[Speaker 2] (0:14 - 1:07)
Okay, welcome everybody. It is Thursday, December 15th, 6 o'clock, and the Swarovski School Committee regular meeting is called to order. If you are so able, please rise for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, good evening everybody. Is there any public comment?

I don't see anyone out there wanting to public comment, but that is okay. Committee announcements? Ms. Wright.

[Speaker 3] (1:09 - 1:18)
I don't have any announcements other than I can talk about the groundbreaking, but I can do that later too. We can skip later.

[Speaker 2] (1:18 - 1:19)
Whatever you like.

[Speaker 3] (1:19 - 1:49)
Well, I mean, I think a lot of people, you guys know at least, the groundbreaking for the new elementary school was Tuesday. It was a great, it just felt so great to just have it happen, and it just was exciting. I went to a meeting on the site today, and I was just so excited to be at a meeting with construction hats and just getting ready to go, and the groundbreaking was really well attended, and it just felt great.

[Speaker 2] (1:49 - 1:52)
Great, thank you. Yeah.

[Speaker 6] (1:53 - 1:54)
I don't have anything today.

[Speaker 2] (1:54 - 1:54)
Great.

[Speaker 5] (1:55 - 1:56)
I'm good, go ahead.

[Speaker 2] (1:57 - 2:33)
All right. Just for me, I need just to say to Suzanne how awesome Wednesday was. I mean, for your group, for the groups before you, the energy, the excitement was palatable, and it is just, it was incredibly exciting seeing that small footprint, which was Stanley School, and the larger, amazing footprint, which is going to be the new school.

It was just amazing, and thank you again to you and your group. It was great. I thought it was great.

[Speaker 3] (2:34 - 2:42)
It was fun. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel. It sort of felt like, oh, another ceremony, but it felt like it really did have a purpose.

[Speaker 2] (2:42 - 2:44)
Yeah, it definitely felt different, didn't it?

[Speaker 3] (2:44 - 2:44)
Yeah, right.

[Speaker 2] (2:44 - 2:48)
It's just like, it's like almost, okay, let's go, let's build.

[Speaker 3] (2:48 - 2:57)
Yeah, and you know, you sort of just like, oh, a bunch of people are going to speak, and you have to go through the ceremony of the whole thing, but yeah, it did feel different like that.

[Speaker 2] (2:57 - 3:21)
It was great, so it was amazing. As everyone can see, we have a little bit smaller gathering of the crew today, and for the superintendent's report, the only thing we have on the agenda is the Swarovski High School Theater update. Mr. Dulath, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. I'll just pull this up.

[Speaker 1] (3:27 - 14:12)
Everybody else ready, and I don't get myself ready. I'm just going to share my screen. Okay, so what you are going to see here is, I'll go through these fast.

Basically, this is kind of the third year of development and planning, and what I'm trying to work on is the revamping of our auditorium. It's pushing 20 years old now, and a lot of the stuff in the auditorium is feeling it. The sound system has some issues from the original design, although it was designed really well.

It's starting to feel some wear and tear, so I've been working with a number of people. Max Casper and I have been talking a lot about this, and this project is being presented to the Capital Improvement Committee as a facilities and PEG project. It obviously impacts the school greatly, mostly, but there are other uses.

So the vision here is to renew and upgrade our aging theater to provide the school and town with a professional class facility with a long-term management and maintenance plan. There really isn't a maintenance plan for it right now. It's just fixing things as they break, and the fear is that more things will be breaking soon.

So the benefits of this, and I've been playing around with it. Originally, it was like, you know what, we could have a lot of acts in here. We could have a concert series, and that's been tossed around a bunch.

I actually met with Jamie Marsh, who is the one that designed the Lynn Auditorium from ground up and runs most of that, and he came actually to the theater and talked to me about it, and that was something that the Capital Improvement Committee asked me to do, as well as come to you guys and get some okays from you about some stuff. So I just want to be clear that the number one benefit of this will be the schools because this is within the school building, and I talked to one of the original committee members from this school, and he said that there was really no interest in trying to make it a big moneymaker. The interest was to try to give the students and the residents a world-class facility as best as we could.

So the pressure is not there to try to make a lot of money through concerts. It could be a benefit, an added bonus, but what can we do for our schools, for meetings, for fine arts performances, which we're having tonight, for school assemblies, for the town, obviously town meeting can use some help in there with audio and the various committees. Swamp's Got Residents also, as a performing arts space, a group event space, and then the Recreation Department could do some stuff in there as well.

So the main issues that I just want to make sure everyone is aware of is that the infrastructure itself, lights are reaching the end of life, the audio components are breaking down, and there's some repair that needs, on the curtains needs some repair and replacement. The original design limitations which we butt up against a lot when we're trying to mic even things like this is that the acoustics in there are really tough. There's a lot of bounce off the high walls.

They did a nice job with the panels on the ceilings, but there's still a lot of echo. Mike McClung, who works with Parsons Audio, has been in there with me and listened to the space and is like, yeah, this really needs some acoustic help. We can't use a certain type of microphone, which would be really helpful to mic the theater performances because those mics need power, and in any facility, power is run through the audio network, but for some reason when they design this, there's no power going through the cables.

