Franklin County Technical School Building Project Public Forum May 12, 2026 Franklin County Technical School Building Project Public Forum May 12, 2026 A public forum held at GCC to discuss Franklin County Technical School's project plans for a new building Show Transcript good evening welcome my name is Justin Lawrence I am a proud resident of Bernardston a proud graduate of Franklin County Tech and I'm currently serving as the school's adult education coordinator before we get started with our panel tonight I want to start by thanking Dr Michelle Chute president of Greenfield Community College for generously allowing us to use this space GCC has been a strong educational partner for Franklin County back over the years and we truly appreciate their continued support for hosting us this evening we're here tonight to learn more about the proposed building project for Franklin County Technical School our panelists on the deis will speak shortly and they're here to share facts and considerations that have led us to this point this evening this is our district leadership and we are appreciative of them being here as well I've had the unique vantage point on this project as an employee an alumni and also as a taxpayer 1 thing that has stood out clearly to me throughout this process is The Prudent and careful consideration that has brought us to this moment today I am confident that the information that you'll hear tonight is accurate and that the conclusions have been reached with great seriousness and a genuine concern for what is right not just for our students but our Community as a whole the labor market data is very clear the demand for skilled trade professionals continues to grow with that comes an increasing responsibility to invest in vocational education Franklin County Technical school has always and will continue to answer that call by providing our students of all ages and backgrounds the very best technical education possible TS is not just a height a high school it's a Lifeline to the community that we serve every conversation around this project has been approached with respect for the magnitude of the ask and our panelists will do their best to address the most common questions while conveying both the urgency of the need and the respect you all deserve tonight we aim to be honest and straightforward about the current needs of our facility and the reasons that replacement is being proposed instead of renovation I assure you that this information is being presented with great care and thoughtful consideration of the broader economic challenges that are facing our region after our panel presents we will open the floor to additional questions as you listen to tonight please take note of anything that you would like to ask if a question comes to you after we finish tonight uh and our session ends please feel free to reach out to us via our website if you pick up that half page there's a QR code that you can scan that will give you more information about the project and also provide contact information without further Ado I will hand things over uh to our panelists who will start the presentation and hopefully they remember to introduce themselves before they start reporting on their slides I'm Rick Martin the school superintendent Franklin County Tech hello Liz bushard business manager I'm rich clits uh School Committee Member hi I'm Julie Architects architect for the project good evening everybody my name is Tim Alex I'm with Collier project leaders we're the owners project managers for the project all set Alex okay thanks um I would just like to start off um which some information that I know some of you have already heard but some of you have not in regards to how we first got started with the project it was approximately 8 to 10 years ago where our lights at our facility begin to flip on and off we called in some consultants and they informed us that our electrical switch gear made by Federal Pacific was beginning to um end of its useful life so with that they indicated that we should probably refurbish and rebuild 1 and that will take approximately 2 months from an outside company not named Federal Pacific with that uh we were able to get a switch gear in place as a standby when we had it delivered on a Wednesday it was a Friday night that same week uh where the light flickered and did not come back on at that point we hired some Consultants to come in they had back up and running within 24 hours and if we didn't get ahead of it on that particular electrical switch gear and those switch gears weigh anywhere is up to 500 pounds each and when they go down the entire building goes down along with it so we would have been out of school for about 2 months that got us to think maybe we should look at all of our other internal structures because as anyone can see the external part of the building looks beautiful our staff and our landscape escaping kids have done a great job keeping the facility looking nice but the interior was a real problem so when you invited the msba out to take a look that is the Massachusetts school building authority when we had them come out to take a look at office facility to see if we would be eligible we were towards the bottom of their list when they left our facility we went to number 1 because they saw the interior structures of our facility was not sustainable so when we look at um okay you already have it up there um some of the cost estimators not from Franklin County Tech but these were independent cost estimators um get an idea of how much it would cost to fix the current building that was our major concern so we could be mean um viable and have an occupancy permit so as you can see that added up pretty quickly because once you do a major project like change out the electric mechanical system then you are no longer a grandfathered into the sprinkler system and then they have to make sure that your roof is all set we've already had 2 roof coatings you're not allowed to get a third until you do a complete tear down in rebuild of your current roof and that started to add up so we got an idea what it would cost to fix just to update to code our existing building next slide yep so when we calculated all that not we but when the when the cost is they said it would be about 103 million dollars for construction uh to renovate up to code and the soft cost are now calculated in so that was different than our last meeting um at 23 million so it would be approximately 126 million to get our building up to code and we were big Believers at our facility our kids and our community have done a great job with Franklin County Tech for the last 50 years and we needed to start making strategic plans for the next 50 years and how we are able to better serve of uh students within our communities next slide so the repair that you just saw would not in would not include any changes to the education shops in classrooms um there'd be a quiet square footage per student uh the improvements to the site Energy Efficiency improved Acoustics of safety or the accessibility and flexibility there's a lot of changes that have um been put into case with Vocational Technical education in the last 50 years and it does not impact I mean it will not include those additional changes plus when you go up to code you are not eligible for the msba embarrassment so that's unfortunately um the reality and it would have a major disruption you can't put on a new roof in under 5 years because you got to keep relocating students from 1 area rebuild that move go to another area rebuild that roof and continue on until you have completed next slide please so as you can see um the other concern with the bringing it up to code and we considered all of these things was you were more than likely only going to be eligible for a 15-year Bond because the bonding mechanisms are not going to pour long-term bonds into a building that needs continuous upkeep so with that price of the bond on the 126 million even though we wouldn't do it all in 1 bond that would be done through continuous Bond broken up as we phase in each individual um portion of the project is just a continuing cause to the taxpayer at um a lot higher rate when you calculate that over time when we look at the msba project it's um 238 million building but after the 113 million reimbursement from the msba and again since the last meeting these numbers are firm it would be about 122.8 million um over a 30-year bond which would give our communities a 20-year reprieve after that and that would be the district share so our concern was um looking at everything you're going to hear some more information as relates to how we arrived at that decision what other projects such as bringing the building up to code um having the existing building and add Rena what what um the cost was to that to a complete renovation of the building what the cost was to that all those costs far exceeded the cost on presenting right now um and I would like to turn it over to the next slide yep uh thank you so just Rick mentioned to the msba and before we get too far into it just want to explain a little bit who the MSB is and what's what's their purpose so the msba is a a government agency that was developed by your put in place by the legislature back in 2004 its sole purpose is to provide or partner with communities to provide funding uh for schools uh public schools in the state of Massachusetts so whether that's uh through various programs they have an accelerated repair program where will do um certain infrastructure improvements like roof Replacements which has been done or um Door and Window projects but they don't want to put money into a building that just isn't sustainable isn't viable to continue so when they came came and looked at um Franklin um they saw as Rick saw mentioned that they saw that there was a need so there are other program that they have is this core program and that's where you go through a very rigorous uh process of review um submission of documentation for review approval and then you move on to the to the next process um they distribute the funds as equally as they can across the different communities in the state but they can't fund everything um so there's a legislative um a lot of Mass General law and how you go go about determining how much reimbursement a community would be eligible for so Franklin County has a base reimbursement rate of 60.42% so basically $60 of every hundred dollars that's eligible