 call this meeting to order. The Rochester Stockbridge Unified District Board of School Directors special meeting Tuesday September 6th 2022 at 6 p.m. Rochester campus and via Google Meet agenda the call to order we have done any adjustments to this agenda being none we have a quorum we're expecting two more members Patrick and hopefully just Dean to join us shortly before we start is there any public comment I know we have gonna be inviting you all in to speak later Karen I see you on there do you have any comment before we start was that sorry was that a no I didn't quite hear it was that a was that a no Karen that it was a little foggy on the audio no I'm fine good thank you very much Karen that's good any other public Leanne I guess you're considered public if you have anything to say before we start thank you good to see you thank you for being here tonight any board comment before we start oh well we were gonna look at calendars but that's an agenda it's agendas we don't need to do that here good any comment bill Amy Robert Patrick no comment okay I think we're good and we will go to the heart of the matter number five discussion items current status of discussions regarding the proposed sale of the Rochester high school building to Rochester town this is the rest of that how should we start I guess I would say the first thing would be an update from the Envision Rochester as to where repurposing committee is that our initiation from Envision but we are separated separated okay thank you I don't think I have that in my head so sorry you're you're the repurposing committee yes yeah our HS Rochester high school repurposing committee repurposing thank you okay good I will say let us hear from the repurposing committee as to our current status and where we are in this point in this process so I provided an August update which you will see in the very last page of your packet starts Jamie organized this is the feasibility study the full document for those who have not read it or did not participate in the in the July 13th presentation by our consultants so a lot is he defined the next steps at the end of that which was to go forward with the environmental study and I know that you had had some included that in June because you signed off on the site eligibility application and then I'm not sure exactly what date it was but it was pretty pretty late we got an email from grace Vincent who was the environmental the state environmental officer who informed us that the property exists in both the floodplain and the floodway which would be a problem for federal funding of the project are we squeak Lee and could you mute while you're listening thanks guys the bottom mic button on the right no there's a microphone button on the bottom thank you thank you so that was disheartening to learn that at this stage of the project because we've always talked about the building being in the floodplain because of the auditorium having flooding during Irene but the floodway was not something that we never even felt was relevant but because of the site map the format that she had from the federal government it looked like there was a sliver of the highway I mean the of the high school property within the floodway and it's the combination of existing in both that's the problem being in a floodplain is not going to be a halting factor being in a floodway is so there are steps to take and we're taking them to remediate that situation being helped by the Vermont Community Development Board and also Josh Hanford we had a good conference Patty was on that conference we have now a hired Dubois King who was the company who did the survey when the when the elementary and high school properties were divided and they are doing a survey and a Loma which is a letter of map adjustment to be able to adjust the map now we at our last select board meeting the flood map right at our last select board meeting I also made a presentation about this and that he brought up the concern of the time it might take to have the Loma acted on by the government and suggested that maybe it would be more efficient just go ahead and take that sliver out of the high school property and be done with any floodway issue at all so that would be something that I guess as the property owner you the school board would have to do and I can't imagine that the school board would have any objection since it would own it would only expedite moving forward on this whole process anyway that that's being handled and it's being paid for by the balance of funds remaining in our planning grant which paid for the feasibility study dick Robson is the point man on on that aspect of the project so I haven't gotten an update any more than what I just told you except that it's I believe it's the process has started and the payment has covered so environmentally we're moving ahead with that the other piece of it is that to reverse auto qui chi regional Commission is doing so we're in phase one of the NEPA NEPA the National Environment Mental Protection Act which is essential to do for all federal funding and that's basically a document review so they hired on an environmental consultant to do the brownfields assessment and the hazardous materials of the property which leaves the the historical and archaeological aspects of NEPA on a environmental consultant that the town's responsible for now the consultant that to Rivers hired and Sarah Wright is our contact there was handling this said that in order to avoid conflict of interest neither the prospective buyer nor the school board can communicate with that consultant their consultant but we need to maybe hire a consultant to do the other two aspects of that phase one and so in wanting to know exactly how to phrase an RFP I went back to grace and I said I want to be able to instruct this environmental consultants precisely as to what we're asking them to do could you please provide the language for that and she's well maybe you won't have to do it buildings not yet 50 years old and she handed us a preliminary review form to fill out which was completed and approved it was be completed by the town and the town agreed to move that forward so I haven't heard back from grace on that now it is you know it's been because of summer we it's usually a two-week turnaround on all the emails but we're back we're into September now so I'm hoping to hear from her any day now if we do have to have a consultant luckily we have a Rochester resident Mike Tietzel who came forth recently he's got 30 years experiences as an environmental consultant and although his work is primarily in hazardous materials and brown fields not the historical and archaeological he's got colleagues who he can tap to do this if that's what's needed so I'm feeling pretty confident we're going to sail through this I just don't know the timing of everything because it's availability availability availability I don't care whether you need a roof replaced or an environmental study done it just seems as though it's hard to get people to lock in in a calendar which is why we asked the town to move the acquisition vote to March to make because that was the other time where most voters are going to be voting they wanted to have this vote when most people are voting so that was either going to be the general election in November or the town around the town meeting so we want to make sure that all the environmental piece is complete before we vote so that we've always committed to having as much information as possible at that vote and the information is not only needed for the town it's needed for the school district as well and of course Rochester is one of two towns in the school district so we don't escape responsibility for this building no matter how you look at it we're just doing the best we can moving forward and that's the environmental update we'll talk about project manager so we're also looking for a professional project manager to continue to steer this project forward there are people who do that for a living living here in Vermont we got a list of candidates from Josh Hanford's office we've talked to several we're looking for money to pay for that and we're very encouraged by what we've heard from the people who do this every day for a living I mean they know all about the grants the regulations you know and could really accelerate this process if we can get somebody like that on board and paid for and that's it's really a two-step process we have to find the money as well as find the right individual or team to do that so that's underway we have inquiries out to where we might find funding for this one is the rural economic development initiative and there are others out there so this is another sort of learn as we go to get to to get to where we need to be but that that's a really important step and we think that will even accelerate the process once we get get something of a person like that on board we had a bit of a disappointment when it came to the earmark we were put under the USDA community facilities account there were only two accounts that were given construction the other was the health it's HR something SA and when Gifford decided that at this point they were going to just stay where they are and not become a tenant in the building we didn't have enough of a sure thing for them to keep us under that health care account so out of the 16 projects that Senator Sanders submitted only two were approved by the appropriations which was headed by Leahy there's a huge difference lay he got 212 million around approved and Bernie got somewhere like 40 something approved but Senator Sanders lay he is on his way out and he's the head of the of the appropriations committee and that's just the way it works however as I stated in my August at update it is not bad news for us because USDA is the only account that they that you can go back after having a rejection from the earmark and still pursue your application for the same purpose and that's already happening the 14 projects that were not approved are now going back to USDA before they were ever submitted to the Congress Senator Sanders insisted that every project be vetted through USDA I had an interview with Eric law of as the USDA and so they're confident that everything has been met all the the project has crossed all those hurdles and we're going to be hearing back from them in mid September so and they said you know one good thing about it is that should the