minutes

MINUTES

LITCHFIELD SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE

LITCHFIELD INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL MUSIC ROOM

JANUARY 22, 2004

A meeting of the Litchfield School Building Committee was held on Thursday, January 22, 2004, at 7:00 p.m. in the Litchfield Intermediate School Music Room

Present were: Stacey Kavle, Acting Chairman; Malcolm Bramley; William Buckley; Lynn Chapman; Kent Gilyard; John Mullen; Paul Sapiro; Gary Waugh; Jeff Zullo.

Also Present:; Leo Paul, First Selectman; John Tindall-Gibson, Superintendent; Peg Perusse, Business Manager; BOE Members: Diane Knox, Wayne Shuhi, Frank Simone, John Noone, Robert Doyle, Don Falcetti; Tim Breslin, LHS Principal; Richard Munday, Tim Callahan and Brian Minney of Herbert S. Newman and Partners; Bruce Walpole and Greg Oneglia of O&G Industries; Public and the Press.

Meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by S. Kavle

Motion made by B. Buckley to approve the minutes as corrected of the January 15, 2004 meeting sec. by L. Chapman.

Motion Carried. All votes were in the affirmative. M. Bramley abstained.

Public Participation None

Project Discussion with Architects

A spread sheet was handed out by R. Munday with a list questions in order to help explain the project to the public, to use to structure the outreach campaign and fundamental programmatic questions to move forward with planning. A set of sketches was also handed out which included: 1. Existing Site Plan; 2, LHS Existing Plan with 1960s and 1970's additions sketch; 3. LIS Existing Plan; 4. LHS School Plan per ED 049R; 5. Alternative LHS Plan; 6. LIS Plan per ED 049R; 7. Alternative LIS Plan.

