list in terms of like, why would we entertain this? It's certainly like a look into the future, but there were other operational needs that were much more pressed in my mind that caused us to put this as part, envision this as part of this project through multiple statements of interest, et cetera, et cetera. So that there's like, there's many components to this, but there's, There are quality and access issues with the current constraints of our programs.
[Luke Preisner]: OK, well, thanks for all that. I'm going to make an unpopular motion. And I'm guessing no one's going to second it, but I'll make it anyway. I'm a fan of tweaking the pre-Ks in the neighborhoods. I imagine if legislation does arrive sometime in the future, that there's going to be a period of time to figure out how to implement it. There might be state funding to do help sort it out. And that's a problem that we deal with when it arrives. I'd like to keep the MEEP program in the elementary school, really in the neighborhoods for conveniences, and would like to eliminate all of these spaces from this project. So my motion is to eliminate all the MEEP spaces from our high school project, keeping them in the neighborhoods. The laws change and we have to deal with it. We can deal with that problem in the future. So that's my motion. I'll see if anyone seconds it.
[Jenny Graham]: Is there a second?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Can somebody comment through the chair on why that could or wouldn't work?
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. DeLuzzi, I did already answer it's not in the neighborhoods. Right now, because of capacity issues, we have me programming at the Brooks and the Mississauga. So there is no programming at the Woodland, and there is no programming at the Roberts. And so to say that we're like Pope and Bush when this mandate comes down, there's no space at two of our buildings right now to come anywhere close to meeting a demand for universal pre-K.
[Luke Preisner]: Fair, but if we recombined I'll say the fifth and sixth. If we combine fifth graders into the middle school, wouldn't that free up capacity at the elementary?
[Jenny Graham]: If we are able to do that, we don't know if we are yet. So at this time, we can't say that. Is there a second before we continue to have this discussion?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Seconded.
[John Falco]: Are there any comments? Paul? I feel like we've said this a number of times, and I don't know which conversations, but doing this and also saving us from a bunch of additional bills. I mean, we're going to have to expand two of our schools. We're not going to get to do it in 25 years, 30 years when we're done paying up this school, we're going to have to do it in a couple of years. I mean, I've been on the school committee for nine years and in the entire time I've been on the school committee, I don't think one year to the next hasn't been programmed to have to get shoved from one school to another. and too bad to the parents and the fact that you might have a kid that's in this program and another one all the way across the city, too bad, because we don't want to be broke. So we're already in this situation that you very much correctly, and nobody wants to drop one kid off at the Roberts, at a middle school and another one at the high school. Nobody wants to do that. I did that for two years. Yeah, it's terrible. But that's actually already happening today. You just shared that. That's what's happening today because your kid needs some special service. Well, guess what? They can have a twin who doesn't need it. Drop them off, one kid off at the Roberts and take the other one over to the Miss, or wherever it is. Too bad. It's the way it is right now. So that's why I'm like, we've got to get some capacity in these buildings. And one way to do that is to get these classrooms out of the elementary schools So I do understand when the legislature and the governor decide we're going to do it for everybody, we're probably going to end up having to do some real soul-searching and digging by our schools. But I don't want it to be a building project. Because I don't know about you, but I don't want to do this again. But we'll still be doing this five years.
[Unidentified]: Let me go to the point. I think, maybe to your point, it's the leading way to list this closely.
[Jenny Graham]: But if we did after that, we might still have to put people in all of your schools. So it definitely was a mandate. So we'll probably agree in spirit, like, yes, it would be so much better if they ran out of electricals. And as a parent who has had multiple ground blocks, yeah, it would be so much better. But also the reality is the world isn't perfect. But there is absolutely no way this costs any less. Well, it won't cost less. It will cost so much more to implement this later on separate building projects, other buildings. If I think about how we spend taxpayer money wisely, be putting it in this building project or mobilize or building something anyway. It's like the most affordable way to get weak, um, expanded method. So if we do not go later on, expanded and we get larger because we have universal opportunity for everybody. So I'm coming to the schools. If there's capacity, fifth and sixth grade, fifth to eighth grade combinations, that might be one movie, but like, as far as it's yet, like the best way to get something for our money now is here. And it's not perfect, but none of these are perfect, sadly.
