 Good evening and welcome back to Byline. As you know, if you tuned in last Friday evening, February 8th, we're taking a bit of a departure from our normal format here. On Friday evening, we had the first of a two-part series relating to the big debate here in town on the future of our school construction program for our elementary schools. And we have tonight, on Monday evening, February 11th, two guests, the president of our town council, Lynn Griezmer, and the chair of the Amherst School Committee, Anastasia Ordenez, who are together working to ensure that we have a robust and constructive community dialogue as we move forward. As you know, we had quite a contentious time in the past, not so long ago, on the same question of where, how many, how big in terms of elementary school construction. So, it's a new day. We get to start the conversation over. And the purpose of these two shows is to help you understand what the process is going to be so that you can participate and understand how this is unfolding. And also to understand the connection between the Fort River School Building Study Committee work, which preceded the formation of the new town council. That was an action of town meeting to create a study committee. And how is that going to interact with the decisions and the work that's going on right now with the school committee of the town council going forward? So, let's start with you, Anastasia. Once you give us the thumbnail, you're giving us the elevator speech now, and hopefully it's not a 35-story building. Give us an elevator speech on what is Superintendent Morris' proposal, what is the content of that proposal? Well, first of all, thank you, Stan, for having me here tonight. I really appreciate it. And yes, I think the way that you characterized what led us to here is actually a core part of Dr. Morris' Superintendent proposal that was made to the school committee earlier in January. So the previous project actually had people in the community rather divided on various things, including grade configuration, size of the building that was proposed, and a few other items. So following that divisiveness and a lot of the contention that we heard as a school committee, as a body, and as a community, the decision was made to really try to find something that we felt could help us move forward. And so we had initiated a request to town meeting, as you mentioned before, for a feasibility study, to study the Fort River site and to learn more about it, because the previous project had actually studied the Wildwood Elementary School site as part of its feasibility study in a formal project. And so this was an opportunity, even though we were not in a formal project for Fort River, an opportunity to learn more about it, to be able to use that information if a future project were ever to emerge. Since that point, Dr. Morris and the school committee had actually approved applications, again, to the MSBA, which is the Massachusetts School Building Authority, to begin the process again, because we understand that regardless of the contention that happened here in the community, everyone more or less was in agreement that we need new buildings. We need to solve the problems of our current elementary schools, which were built in the late 60s, are almost 50 years old, and are exhibiting a lot of fairly typical problems for buildings of that size, but also just given the bad construction that was done with them, the open classroom design has really created a very difficult learning environment for children. And so we agreed to put in these applications to the MSBA, acknowledging that we cannot move forward with a project unless we have state aid. Our town just has been very clear multiple times in the past that we cannot afford to spend millions and millions of dollars typically. There isn't a town in the state that can afford to build a school without the school building assistance program. That's exactly right. So there's no secret there. We're not unique in that. That's exactly right. And I think the MSBA also has been very clear that they have dozens of communities that apply to them on an annual basis for very competitive grants to build these school buildings. And that's right. We're not unique in the state of Massachusetts. We're not even unique in the country, unfortunately. We have an infrastructure problem here in our country, and we're seeing that developing quite a bit with our public schools. So we had applied to the MSBA for aid, and unfortunately we were rejected. And so the superintendent doing his due diligence had reached out to the MSBA, his contacts there, to find out what happened, as much information as they could share. And they said, well, this is, you know, we have a lot of competition. There's a lot of other communities that have applied for aid here. And so he said, well, we would like to put in another application for next year. This is part of our plan is to try to get state aid. And they said, okay, however, given the amount of investment that they had made in our community previously with the previous project, they really wanted to get assurance from our community that we could get behind a project and that we could be fairly united in what we wanted and what we didn't want. And so that has led to this current proposal that we are discussing right now. And really what it is is a, you know, sort of a very general guidelines or parameters, if you will, around an idea for our community to get behind this idea so that we can actually put the application forward. And that idea is? So the idea basically is a school that is one location. We understand from various members of the community that they don't want and probably would not support a sequential project, meaning that we take care of one building and then we take care of another one at a later point in time, acknowledging that both buildings are in bad enough shape that we actually need a solution for River and Wildwood Elementary School, right? Which is our two different sites. Both of those schools were built around the same time and they're basically mirror reflections of each other. They're both open classroom designs using the same exact materials, pretty much the same layout if you walk into one. So one site? One site. Size? Size would be approximately 600 students. And that also has been a, after listening to multiple members of the community, you know, people, some people were very concerned about the previous project which actually was a co-located school but the size was about 750 students combined. And so we actually think that we can get