 webinar, which will start us a recording. And I'll see if folks are in the will come in as attendees. Okay, there's a there is a message from Myra that she is trying to get to get in. So she's working. Jim, did you have trouble logging in? I don't know. Oh, just a little late. Okay. All right. I see three folks in the attendees. Let me that's Sarah and an A. So let me change them. I've already started. Okay. All right. And I let Chris brush up in as well. Yeah. Are you feeling any better? Not really. Well, feel free to sign off when you need to. Yeah. Thank you. I'm going to the governor's order. Sorry. All right. So can you wait just a second until we try to get more folks in? Yes. Jennifer, I'm trying to get Sarah in, but it doesn't seem like she's coming out. It says that she's declining. So I don't know. Okay, let me see if I can send her a message. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can you unmute? I just want to make sure that you're in and can hear us. Sarah. There you are. Sarah. All right. Okay. I think that. We're just waiting for my road to try to. To get in again. I'm going to go off screen and send her a message. expected that Ian would be here. I'm not sure about Cody. He might have a conflict and Marty is not able to attend. Oh, there's Myra now. Okay. All right. So I think. You hear me? Yes. Hi, Myra. Okay. What a mess. I am so sorry I have no idea what happened. No, that's all right. I think the only person that we're expecting who's not here might be Ian, but you have Elise, Saren, Jim, and yourself. Okay. And I know Marty won't be here and I know Cody won't be here. Right. So, but we do have a quorum. You do have a quorum. So we might as well get started. I am so sorry. I have no idea what happened to my computer. Did you get my note that I couldn't get in? Yes, I did. And so I'm about to go off screen and Asa is going to read the preliminary legalese. All right. Hope you feel better Pamela. Thank you. Pursuant to the governor's orders suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law general law chapter 30 a section 18. This meeting, the disability access advisory committee meeting is being conducted via promote participation. You can take roll call to check to make sure everyone's video and audio is working properly. Right. Mara. I'm here. Saren. Here. James. Here. Elise. Here. Here. Yes. Okay. Yes. So we can get started with our. Thank you very much, Asa. I appreciate that. And I don't know if Pamela has disappeared or just gone off screen. Is this Pamela planning to stick around or she is going to try to stick around and listen in, but I am off screen. Got it. Okay. Thank you. All right. So the first thing we need to do is find out if does anybody have any. Well, we can do public comment again. Is there anyone here for public comment about items not on the agenda? I don't know. There's no one in your attendees at the moment. Okay, cool. Thanks, Jennifer. That is Jennifer, right? It is I, thank you. Okay. Sorry. I don't know who's on the screen. I didn't have time to check. Okay. All right. So if there's no one there, then we can see if anyone has any announcements before we get to the meat of the agenda. I have one, which is that next month's meeting is going to be devoted to the Hickory Ridge trails project. We have people coming from conservation, Jennifer Mullins. I believe the assistant town manager. So we're going to have a whole house full house of presenters and they're really interested in our input and hopefully they will get us materials that we can read early enough so that we can, you know, really participate fully. But anyway, so that's the next agenda. All right. We have some guests who are going to talk about the new elementary school project, which is pretty well underway as far as the planning. And Kathy Shane from the, from the town council is one of the, I don't know if you are the only chair of the committee or if you're a co-chair, but she has agreed to come and talk to us about the elementary school. I don't think they intended to do that eventually. So I appreciate the people who are going to be doing the presentation for giving up time that they didn't expect to give up so we could talk about things, because we always seem to find something that architects miss. And sometimes they're very significant things. So Kathy, are you there? So Kathy is not at this meeting. She was not able to attend. I'm Margaret Wood. I'm what's called the owner's project manager. So every public school project in Massachusetts that receives funding from the Massachusetts school building has authority, like tripping over my words. The Mass School Building Authority has someone like myself who is hired as an independent consulting project manager. So Kathy delegated to me just kind of doing a super brief intro about the project and really most of the presentation is going to be made by Donna Dinesco and Tim Cooper, who are the lead architects on the project, the lead designers. So just to kind of bring you up to date. So you all might remember that there was an earlier project back. I would say it was probably started back around 2015 or 16 that failed its local vote. The proposed project is to combine the two elementary schools and into a single building. And so after the earlier failed vote, this project restarted in 2021. And then Dinesco design was hired as the designer. And we're kind of, I would say, kind of midstream in the design. I mean, it's a perfect time actually to come and talk to you all because the boundary conditions of the design are established. And would always have been part of our process to come see you. So thank you for making time in our agenda. So again, consolidating two schools on the Fort River site and building the building while the existing Fort River school stays active. The school is brand new, net zero design. But for the purposes of the discussion here, I just want to say the fact that it's new building means that we can meet every aspect of the access code. And we really want to sort of show you how the project works and hear your thoughts. So I'm going to turn it over to Donna and Tim, who are going to really make this presentation. And thank you all for coming together to meet with us. OK, excellent. Thank you for coming. Donna and Tim, I just want to say before we get started, we have one person on this committee who is a low vision person. And we have me, who is a totally blind person. So we need much more descriptive information than normally you would give to other committees. And the materials you sent, unfortunately, have no narrative really. They were pretty much useless to me. But I did contact somebody to find out a little bit about what was in them. I don't expect you to start from zero. But if you can be very descriptive in what you talk about, that will help Elise and me. Yeah, thank you, Myra. I was able to read some of the description, but a lot of the pictures didn't, you know, and mapping didn't make much sense to me. OK, so good afternoon. And thank you, Myra, for your comments. And I think as architects, we use pictures far more than words, which doesn't make this communication as easy or seamless as it could be. So we're typically rushed. We're typically like, use few words, get through the presentation. The images speak for themselves. So with that, Kathy gave me all the latitude to talk as long as I want today using descriptors for the presentation. So we see this more as a dialogue. If you want further explanation or context of what I'm talking about, please feel free, just interrupt us. It's a small group. And we're here for conversation as well as just to bring you up to date where we are with the project. So for those of you that are able to see the screen, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen, just making sure everyone can see it. I'm just trying to move my mouse here. So with that, and thank you again. I'm Donna Dinesco, and with me is Tim Cooper. We're both with Dinesco Design. And it has truly been wonderful working with the town of Amherst on this really important project for the town. I know Margaret gave a brief introduction. So we'll just start with where we are today. So the new, we're calling it the new Amherst Elementary School. We're not calling it the Fox Hill School anymore because we're merging both Brightwood, I mean, Wildwood and Fort River. So it is the Amherst Elementary School is how we're referring to it. The new elementary school is going to be constructed on the Fox, the Fort River site. And the existing Fort River School will remain in operation while the new school is constructed. Once the new school is built, the students will move into that building and then the existing building will be demolished. And then we'll finish up the site, which will consist of some parking, but mostly community fields. So we've spent a lot of time talking about the. The function and of the site, right, as it relates to circulation, the various means of transportation entering the site, the site amenities, the site amenities for the school, as well as the site amenities for the entire community. So what we've done is the new school will be constructed to the south of the existing building. There'll be ample separation, clear separation with construction fences. And we have phased diagrams, which we're not going to show today. But we have worked out all of the details of how the two school and contractor can remain on a site, but function independently and completely safely for the staff and students of this school. I'll interrupt with one question because I know it'll come up. Yes. The parking that exists for the existing Port River School will not be implicated by this at all. I keep losing my connection. Oh, do you hear me? We do. Yeah, we do hear you. So I'm sorry, I keep losing my connection. Tim, are you having problems? I think I can hear anything. If you can hear me, I am coming through. We can hear you. I can answer the question about the parking wall. Donna resolves her issues. So the existing parking, which is two lanes west of the existing building, will be impacted by the construction in various phases. So in the first phase, the early site package, when the site is