GREENWICH BOARD OF EDUCATION GREENWICH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Greenwich, CT

Board of Education Meeting Agenda Document Cover Sheet Meeting Date: September 24, 2015 Agenda Item Title: E-051 New Lebanon School Modular Proposal Name of Submitter(s): Mr. James Hricay, Managing Director of Operations Mr. Ronald Matten, Director of Facilities

Executive Summary After considerable deliberation and community input, the Board of Selectman, the Board of Estimate and Taxation, the Representative Town Meeting and the Board of Education reached consensus on a site for the rebuilding of New Lebanon School. The administration has forwarded educational specifications to the Building Committee which is in the process of hiring an architect.

The decision to build a new school at New Lebanon on the existing site presents challenges in terms of where to locate students during construction. While construction is not scheduled to begin until the 2017-2018 school year, there is the additional problem of where to house the New Lebanon student population during the 2016-2017 school year.

The administration is developing a three year plan to house New Lebanon students:

• In the first year, 2016-2017 school year, the Superintendent is considering moving the Kindergarten sections currently housed off campus at the BANC site back into the building. Space for these sections would be created by housing the New Lebanon fourth and fifth grades in the Western Middle School building for one school year. WMS has an appropriate space that was used to house the Glenville fourth and fifth grade during the construction of the Glenville building.

• In years two and three, we recommend that the Board of Education approve the construction of a modular building on the Western Middle School campus to house students in Kindergarten through fifth grade for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years.

Timely adoption of this plan will provide us with time to manage logistics, communicate with parents and the community, and ensure that construction proceeds with minimal disruption to the educational process.

Update on New Lebanon Relocation Options for 2016-2017

The revised enrollment forecast for 2016-2017 projects 263 students in Kindergarten through grade five:

Grade Enroll Sections (Guideline)

Class Size (Guideline)

Sections (Consider)

Class Size (Consider)

Kindergarten 41 2 20.5 3 13.7 Grade 1 43 3 14.3 3 14.3 Grade 2 45 2 22.5 3 15.0 Grade 3 48 2 24.0 3 16.0 Grade 4 52 2 26.0 3 17.3 Grade 5 34 2 17.0 2 17.0 School 263 13 20.2 17 15.5

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Given the small size of New Lebanon, sectioning is challenging when applying the class size guidelines. It is important to note that, while the projections are very accurate when aggregated to the district level, there is considerable variability from school to school and among grades within a school. Sectioning New Lebanon at the guidelines based on the projection and the number of available classrooms (14) would make it possible to fit all six grades into the school in 2016-2017. However, it would not be prudent to do so for two reasons: 1) if the projection is off by 7 students we would be required by the guidelines to add at least four sections and 2) running sections in the lower grades at or near the class size guideline maximum in a school with large numbers of high needs students is not consistent with our objective to close gaps in achievement.

BANC is not a preferred option for continued placement of Kindergarten. The space is not ideal for the number of teachers and staff. This year we were forced to offer an opportunity to parents to move their children to other schools in order to fit the Kindergarten into the BANC site. In order to provide adequate space for all New Lebanon students, Kindergarten will be brought back into the building in 2016-2017. Given the return of the Kindergarten, the number of sections will exceed the available space. We are considering a number of options including moving the 4th and 5th grade to a self-contained location in the W wing at Western Middle School. New Lebanon students would have a separate entrance and clustered classrooms (see the floor plan at end of report). Specials (physical education, art and music) would utilize the WMS facilities. We implemented this plan successfully during the Glenville reconstruction. We are currently discussing whether or not transportation will be provided as almost all New Lebanon students live within the one mile elementary bus limit. Bus transportation was not provided to Hamilton Avenue students during the years the school was located at the WMS modular site. The Superintendent is in the process of gathering input from the New Lebanon community regarding the placement of 4th and 5th grades for the 2016-2017 school year and will announce his decision prior to the presentation of the 2016-2017 budget request.