So that eliminates a lot of microphones that we would use to do live sound reinforcement. Most stages would have three rows of lights. Ours only have two, and so if we wanted to kind of give that extra dimension to stage performances, we would add a row of lights.

And then if anyone's been in there and sat in the front row, you can't hear what comes out of the speakers because the speakers are aimed over your head. And so the people that sit in the middle to the back get the best sound. So that's a major upgrade that we would want to take on.

And then as far as it relates to town committees, it's not a hybrid space like this. We can make it hybrid, but we'd need to upgrade, and a lot of the money for that would come from PEG, and I'm budgeting for next year to upgrade the space to a hybrid space for those purposes. I'll hit you with the cost first, and again, I'm not asking the school for this.

This is a capital improvement request. The hybrid meeting space, I started it actually last year. We're doing some this year, and I've budgeted some for next year, so that's $100,000 off the top that I'm covering.

The audio upgrade runs around $300,000, and then the lighting upgrade around $300,000, and those would happen in FY24 and FY25 if the capital improvement committee approves it. And this is that same timeline. So we're in the determined funding phase of this.

Just quickly, the hybrid meeting space would allow a wireless mic system like the one we have here, zoom interactivity like we have here, and PTZ cameras like we have in here. So instead of the four to eight hours it takes us to set up that room for a meeting space, it would take us about an hour to get everything up and running and balance everything. Again, we can do it.

We've done it. If we need to do it, we'll keep doing it, but if we can upgrade, that would be fantastic. I think the audio upgrade is really exciting.

Audio has changed a lot in the last five years. We can make all of our audio digital, and then we can send mic sounds to anywhere we want. So if we had a mixing board that had mics from the stage, if Mr. Pierce wanted to hear a mix of that in his chorus room so that they could hear what's going on on stage, we can send a certain number of mics there. If we wanted to have some sound out in the auditorium for people to hear, like the chorus warming up, we could send some out there. So that's really the biggest change in audio, and that's something that we need to dig into. We've already purchased the new audio console.

You might have seen it in the back. The students are learning how to use it. It's fantastic.

It's really great. It's analog audio going in and becomes digital, and then it's analog going out. But it's a really exciting time for audio, and it's time for this theater to catch up.

This is a shot of what acoustical treatment on the walls might look like. Then if you look at this picture on the left and on the right, you see what's called a line array. Those are speakers that hang, and you've seen them at concerts.

They all have different directions. If you notice the ones on the bottom, they're aiming at the people in the front row. If you notice the speakers in ours, if you guys pop in for the show, you'll see there's three speakers at the top just aiming directly out.

Mr. Pierce and I have been working on trying to mic the chorus, and when he stands in the front, he can't hear the sound reinforcement that I'm providing him because it's shooting over his head. But with a line array, everyone in the audience has great sound reinforcement. So that's what that would give us.

A lighting upgrade would upgrade our lighting system. As I indicated earlier, the lights, I brought in a theater safety supervisor to come in and look at what we have in there. I also brought in an electrician, and everyone agrees that our lighting system is close to failing.

And the other thing is the system that we have, they don't make anymore. So if we need to get parts, we wouldn't be able to. So Max is aware of this.

In the next five years, there could be an issue with the lights in there. So if we can plan in the next couple of years to replace this, we're going to be in better shape than trying to react to it after it happens. What's also really nice about a lighting upgrade is that we have tungsten lights in there, incandescent lights.

They take a lot of energy. We would switch to LED lights. Right now, we need three lights to make one color.

With LED lights, we'd need one light to make one color. So the amount of lights we'd need would decrease, and we'd also have a lot more flexibility with what we can do and how quickly you can change the colors. Because right now, if they want different color lights, they have to go up in the catwalk, they have to change the gels, and then they're fixed.

With LED lights, you just pick the color you want, and you can change them on the fly. So lighting technology has come a long way as well, and it's an exciting time to do that. Right now, when we kind of cost this out, National Grid was willing to give us a $35,000 incentive for energy efficiency.

So I don't know when we get to FY25 what that would look like, but there are some incentives. So the costs here, $100,000 will come from PEG. I'm working with the town to try to get some grants, working with the classes of 79 and 89 to get some donations, and then there's about a $600,000 remaining cost that I've been working with the Capital Improvement Committee to try to get approved.

Some considerations is just the balance of the use, you know, school versus town versus cultural events. Considering maintenance, repairs, upkeep, and storage, one of the things we would have to really consider, this is one thing Jamie March said, is if you want to bring anybody in here, you can't have stuff everywhere. You need to have all this theater stuff stored.

And Max and I have been talking about where could we put a storage container that wouldn't go against any neighborhood relationships we've had, that would give Mr. Pierce the room that he needs to store all of his sets that he's not using in the moment, because the stage would have to be clear if we wanted to have an act come in and use this stage. There would be possibly some revenue, but Jamie March said don't get into this if you're trying to make money. That's not what it's about.

If you want to have some cultural events come, break even, have a good time, you might even lose some money, but you bring a really nice act to the town and people appreciate it. One thing I do want to say is that all of us that are talking about this feel like a technical director stipended position would be really important. It would be important now to have it, because right now I kind of do it, and Ethan kind of does it, and then the custodians do it, and then the woman that works with Mr. Pierce to help kind of does it. There's no one person to really make sure that the technical upkeep of that stage is thought of, both when performances are coming in or cultural events are happening. So that would be something that we would like to kind of see considered. So finally, the questions that I have for the school committee, because the Capital Improvement Committee did ask me to come to you guys to present this, is one, is there support for the project in general?

