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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-09-29-SMPAC-min Lexington Public Schools Master Planning Committee Thursday, September 29, 2022 from 9:00 -10:3o a.m. Remote Participation via Zoom Master Planning Committee Members Present: Julie Hackett Daniel Abramson Maureen Kavanaugh Jess Quattrocchi Dave Coelho (absent) Mark Sandeen Michael Cronin Michael Schanbacher Kathleen Lenihan (absent) Daniel Voss Deepika Sawhney Alan Levine (Liaison) Melissa Battite Sandy Beebee (Liaison) Other Staff Present: Avon Lewis, Lexington Education Association President The minutes were taken by Sara Jorge,Administrative Assistant for the Lexington Superintendent. Dr. Hackett asked all members to introduce themselves. The Committee reviewed the minutes from the Augus�022. Dr. Hackett discussed the submission of the LHS Educational Profile Questionnaire. At the recommendation of the Superintendent,the Lexington School Committee unanimously appointed a member of Sustainable Lexington to the School Building Committee. Dan Voss was voted by Sustainable Lexington to be the Representative of the School Building Committee. Dr. Hackett updated the MPC, sharing that a New LHS Capital Planning Website is almost complete.As discussed at the last MPC meeting,the website will be for communication and updates. It will house the most accurate and up-to-date information on the new LHS building project to share out with the community. The Director of Public Facilities, Mike Cronin, discussed the Central Office Space Utilization Study.This study will be developed to help us understand if the current Central Office building is the right size for the operations of Central Office.Also,the study will be done to determine the next steps for Central Office,including but not limited to updating the building or tearing it down for fields. The land that Central Office is on was once promised to the Recreation Department for ballfields. Dr. Hackett explained that there are a few options to consider for Central Office, including: (1) stay at 146 Maple street and renovate; (2) move to 173 Bedford Street,which will also require renovations; and(3) add Central Office to the new high school if appropriate. Mike Cronin explained that facilities will have to look at 173 Bedford Street as well to see what investments are needed for this building (no elevator, no HVAC upstairs, etc.). Dr. Hackett would like to get the ball rolling in terms of a decision on Central Office, so that we can move this discussion forward to the Town Manager, Select Board, and School Committee. The Recreation Committee will be voting on their 5-year Capital Recommendation and one of the recommendations is that if Central Office is taken down, fields will be built and recreation has this for FY 2028. Melisssa Battite reviewed the Comr)rehensive Stud v of Athletic and Outdoor Recreation Facilities 2021-2022 Final Report with the Committee.As we move along,we want to identify additional spaces to keep athletes and our programs in Town going and to provide level services as much as possible. Ms. Battite explained that one of the areas that was identified is to have the Lincoln fields lit,which will be completed when the fields are being redone in the next few years. Ms. Battite explained there will be hours gained with the fields lit. Dr. Hackett supports this investment. Mark Sandeen asked if we could bring lessons learned from our neighbors, including the Arlington school department that recommended putting Central Office into the high school and then took it out. He indicated that he would appreciate hearing the pros and cons of having the Central Office in the high school as well. Dr. Hackett and Mike Cronin have not heard about this development from Arlington but can look into it. Dr. Lewis explained that she lives in Arlington and the Central Office has been in the high school for a long time and she has not heard that they are moving out. Director of Data and Strategy, Maureen Kavanaugh reviewed the high school portion of the LPS Master School Facilities Plan nin Co rsendiu (Ma 2021),pp. 26-33., the LHS Space Mining Considerations 201 , and the LHS Space Mini g Presentation, March 2010.The current conclusion is that there are facilities that need to be addressed in some sort of way, even coming up with short-term strategies to get us through the next few years. Overall Lexington Public Schools enrollment declined due to COVID-19,with the exception of our high school enrollment. Operationally,we still produce short-and long-term analyses of enrollment; however,the longer term has become less reliable. Mark Sandeen questioned whether the enrollment numbers are bouncing back to pre-COVID numbers. Dr. Kavanaugh explained that we are not quite back up to pre-pandemic numbers,but the large majority of it was at the elementary level.We are bouncing back more at the middle school level and continue to grow at the high school level. Dr. Hackett explained that the delta between pre-pandemic and now is roughly 200 students. We saw the largest decrease in Kindergarten and that was nationwide, not just Lexington.We are seeing students trickle in each month; we had 10 students pending for the high school just the other day. Dr. Kavanaugh added that we are still below at the elementary level but the kindergarten cohorts are bigger than the last year but again,we need to plan out multiple scenarios when it comes to any given decision and which enrollment numbers are the most relevant. The current enrollment for the entire Lexington Public Schools is just under 690o and the enrollment at LHS is just under 2300. Alan Levine: the current high school was built to hold 1850 students only for core class spaces not the cafe, gym,library,bathrooms, etc. Sandy Beebee: how are we doing in terms of Science classrooms and space? Avon Lewis: the Science Department has turned every large space into a classroom. Chemistry and Biology classes require a wet lab whereas physics can be moved anywhere.We are making it work but a lot of the places that use to be office spaces are now classrooms, so office spaces are quite packed now. The nature of it is that no body has a classroom any longer, especially if the enrollment numbers remain level. Mike: We are running small lab spaces so we are capping them at 20 students.We are at loo%, there is no additional room for anymore students in these spaces. For