prepared for the new building, about a third of that parking lot will be off limits for school use. So there will be a fence in the parking lot that will take that part off. And then we are working with the school to make sure that the traffic patterns of the buses and the cars as they enter the site will function not quite the same, but equally safely and efficiently as they do now. And I should also mention the existing site has an entrance and an exit that has a entrance at the southwest corner and an exit at the northwest corner. So once construction starts and the fence goes up, what is now the entrance will be an entrance and exit for construction vehicles only, and all school traffic will enter and exit from the northern side entrance so that the traffic will be separated for safety and efficiency of everyone involved. You're going to be able to create temporary HP van accessible spaces there that will have a proper top topography so that people who are using vans can get in and out. So yes, we are working with Rupert, the director of facilities and the director of transportation and also the principal of the school. So the current thinking is there will be a van pull-off at the southern end of the loop, which is essentially equal with the existing drive, but at the south end of the building, which will be just north of the fence. So as part of this early phase, there will have to be some minor work done. So there's an existing median between the two halves of the parking lot. There will have to be cut-throughs created. There will also have to be some turnwinding for buses to move in new paths. And then as part of that work, there's also going to be the pull-off that you were describing that would allow vans to... Well, actually, that's not what I was describing. I'm talking about staff who are using vans, community people who use vans, who don't want to pull off. They want to be able to park their vehicle close to the school in a way that the slopes are fine for them to get into the building. Quite frequently in construction, the handicapped parking, the van accessible parking, I don't mean pull-off for people who are being delivered, but I mean the parking is often impacted and forgotten about. That's exactly what happened downtown. And we want to make sure there are potentially staff members who use wheelchairs. And there are certainly potentially parents who use wheelchairs and they need to be able to have full access to the building during construction, to the old building. So that's what I want to know. Okay, thank you for clarifying. So the existing accessible handicapped parking spaces in the lot will remain during construction. So they are located directly out the front doors as you exit. And most of them are on the school side of the median. I think there's one or two on the other side of the median, but still only a few feet away. All of those will be unimpacted by the construction of the school and the initial clearing of the site. Perfect, okay, thank you. I'm back, but Tim's doing a great job. So, but we'll tag team this then. How's that? So, Tim, though, I think we have to, one of us will have to mute, sorry, we're getting, thank you. So as Tim mentioned, right, there are two drives entering the site. We have the one to the south, which right now the traffic circulation is you enter from the south and you exit from the north driveway. What we're gonna be doing with the new school is the south entrance, which will remain where it currently is, will be used for bus and van access only. And then the north drive entrance drive will be used for vehicular, parent drop-off, visitors, staff will be used. And that too will be in and out out of the north driveway. So it will be a circular one-way pattern. You enter, you loop through the parking lot, there's drop-off at the main entry of the school, and then you would return out the north driveway for parents, visitors, and staff. As far as handicap accessibility, we have one, two, three, four handicap spots right at the main entry closest to the school. We also have some additional handicap parking to the north, which is where the community fields will be. We felt that it was important to provide access at both the community fields as well as the school. There'll be quite a few parking spaces, about 120 parking spaces. And this, as Margaret mentioned, is a net zero energy project. So what that means is it will be all electric and we will be utilizing solar panels or photovoltaics, PBs, as they're often referred to, that will be on the roof, but there'll also be canopies in the parking lot to support all of the energy that needs to be produced on site to support the function operation of the school. We actually find this to be very beneficial. In the summer, it provides shade in the parking lot. In the winter, it helps with the snow and freezing rain. So we actually see the canopies in the parking lot as a wonderful added benefit to the site and to the project. The entrance to the south, which is for bus drop off and van drop off. So I'll try to describe it. The existing, the new school is directly south of the existing school. It's quite far away. Tim, what's the distance? About 120 feet from the existing building. The closest point of the new building. So the new building is oriented in such a way that it will take advantage of north south solar orientation to allow as much natural daylight and views into the classrooms while managing the glare of the sunlight as best as possible. So the new school will actually be pretty much perpendicular to the existing school. So when you enter from either the north or the south drive, you will be looking at the entry of the new school and then the building will really just, you'll walk through the building from west to east or from left or from right to left. So I don't know if that explains it, right? So the new building will be perpendicular west to east. Okay. So when we, when you pull in with, we'll just stay with the bus drop off. The bus loop is quite large. It will accommodate all of the buses. It will drop off. And we, the building is designed so that we have the community wing and the front of the building. And that consists of the cafeteria. You're going to like our terminology here. It's a cafeteria with a stage. So we call it a cafeteria as well as a gymnasium. And then upstairs, there's a library or media center as well. The main entry. That's on the west end. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, yep. So that's on the west. West works really well for me. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. And please ask, ask for clarification because. Okay. We're, we're so used to pointing. Myra. So, so thank you. Okay. So, so we, so as you enter the building will be. You will see the building as you approach it from either driveway. The main administration. The main administration. Will be at the very front of the new building. It will include your main office. It will include a special education. IEP staff. Which is the team chair. For the building. You'll have your nurse's office there as well as well as a conference room and. Oversight school. The principal's office on as you enter the building to the, that will be to your right, but they will have full view of the. Accesses into the, into the site. So they'll be able to see the buses arriving. And they'll also be able to see the parents and staff and visitors. Entering the site and approaching the school as well. So the buses will be dropping off. To the south of the new school. They'll come in. It's a loop. They'll come in. They'll loop around. And they'll be dropping off. Kind of at the end of the community. Well, there'll be a dedicated, bright. Well lit entrance for students to arrive that we consider this as their second main front door. They'll be able to enter there or they can also walk. To the front main door. So they'll have. Options of how they want to enter the building. Excuse me. So the second door is on the south. Side. And the. Yes. So you're saying the front. I say the front is the west. The front is the west. And then, and then the second entrance will be. On the south. Yeah. And it's sort of midpoint. It. Is located between the community wing as well as the academic wing. So the building can be closed off. You're using a mouse to point. I'm not. Would you like me to? I actually was not because I'm trying to use my words, but if that would be, I'm happy. Can you see it moving? Yeah, but it's moving too fast for me. Okay. Slowly. I can see some stuff, but not a lot. So. I like that you're using the west to east south wording as well. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So as, as the buses enter, they'll loop around. And they will drop off. Pretty much in front of the gymnasium, which is to the south of the building. Yep. The bright pink. They will enter a, another entry door, which will be locked after. Drop off hours. And then they can. All, all line up and stage along the loop. The drive will be wide enough that we can actually have two lanes of traffic. Entering this loop. And so as they're loading, unloading or just stage waiting to pick up students. If you travel a little bit further back to the entrance, which would be west as you approach the main entry area or plaza. We have a pull out area for all of the vans to park. So those vans are. Independent and separate from the bus drop off. And it will give them all of the time required to load, unload, wait for students because we always understand how much additional time that may be required for those. So they, the vans have a sufficient parking. I think there are seven vans and they will be able to park. Along the south. Of the, of the new. Building, but very in close proximity to the main entrance. And everything will be level. Everything will be accessible. There'll be no curbs. Everyone will be able to just. Enter. Into the building. There'll be no curbs, but there will be. Truncated domes. To indicate where the. Right. Where the road ends or where the sidewalk. And so they'll. Yeah. So, so as they pull in, Tim, right? There's a curve that the buses will. The vans will be able to load and unload the passenger, the students. Correct. And wherever you are passing from the sidewalk to driving, there is a tactile surface to. To mark that the trunk. Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So there's also as where the. Vans will be located, which will be to the west of the main entrance. There's a very large open. Plaza. That will be fully accessible. Of course. That would also enter the main. Building. And this main Plaza joins with the. Drop off area and parking from the north. Entrance. So the, again. Parents, visitors. And staff would enter from the north. They would then head south through the parking lot. And then as you start turning this loop. There'll be also a cut out area. Or parents. That can't just live drop off their students. You know, just pull up the student gets out and they go along their way. There are students. That. Do require some. Additional time. To. Get regulated or be prepared. To enter the school on a daily basis. So we have. Allow for, I believe it's five cars that can. Not just live park, but they can pull over. And walk their students into the school as they sometimes require some additional time. For the transition from home to school. And then. That's great. But it's going to be really hard for them to police it. Yeah. We, I know. And, you know, we've had so many. Conversations with the principal, the assistant principal. The facilities folks that they have quite a few people out there as it is. And we're actually hoping that. This. Design will help simplify it a little bit. We understand. I worked in the school for 20 years. So I know the deal. Yeah. And I was just going to say, and you can't control parents, bad behaviors, right? It's not the kids. It's not anyone else. So. But. You know, we, the, the loop road. I should give them. Enough. Distance where they can actually drop off. And so this road too, or this drive, it's going to. You know, it's not like they're cars that are waiting to drop off or pick up their students are going to be blocking the entire circulation of that road. You have clear signage of all that. So. So. So. You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you can't do that with a road. You have clear signage of all that too, right? Yes, yes. Well, we'll have some ballards in the front of the school to obviously for protection. Of the pedestrians and for. The school itself. We have bike racks. So we have two locations for bike racks. One. is in this large plaza that is in front of the main entrance. And then to the north of the building is another set of bike racks that will be available for community use as people use the fields, which is where the existing building is. So once that building comes down, we're creating this beautiful area for community fields, whether it's softball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, you'll have many opportunities there. And then as well, another amenity or feature of the site directly to the north of the new building will be the very large playground and play area, which is hard and soft surfaces for the students as well. And that area will be accessed if parents drop off in the morning and students want to go play on the equipment while they're waiting to be allowed into the school. They could use this area as well as it is directly outside of the cafeteria so that it's located strategically for easy access, quick access for recess before or after lunch. The other thing we want to know, note about the playground is we've had so many conversations and it's it's not we're not complete yet, but this will be a fully accessible playground. So I think it's, is it in Belcher Town? No, I'm forgetting the name of it. Jessica's boundless playground. It is in Belcher Town. Jessica's boundless playground. I don't know if you're all familiar with it, but it is a wonderful playground that's fully accessible. And that was built several years ago and we think now that there's actually more opportunities to fully engage students with more than just a ramp system. There are amenities and spinners and things like that that all students can can use so that it just makes it a more interactive and fun environment for all the students. So we're in the process of getting into that. We'll be finalizing all of the pieces and components a little further in design. So let me think, what else? Yes, go ahead. I have a stupid question. Oh, go on. Nothing stupid, but go ahead. In this picture, I see a lot of green dots that look like green peas. Are those trees? What are those? Trees or or bushes? Yes. Okay. Okay, yes. And that is exactly what they look like. Yeah. So yeah, it's our artistic our artistic liberty of how we design or draw trees. So thank you. It makes sense. As you just to finish the amenities on the site, again, with the school looking, with the school, if you go to the north of the school and come around the building, you'll see this playground, which is across it, which is adjacent to the cafeteria. As you move further east, alongside the classroom wing or academic wing, there is a round round shaped basketball courts, they're two half size basketball courts that will be used for students during recess. So we've spent a lot of time about oversight of students. And it was really important that we co located activities for students so that they that staff could see and observe students during recess. If you come further further south, now we're kind of circling the building, we're going from west to east, the half size basketball courts will be kind of at the end of the long part of the building or east. You then start heading south, which you will now arrive at the back of the building. And there will have two full size basketball courts as well. Those are more for recreation for students during PE or gym, gym class. We understand how everyone loves basketball. So that was a really large request and large ask from the gym teachers. So those would be two full size basketball courts that will be located behind the school. As you then come around the building, you head south and now we're going to head back west. What we've developed is some outdoor learning areas. We have a pollinator garden. And we will be talking a little bit more about that. No, do I say that right? Yes, a pollinator garden that will have areas for raised beds that that will be able that the students will be able to use. It will be enough for, I think it's two full size classrooms. And then we also have what's called an outdoor classroom. So that will have a structure that will be similar to like an open aired roof type structure that canopy like, but it will be fully constructed that we have some photos later in the presentation, but that will be able to house a full classroom that can sit under this roof for outdoor instruction. And then as you turn as you continue to head back west, you come past the bus drop off area, past the gymnasium, and then you're back at the front of the school. How many classrooms are in the academic part on each floor? I mean, there'll be some on the south side of the building and some on the north side of the building. Correct. Correct. It's what we would say is a kind of double loaded quarter, right? You have classrooms on one side, classrooms on the other, and we'll have north facing and south facing. So the north facing ones won't get any sun? Yeah. No direct sun, right? Yeah. Right. So, you know, those are wonderful. We have, and the cafeteria or cafeteria will be fully glassed with great views, but that too, it's it's great that it will not have any sun. It's the classrooms facing the south that will have all that will have the shade or have the sun and we'll have ways of mitigating that. There are five classrooms per grade, Myra, and we have integrated the special education for within those. So we have clusters of three classrooms per cluster of classrooms, and then the three classrooms. There is three classrooms say to the north, three classrooms to the south, and they'll be connected by these by a quarter. So there'll be a pod of six classrooms to two pods per two pods or two grades per floor. So it will be kindergarten first grade on the first floor, second grade, third grade, second floor, fourth, fifth grade on the fifth floor, on the third floor. So it sounds like there'll be six classrooms in each pod. Okay, and one pod on each side of the hall. Two pods on each side of the hall. So right, so there'll be 12 classrooms on each floor. Yes. Okay. Yes, thank you. Thank you. So just some other attributes to the site and the exterior of the building. This image here that we're showing is actually looking kind of back at the school as you are a parent dropping off their student. So you have come through the parking lot and you have turned now back north as you're dropping off your student and heading out. But as you're looking at the school, it is a three-story school. And so there are certain elements that only required it to be one or one and a half or two stories. And so it was really important that we broke down the scale and feel of it's 105,000 square feet overall, right? So how to break down the scale and feel of a pretty large building. So there'll be prominent features such as the name of the school. We haven't figured out exactly where that's going to go. But as you arrive, the main entry will be highlighted with awnings, colorful images or colorful paintings that will highlight the entry of the school. And we've also used multiple different roof lines and some slope roofs. And again, to give it some interesting shape and break down the scale. But it also brings in a lot of natural light. So we're using that as clear stories is what we call it. So really high glass on walls, on the interior walls that will also bring in natural light into say the corridors or the main or the main entryway. So we have some slope roofs, some flat roofs and differing roof lines to really make this an interesting looking building and also breaking down the scale. So above the office, Jim cafeteria is the library. And is there something on the third floor? So in the front of the building, it is here, why don't I can just quickly go there for you. So the first floor, right? You enter through the main doors, which will be from the west. You'll be traveling east. We have the main office with the team chair, special education team chair, principal conference nurse, can you see it moving? It's over here in the very end of the building, which you see it. So I'm heading. Okay, it's very green. Yeah, do you see the green? I do. So if you move it more slowly, I think, yeah, it's white. Is that better? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. I wonder if I can change that for you. It's a hand, if you can see that. Yeah. Okay. So as you enter the main double doors, it will be a double vestibule that is locked. You have to be buzzed in. There'll actually be a window in the vestibule. There'll be another set of doors that are locked. So as a visitor arrives, they have to actually be buzzed in a second time. So they get buzzed in. They're met by main administration or main office secretarial staff. They'll say, okay, what are you here for? Show me your ID. Well, depending on what type of visitor management system you have. And once that person's been authorized to actually enter the building, the second set of doors will be unlocked and a visitor can enter into the building. Across the hall to the north of the main entry or main office is the music suite. We have a very large, very well lit music classroom, which will be at the other corner of the entry of the building. And then as you walk down the corridor, you'll arrive at, do you see my mouse? Is it possible to make it black? Maybe, if I know how to do that. Okay, because it's white and you have a lot of light areas. Yes, otherwise, if you can't, I'll just let you know. No, no, let me see if I can. Hey, Tim, do you have any idea how to do that? I do not know how to do that, sorry. All right, then I'll just listen. Let me see if I can do that. I should have thought about that ahead of time, at least I apologize. So as you walk, you have the gymnasium, which will be, as you're walking through the building now, right? You're heading east, but as you're walking through the building, your gymnasium will be on your right and the cafeteria or cafeteria will be on your left. The cafeteria will be very bright. We'll have a lot of natural glass so that you can look into the cafeteria and actually see the site beyond the cafeteria, the playgrounds and the field as well. We also have a platform in the cafeteria, so that's why it's called the cafeteria. It's a stage with the three risers that step up to it. So once you enter the cafeteria or cafeteria, you would take a left, you would enter or go up this ramp system. It's a ramp that would take you up to the platform and we have three large practice rooms for additional music instruction and all of their instruments that would be stored there. Use me, Dana. I found out how to change the mouse. Oh, thank you. You're awesome. Yes, it is. What do I do? So you need to go to your start button on your computer and go to Bluetooth and other devices. Oh, okay, so let me do that. I have to go to my, do I go to system settings? Maybe we're Mac, but that's okay. Let me try that. Go to system settings, go to Bluetooth and other settings. Yes. Well, mine is under Bluetooth and other devices. Let me go to accessibility, vision, voiceover, zoom, hearing, pointer control. Let me try that. Speed. Are they going to allow me to do a color? Most options. We're on Macs and I don't see that it's allowing me to do change my color. On Mac, it says click the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen and select system settings. Click accessibility in the sidebar. Yeah. Select display from the list of accessibility options and then click the color swatch for pointer outline color and choose a new color. Oh, awesome. So the fill of it would be better, right? Would you like it black? And maybe just a little bit bigger. Yeah, that would be wonderful. Oh, but you know what? That's funny. That's the pointer, but it won't, when I have my mouse, you know where it is? I think it's in my, because I'm in Acrobat, which gives me that hand. Oh, you know, maybe I can change the hand. How's this? Can you see this now, Elise? So it's up. It's up. It's, it's, do you see me moving? It's north of the purple. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's very tiny. Yeah, I got it. Let me see if I can make it bigger. I don't know if I point your size. Oh, here you go. How's this? How's this? Perfect. Oh my god. That's fantastic. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Yeah, sure. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Okay. Is that much better for you? Thank you for pointing that out. Thank you. Thank you. So we were saying as, as you walk down, the community wing or the main lobby, the cafeteria will be to your left. As you enter the cafeteria, you would go up a ramp. It's, it's a very slight ramp. It's only three steps up to the platform. There you could enter the stage or the platform, as well as three practice of supplemental music spaces. And along with that also includes storage for all of the instruments. So if you then come back down into the cafeteria, we have the kitchen, which is just to the right of, or as part of, but on the right side of the cafeteria with serving lines that would take the students through the cafeteria. And we can show you or talk through a little bit more of the, we have all of the tables have accessible seating, at them, etc. So just continue to take you through the school itself. We do have at this node. So we have the community wing that is to the West, the academic wing, which is for those that can see are in purple. There's this node in the middle where that destabilize or the arrival is for students on the buses. And then we have an elevator that is centrally located that will take you to the second and third floors. So it's centrally located for students and anyone requiring to use an elevator. There's also a second door directly at this node. So if you enter in from the south where you get dropped off at the buses, directly across is also another exit out into the play field. So it's great for circulation throughout the building. As you walk down now, we're entering into the academic or classroom wing. And Myra, thank you for pointing out we have six classrooms on say the north side and six classrooms on the south side. There are what we call project areas that are clustering the three classrooms. There'll be three classrooms per cluster. Outside of that will be this project area that will be for small group instruction. It could be for individuals for the younger kids. There would always, of course, be staff person with them. It could be for a quick pullout instruction, not necessarily special ed, but for anyone requiring some additional support. We also have located lockers. So everyone will have a locker in this new school, and those will be located in this project area. We have a rendering to share with you, but their lockers are going to be short and fat so that kids can actually get their belongings in them. And so 50% of them will be fully accessible. So little kids don't get how to use a lock? No locks. No lockers. No, oh, so they're lockers without lockers. They're lock, yeah, they're lockless. They're not lockers. Okay, okay, okay. Because I'm thinking, oh, there's your first problem. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there'll be no lockers. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, they're lockless lockers. Lockless lockers. Okay. All right. Thank you. And then, and then within the academic wing, we have they, the new elementary school is going to house the special education programs that are currently both at Wildwood and at Fort River. So we'll have the ILC program, the building blocks program, and also the aims program. And so we have strategic- So just in case people don't know, the building blocks is usually people who have some kind of behavioral issues that make it very difficult for them to be in a big group. The aims is for kids on the autism spectrum. And the ILC, I'm not sure what that is. The ILC is for developmentally delayed or challenging. It really, they, it's the intense learning center. So it really could be anyone with autism developmental issues or delays. Okay. So the aims, at least at the high school, you have to, you have to be on the spectrum to utilize that program. Correct. And same, and same with the aims program here. Okay. And, but, but it was important to integrate them as best as we can. The, the other thing that I haven't even mentioned, I don't know. So are they going to be in two of the six classrooms on each side? Yes. Okay. So, yes. Five are for Jenna, Jenna. Yes. And then one on each side has a separate purpose. Correct. Okay. Correct. And, you know, everyone has worked so hard and amorous to have this dual language common aunt days. And so that will still occur here. In fact, we've, we've organized it in such a way that, and arrange the classrooms in such a way that, that it'll make it just so much easier for this full immersion for the common aunt days program. We also have other support spaces, a learning center, which is a special education small group instructional area. We have small group spaces that can be used for anyone, whether it's for testing or literacy or mass specialists or anyone that needs those, those are not designated. We have a speech language pathologist as well, located in, in the academic wing. We also have the English language learner program or the ELL or ESL as people are familiar with it. So some of the kids will have to go to a different floor for anything that they need, because we don't have enough staff to have everybody on all the floors. I don't think. You have quite a bit of staff, but yes, there are, there are a couple of programs. So the ILC, there's one per floor, right? So the ILC or the intensive learning program, you have three of those classrooms. So there'll be one per floor. The building blocks, you have two classrooms. So we have located one on the first floor, one on the third floor. And then the AIMS program, there's only one. So we put it centrally located, so it's on the second floor. So that has easy access from the first and the third. We also have as part of this, we have multi-picture