Analysis of New Lebanon Relocation Options during Construction (2017-2018 and 2018-2019)

Given the decision to place the new building on the existing site, there are essentially two options to relocate students during construction at New Lebanon: 1) divide the students among three schools that have underutilized space (Dispersion Plan) and 2) build modular classroom units on the Western Middle School site (Modular Plan). The Dispersion Plan would place Kindergarten and 1st grade at North Street School, 2nd and 3rd grade at Parkway School and 4th and 5th grade in the W Wing at Western Middle School. The Modular Plan would be built on the same site at Western Middle School that was used during the Hamilton Avenue renovation. It is important to note that the District has experience with both approaches to housing students during the renovation/construction of an elementary school; Glenville was dispersed among three schools, Hamilton Avenue was located in a modular building on the Western Middle

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School site. This analysis serves as a rough estimate of the costs or educational impact of each plan. Where the impact is unknown it is noted in the analysis.

This table below compares the relative educational and community impact, transportation, logistics and unknown factors of the two plans with a cost summary at the end of the section. In preparing this analysis we attempted to respond to questions posed by Board of Education members after the September

Cost and Impact Summary

All costs refer to implementing the plan for two school years.

Dispersion Plan Modular Plan

Educational • The impact of dispersion on the International Baccalaureate reauthorization is likely to be negative because the staff has to work closely together to complete the self-study. Given the integrated nature of IB, being divided among three sites will make program coordination and communication more difficult.

• Many students at New Lebanon require significant levels of academic support provided by specialists during the school day. These specialists generally work across grade levels that will not be housed in the same building requiring that we add staffing for travel time and planning. We estimate that this will require an additional .2 staff for ESOL, SPED and reading. Total cost for two years is $102,541.

• Given our desire to maintain the integrity of New Lebanon students in classes with New Lebanon teachers while offsite, it will also be necessary to add .1 staff for Art, Music and Physical Education. Total cost for two years is $51,271.

• Building level professional development would either be

• Maintains the integrity of the International Baccalaureate program by facilitating planning and communication across grade levels. The IB program is up for reauthorization site visit during the 2017-2018 school year.

• Academic support and specials could be provided within the current staffing allocation.

• Building level professional development would be provided in the same manner as it currently is at the NL site.

• Location at one site would promote the continued successful operation of data teams and student assistance teams which require cross grade staff participation.

• The current administrative staffing model of a principal and assistant principal is adequate to provide leadership and supervision at the modular.

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Dispersion Plan Modular Plan

integrated into the host schools or scheduled offsite. Neither solution is ideal.

• Accommodations would be made for staff to meet together to discuss student performance and school goals. Our experience with dispersing GL indicates that this will be a challenge.

• Having two administrators covering staff and students in three buildings is problematic for obvious reasons. One building is always uncovered no matter how you set the schedule up. Our experience with the Glenville dispersion was that it is doable but puts additional demands on both the school administrative team and the administrative teams at the host schools.

Community • Locating students from NL at three different schools would provide opportunities for communication and exchange across school communities. In the past, students temporarily relocated from HA and GL were warmly welcomed into the host school communities.

• Maintaining the school on one site proximate to the current site would build on the sense of community and inclusion that have been fostered through the discussion of racial balance, closing gaps in student achievement and building renovation. As the principal notes in her educational impact statement at the end of this report, our hard work including disenfranchised families in the school community would be jeopardized by location in three schools. While it is difficult to quantify the impact, parent engagement is a key strategy to close gaps in student achievement. Locating the school in one building would maintain community integrity.

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Dispersion Plan Modular Plan

Transport • Working assumption is that most NL 4th and 5th graders live within the one mile elementary bus limit and will not require transportation.

• One bus per grade to either Parkway (2nd and 3rd grades) or North Street (K and 1st grades) @ $434.57 per day per bus.

• Total bus cost for two years is $629,257

• Due to the extended time younger students will be on buses (35 minutes to Parkway and 25 minutes to North Street one way) it is necessary to have bus monitors. Our experience transporting students from Hamilton Avenue to Parkway supports this approach.

• One bus monitor per bus @ $136.04 per day.

• Total cost for bus monitors is $198,074

• The total transportation cost of $827,331 (buses and bus monitors) is based on 2016-2017 rates. Rates for 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 are subject to terms and conditions of next transportation bid or collective bargaining.

• The State has indicated that transportation costs are not eligible for reimbursement under the racial balance plan.

• Working assumption is that most NL students live within the one mile elementary bus limit and will not require additional transportation.