[Luke Preisner]: Well, thanks, Livia. And I will say, I mean, I admire the hypotheticals. And there's a lot of different ways things can go. But the only fact that we have is that the school is close to 600,000 square feet. That's a fact.
[Jenny Graham]: That is not the only fact that we have.
[Luke Preisner]: There is many facts. Yeah, but in terms of the Kill the Neighborhood 3K program, I'm hearing a lot of hypothetical things which I can't dismiss, but I can also clearly point to and say, you know, it can certainly go one way or the other. And we're hearing one version, one branch of possibilities. It could be a very different one. So to center ourselves, we should look at the things that are facts that are sort of undeniable. One of those is the size of the school is like almost $600,000 per teen. And it comes with a huge cost. And if you try to compare what we're proposing with like any other district, we look like an outlier. So I'm trying to address it so that it looks like we're trying to make this affordable. Because I really am. And so that's kind of my motivation. That's why I'm bringing up these tough questions, because I feel like they're not going to get brought up. So, yes.
[Jenny Graham]: OK, I'm going to call the roll. On the motion to eliminate the meat spaces entirely, Jenny Graham. No. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. Blusey. No. Marta Cabral. No. Ken Lord. No. Jen Belanger.
[Unidentified]: No.
[Jenny Graham]: Libby Brown.
[Unidentified]: No.
[Jenny Graham]: Maria Dorsey. No. Brian Hilliard. No. Tracy Keene.
[SPEAKER_04]: No.
[Jenny Graham]: Paul Malone. No. Nicole Morell. Liz Mullane. No. Erin Olapade. No. Luke Kreisner. Yes. two in the affirmative, 13, no, two in the affirmative, 12 in the negative, two absent, motion does not pass. Are there any other motions on the floor? I have a clarifying question on the early childhood center. where it talks about the shared space with Network and Family Network in King's Corner.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is there additional space for Network and Family Network in King's Corner? I forget.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, it's separate. There's a whole separate space. But I just wanted to make sure. So this is the shared space between the three programs. OK.
[SPEAKER_05]: Liz? I just have a question. Can you run me through again the difference between the director's office, team chair, and the related service offices? What are those different spaces you'll explore again? You might have to help me. So the director would be overseeing the Early Childhood Program. The team chair would be inviting them to have team meetings for IEP services. And then the related services would be conducting evaluation, providing speech therapy, providing routine services. Does that answer your question? Yeah, thank you.
[Unidentified]: There's the reception waiting area in both of those.
[Jenny Graham]: So is the reception waiting room on the right-hand side for the EEC really specific to Kids Corner and Edward County Network? Is that the idea? And that the reception waiting room on the left is for me?
[Matt Rice]: No, it sort of goes back to our question earlier. The one on the right-hand side that is shared is intended to essentially serve as a collector for visitors, parents, students that are going to be coming in from all four or all three different programs. And because there's such a high volume there, when you look at the total together, we just need some amount of space there to accept them and then distribute them out to where they're going. And so on the left-hand side, that reception area for MEEP is where you would actually have a staffed position with a welcome desk.
[Jenny Graham]: I remember you saying that. Now it's clear. I think I didn't get it. Sure. Great. And my math is wrong, so I just want to correct that on the motion to eliminate me, two in the affirmative, 11 in the negative, two absent, the motion was denied. And now I can cancel the meeting, so that's it. Are there any other motions based on the recommendations listed here?
[Luke Preisner]: I'll make a motion to approve.
[Jenny Graham]: Motion to approve the recommendations to eliminate the two, from two to one, the evaluation and observation room and the playroom, and then the two breakout rooms by Luke, is there a second?
[John Falco]: Second.
[Jenny Graham]: And we'll call the roll. Jenny Grant.
[Matt Rice]: Sorry, can I just make a comment? We'd like to actually suggest that maybe we revise the motion to also include a reduction of the laundry space from 250 to 100 square feet. as part of just so we don't have to come back and remember to do that after the fact.
[Unidentified]: Yep.
[Luke Preisner]: You got to ask if I want to amend the motion. Sorry.
[Unidentified]: Is that an acceptable, Luke?
[Jenny Graham]: It's amenable.