dollars would be reimbursable reimbursable there's also some additional uh points percent Spanish points that we could get for reimbursement based on the school's track record of Maintenance which we got the highest amount available uh and then there's also some uh green initiatives if we provide really based on energy management um for the lifespan of of the project going forward so uh all that totals we come up with about 60 well it is it's 66.27% of eligible costs so not everything is eligible caps on certain square footage they have different process but really that's um in order to be uh eligible for their funding we have to follow their process and and their rules so with the schedule that we have um this is kind of a layout of the msba process so in the very beginning in the yellow on the left hand side that's when um as Rick mentioned the school was invited into the program so that's even before the architecture was involved before the OPM is involved um then in the gray in back in 2020 uh 5 we um we were hired the owner's project managers hired and help the district bring on lavali brensinger as the architecture team um and then from there we get a again approval from the msba before we're allowed to move forward and and then we go into schematic and schematic design and feasibility study um so the feasibility study is really just looking at the site looking at other sites if if Ernie are available is it possible to do a school on this site is it is it feasible and we submit to the msba we get approval we move on to schematic design and that's really where at the end of schematic design we want to have consensus on a budget on a schedule and a scope for the project and so we present that to the msba and we did that and the board msba board approved the project on their April 28th uh board meeting and so now we're allowed to go into the next phase which is funding the project getting local support um funding the the balance of the project so in October 6th there will be a vote to um uh appropriate funds for the for the building project after that we would go through a uh design development really getting some of the details pulled together before going into Construction documents and really getting the details and the specifications and all those things uh spelled out uh we'd be looking to go to bid in the end of 2027 and then have about a 2 and a half years to construct the new facility uh basically on the same site but and we'll we'll go through that a little bit later in the presentation but um at the end of construction we would move the students in to start uh for the 2030 and 2031 school year and and then we would go about having contractors do an abatement demolition of the existing facilities and then re rebuild the fields that were disrupted during construction so that's kind of the timeline of the process it's it's a very lengthy Pro process but again um in order to make sure that you're submitting and you're going through all the proper planning and and investigation of different ideas and different uh potential potential scenarios it just takes a a long process to go about doing that but um uh right now we've just hit that major Milestone at the msba board meeting and we're looking forward to moving on to the next phase okay I'll tell you a little bit about um what we've done so far with a design and how we arrived at the design that we have um it all starts with actually pulling together a vision before we put together any options we pulled together community members school committee School uh Educators administrators we include students in a couple of workshops where we talk about what is everybody really want out of this project let's talk big picture about what we actually want what are our priorities obviously our priority is about education um making sure that we're delivering all of the opportunities that we can to students and how we can develop them as a members of this community and um really develop that Workforce and bring the community into the school but we want to do that with Mount value in mind making sure that we're getting the most bang for our buck in every way that we can um that we're being sustainable in a very pragmatic way the long-term costs for the building are kept in mind that we're not losing sight of that but also building a character for Franklin Tech that can take them into the next uh 50 years or even longer those so that's the foundation of the project um and then we look um obviously what you have now the existing site a single-story building at a if you don't already know the school I have a feeling that most of you do um there are significant traffic and parking issues with the single loop around the building um people are backing up to get out of the parking spaces into drive aisles and buses and cars are in the same area it can be really congested in a little bit dangerous so we want to address that there is an opportunity at the back of the site and that c area where um there's an opportunity to build their in a way that doesn't disrupt um Regular class on uh school activities while it's being constructed and then the school can move into that building and um we can take down the existing building for the fields that have been displaced in the meantime really talking about what is the best use of the site we looked at a lot of different options to start with option 1 is really just what Rick was talking about earlier really thinking through all of the costs that it would take to do a project and bring the the exist testing building up to Modern standards um The Roof is something that you know requires structural repairs and then there's a um sprinkler system so really pragmatically you have to think about taking down all the ceiling feelings and how do you do that while students are in the space um how do we repair the underground plumbing you have to rip up the floor but it's in an area where there are like 40 uh 5 ton pieces of Machinery so it really takes the time to really think through all of those costs and how to get it done um and really compare that to what your other options are it's really used as a baseline but uh msba would not participate in that project but it helps you look at the other renovation options adding on to the building um adding Standalone buildings and moving some students out to those buildings while you renovate um gives you more swing space um we also looked at that you know sort of a compass model we looked at all different configurations for how we could use that back site and different um scenarios for how the building was set up I'm you know their existing building is all 1 story so we do did look at what it would take to do um the new facility at all 1 story as well it's much more efficient to do at least a portion of it as a 2 story building and keeping the building compact um definitely uh is much more efficient in in terms of dollars so we come back to all of these options and we evaluate them based on that criteria that we set at the beginning and as we look at all of that um it was actually option 8 um it's a it's the second version of option 8 it was option 8 a um that we ended up going with it was um a compact layout but also the organization really matched the goals of the project so in terms of the night in the development that we'd be doing there um we're uh have the existing drive that um comes on from Industrial Boulevard and creating a loop that um introduces a second drive it allows buses and cars to be separated um both drives have access to the parking and all students would be entering at the center of the building so that's 1 Central secure entry for public students everybody coming into the building you can really have much better um ability to keep track of who's coming and going from the building um it's also focused on what's needed and not in all-in approach it's not changing everything we're keeping the stadium exactly where it is because we don't need to renovate that um no additional Fields just replacing the ones that are there um keeping that Tech and Aviation buildings that are already on campus that are recently built in in very good shape um and then looking at the 2-story building um this 2-story front portion um the first story is really um focused on the public connection where we have a gym uh multi-purpose room cafeteria public coming in to cosmetology and culinary to um visit the restaurant these programs um their ability to learn is essential that the community is able to come into those spaces so really controlling that access the second floor is for quieter spaces like the academic classrooms Health occupations and visual design program um lots of lateral natural light into all of the classrooms was a focus and having that acoustically separated from the shop areas which are in that Wing towards the back those are the high Bay shop areas Manufacturing Transportation construction trades um those large shops now the look of the building is trying to keep it really straight forward um the architectural character um it looks nice but it focuses really on maintaining function and reflecting the community and really making it look like a modern vocational school you know Franklin County um has a lot of industrial era Mill buildings but that's coupled with the modern industrial buildings particularly on Industrial Boulevard that are metal steel and concrete um so you know the design sort of tries to blend that to make it really feel like it fits in this community um Franklin County is known for their steel Trussell Bridges so taking that as you know this metaphor between as The Vocational School is a bridge between education and Industry sort of using that as a focal feature that's the entry point at the center and really um highlights the heart of the school where all the different clusters of career career directions that students can go in they collaborate they come together at that heart rendering of the back of the building um this is you know the high Bay shop areas um with all the access that they need overhead door yours access to outdoor building uh environments um and those 2 areas of the building Define a courtyard in between them so for outdoor um classrooms and getting kids in the um landscape program can really do projects out in in that courtyard um and it's all in this amazing rural setting that you guys um are fortunate to live in but as we went through this whole design process um as Justin noted um really