bathrooms in the academic wing, as well as a gender neutral bathroom for students. And then of course, we have independent stall bathrooms for staff. The kindergarten classrooms will all have their own bathroom inside their classroom. And the ILC space will also, the intensive learning program will also have a toilet in that suite in their classroom as well. So those kids often cannot toilet themselves. So I assume you have provisions for that? We do, thank you. These in the nurse and then at the ILC toilet rooms that are attached to that space, actually, they'll be oversized so that they can accommodate changing tables, like full-size, not kids, not the ones who use their coals, but full-size that will be adjustable so they can accommodate larger students. Also provisions for what we call Hoya lifts or mobility lifts that can help with the students getting out of a wheelchair and going on to the toilet as well. I was going to ask about that. Good. Okay. Yeah, Pamela. Hi. So thanks for letting me interject. I am interjecting on behalf of one of the DAC members who could not be here today, Marty Smith, and she wrote with a couple of concerns about the restroom. So this is the time for me to interject. So she wrote in her email that she sees that there is a lack of space for trash cans to be placed on the floor and that the location of the hand dryers are placed in such a way where if a person was using a wheelchair, they would not be able to get to the hand dryer without touching the wheels of their wheelchair with wet hands. So I guess the question is how would a wheelchair user get to the hand dryers without touching their wheels and where is the placement of the hand dryers in the path of travel? And so I'm hoping I'm doing justice to her questions and if she said that she would be more than willing to to ask them directly if I'm not doing a great job of describing them. You made perfect sense and we talk through this all the time. Tim, I don't know if the final placement of the hand dryers has been identified yet? Honestly, it has not. I mean, it's a very astute observation and she may be a step ahead of us. We have it included for scope and before we finalize the details of everything, we will make these considerations, but we're always happy to have these conversations with stakeholders about where the best place is to put everything, but we are certainly aware of the concerns. So one thing we often talk about that has to do with bathrooms might be the things that she brought up. Obviously the height of those is little kids, big kids, adults, whatever, but paper towel dispensers, if you're going to have any of them, blind people can never find them. They always seem to be the last thing and somebody says, oh yeah, we'll slap it over here and we can't ever find them. So there has to be some logic. I can't mean, I don't mean we can't ever, but they're often difficult enough to find that you end up not even attempting to dry your hands. Soap as well. And exactly. So it's very difficult to find. So if you figure out a way to do it, if it could be in a standard position in all your bathrooms, then people who can't see them very well will know where to find them. Trash cans also are throw it under the sink, throw it by the door, do this. Silly things like that that you never think about are problematic for people who just can't see where the trash can is. So you have to think about where you're putting all those things before you do the design so that it doesn't end up just getting stuck up on the wall where there's an empty space. If that makes any sense, because that's what happens most of the time. Yeah, so we will. Yep, go ahead. Sorry. Sorry. And I'm going to request a lot of bathroom get designed where the trash can is near the door, which can often open really quickly and smack somebody in the head when they're trying to throw something away. Correct. So please don't put it there. Or if you're going to put it there, put it in a way. I mean, there are people who think the trash can should be right by the door. So then you can hold on to your paper towel, open the door and then throw it away. So but you have to think about things like that just so that it ends up it ends up working. And I'll tell you a story which highlights this once went to a hotel that had candles, electric candles on the wall of the bathroom. It was an old fashioned hotel and they had electric candles. And I was feeling around for the paper towels because I couldn't find them. And I ended up sticking my hand on a hot wire, which was my wet hand on a hot wire. And I mean, that doesn't happen very often. But it's just it's something that nobody ever thought about. And so it's it is something to think about traffic flow in bathrooms, location of things people need in bathrooms, there are always blind people who, you know, there's on every blind person website, and you're not going to have too many blind people here. So it's not a big thing. But we there are always like jokes about yeah, like how are you going to find, you know, everybody, everybody who can't see has problems with this. That makes perfect sense. And we appreciate your comments. Two things one one is obviously with the individual stall bathrooms, there are doors for the multi fixture bathrooms, which really are for students. And for we have a set of multi fixture bathrooms by the in the community wing by the back by the cafeteria in the gym, which would be for community use. Those are what we call airport style, there are no doors on them. Right. So you enter, you enter, and then say to your left or your right will be a set of sinks, and then you you go beyond that and the stalls will actually be there. But, you know, we struggle as well. As far as placement of paper towel dispensers, because typically, the school themselves will install them afterwards, because they get them for free, right from the paper towel manufacturers. So so but but we and we always try to make sure that we put blocking and make sure people aware of where you're going to put these because they can't just adhere them to nowhere. So these are really helpful and thoughtful comments that will have to just reiterate and and try to label them carefully. And we're happy. Pamela, I don't I don't recall the name of the woman that sent in the comments. But Marty, Marty, thank you. We can you know, we're not we haven't fully designed it yet. But we're happy to share with you all what what your comments are as we lay out these spaces. Marty is an architect. You need to know that. Marty is an architect. She worked at UMass for many years. She's done a lot of these things. When she brings up something she's I've never known her to be wrong. That's perfect. So so we would love we would love it. It would make us feel great to have her input and review. So we'll make sure that I guess, Pamela, you'll be our contact. But at the appropriate time, before we finalize the layout of the basins with those details, we'll make sure that Marty takes a look at them. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. If I could add a comment at this time, because this has been a great conversation about restroom access. But the other part of it is that and this isn't part of the architect's job. It's his programmatic access that goes that once the school actually opens, aids or teachers are going to have to work with individual students to make sure that they get the layout. Because whatever you do, however carefully you plan, there's going to be a kid who doesn't quite fit what you've got. And so and that's going to change from year to year as well. And so the teachers in the aids and however the school is structured, they're going to have to be a vital part of how the architecture works in reality in real time. That's all I have to say. No, thank you. And actually, James, at further in this discussion, we want to just share with you some ideas and thoughts of wayfinding and how are you going to navigate? How do you know where the kindergarten classrooms are and where do you go to get the stairs? Is there a way we can get to that? Because we're at the end of our time, but we're not at the end of what we want to hear. So I think things that I would want to know are about wayfinding, about color. Just so I don't know. I don't know. I think Elise and I, I used to be a low vision person. Color is very important color contrast and color so that if everything in this school is either white or great or teal, that's not helpful. Because when I was a kid, the way I would know, I couldn't ever see a room number. But what I was able to see was the color of the floor or the wall in the classroom. I was passing by. So I knew that if I was looking, I quickly memorized the order of the floors and the colors and I'd know, okay, that's the right room. It's the gray floor. That's the right room. It's the brown floor. And so things like that, which I don't know how Elise ever did it, but that the colors in the classrooms on the floors, the colors maybe on the door frame, don't assume people can read the the signage and the, even if it's Braille, you know, sometimes it's easier for you to say, okay, that's the blue one. I got it. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you. Go ahead. Sure. I was going to also add, I mean, the wall color does, that's how I did it in my high school, but it had, my high school had, you know, different colored walls for different colored classrooms. It's not always the case. But often if the door is a different, oh history, the red door or math, the yellow door, that kind of thing. And even if it's not just a room number, but a shape, you know, a color triangle or a color, just, yeah, color coding really, really works in color contrast. So thank you. And we're in the process of selecting our colors. So might even be a great opportunity to get your input. And sounds like Marty being an architect might also have, have some great ideas if, you know, she has spent a lot of time with this. But we agree. And there is a balance. So a lot of times what we do is each floor will have a different distinct color. Within each floor, each pod or grade would have its own color. So similar to what you were saying, right? So when you walk in, you want to know, I'm going to the blue, well, the blue, you know, the blue is kindergarten. And, and, you know, we'll have to think about what a contrasting color is if, if you can't, you know, pick up distinct colors or similar colors, but go to the so the Wayne Scott, a lot of times in the court in the hallways, right, that usually we have tile that comes up to like backpack height. So those would be colorful. We would tie those in. What I'm showing here, Myra is what a view might be from the academic corridor. So this is walking from say the main administration space, you've walked through the community wing, and now we're walking into the classroom wing. And as you walk in, we have beautiful, clear glass at the end of every hallway. So it brings a natural light in, but it also gives you that connection to the outdoors. And then on both sides of the hallway or the corridor, are these are the clusters of classrooms, which are set back a little bit on the left and right of the corridors. And, and inside that project area, which is about 600 square feet, it's quite large, are where the lockers are, as well as a couple of tables for instructional use. So can you see it now? Now it's going to do it. Let me, let me get my, let's try this again. There it is. Do you see it? Yeah, the whole screen. There it is. It just turned, right? So, so as you write, this is the project area, Elise. I mean, I don't know if you can make out, we have the blue. So here we were saying we would have blue door frames with blue lockers that would be prominent. We've talked about that hanging light fixtures or the pendants hanging down from, so you'll have visual access on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floors. Here's my question. Okay. So each one of those where the lockers are, small group instruction, those are like a lobby to the three classrooms? Yes, exactly. Yes. Yes, we call it a front porch. Yes, front porch. Okay, got it. So for me, each front porch, like you would know that this front porch is purple, that front porch is blue. If all the front porches are blue, that doesn't help. Now you have to have different colors. So on each floor, you need to have different front porches. And you might, it might be that the most, westmost one on each floor is one color. And the wet, the middle one on the floor is another color. And the, and the eastmost one is another color. So you would know without thinking about how many steps you walked, you'd say, oh, that's a red one. And I know that. That's a good idea. You know what, you know, Myra, I don't know if we've ever thought it, normally we do, blue is one floor, green, I'm making it up, green is another yellow. But why not keep it consistent on every floor, right? And maybe, maybe change one, one part of it, maybe the floor color is a different color. So that's exactly where you are. You got it. You know, you got it. That's great. That's great. You got it. So you know, you're on the, you're on the green floor, you're on the red floor, but you're not going to do red at faith. But the green floor, and you got the purple floor and, and, but you're in the, you're in, you see the yellow front porch and that one means you're in the middle. Yep. That's great. Hi. Yeah, sorry. I guess about to, about to make a similar point, that's how, and this, and this image rendering the lights, the rectangular lighting panels are looked to be colored, where that could be floor specific color. Another place to put that. But also, I want to like, emphasize that, for at least the primary colors for each floor might be good to make sure that's colorblind accessible. It's white. I'm sorry. So you're not going to put them red and green. I didn't hear that. Yep. Thank you. You're not going to make them red and green. Because just beyond visual accessibility, this is going to be an area with a lot of young kids who probably will have an easier time distinguishing between colored areas rather than necessarily the room numbers. So it's good for general accessibility too. That's, that's, that's a really good point. And yes. And for those of you that you can see the rendering, we have very large pendant hanging lights above the project areas that are either circles or hollow squares or rectangles, right? Just, just to create some interesting patterns. It's light, but then we also paint the frames. So there would be corresponding colors to the lockers, to the light fixtures, and ideally to the floors. And, and we do, we haven't gotten there yet, but we want to, we're starting to think about patterns for the floors, right? In the classrooms, as well as in the corridors. So all of this is really, really helpful. That's great. The light fixtures, if you say you're going to paint them to match the room, is that going to darken the light quality? Yeah. So let me say it differently. They're like metal, and so they're just painted. So it's, so in the, let's see, how can I say this? It is a, they're opaque. So it doesn't matter what color they are. It's a very, yeah, it's like a large metal hollow square, right? It's, it's a large opening that it's really just the frame. And then the light is in the frame. So it's open, but it represents a shape, whether it's a circle or a square. And then the metal that's above the light, it's, and it, it's all open. It's just the frame that would be surrounding the color. Yeah, sorry, I did not do a good job explaining. Gotcha. Yeah. All right. So it's not the whole light bulb. It is not. Right. Right. These are accent lights that do, do provide light. We also, as far as light is concerned, in these project areas or front porches, Mara, I love what you said. We have glass high above the locker areas so that we are getting actually daylight from the classrooms into the project areas and further into the corridors. So this natural light is really important both for views and connections to outdoors. Fantastic. Yeah. And for those, again, the project areas, what we're showing, again, all of this natural light that will come in from the classrooms. We have very large side lights in the classrooms that will be glass that you can have this visual connection inside the classrooms. There will be what we typically do is a focus wall or, or, you know, one wall will be painted. And we try to tie that also to connect to the project areas and the color for that grouping of classrooms as well. Other aspects of the project areas would be like a whiteboard style. You can use it for project based learning, but also for instructional use will be a marker board that is magnetic. And then we have storage above the lockers because we know we can never provide enough storage for teachers. And we have also created what is like a half wall between the project area and the corridor. And it's a half wall. So those are very short, but you should be able to see over it. But it just creates enough of a barrier so that you do not feel you're in the fray of all the students going back and forth to classrooms. So it breaks down. So it's very open. It's, it's very open. And it, but, but yet there's a little bit of a barrier between you, the product, I mean the project area and the corridor so that I'm concerned about sound with that much open. There might be a lot of people, kids who have auditory processing issues. There's a lot of them. They have auditory processing issues. They pull in sound from everywhere and they can't concentrate. I would be one of those people. And so when you have everything open like that, you are causing a lot of sound confusion. And I, I think that's something you really need to think about because all the openness is great, except there's a big downside to it when you want kids to be able to focus on one thing, which is whatever is going on in the group they're in. And if they can, you know, they'll be able to see people in the hallway running by and they'll be able to hear stuff going on. And it's, it's a lot of what's sensory overload. Yeah. Yeah. We, we, yeah. So, so we have created what you would say, kind of visual barriers to the corridors, right? So and intentionally working with the special education director, previous superintendent, Mike Morris, and, and the principals, they, they felt that was a great way to create a barrier, a visual barrier and somewhat of a sound barrier from the project areas to the main corridor. It also would allow for opportunities to display student work. But they also wanted to also create maybe a little bit of a, we can call like a nook for students to be able to sit and read or have independent study by themselves. So we had this long wall that separates the project area from the main corridor. And then at the end of the long wall are two smaller, kind of square shaped open areas for kids to sit in, right? So it's a square shape, the kids can sit in, if we have pillows in there, whatever they can sit and read. But it, it creates a barrier, but it also gives kids flexibility of where they sit and learn in these project areas. I hear what you're saying. And with all due respect, I really am very concerned about sound confusion. And I understand the door. Yep. I worked in the school. I understand the security issues. I understand how you don't want to have doors exactly, but at the same time, you do need them. And I, but the sound infiltration from corridors, especially because there aren't going to be carpets on the floor. They're not hygienic, right? So I think this is a serious problem. And I think it is from a perspective of a person who has auditory processing issues. And they're not all visually impaired. There are just plenty of people with auditory processing issues. And I'm really surprised nobody came up with that as a problem because I think it's serious. I would go nuts in a school where I could hear everything. Actually, schools because of that. When I was in high school, I changed schools because of the sound. Yeah, because I couldn't concentrate noise. So Tim, I don't know if you want to jump in. Obviously we have the acoustic treated ceilings. This is a similar design feature. Yeah, go ahead, Tim. I was going to say we do have the acoustic treated ceilings and other areas on the walls. I will say