USDA go ahead and green light it the money will be available probably sooner than an earmark would be available so that's good we're not going to get down on the dumps about it but you know it was just a little bit of a setback but then it felt still encouraging so we're just we're just moving ahead and of course we're trying to get ourselves in the best position to put a strong application in for a community development block grant for at least a million dollars so if we could get a million out of the new USDA and if we could get another million out of a block grant we're you know we're moving ahead here and the the hope is to get most of those upgrades to really create energy efficiency out of that building roof replacement window replacement exterior door replacement heating system and electric system all of that replace any kind of handicapped accessibility that needs to be approved it's all it's all listed under phase one that is what we want to do with the upgrade and then be ready for tenants we do have two tenants that are basically anchor tenants so we're looking I mean we can't before the town acquires the building we can't possibly have any written lease agreement but we can get a memorandum of understanding from those perspective tenants and that's what we'll be doing next Vic and I are meeting with one of them on Friday so you see we're developing this project in two ways it's just there is the upgrade of the building and then there is the sustainability of the building through tenants that's that's what makes it so large and complex oh it's incredible it's very large and there they depend on each other perspective tenants want to know they got a good building to get the grants for a good building you have to have serious tenants on the line a little bit of a checker in there and get that's the way these things are and we have asked Julie because there's a lot of questions that I'm getting and I think yeah of our town clerk we asked her if she would please give us a rate a tax rate for voters to understand what the operations might ultimately cost them so the consultant gave us a three kind of planned way for operations the base operations which covers the operations for maintaining the building he and this is a upgraded building he projected conservative he said it was a conservative projection at what 91,000 and then he added to it money for property management or building management and then he added a $50,000 a year capital reserve fund which is very ambitious and we know that a serious tenant would want that ultimately because it assures them that once they make an investment in terms of you know adjusting in the environment to suit their business they want to know if anything goes wrong the building there's gonna be money to fix it but after you've just upgraded the building chances are it's going to be a few years before you have a capital a real major investment there so and also so so anyway I asked her to go ahead and give me a tax rate at the 91,000 base rate and that would be basically $16 per $100,000 property value and so when you look at it that way I think it's less scary and we've never expected that the town would be responsible for the full operations of the building that's why we're having tenants but there will be a period of time where there's acquisition then there's you know the construction and then there's tenant ready so we have to look at those phases I don't think the town in the long run wants to be a landlord I'm pretty sure they don't I'm not even sure they're allowed to so we will be also looking to form some sort of intermediate nonprofit that can be in charge of building management and we also want to make sure that whatever finally happens there integrates well with the elementary school next door and is still provides a community access for those programs that the community needs. Pat if I may turn to you what I hope to listen to the select board meeting where you made the decision about the vote and I was just wondering what if you would be able to sort of characterize that meeting or what you heard or where's the select board? Oh good for you. So you won't have to watch it. I brought minutes from a meeting that took place on August 8th and again on August 22nd. This is where the conversation about the vote started coming up. I've shared these minutes with Jamie and I will read certain excerpts that I believe are here. So we started with August 8th and you know this represents the select board as a whole not certain not just me. Pat announced an update for the feasibility study aftermath some of this may also be repetitive. It was suggested in the feasibility study meeting to hire a project manager to be hired to seek and write grants moving forward with the school. They are starting a conversation with how to hire a project manager they being the committee. He feels if this group of he is Frank Severi feels if this group feels this is a viable solution they should form a nonprofit and buy the building. Dune said when it comes down to gathering the information to have the town then vote on it and have an educated vote on it. So Dune was thinking it we needed to have an educated vote. He said having to hire a project manager is now a step beyond that vote. Pat said where they stand right now they being the committee is working on the floodplain line and possibility of further subdividing the floodplain slash way property away from the high school building so that the high school would be out of the floodway. Pat noted we could as a town decide we have heard and learned enough and we are ready to go to vote as our next step. They would like to go to the town with the vote saying we have millions of dollars. Dune noted this subdivision to get rid of the floodway property is a requirement before they can even apply for funding so that was just made public in the meeting. Dune noted we had gained a lot of information in the past year. Frank stands with the fact that it shouldn't be on the taxpayers and should be set up as its own nonprofit and take control of that building that way. Pat felt this is a good opportunity to go to vote in November either during election or town meeting. Dune agreed to get this to vote at elections. This would give everyone informed information. Pat noted she would take this back to the committee and all agreed. As we go into the 22nd, this is kind of a lengthy thing. If you thought that one would be nice. At that first meeting was there public comment on this issue as far as you can remember? There was some public comment. Terry Severi had made a comment. I'm not I'm not sure which building about why would we want to be take. Terry said the sad part is the town can't take care of the buildings it already owns and they all look terrible. There was also a public comment from Larry Strauss. I don't know if that's captured here. Nancy felt if we go to vote she supported going to vote so they could see where everyone stands and Larry might have been at this next meeting. But there was just a couple comments. There was no definitive discussion. Discussion on the date for the high school building acquisition. Catherine updated the board on the high school. She shared after the feasibility study meeting held on July 13th the current situation with the environmental study and also what outcome the floodway floodplain issue. Similar to what you just heard. She said the most important part of the process was to start the environmental studies. She explained the select board and the school board both signed off on the eligibility site application which approved state monies to pay for this process. Two Rivers has hired a consultant to do the hazardous materials assessment as well as the brown fields assessment. Catherine said this leaves the final part of the NEPA National Environmental Protection Act for her to do the archeological historical assessment of the site. When she reached out for help again this is repetitive she was advised they may not need to do this assessment because the building is less than 50 years old. Catherine received a preliminary review form to be signed by the select board to waive us from having to do that part of the NEPA. She said there was some confusion from the town to sign and reiterate this no way obligates the town from purchasing the property. She indicated this just covers that aspect of the study. The floodway and floodplain issue has been taken up by the committee's point person Dick Robson. He has been in touch with Du Bois and King who did the original survey with the division of properties. They have assigned a person to do the survey and the LOMA letter of map adjustment to remove the sliver of high school property that is in the floodway. She explained the issue not being in the floodplain but the floodway. She said Nathan Cleveland from the community development board has approved from the balance of the feasibility. Did I read that wrong? She explained yeah. The planning grant money. The planning grant funds to pay for the survey and letter of map adjustment at no cost to the town. She explained with NEPA there's a phase one with the document review and results of phase one will determine the extent or need for phase two which is site testing. Phase one is investigation. Phase two is testing. Phase three is implementation which would indicate any remediation and not by the property. She indicated you are not obligated to purchase the property because being the select board because you are not the property owner. The town is eligible for the Brella program which is Brown fields. Release of legal liabilities. It's a lovely term. She said all of these programs are important. She said the importance is the programs are designed to absolve the responsibility once ownership is acquired and if there's any problems in the future with site. So it seems to be something that if anybody is going to be obtaining any type of grant funding for the building at any point in time this would all need to be taken place. She explained the importance of the process to continue. In the beginning of August Catherine spoke Sarah right from two rivers who has appointed a consultant. This consultant thought they would be completed with the process in about seven weeks. So that would bring it to the third week of October. The preliminary review form would need to be approved by the select board and sent off to Grace Fitz. This could add more time if it's delayed. Therefore