focused on value and um really focused on uh highlighting the spaces that the msba will reimburse you for um meeting the requirements as efficiently as possible keeping the building as compact as possible you're not building any extra square footage that we don't need I think good example of that might be um other schools might consider doing a large Auditorium which can be a focal point for the community but um a large tiered uh Auditorium with a stage is not something that's supported by the msba so instead we're going for a uh multi-purpose room that's more focused on providing space for skills USA students for FFA uh opportunities and events um AP testing it has like a lot more versatility to it and that's just an example of how we've tried to keep this the cost in line so that gets us to the the cost of the project so in the beginning we mentioned that we had professional estimator who looked at all the various different options um as we go forward and uh we bring in 2 separate estimators and we go through a Reconciliation process so between those 2 estimators looking at the project uh looking at the the scope and at the level of document that we had um they've come to a consensus or we've put together those 2 estimates to come to a consensus for a project cost of 236.6 million so as we mentioned we needed to That Base to be able to go into the msba and let them know what our budget was we showed you our schedule of what our schedule is and the program has been developed in the building is is based on uh the program not shoehorning the program into an existing building and so is Rick mentioned these are spaces that for the future and for current spaces the deficiencies that you have now we're trying to address with this new with this new facility so with the MS ba may also mention that there's a lot of caps on different line items within the budget there's a limit on dollars per square feet or dollars per site um limits on how much they'll reimburse for furniture or computer equipment but um of eligible costs they would reimburse 66.27% so once we break down what their basis of uh El eligible costs are and what what is excluded we come up with a maximum reimbursement from the msba of 113.8 million so then obviously the balance comes on on the the on the communities on the district to to pick up the balance of that so that would be 122.8 would be the district share um we do have some potential third-party funding which we didn't subtract off of that 122 because it doesn't really kick in until the end of the project there's the IRA tax credits that are available for uh or geothermal uh system HVAC system uh there's also the Mass Save reimburse re rebates for uh electrical use and high efficiency electrical components being installed uh but that's in the neighborhood of 8.6 million that we could receive uh post occupancy so really reducing the district share uh potentially down to 1 1 4. 2 so I know these are huge numbers um but I wanted to talk a little bit about how this project fits into other msba projects so here's a an example this is on the mspas website so you can all go on if if you'd like but this shows the cost of msba projects over the past well since 2004 so all those orange dots represent projects that have been completed audited and you can see obviously the main takeaway there's a lot on this chart but the main takeaway is costs just keep going up there's a there's a definite curve it's definitely getting more expensive uh as we going forward it's also uh what the msba is is capable of reimbursing is also not keeping up uh with the same curve that the cost of construction is so the the further you go move over from from left to right on this chart the more percentage goes against the district cost um but on the far left you'll see there's that red dot that represents um this project so there's there msba releases projects each year they release a number of projects so you'll see those blue boxes around those grouping on the far on the far right and you can see that our project is kind of in the middle uh of the pack for this year's or this this when this project came out and it's slightly above maybe the year before or the year before that but these projects also you have to remember that it's not just vote Tech schools some of these are just elementary schools some of them are middle schools and high schools so across the board um I think that what this will show is that as Julie mentioned um it is a pragmatic approach it is a uh an efficient building it's um the dollars per square foot although very high are in line or even below what other your neighbors are doing in other communities um so the value for what the the dollar cost is I think is pretty high on on this project so unfortunately there's no way around these this curve that keeps on going up uh but we're trying to stay within at least a range or kind of lower the cost of of just what costs are today next slides are going to help us understand how these costs are shared throughout our communities um this slide here explains the overall financing structure for the proposed project through the msba partnership a significant portion of eligible costs is going to be reimbursed by the state reducing the burden on our local taxpayers the District of Finance at share through long-term bonding allowing cost to be spent over time annual capital assessments are then distributed among our 19 member towns according to the district agreement using a formula based equally on population using the most recent US Census and property valuation as reported by the Department of Revenue this ensured cost costs are shared fairly and proportionately across the region slide will help us understand um the annual Capital assessments and the impact for each member Town based on the current calculations of the project and they represent average annual cost um so that we can help understand and um the financial responsibility of Our member towns so these figures May shift over time due to valuation updates and financing conditions but I just wanted to provide some transparency for fiscal planning um so just like um our district agreement states and the sharing of the 50% population equalized valuation um the capital assessments each of our towns have a percentage of their responsibility for the project so these are noted by our 19 member towns here and what I did is gave an average um of what the 30-year bonding would look like for each of the member communities and please keep in mind the bonding won't ramp up into for the figures until about 2030 um this next slide will help residents evaluate the potential local tax implications um this is a link through to the Department of Revenue this will also be on our website so people can help on um help yourselves understand um the impact um it's a tax calculator it'll help you estimate um how the borrowing is going to affect your individual property tax bills um based on the local property values um having 19 towns it's kind of hard to have everything displayed in 1 clean calculator so I thought this link would help um using the Department of Revenue um the next slide I'll show you too is going to show how each average home is impact Ed um within throughout our member communities by this project are you gonna try to click just to kind of show you how this tool works so this will be this is actually on the rmsb a website um Linked In the Franklin Tech site so to use this calculator you'll essentially enter in your town um and then the figures that will be on the website as well and that were on this slide you can enter in that annual rate and that will show you the impact um to your household um so you would if you know your assessed value of your home you can um enter that in um or not enter it in you would see it on the grid below to try to get that um impact amount but the link is on the website I am please let us know if you have any questions um big thanks to Alex the IT person just proving that young Tech experts are important so in what I did on this next slide is I went into this calculator and I found out what the average home increase with the tax impact would be um for each of Our member communities so I plugged in that annual Capital assessment um once we're in full bonding mode um and paying that full amount plugged that in and then I was able to get from the Department of Revenue that estimated um average home increase for your for your taxes so you get an idea of what this um what this project I know it's large um but how it would impact you personally and I know this project is costly um and it's it's a lot of money to ask of our communities but working with the msba is a great opportunity to maximize reimbursement um for a long-term Regional investment and to benefit um sustainable educational facilities for decades to come thanks Liz um the good news is I have the next to the last slide that then opens it up for questions so I'll be brief with this 1 so is the heading says that Franklin Tech you know we build futures and so it may be 1 of the questions I'd like to ask is do we have any graduates from Franklin County Tech in the audience tonight maybe we could raise their hands great thank you and parents of students perhaps as well in the audience so that moves to the point of what our first uh first bullet is here which is you know in a recent survey and we have that data on our on our website as well 65 5% of graduates from Franklin County Tech declare that they are intention is to move into the program of study which they participated in that's the highest percentage in the state um and I I think that's a testament to what Franklin County protect us it's a testament to our communities and to the uh Administration and to the policies of how we have been able to have students come to the district we look for kids that are going to benefit from the programs we offer and we strive to make sure we're the right place for those right kids and we have many instructors some of them sitting in the audience with us tonight they're not only graduates but are now working at the district as instructors in their particular trade so it shows the value of what happens to the community so it's quite possible that if you've had a plumber or an electrician or an auto mechanic or well you name it a veterinarian a vet tech uh assist you in your house or with your pet or whatever might be there's a very good possibility that they have had some exposure to Franklin