Board of Education
Newtown, Connecticut
Minutes of the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at
7:00 p.m. in the library at Reed Intermediate School.
Present: E. McClure, Chair J. Robinson L. Bittman, Secretary L. Gejda
A. Wiedemann R. Bienkowski
K. Fetchick 5 Staff
R. Gaines 16 Public
K. Chrystie 4 Press
Mrs. McClure called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and introduced Kathleen Chrystie as the new Board member.
Mrs. McClure introduced Donna Pagé who was named the 2008 Connecticut Federation of School Administrators Administrator of the Year. On behalf of the Board,
Mrs. McClure congratulated her on this achievement. We are proud to have Mrs. Pagé as part of the Newtown Public Schools and value the contributions she has made to the students of Newtown.
Mrs. Page said she was proud to represent the team at Sandy Hook School and thanked the Board of Education for their support. This is her thirteenth year as principal in Newtown.
Item 1 – CIP Discussion with Board of Finance
Member of the Board of Finance present were John Kortze, Jim Gaston, Marty Gersten, Mike Portnoy, Harry Waterbury and Joe Kearney who joined the meeting at 7:35 p.m. Bob Tait also attended the meeting.
Mr. Kortze thanked the Board of Education for having this meeting. The general goal was to understand more about the timing of projects. If we have the high school being moved out a little we should see what projects we could do ahead of schedule to avoid escalation costs. He asked if the Board would consider doing projects sooner if we have the room to do it.
Mr. Gaines said we pushed things out because of the unknowns surrounding the high school project. Regarding other projects we don’t know what wiggle room we will have because of the difficulty getting bonding.
Mrs. Fetchick said we discussed moving the MS flat roof up because we felt we couldn’t put anything in year one of the CIP because of the high school.
Mr. Kortze said that with the high school delay to January 2010 and the failed referendum, it would be later than that. Because of that timeframe for the high school we are pushing items out. From our perspective it almost created a two-year window.
Mrs. Bittman said we were trying to not put other projects before the high school.
Board Meeting -2- November 5, 2008
Mr. Kortze said they could bond on a short-term basis.
Mrs. Bittman said that because we don’t know the high school costs, if we decided to have something move forward in the CIP and have an issue with the high school we don’t want any movement in the CIP to affect the high school project.
Mr. Kortze said they weren’t looking to change the Board of Education priorities. We are asking if the Board would consider shuffling some projects.
Mrs. Bittman asked if they would move things around to get the high school done.
Mr. Kortze said they would.
Mrs. McClure asked what would happen if we rebid and it came in $2M to $4M over and people wanted to vote would it still fit in under Board of Finance guidelines. Would it be okay for the town to vote on it?
Mr. Kortze said we have approved $38.8 but the additional amount was rejected. We should move forward just spending the approved amount.
Mr. Gersten asked Mr. Bienkowski about roof replacement costs and if he assumed there would be room to do it if there was availability in year four to move the $4M.
Mr. Portnoy said he was not sure that it would be wise to go for another referendum because of losing time and it could be voted down again. He was hoping that commodity prices would come down.
Mr. Waterbury said he would rather see the re-bid numbers and then come back to the Board of Education.
Mr. Gaston said a slim majority voted against the extra $6M but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to do the project. It is not a $45M project. After the re-bids come back he would not be opposed to another referendum.
Mr. Tait presented a document which showed where projects were moved around for discussion purposes. There is a 10% cap on projects. From this adjusted CIP budget we are under the cap and there is light in the tunnel in 2017.
Mr. Kortze said the only flexibility is spreading out the projects. He asked if the Board of Education had any guidance on this information. In some of the old Board minutes a number of items were not adjusted for inflation. In Hawley it was $8,216,000 last year and $9,000,000 this year. The flat roof at the middle school has an increase of 20%.
Mrs. Bittman said that Hawley is a horrible situation that parents complain about. There are no complaints from parents on the middle school roof. She asked how the CIP would be affected if those two projects were flipped.
Mr. Tait asked for additional items to move around.
Board Meeting -3- November 5, 2008
Mrs. Bittman said the Board agreed that Hawley was #2 priority because of education.
Mr. Gaines said the first page of Mr. Tait’s document showed the high school split between two years. He would love to see Hawley HVAC move forward. It would be great to move that forward for discussion. We could spit the high school costs also.
