 Good morning everybody. Today is the March 15th and this is the elementary school building committee meeting. And seeing we have a forum, although we're missing several people. So when they arrive, I will let everyone know that they are here too. I'm gonna call the meeting to order at 8.35. And then my first task as people know is to make sure everyone can hear and be heard. Angelica won't be joining us. She's out of the country. I'm going to call in names as I see them on the screen. Just let us know if you can hear us and we can hear you Doug. I'm here. Yes, thank you. Jennifer. I'm here. Good morning. Good morning, Jonathan. Good morning. Paul. President. Rupert. Yes, loud and clear. And Simone. Yes. So right now we're missing Tammy, Allison and Alicia. Oh, so Alicia just texted me that she's not gonna be able to join either. So two people are confirmed not joining us. So I am, and Tammy has, hi, Tammy. Can you just let us know if you can hear us and we can hear you? Tammy, can you say hi just so we can know that we can hear you? You're on mute. Thanks for trying to figure it out. Okay. Well, I'll wait for her to let us, you can just let us know, Tammy, if you can hear us, you're up. Okay, so Margaret, I'm turning it over to you with the agenda. Yeah. And we're at a pretty exciting place in the school building. Yeah. It is unbelievably exciting. So let me first pull up the agenda and then we'll do my usual overview kind of three months look ahead. You know, I think all the folks who are in the construction world know that the typical, on a typical construction site you do a one or two week look ahead with the contractor. So this is what we're doing on a monthly basis is the three month look ahead, which gives you a little bit better perspective. So, am I sharing? Can you guys see the agenda? Yes. Okay, so call to order. We're gonna, I'm gonna do the schedule overview. We're gonna talk about the early site package and we're going to talk about the groundbreaking event that's coming up. Dennis goes going to give us an update on permitting. We're gonna give a report on the really great process that we've just concluded of the playground equipment working group, give an update on the design subcommittee. There are a couple of invoices to look at. So I'm gonna take that down and I'm gonna move on to the three month look ahead. I'm gonna highlight a couple of things. So, I mean, hopefully everybody's familiar with us now. Here's us. This is this group. So, and here's today's meeting. So I've kept in here a couple of weeks past just to sort of comment on those items, but looking forward, our next meeting is April 26th, which is the Friday after school vacation week. Then we have a meeting in May, on May 17th off the calendar, but I wanna highlight that both Kathy and I have a conflict with the current August meeting date. So we're gonna bump that meeting to August 16th and you're gonna see a change in your calendar as a result of that. So I just wanted to let you know why we were doing that. So, what's the consultant team been up to? So, responded to MSBA comments. We have been working, the teams been working on putting together the pre-qualification materials, which are going to be advertised shortly. And I wanted to also thank Simone for the, and Bob Parent for a huge amount of help. They've given us with managing the procurement of a testing and inspections agency, which was just concluded, and also for their input on the pre-qualification process. In the meantime, the design team is working towards doing what's called the 90% set. So it's 90% construction documents, which you're going to the cost estimators late April. And we're gonna have a cost estimate reconciliation on May 15th. And then we have a meeting with you that Friday. So the reconciliation is Wednesday, the meeting is Friday. So it will be short, but hopefully we'll be reporting that we are on budget. And then right at the end of May, we have to submit that 90% set to the MSBA. I'm gonna leave it to Cassenia and Rick and Tim to talk about some more about the early site package. I'm gonna focus on on this line is just talking about the fact that we with the contractor on site, we have now launched a series of communications that are going out to tell people about the pretty significant change in traffic on the site. So those notices started in the superintendent's newsletter last week and are gonna continue for the next few weeks, but then we're sort of gonna layer on several other items from the public's, the broad public's perspective. I think one of the first times that many people of the school committee, school community are gonna become aware of this change is gonna be next Tuesday when the consultant team is giving an update to the school committee about the project. And we will include an update about the schedule, the circulation change. At that point, we're gonna sort of amp up the issue because right now the change to the school traffic circulation is slated to occur on Monday, April 8th, which is it's very intentional. The contractor will be ready to do it at that point. It's gonna take over the seven and a half of the site. It's gonna result in significant changes. So I want you all to be aware of that. And if you have questions about it, we're gonna be posting materials on the website. Angela is gonna be sending materials out the superintendent's newsletter, other venues. So that's gonna be a big event because it's going to make the week or two after that. And we do have the scheduled a week before school vacation. So we're gonna do it for a week. We're gonna fine tune it. We're gonna come back the last week of April, hopefully with it sort of tuned up with any lessons learned. The last week of March on Tuesday, the 26th, and you should all have an invite from me and your calendar is the groundbreaking. So we'll talk a little bit more about that in the course of the