County Tech we're a district of 19 towns our towns along with the district have always been committed to giving an opportunity to students to gather an education as Franklin County Tech offers um we work with you know local Workforce Development we work with GCC as Justin mentioned before we have program programs that dovetail into further education here at GCC and that other higher level institutions um so it kids don't just necessarily go to Tech and get a job kids go to Tech and get jobs they get careers they further their education they really become an integral part of our community and that's something that I've prided myself on for the years that I've been involved I too am a graduate of a Folk School a little bit before Franklin County Tech came but I've been on the school committee for over 30 years and it's because of the successes I see that continue for me to want to be on that committee I wish I could say I was the longest serving member we have a member in the audience who's been on our committee for 37 years that's a commit meant to your community that's what we see at our school that's what we see from staff and instructors in our students so we have a proud 50-year history over the last I would say 10 years or so we've actually been able to bring in over 11 million dollars in Grants I think the total over the 50 years would be double or triple that but we've been able to bring in Grants that started in first of its kind Aviation program at a school in Massachusetts where we're located right on an airport report and within the next few years we'll be graduating Aviation technicians that will be able to go out into the industry with really high-paying and good careers we recently rolled out our vet tech program program that's going to bring much-needed technology and much-needed help to the veterinary sciences in the region and it that's a program that Dove tales with a program that GCC is working to offer we have Healthcare where our students graduate with degrees in CNAs and uh EMT and so forth and those dovetail with programs that GCC offers so we really are an integral part of the community um and I want to thank you for coming tonight and I think we're at the point where we have uh Justin taken over and asking answering questions that anyone might have just before we start uh opening it up to the group I've got a curveball that I'd love to throw uh to the panel especially the 3 panel uh who are most connected to the district could you folks share with us just a sentence or to um about what you would like folks in the audience to remember when they go home about this project sure um well first of all if you were behind the closed doors and understood how um we all care about our communities and the difficult Financial situations that everyone is I'm in I mean it was it's a challenge I know we need a I know that we need a building but however we have care and compassion of where we are with our communities in the challenging times that we are in and there is never going to be a perfect time is in old or wise men told me the other day to have a project that's going to cost our taxpayers 122.8 million over the 30 years and we understand that so I want you to take that away thank you anything else from Google it's or Liz that you'd like us to remember as we leave today I guess what I say is I've prided myself uh since I've been on the committee on how we've been good stewards of our district um members Monies we've always been transparent in how we've spent the money we've been transparent with select boards and finance committees and anyone that has a question um and we will continue to do that and we we are looking at what we needed for a building we looked at what we needed not what we would have wanted but what was going to be fiscally responsible we chose an Architecture Firm that wasn't in the top too costly firms in Massachusetts that some would have liked us to use we chose a firm confirmed that prided itself on good old Yankee frugality and it really has proved itself we had seen estimates that were much higher than this from other firms and we looked at firms that built buildings that served the needs and were built with the infrastructure to uh to sustain a building for the next 50 years or more and uh that's that's what I'd like folks to take away that we've really been careful stewards of all of our money because many of us sitting in this audience and on this stage are taxpayers in this community thank you we'll open it up now to the room if anyone has questions 1 thing I would like to ask uh we're recording this session for the folks who couldn't make it here tonight so please only speak if you have the microphone and you need to hold it quite close to your mouth and uh if you'd like to introduce yourself tell us where you're from and ask your question we would appreciate it thank you um Christine Braugher from the town of Leiden I have a couple of questions if you will um have we received a formal commitment letter from the msba that they will fund 66.7% so we did have the uh they had a board meeting where it was voted and approved um I'm not sure if we've um received the project scope and budget agreement from them yet but that was just um a few weeks or a week and a half ago so we're going to get a formal commitment letter and your of that amount okay that's good um the other question is I've worked on a couple of msba projects myself and I know that any project of this nature always has eligible and ineligible costs how much of the costs of the 236 million is ineligible so basically the 122.8 million would be the ineligible amount or I'm sorry there's the there's the cost that's eligible then there's the cost of what how much once you receive backs because you're not receiving dollar for dollar back so it's um the cost to the the the building cost is 236 the grant you would get is 113.8 so your cost is 120 2 but there is there's and I don't have it in front of me there is a a basis of the grant that right so when you submit your your dollars because I've done this some of the costs that you submit of the 236 is not going to be eligible for the 66% reimbursement those costs will be paid by us 100% what is that breakdown no that's not what he said what is what is the what is the ineligible costs that we can can't submit to the L msba I don't have the those numbers in front of me but what it breaks down to is when you get 66% of the eligible dollars that equals 113 so I'd have to do the math but and I have it I can I we can provide it and put it in an answer the questions do that thank you is there any other question hi uh Sabra Billings from Bernardston um I did quick math and the quick math that I did um came out to be around 53 million like really rough um and and my question was basically um I think the school looks beautiful um and I leave a comment before my question is um I think that the you know that the graduates that the tech school is um putting out into the local economy like it like that impact to the economy is really valuable right I'm having trouble I've been having trouble for probably like 6 weeks getting plumber to call me back and I'm looking at the 200 and something dollars a year that I'll have to pay an extra taxes and it feels worthwhile to me to have you know the tech school pumping out people who will take pressure off and help um I guess replenish you know people in the trades who are retiring so I see that value um at the same time I'm sure everybody's aware municipalities have so much pressure right now schools are having a hard time getting their budget passed um so sort of to play Devil's Advocate I did do that rough rough math about 50 something million it looks like is probably ineligible cost and so I'd like to understand you know what would we be giving up if we built a school school that was that was where all the costs were eligible for reimbursement I would say that a lot of the costs are actually site costs and you you have the site that you have and you have to work with it they do cap the site at a very low rate um and I'm not sure you can actually have a 100% eligible project I'm not even sure that that's possible so by saying mean things like like Demolition and that type of thing yeah right well also the cost of construction today the msba does not reimburse uh per square foot there's a cap on what they'll submit they'll reimburse per but you cannot build a school of this nature for that cost per square foot so every square foot that you you build portion of that is going to be on the district to pay for so the msba has a space summary template they want you to follow their space summary so that's when Julie was saying that you really rightsize the spaces you you you don't overbuild we don't build square footage we don't need to try and Max maximize what is eligible because once you go outside that space summary every square foot every dollar of every square foot beyond that is ineligible but at at when you see the cost per square foot of these of construction today the state doesn't provide they're not saying they're going to build this for you they'll they'll they're helping you but they can't help everybody with all the needs and that's why when I said that 20 years ago 25 years ago the reimbursement was roughly the cost of construction dollars per square foot nowadays it's it's it's far apart and it's only continuing to get further apart I had 1 other quick question if that's okay um so early in the presentation it said you know the 30-year Bond Capital Bond those expenses would get passed on to the communities and then there would be a 20 years with no capital but um is that like based on uh like warranties or what's the 20 years with no capital assumption mean well the bond would be uh paid off by then and when we look at our own School building it was not a significant uh project that was done after 30 years our building was in tremendous shape and that's what older technology uh less Energy Efficiency uh so we had mild um construction but not anything that was um going to be a burden to the taxpayers so that's just an assumption that the school's going to last for 50 years and not need additional support that is what I am being told by our wonderful Architects and opiates sorry my last question then is so is the is 50 years the expected life of the building and if there were some smaller Edition Capital expenses in that last 20 years could it extend the life of the school