If we were to have cultural events, one thing Jamie said is if you don't have a bar with wine and beer, you don't make any money, you lose a lot. So when you're booking an act, they're going to want to make sure that there's that draw. So would there be any room for the school, if there's nothing else happening in the building, to be able to approve a one-day liquor license for an event?

And then would you consider a stipended technical director position maybe something that we work on with the town as well? I don't think there's a formal vote needed, but just more how do you feel about these three areas and what could I take back to the Capital Improvement Committee to say, I talked to the school committee and this is kind of how they feel about it. So that's the presentation.

Happy to answer any questions. John?

[Speaker 5] (14:15 - 14:36)
That was super informative. So I guess just focusing on – sorry, the screen just disappeared. Yeah, let me stop sharing here.

The stipended position. So has there been any discussion how that would be funded?

[Speaker 1] (14:37 - 15:48)
No, I mean in other schools it could be like a teacher who has a part-time position to manage it, whether it could be a stipend, it could be an hourly thing, it could be a teacher who has like a course relief, so there's like a part-time class load and part-time technical director. So there's a lot of ways we could approach it, and we haven't really gone too far down that road because we're managing, but it is something that we all feel like whether it's, you know, for what we have now or if we upgrade, if we're bringing in more people to have one person who's kind of focused on maintaining and even crewing it. Like I'm training my students to know how to crew that so they can get paid to come and do an event.

It's getting complicated enough that I don't think we can necessarily assume that the custodians are going to know how to run this. It's a professional level position. People go to like Berkeley to understand how to run live sound reinforcement, and they spend years understanding it.

And we're asking, not that they couldn't learn it, but we're asking someone to like, on top of everything else you have to do tonight, can you run the mics for this, you know, soccer banquet? And basically yes, but it can get more technical.

[Speaker 5] (15:48 - 15:55)
Is the thought to introduce that stipend position when all of these upgrades have been completed?

[Speaker 1] (15:57 - 16:19)
I think if it's something that we could consider in the next school budget, if it is a school-related position, which I think would be great because then we could involve students in it, I would advocate for starting it in FY24 as part of somebody's position or as a part-time, even a small part-time thing, .25 or something.

[Speaker 3] (16:20 - 16:28)
But it sounds like you need someone qualified. Yes. Like, I mean...

[Speaker 1] (16:29 - 16:29)
Absolutely.

[Speaker 3] (16:29 - 16:32)
So we might have to look outside of the school system.

[Speaker 1] (16:32 - 16:51)
Well, often the people that Mr. Pierce works with are at that level. So Kayla could do that. Holly, who was here before, was kind of doing that as well.

So when he brings in people for theater, they have that lighting and sound reinforcement experience at different levels.

[Speaker 3] (16:52 - 17:00)
And then it would be great to share that with the town a little bit because they would need it, I mean, for any sort of performances.

[Speaker 1] (17:01 - 17:02)
Recreation.

[Speaker 3] (17:02 - 17:04)
Like the North Shore Symphony, using it on Sundays.

[Speaker 1] (17:05 - 17:15)
And for town meetings, like I cover it because that's what I'm here for. But as more and more people want to use it, it does become more of a demand on people.

[Speaker 3] (17:15 - 17:30)
I mean, it's kind of a tough position to fund because it could be a little bit of hours or it could be a lot of hours, right? Like depending how much use the theater gets, right?

[Speaker 1] (17:31 - 18:13)
It could be. Like what we do with athletics is we do a lot of work for athletics and we kind of take some money out of their budget for it. So when we're covering a game, this is a relationship that Kelly and I have, is that if my students are working and I pay for half of it, she pays for half of it.

So there could be like a relationship where if it's something that's outside of what we've already designed for that position, whatever department that is has to cover the cost of that. And that person can either take those hours or if they have someone who's trained, they can hire someone to come in and work whatever job it is. But that person would be responsible for the kind of planning and maintenance and whether or not they do all the events, that could be a scheduling thing.

[Speaker 3] (18:13 - 18:21)
So is it someone that Max could oversee, like as a facilities director because the town and the school are both using it?

[Speaker 1] (18:21 - 18:22)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (18:22 - 18:22)
You know what I'm saying?

[Speaker 1] (18:22 - 18:22)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (18:23 - 18:25)
Like, I don't know.

[Speaker 1] (18:25 - 18:25)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (18:25 - 18:32)
Just thinking like because it can't just be the school or someone who's employed school hours, right?

[Speaker 1] (18:32 - 18:37)
Like my position, I'm like a full-time teacher but then I'm a part-time town employee for all the – Right.

[Speaker 3] (18:37 - 18:47)
So as a teacher, you're only a nine-month employee, right? And as a – I mean, it just works because you can – Right.

[Speaker 1] (18:47 - 18:53)
I can manage it through the summer. Right. And in those situations, Sean is my boss.

[Speaker 3] (18:54 - 19:00)
Right. And then there's a lot of people who are teachers that maybe would help during the school year but maybe didn't want – or not.