project, but the groundbreaking is going to occur before this change in traffic circulation. Permitting, I'm gonna let Dennis talk about that. Construction meetings, we'll come back to that. And then design coordination, this is just a heads up that we had a very good building design subcommittee at the end of February. We had the last of our playground working group meetings this week and Tim and Rick will talk about that. Again, Tuesday, this coming up is the school committee meeting. In addition to getting an update because many members of the school committee are new, they're also gonna be taking a vote on the proprietary items. And I think we're gonna talk about that a little bit later in the meeting. We have a building design subcommittee meeting, probably the last or close to the last. And we're still trying to land the proposed, the next sustainability subcommittee. So, and then the MSBA is going to be at the groundbreaking, but their next kind of task on our behalf, now that the revised funding agreement has been signed for the additional reimbursement, their next task for us is the review of the 90% documents at the end of May. So I'm gonna stop for a moment and just ask if there are any questions about all of that. Okay, I don't see any hands. I will say we are coming to the end of what's been an incredibly complex period of multiple tasks interweaving. And with the permitting concluding and the construction underway and the construction documents, the design phase, the design pieces related to construction documents coming to an end, it's gonna calm down. The schedule is gonna start to look very predictable, I believe. So I do just wanna ask Cassenia to just talk a little bit, just at a high level about the construction process that I think the first construction meeting was last week, just past week, right? This week, yep, that's right. Thank you, good morning. So the contractor, Gagliarducci, the early site package contractor has mobilized on site and has started doing some preparatory work. There's a bit of irony in the fact that the work they're doing now is very small compared to the overall construction process, but it is by far the most intrusive piece of the work because what they're doing, even though they're only tasked with the early site package work with site preparation, they are essentially establishing the new physical reality out on site, right? Creating the environment for the new traffic pattern for the public cars to enter and leave through the north driveway only and establishing the construction fence around the site. It is this week, next week, maybe the third week out is probably the most activity that the school community is going to see sort of beyond that fence and changes. Once that settles down, most construction activity is going to continue inside the fence. They're going to have their own separate entrance on the south side and it will stay that way for the most part throughout the rest of a project, even when we hire the main contractor to come and start raising the building inside that perimeter. So far, what Gagliarducci has done is, and as Margaret said, we started having our onsite or in Emerson Person construction meetings this week. They've cleared some of the areas of trees where construction is going to need to happen. They started work on widening the north driveway to add a third lane so that there could be one lane in, two lanes out with a dedicated lane for a left turn. Over, they started putting in some erosion controls around the far, far side of the field away from the school and that's going to continue and move its way toward the school in the coming week. They are starting to bring onsite their fencing and set it up against starting far from the school and then moving closer. We've kept the playground operational this week, but today will be the last day, although I don't know how rainy it is out there today and how it's getting used, but so starting Monday, there's going to be a fence that goes a little bit south of the school. It'll leave the South parking lot operational because that is part of the current drop off pickup scenario. That'll stay accessible until April 8th, which is when the traffic pattern changes over. On site, you do now have every day that work is happening. Answer advisories are clerk over works. Your clerk over works, his name is Lee Figgins and he is an extremely experienced individual, both with managing field construction, geotechnical, environmental issues. There is coordination happening with the conservation to make sure that the work that's being done is fully compliant. As Margaret said, permitting, auto-acquired permitting applications have been submitted and all completed. In the next week or so, there's week and a half maybe, you're going to start seeing some more paving and curb reconfigurations in order to allow cars to turn around in the parking lot in order to allow buses to drive up into what is currently the basketball court and set up their pattern driving around the back of the school as a busway. Again, that's preparation for the April 8th change and circulation pattern. There is one unexpected, unexpected, you dig in the ground, you always expect something to find something. There's a piece of enabling work that requires modifying some underground drainage pipes. And one of the pipes that was looked at, not touched yet, is found to be asbestos containing material. It is nothing alarming. It is not friable material. That means it doesn't, when you break it, it doesn't turn into breathable dust or anything that leeches. It's stable. It's been underground, completely inaccessible to the public of the kids. But we're following the correct procedure, in terms of permitting and removal of that, there is going to be a cost of a project, but it's well within the parameters of a project budget. We've given them a not to exceed limit of $17,000 to