so that 50 years from now there's not another build required of course but I won't be your architect in 30 years I'll tell you that much 450 you know I always count on the residents of Franklin County to have great intelligent questions who else would like to address the panel Ariel oh is this close enough Ariel Elon from Monty here by the way I really I really love Tech education because people need to be in the real physical world and know how to handle that so that's just a preface under circumstances of our regular high schools and middle schools being underpopulated and that affects our state funding toward our school's operating budgets negative in other words we really need as many students as we can in our regular local schools so under those circumstances looking at a project with this kind of price tag I just want to know what consideration or analysis did you give to a different model of vocational education where you go to your local high school either a certain number of days a week and then you're up at a a dedicated tech school without needing to have an academic program at that location you go there a day a week or you do 2 or 2 and a half or 3 years in your local school and then you devote a whole year or whatever you need to your Tech courses and yes I know there would be scheduling and transportation questions about that but I keep hearing on the radio that we have these fabulous AI programs that can very easily crunch those scenarios and I want to know did you look at what I'm calling a hub and spoke model because that's what I grew up with and uh it seems to still work in a lot of places yeah that's um that is a model that is used in some states we have that kind of a model that is done in New York as well where they'll go a couple of years to their local high school then a couple of years to The Vocational School the way that chapter 74 programs are set up is they are requiring an x amount of hours to reach a competency so we have it full-time every other week where we have a chapter 74 program that is the week we took um a very much we took a lot of care and consideration for the kind of building that we were going to build um we were the only msba project um that was informed to me that is constructing a school that is smaller than our current student population um could we have built a school for 800 students and be able to fill it probably would it be alright by our communities absolutely not so we had 653 students and we're we are going to be building a vote tech school to house 600 students so that's um a significantly smaller I'd like to also add that we need to part of the model that VTech schools follow in Massachusetts allows a continuity of the educational process so there is a value to having the students in the building where they also get their academics schooling the some of the programs are geared toward things that the the students relate to they're not going off to 2 or 3 different schools to learn math and English they're you know they're getting their core competencies and those programs from instructors who are integral to part of the school who who collaborate intimately with the staff on what is the educational model that's needed for those students I'm not an educator but we have a few folks in the audience are nodding their head you know we have our vocational coordinator here you know director maybe Maggie nent or our principal could talk to some of the value of having the students within the same building sure there are other models the Massachusetts model is what we followed um and it's worked effectively uh for Generations I understand your question but I just want so you're saying that's actually a legal requirement in Massachusetts you can't organize it a different way without changing legislation is there someone in the in the audience who cares you just I'm Maggie Nan I'm the vocational director um so as Mr Martin indicated we're a chapter 74 uh wall-to-wall school all of our program programs are chapter 74 so Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary education uh directs and mandates how our our school is structured the number of hours and then yes the expectation is that we have the academic in the in the same building thank you Maggie thank you hi um I'm Robin Pro first and and the select board in the town of Heath and I'm a general contractor own owner here in Greenfield so my question is about operational costs and you started to talk about some of the differentials between uh repairs in the existing facility Renovations and the new construction and I'm looking at uh wondering about operational costs how many costs have been looked at meaning operational costs moving forward the way the school is now what operations costs with the addition of those calls that come in every day or every week or every month um every year for the fix this do that and fix that go here grab this patch this versus those operational costs when you start to do Renovations or larger scale repairs that you've talked about um how that how that looks from an operation number for our assessments um meeting with all of those movements of the kids and the relocations those costs there's like a whole another chunk of money for operational um cost in that scenario versus operation of the new facility has that been looked at there's a lot of nuance to your question so I'm going to start with just the fact that um a new construction um with the MSB project is an energy efficient building so it's a need for certified that that's the lead um uh scorecard that we have to meet it has to be an electric building and it has to be uh Net Zero ready meaning that we have to keep the energy use intensity down and have the opportunity on the site with which to have other renewable energies introduced to be Net Zero that doesn't mean that those things have to be installed on day 1 so the new project is going to be energy efficient it's not going to be reliant on fossil fuels and we're doing our we've done a life cycle cost analysis for that project um and the last project that we worked on on msba um the energy model was actually higher than what they came back with 1 year after operation so I'm not saying that all of them are going to be like that but we do our best to be as energy efficient as possible that being said it is a larger building will it equal what they're paying for operational costs right now I'm not sure that we've done that analysis of everything that you're paying right now not just in utilities but in repairs and really analyze that against what the new building would be I think that's a great question and and probably something that we'll be talking about in the next week process always helps us to refine so we appreciate your questions um I'm Paul Hollings I'm from Shelburne I'm involved in the Mohawk Trail uh school system um I've only lived here for 6 years so you began this planning process before I got here so I'm not aware what was going on then um 1 of the things that I have determined is that I don't like is that the way the system is organized here which is different when grew up with my kids did is that the tech school and the other public schools are almost set up in competition and I I think that structure um is is not great and in fact that you know the tech schools uh census has gone up at the same time as ours or enrollment has gone up the same time ours has gone down there may be you know 650 600 maybe the right number but it was 450 so um so my question I'm getting I'm taking a long time to get to it but um I'm curious what you did to solicit um input and critiques from those who aren't your direct stakeholders you know your teachers your parents your students your um that that group I mean you know we're the ones who are not affiliated ated with the tech school directly who are going to be paying for it I'm just kind of curious because I I don't you know 600 maybe the right number of them maybe 450 is it was 10 years ago um you know are there are you doing the right number of programs and how much did you sort open that up to critique um because what we're looking at is you've all pointed out is that um we're all strained I mean we're in Shelburne we're 11,000 from our tax levy uh and so I'm curious you know do you know how many towns are going to be pushed to do an override if this gets approved so that's a lot of questions I'm sorry to overload you well I'll take the educational portion of that um as it relates to analysis of how we went from 450 to 600 um we really at chapter 74 programs we really have to look at market analysis and what is going on in the regional blueprint what's the number of jobs that are in demand when we started to take a look at that we did notice that in like in the field of Health technology for example we knew that medical assistant was a major number 1 driver in the Pioneer Valley so we then developed a program in addition to our health technology program for medical assistant that then drove in additional students then we did the same thing when we revamped through skills Capital grants um that were competitive in a welding shop program and we had what the industry standard was from our program advisory boards and we have a robotic arm and that started to draw in additional students that apply um when we were at 4:50 we weren't filled to capacity they were always open slots so we just ran out of applicants it's it's to be the case when more applicants started to show interest that's when we began to expand we gastro noticed that 1 of the uh realities over the last decade and some school districts here tonight are experiencing this today is that it's real expensive to send students off to a Smith Vocational School at an average rate between 50 to 70,000 dollars per student because we don't have a program here at Franklin County Tech so we went ahead and we um petitioned the state and applied for chapter 74 certification for animal science that then enabled us under that umbrella to then develop a veterinary science program and we have heard from a lot of towns how many students that we kept from going to Smith folk at a cost of a tremendous amount rather than the average per people cost of our district is around 13,600 so when you build a program sometimes you're going to save money even though you're growing in enrollment and then we looked at our Aviation program and that was more of a Massachusetts Aviation task force initiative because Airline is where you