Discussion

M. Bramley- Have you discussed traffic pattern and the fact that everyone circulates around one point? R. Munday - We will translate the Education Specifications (AEd Specs@) into a design and we will review the design with the people who use the buildings to uncover issues and revise the design. K. Gilyard- Do you notice that we can=t hear when the heat is running in this building? R. Munday - That is something we will be working on. J. Mullen - I think we should have a list, from people who are working in the schools, of what they want to see change and what they see are the problems. B. Buckley - Tenants fall into two categories; 1.Teachers and Staff; 2. Students. We should distribute an outline of the project to the teachers and staff with Ed specs and a questionnaire designed to the teachers and staff. It would be nice for us to have this information from the students and we may want to get the student council involved. T. Callahan - The people working on the Ed Specs will be involving and getting information from the teachers, staff and students. R. Munday - In my experience usually people are very general or very specific. This is a target renovation and we are not going to be able to turn this building upside down. I think Bill had it right; tell the teachers, staff and students what the process is and what the designs are. J. Tindall-Gibson - This is a normal part of the schematic design process. Tim [Callahan] and other members of Newman meet in small groups with every member of the school staff and listen to their wants and needs. M. Bramley - I think teachers, staff and administrators can understand the difference between tactical and strategic. We are going to have to make choices. We have to know what they think are the most important things. J. Zullo - I would like to hear the staff and students answers on things like: ADo we need a bigger gym?@ and ADo we need an Auditorium?@, etc. P. Sapiro - After we add space and update mechanicals, we are not going to have money in the budget to do some things on the wish list. B. Buckley - I would like to know what the tenants would like to have and look at cost conceptually. When we make a decision we need to then explain it at a referendum. We need to know what people are feeling about it. R. Munday - I feel we have done a lot of work for several years now, we are not operating in a vacuum, we know what we are dealing with. We know a lot about the buildings. We can start talking about the project and deal with the parameters. G. Waugh - My concern at LHS, when I attended parent conferences, I saw that we are dealing with extremities. In order to get from Point A to Point B I had to travel a distance. The tech wing was always the extreme of those extremities. R. Munday - two sites of possible new construction at LHS: 1. The tech wing; 2. open space [approximately around the outdoor basketball courts]. If we do it in front of the current entrance it has an impact on driveways and parking. The proposal to create the plumb hill fields has changed our options dramatically. The tech wing site could be built on through demolition without causing a lot of problems with site development. M. Bramley - There is room for an addition of 6 -8 classrooms on the north side. J. Zullo - I believe with the new field proposal both fields become redundant. R. Munday - The problem with the north side addition is that is makes the hallway a lot longer. The philosophy for the project is that we would be putting the science labs in the new addition. S. Kavle - In terms of the cost of site work at either entrance, would there be significant differences? R. Munday - We may have to have the bus drop-off different than the parent drop-off. S. Kavle - I am asking if you feel the cost for site work in one location is significantly more. R. Munday - If we demolish teach wing and build, we have a flat site. T. Callahan - The move we touch the old building and build along it we increase the construction costs. J. Mullen - If you put the two story addition at tech wing site, where would you put the new entrance? R. Munday - One front door [on north side, where 1970" entrance way] and another entrances for bus drop-off. J. Mullen - The parent drop-off, is that giving us an issue turning around? R. Munday - There will be a loop at the end of parent drop-off. J. Mullen - If there is a bus there can you pass it. J. Zullo - Parents would be going down to the lower parking lot to exit. B. Buckley - We need to address additions before you can play with the traffic pattern. S. Kavle - We have to consider the cost of whatever solution we come up with. It should reinforce what used to be the center of the building. Over the years with the additions we added the central area has gotten lost. R. Munday - The issue of circulation is very important. When you enter the school the corridors are hidden from you. We want to clarify how you work your way through the building. To make that work it requires eating away at the parameter to work that out. L. Chapman - I would like to see only one main entrance to the building with the administration office right there. R. Munday - If the school is well designed your impulse is not the go with the buses. If cars and buses are mixed up together, it is chaos. T. Callahan - I spent time looking at where students enter the building and they go to the door which is probably closest to their first class or locker. The idea of a front door is that it addresses where you arrive at the building. T. Breslin - We can supervise students coming in from bus drop-offs. We want [our office] to be at the front entrance where we can see people come in. J. Mullen - If we did that entrance and we had a parent drop-off and bus drop-off, would that be a problem? T. Breslin - No. T. Callahan - A normal procedure is that after everyone is in all the one door is closed and secured. J. Mullen - If we did that entrance and construction at the current tech wing, we would not have any problems. In my opinion it=s a good plan. T. Breslin - How do you feel with traffic in that area? A delivery truck can block that entrance. Can that area be widened? T. Callahan - There is a grading issue there. We have to have it examined by civil engineers. M. Bramley - The green area on Route 202 is wetlands. J. Zullo - Listening to this, I am looking at one concept. I like the plan with the addition to the front of the gymnasium and cafeteria. R. Munday - We can create a cove between gymnasium and cafeteria which acts as a lobby. It would be a way of enclosing the space. S. Kavle - If you looked at it as a portal, could you not use that as a main entrance? R. Munday - That is an alternative. W. Shuhi - What is important; I like the idea of loops and connectors between the Gym and Café. I also like the two story addition in the tech ed area. Is there a way that can be looped to another part of the building? E. Fabbri - Have one entry to maintain bus flow and have parents go down and around north parking lot and stack but drop off at main entry. R. Munday - We could build something out in the courtyard, a lot of construction, but not getting a lot. T. Callahan - I still think the current entryway is a problem and not knowing where to go in the building. G. Waugh - Some people stopped us and said it is important to get lobby space in the gym and reasonable rest rooms. This may affect the entrance. R. Munday - Every square foot (ASF@) you construct for getting people from one wing to another, you can=t apply to program. B. Buckley - Richard=s job is figuring this out. We need to get him the information. I don=t like that entrance, going by the dumpster and kitchen delivery area. I suggest we go back to the beginning and go through the questions. S. Kavle - We should go through the list fairly efficiently. J. Zullo - Why don=t we jump to the High School?

LHS - d. Gymnasium - Replace or Renovate?

M. Bramley - I heard at a meeting what happens when they attend basketball games. It is the external public that has to be thought about. T. Breslin - The locker space is disgraceful, there is a problem with the floor and there is not adequate places for students to leave there stuff. M. Bramley - The comments that we received were people coming to attend basketball games. K. Gilyard - I was appalled by the gymnasium. It was a wreck. Structural problems, the locker rooms were closets with lockers in it. If we don=t do something with this its going to be a problem and a bad reflection on our school. Everybody uses the Gym. J. Zullo - The key? Can we modify, expand, to use that structure or is it too far gone? R. Munday - the roof is a tear down. J. Zullo - Can we knock out into the courtyard and add space to the lobby? It is structurally feasible? R. Munday - There is a renovation budget and new construction. If we were to take the Gym down and rebuild we would not have to build some other program. It is feasible from construction stand point but you have to pay for it. T. Callahan - The size of the court is inadequate and you need program space; and exercise room, weight room, based on staffs comments. R. Munday - The ED 049R plan does call for program space. T. Callahan - Looking at weight room and exercise room, lobby and restrooms. L. Chapman - Why couldn=t this [west side] be a new Gym and in the current Gym footprint put our addition. We demolish current Gym and have that area for an entrance, administration, tech wing, science wing. One footprint, one structure. R. Munday - This is more costly, the demolition. T. Callahan - The tech wing is 7,000 SF, the Gym is 12,000 SF. We would have to build into project. We would have to trade 5,000 SF renovation for 5,000 SF new construction. J. Zullo - Lynn=s concept of one piece is good. Create looping and a new entrance. K. Gilyard - Would we still be able to build an Auditorium? T. Callahan - I think we can start with that idea and come back with a plan. W. Shuhi - You mentioned that potentially we can renovate LIS as new. The reimbursement by doing that may negate what you need to pull from LHS. T. Callahan - We have explored issues for cost of renovation as new but did not follow up on the impact of LHS project. B. Buckley - Lynn=s suggestion, we will need cost estimates on this.

