04/08/08 Minutes From Special School Facilities Mettings Held In March

Special Facilities Committee
Mike Reilly’s Meeting Minutes


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March 31, 2008
At the special committee meeting Tuesday night, 03/31/08, the discussion centered on who should hire the forensic specialist - the administration, the BOE, or the town attorney. The three options were related to the hiring of a forensic specialist. The options presented were: 1) the administration hires the forensic firm; 2) the BOE hires the firm; or 3) the town attorney hires the firm. There are advantages and disadvantages to each option. It seems like a conflict of interest if the administration hires the firm. If the BOE hires the firm, this leaves the lines of communication open, but this can limit the town attorney. If the town attorney hires them, this option retains attorney client privileges and limits communication.

We reviewed the options for relocation, ever being mindful that Ham Ave comes first in anything if our school does not finish. A presentation from Turner construction was made regarding the different options on the modulars and relocation. With regard to relocation, we voted to remove two options off the list: Option 6 (HAS moving into Glenville School); and Option 19 (Glenville grades being dispersed).

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Thank you for asking me to participate in this committee. The first night has been enlightening already. Here is a brief recap before I forget. I will forward more info as I reread some of my notes but wanted to get you some info.

The first item on the meeting agenda was the Glenville relocation options.
There was an extensive discussion on this topic as it took up most of the meeting tonight, really a review of the BOE meeting from Thursday.
The modular school had several different issues that were reviewed tonight, remediate the existing, install new ones at couple of different sites including the existing site.
Another set of options was to use some existing TOG/BOE buildings and do in one, two, or three locations.
One location was ruled out immediately, there was some discussion on two locations but there were several negatives to this option; and three locations was last. There were a lot of ideas on this.
Third was to use community or commercial space.
Commercial was ruled out right away as the cost of obtaining this option was not in line with the budget.
The last thing discussed on the Glenville relocation was having split sessions with another host school.
I did not like this idea and I added some input on this topic, first the schedule would have limited kids after school programs (religion classes) as I did not feel the churches would rearrange their schedules for a few students, and most of the board agreed on my comment. Other objections were students and teachers sharing the same space.
Leslie started a criteria for grading each option which is what will drive this recommendation to the BOE.
Betty released some information regarding the air test results which she received late this afternoon. The teachers can go into the school and sort what they for teaching at the host school. These items can not be shipped to the new schools until next wed. The engineers and architects can not continue their investigation until all the personal belongings are out of the school as the dismantling can pose a problem with getting mold on those items and transferring to another location and create a health hazard. I agree with this process. The problem with this is that they will not go into the building until the end of month.
We finally got to the causes of the modular building and we breezed through as we were handed some documents that will take me some time to read and be prepared for our next meeting on Tues.
We spoke about criteria for the outside consultant that is being pursued. That is going to take some time as we need to find some who has no conflict of interest with the contractor and Greenwich.