know paying 75,000 to train these individuals just to work on airplanes because the retirement of the World War II Aviation mechanics were they were gone so jobs are like opened up all over the country and we started to pursue the aviation maintenance technology and we received uh a grant that paid for everything uh that entire facility because we have that that then increases enrollment and I could go shop by shop but a lot of the things from an educational perspective were driven by what's the industry demand was and what the students in our community and their parents have showed interest in I would chime in for just a minute too I think that um Franklin County Tech is a Shelburne school as much as it's a green Field School it's 19 towns that owned the school so it's it's a it's a Shelburne School it's not that we're trying to take kids from 1 schooler the next it's that we're trying to find the best place for those right kids and each of the 19 towns owns a piece of the school so it truly is a school that's owned by this larger community and uh I that is a as a as a fit we also have within our district agreement the number of students that we enroll from each town and so forth so we try to keep that proportion uh appropriate it gets into lots of calculations but we try you know to look at the students that are eligible to change a little bit with a new uh new program that mass um Department of Ed has put out but essentially we're looking for those right kids and we try to and we limit the number number that can come from each district and we didn't build a school that could take 800 kids because we realized the impact that that would also have on our communities and also the population in the area when I sat on some early meetings with msba they were thinking we needed to build a school for 75800 kidds yeah and they were arguing with superintendent Martin when he said no we don't need a school that big these are population Trends this is our region we understand it and actually they changed their projections to the size of the school that they wanted us to build so I I probably sent too many questions your way and I I just want to say I'm sure that you put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into all this um my question really is about the process and who who did you expose I mean these all sound like great arguments but did it go out to a broader population than your direct stakeholders so that people could critique the those kind of things how many programs how many students uh is the cost right could we save money some other way I'm just kind of curious about that process and and and the follow-up you know the other question that I wanted to hear is do you know how many towns are going to have to go for an override if this gets passed typically towns will do a debt exclusion um on this but uh we have we have 20 we have uh 19 member towns and 24 School committee members um who are fully involved and the representatives from all of the towns have heard and understand what we're doing uh from the very Inception of this program discussions um and we this is our third public meeting around the project and a place for the community to ask questions and we're certainly open to them after this meeting as well well I think it started um many years ago it started about 3 or 4 years ago with my business manager and myself when we go out and do our budget presentations to all 19 member Towns at that point in time we started to talk about the project um with us select boards and with that finance and you know here's something that we have applied for for his was coming down the pike right now we didn't have any information at the beginning so the information came faster and Furious once we got the Architects on board and the OPM on board because as far as us projecting internally what we want and we had no idea because it needs to go through the correct process which is outlined through the msba which The Architects and the OPM have to follow so that whole process really ramped up just about a year ago go Justin hi Terry Mitchell town of Shelburne finance committee just a quick question you would put up a slide died earlier that showed the estimated costs per Town should the project go forward just curious how those costs would be included in the tuition rates for non-member towns because you have students attending that are not from the member Towns how have you I will answer part 1 and then I'll turn it over to the business manager for part 2 um part 1 of that would be that um a non-member towns currently pay a significant higher annual increase on average around 25,000 as compared to the 13,000 per pupil that we have on average now um and having said that because of the state lottery process and US kind of refining the admissions process we uh slowly fading out like this next incoming year we don't have any out of districts is coming in um we are doing all our member towns we know the importance of the project we know that our member towns will have first dibs and so moving forward that's going to be our strategy hi um Jackie boydon I'm the uh school committee representative from the town of Irving but I I had a question because I've heard override and debt exclusion and I was hoping that rich explain the 2 options override is not always your option if you're close to your Levy limit there is a process called the debt exclusion which is outside of your Levy limit but I thought perhaps maybe you could explain it a little bit for all those don't know Jackie you're asking me I'm I'm a lonely School Committee Member and a and happen to be a select board member in my town but um I think actually there are here who can better answer the exact Nuance between those and Liz or Jackie perhaps maybe yeah Jackie you may be able to answer it better um what I do know in working with our financial advisors at uni bank um I really wanted to school myself on the bonding and and the impact to our towns um knowing it it's it's huge um so remember town can vote to exclude from its Levy limit either the capital assessments on the debt if the district if we issue all the debt um or the debt issue Debt Service if 1 of the member Community towns issues the debt for the project through intermunicipal agreements on their own so some of our larger towns may decide to take out their own bonds and not have the district borrow on their behalf um but that's a a Vision that each town will make on their own the district won't weigh in on that decision for the towns hopefully that that's probably a really high level summary of it but Jackie you may have more College you would be a great teacher asking questions you know the answers to let me be tired as a principal assessor and I'm heavily involved in many committees on in the town of Irving so there are a couple of options you can do 1 is when you're close to your Levy limit which some of our communities are um if you go over that you have to do an override which is about it and and a vote right on town meeting and on the ballot or you do what is known as a debt exclusion but a debt exclusion is it's limited you can't do it for everything there's only certain things you can do with debt exclusion for 1 of them is this project and what happens is you can raise the money yes it impacts your taxes but it doesn't go against your Levy limit but I just wanted to clarify the difference thank you thank you Jackie hi Mark Thomas I work at the uh Franklin Tech um I have a couple concerns my first concern is that we're band dating a building that is so old and where do we go from there where do we uh turn around and say okay we've got 50 years out of the building and yet what are we going to do another 50 and watch it just fall apart and the other concern I have is for our students especially in our VOC shops that um if there's a disruption in education um meaning like if the roof is going to be uh a 6 to 8 month project what do we do with our students that are in welding and in carpentry that they need these um tools and so I'm concerned about that part of it if um if we can't get a new school so I assume Mark that was more of a comment but I will have to say it's closer to 6 to 8 years to do a roof not 6 to 8 months early why msba saw this is a core building they wanted us to look at all the options look at of renovation look at the additions look at those impacts but very early on they they were talking a core building because they saw the challenges of aoke tech school being able to do those kind of Renovations it's not as simple as rolling a portable classroom in for for 6 years uh Larry Langford town of Buckland finance committee uh 2 questions 1 um whether it's that excluded or Levy limit somebody's going to have to pay the bill so I'm worried that um I know that the town of Buckland doesn't have an extra 225,000 lying around to pay for the next 30 Years and I wonder how so many other little towns are in exactly the same streets hence I'm wondering what's your backup plan if this vote on October 6th fails we asked in February for a list of the project plans that you would then jump to so we can you get a price tag on the cost of those interim projects that you're going to Stagger Inn but we haven't heard anything uh since then can you talk about that I don't know if you want to talk about the how the staging of the capital so the project that you know um Mr Martin talked about in the beginning the phased project or phased Renovations of the project and the cost of that is what we outlined in the beginning of the presentation that is the other option is you can either or the next 30 years do these smaller chunks and at the end of all of that project you still have the same building without any of the additional space that you need um for classrooms or the shop spaces it is this there's no I rick says this all the time there's no freeway out of this um and um you can go back and and look at that uh the numbers there again if that that's helpful is that so we have that number that's over a hundred million dollars to do the renovations and they're 15 year bonds so even if we stagger them over the next 6 to 8 years the impact would be fairly large on the communities and so we would have to take that list and look at what are the highest priorities you also have to look at the list and it says if you want to do to a roof then while you're tearing the roof apart and you have part of the building disrupted and you're needing to do perhaps