it was signed. She advised the board to put off the vote to acquire the building until March at town meeting to have a very well attended vote. She said this would wrap up the whole environmental study. She said if there are any questions please reach out Catherine explain that Erica Hoffman Heist said the school board is responsible for the upkeep of the property since they are the owners of the property. Catherine said they are trying to work together with an outcome that benefits both the school district and also the town. She said the discussion of who heats the building that is something that should be discussed. She said we are paying two thirds of the school heat as the larger town of the school district. She said if the town is clear they don't want to contribute to the season's heating. They would need to go back and see what other options they have to pay for it. She said there are private funds for that. She said last year the trustees of public funds contributed to last year's funding the $15,000. Terry said this year's heating will be double what they were last year. Do move to sign the community development program and how Vermont Housing Community Development Board section 106 preliminary review form. Seconded, Dune and Frank both approved. Comments were made by community members supporting the continuation of this study. Information to get out to the committee was a concern. There were suggestions of mailing notices, which I see is progressing, that were effective during COVID. Julie suggested creating an email notification list to email out updated information. Larry Strauss made a good point that is not ended by a vote because we are the buyer and seller. It doesn't go away as taxpayers. It doesn't go away. I think that I have highlighted some meeting notes from an August 23rd High School Repurposing Committee meeting, but I think that is probably extremely repetitive. And then the last thing I have was, and we've all been informed about the Senator Sanders earmark grant and where that goes and that there is a secondary option for funding there. And that that secondary option, the applications, we will be in touch with those folks, the CF folks, which is community facilities, by the middle of September is when we're slated to get an introduction through Senator Sanders office directly. So the cycle starts over again for that type of grant funding. We're not sure it does. They do say that that funding will come quicker, but they don't say how quick. The other thing that I was just going to know is that Vic and Catherine were interviewed by Seven Days reporter Rachel Hellman, who was covering the story of Vermont towns pivoting due to the effects of Act 46 to deal with closed districts and school buildings. That did take place, correct? Yeah. And that's our official report. Is there an unofficial report? I mean I am sort of curious to hear from anybody. I have not heard much conversation about this in my, you know, I'm up on the hills. So I'm sort of interested in hearing a little bit of rumor innuendo and surmise of what people are feeling if people are hearing, especially Rochester people who are hearing anything at this point from others. Well it's clear by, you know, by pushing the vote to March, we have to deal with the heat season. Yes. So I brought a, this is just a first draft, but you guys can review it. A fund raising piece we're going to launch at the Harvest Fair and we're going to do a very broad this. It's basically going to be a two-sided cart stock that will fit in the, you know, in those little digital displays as well as be emailed, which is starting a $20,000 capital fund drive towards heating the building. We're taking it through the Rebuild Rochester Foundation, which is a non-profit, so that people can get a tax-exempt credit for their donation. And so I just want to know, we're seriously looking to participate in the heating situation. So can I just ask, where did the $20,000 number come from? Well we, last year it was $15,000, so we added another $5,000 to that in terms of this particular source of funding. We felt like if, I mean this was one of the things that we want to talk about with you tonight, if we could look at the heating of the high school as a shared responsibility in this really mutual effort to try to keep the building viable while the studies are taking place until the town acquires it, until we can actually secure the money to do the upgrade, then perhaps it's something that we're all, you know, all willing to participate in and all recognizing it as a mutual responsibility. So that's why that that's where the committee came from on this and we don't know, that is going to actually test a lot with the town. You actually ask people to give the money, but we're ready to start asking and we're going to do it very broad, a very broad campaign that is probably not just going to be in Rochester, but it's going to be spread throughout the Quintown community. Quick question, clarification because I don't remember, is it in our budget currently for this next year to heat the building? It's not in our budget. Okay. So we need, we need to have a good estimate clearly of what we think that cost is going to be. And then we need to decide as a board, obviously, if we're going to find that money somewhere else or whether we can I just say something. So all of us, you know, dealing with the upcoming heat season and knowing what happened in May, which was like a shocker, have been involved with at least researching what pre-buy advantage could be because we're understanding that the price of oil is going to go up. So I know that you've got your provider. I thought I'd actually approach CV Oil, who is a local and long term local provider to see whether we can negotiate some terms with them. That's something that can only be done through you in terms of decisions. But I just thought I would cast around to see whether, especially a local company, if they are at all sympathetic to what we're trying to do, if they'd be willing to kind of donate by guaranteeing oil at a certain price. I mean, I have no idea. This is just out of my head. I've talked to nobody about it. But I thought, you know, shopping around is maybe not a bad idea right now, right now in the summer before we really hit with increased prices. And you know pretty much what gallons you used last year. And I think we're not going to be using any more gallons than that because we're not utilizing the building on the, you know, any more than it was used. So I just thought about that as a possibility to start doing some research. Justine, I just saw you raised your hand. Sorry if you've been up for a bit. Yeah, this kind of goes back from before. But I was wondering, Catherine said something like it's not, you know, in the town's best interest and they may not be able to be landlords. And I was just wondering, can the school be a landlord? Why could the school start renting this space? Could the school be the landlord and this get moving sooner? And then at least the heat would be paid for and things would be paid for and the town could still then buy it eventually. You would get childcare in there immediately. And they committed to paying the commercial rental price. And they want three significantly large spaces. I wondered about that too, JC, like you've got this. Something I've been thinking about for the past few weeks and planning to kind of bring up at this meeting and wondering if we can just kind of like move along and get get it off our plate and at least financially and then wait and see down the road. It seems like it's taking a long time. I know everyone's anxiously waiting to see if the town's going to buy it. But couldn't we do this stuff? You're working on all this great stuff and planning to write grants and then get money and, you know. Well, just the the issue the issue when I talked to Lindy and I talked to that's and Jamie and I talked about this. One of the main things is who who administers it? Who who and who takes care of the maintenance and in some ways it's sort of its own business separate from running the school. Yeah, and that's and that's like I don't even know that we have we even have the organization for that to run something like that. Well, if the if the committee is preparing a grant or a plan, could there not be funds for the administration of that for someone to be hired to do that and kind of work between the school board and again, who who does who does that? You know, that might be a conversation to have with Green Mountain Economic Development. It really might be, you know, they may come up with some solutions for that. Erica to go back to Erica and say, look, what are the possibilities? I don't know what what the regulations are governing us, the town government government or the school for that kind of a thing. But yeah, well, that's either Jamie. So we do run out of space currently to prekei. I have a district that does it. It's not cost neutral. But we do it because we want to support public prekei in childcare. So it's a private prekei provider in one of my districts. We don't offer public prekei. I rent space out at a really affordable rate so that we can provide prekei options. I think the issue for the board to take up is is that we had said we weren't going to offer any educational opportunities, right? And so I hear what you're saying, Justine, that's that is a total 180 from the direction the board has been given me since I came on. So I just think we have to have a conversation around that. I would also say as the superintendent, we are good at educating students. In general, we do a really bad job around services, meaning food service, lawn care, facilities in busing. That's why we contract those services out is we're just not equipped. Nor do I have the staffing to do that well. And if you read headlines, that's what schools are not doing well right now are those types of services. And so that would be my caution to the board is that you're taking on, if you were to pursue that avenue, you're taking on something that then is requiring more manpower to clean to take care of. And, you know, example right now, we just contracted for cleaning services in this building, because I can't find a full time custodian at night to do custodial services here. And so I just think those are all things we have to weigh in. The other arts to operating as a rental. The other and this is this is has been