Logistics • After school academic support would be more difficult to provide if the students were dispersed among three schools. Providing this support may require additional funding.

• It is not yet known whether or not

• The after school academic support program provided to students with academic challenges would be facilitated by being located in one building.

• Transportation to the Boys and Girls club after school, including

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Dispersion Plan Modular Plan

it will be possible to transport students from either Parkway or North Street to the Boys and Girls Club.

• There is the potential for NL students to participate in after school opportunities not currently available in their home school. However, transportation would remain problematic.

• The schedules for back to school night and curriculum nights may have to be adjusted to accommodate parents with children in more than one grade level (approximately 35% of the population).

• School start times would conform to the host school.

• Where needed, classroom furniture could be moved from New Lebanon to the host school at minimal cost.

a late bus for students in academic support, would continue to be provided from the WMS site.

• Back to school night and parent curriculum nights can be scheduled in the current format.

• School start times would have to be adjusted to accommodate the WMS schedule.

• Classroom furniture would be moved from New Lebanon to the modulars. Limited additional classroom furniture would be required.

Modulars • Does not apply • Set up charges including delivery, construction, utility connections and network wiring is $349,120

• Rental for 24 months at $53,500 per month is $1,284,000

• Removal of the modular unit at end of use is $175,000

• Total project cost including a 3% escalator per year above current costs is $2,097,738

• As part of the District racial balance plan, modular costs may be subject to up to 80% reimbursement from the State. The District has initiated the reimbursement process with the State but will not have a decision prior to the adoption of a relocation plan.

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There are additional costs that apply to both plans such as transporting educational materials from New Lebanon to a new site and providing teachers with release time to set up their classrooms at the beginning of the year. These costs will be handled within the existing budget proposal. Summarizing the major costs for each plan for the two year construction period:

Dispersion Plan Modular Plan

Additional Staffing $153,811 None

Transportation $827,331 None

Modular Construction None $2,097,738

Estimated Total Cost $981,142 $2,097,738

Discussion and Recommendation

While it is feasible within the constraints of projected enrollment and classroom utilization, relocating students to two elementary schools and Western Middle School has a numerous of disadvantages including:

• Professional development is more difficult to deliver on a school-wide basis if staff is located in three schools. This holds true for any school wide activity. Location in three schools puts stress on the sense of community that is vital to the educational program at New Lebanon. A full analysis of the potential impact of relocation to three schools on the New Lebanon community is included in the school program section of this report.

• North Street’s enrollment is trending upward. Housing Kindergarten and grade one at North Street may not be possible in year two of construction without moving a section of prekindergarten, currently located at North Street, out of the building.

• The number of grade two and three sections at New Lebanon is projected to increase from four to five in year two of construction necessitating moving a section of prekindergarten to another school.

• Transporting New Lebanon students to three schools is inherently inefficient requiring four additional buses with bus monitors @ $827,321 over the two year construction period. Locating students in modular classrooms on the WMS campus would reduce student travel time to and from school. The transportation funds required by the Dispersion Plan could be used to defray the cost of the modular classrooms.

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• Travel time on buses from New Lebanon to Parkway would be at the limit of what we consider feasible for young children. Our experience transporting Hamilton Avenue students to Parkway indicates that it would be prudent to staff the buses with monitors.

• Western Middle School is much more accessible for New Lebanon parents facilitating school pickup and drop off as well as parent participation in school events.

• Transportation to after school programs would be easier to arrange from one school rather than three. It is unknown whether it is possible to provide transportation to after school programs from Parkway.

• Coordinating the delivery of the instructional program across three buildings is possible (we did it during the Hamilton Avenue and Glenville construction) but it is hardly ideal. It is particularly difficult to schedule the support staff that many New Lebanon students require.

The major advantage to the Dispersion Plan is cost. The Modular Plan is roughly twice as expensive ($2m vs $1m) as the Dispersion Plan. It is important to note that State reimbursement could substantially lower the cost of the modular plan. However, we will not know the outcome of the reimbursement decision prior to the Greenwich Board of Education decision on a relocation plan. Even without reimbursement, it is our belief that the educational benefits of keeping New Lebanon students in one building and maintaining the integrity of the New Lebanon School community merit the additional expenditure. It is the recommendation of the Superintendent that New Lebanon students be located in modular buildings on the Western Middle School campus during the renovation of New Lebanon School (2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years).