right this minute,we are exactly where we need to be but there is no give with labs,we are short lab spaces technically across the board. Dr. Hackett: If you look at the Donna DiNisco Presentation from August 2, 2019 on slide 12, it explains that when enrollment gets to over 2,500,we do have plans to move classrooms to make room for Science but since we are not at that enrollment,we are currently right where we need to be. Dr. Hackett would like to hold off on investing too much money in to the high school until we determine next steps with the Massachusetts School Building Authority.Are we still seeing as many students eating in the hallway? Mike Cronin answered Dr. Hackett's question.Not nearly as many students are eating in the hallways as before as we are using the field house as a temporary solution for students to eat. In addition,this summer,we actually took away a little bit of the cafeteria to add another serving line as we could not get all the students through the hot lunch line, so that students have more time to eat. Dr. Hackett asked Mr. Cronin if he agreed to hold off right now and invest in a solution right now for the Cafeteria? Mike Cronin: One solution we did look at with this group was to build a steel constructed building off of the cafeteria but it would be very expensive. I do agree with Dr. Hackett to hold off and not invest into the building until we know what we will be doing moving forward.Adding modules going forward, I dont think we are able to do this due to the conservation land. Dr. Hackett explained that DiNisco did price out portable classrooms but that would be a huge expensive and Mr. Cronin explained that the portables are a whole other issue.We have an issue with the Conservation Committee in the amount of space that is allowable to put modules. I would be apprehensive to add more modules even if we had the money to do so given the feedback we received from the Conservation Committee. Dr. Hackett: some of our classrooms at Lexingtong High School do not have heat-it is a hard environment to have to teach and learn in. Mike, can you explain your plans with the $500,000 emergency fund that we have set aside since we know we are going to run into issues and will that amount of money be sufficient for the next five years? Mike Cronin: we were supposed to replace the HVAC system in 2020, so the building has been running an extremely tired system.The building has spaces where temperatures run extremely hot and we have spaces that run extremely cold to the point that we have had to bring outside heat in to keep them above 5o degrees.The $500,000 could be used for anything but most likely HVAC,but the roof could leak or could be window issues. So,we are prepared for $500,000 or less per year in case something major happens. What Dr. Hackett believes she is hearing is that we are okay for now,we have an emergency fund should we need it but her general feeling is to keep it as is and not spend money at this point while we keep an eye on enrollment and the structure. Avon explained that people will put up with the HVAC system for a short period of time especially if a new building is coming within five years. Dr. Hackett asked Mr. Cronin how much would a new HVAC system at the high school cost? Mike Cronin: a new HVAC at the high school would be around $50,000,000 as it would be a significant replacement of the entire system.With roof,windows, and HVAC it would be around $90,000,000 Daniel Abramson: those are very compelling numbers to explain to the Town for an override. Just as a speaking as a community member,there is a tolerance for dealing with overcrowding but less tolerance for conditions.We should try to invest to make the building more comfortable and update the space mining for the next five years and what it might take to keep the building functioning from an environmental perspective. Dr. Hackett: Mike, can you explain what you did to solve the heating issues and describe what you brought in to counter the 52 degree classrooms? Mike Cronin: over in the new modular classrooms,the HVAC system we installed is not the one that we wanted as the lowest bid wins.We have been struggling with that system since day one and there are a series of classrooms that go from hot to cold.We have replaced motors,boards, gas lines, and piping, and it still fails.We bring in electric heaters to use as supplemental heat when system fails.We are serious about making classroom spaces as comfortable as we can. Avon: Mike's team works extremely hard on this but it's hard that we do not have extra space to move classrooms when needed. Mark Sandeen: could you help explain the scale of the problem-is it 5%, 25%, or 50% of the classrooms? Mike Cronin: the modular area is about 13-15 classrooms but I would say about 3/4 of the building have temperature issues. Alan Levine: the temperature issues are not a new problem-my daughters graduated in 2001 and 2003 and these issues were happening then, so this has been going on for over 20 years. Sandy Beebee: we need to hold off on any large capital expenses at this time- glad we have an emergency fund in case something goes wrong. Deepika Sawhney: are the LABBB numbers holding steady as they need space? Do we do water quality checks? Mike Cronin: Department of Public Works does all water tests and inspections and we are lead free, so we do have high quality water in all of our buildings. Dr. Hackett: our LABBB numbers are holding steady at about loo and those spaces are highly inadequate as well as we put in the statement of interest. Jessica Quattrocchi: five years is not really a short amount of time so I am not sure if there is anything that can be done in the interim to run properly. Michael Schanbacher: we need to patch things together until we can make this right-thank you to Mike Cronin. Alan Levine: From a financial standpoint,we don't want to spend money we don't absolutely have to spend at Central Office. Mark Sandeen: how many classrooms does the high school have? Mike Cronin and Maureen Kavanaugh will get the exact number of classrooms at the high school. Next Steps: 1. Decision making process to figuring out what happens to Central Office A. Review the space study for Central Office B. We can review pros and cons of moving Central Office or staying in current location We will send a new meeting date once we have the Central Office Utilization Study report. The meeting adjourned at 10:3o a.m.