[Speaker 1] (19:00 - 19:00)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (19:01 - 19:04)
But it's just an interesting idea. Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (19:04 - 19:09)
I think, yeah, the crafting of that position would – Like sort of understanding who owns it. Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (19:10 - 19:13)
Is huge because we've had so many problems with who owns the field.

[Speaker 1] (19:14 - 19:14)
Yeah. Yes.

[Speaker 3] (19:15 - 19:19)
I mean, that's been a nightmare, right? And, you know.

[Speaker 1] (19:19 - 19:25)
And scheduling this, it's like – I mean, this is a conversation I've had with Maureen.

[Speaker 3] (19:26 - 19:26)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (19:26 - 19:38)
And with the front office. It's like scheduling rooms in this town is so hard because you have to go to so many different people. If you can't get B129 and you want to go to the police station, you've got to go to one person, then another person.

[Speaker 3] (19:38 - 20:00)
Like, for example, isn't Max getting an admin? Or isn't he getting – I don't know. I just feel like there's – I feel like, I agree with you, it needs to live in one place.

It's just hard because when we schedule rooms in this building, obviously teachers and students and clubs or whatever get first priority, right? Right.

[Speaker 1] (20:01 - 20:01)
Yes.

[Speaker 3] (20:02 - 20:21)
And then we've been doing the same thing with the field. Even though it's a town field, we've been giving high school teams first priority on that, which is really – Makes sense. Well, it's made a lot of people not so happy with it, right?

Because it's just – we say it's a town thing, and the theater would have to go to the school first, too.

[Speaker 1] (20:22 - 20:26)
And Jim and I have had this – Jim and I talked at length about this, and he said, look, this is a school.

[Speaker 3] (20:26 - 20:27)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (20:27 - 20:40)
And the theater is here for my classes and for our performances. Right. And the original building committee, that was also their philosophy.

This is first and foremost for the school. And then when they do the calendar meetings, they book all the school stuff first, and then it's like, okay, who's next?

[Speaker 3] (20:41 - 20:41)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (20:41 - 20:43)
And that philosophy makes sense.

[Speaker 3] (20:44 - 20:55)
Yeah. No, it's just – it is. It's getting more and more hard.

And if it got popular, like if it really was – like if dance companies could finally use this, because they haven't been using it because of all the stuff on the stage.

[Speaker 5] (20:56 - 20:56)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (20:56 - 21:01)
And the fact that there's nowhere to put that stuff. You know, if they could start using it, too, it would be great.

[Speaker 2] (21:01 - 21:16)
Yeah. So there's that part of it as well. I agree.

I think the ownership is probably the biggest issue that I see. Let's take a – before I go, Athea, you have any comment about what was said?

[Speaker 6] (21:17 - 21:40)
No, I just – I think it's a good investment, obviously. I mean, anything to kind of help a school or a student, I think, is huge. But, I mean, just kind of listening in on the different downsides.

Because, obviously, I would say yes because I'm here. But, you know, listening is kind of more where I'm at right now because it's more of an education thing for me.

[Speaker 3] (21:41 - 21:49)
So – Yeah, I think we're all on the same page. Like, it's obviously a good idea, and we should have – and it should be on a regular maintenance cycle like everything else.

[Speaker 6] (21:49 - 22:07)
And he works extremely hard, and I think – Does he? No. Really?

Like, even – I've never had you as a teacher, but, like, you just hear things, and it's, like, he works extremely hard. And him and Mr. Pierce, like, they should have the facilities they deserve.

[Speaker 2] (22:07 - 25:17)
But, yeah, it's definitely – definitely a lot of things that you have to think through before we can – So, a couple of things from me is I completely agree with both Suzanne, but both of you guys. And we definitely have to – probably more research and discussion has to go in to where the technical director would lie. And because the entire community really uses the building, and we just – that has to be a thoughtful discussion with everybody.

I think it's a good idea. Again, I will always defer to the superintendent and what she happens to think. In general, to answer the first question, is the project in general?

Yeah, absolutely. I think you have our full, you know, unthroated support to upgrade. I agree.

Once again, we just want to make sure there's – Maintenance has to take place. It just has to. And it's unfortunate it's 20 – I can't even believe it's 20 years down the road.

But maintenance absolutely has to take place. We don't want to be in a situation that we're, you know, penny foolish. And it sounds like, you know, under your leadership and working with Max on the town side, that people are seeing the value of taking care of what the taxpayers spend on and what the kids use and what the community uses.

So I think it's a great idea. You know, doing it over three years certainly appears to make the most sense. You know, I agree with you that if you just sit in the front, you can't hear a darn thing.

So I think it's great. Your second question regarding a one-day liquor license, I can't – and if anyone else has a comment on that, I don't know enough about how that works. I'd, again, have to defer to the superintendent and to the powers that be who understand, who issues a liquor license, how that works, and all the safety protocols that go in.

I agree with Jamie that in order to even break even, you just have to have a beer and wine license to have that available. But I don't know enough to say one way or another. I know that when I have gone to other events in other communities, a one-day license is normally granted.

But, again, that comes from, I believe, the other side, the town side. And then, again, as we talked about the formal, the stipend, that has to be discussed too. But in general terms, in global terms, I think it's a great idea to upgrade it before it gets too far down the rabbit hole of, well, now we don't need just $600,000 worth of upgrades.