[Luke Preisner]: And Ken? Yes. Great. I'll call the roll.
[Jenny Graham]: Jenny Graham? Dr. Galusi. Yes. Marta Cabral. Yes. Ken Lord. Yes. Jen Ballander. Yes. Libby Brown. Yes. Maria Dorsey. Yes. Brian Hilliard. Yes. Tracy Keene.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Paul Malone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Nicole Morell. Liz Mallain. Yes. Erin Olapade. Yes. Luke Preissner.
[Luke Preisner]: Abstain.
[Jenny Graham]: 12 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. two absent, one abstained, 12 plus 16 plus one is 15. Okay, I think we have a summary here. So as we did last time, you can see that the changes that we made tonight, these numbers will shift slightly because we added 150 square feet of reduction and that will tally up to something slightly more than that for the gross square footage. So we'll make an adjustment to this before I post it. But this shows you where we were at prior to this meeting and what we have accomplished this evening. Any questions? OK. I think we have some upcoming meetings and update.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah. So just this one slide for design update. And it's really just to give a preview to everyone about what is forthcoming in terms of design process. We've been talking a lot about programs. We've been talking a lot about the cost of things, but concurrent with all that activity on the programming side, we have been and will continue to advance and need to the design of the building, design of the site, the overall project. And so what we're outlining here is just in these three sort of very generalized topics. how we're going to be pushing things forward in terms of the evolution of the design. So the general cadence that is described here for each of the site design program in Massing, exterior building design, the main entrance and part of the school, works on an order of operations where we'll meet initially with the leadership group to present some ideas on individual topic, some design evolution, We then bring those materials and incorporating that feedback to the appropriate advisory team that is focused around each one of those topics. So for instance, the site design and massing topic will be reviewed with the site security and safety advisory team. For the exterior building design team, we'll review that with the interior and exterior design advisory team. And then for that main entrance and part of the school explorations, we'll talk about that with the ed planning and equity advisory team. Similar to all the other discussions that happened with the advisory team recommendations will then be brought here to the building committee and presented, and then they can be voted on in terms of inclusion into the project. So that's the methodology that we're going to be using. We're just really embarking on that process. But that will be forthcoming at the noted future SPC meetings that you see here. Most of that seemingly to land on November 16th. With potentially some updates also for the site design, I think on the October 6th meeting, even though I know we have a very busy meeting on October 6th. So. I don't know if there's any questions on that. Questions?
[Jenny Graham]: So our next community forum is next week on the 17th. And it will be our Sustainability Direct. I'm going to be an interactive meeting and it is exclusively on zoom. Am I correct about that? Yes. Um, and Matt, can you talk a little bit about what a shred is? Because I don't think I know what it is as many times as you've told me.
[Matt Rice]: So it's great that it's a community forum in terms of the encapsulation of it, because it really is an opportunity to solicit feedback and exchange ideas with the community on the topics of sustainability. So we won't necessarily get into every nuance of the lead scorecard, for instance, but we're going to be taking on the big topics that were identified by the school committee as part of the motion as really the primary goal is focusing on energy consumption throughout the building. And I'm forgetting the other two that were.
[Unidentified]: Materials. All helping us out. That's the other thing. water use.
[Kimberly Talbot]: There'll be breakout rooms, and I believe there are three different topics. There'll be some random assignment. We're going to work with Ken and Will tomorrow to get this set up properly. But it's participatory. We definitely want students. I don't know if we've made that connection yet with IV. We talked about making sure we get some good student representation. So we'll reach back out to you team, Marta.
[Matt Rice]: It is an opportunity for the community to interact, express ideas on the topic of sustainability and let the design team take those back and incorporate them into our evolution of the system design, the life cycle cost analysis, those types of things will all be reviewed.
[Jenny Graham]: Our next meeting is on the 22nd, followed by our early October meeting on the 6th, where we will continue going through various spaces. And then as we head into November, we will be talking about the selection of the construction manager and some introductions there. We'll have another design update in early November. And then we'll be talking about the next round of estimating. Is there a motion to adjourn? So I can. We can get a unanimous on here. Jenny Graham. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: All alone. Yes. Quinn Fowler, COB OSMEMI, she, her, OSMEMI negative.
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