some structural which there's some work that needs to be done then you need to remove the ceilings so then you need to put the sprinklers in so these projects turn into a big project and we've looked at how that would stage but some of those would be fairly substantial projects to do and it would be very difficult to say do 1 finish this and go to the next 1 yeah I have more of a uh comment than a question uh as I sit here I was on the original school committee to build the building that we have currently and and 55 years ago we started the process we had meetings similar to this and I remember the same questions the same problems the same contents and the thing is is that uh is never a good time and it's not a good time now it won't be in 10 years uh if we try to patch this building up as much as I love the building and I put 5 years of my life into getting it there that um we we need to move on and you know it's going to cost us 1 way or the other and I would rather have it cost us for a new building than the patch and old building and have our children or grandchildren trying to deal with it another 10 or 15 years and cost a whole lot more it's like when we built the uh the MU Gil uh turnis walls High School uh it failed and the voters said that they wanted a a a lesser footprint more 2 story cheaper building to build by the time it took us to get new plans go out to bid again it actually cost us more so every day costs are going up I don't see any options here really um it doesn't make any sense to me to fix the building we need to go on with a new 1 and as far as the um the education I mean we come a long ways I mean I graduated from Greenfield trade and back then um regular school had nothing to do with us we were shop rats and that's the story that today you say you go to Tech and you're like oh wow you know you you you got something going here you got a good education uh you got an opportunity and yes I came out of school and and I went right into a trade and I was able to make a decent living and um you know I've I've been joyful over the years to run into all the different people that have graduated that I run into that that told me that it made a huge difference in their life in fact as he mentioned earlier my mechanic and his father both graduated from Tech and uh I have to say the good and you know the other thing is is that having been through the process these people have done a tremendous job to get to this point with the information that they have and the presentation that they're doing and so I I applaud them and thank you for listening that up uh briefly with a comment again in my role as vocational director at the school school I look around the room at my colleagues who are here and what's not reflected in the slides is the services that we provide for the Townes at a substantially reduced rate so I'm looking back at welding and electrical um I know Alec is here we've done a huge project for Conway many of the municipal towns we don't charge nearly the costs we just recover what we what it costs us to provide those services and the skill set for the kids but I just wanted to emphasize that uh Russ Cobra city of Greenfield um Justin you're 2 young to remember but there was a show with Phil Donahue and he would run around in a room in the room with a microphone um couple of quick questions um to let to Liz and or Rick didn't we as a school district time some of our debt I know windows and doors projects and roofs were done um didn't we time some of that so that that debt is being completed as the district's going out looking for this debt I just want to ask that question I think I know the answer but just so that people understand some of the uh forethought that's gone into this and also I know these are big scary numbers and I'm looking and I'm writing down Greenfield's numbers feverishly um but I also know when when the slide went up and it said 253 dollars uh is the average increase for a Green Field property tax payer that that I believe is gross and I want to ask this when I don't think you know what's coming off of Debt Service for towns right you don't know what's maturing on the town side that the towns may have debt that is that is finally coming off their schedule because it's paid off so I know this numbers tonight are the biggest and scariest numbers we'll see but I implore everyone to go back to your town and just look and see what may be coming off the debt service schedule I don't know if that'll help everyone's AA or not but it's something to consider so I just you know the the the other projects that were done on the roof and stuff that coming off I think on the tech school is that correct it will come off it will come offline um there will be some clawback on that project because and we move into the new school the debt for that project will exceed um that timeline so there'll be a few years left remaining on that Bond um so there will be a small clawback not small um but there will be a clawback on that project um through the MS through this grant thank you I'm happy to get my steps in aerial Elon monteu rich I have a question for you about eversource uh as we know and terms of our airport monteu airport up there um they've refused to make certain upgrades that would have made a solar array possible and now you're talking about a large building that's going to use a lot of power that's going to be all electric have you had any contact with ever sources to whether they're going to make necessary improvements there have been discussions on ongoing and we've not only discussed it with eversource but we've brought it also to legislative levels so uh I'm confident that we will get the power we need I don't think it will be substantially more than we used by the way Jason cusumano um uh finance committee Shelburne I was on the school committee for Mohawk Trail for 9 years prior to that um I have a couple questions about the msba um I I don't understand why msba wouldn't match monies on the repairs um you know we've at at Mohawk Trail we've applied for um you know much smaller projects you know like 50,000 and they would consider matching monies on those so I'm a little surprised that at the you know 113 million you know that did go up on this slide to 120 something 126 or something um wouldn't there be msba money to match many of those repairs um and then um also I am surprised by Rick's comment about the roof project taking 68 years you can build a new school in 2 years but the roof takes 6 to 8 that seems a little a little strange phased construction so you have to take a portion of the bill move the kids out do the roof on that piece where do you move the kids the whole project like it's a it's a bigger picture thing but I'll let him answer the msba uh thanks Julie yeah so your projects were probably on a school that was deemed viable that it wasn't overcrowded you didn't have other systems it wasn't when you submitted your statement of interest for that Grant um you didn't indicate that you probably needed new building so 1 Thing the msba has kind of demonstrated over the years is they don't want to invest money to fix a roof on a building that's overcrowded and doesn't meet the educational needs of the district and really that's kind of where we are now with the the shops being undersized to the the security of of having public having to go deeper within the building to to um to go to the public facing um cosmetology or the the uh the cafe um it's those types of things I think why the msba um doesn't participate in those types of projects so we did the district did do the windows doors about 15 1015 years ago um but with the statement of interest at this point the msba determined that they should go for the core program and they obviously accepted that so they do go through a rigorous process um it's not that we're telling the msba on what they should do they tell us what we're capable of of receiving so you kind of follow their lead if you want their dollars you you you follow their program Lori Langford Buckland Liz uh when you put that property tax slide up I think it was a little confusing because that is the annual increase in the property tax so you multiply that times the accumulative number of years in which you're going to be asking for that money so it's really you know for Buckland it was 6,900 in on contacts not just the 212 yeah I broke it down to annual impact um when you go in the back and then I'll be alright this is back and in total cognizance is the time so we will take a few more questions hi I'm uh Ben Niles I work at Tech uh and I just wanted to see if we could get some input from the people in the panel or other people who who work at Tech we're knowledgeable about this but um uh I've been in meetings with people in this room uh where we've had a bucket in the middle of the the meeting room to catch uh leak leaks from the roof I've toured with principal to go room by room in the thaw to figure out where the rain was going to be coming in uh and what pattern it was going to be taking along the beams I've talked with the facility manager uh who explained that there's just leaks that we can't even figure out where they're where they're coming from so we're just slapping stuff on there so uh this is an example the roof to me is a is the easiest example of the fact that this is already in process this is not a hypothetical this isn't like this could happen um this is something that's already going on right now in in the building and I didn't know if there are more examples of that um that I'm not thinking of where people could get a sense of kind of the actual state of the building as it is uh right now I think we've already um touched upon that at the beginning of the presentation we got to some of the major systems and there's a lot of other smaller ones but we just felt it for the essence of time just to focus on the larger ones hi there to this to this but I just wanted to clarify so so building to just the stretch code was not an option it had to be built to Net Zero um Net Zero ready not zero is a very heavy okay okay got it yeah and um the stretch code a piece of it um that that it does need to meet the stretch code it does need to meet lead 4 and um yes all of those strings are attached to an msba project um you have to do that great that that is a good point about the codes so when you ask about okay can we just replace the roof can we not do the electrical or some other items once you