Now we're talking seven figures worth of upgrades. And the community does use it, and it's used a lot, whether it's an event tonight like the school, whether it's town meeting. So I think it's a really – I think it's a good idea.

Many more questions, I think, to come up. And I think I would charge – speaking for the superintendent, I think I would charge you to go back and maybe meet with Max. If you need someone on the committee to be involved with that, I would ask you to go through with him.

But I think it's a really good idea in theory. I really do.

[Speaker 3] (25:18 - 26:22)
I think I'm, like, sitting here thinking – I mean, liquor license, obviously you need it. And it's totally fine. I would imagine it wouldn't be allowed in the auditorium because no beverages are allowed in there.

And we don't want, like, things spilling on that stuff and smelling like a rat house when the students are coming on Monday or whatever, right? So it just makes sense to do it and keep it out there, whatever. But I was thinking, like, that the person funding the position will just be tough because just putting in our budget, you know, that's just tough.

But then I was thinking there's got to be, like, mass cultural council grants just to, like, sort of figure out, like, have someone help us figure out a program or a way to sort of partially fund the position with, like, the revenue that comes in or stuff like that, you know? Especially if you're not looking to make a revenue, if there was, like, a revolving theater account or something like that, you know, where it got paid out of ticket sales or from grants that came in to do – do you know what I'm saying?

[Speaker 1] (26:22 - 26:27)
So the costs of the events are covered, but then if ticket sales come in, it goes into an account that just pays the position.

[Speaker 3] (26:28 - 26:31)
Well, I mean, it probably won't make enough money to pay someone's salary.

[Speaker 1] (26:32 - 26:32)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (26:32 - 26:47)
But if we had some sort of revolving account that did – that was just for that, like, right now, ticket sales, for example, go back into the general budget, right?

[Speaker 5] (26:47 - 26:48)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (26:48 - 26:49)
And it doesn't have to.

[Speaker 5] (26:49 - 26:49)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (26:50 - 27:18)
Like, you know, and I mean, I'm sure there's creative ways to sort of at least fund partial position or something, you know? And I think, like, if you could take – if you could leverage, like, a mass arts council grant or something like that to, like, start something or – I don't know, because I think they would be kind of – it's an interesting idea. It's just an interesting idea, like, how much the school and the town are integrated in this area.

[Speaker 1] (27:18 - 27:18)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (27:19 - 27:20)
I don't know. I don't know. I'm just thinking.

[Speaker 1] (27:20 - 27:37)
Yeah, I spoke with Marzi, and she had some other ideas about grants related to, like, just accessibility, because audio-wise, you go in there, and if you can't hear well, you can't hear well. Even, you know, it's not – And she says so there could be money for the development of that.

[Speaker 3] (27:37 - 27:37)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (27:38 - 27:49)
But I'll talk to her about even, like, a position that allows us to maintain a facility that is, you know, accessible and that it could be accessibility as well as coordinating.

[Speaker 3] (27:49 - 27:58)
No, completely. Like, that's – Yeah. Yeah, between her and Max and, like, facilities and community development and, like, the school side.

[Speaker 1] (27:58 - 27:58)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (27:59 - 28:39)
It's like a great – like a trifecta of geniuses. But also, my other thought while I'm sitting here is when this equipment was delivered into the high school, I remember the day that – Yeah, you were telling me about this. I just remember the day that it was delivered, and there was zero people here to look at it, right?

And all the stuff that came in, no one got trained. And I think that this is really important, this high-tech stuff that comes in that – We've had two trainings on that board already. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, videotape them and make them sort of, you know, dummy-proof so that – I mean, God forbid we lose your expertise at some point, right?

It's just, like, it needs to live here.

[Speaker 2] (28:40 - 28:40)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (28:40 - 28:47)
But that's just my other thought, like, just to make sure there's, like, a robust kind of training on this stuff too. But I think it's awesome.

[Speaker 2] (28:47 - 29:07)
Yeah. I do, and I think for the students that you teach, you know, getting them ready for college or whatever they're going to do with the latest technology that we can provide is an absolute positive as they go meet with – you know, they have their interviews at a school, and they can talk about what they do day in and day out, you know, with technology that's not 20 years old.

[Speaker 1] (29:07 - 29:07)
Right.

[Speaker 2] (29:07 - 29:21)
And I think that's an important part of this as well as you – Absolutely. As we're all talking it to the Capital Improvement Committee, is that we want to keep this building as technologically up-to-date as humanly possible given the constraints that we have.

[Speaker 3] (29:21 - 29:28)
I'm sure it feeds into the whole STEM program too. I mean, obviously, right? There's, like, so many connections anyway.

[Speaker 2] (29:29 - 31:26)
Right. So this was great. Please come back.

Let us know what we can do as a group. Cool. And – but you have our full throated support.

Thank you very much. Great. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Thank you, everybody, for your comments. I appreciate that. Chair update.

Really, I don't have any update. Things are going swimmingly, and we'll be starting to work on a budget coming up in January. We have another meeting of tri-chair committee, which is, again, myself, chair of the select board, chair of the finance committee.

We're meeting with the town administrator, the superintendent, et cetera. We are actually going to try to have a meeting with either the tri-chair group, which we've had a little challenge doing that date-wise, or the town administrator, and someone from the budget subcommittee. There are some questions that have come up in the last several weeks that we'll address going forward before we get to the nitty-gritty of the budget.