move forward with that. I'm going to pause and give Rick space here to fill in anything that I may have not touched on. Thank you, Yesenia. Now, we've worked with Gagliaducci before. They're a very competent and cooperative contractor. They're flexible. Their superintendent seems to be a good guy and somebody who can interface as needed with issues. It might come up with a school being cheek and jowl next to what they're doing. And the asbestos concrete pipe, the only thing that's different about the handling of that is that they wrap it when it comes out of the ground and they put it in a different dumpster. So it's not a real big deal. This is a little different on handling and where it's got to go. And now that we found that here, well, we know where to look for the main project which we'll be taking more out of it and where we'll design that at the end. So that's about all I've got to add. Rick, can I just ask you to speak to the reason for the tree removal because I think it would be helpful for the folks on the committee to know why, which trees were removed and why. Okay, the trees that were, there were trees that were removed that will be in the way of the building, the new building, first and foremost. Those are the ones that are on the driveway coming in the South driveway coming in. There were trees removed at the North driveway because that is being widened to allow three wet lanes of traffic in and out both as a temporary basis and what will ultimately be the final condition of the school driveway when the site is all completed. And those trees up on the Southeast were reviewed during a treaty commission hearing and were approved at that. And one of them was a tree that the tree warden felt would be diseased and would come down in a couple of years anyway. And then there were a half dozen trees east of the existing school between the school and the play fields that would come down for the softball fields and the play fields that were right in the middle of the play fields for the final condition, but they were taken down now because there is a fear of them being a visual obstruction to bus drivers who will be coming down on the east side of the building with kids running between the building and the play fields. So that's basically all the trees that came down were in the way of final construction and everything that remained like the rest of the trees along the South entry driveway are trees that will stay in the final condition. I just wanna pause just for a second to say that Deb Leonard has joined us and Deb just if you could unmute to say so we can make sure we can hear you. I am here, sorry, I'm late. That's okay. And I see Rupert has his hand up. Rupert. Wait a minute. Rick, it's my understanding that some of the trees that came down are part of a plan to be re-incorporated into the building in the playground. Is that true? Good point, Rupert. Yes, I went and escaped architect and coordinated into the rain garden sections of trunk, both as round slabs and with some main limbs attached as features in the rain garden and the forest floor areas that are out near the eastern boundary of the site. And those are put aside and will be incorporated in the final design by the main project contractor. Thanks, Rupert. So I think that's all on the construction update that we have at the moment. Any questions on that? Any part of it? Okay, I think in the one minute. So the next item on the agenda was to talk about the early site package which we've covered quite a bit of. So let's talk a little bit about the groundbreaking event. Kathy, do you wanna describe what's going to, what we're gonna do or would you like me to do that? I can describe it so can Paul, as we have a, and then you can add to it, Margaret. We have an agenda with a series of speakers, all of whom will speak quite quickly on and hopefully fairly coordinated topics. Paul will be there to open it up. I'll give an overview about how exciting the project is with some, our journey there and key elements. Doug will be speaking about education and kids. Sarah Marshall, who is chair of the school building committee, will be there along with Doug. I think we have, well, Lynn Griesmer, our council president and the plan, as we're starting to talk about content, we wanna give a big thanks to all the residents of Amherst who have supported the school and the construction sign gives that thanks to them. I believe we're gonna be joined by Joe Comerford and Mindy Dom, Paul. Yes, that's true. And we'll have a representative come from MSBA. So that's an agenda and then there'll be a series of photo opportunities with various groups. So this includes Tammy, kids from the school, anyone and everyone from the building committee is invited and if you're there, we will recognize you and there'll be either pictures by the fence, pictures by the welcome sign. The school committee will all know about this state. We're on, as Margaret said, we're on, she's on with proprietary items on March 19th and the school committee is all invited as well. So that's the agenda and it really is a celebration of groundbreaking. So it's not a prolonged set of talks. Did I leave anything out, Margaret or Paul? No, that was perfect. Okay, I see Deb's hand is up. Yeah, again, sorry I'm late. I just wondered if there was thought given to some of the community members who are critical in getting the override supported Matt Holloway and Kirsten Hollerbird and those folks. Deb, I'm letting them all know about the date. Okay. So the effort that went into it was very broad. So I know several of the leadership people were asking about the date. So we'll be announcing it again on Monday night as a council meeting. So we'll be doing our best to let everyone know because it's basically an invitation to come and celebrate. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you're back. Sorry. So is this gonna get pushed out to the PGOs? There's the superintendents and certainly newsletter but the PGOs have their own newsletters. Yes, it is. Okay, thank you. We have, I should explain. So we have a subcommittee, Angela, who I think is on vacation today and not here, but Angela and myself and Tammy and Deb, Debbie, Westmoreland, Morgan has sort of coordinate. There's multiple, Tammy sort of rattled off a whole list of ways we have to push stuff out to the school community. One thing I would like to circle back to if there aren't any other questions about the groundbreaking, I wanted to just ask, I'm not sure, in fact, I'm pretty, I am sure that this committee hasn't seen the plan for the change to the traffic circulation, which has been closely coordinated with the school. So Rupert and Tammy and Doug and Bob Parent, this is very familiar, but I think it would be good before we move on to the other items, just to, can Rick or Tim, could you show the plan and just quickly walk the committee through what this change is gonna look like? And I apologize, I should have asked you, should have mentioned that. That's gonna take me a minute to pull it up, but. Okay, so while you're doing that, I mean, in a nutshell, in order to allow the contractor to operate safely and at the scale they need to on the Southern half of the site, starting on April 8th, the only entrance into the site from the South is gonna be for construction vehicles. And all the traffic going to and from the school is gonna go out of the North entrance. So I think everybody already is aware that the traffic along Southeast Street is challenging at the times of school drop-off and pickup. But yeah, Tim's gonna sort of explain this plan that's been developed to allow traffic, the drop-off and pickup to happen on the North's end of the site only. And Tim, I've got it up on the screen, so we could just talk about it. Thank you for looking for it. Tim, do you wanna talk through it or do you want me to? So all traffic is gonna move to the North entrance with a widened what was the exit for the entire site. So one lane will come in and two will go out. And so as traffic comes in, as you get to the North end of the parking lot, car, parent, staff traffic will turn South going through the parking lot. Staff will park and people dropping off will queue in the parking lot and with the help of staff, drop-off in front of the building where the bus is parked now and the existing drop-off and pickup configuration. As that turn was made from the parking area, you'll notice there's an area for vans that will be taken out of the loop. And then that's how the parent and car circulation will work. Going back to the North end of the site where cars turn to right coming in, buses will turn left. They will stop at the playground North of the building and that's where students will be discharged and get off the bus. And then the buses will continue to circle around to the east of the building where some of those trees were removed to improve visibility and safety. And then they will circle around the South of the building and rejoin the loop and exit passing the building and exiting at the North entrance of the site. The vans that we talked about when we came to the South will take the same route as the bus but they will have that pull-off area so that they are separated by jersey barriers for a safe drop-off condition separated from traffic in all directions. As part of this circulation, there's a little bit of work that has been mentioned, the widening of the entrance, tree removal, increasing the radius at some of the turns, a cut through the existing median of the parking lot and repaving the back driveway that goes behind the building. Once this is in place, no school traffic will be using the Southern entrance to the site that will be construction vehicles only going to be blocked off. Margaret, you're muted. So any questions about that before we take it down? We'll be talking about this again at the school committee meeting to start the outreach about it. I see Jonathan's hand is up and depth. Jonathan? At pickup, I assume this would be very similar but just to ask you to walk through if there's any difference in how things would circulate at pickup time. The circulation pattern are the same for pickup and drop off. Queuing will happen in the Southern facing drive lane. So it will have to be essentially, the pattern is the same and staff parking will happen after discharge so that there isn't the conflict between queuing cars and parked cars accidentally pulling into the traffic lane. And then I should also note, which I didn't as walking through, this obviously does reduce the total parking count from the existing configuration. So there are going to be some additional spots striped at the end. And then those will be access control too because obviously those cars will not be allowed to leave while there are buses out there and children going to them from them. Okay, Deb? Two questions. For students who walk or come to school on bicycles, how does that fit into this flow pattern? Because it looks to me like they're gonna have to cross where the buses are peeling off up there. Yeah. That is true. They will have to cross where the buses turn. And we do expect that as there is now, there will be staff out there to maintain control and ensure safety. Okay, and bikers as well? Indeed, yes. And then traffic management at the Southeast intersection there, is it just gonna be the way it is now? So what we're gonna do, Deb, actually Cassani, can you take this down for a minute? We're gonna, for the couple of weeks ahead of the change and through the process until it settles down, we're going to use electronic signage. Just trying to get the right drawing here. And use electronic signage from all the various directions to sort of show people what this is gonna look like. To caution them that there's going to be a change. Hang on