that we have, this has been brought up as a concern. We toured other schools that we have done that feature similar designs in terms of project areas with Mike Morris. And of all the features that he commented on the most was actually how quiet the schools were compared to, and I'm not saying this is perfect. I mean, your concerns are certainly there. This is a hard floor. The walls are not there. But the noise control is built into the space to the extent possible. And maybe not when every class is transferring, but with a student using the project area and a student using a project area that's down the hall in another pod. I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying there's no noise leaking, but at least in the mind of Mike when we were touring through other schools, it was a manageable situation. That's not to say that we can't continue to look at it and don't understand your concerns, but to the extent that we can control noise with architectural elements and finishes that is incorporated in design. What about from the classrooms into the front porch? Are there doors? Absolutely. Okay. So there won't be leakage from the classrooms. It'll only be whatever people are doing in those project areas plus who's ever walking by in the hallway. Correct. And I worked at the high school and I can tell you that it's true. We didn't have little front porches, but we had kids out in the hallway doing stuff together in groups all the time. There were always groups of kids sitting on the floor in the hallway working together on a project because there wasn't a place, but each classroom would have had several groups and some of them were in the classroom and some of them were, but there's when you're working on small stuff and it's not a little kid thing, but it's a certainly fourth and fifth grade thing. You need places where kids can go and not hear other people's project groups. I mean, I'm just telling you from experience that there's a lot of stuff that goes on that's really healthy and good, but kids make noise. Understood. They talk over each other and they make noise. I do want to add that as part of the program, in addition to the front porch is the project areas outside each cluster of three classrooms, there are small group rooms which are specifically designed for pull-out learning for the group that you're talking about that would want to be pulled out of the classroom and that has a door that can be totally acoustically isolated from the corridor, the project areas. There's only one per floor, two per floor, two per floor, so that may not be enough for every possible pull-out situation, but it is there to an extent and with the people who need it the most using the small group rooms and the rest in the project areas, we feel that we're going a long way to satisfy those needs. Okay. I don't think it's going to work for me. I mean, I can really say, and who is it who said they had to switch schools? Elise. Elise. Yeah, it was me. I just couldn't concentrate. It was terrible. Yeah, I think especially as you get older, and like you said, Myra, with the collaboration with high schoolers, the use is much different than what it would be here, but that's not to say kindergarteners or elementary school kids are quiet, to say the least. No, they're definitely not. But kids in fourth and fifth grade do, certainly fifth graders and fourth graders do collaborate on projects. Maybe little kids don't without supervision, but bigger kids, 10 and 11 year olds can. Yeah, it's wonderful. And so anyway, I am registering my serious concern as a person with sound issues. Yep, thank you. And we have an acoustician that works with us, and maybe we could bounce some ideas off of him, how we maybe be able to reduce some of the noise or control the sound a little bit better in those areas as well. Maybe carpeting a little bit, you know? Carpeting is a big, especially after COVID. Unfortunately, as much as we agree carpeting, it's frowned upon, but the only thing I'll do is, so your comments are well noted, Myra, and thank you, Annalise. We will look at that harder. We're not done with design. We have an opportunity to improve it. But we're also just wanting to point out, Tim, if you don't mind me, then sorry, I can hear myself from you. Oh, can I just ask a security question? Yes. I mean, you know, we have to think about that for sure. I'm sure you've thought about it a lot. Is there a place that's easily accessible for people to move kids who cannot move fast into that are secure? Are there enough places like that? You have those two little group rooms on a floor, but I'm just wondering what else you have, especially around the room where there are, you know, where the ILC is, where there are a lot of kids who can't take care of their own needs and can't move fast. Are there ways to protect those kids with spaces that are going to be isolatable easily? When you say, they can't run, they can't run, those kids can't run. You're saying from a shelter, shelter? Yeah, a lot of windows. Yeah, yeah, we do. It's not a glass. Yes, yes, we have actually not as, we've appropriately placed the glass where there was most benefit. There's about 22% glass as relates to the entire envelope, but that said, there is a lot of glass. Yeah. So what? I assume it's not bulletproof glass because you can't afford that, right? Wow, there's a whole lot of other reasons why bulletproof glass isn't always ideal. And so when people say bulletproof, right, there are different ways. No, no, but I am concerned about, I am concerned about how easy, well, shelter in place, you have to be able to be unseen. I mean, you know, and shelter in place, you know, only a certain number of kids can fit in the little bathroom and only, you know what I mean? And especially for kids who cannot run fast, like you can say, everybody go there, you know, quick, get under the table, quick, do this. I mean, there's staff, but there's not one on one for a lot of these kids. And where, you know, how is there extra space where they can be sheltered? So within the actual program, programs, the ILC, the AIMS, the building blocks, there are reflection spaces that are available, 100% not, you're going to have a few kids that could probably fit in these spaces. It wouldn't be for the entire student population in those classrooms, but those are available. We have the Mass Special, we have the small group rooms, we have one, two, three, four, five, five, six, you know, small group instruction areas directly off the quarters, not in these project areas or porches to the classrooms that are also accessible. So if a student is traversing down the quarter and there's an emergency, there's plenty of places they can seek refuge. I'm sure you've thought about it. My other question just in the interest of time has to do with lavatories for community, which I assume are in the gym cafeteria part of the building. Yes, those are the same. Those are similarly designed as to what we were talking about for the student multi-fixure. These would also be designed in the same way. So we have a set of those that are located right by the cafeteria in gymnasium. Okay, so you have some of them are, how do you call it, gender specific and what you have? Gender neutral. Yep, so we have the multi-fixures. They're all gender neutral? The multi-fixures are not. Mass plumbing code will not allow us. They still think that you need something for the boys and you need something for the girls. But with that, there are gender, a individual stall gender neutral associated with every one of the multi-fixure bathrooms. Okay, here's my question. Also in the community bathrooms, we're very multi-stalls, is one of them an access, a large access stall? Yeah. Handicap accessible? Is that what you mean? Yeah, is there one handicap accessible still in the community? Yes. Okay, so you have to call it specific. Okay. No, every single multi-fixure is fully accessible. And I know we're running out of time. The only other couple of things that we maybe just want to point out, we have assisted listening devices in every classroom. It's just wonderful for the teacher as much as it is for the students. Trying to think other special education spaces include these reflection spaces for students that just need a little time to self-regulate OT, occupational and physical therapy, speech and language. We actually have a dedicated space for assistive listening and also these small group spaces that Tim had mentioned. Trying to think- Does anybody have any other questions? Sharon, you've been very quiet. Jim, you've been very quiet. Elise and I have monopolized everything. Is there anything that you are concerned about? Well, and can I just interrupt today? We do have another issue that we want to talk to you about. So I hope we can- That's about the playground. So I do hope we can take a little bit of time. And I honestly- These comments have been great. So I don't want to- I just want to say please don't leave yet. Well, I actually leave my house by 10 after 3. So I need to be done by 3 o'clock. So we have about 20 minutes. And okay, so the playground would be fine. I just want to- I mean, Sharon usually has really good stuff to say. So either she's very happy or she doesn't even hear us. I don't know. Are you there, Sharon? Nope. Nope. I don't see her there. I don't see her. And I don't see her in attendees either. So she must have had to leave. Oh, Jim, do you have any- Is Jim there? Did Jim leave? I thought I saw him. Oh, looks like he's left as well. Oh my god. You know what? It's possible that we'll have to- I don't know what's going on with the connection. I had a lot of trouble getting in and they might have gotten kicked out. So okay, go on with the playground. But at the moment, there's just two of us here. Your input would be helpful. And we're happy to reconvene at your convenience. So I don't know if you're familiar with kind of current playground design and surface. Typically, if Jessica's boundless playground will be a great example of it. The other one is in Amherst Center where it's on a much smaller scale, but it's the rubberized surface that protects from fall, right? And so we've been asked to look at what's called