described to us several times, is that these heating plants of both buildings are essentially ticking bombs that could go off at any time. And that if we set up a whole organization that is in there relying on that one central heater to heat even a corner, that we can't guarantee anybody that that heater is going to last. If it's working in full capacity or something like that. Patrick you're on meal, you're muted. Just kind of piggyback that thought of yours. I mean, the other issue is it's going to be a lot harder to take care of any of the capital improvements as far as the roof and windows and etc. If we decide to occupy that space beforehand, it's just going to make this whole process even longer and even more difficult. You think getting somebody in there now is the right move. But in the long run, you might end up spending more money. Yeah, I wasn't necessarily saying getting can't we just rent it out right now? I was saying can't we kind of like allow the committee to you know, kind of facilitate or be part of the dialogue to move that forward with the hope that we would eventually rent it when it was ready. There's all this great stuff that can happen. There's this building that's here. We own it right now. Why don't you go ahead and get all of these grants and then we'll rent it to you without being kind of a hands off type landlord situation. So Justin, some of these grants are more available to municipalities just like some grants are more available to us. And so a reminder that we have brought in over 1.5 million grants in the SU and some of that is going to our son, a big a pretty big chunk of that. But that is to redo the heating system and lights in both your buildings, controls in Stockbridge and a brand new heating system here without impacts to the tax rate. And so I don't have a bit of availability to more grants than what I've been able to pull together. Across the SU we're doing $6 million in capital improvements. Because I have three heating plants family because of delayed maintenance. I wasn't talking about school writing the grant. No, I understand. Let me follow this up if I can. And this is something to put forward to the board to make a decision about me. I think we have some slightly more immediate decisions to make, particularly about heating. I think that's the biggest one we got to take on and should deal with tonight. I think I'd be curious to know if the board would entertain a proposal from the repurposing Rochester. If they got a firm commitment from a daycare center that wanted to use this space and pay us hard money for it, that that would be a proposal that we might be interested in listening to. Whether we approve it or not would be another decision for the board. But yeah, Amy, go ahead. In the concept that Justine brought up is, you know, an interesting one. And I could see it working. If it was going to happen essentially in the same way as the town owning it, meaning there's, they're doing it hands off your head. It's a their own project manager, and it's essentially sustaining itself. But as you know, and all these grants are accessed to be able to do the improvements and the upgrades to make it the space that you guys are talking about. Um, would our would we be able to support though some of the money that is not going to be able to be made with grants or with the donations, the donations or your your anchor tenants, because you were still saying that for the town, we're talking about 91,000 as an approximate operations. And that would be something that, you know, we would need to take on. We being the school board, we as being the school decision, right? That that's a projected cost. Once the building is upgraded. We're building the we're building the envelope where we're totally uplifting the envelope. So there is there's a significant amount of ARPA money right now that is available for targeted things on that phase one, talk about just replacing the heating system. It is possible to get grant money right now just to replace the heating system. And maybe that's one way we should start looking at it right now. Before you know, while we're talking to the community facilities people is what can we be eligible for right now rather as a school district or as a potential buyer of the building to upgrade that heating system first and foremost, because it really does does need to happen, you know, and and also while while we're doing it of the electricals because it's about energy efficiency and energy efficiency is a very prime target for the state right now. So there is ARPA funds ready for that. And we were told by Josh Hanford that there is a lot of money out there for these kind of things right now. Go ahead, Jim. There is but their focus is on schools that are not buildings that are empty. Right, that's where the municipality comes from. I would also say before I hear this conversation about us running this building like right and serving the community, I'm really confused of why the school district board would do that when the town of Rochester could purchase for this for a dollar and do that as well. I don't know why this is a conversation of the Rochester Stockbridge Unified District pursuing was become because of the timeline has gotten so extended. That's why the conversation is coming. That building is not prepared to hold anything this way. It's just not like that. That is that would be ill-advised to pursue having a child care facility in there this winter because we're still repairing from the damage of the frozen pipes and things last winter. Right, like that's being covered by insurance. But the idea that we could pursue that right now is just not feasible. Can go ahead Robert, I do want to move on because I think we do need to get to the immediate thing which is the heat. Right, as far as the heating system, the whole heating system all has backups for every subsystem. Unfortunately, half of all those, I mean, all the backups are inoperable right now. So we are, we only have one set of circulators for each zone. We only have one one boiler operation. So we could, we could be looking at more damage this winter. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, okay. You know, the timeline, this is the big unknown that none of us knew about and none of us welcome is the, you know, and it's, and I know you're doing your absolute best and I certainly no judgment, but it is, it changes the whole, you know, we, we all thought we were going to be done by now. We did. We thought that the feasibility study was going to be followed by an immediate vote. Yeah. But regardless, this, this building is our responsibility. And which is I really am encouraged by how much has been done and how far you guys have taken this. And I really want to encourage this and and help move this along so that it can be something that that we can all be very proud of. Oh, absolutely. No, I'm sorry. And you're right. And I'm always appreciate that you bring that up because I'm always about what do we need to get done. And I think it's very good. I do appreciate that. And I also, I don't know if I said it to you, but I wanted to say that the August presentation, which I did attend was really well done. It was really well done. I saw you. Yeah. And I just, I had to leave because I had another meeting and I tried to get to both. But I just thought it was very clear and very open, which is very much our mantra here is transparency and saying this is the beginning. Here's the steps we got to take. This is a whole new ball game. And I just really appreciated the way you took that on and presented it. But thank you. That said, I think we need a number for what we think it would cost to heat that building this winter. And we need to start working up where that those funds are going to come from. And I have to say this is a decision if we're actually going to do that because that is a decision we have to make. Well, that's not one for tonight. I mean, you have a meeting next week. Okay. So, we can my advice would be, well, let's get our numbers and start get our do we have a number yet? Do we have it? Well, I provided you what it costs the last two years. Yeah. Okay. And the SU board, we do have, can you explain how our buyer works? Absolutely. So, we use a buying group and they go out to bid for us every year and we lock in upon their recommendation and we are still not locked in for eating oil based on their recommendation. Right now, our board has authorized us to bind the contract up to a little almost $4 a gallon if necessary. I don't have the exact number in my head in the last meeting, but so we are pending once the buying option is where it needs to be for us. We buy and pull across the whole entire supervisory. Yes, that would be the way to go. And just based on what happened from twenty one to twenty two prices doubled and we're going to double into twenty three just based on you were buying at a little over two dollars in twenty two and we're going to be buying closer to four and twenty three. And everyone knows that based on your own personal oil if you have to buy it at home. So, and sorry you just said double again as you mean we're going to be twenty two to twenty three. So, we were buying we were buying at two fifty four and twenty two. So, that it's going to go back up is it possible that it could go to I mean it could go anywhere, right? It could go to six, right? But we know once we're locked in we haven't locked yet because we're expecting it still to hopefully go gradually down a little bit more. Okay, it's always the gamble. So, our buying group tells me the rate every week. Okay, okay. That's how active and do you make the decision or do you go on their recommendation? Yes, you already provided us with a decision. Okay, and if it's over that then you have to come back to the board. Okay. So, we need to make a decision. We're still do we go off gallons with our gallons for a while? I would rather we take and Tara doesn't work computer that we take all the usage. She goes back to the buyer group again. We get good estimates for you and we give you a real solid number. Okay, okay. I really think that it's important to keep that building heated this winter. So, I think we need to find a way to be able to do this work together. The consultants that you had last spring basically said if it wasn't heated the slab would heave and the building would be destroyed. So, nobody nobody gains by that. Not the school