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Modular Classrooms at Western Middle School The Office of School Facilities is recommending the construction of a temporary modular building on the site of Western Middle School. The new structure would be placed behind Western Middle School.

The recommended size of the building would be approximately 20,000 square feet and contain:

• 20 Classrooms • 3 Small specialty rooms • 1 Media center • 1 Cafeteria • 6 Offices • 1 Conference room

The site currently has utility hookups: water, power, sanitary sewer and telecom fiber from the previously installed temporary modular building.

The modular building would include:

• Heat • Air conditioning • Wi-Fi • Smartboard • Rest rooms

A typical modular classroom is 24 feet wide by 25 feet long or 600 square feet. We are recommending that the building be leased, not purchased. Smartboards, furniture and WiFi would be removed from the existing new Lebanon School and be installed in the temporary modular building. The District would need 12 working days to outfit the building after erection.

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Indoor Air Quality and Mold In the past, the Town and District have had unfavorable experiences with temporary modular buildings. A compromised building envelope and no airflow under the structure, combined with a lack of engagement, resulted in mold growth.

We are specifying that the building be installed with mechanical ventilation in the crawl space. The regular movement of air will avoid the condensate issues that significantly contributed to the mold in our previous temporary modular buildings.

The previous modular installation also had a compromised building envelope. Daily written building inspections will be required of the Head Custodian and weekly inspections will be performed by the Construction Maintenance Foreman. The increased scrutiny will ensure that the building integrity remains intact.

Cost For this project, we are projecting a monthly lease expense of $53,500 per month. The project requires set-up, break down and utility hook ups. A more detailed breakdown is provided in the chart below.

Description Cost Set-up Charges (Front End) Delivery and Construction 300,000 Utility connections 15,000 Network wiring 25,120 Total Set-up 340,120 Total Removal (Back End) 175,000 Rental 24 months@ $53,500 1,284,000 Moving Expenses 25,000 Contingency @ 15% 273,618

Total 2,097,738

Total leasing, set up and break down costs for the temporary modular building is projected to cost $2,097,738. The cost assumes construction to begin in 2017 and includes a 3% per year escalation above today cost estimates. Reimbursement from the State Office of School Facilities, Division of Construction is not guaranteed. We have been advised that the decision is made on an individual basis and Greenwich Public Schools is currently consulting with them.

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Proposed Classroom Location for New Lebanon 4th and 5th Grade at Western Middle School in 2016-2017

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The Program at New Lebanon School Academics

• International Baccalaureate is NL’s rigorous Magnet Theme. The school and District did a five year development of the program leading up to its official authorization. The school was authorized as an official international school in December 2012. The school will need to go through re-authorization in December 2017. A self-study year for re-authorization occurs from December 2016 till re-authorization in December 2017. The IB philosophy is richly connected to a whole-school environment that promotes the attributes of an IB learner in a framework of transdisciplinary learning across the school using six international themes which explore central ideas and develop lines of inquiry. The success of the program is the integration of these themes across curriculum and school settings, i.e., art, music, PE, ESL, ALP, etc. Teachers need to be continually collaborating to develop the students’ understandings of the themes and inquiries across a school day. The cohesiveness of the staff is an essential component of the IB philosophy. The timeline of the IB re-authorization program is the same as the timeline for the ground breaking and relocation of students to make way for a new building. To disperse the students across Greenwich would dilute the integrity of the IB program and place re-authorization in jeopardy. The magnet draw is a key element in the Racial Balance Plan to the State. Losing IB status would raise the risk that the Greenwich Public Schools would be out of compliance with the State’s mandates.

• Title Programs are a cornerstone of the support provided for children at NL who are in the achievement gap, a considerable area of concern for this high-performing district. Students who exist in this gap are those with the risk factors of poverty (approximately 59% at NL), minority background (approximately 75% at NL) and English language learners (approximately 23 % at NL). Our Title I supports include an enhanced literacy staff (specialists and coaching) as well as, interventionists. They work across grade levels throughout the day to provide intervention services to students falling below grade level primarily due to the above stated risk factors. Additional to these personnel, Title I programs enhance student performance. These include after school programs geared towards our students who need more individualized strategies to succeed, such as, homework support, organizational and independence support and basic vocabulary, and reading/math strategy support. These programs are in addition to the District provided supplemental programs for support to academically at risk students. A third use of Title funds is to provide experiential activities for those in the gap so as to enhance their understandings of the culture and community they now are a part of, either because of poverty deprivation or cultural differences.