a second. Here we go. Can everybody see this? I'll try and make it a little bigger, but here's... So the issue, as everybody knows, is that this part of the road system is very busy now when the school is going to be going through drop-off and pickup. But we're gonna deploy six signs, starting in just a week or two, that are gonna tell people about the traffic change, that are gonna point them to the website to indicate that there is, to make, let's show people now, and use public communications to get the word out. So I think you, the committee members here can really help by offering us any other sort of avenues that we can use. So I'm happy to send around, we do have a communications plan that sort of lists what's happening each week to sort of start to get the word out. But yeah, this will be a big change and it will take a while for local traffic to adjust around it. But I think what we can do is tell people early and often. And I do believe it's the issue is going to be for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. And those times are already challenging on this particular, this particular part of the city circulation system. So. Follow up? Doug, Doug, does this hand up also? I think I might be able to clarify a question that she was asking. Sorry, they're doing announcements here. So you may hear some background noise from me, but so I think Deb was asking specifically at the Southern Inn where the turn happens, there'll be a stop sign there. So inside the campus, when they come and they go to the Southern Inn where the new cut through is. Yeah. There'll be a stop sign there. There'll also be staff there to direct and control as people go to do drop off or pick up in that area. Does that answer your question, Deb? Not really. No, I mean that left. So the left turn from Southeast onto Main Street gets backed up as it is. And I've always wanted there to be like a staggered green in each direction going north and going south. I don't know if that's possible, but between the buses turning and, I mean the PVTA buses turning south on Southeast Street and people and students going to the university and turning left there. That's my concern, it's bad enough. Yeah. I will say that we started this discussion quite a long time ago with Guilford from the DPW. One of the things we found is that that particular traffic signal is an older signal that it's not easy to program for the client. And if you had a new traffic signal there, you'd have more choices for programming and we don't with that side. So we've got to sort of create a protective sort of area around and just tell people. You have your hand up. Yeah, I just wanted to, there, I just wanted to tell folks that are concerned about that double line of cars queuing up for afternoon pickup on the west side of the parking lot. Folks who aren't familiar that mirrors or replicates an existing system that the Hammy and the folks at Fort River have figured out how to manage very effectively. Right now, the double line of cars is in the south parking lot instead of the west parking lot, but it's the same kind of activity, the same kind of procedure. And I think the parents will find it similar enough that it will not be that hard to adjust where the queue is and how to take turns to pull forward to pick up kids. So I think it'll work really well. Yeah, and I also just want to thank Doug and Tammy and Guilford again, because this was developed. And this could develop this approach with a lot of input from them. Doug. The one other thing I'll mention for Deb is just on street, the police will also be there to help direct traffic, especially in the early days as to manage people coming in and out. So I think that's another factor and how long we'll need to have that kind of support will live with the circumstances and see what we need. But at that sort of pullout and the complications of those intersections, there's gonna be an officer there to help direct. That does resolve my question. Thank you. Great, okay. Well, again, you heard it here first, but I think there's a lot of work that's gone into it, which isn't to say it's perfect. We're gonna have to fine tune it after we try it out for a few days. But thank you to everybody in this group who's contributed to the solution and the rollout. So more to come on that. So I wanna, I think- Margaret, wait, Paul's hand is up. Paul has it. Yes, can I just say, Ed, one thing, I think the emphasis that we as committee and others need to say is that the traffic is going to be difficult. There's a lot of construction going to be happening during this entire time. There's a lot of truck traffic. People, if they're not going to Fort River School should avoid this area and seek alternate routes if at all possible, because it's just going, it's gonna be, you know, especially during school and during rush hours, it's gonna be difficult. So there's construction on college streets. There's other construction projects as well. So I think to our friends and neighbors and people we talk with try to avoid the area. I mean, one of the things that I like about this approach is that it is setting us up for the ultimate change that is coming with the new building, which is that we are separating. It's the beginning of the separation of buses and cars from, you know, North and South. So it's sort of a first step on the way to that final condition. Jonathan has his hand up. This is, and you may already have this on your radar, but UMass, so this is gonna be kind of a two-ended thing. UMass will have their pickup day for students and their drop-off day in September for students. I think sometimes that lands on a Friday in addition to the weekend. And just at some point someone should, if they haven't already just kind of check in with UMass, but they like to redirect traffic as part of what they do. And some of that comes down Route 9. Just for those one-day