hit a certain dollar threshold based on the EST the assessed value of the building you're required to bring the whole building up to code so then you you kick in having to insulate your exterior envelope so how do you do that in in all these these in these masonry walls so you start hitting all these Edition needs and things that have to be done that are required so when you talk about a roof being a 6-year 8-year process well if you're doing the roof and your air handling equipment on the roof is 2530 years old you're probably going to need to replace that equipment so do you bother putting on a new curb to handle that equipment now and then if you're doing kind of trying to mix in your a phased mechanical uh upgrade at the same time as you're doing a roof upgrade is the same time as you're doing an electrical upgrade but yet you have to get that main equipment for the switch gear and so it's it's a really complicated process so the numbers that we put up here are that are estimators gave us for a phased project for this repair um is isn't based on a fully developed design it's based on their knowledge and their understanding of what a phase job might take but really we don't know what the the costs are going to be 6567 years down the road so um I would say that's probably a conservative number of the 126 million hey good evening everyone um my name is mataro Kelly um I'm a burniston resident taxpayer former alumni of the tech school and actually a current culinary instructor uh right now uh some of the issues I have more of a statement to make uh some of the issues we deal with on a daily basis in the culinary program is power fluctuations where our gas will actually shut off and prevent us from being able to do our lessons with our students it affects our restaurant um being able to open sometimes because our electricity runs our gas if that makes any sense I'm a chef not a plumber or a person um but it affects us on a daily basis we have to reroute our schedules figure out how we can go about teaching our lesson differently we aren't we aren't able to use certain equipment um it can actually Force us to close down our restaurant um that affects our education and teaching our students and that's 1 of the many issues we have been having major issues with our HVAC where the refrigerators uh whether it's the cafeteria that's having the borrower freezer space or we're using their space because of refrigeration issues um I think that if we contribute to doing the new school project that not only is it going to pay off in the long run but also we're going to be pumping people into the community that can make a difference I own a business in burniston now and I'm just a kid from Turners Falls that had dreams of cooking and loved cooking and I was able to open my own barbecue business and I tried to teach the kids that you know with drive and determination and you know having great instructors they can make a huge impact on your life and now I never thought I'd be an instructor ever and now I'm in the same seat you know teaching where Chef Pike taught me how to be a young culinary in so I just believe in you know if we do the right thing now it's going to pay off in the future and we're going to have people who can contribute to the community um and make things even better and have people who are paying taxes and opening businesses and supporting the economy of our community it's 1 big revolutionary Circle right motivated by barbecue through that sounds good to me any last questions as we get close to time see 1 here in the corner hey uh John pilia welding instructor and uh I just want to say a couple things uh piggyback on a bunch of stuff and um you know I've been to a shop teacher for over 20 years and um you know when you invest in the tech school you're not just investing in the building you're investing in the community right so these kids stay here they build houses here their kids go to Tech we're on the third generation of those kids at the tech um you know and I'm a Storyteller right we had a kid a kid a grown mayad who came in today is in his 30s and he came by and um I took my students out to see him and to see his truck his work truck you know and this is the kind of stuff that these guys love right so this is like this custom build $200,000 work truck and this guy travels up and down to England repairing heavy equipment right certified welder making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and I take my do you want to go see this guy yeah I want to see this guy and it's like he was just like mataro he would just like a kid who came up you know from nothing from from rural western Mass Franklin County and the tech school provided for him those fundamental skills from which he became certified well during continue to get more certifications to increase his pay we have kids that are not even 21 that are buying their own houses like for real not everybody does that but it's pretty impressive and when you see those numbers 65% of kids from our school stay in their trade and stay in this area you don't see that that's for real like I've been to the other schools in the state and they they go to they go to their school and then they just leave they don't they don't invest in the community like they do here you know and you know to the comments about the money I'm I'm not not a money guy right but it it it is tough times and it's never going to get cheaper there never is a good time like Mr Carpenter said over there but when they built the School 50 years ago they said we need we need this the community needs this these the school meets the needs of these kids that are not going to Aspire to go to college for 60 70 800 thousand dollars a year right when they this kid comes in in his truck and they we see that he's barely 30 and he's making good money he's got a nice family and a home and all that stuff that's what they aspire to and that's what we we aspire to build a facility to meet those needs you know like in kitchen like in the kitchen the welding shops the same thing we're very Industrial in there we've had uh the electrical shop in there many times and we're we're maxed out we can't I have I have um no more electricity no more Outlets to plug into for our welder welding machines and for my students so it becomes as a teacher logistically difficult to to to meet that demand when the building is so old at the end of the day and and fixing it is really not an option so I just want to say you know when you support the support the school you support the kids you support the community thank you Brian Winslow I'm a Northfield president and visit teacher it's always hard to follow John so I'll just be quick um being a phys ed teacher I switched over to Fizz had a couple years ago and I never realized how many community events we hold in our gymnasium we hold voting in our gymnasium we have AP exams tomorrow in the gymnasium and I know that's sounds small to everybody else but to the gym teacher who's looking at the weather forecast it's a big deal so it just kind of talks about out like the the community space that I know we talked they talked about not possibly having a big Auditorium and using more of a community space and it's great for Chamber of Commerce breakfast that are usually in the gym we got all types of events and we're seeing the community all the time so I just want to say a new building will give the space that is needed to continue providing those community events but also providing the gym teacher something to do some place to go when it rains out oh no don't cancel PE I think uh we are very close to our time I just want to thank everyone is there another question I just hello here I am um I'm Rick Lain um I'll bear I should say I spent 34 years in Franklin County Tech um 26 of them teaching 8 administrator and I just wanted to address your question or your statement about the other models for vocational education and uh most of this country does not use this model Massachusetts model where the kids decide in ninth grade to go to the tech school and they stay there for 4 years is somewhat unique and I believe it's based on a European model more and it's based that way because if values Vocational Technical education as high value and that was not always the case I was around in 1978 when the school opened and well I won't go there the values situ situation was much different um but as a math teacher I was um I was taught in a regular academic high school I went to a regular academic college and I started teaching math at Franklin County Tech and it wasn't working the regular academic approach to teaching math for these kids was turning them off so what did I do I was teaching geometry it's my love my favorite subject I spent a lot of time with carpentry instructors to learn what geometry they needed and how they taught it I spent some time with plumbers because there's some geometry that there's shortcuts that they use that I wasn't aware of and as I had those conversations that was incorporated into my instruction um I also was asked to teach a Physics course once again I had physics in high school I had physics in college and after my experience teaching math I knew I had better not try to teach it the same way I learned it and sure enough I was introduced to a curriculum that was written by vocational academical teachers for vocational technical students that taught physics that plumbers need to know that electricians need to know that Carpenters need to know and that the instructor needed to learn because I spent a lot of time talking to those instructors that will not have if we're in 1 building and they're in the other building 20 miles away we have the best model we really do and I'm prejudiced but I still think it's the best model well thank you very much to everyone we appreciate you again coming out uh I'll call your attention to a few things first are those half-page flyers on your tables this QR code or the web site listed on the bottom will bring you to the schools new building project website where you can get all of the details you are also welcome to take these and there's extra copies in the back back to your constituents or your your communities to share and the last thing that we should share is uh the vote is October 6th that has been uh decided so October 6th we encourage everybody to go to the polls and cast their vote we appreciate you all coming thank you to our panel uh and we wish you all a good night