So that's all going on. The other thing that we've had to put off a couple times, we have the Climate Action and Resilience Coalition is going to make a presentation to us. And feel free – do you have a microphone up there?

Here you go. So if I could ask that you just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about the committee, and then we'll call up your presentation and let us know how we can help.

[Speaker 4] (31:26 - 40:30)
Okay. So, hi. My name is Martha Schmidt, and I'm a member of the Swampscot Renewable Energy Committee and also a member of the Climate Action Resilience Coalition.

So some background. For 2021, Renewable Energy Committee priorities included three major initiatives. So one was to work on weatherization to make our homes more efficient, and this was being done in partnership with Mass Save and Revise and included free energy audits and discounted weatherization.

The second priority was promoting EV adoption. And you may recall we had a demonstration of EV vehicles at the farmer's market back in June. And also the town adopted an EV-first procurement policy for municipal vehicles.

And just a reminder that that policy is still pending approval by the school committee. So, you know, I'm not sure if you have it in hand or if it's on your agenda at some point to approve that. So the third priority – this is back in 2021 – was to complete a greenhouse gas inventory, which we had a commitment to do that as part of being a green community.

So you may or may not be aware that Swampscot is designated as a green community, and we received a number of grants to target reducing energy usage, and that was really in municipal operations. So we did that inventory in 2021, and it really gave us an awareness of where emissions are coming from and the need to take action. So basically we formed a coalition and started meeting early this year.

So, next slide. So last year the Commonwealth passed legislation to address climate change, and our neighbor Governor Charlie Baker signed this legislation, which set a goal to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. And it also sets goals for different sectors of the economy, including residential heating and cooling.

So, next. So climate change is happening now. These two slides were provided by Professor Stephen Young.

He actually is a Swampscot resident and teaches at Salem State. Basically shows us that climate change is having a greater impact on New England and Massachusetts. Image on the right basically shows that the ocean is warming faster, and the reason that's relevant is because we're a coastal community, so it is impacting us, I guess, faster.

Next slide. And these are photos taken from just around town showing flooding and damages from fairly recent storms. So you may realize that storms seem to be more frequent and extreme these days, and, you know, flooding down the street from you even.

Next. So this slide shows the results of the greenhouse gas inventory for our town compiled last year. The chart shows the breakdown of emissions in Swampscot by major sectors, such as buildings, transportation, and waste operations.

So almost all of our emissions are caused by buildings and vehicles. So in our community, buildings generate about 60% of emissions, and another 40% comes from vehicles. Waste and municipal operations contribute a pretty small overall part.

So about a year ago, the Renewable Energy Committee presented these results to the select board with a recommendation that we form a climate action and resilience coalition and work on a climate action plan. So the coalition started meeting early this year just to work on a plan. So, next.

We also recommended and a climate action resolution was actually passed at last May's town meeting. And that resolution was endorsed by a number of different town committees and interest groups, including the High School Outdoor Adventure and Conservation Club. And we felt that a strong public statement of support by town leaders would be pretty important to ensure that we had a plan that was comprehensive and also that we get input and engagement from different parts of the community, to get the coverage and focus.

Next slide. So just a real rough timeline. We'd like to get the climate action plan adopted at next May's town meeting.

That's the goal. And this is just a high-level timeline on activities, and we're in the early process of drafting a plan. We did apply for a planning assistance grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

That's a mouthful. To support creation of a plan. So we did get that grant for $50,000, and we're using the money to fund a consultant that's got experience creating plans.

So they've created these plans for other communities, and not just in Massachusetts, but across the country. The reason we really felt we needed that skill set is because we're a group of volunteers, and we really don't have, like, the graphic arts background, the communications background, to pull, I guess, a more professional package together. And also, they will bring lessons learned from other communities to make sure that we are focused on the right priorities.

So, you know, there's a lot of actions that we could put into a plan, but we don't want to, like, boil the ocean and try to accomplish too much. And, you know, they're going to help us target the plan into actions that have more bang for the buck, I guess. So, next.

So we need a plan that will address and mitigate the emissions here in town, and also align with the Commonwealth's net zero goals. And we wanted to have a plan that's basically more comprehensive than just a net zero, you know, emissions-focused plan. So that's why we're calling it Climate Action and Resilience Plan, because we are a coastal community, and we wanted to address that aspect as well, and basically have a plan that'll prepare us better for extreme weather events.

The best plan will include input from the whole community, and that's why we're here talking to you, and we've gone and talked to other committees as well to get their input. So, next slide. So we've identified five major focus areas for the climate plan.

So three sections will address emissions from buildings, transportation, and waste operations. So those were the, you know, the base, the greenhouse gas emissions were coming from those areas. But we also added two focus areas to cover resilience and natural resources.

In that way, we wanted a plan that was more comprehensive. So, next slide. We did put out a survey in the September town newsletter.

The results from the survey indicated that about 85% of the respondents were either somewhat concerned or very concerned about climate change. So we think this is the right time to do it, if it's not too late. You know, other communities have already created plans, and we're definitely not the first, but it's an important thing to do.

Next. That about covers the presentation. I think that I just wanted to pause and get any feedback or your thoughts.