Mr. Tait said we need to find out when the high school construction would start.
Mr. Kortze said we didn’t have to decide that tonight. We have been reluctant to deal with priorities.
Mrs. Wiedemann asked if we moved Hawley if the cost could be split between two years. Education at the middle school is not being impacted by the roof problem.
Mrs. Chrystie asked if we only get one chance a year for bonding.
Mr. Tait said it is usually once a year.
Mrs. Fetchick said the middle school has gotten a lot of complaints about the leaky roof.
Dr. Robinson said one of the issues at Hawley is the increased traffic on Church Hill Road. When the windows are open the students can’t hear the teachers. There is inconsistency with the system between rooms to such an extent that in one room the students need to wear coats and the next classroom is hot. Both projects are urgent.
Mrs. Bittman said that anything that distracts the children makes it harder to teach. It is hard enough for that age to focus. Hawley has constantly been pushed back.
Mrs. McCLure said her biggest concern was still the high school. If the bids come in at $2M over, she would vote to go back to the Board of Finance to turn it over to the public in a referendum. We should give them a second chance to vote.
Mr. Kortze said they were trying to look for alternatives. The high school is the #1 priority.
Mrs. Chrystie said we have to have a discussion about priorities. We have to see if we have money that can go to something else. She agrees that we should do other projects if there is money.
Mr. Gersten said if we could create space in an earlier bonding period for the high school we would move some projects forward. The Board of Education has to determine our high school starting date.
Mr. Gaston said Hawley is a terrible situation but a leaky roof is also a problem. There might be some margin to do the roof also. Consensus is that would be okay.
Mr. Gaines said we would move things around but not change our priorities. The Board of Finance should not change the Board of Education priorities.
Board Meeting -4- November 5, 2008
Mr. Kortze asked if it was feasible to get more current pricing than three years out.
Mr. Bienkowski said we could do that but these numbers are order of magnitude costs. The true number is what the bids come in at. This plan needs some flexibility built into it in case a project comes in higher. He would have the pool of money to do all the projects in the first fiscal year. We can move a project to a later time after a more important project is done. Sometimes the CIP is too restrictive.
Mr. Kortze asked for an example of where the CIP has encumbered money.
Mr. Bienkowski referred to what happened with the Hawley project which started off at $350,000 in the 2001-02 CIP. The estimated amount to do the work in 2005-06 was estimated at $3,360,000. It went up to $6,415,800 based on bids received by CES for work in 2007-08. We are now up to an estimated $9,581,976 for the project to be done in 2011-12.
Mr. Kortze said they understand the need for Hawley. Is it realistic to assume we can get revised numbers on the projects?
Mr. Bienkowski said that was correct. Until we get the design we won’t know the cost of materials or what State School Facilities Unit will say. We should get the architect’s last estimate and back out the 8% inflation.
Mr. Kearney said the projects we fit in earlier would be the easiest to estimate. We have to be careful to fill in the gaps. Some projects may be a little easier with costs.
Mrs. Wiedemann asked how long we would have to prioritize our projects.
Mr. Kortze said they were meeting next Monday.
Mr. Kortze said the perennial complaint at budget hearings is the middle school roof.
Mrs. Fetchick said she was also concerned about possible structure damage.
Mrs. Chrystie asked Mr. Tait to send her his spreadsheet to work on scenarios.
Mr. Waterbury said this was assuming that the town projects would stay constant.
Mr. Gaines agreed that the Board of Education should consider alternatives.
Mr. Gersten asked if there was time to get the revised numbers.
Mr. Bienkowski said it would take a few days.
Mr. Kortze said that Mr. Barrett and Mr. Costa spoke about what would happen if we re-bid sooner rather than later. We spoke about Bob Mitchell’s document. What if this re-bid doesn’t work? He spoke to the bonding issue and said there has been huge governmental intervention. The lending environment has improved to some degree.
Board Meeting -5- November 5, 2008
There are still bond issues. We should also understand that we have to go out as a town to get the money on our own credit worthiness. If we went out to bond it would be more than 5%. It would be helpful to communicate to the public to do some research to see what is exactly going on. The Bee is going to devote a section for questions and answers from the public.
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