LHS - f. Science, Music, Art and Drama - What is the scope?

G. Waugh - In the way that you looked at the drawings, how may SF is that? T. Callahan - Both meet the modified program based on Ed Specs we currently have. G. Waugh - Storage for instruments, is that met? T. Callahan - Yes, we did an analysis. B. Buckley - Science would be included in that expansion? T. Callahan - Yes, We are planning on building Science and Tech Ed. In larger spaces. M. Bramley - Would it be possible for Middle School classrooms to be in old Tech. Wing? T. Callahan - We would explore that. We are planning a 7-8 grade science area separate from 9-12 science area. B. Buckley - We seem to have given directions on g., h. and n. and locations of building additions. The strategy is that we have to keep school open during this construction. The big part of addition and renovation is how the building keeps working. M. Bramley - About the Auditorium. There is a waste of space below the stage. With a little bit of modification would we have able to generate something more effective? B. Buckley - I considered asking Richard to show us where an Auditorium would go with new gym and classrooms. It is important to show where the auditorium could be added in the future. There we could decide what we want to do. J. Zullo - The cafeteria gets significantly larger if the health classroom is moved. T. Breslin - That space next to the cafeteria should not be a classroom that extra space takes care of the cafeteria. G. Waugh - Is the current kitchen space adequate? T. Callahan - The area works with the program that we have.

LIS - a. Gymnasium.

R. Munday - The feeling is it is too small, not sufficient space around court, locker room is below the gymnasium. Use that space as renovation space and build a new gym. G. Waugh - If there was a functional gymnasium the LHS could use this gym and then build the gym at LHS. R. Munday - Locker rooms are now used a Special Education rooms. We should renovate the space underneath the gym for use of the new playing fields and build another gym here [near the parking lot end of the building]. Move administration to renovated gym and gym would become part cafeteria, part administration, isolating all construction at one point, next to parking area. E. Fabbri - Storage for the track needs to be near the track. J. Zullo - Bathrooms underneath gym is a good idea. B. Buckley - We agreed to augment the field plan and we need to have storage next to the track. Bathrooms will have to be handicap compliant. R. Munday - The Idea for a new gym id that the existing has inadequacies. G. Waugh - If the gym becomes the cafeteria, can we bring in more light? L. Chapman - What kind of sound proofing is available? Would administrators go crazy nest to the cafeteria? R. Munday - The wall would be constructed to prevent almost all sound from cafeteria to administration office. B. Walpole - The original plan is to build LIS and LHS additions simultaneously. P. Sapiro - Is it feasible to build LIS gym before the LHS gym to use as a swing space? T. Breslin - It doesn=t deal with where gym classes are held. G. Waugh - Do you see storage space in the addition to the Auditorium? T. Callahan - We have 3,000 SF and need to accommodate storage for the High School. M. Bramley - There is still room under the cafeteria for storage. T. Callahan - We would maintain the same number of seats. If there was a priority for more seats, less storage, we can look into that. G. Waugh - Will we need to have code upgrades on the Auditorium addition? T. Callahan - We are anticipating we need to make the addition handicap accessible.

LIS - c. Library

R. Munday - To what extent is existing Library inadequate? J. Tindall-Gibson - We are looking at the Library different than 20 years ago and we may not need as much space. R. Munday - It is conceivable that Library will stay in the same space.

LIS - d. Courtyard

J. Zullo - The key is drainage. M. Bramley - The tree also has to be cut down.

LIS - e. Science, Music, Art

G. Waugh - Will you use existing spaces? T. Callahan - We will address that when they tell us what they require. G. Waugh - Should we be thinking about classes that are transitory be lower in the building so the students are not always on the lower floor.