district, not the town. So, we're launching this this this fundraising drive and if it goes beyond 20, great, you know, but we put we had to have a target to start with because down doesn't own the building right now and so we want to get people involved. This is the very next step of involvement. If you want this to come to some sort of realization that is going to benefit the town then this is the way you can help. Jamie question on Robert's point of backups and that we're basically only have one circulator for each zone. Is that part of the insurance settlement to get other backups going? No, I mean it's it was to get heat and to fix what was broke. Have they gone back and replaced the plastic pipe? They're doing all that work. They're doing that. I mean again, we were short. Right. And so, part of it is those folks are like now they're doing they're going to do the work for us. Some of it's been delayed because they're short people and they've been focusing on buildings that have people on. Yeah, I understand. Robert, go ahead. Is there, has the alarm system been prepared? You mean the heating part? Well, the part that... Because it didn't work for us. We replaced that. Okay. And that is a different system now? Okay, so hopefully... Before it was... It's high wire now. Before it was... Sensor base. Sensor base. We hard wired it to give even another there. Excellent. Okay, good. This is the system which alerts us if the temperature gets too low in perfect amount of function. Now, of course, we still have that situation. I remember looking up into that ceiling. There was no insulation. You're looking right up to the roof. And is there... Kept the heating below. So the idea... They were... Miles having a reading... Oh, I see. The new heat is below the ceiling tiles. That's my understanding. Okay, he's gonna do it. They're still... I mean, it's just like, oh, I just want to buy some... Yeah, so I should add the trophy. Yeah, just to throw it up. What would happen if we... We don't have redundancy. So what would happen is what we did last winter, when it broke, what happens is we bring people in and they pipe heating in. It's temporary heaters. It's unoccupied, so it works fine. You wouldn't want to do that if you had kids in the building. But that's what we do. And they said, now did expenses or is it covered by insurance? It's covered by insurance because it froze. And the next time it might not be. And how have our rates gone up because of this? The electric bill certainly went up. I can imagine that's the reason. Oh, okay. That's why. Sorry, I'm not a spreadsheet guy, so I trust you guys to follow this. Okay, all right. So we don't need a number. We'll get you a number. I just think you should get a number. A good number and we can have that on the agenda for next week. I think the rate the board approved is SU board approved up to. I will use that and I will compare that to the gallons that you used for F-122. Okay. I think, oh, go ahead, Robert. And then I'm going to make a motion or ask somebody to make a motion. Let's see. Sorry, I just blew out my head. Oh, I did that. Jiggled too for a quick moment. Let's see. Will we need to, you'll have suggestions as far as where that money comes from? I mean, we, since it's not budgeted, do we have reserve accounts? Do we make some? We really don't like doing that because we already collect taxes from people. No, I think the administration would look and say this is why we would look to where we would look to reconcile to make it work. Okay. And what do we have left in our building not enough to tackle this when we're trying to still, I mean remember we're trying to use some of that hopefully to tackle the next year's heating system. Do we need, we've already said we support this process. Are you already right? I mean, if we, I don't remember our minutes as well as other people do. I'm just wondering if it would help at this moment to say this Rochester School Board supports like a motion to support, we still continue our support of the repurposing committee to make it clear that we do because I had to be reminded to thank them by aiming. So it's not the first thing in my thought. How do we feel about the support? I think we should. I mean there's what are all the alternatives if we don't support this. I mean it's in our best interest to support this just because otherwise we've got a looking down the barrel of a million dollar bond to take out that building. Yeah, or the one I, the graphic image I always bring up which is the chain link fence which none of us want to see, none of us want to see a warehizer in the middle of our town. But even if that happened it still has to be dealt with. Oh yeah. It's on the district. Oh yeah, yeah. We still have to do the environmental and everything. Yeah, I mean what it is happening and you don't have to be doing it so that's a plus. The whole environmental piece and everything, I mean it's happening. So the important part too is I think to just keep our focus on is that one of our priorities has always been that Stockbridge pay for none of this building, this high school building's continued maintenance, that that be on the Rochester path. And I write about that. People, are we in agreement about that? Because it's certainly, I remember the meeting where we talked about that, we made it very clear and the number got a little fuzzy because I remember I had said two-thirds of $30,000 and then it turned out that wasn't actually an accurate fuel number. I do kind of, I do hear what you're saying and I do think that we should try to come up with funds from Rochester to support this, but I also feel like that's giving a mixed message about us being a unified district and us taking care of each other, taking care of each other's buildings regardless of if Rochester needs $100,000 worth of stuff and Stockbridge needs $30,000 worth of stuff. We're a district, we need to work together. I do at the same time agree that we should look for funds that are more specifically Rochester funds to be able to pay for that heat this winter. Other thoughts on that? Robert? Yeah, I think that we need to leave this Rochester Stockbridge divide behind us. We're we're one school district and we've been as the cooperation level is incredibly different than it was right around the merger and you know our focus is on what's best for the kids and as long as we are jointly unified I think rather than located this is that town's responsibility and this is this town's responsibility I think that does no good for the kids. Leigh Ann? Hi guys, um well that's actually a question that's been brought up to our select board a couple of different times is what the financial impact is going to be on the town of Stockbridge and I agree on one hand we're a district where we're not the Rochester school district we're the Rochester Stockbridge unified school district. Having said that the question is as as the clock keeps taking and the timeline gets pushed back what's the impact financially on Stockbridge that's a direct question our town has had which is why the question of what's the the heating going to be for this year and what's what's the town what we can we as a town expect to have to participate in that it's it's not that we don't want to we just want to know and I and I know in listening to the whole repurposing project I'm I'm really excited about it I see the potential I also get that it's not a quick fix this isn't a quick fix it's a long term community commitment that will impact everybody positively when we pull it off let's use some positive words having said that in the interim it's going to cost money and how do we come up with that money um if Stockbridge is concerned about what it's going to cost us and the town of Rochester is going to do a fundraiser I don't know why Stockbridge shouldn't be rolled in on that fundraiser to tell you the truth you know if we have a concern about paying for it how do we help raise money for it maybe find a way to you know if it's a community endeavor it's a community endeavor we're we're down the road but we're not that far away and I think we need to be participants too that's great to hear thank you that's great to hear I I think that's a really good point so whatever we do um should be in connection with you um yeah so we'll have we'll have a number next week will we also vote on where that money comes from at that point or would that be in further well I mean you guys don't reconcile your budget lines you will we just say guys we can say to you this is where we're expecting to reconcile the budget we do have a nice teacher so right that's part of what we'll talk about okay yeah okay and I and I thank you Leigh Ann and I think that that's you know a very good point and I think we'll be able to come back with an answer um you know on that question I just if I may I just want to echo what Robert said because I really think it's great is that it's best for our kids that that building is active whether they use it or not it's just that it's a healthy active building is much better for our kids and our community and our valley than if it's uh uh you know a demolition site pat as a personal note as we walk through all of this now seems to be hand in hand together one thing I always focus on is when we get to the point where we know uh who what why when and where very basic who what why when and where when we have the answers to all of those in front of us that will be the time when the fog should clear and we should know which direction we're going we've been close um the feasibility cleaned up showed us a few directions a couple of these words were addressed um but then one step forward two steps back and and it's it's not a straight walkway it's perhaps the yellow brick road but when we get to the point where we all look at it and say who what why when and where I think that's when we'll know what we're going to do yes Bill um first of all I'd like to make a motion that the the our subboard reaffirms our support for the repurposing committee's efforts to make the high school not only a community benefit the community of Rochester but the whole quintown area um secondly let's finish let's finish that motion yeah the second um the second let's finish this motion yeah because you just made it and it's been seconded is there any discussion about this motion there being none uh all in favor signify by saying aye aye aye but I saw your mouth move Patrick aye there