events. Okay, Deb, did you have a comment? Deb Chan went up again, Margaret. Sorry. So yeah, I'm also telling UMass students in whatever way possible, because that's a route to campus as well as a route home to the pike. Yeah. Alrighty. So I think we're gonna move to the next item on the agenda, which is an update on permitting and sort of an update also on the corkeen surfacing and the waiver of liability that Dinesco described at our last meeting. So Donna, Tim, Rick, do you wanna start with that? I can give an update on permitting. So essentially all of our hearings are complete. We have not seen, but we know that there's a draft set of conditions on the planning board. You'll recall that we've met with some board of appeals, Conservation Commission Design Review Board. Those meetings are now complete. There is supplemental information that we will have to provide to them. For example, when the corkeen decision is finalized, we will have to file that with the Conservation Commission when we have the final design for the signage that we'll have to go for the design review board. But essentially that process is complete. And we have all of the conditions and approvals that we need at this point. We do have a meeting with Rob Moore next week to talk about building permitting and the specific. So that when there are some additional meetings that we need to schedule into fire department and such just to review all the details. But in essence, we are at the point where most of the work of the permitting process is complete and we are in good standing in terms of the course that we have been with. I don't know, Rick, if you want to talk about the hurricane issue. No, we're in the process of filing, believe it or not, a demo permit for taking down the outdoor toilet building and a building permit for the early site package because the building will ultimately sit on the dirt. But those are in process and we'll be submitting them next week. And then subsequent to, I can refer the subsequent to the last meeting, Dinesco, Donna did provide as the leader of the firm, a draft waiver of liability for the town to review. Paul, do you have any comment about that? I know it's under review. Yeah, so the town attorney, I just checked in and they haven't gotten back to us as whether they advise us to sign that or not. Okay. So I think that's everything we have to report on that. But we can turn to an update on the playground equipment working group which wrapped up its last meeting yesterday. It was a great process. So, Tim, do you want to sort of show everybody where we landed? Sure. So after a series of very productive meetings with the playground working group, we arrived at a design that we feel incorporates a lot of the concerns of the members of the group, that there was a range of activities that were appropriate for all of the ages that would be used on it from K through five. There was an appropriate mix of equipment that is fully accessible and challenging for all individuals. And then we were able to incorporate a lot of the specifically requested items, a lot of swings. You can see in the foreground of this picture, there are what are called oodle swings that allow multiple kids to sit on. And then there are a lot of devices that provide sensory input. There's what I'm trying to take this down and show you something that might be a little bit more illustrative. We have just a little bit of... As you go through the pieces, Tim, I know one of the things Tammy had mentioned is the Gauga Pit, and there is one. There is... Sorry, it's taking so long for it to open, but there is a Gauga Pit. I had to even look up what is a Gauga Pit, but... Here we have this one. See this a little bit better. So starting with the oodle swings that multiple kids can sit on, there is a roller table right here, which is actually a series of rollers that you can pull yourself through this tube and feel the rollers on your back. There is a fully accessible wego round that you can be in and by turning the handle on the entire structure rotates. There was a lot of discussion about the momentum of play in the working group. Kids tend to like to travel in closed loops, and there are multiple closed loops that are accessible and otherwise within the playground. So you can go up the ramps and come down. You can go up the ramps and veer off onto other overhead climbing structures and bridges. Same as you get over here, there are interesting rope climbing, multiple types of slides, musical play elements to the north of the playground, and then a series of swings. And then one of the other considerations that was widely talked about in the group was shade to make sure that that was there. And we've even moved some site planting to the southern edge of the playground so that as those trees grows, they will cover even more of the playground with shade throughout the day. But in this video, you can see the relationship of the playground just north of the cafeteria. And then there is some hardscape area in between the soft surface playground and the building that will be painted with games. And then to the west to the left of this view here are the basketball courts. And to the right, north of the playground are the athletic fields, which will also be available for students during recess and gym. But after a series of meetings and a very productive process, we are at a playground design that meets the budget. And the only decision left is how exactly it will be procured. It is going before the school committee has a proprietary vote. So we get exactly what is designed. Another way we'd be to go to the safe and less but that decision is yet to be made. Deb, just to be sure, the overhead climbing structure is what I would call monkey bars. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sorry. You know, I listened in on a couple of the meetings and the final one, first of all, Doug, Tammy, the staff you have, you know this already, but they're fabulous. And they came in, you know, they were intensely involved from the gym, the special needs kids and everything else on talking about the way this would work. And one person at the end, when they were seeing this, she was thanking the design team for being so responsive and moving things around and thinking of the equipment. And her summary was, we're creating a magical playground for kids or play land for children, you know, on just the excitement of some of these quite different than many have seen. And as Tim just mentioned, this running up a ramp, going over somewhere and coming down somewhere else, there's a pattern where you can be constantly moving and you can be moving with other children. You know, there's room for two people doing it at the same time. And so it's an exciting, it's an exciting development that just started with pieces of equipment. Yeah, it's been a great process. So, and it's fun. The slides that Tim has just shown, I think he sent me a set either yesterday or this morning, but I'll make sure that we post them in the packet for today. So if anyone wants to go back and show this to others, you'll be able to show it as part of the, so it'll be today's meeting packet for the playground equipment. All right, thanks, Tim. So, but back to you. The next item was an update on our last design subcommittee meeting. Some background noise here, I'm trying to mute it. So we have a, we did meet last time, basically confirming some color palettes I don't have stuff to share because we have this subsequent design building committee meeting on the 26th day of the groundbreaking. And at that meeting, we were presenting a lot more some finalized exterior patterns and materials and then the full development of interior floor patterns, color palettes that we're discussing with the group. Yeah, and I want to add there was a good conversation at the end of the playground working group about how the colors of the playground equipment will be coordinated with accent colors on the building. And I think it's actually gonna be a really nice feature that is gonna pull the whole thing together from a color perspective. So the other thing we might wanna do, Tim, just in terms of pictures as the community starts to say, okay, this is real, there's a whole layout of site design with some trails, rain gardens, you know, a path around the school. So just, I know you've sent us some of those pictures, but I wanna be able to show some of it. So just, as long as we have them in the packet that as you said, there's basketball courts, there's trails there. It's a site that the kids during the day can be out and about but also the town and the community is getting an asset that's quite exciting. We'll make sure to glue that in the packet. So last meeting, I think everybody saw the list of proprietary items and they're in the meeting minutes if you wanna refer back to them, that we're gonna be going, you know, as we said on Tuesday to the school committee, we're gonna include Corkeen as a possible proprietary item for their vote. And as a reminder, as Rick pointed out last week, the reason that it's a school committee decision is because they are an elected body and this group is an appointed body just so nobody feels snubbed by the school committee being the ones that sign off on this. That is the reason, that's the logic of it. So we've actually, it's only 9.30 and we've gotten through the content of the meeting. The next item would be invoices and then public comments. So Cassenia, can I turn it over to you to do invoices? Certainly, we have very speedy today. Here we go. Hey, can everybody see that? Yeah, okay. So we have seven invoices on tap. This is the February package of invoices of the February services being presented for payment in March. It totals just shy of $400,000 with the bulk of that being for design efforts which are continuing. So we focused a lot of today's conversation on the construction work that's kicked off but of course the design team is still vigorously engaged in finalizing the 90% construction documents for the building and that's what's happening here. The owner's project manager team, our team is also somewhat ramping up efforts now that we've got onsite presence, overseeing construction. So answer advisories, invoices $47,554.19 which is a 2% progression and brings us to a 20% build of our contract which doesn't include construction fee services through the end of a project. The design team, Denisco has a set of five invoices, total $344,788 which is a 5% progression of their contract bringing them to 54%. Again, their balance of the contract doesn't include construction fee services as well. So they're far further along than 54% in terms of building design. This is leaving space for oversight of construction. And there is an invoice for a consultant called Precise or Precé, depending on who you ask. They are the folks that did a butter outreach and send some letters to the owners of our budding properties. They're at only about 51% build and at the moment we think we may not need more from them, we shall see. I will briefly, before I move off this page, any questions here before I just briefly flip through each page of each invoice? Nope, this is the answer invoice which includes staff time and architect consulting services. This is the sustainability consultant with many pages of daily notes from each person who worked on the project. This is the Denisco invoice, the bigger one and then some of the smaller reimbursables with backup. Again, do stop me if anything picks your particular interest and this is the precise invoice for a better outreach. Leave it on this page for a second. For any questions, all of these invoices have been reviewed by our team. Negotiated revised were necessary, which none was necessary in this round. We've certified that these are okay to