engineered wood fiber, also known as wood chips, just bigger. Or what we typically use for, it just seems to be the preferred solution in many communities. It's called poured in place, right? So poured in place. I don't know what that is. I have no idea. Okay. It's that rubber. It's that rubber, soft rubber surface. Oh yeah. The one that they use with the playground. Okay. Right. It's made of rubber. Jessica's boundless playground, exactly. I haven't seen Jessica's playground at all. Have you been, have you, and there's the one in Amherst Center that is on a much smaller, yes. Yeah, I haven't looked, I know the one at the Healy School in Somerville. I've seen that because my grandson goes to it. But, and it's very new. And I, there's a lot of rubber there. It even smells like rubber. Well, that's not good. Typically. It shouldn't smell like rubber. Should not smell like rubber. But so, so typically, you know, the preferred, the preferred place surface is what's called this poured in place rubber surface. It's very easy to use. It has, it's very easy to use with accessibility or mobility devices such as wheelchairs. It does provide great impact and shock absorption. It provides consistent impact absorption, therefore a good longer term solution. Good news is animals don't find this material very appealing at all. So unlike wood chips, right? They're, they're not interested in it. And it, it, you know, generally low, they don't use it as a bathroom. Correct. Correct. And it's generally low maintenance costs over time. And it's easily repaired. You know, some of the disadvantages are that it is, it is expensive, relatively speaking, to install. It needs to be kept clean and swept regularly. And it does require professional setup, which is part of the cost of the project that we've already incorporated. Some, some folks feel that because it is rubber that wood fiber or these large wood chips are more environmentally friendly and more environmentally appropriate. And the benefits of engineered wood fiber is that it's easy to install. It does provide a good impact absorption. And it does stay in place better than loose filled materials, not the poured in place, but loose filled materials. These are larger wood chips as opposed to the smaller wood chips. And when I was growing up, right? Like, some of the disadvantages are it's made from completely new wood, right? So if we're talking about environmental, we're creating new wood. It can hide insects and other pests. I guess you could say animals or dogs might find it very attractive as well. Micro, see, more, it's more expensive than wood chips. And it's expensive to maintain, right? So Oh, we got the pieces. That's a good question. I'm measuring with my hand. I'm not, that's not helpful. They're probably, Tim, you're going to speak? They're on the scale of the between an inch and two inches of the largest chips that there's the size of the chips is controlled by the manufacturing process. And that would makes it a little bit different than loose fill. But it's an inch to two inches of the largest, but they vary in size. And what are the corners like? They are not sharp. They're, I mean, they're not splinters, but it is wood chips. They're not, you know, each individual piece is not rounded. That is not the case at all. So if you're a little boy running from another kid, and you go take a, as they say, take a powder like, like, right? And you're not, and you're wearing shorts. What's going to happen to your knees? It is an abrasive material. There is no question compared to the rubber. And if you're in a wheelchair, it seems to me that it's not as, I'm not a wheelchair user and the two people we have who are somehow disappeared. But if it, how do wheelchairs move in it? Without constant maintenance, it is very problematic for mobility devices, wheelchairs, et cetera. So I don't know what you want us to say, and we aren't able to take a vote because we only have two people. So you might want to come back with that particular question, but it sounds like a no go to me on the wood chips. What about you, Elise? Yeah, I have to agree. And I am going to have to buzz out pretty soon. Yeah, I really do. I have to be somewhere. So why don't we do this? I'd love to have you come back for that particular conversation because it sounds like you need allies and we'll be happy to try to be that for you. So perhaps some of the December meeting, but I would say what you should do is send us some pros and cons in writing. You did? Yes, we will. We will. That's okay. It was sent afterwards, so and it was probably harder. Oh, I couldn't even open that. That was a PDF that my screen reader wouldn't even open. We wouldn't. Understood. We'll send it in so that it's readable, Myra. Some PDFs are perfectly fine. That one I couldn't even OCR with the special thing that is like the second layer. So yeah, if you send us that in an accessible format and we'll put you on, do you need more than 15 minutes if we have that in writing? Nope. Okay. If you want to give us a little more time, only if others who had to leave have any other comments or questions, we're happy to stay on for that. Okay. I think Elise has to leave. I have to leave. Pamela and Asa, if you have anything to say, Pamela and Asa, you're not on the committee, but I don't care. You should say whatever you think. And Jennifer, you're there too, right? Jennifer is still there? I'm still here. Okay. So you're welcome. I didn't know. I can't see who's on, so I didn't mean to leave you out. But if you have anything to say right now, would be the time. I have one thing about that's probably just, and it's a thing just holding your minds, but my own, my own experience is in elementary school. Does the library have some sort of space that would be isolated from like the main reading area? Good. When I was in elementary school, like this sort of like sitting down like reading time was like some sort of like psychological torture to me, because like I just, when I was a kid, I hated people reading out loud to me, because I just wasn't in control of the situation. I was great reading by myself, but I couldn't handle like someone reading out loud to me, which we can debate whether or not that you just weren't to the diagnosis, but it was just, I spent most of my time at the library and my library staff wouldn't let me just go off and get my own book and find somewhere quiet to read. So I'd spend most of that time just curled up behind a bookshelf and like sort of like to pull setting over my ears so I had to block out the noise. So if there was another child in my situation, is there a spot where they could just be allowed to pick out a book from the library and then just go with a quiet place to read outside of whatever story time is going on? Sorry, my mouse is doing all kinds of fun things here. So yes, we have, we have different areas within the library to create areas for, it could be for quiet areas. There's an area for soft seating, small group instruction. There's also an area for formal instruction area. So the library itself has a lot of different areas to accommodate the different types of learning. Is there only one area that's big enough to fit a class? Formally, formally. So it actually has, you know, the tables and chairs for say 24 students with the interactive flat panel TV where the instructional media specialists could be giving a class about certain things. But if a teacher wants to bring a class to the library, the way these things work, the library is fully scheduled all the time. There's always a class and they're being taught. And at least in elementary schools, that's how they do it. So if you want to bring your third grade class to the library or your fourth grade class because you're doing a project and you want to show them something and you don't need a librarian as their place for you to bring your third grade class outside of the formal instructional space. Currently, there isn't what we have. So I should have even said the very beginning. I think Margaret did. This school is partially funded with our partner, the Mass School Building Authority. And they regulate what the size of certain spaces are based upon the student population. So they have told us specifically, here's the sides of your library. So we have worked hard with both librarians, principals on what goes into the library. It's amazing how many books you all have. So a lot of the space currently is being laid out to house all of the books that you have. The stacks inside, not along the perimeter of the library, but inside, they're going to be on wheels. So the ones inside, so you can't move them daily, right? They're heavy with the books in them. But they'll be low. There'll be two or three shelves. But so as we get closer to construction, personally, we would love to see a little more floor space for a little more flexibility and opportunities for different types of instruction. Yeah, that's a big flaw that there isn't a place. I'm surprised that elementary school teachers haven't said anything about that. Because we don't have much of a choice. I know. In Somerville High School, this is ridiculous. I'm sorry guys, but I really have to go. Yeah, I have to go too. I'm just going to tell you. In Somerville High School, they barely have any books. That's crazy. That's awful. It's horrible. And it's what the school building's building. Those people on the school building authority don't necessarily know anything about how people teach. Anyway. Yeah, that's awful. But Marv, thank you. Thank you. I think we do need to have you come back. Please send us this stuff about the playground. And I think we'll ask media questions at the next one. And I don't know what time would be best for us for you because we need to have another presentation as well. Sure. We'll coordinate with Pamela. And then we'll be really helpful if you guys could think about the areas that you want us to focus on so that we can make this a more focused conversation, especially those that we didn't talk about in an art room either. There must be one somewhere. There is an art room. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you. All right. Take care. Bye. Have a good day, everyone.