you go thank you very good thank you Bill please continue so I was saying we're looking at this cost of heating system as a cost and and it is a cost but it's a cost that provides a possibility of an enormous benefit that could far outweigh our share of the heating cost for one season or two seasons we're talking about the potential of a building instead of spending a million dollars to tear down a building that can serve our community for decades and decades and decades not only Rochester but Stockbridge and Hancock and Granville and uh Pittsfield so we're talking about are we willing to invest now and some cost of heating so that we can continue to have the possibility of having this building really turn around and be special we don't know but without that investment and sharing that investment how can we get help from the feds help from the state help from the community it just isn't going to happen and so I the exciting thing to me is this isn't we're not building a Rochester only building or rehabbing a Rochester only building to serve only the Rochester citizenry or children or seniors we're talking about a resource that's going to serve this whole area and it's pretty darn exciting because we're talking about things that aren't readily here right now that there's there's a need for that the challenge is you know there isn't something that comes and says the golden parachute yeah but we've got a committee that's that's dedicated and talented we've got a board here that that makes the right sort of decisions and part of the right sort of decisions and making the right investment in the future I mean it's almost the reverse and Jamie talks about the backlog and investing in our our buildings we're not the only school system in the United States of America it's a huge backlog I was in public works how about roads how about sewers how about water systems how about electric systems so are we wise enough to invest so we don't have that extreme disappointment or loss or are we going to spend it so I think this is not a hard decision to make and I think if we do it together we're better likely to do it look back this last year our budget we passed for the for two-thirds of the taxpayers in Rochester and Stockbridge got a 12 percent tax reduction 12 percent we shared that uniformly between the two communities we didn't say well wait a second six percent or seven percent was Rochester and five percent was we all took a benefit of that because of the the synergy that we created the talent of bringing together the good decisions the efficiencies so why are we now going to be nickel the diamond and say well this is this is only Amy said it right we're two communities we're one educational community and we're one board and I encourage where we're going with this Patrick um no I I totally agree with with uh you know what you guys are all saying as far as um you know we're one community we decided that when we merged um but I think this is a tough situation considering in our past conversations we we have already said Stockbridge will not pay to heat this building so for us to now backtrack in and you know throw into the mix that we might is you know I'm not saying it upsets me but I know for sure it's going to upset other Stockbridge residents so I think we need to before we just start deciding to to pull this these funds from our side you know I think we need to have the community support um being Stockbridge Rochester and you know if we're throwing into the mix you know Pittsfield and um Hancock and so forth then they need to be a part of the conversation too um we can't just say because Stockbridge is part of of Rochester now um our side that just because of that that Stockbridge is held liable I mean if this is going to be something that's going to benefit surrounding towns then I think we need to find a way to fundraise with surrounding towns and try and get support from everyone to to to take care of this together um I just I'm just trying to you know go back to our past conversations and I just think you know we're the kind of um not keeping our word if if we if we go that route I don't know I mean maybe I'm hearing it wrong but um I do support it as personally and I would like to to uh to see Stockbridge play a role in trying to help and come up with these funds but I think we just need to be careful about where it's coming from and how we're getting there Leigh Ann I just I want to just clarify to Patrick that um that's what I was saying as well it's not about Stockbridge is going to ride it into their budget that's not what I was saying we can fundraise as much as anybody else and if if if this is a yet a unified district and we want to act as one then let's come up with activities that everybody can participate and create that solidarity that way um and it's not on anyone any town's back or budget it's or tax bill it's it's it's on our energy and our commitment to the project so I've done a lot of I should probably shouldn't say this out loud fundraising projects in the past and that's I know that's where I'm coming from is that if if Raj has just gone let's find this money I'm going okay look how can we help with that how can we be part of that you know and create something that crosses over between the two towns or all of the Quintown area because I think all of the Quintown area will benefit so Catherine hold up now that's not beating my me putting my hand up I but I you know I'm just saying it's it's an exciting rotary all of that kind of stuff it's there are people who want to help and all you got to do is tell them how you know thank you my husband says save a penny you make a dollar you know that's what we got to do I just think it's timely to say that since that building was built it has served Hancock Grandville Rochester Stockbridge Pittsfield perhaps the crime was calling it Rochester High School maybe it should have been called the White River Regional High School and then everyone would feel that it is that it has always been their building just thought it'd be timely because of what was said that that building is not never has been unique to Rochester good Catherine in doing some research for our fundraising piece I I was curious to learn that in 1972 a feasibility study was directed about creating that particular building as a union high school to serve all five towns it was always meant to serve the Quintown area and so but Leanne would you like to join her I think we'd love to have the benefit yeah but the other thing is is that if we're going to do a fundraising campaign it would be good to really focus on a campaign and actually after Jamie comes in with some numbers have a target based on what Jamie's numbers are rather than just pulling a number out of the hat it's a good community building exercise yeah to start this now I think of it as a community thing as opposed to and I think this is just a process of where we are to from the merger and from the unmerger and and where we are now as a solid merger it's it's a little lingering it's still a little lingering some of our feelings about separate communities and I think this would be an excellent way to reach out and say how can we how can we help I know that the PTO at Stockbridge is a very excellent organization that works very well and would have some probably good ideas about maybe how to you know how do how they could help in this fundraising activity super great of further comment on that I wanted to move if we could on to can we can't we need to I'd like to know a little more about this land transfer and what we need to do to if the board approves the idea of it in principle and then how we go forward do it can we move on that or not today tonight no we can't there's not time tonight but let's get the results from from and king great and then we'll come back we'll report those results and then make some sort of a action determination based on that just straw poll in general are we are we all okay with the idea of transferring a little bit of land to take it out of the floodway yeah it's asking it out of the floodway and I'll tell you it takes a fence forever to rewrite new new mapping I mean it's just the whole country needs to be remapped in their floodways so it's much more quicker and less expensive and and I don't see how we the project can go forward the clear thing is is to demarcate exactly what it would take and survey that out we just going to have them do it remember we had done a bunch of work with the zoning I just I just want to make sure they don't arise right so that's the way to go we'll give you make sure you get copies of everything we get in terms of reports everything across the board Robert if we're transferring out who's a transfer to who's holding this hot well this is what we have to find out is that a is that a something that will will bite us in the future I don't so my plan was to have this done and then we would take this up with council yeah okay got you hold on please wait just till he's finished if you can I'm okay go for a long long adjustment from the ground without a subdivision which is a much more simple process than subdividing absolutely right so we might give our neighbor a little more land so who is who owns the meadow right behind I believe it's still the real kill right even directly behind do so that's my because when I looked at the map when I did it for the woods area I saw his line is seems like it's right behind us yeah I mean you can look at I didn't have my computer you can look at that thing on line well let's get more information yeah let's get more information basic thumbs up that we're good to look into this just sort of a straw poll justine Patrick good okay good nothing official great let me just see land transfer heating and maintenance I guess the only other question I have right now is what is the condition inside the high school as far as you know I mean it may not have changed it hasn't changed it hasn't changed since the last big move of stuff out right there was a slide we had some volunteers and stuff like that right okay um is that is any of that there was I remember a while back there was a concern about documents that were moved over they have been moved over great so those are no longer in that building correct is there anything else of concern in the building at this point other than this heating an electrical system no I know as far as technology stuff Ray wasn't concerned okay either I had asked him