[Speaker 3] (40:32 - 40:45)
I was wondering, have we seen the resolution? Like, I don't recall seeing a climate resolution. Like you said, the other boards and committees are on board with it.

[Speaker 4] (40:45 - 40:54)
So there was a climate resolution passed at last May's town meeting.

[Speaker 3] (40:54 - 41:02)
Yeah, I'm just saying, so the other boards that you're listing on here, they took a vote to support your resolution?

[Speaker 4] (41:02 - 41:04)
To approve the climate action resolution.

[Speaker 3] (41:05 - 41:14)
So you brought the resolution to their boards, and they took votes on it. That's sort of what I'm asking, like how you have a list of the committees.

[Speaker 4] (41:14 - 41:26)
So I wasn't at the town meeting, but my understanding is there was a resolution, about a page long, stating that we will form a climate.

[Speaker 3] (41:27 - 41:40)
Oh, no, I remember all that. I remember town meeting voted to approve the resolution, but then you had listed on here individual boards. Like you just said, the Slumscot High School Club, Outdoor Club.

I was just wondering.

[Speaker 4] (41:40 - 41:42)
They spoke in favor of the resolution.

[Speaker 3] (41:43 - 42:05)
So no one's like signed the resolution? I was just wondering if there was an official thing that we missed. But that's all.

And I mean, obviously this makes a lot of sense. And I mean, we're a coastal community. We're an educational facility.

Like obviously we should be like, you know, this should be part of everyone's education. And I mean.

[Speaker 2] (42:07 - 42:26)
Yeah, I mean, you asked the question I asked. I mean, I guess from, I agree with Suzanne. I mean, obviously this is something we should endorse.

My question, is there a resolution that you would like the school committee to formally endorse?

[Speaker 4] (42:27 - 42:46)
So I think we're in the stage of making people aware that this is going on because we don't want to say here's a plan and have people say, well, wait a minute, we didn't get a chance. So we expect to have a draft in the, like, February timeframe.

[Speaker 3] (42:46 - 42:48)
Okay. Oh, sorry, go ahead.

[Speaker 4] (42:49 - 43:08)
And I think, yes, we would socialize that and make sure all the committees are aware so that when it goes to select, I think the select board has to vote on it officially before it goes to town meeting. I'm not sure exactly what the process is, but.

[Speaker 2] (43:09 - 43:09)
You were going to say something.

[Speaker 3] (43:09 - 43:19)
I was just wondering when is the public charrette or where you're getting, I mean, beyond doing the survey, trying to. Right.

[Speaker 4] (43:19 - 43:46)
So the consultant just reached out to want to ask about setting up a meeting in January with major stakeholders, so that would be, like, town members. So that's January 23rd, roughly. And I think after that we would try to do something with the general public, have some community events.

We haven't planned that yet. Right.

[Speaker 3] (43:46 - 43:51)
I mean, I just think that's an important, obviously, event.

[Speaker 2] (43:52 - 43:53)
I mean, John.

[Speaker 5] (43:54 - 44:02)
I was just going to, you know, echo the same sentiment about the community involvement so there's no surprises later.

[Speaker 4] (44:02 - 44:02)
Agree.

[Speaker 5] (44:02 - 44:34)
They weren't able to participate in the process. I think that is a really important aspect. And, you know, how you do that, I guess, is up to you guys.

But I know other groups have, you know, used the Lynn item. They've used the local patch, you know, as a method of, you know, getting their, you know, kind of their goals out there. And, again, like you said, socialize them so people are aware and how they can plug into that process.

[Speaker 4] (44:35 - 44:37)
Do you have ideas on what we can do?

[Speaker 2] (44:38 - 45:40)
I mean, as far as the school community goes, you know, after you folks meet and, you know, you're starting to plan your event, you could just either drop myself or the superintendent a note with a little bit of detail, and we're happy to read that at a meeting and, you know, post that on the various social media sites that, you know, the schools control. But, again, as I think Suzanne definitely said, that we, and John as well, I think this is something that just given, you know, climate change in general and, you know, our closeness to the water and our reliance on the water and the ocean, and we all want to make sure that that stays as clean and as positive as possible. Really, we'll kind of throw that back at you.

You let us know what we can do to help your organization move forward.

[Speaker 4] (45:41 - 45:41)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (45:42 - 46:27)
I have one other suggestion. At the high school here, there is a class called Green Scholars, and I think that that's, you could probably reach out to the principal to sort of get some contact information. But the Green Scholars, a lot of those kids are working on projects like community projects or ways to help the community.

So that's a good sort of group to activate. And there's also a political action club at the high school. So sometimes those kids are active in sort of campaigning or helping with some things like that.

And then, obviously, that outdoor club that you already have on the hook, like I'm sure.

[Speaker 4] (46:27 - 46:36)
Well, we have two high school students on the coalition, so it's Sam Snitkowski and Piti Sayurieva.

[Speaker 3] (46:37 - 46:47)
Yeah, so, I mean, those are two great kids to hook up with other, I mean, the kids are so good and so savvy about how to get messages out, right?

[Speaker 2] (46:48 - 46:49)
Right, right.

[Speaker 3] (46:49 - 46:51)
So I just think like.

[Speaker 2] (46:51 - 46:52)
They're better than we are, that's for sure.