down to about 600. And that would be based on the third point of this proposal, which is a K5 or a K6, meaning that that would be the, there's no change in configuration. There's no grade reconfiguration as we had discussed in the previous project. But again, understanding and hearing from the community that they really wanted to feel that, you know, kids were all going to school in the same place and they weren't getting going through multiple transitions throughout their elementary school career. So grade configuration, which was controversial the last time, is off the table at this time in this proposal. Exactly. This is really what we feel, you know, having listened to the community is sort of the middle-of-the-road approach, right? The fourth point is actually to make a warm child-centered school. And it sounds simple, but it's actually a really big deal and it's really important both to the community and to the school committee and the superintendent to make sure that when you walk into this building, it feels like it has been made for children. It's not a clinical place. It's not, you know, a grand, enormous building. It feels warm and cozy and accepting and inviting for young children. And then the fifth bullet point, which is actually extremely important, was an agreement that we would do a community-wide survey as part of the feasibility study process in the future. So once we enter a feasibility study process, which means that the MSBA has accepted our application and has committed to fund a project with us, they enter into a feasibility study process with us in partnership. And we end up examining whatever site it will be, but we also end up taking a closer look at the educational plan, you know, design questions around that. And at that point in time is really when we are making a commitment to not repeat some of the previous mistakes that were made in waiting for too long to engage the community, but really engaging them early on and getting their input and their feedback throughout the entire process. And so what that would look like is a survey, but it would probably also resemble a lot of the things that we're doing right now around this application process. So that in a nutshell is the superintendent's proposal. And so this is, when you use the word proposal, he's not proposing a specific school at a specific site. He's proposing some parameters, criteria, around which he's seeking, and the school committee is seeking, a community consensus. That's exactly right. And it's very difficult to get a consensus with tens of thousands of people. So it's more in the nature of the community is in general agreement heading in this direction. That's exactly right. And it's really trying to pull out the values that we believe in and thinking that we've listened enough at this point to hear what people really felt very strongly about and incorporate that into, you know, almost like a mission statement, if you will, for a project moving forward. So we're going to talk about some process and how you're going to engage the community in a minute. I just want to turn to our town council president. Anything you want to add or underscore from the comments that Anastasia has shared? Let me just say that we've already had the superintendent, Mike Morris, appear before the town council. He's presented this plan. There were lots of questions because this is obviously a new thing for the town council itself being new. And their major questions are, well, what is our role? And one of the roles is that they must, in fact, also sign the document. Therefore, they have to vote. The document that goes to the school building. And in the process of that, that's when we've made the commitment that as we move forward to the process of listening, that the town council will also be very present at those listening and conversational sessions. Very good. Now Anastasia mentioned the Fort River School Study Committee. And my recollection is there was another study done earlier relating to Marks Meadow. So excuse me, a Wildwood, not Marks Meadow, Wildwood. So we should underscore that this isn't playing favorites because when the town meeting was approached by the school committee to try to authorize some funding and a process, they were essentially trying to treat these two schools and school communities equally by gathering the same kind of information for Fort River as had previously been gathered for Wildwood. Important point, I think, to underscore here. Absolutely. And just to add to that, I would say that there's been some confusion in our community about because the two things are happening almost simultaneously. We have the Fort River Feasibility Study Building Committee wrapping up its work and we are expecting a report from that committee that will be shared publicly at the end of April. So they're designers that they've been working with and who have been helping them undergo a lot of this information seeking process and cost estimates and all of that for a potential project on that site are gathering all of their information. We'll be sharing that at the end of April, but at the same time we're also engaging this proposal sharing with the community around the Dr. Morris's proposal. And while the Fort River Feasibility Study Building Committee is extremely important for us because it's providing a lot of information, like you said, that we didn't have prior, we actually don't have a project in place right now. And so what we are hoping to do is put in this application with consensus from the community around Dr. Morris's proposal, which has not selected a site yet. This is without a site. This is just a general guideline, general idea. And then, excuse me, once that, hopefully, application is accepted by the MSBA, then we will decide where a future project will go and really dive into the detailed questions. Okay, and speaking of diving in, before we dive in on the process of going to the community, which is going to begin very shortly, let's take a minute here, Lynn as Town Council President for you to focus on our capital needs process here because this isn't a standalone item. It competes with a lot of other high priorities in the community. And I understand even later this evening at your council meeting, you're going to be diving into some more of the capital needs background and work that the council is pursuing here. So why don't you give us the elevator speech on the capital picture and where this proposal would fit in as we go forward? So as I mentioned before, we've already had the superintendent of schools present his proposal that