pay and sound staff has had the opportunity to see them as well. I'll stop sharing. So I make a motion that we approve the invoices as presented. Second. Seconded by Doug. If there are no other questions, we'll move to a vote. Doug? Yes. Kathy, so yes. Jennifer? Yes. Paul? Yes. Rupert? That's a big, uh-huh. Dev? Yes. Jonathan? Yes. Tammy? Yes. Simone? Yes. That's unanimous, Margaret, with- Three-absent. Three-absent. So I, you know, people, just before I open it for public comments, when Margaret did the schedule, she'll post that schedule again in the packet or send it around so people are reminded, but that change on the August date, I believe you put holds on all our calendars. So just to change that. I did. There is a tentative date for the sustainability committee and that we're so waiting for some plug load analysis on budgeting. And one of the things that Margaret is doing behind the scenes is we talked about not necessarily artwork, but it would be exciting visuals, some kind of a display panel in the school that would be wired to show the solar energy generated by the solar panels or the energy used by it and that there's been some exploration of is anything like out there like that in an elementary school? You know, that this would be a visual that the kids could look at. And there's different places that it could potentially be put. It would be, as I understand it, these are wired to the system. So it requires some decisions. And it's not that we've identified anything yet, but they've identified some places that have them and they're at a grade school level. So they're colorful and change daily to see what we've got. Because to make the building itself part of the artwork of the building. So that's just a report on that's going on behind the scenes with nothing specific yet, but a search for is there something that is already ready to go on some level and is exciting? And before we did that, we would bring it would be brought both to the sustainability committee, but to this committee would be part of the design of the building. Margaret, is that a good one? Yeah, no, that's a good representation. Shelly Potter and Jacob Braskin together with Kathy have been looking for examples to bring together. And that would allow them to bring back some options for what that would look like. And it's important to do this now because whatever we need in the way of data power monitoring in order to provide a display needs to be folded into the construction document. And Paul is well aware of this. We do have a percent for art bylaw that potentially allocates a budget and sets up a process for that that has not happened yet in terms of the process. So that is waiting to be seen. And as go in their designs have indicated some places where artwork could go and be visible. And if there's nothing there, it'll be a nice wall. Exactly. So I'm looking for any other comments before I open it up for public comments. I don't see any. So we are now open for public comments. And I see one I'm bringing you in to allow you to talk. Thanks. Can you hear me, Kathy? Yes. Hi, Rudy Perkins from Amherst. Having been involved with a few groundbreaking when in my housing project work we always tried to get anyone who was a representative of the major funders involved. And I know you've, we've gotten a lot of help from the state. And I think it's so great that we're going to have Senator Comerford and Representative Dome come. But I'm wondering if I didn't hear mention of Representative McGovern's office at the federal level since the IRA is going to be a big part of our energy funding, we're hoping and also maybe ever source. Maybe you mentioned them and I didn't make note of it but I think it might be a courtesy at least to see if they want to make a brief word. So thanks for that. I'm really excited to come to the groundbreaking. And I hope, Paul or Kathy, you can mention the net zero aspects of this building and how this is our first foray into a building built under our net zero bylaw. And the town's important contribution as a town to the climate mitigation. So I'm sure you would, but I just wanted to underscore that. And the other aspect of the school that I think is important to some constituencies here is the community playing field rehab and upgrade. And so I realize that's a minor thing compared to the whole school, but it might be good to just underscore that that work is also being done and we'll have that to look forward to as a community asset. So thanks so much for all the work you guys have been doing. It's awesome. Thanks, Rudy. Let me just see. I don't see any other hands. Tim, if you have it handy, I can pull it up. The, we actually have a construction site sign that's pretty exciting. And if you don't have it, I'll just send it to everyone but it reminded me that the sign explicitly says this is a net zero school and absolutely we will be featuring that in the opening comments as well as the fact that this is a community resource with fields. Here's the sign. And so it is highlighted with bicycles, which is what I really like that we put bicycles on the play lot. So that is, that's going to go up at some point by the construction site. I'm not seeing any other hands up. We've been encouraged by our town attorney to have a motion to adjourn and a vote on the adjourn. So I'm going to make a motion to adjourn. Second. And I will now put it to a vote. Doug. Yes. Kathy is a yes. Jennifer. Yes. Paul. Yes. Deb Leonard. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Tammy. Yes. Rupert. I will succinctly and as briefly as possible say yes. Simone. Yes. And so we are adjourned at 940 and I encourage you, since we won't meet again until after the opening groundbreaking, I encourage everyone to come. This is a moment to celebrate together and actually see each other other than just the heads on the screen. So we are adjourned for today. Thank you very much.