[Speaker 3] (46:52 - 46:55)
But I think Green Scholars is always a good place to go because.

[Speaker 2] (46:57 - 47:04)
And then just thinking outside the box, as this gets towards the spring and summer, there may be something with the farmer's market crew and all that.

[Speaker 4] (47:04 - 47:11)
Sure, yeah. But we don't want to wait for the farmer's market, I think. And if we're aiming for May, there's not a lot of time.

Right. So.

[Speaker 2] (47:12 - 47:25)
Well, again, please let us know what we can do to do a formal endorsement and a formal vote, as you guys have more clarity. But we certainly appreciate your time to do this presentation. Thank you so much.

[Speaker 4] (47:25 - 47:26)
Thank you.

[Speaker 2] (47:26 - 47:27)
Thank you for your patience, too, in the last couple weeks.

[Speaker 4] (47:28 - 47:29)
Thank you for your time.

[Speaker 2] (47:29 - 47:37)
Our pleasure. Thank you. All right.

Moving on, any subcommittee discussion?

[Speaker 3] (47:38 - 47:49)
No, Don, you and I just still need to get together. All right. But I feel better right now.

I have some time.

[Speaker 2] (47:51 - 47:51)
That's good.

[Speaker 3] (47:51 - 47:54)
I'll keep working on that spreadsheet. I don't know if you've looked at it at all.

[Speaker 2] (47:54 - 47:56)
I have looked at it. Yeah. So there's just.

[Speaker 3] (47:57 - 48:03)
You can see it's mostly J's that need to go through. And then we'll meet.

[Speaker 2] (48:03 - 48:04)
Okay. That sounds great.

[Speaker 3] (48:04 - 48:50)
And then I already talked about groundbreaking. That's exciting. I do want to announce, if anyone watches this, that pre-blast notices have gone out to neighbors within 300 feet of the site and then neighbors within 300 to 500 feet of the site.

And those neighbors that are 500 to 1,000 feet will also get notification. And any one of those groups can sign up for a pre-blast survey. And they need to do that by January 28th.

So far, we have completed quite a bit. So I just want to get all those surveys completed, because blasting is scheduled to start mid-January. Great.

[Speaker 2] (48:51 - 52:25)
Good. That's exciting. That's very exciting.

Just a couple of things on the subcommittee side. I know Ms. O'Connor is part of the negotiating subcommittee. We'll be setting up a meeting in the foreseeable future regarding a couple items with the SEA that they want to address and we want to address as well, just items that we had just put off while we were negotiating the main contract.

And then, as I mentioned earlier, the budget subcommittee will be getting together as well. All right. So moving on to the consent agenda.

The consent agenda is designed to expedite the handling of routine and miscellaneous business of the school district. The school committee may adopt the entire consent agenda with one motion. At the request of any committee member, any item or items may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda for discussion.

For today, we have five items. The first is regular session minutes from November 17, 2020. We have three donations that we'll talk about in one.

Excuse me, 2022. Sorry. Trying to make myself younger than I am.

We have three donations for the robotics team that we'll talk about in one sec. And then we have warrant number 23-21 and 23-23. So as we do, there are three donations, all of which are for registration for the robotics team.

And I'd just like to thank the first, Scott Codner, care of Hammond Museum for the robotics team for three or excuse me, correct, for $300 for registration and a team sponsor. Thank you very much. That's very nice of you.

And I know the robotics team is doing great. And they look forward to those monies. The second donation is from, and I apologize in advance, Alexi Ivanov.

I'm sorry if I messed up your name. Again, this is for robotics team registration. That was for $400.

Alexi, again, on behalf of the robotics team and the district, thank you very much. Those funds go directly to activities for the students on the robotics team. And any dollars from the community is appreciated.

And lastly, we have another donation from Red V Training and Consulting LLC. Again, for registration for the robotics team for a competition. And so total, we're talking $1,000 total for those three donations.

And on behalf of the school committee, thank you. It really does mean a lot when the community just comes up and helps the various clubs at not only the high school, but elsewhere. So for these three donations, our heartfelt thanks, and myself in particular, thank you.

So if I could have a motion to approve the consent agenda.

[Speaker 3] (52:27 - 52:28)
I'll make the motion.

[Speaker 2] (52:28 - 52:33)
I'll second. All right. Okay.

I'll approve. Say yes.

[Speaker 3] (52:34 - 52:34)
Yes.

[Speaker 2] (52:34 - 52:47)
Yes. That is unanimous. With that, I know it was a smaller agenda tonight, and I appreciate you guys coming out in the rain.

There was a lot of activities at the high school. I know I want to check out some of the artwork.

[Speaker 3] (52:48 - 52:54)
Oh, yeah. Right. People are still watching this.

Come on down. Awesome. And the performance starts in five minutes.

[Speaker 2] (52:54 - 52:57)
Exactly. So let's make a motion to adjourn.

[Speaker 3] (52:57 - 52:58)
Make a motion.

[Speaker 2] (52:58 - 53:02)
I'll second. I will third. Everybody who wants to say yes, say yes.

[Speaker 3] (53:03 - 53:03)
Yes.

[Speaker 2] (53:03 - 53:05)
Thank you very much, everybody. Have a great evening. Have a great holiday.