is going forward for this discussion period. But in addition to that, at our meeting tonight, we actually have the superintendent of Public Works will present the feasibility study that's been done for DPW. We also have the fire chief presenting the fire station feasibility study. And I always want to say fire and EMS because it's a very important part of our service. Then in addition to that, we have the library who's been talking and around town and they will be there and presenting what they are thinking about in terms of the capital project for the library. And then there's the what I call the fifth project and that is the infrastructure issues, the roads, the sidewalks and various places. Station Road Bridge, which we've already approved a temporary bridge is an example of one of those other projects. They're not as big, but they're very important to various pieces, our parts of our community. Important to that neighborhood. And there's other discussions about the intersection up in North Amherst and so forth. So this is our opportunity for the council to understand that at this point here's all these projects on the plate. At our next meeting two weeks later from tonight, we will actually be discussing what would the financial picture for that look like. And working with a previous model that will be updated so that it includes very rough estimates. And I always get a little concerned about putting estimated costs on these. It will show where we hope to get state aid or library aid. And it will also show in add to it the cost of the net zero energy bylaw and the half percent, half cent for arts, public art. Neither of those were in the previous model. When we get all done with that, not only would we be, we'd be able to get a decent estimate of the total cost, but also the indebtedness and the impact on the taxpayer. So our job as a council is to put the school in perspective of all the town's needs. And that's what we're spending our time on in the month of February. Terrific. And when you have your meeting and discuss finances, I assume there'll be some conversation about the fact that the state does not typically provide grant funding for either public safety or for sort of general infrastructure things like a town hall rehab, et cetera. But there is money for roads and bridges through the Chapter 90 program. There is a school building assistance program. That's right. And there's a library program. And you have to apply for those last two. And if you're approved, you get on the list. And when they reach you on the list, then your project moves forward. So there's a lot of preparatory work to get access to those funds. The road money comes every year, not nearly enough, as I've heard for many, many years, but at least something comes from the state on all three of those areas. Okay, so now let's talk, before we do process, I want to do one more thing. Let's just go back to the Fort River School piece again. Some people in town are confused and they're thinking that these two things are in conflict. I want to make sure we have enough time to talk about the process. So just a minute or two each on how you see the Fort River study connecting, intersecting with the work that the town council and the school committee are doing on the bigger question of the elementary school construction project. So I would say, again, the Fort River Feasibility Study Building Committee was requested by the school committee of town meeting shortly after the previous project had been voted down. And the purpose of that was to help answer some outstanding questions that the community had, the school committee had, and our town government had around the Fort River site specifically. So not just the school itself, but the actual site. Physical land. Physical land, the location of it, parking, all of those different things. And that site had come up repeatedly because it was not part of the Feasibility Study that Wildwood was when we were actually going through or thought we were going through with a project. And so there were a lot of questions that were answered about the Wildwood site and we had a ton of information that came from professional architects, construction managers, you know, geotechnical, you know, environmental experts. We didn't have that about the Fort River site. And so we had requested that money so that we could learn that information. In the absence of a project, there was no project in play. It really was just to use that downtime, if you will, immediately following this other project to get this information for our use in the future. So that information has been coming in. I think that the committee has done an incredible job of answering all the different questions that have come up, getting, you know, faithful cost estimates for different options if a building, you know, either new construction or renovation were to move forward with that particular building site. But again, we don't have an actual project in place for that. That is really just information. And so that information could be used in a future project. But again, we basically right now are in a process where we are formally applying to the state for aid to help us with a project. And we cannot decide on a site yet. We should not decide on a site yet. We want community input at that stage. But we really have to wait until we get there. Lynn, final word on that one? I do want to take a moment to clear up one misconception in the community. And that is, although the Fort River School site was originally identified in the Feasibility Study for DPW as a possible site for DPW, in fact, that was taken off the table three years ago. And so as the chair of the DPW Fire Station Advisory Committee, I was told that that would no longer be an option. And so our goal in that committee has been to try to find an alternative site. We've not been able to do that yet. We're hoping that something will emerge. And at that point, we have the opportunity to move DPW away from where it presently is and put a fire station where DPW is. So that just gives you a picture. That's another piece of important information. As regards these two studies, the Wildwood and the Fort River, basically it puts them on even keel here with regard to consideration of both sites potentially for a school in the future. And there should be no confusion in the minds of people in the community at this point that the Fort River School study is for the purpose of recommending that as a site. It's for the purpose of collecting a wide range of information necessary to assess the site and its appropriateness for