that good good all right so I did get an email from um Sarah Wright saying the consultant they've hired once the original blueprints of the high school building and Greg Gossens our consultant architects said that they were in the office so I don't know about transferring done scanned huh we had someone come and get them and scan them so they're digital now that's so that's done yeah very good all right thank you I was hoping the ones that are not falling apart anymore number one the ones that were in that box were falling apart so did you get supply the scan to them then or is that something I should tell you double check that I have Sarah contact myself or I believe Lyle was helping us with that and I just don't know if it got to the right person that okay I would just like to know that that box I think so I think it did but they've been sent out to multiple people multiple times so I'm not going to say that it actually made its way to the right person is it just Sarah is it just Sarah right is the first person that our contact who's doing that piece of the environmental study okay I think I would have heard from her if they hadn't right I think she had someone reach out and good yeah good I just that was a lingering thing and no they came and got them like last December and scanned them for us so we have them digitally now okay well I didn't know that and I don't think Greg knew that either so we had someone come and do it and then Greg is who I've been talking with Greg Gossens yes oh so he's followed up yes good for him I believe this yeah so that's you know that makes me happy are not the new ones that were created by um the new ones by Black River are digital but then also those other ones were this is all the other ones yeah remember that big box it was yeah it was all bridge livers they went through it all you know both the consultants at the conclusion told us that please don't hesitate to contact them if anybody needed their support help or anything like that so that makes me happy to know that Greg followed through yeah they're technically off the clock but they're still helping but they've very got very enthusiastic about what we're trying to do here so great great good thank you so much yes thank you so much for telling me I believe we're uh what would we do hold on we well you don't have to be here um we have the next meeting our official meeting will be Monday September oh sorry too that's right we have sorry sorry sorry sorry get your calendars out get your calendars out thanks for coming thank you thank you so much thank you um is uh so we've got it so the full board is doing a retreat on the 22nd so i'm gonna put a plug in for that again i'm there that's at 5 30 so working with kathy on a location for that is november too late because september and october just crap for me anyway um that's like two and a half months into the school year no i know i know i know um i don't think it what go ahead i don't think anything's too late as long as we can get it on there i mean it's better to have it than not have it yeah but well let's try let's try i mean um i'm does it have to be a weekend no i threw out that thursday because we had kept those for committee meetings and special meetings and i didn't know if that would be easier for board members to look at a thursday evening i mean i can't be afternoon into evening i just throw that out it seemed like that got more attraction at the full board yeah i i i could do a thursday evening depending on the thursday evening can we have it at the upper bonds or fire nice or maple soul fire and ice it would be take the back room and maple soul you've been to maple soul back room and maple soul and they're open on thursdays oh who knows if they'll be so what thursday and september do we have here possibility i can't do the third james gone oh james gone that's right what month are we looking at this is september 6th well i what month are we looking at september september we're just sorry a little soon for me but um uh 22nd obviously is out you got the 29th the 15th james gone which is not serving us so the 29th and then we get into october 6th or 13th i'm i'm gone for a couple weeks in california so i have one point uh i would not be able to do the 29th or the 6th okay i think the point of this is to do a time that everybody can make yeah so how about if we move work to the 20th of october all right how does that look 20th no i can't i can't do the 20th because it's a select board meeting in stock bridge um is the 13th the 13th could be open that's a committee meeting but he's robert won't no i'm gonna be on your behalf the 13th yes oh okay i'll talk 13th of october we're on the 13th just see 13th part of me patrick's for me it works for you yeah patrick right 13th yeah it's the second thursday yeah you're on that committee patrick but can you do this up you're you're muted you're laughing but we can't hear you yeah i was just saying it looks like you have the energy committee meeting but you tell me you know whatever i think i think this trumps the energy committee because this is one time and that's ongoing how early can we start right we just want to do um well if kate works out but i can't go on the next thing i have to say i'm a free man in premise you say five three five five would be ideal because five for a new idea we want to have dinner do we want to cater and get yeah we i think you i think food's important at these personally it makes it sociable but you guys think it's five acceptable time it's a little bit early for me 30 but i can try to figure out i'm gonna say five 30 five 30 five 32 where do you want to hold it oh right this is a nice spot and we cater we get maybe sold the cater five 30 work better for you justian yeah it would be better for me okay all right five 30 the 13th five 30 the 13th yeah well pizza and there'll be food pizza pizza i eat a lot of pizza on thursday for the negotiations oh see it can get i i never thought of it that covid made me realize pizza can get old we don't eat it much at home so it's a treat we did it became a friday night thing every movie pizza movie night all right and this is called okay ours uh um thank you all leon raised your hand yeah we get priority you're muted you're muted leon and it's wonderful but i can't hear you leon leon oh it's so wonderful but we can't hear a thing you're saying we are you're muted okay you're making me drool with the pizza thing and i know that's not my gig with you guys to clarify when are we gonna hear a number back at what meeting on the heating that next monday next monday meeting okay that's our regular that's our regularly scheduled meeting okay five 30 starts at five 30 which is a new time for us okay so just you don't have that perfect thanks guys okay thank you okay oh what time do that sorry what time do we say we didn't say what time we're going to what time we're going to five thirty till eight thirty three hours yeah i mean i think nine thirty ten thirty eleven thirty twelve one two five more uh eight thirty let's say eight thirty is that sound yeah for reasonable three hours good yeah i have to get right on it yep excellent all right uh starts five thirty thank you all i thought this would be easier in person and we were successful do you have some uh do you want to talk about agenda items uh yeah it's a good idea um we already have some from before them that we already just talked about uh well the review of mission vision mission has uh board protocols and procedures evaluation we're going to go over i think at that time you should review your procedures again i think you know one of the things that you've talked about was the idea of a book study as a board right did you talk i've got a lot of boards oh yes yes didn't you talk about we're doing that i'm doing that with one local district it's an agenda item every month so whether or not that's there we haven't assigned we haven't assigned that yet so we have the book are we talking about reading the first chapter it's the introduction it's like 10 pages and read and so the idea is that we can share what we've learned and then decide whether we want to continue it's written or blah blah blah but it's definitely doable here we go bow and suggested taking time for each member discuss how they feel things are going at the school yeah i still agree agree with that and i would add to that how they things are going and what is your vision for where the school should go because i know i've got some strong feelings about that and and again it's our it's our vision it's our job to come up with the vision it's the administration's job to figure out how it can work and how to pay for it so you know things think big and bring it to the retreat okay yeah think big um had two ideas it depending on the length it takes it's everything else one is in june we passed the our set goals vision and goals and so it's right there in june we're now starting a new year so it seems to me it'd be pretty simple to review the goals and say yeah we're still kind of all this is what we voted on and we want to continue and so it's it just kind of reaffirms what we're all about here because that's that's provides the direction the other thing has been mentioned um and we don't have to decide any of this is the utility of having a mentoring system for new board members and i've i was a new board member and half the more of a new and um i like to think that we can do a better job in preparing and having material um to help new board members what is it about what are our responsibilities uh what are the procedures blah blah blah and i think the mentoring concept i'm really into mentoring period um there's a good one and if we like that idea we don't have immediate new members but we could work on developing a mentoring program or material that will be prepared for when we have to know it'll probably help us become better board members too so if we have time i i think that's worth discussing good i just want you know a lot of bills it has a lot of ideas and i want to make sure that nobody else gets shy about putting their ideas of what should be on our agenda can we let's we got a month or whatever it is yeah a month throw some ideas out it's i really do think this is a time to go beyond outside the box a little bit in our thinking and that everybody has a chance to do that in this in terms of what what we think we should talk about and i and i also really want to have some time i know