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These understandings directly contribute to student comprehension of the inquiries they are engaged in and the problem solving skills they must develop to respond to their world. If the NL population is dispersed across schools, the Title I programs will be diluted which will reduce the impact of the monies provided federally for these programs. This will occur in the following ways:

o Staffing: if staff is spread across schools, travel time will decrease their time directly working with children. All of our specially trained staff work across grade levels throughout the day with varying skills and areas of expertise. Disbursement will impact having the right person in the right place on a consistent and efficient basis.

o Programs: teachers run these programs after school. This is successful at NL because there are late buses to the Boys & Girls Club to meet the needs of the many working families. Our teachers also walk the younger children to the BANC After-School Program on these program days, again supporting the needs of the NL working families. Finally, these programs are often delivered by our ESL teachers or bilingual teachers so they can communicate with the families and holistically support the students. They often teach these out of their grade level assignments. Disbursement would not support this because the needed number of Spanish speaking teachers may not be in the schools where the students needing the supports are placed. One example of the effectiveness of these after school programs is the success of a small group of bilingual students who were targeted in the After School Program to transition from their reading instruction in Spanish to guided reading in English. The goal for this group was to have 100% of these three students grow three reading levels in English during this transitional support program. Indeed, 100% did achieve the goal. Two students grew four levels and one grew five levels. They all reached the ELL Benchmark for the F&P, and one of the students is in the district grade level band! This all while they continue to be instructed in Spanish in the bilingual program during school hours, so they are becoming literate in their native language and their second language.

o Experiential Programs: we try to schedule such experiences across grade levels to make busing cost effective. Having students across the District could make this unmanageable with the funds available.

• Our ESL staffing is essential to the needs of the NL community. It involves a complex scheduling pattern for push-in, pull out, newcomer, teacher support, family support, intake, state testing, services, etc. If these teachers are dispersed across the District their areas of expertise cannot be fully exploited. In one building they can triage needs and have a flexible, collaborative approach to their support services and their scheduling, which needs to be flexible. This is the same barrier that would be experienced by Special Education and

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Professional Assistant support. The percentage of special education students at NL is 16% many with comprehensive needs 5%, requiring a rotating schedule of support from various differently trained personnel, i.e., services for the blind, non-ambulatory students, students requiring specialized instruction (ABA, direct teaching, etc.) Additionally, NL has developed an advanced process for conducting bi-weekly meetings for all personnel across grade levels to meet to ensure that the trains move on time and that the units being delivered across classroom teachers, ESL professionals, special education professionals and literacy, interventionist specialist are coherent for the children receiving sometimes two to three of these services. Without these meetings, children would be exposed to a cacophony of teacher talk and skill overload. This could NOT be accomplished if staffing were diluted in various buildings in Greenwich. Non-classroom teachers are required to cover these specialists and classroom teachers to enable these meetings to occur. It takes our whole village every day to do this work!

• Three years ago we began a Bilingual Program at NL to address a growing need among our youngest students. We discovered that they were being considered needing interventions for things that were just part of their first language structure. With a collaboration between District leaders: ESL, special education, technology, foreign language, general education, etc., we developed a pilot bilingual program. It now spans from Kinder through second grade. The research-based hypothesis being that if children are instructed in their first language initially they would then transfer those skills more easily to a second language and would not be working from a deficit model, as was the case previously. This has proven correct for the majority of those in the program. Since the initiation of the program, the bilingual students have achieved a greater percentage of students meeting the ELL benchmark at the end of each year of bilingual education than their peers who receive only ESL support. If we were dispersed this program could not be maintained at its current level. Scheduling and materials costs would be too great. A side effect of this program was an increase in parent involvement in their child’s education. Parents were now confident supporting their children in their native language increasing the atmosphere of a more inclusive environment at NL.