a school going in the future. So that's basically the bottom line of this and so people shouldn't get confused about this. Okay, so now in the final five minutes, let's talk about the ways that the community can engage with the school committee and the town council in sharing their opinions and their vision and their hopes and ideas. Obviously focused as a starting point on the superintendent's proposal, which are actually parameters. When we use the word proposal, it somehow might feel like we're actually talking about a specific project, we're not. We're talking about an approach to the, an approach, the parameters that we might pursue without regard at this point to the specific site. Okay, give us a couple of minutes here each on what school committee is going to do, what the council is going to do and what you're going to do together to engage the community in this very adult conversation on behalf of our children. That's right. I think we have tried to find various venues and opportunities to engage a community in as many different ways as we can. So the very first obvious starting point is our school committee meetings and our general school committee channels, which include our email address, schoolcommitteeatarps.org, but also our regular meetings. And we've actually added several new meetings and have, you know, with public comment periods so that people can come and those are folks usually who feel comfortable doing that, right? And so we've already had many emails that have been sent to us. We've had, you know, several people show up to our meetings and have made public comments, which we're really deeply appreciated. In addition to that though, understanding that we really want to spread this net as far as possible and to be able to show consensus among the community, we want to be able to get as many voices as we possibly can. So we have organized a series of listening sessions throughout the community. There are nine sessions in total, three of which that Dr. Morris has already established for educators and staff because we really wanted to make sure that we're getting their input. And those have already taken place and took place about a week and a half ago or two weeks ago. And then the six remaining sessions are throughout the community. And we have hired a facilitator, a neutral facilitator, who is not from here, is someone who has worked with various communities around the state and around in Connecticut as well, dealing with issues like this, that, you know, some of them are building issues, some of them are just, you know, sort of difficult community decisions. And he will be facilitating these conversations and each of these listening sessions are taking place throughout the town. You know, three of them will be in our elementary schools in Crocker Farm, Wildwood, and Fort River. And then we also have three more that are taking place at the Banks Community Center, the Jones Library, and the High School. And the dates right now are February 27th and February 28th, and then March 6th and March 7th is an alternate snow date just in case we have to cancel one of the other ones. The sites and information on what website? So we have been sharing them out through social media. Various networks have taken them and shared them out amongst their contacts as well. It's on the arps.org website. So you can go there and find the list of dates and times and all of the other information. You can find it on our Facebook pages. We really are trying to get it out as far and wide as we can. And then in addition to that, we're also doing things like this show. We have, you know, the district is taking out an ad and the paper. We've actually requested the bulletin if we can have a column space so that we can actually also share that in the paper. And then we are going to be promoting this as far and wide as we can, you know, using those different channels. And upon completion of gathering all of this public information and opinion, the school committee on a particular date will decide what? Well, so right now we have slated or it's scheduled for a final discussion and a vote on March 11th. And following that would be following all of the listening sessions, you know, receiving all of the different input that we can from the community. We're also sending in... The nature of that decision is... So that we will be deciding on the application to the MSBA. And so the actual technical application is a very dry, you know, multiple-page application where we just, you know, sort of check off different boxes and sort of prioritize which sites we want to be considered for state aid but in addition to that, we will be attaching a statement which includes Dr. Morris's proposal and then at this point, hopefully also includes a statement that, you know, the majority of the community and community leaders would sign on to in some fashion, right? And be able to say, yes, we endorse this and, you know, this is something that we can promote. Very good. And Lynn, the town council will receive this from the school committee. Right. What will you be doing at that point? I know you guys are going to be cooperating on these listening sessions. Right. So now they voted. Right. And it's now in your hands. Right. What happens now? We have 50 seconds. So on March 18th, the town council will receive the proposal and have a discussion about it and receive public comment as well. And then on April 1st, we will vote. And at that point, it will see whether we have unanimous support or at least a strong consensus. And is it a majority vote of the council that sends it to the school building assistance program? That's what would be required at this point because it's not an actual capital expenditure, which of course would require two-thirds vote. Later that would require two-thirds. And so a majority vote of the school committee sends it to the council. The council does a little bit more listening and work and takes a vote. And by April 12th, it's hopefully moved on to the state so we can see if the state thinks that we're in a better position to begin the next part of the process, which are feasibility studies and designs and plans, et cetera, which we don't have time to discuss right now. So thank you very much for listening and we hope that you will participate actively in this conversation and that we'll all see this in our community as a new beginning, a new opportunity, and another bite at the apple so that we can get the schools our kids need. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you both for being with us tonight. Thank you for having me.