you're supposed to agenda everything but i think i that's why i want some free time where people can just sort of what i call a blurt you know you just get to talk about the school and how you feel about it and everyone gets three minutes or something like that to just blurt how they feel and what they think and who knows what will come out of that and um some good and also we'll all know where we stand um which i think is very useful brainstorm brainstorming the same kind of thing yeah good does that give you a place to start good anything else on retreat no now any public comment by next meeting first oh yes Karen please go ahead even though i'm next meeting but we know what i'm expecting am i am i visiting the finish line having me yeah let me just say this next meeting date is monday next monday september 12th 2022 at 5 30 just to make sure everyone knows it's a new time and again the rochester campus and google meet and now please karen okay thank you um and i did take some notes so i do have a couple actually a few questions um that you may or may not be able to answer tonight but to ponder and maybe have answers for your next meeting um the first thing i do want to point out though is you guys talked earlier about being a unified school district and i do think that's important but it's also important to make sure that we don't have slips of the tongue like referring to this group as the rochester school district or school board so if we just want to kind of make a make a point of trying to make sure that we don't do that in the future would be great um the sliver of land that was referred to what is that plot size does anyone know i think the people who know have already left i'm afraid um but we'll certainly find out we'll know we'll know that by next monday no i don't know oh we won't go to my next monday but we'll know before we do oh yeah we have to wait for good boy and king to give us the exact yeah i'm sure but yeah right i mean that a sliver of land is really you know not detailed information um if the person who you were talking about who owns the land that abuts that does not want that land um that you guys are considering giving up and what happens then uh you're shutting off by the way on your screen here well the i assume the the land was originally part of the rochester school district and then it was subdivided for um so it would just potentially return to the school but we need to find out what the impacts are on all this before we can make any decision yeah we have right there's going to be legal legal counsel is going to be talked to as well so this is because we don't want to do anything that's going to be detrimental towards um the school district yep so we'll find out what the ramifications of the school actually owning and maintaining that land would be yep and that and that just you if you didn't hear it that may not we may we will not probably know that by next monday that may be another meeting down the road before we know the specifics of that and and move on that detail okay um so moving on to questions in regards to if the um building is sold and the work that that committee is putting in place to have the uh building occupied can you explain to me how that would impact the elementary school as far as that shared entrance is concerned is there um is there an agreement as to maintaining the parking lot area for plowing sanding snow plow anything like that how is the parking distributed between the ownership of the school district with the elementary school and what is owned by what would become now that organization has that been discussed is that already mapped out so currently the general larger parking lot area here in the town of rochester already plows for us it's just the entryway that we just like in stockbridge that we have cleared separately this school district um so in terms of mapping out who gets what parking i don't believe that was part of the subdivide not yet we certainly we say what that would be negotiated yeah it would be part of the negotiation after they had made the agreement that they will take it that will figure out that detail and what about the construction on that building so if they were to begin construction on that building would that be pre-negotiated with you guys so that we knew when that was happening and how that would have an impact on our elementary school i would it would have to be um because yeah we have to keep make sure there's a safe space and safe access and all that um so yeah that would all have to be part of the negotiation you're talking about the actual the actual discussion yet or has that not been breached no because we're not even near that we have no architectural plans there's no there's idea there's there's no go ahead just karen we're still awaiting the town to come forward and say we are interested in purchasing the building for a dollar and then we've been advised that's when we would work out all those details yeah and and probably the next step of construction would happen in a process once the money is there and the contracting company and all that and then it would be a negotiation of okay how do we keep this safe well at the time of sale we would negotiate all those things because it would be the town or this purpose and committee however the town chooses to structure it they would be doing all that construction work and would be having people in potentially good right so it is well owned uh shared right away yes you have to figure that out mm-hmm there there are some I mean for the right of ways for the buses and such are specified in the subdivision correct yes so there are some basic um rights are already in there but the fine details no okay um and moving on to the heating costs of the school unfortunately hindsight is 2020 on this one and not preparing to have that expense you know is kind of going to kick us in the backside on this one I am concerned about the comment that was made earlier by a school board member that said we're potentially going to get more damage this year um what were the impacts on our insurance policy uh I think one of you briefly asked if the policy rate went up but that question wasn't really answered it was kind of a breezed over so did that have an impact in our policy and did we have a deductible that we had to cover for that damage for last year um and potentially may we have a deductible if we receive more damage this year as is a concern by the school board we have a $2500 property damage deductible on our insurance policy and the claim is not closed so it's not taken into account in our rates at this point it's still an open claim so there is going to be some small expense because of that damage it will have an impact on our future loss ratios yes which goes into the rating factor okay just briefly touched on just on what justine had mentioned about the possibility of you know bringing people into those spaces while the building is still owned by the Rochester Stockbridge Unified School District uh it doesn't sound like that's really a feasible option but if that were to be considered obviously there would have to be consideration given to the condition of the building and who would be paying for any kind of cosmetic or structural improvements that would be needed for those businesses organizations to come in so it doesn't sound like this is going to be something that's going to be pursued am i right in my understanding of how that conversation went earlier this evening I think Jamie made a very clear point when he said that building is in no condition to be used on a regular basis for the winter that said we have made special dispensations for individual groups to use it over a short period of time the Weiber Valley players the Suzuki Institute have used parts of that building and have paid for that and what was that and am I right that that was somewhere in the vicinity of about 1400 dollars each then between the two organizations did that cover all of the expenses it took to open those buildings for them I'm not sure you had mentioned something about that you thought organizations need to take on their own maintenance and cleaning we talked about in August I was it's my recommendation moving forward that if groups pursue using that space they would have to bring in their own custodial crew ahead of time because I don't have the staffing to be able to do that anymore Karen so that would be added into any contract 1400 dollars that we received from the players and Suzuki cost or the expenses it took for us to open that building for them last year it's not like we cranked up the heat I mean so essentially what I would say is is that it's hard to know if it covered every dollar Karen I'm not going to on the record say yes or no what I would tell you is that we charged a fee based on the outlines of our fee structure and we we heated the building for an extra couple days I think the players used it over weekends and moving forward we recognized we didn't have the staffing to do custodial work and so what we would do is probably have folks contract with the cleaner that we're currently contracting with the cover custodial here at the elementary school in the evenings because I'm short of custodian here as well okay um and then it what's realistically do we look like we're going to be seeing a vote from Rochester in November or are we stretching this back out to I believe it was approved approved to town meeting day so March right is there a time meeting I forget yeah so it's approved for for March and you know as a as a community member I do feel it's important to continue to educate our kids in there in our community as as much as we possibly can but I do want to also point out that you know the community or the fair amount of people that I've talked to you know we are feeling cash strapped on our tax bill these days so some of that is the school district and the rest is you know from just what our towns cost in order to in order to conduct business but just kind of want to put it out there that it's already getting pretty expensive to live in the towns of Stockridge and Rochester so thank you for answering my questions and hopefully we can get this resolved maybe by next year good we all hope so in a positive direction thank you for your time Karen and for your questions good uh I understand a motion to adjourn a second all in favor signify by thumbs up hi thumbs up have a good night thank you see you all tomorrow