• At NL we use every possible moment to pursue Professional Development for our Staff. This includes using all faculty meetings for a predetermined, well-planned purpose. Whether it is looking at student work and having all teachers, PE, music, art, scoring writing on-demands using the TC rubric, or being schooled on cultural competencies by our ESL staff or behavioral strategies by the PPS specialists, we are all working together to develop teacher capacity. If we are dispersed at schools that start and end at different times, we would lose

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the effectiveness of a whole staff learning paradigm at faculty meetings. Additionally, the District, through Achievement Gap funds, has invested heavily in our work with Columbia Teacher’s College to develop teacher capacity for the teaching of writing across the grade levels. This involves five staff development days for each of the grade levels. This could not continue at this professional level if our grade levels were dispersed across the district. These days are tightly scheduled and travel would inhibit the time frame for the learning.

• After School Programs are a core part of the life of NL students. As mentioned above, these programs exist for a variety of reasons: to support ESL in the skill set needed for the American school system; to tutor at risk students in academic support; for experiential learning for children under-exposed due to poverty issues. The majority of these programs are free, or with minimal cost to the families. Besides providing the extended day support these children need, NL teachers can walk the children to aftercare beyond the program at BANC, and/or a late bus will pick up groups of children for the Boys & Girls Club. Because we are a walking community, many parents walk to pick their children up if they are not enrolled in aftercare, or they have older siblings do that if they are still at work. Many NL families do not have cars, or multiple cars, so traveling to a distant school to pick up their child(ren) at a similarly sponsored, often expensive, programs is out of the question for these families. This means that the children will be missing these opportunities and dropped off at NL after their trip to another school during the day and left unsupervised outside the Byram Shubert Library till dark till someone comes to pick them up!

Parent Involvement

• Curriculum Nights have been a key factor in increasing parent involvement at NL this year, beyond our wildest dreams. These evenings have had a school-wide spirit effect. We observed attendance of entire families, moms, dads, younger-not-school aged children, older NL graduate siblings, etc. It was amazing. The evenings drew from all groups at NL and were a night of learning and socialization for all parents and students. The data on the attendance is as follows:

All of the collaborative efforts helped us attain our goals of increasing the percentage of parents attending evening and after school events aimed to further help the closing of the achievement gap. Our goal, originally written to increase parent participation to increase by 5% (from 10%-15%) was not only achieved but also surpassed. Overall, parent participation for PTA increased from an average of 25 people to 27 people monthly. Similarly participation in our parent coffees increased from an average of 18 people to 21 people. However, our significant increase was mostly due

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to the whopping success of the Family Curriculum Nights. In those 3 nights we had an average of 199 attendees. In prior years with only 1 curriculum night each year, our participation was 127 attendees.

If these nights were across different schools due to disbursement, our families would not be able to maintain this momentum. As mentioned before transportation would be the major issue, but so would the community and whole family, whole school participation. Costs would go up due to having multiple locations and presenters over multiple nights. Our AGAP budget does not have the capacity at this time to accommodate this increase in programming. Nor would our families with multiple children be able to attend numerous Curriculum Nights across a number of schools.

• This year our Parent Liaison had a regularly scheduled time to be at NL every morning. She was a bilingual Latina who supported families with free and reduced lunch applications, summer school enrollments, after school program enrollments, after school care programs, how to read a writing rubric, how to interpret the report card, conferences with teachers and on and on. Families felt comfortable and empowered to interact with their child(ren)’s teacher(s) with her support. Teachers felt that misunderstandings could be easily resolved without language being a barrier. The number of parents she supported in her one hour each morning at NL were 40 appointments and 50 phone calls.

Recently our disenfranchised parents became a vocal part of the NL community through their Activism Relating to the New Building. For families used to being on the fringes, many found their voice due to the support of our bilingual PTA co-presidents and through the work of our parent liaison supporting these families at meetings with her translations. The BOE needs to be commended for making so many opportunities available to these parents at the NL building. To even attend the BOS meetings at the end of the year a complicated system of carpooling needed to be arranged, therefore, I worry that these newly developed social activists will lose their voices when they are diluted throughout a not so welcoming greater Greenwich community. The amount of effort and work everyone at NL has done to welcome, empower and educate these folks is remarkable.

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