Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Would we all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? Denise Ciboletti, would you mind leading us in the pledge? My pleasure. 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. Thank you, Denise.

Okay, we have one item on for open session today, and that's going to be matters surrounding a special permit for portable trailers at the Riverhead Charter School, 5117 Sound Avenue, Riverhead, and that will be presented by Greg Bergman.

And we do have representatives from the Charter School, so I invite them to come up for the discussion as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Judd. This is Alec Bowler from... Or Alec Basinski. ...Bowler Engineering. I'm a great advocate for the Superintended Patrol. Okay. Hello, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. So this is a special permit application seeking approval to locate three portable trailer units at the Northville Schoolhouse, located at 5117 Sound Avenue. Just for a little backstory, the town board back in December of 2021 granted a special permit to convert the existing building on that site. Back to a schoolhouse.

So they are now looking to increase student enrollment slightly. They are going from 100... Their current enrollment from their prior site plan is 106 students. They're now showing 154 seats on their site plan. So in order to facilitate the expansion, they're looking to locate three temporary trailers behind the existing schoolhouse. I do note that one of the trailers is already there, unfortunately, being that that was done prior to any kind of site plan approval. They will be required to double their site plan fee if the town board grants a special permit. It's not in use. It was still brought to the site. There was improvements done. So, I mean, really minimal site improvements to the overall site. They will need to do some regrading behind the building in order to level that area out and facilitate the installation of those trailers. When I was looking at the application I did, when it first came in, it initially showed five trailers. They did not have the required parking on site. They could not facilitate the parking, so they reduced it to three. Two of those trailers will be used for classrooms. One of them will be administration and faculty space. So they do have some land banked parking throughout the rear of the site. There is a total... With the land bank parking, they are able to... Fully meet the parking requirements. One of the requirements of land bank parking is that they do have to file a covenant on the property that in a future finding, if the board finds that the existing parking is not adequate, they would be required to build out that full... I believe it's 54 parking... 52 parking stalls. Beyond that, the increase in student enrollment, if there was the potential for there to be traffic congestion at the site, they have demonstrated on the second sheet of the site plan that I prepared for you, which... Justin, if we can go to sheet seven on the overhead. There is a large U-shaped driveway that traverses throughout the property. In the event that parents are dropping their kids off or there are additional buses, they can utilize that space as sort of internal queuing so that there would be no vehicles backed out onto Sound Avenue. So beyond that, there is a lot of work to be done. There is a lot of work to be done. There is a lot of work to be done. So beyond really the increase in traffic, there was really no other concerns identified during the application, and they are temporary. I believe Ms. Judd said the charter school's lease is up in... Six years. Six years. So they would be removed at that time. So that's my temporary six years in your eyes? That's more of a permanent structure. That's a long time. So there's no permanent foundations. They are installed on like a crushed gravel base. So they can be removed. There are no permanent fixtures. They are anchored to the ground, but they can be removed rather easily. They will need to get building permits. They will need fire marshal permits. I did get a comment letter from the fire marshal. They do just need to provide emergency access. That could be facilitated along the west side of the building, and that access will get them to within 150 feet of all the structures per the New York State Fire Code. per the New York State Fire Code. So I just like to add, I think the board is well aware that the charter school is looking for bigger space. Right now, classrooms are pretty crowded. It's only hurting the kids that they can't go into a temporary portable situation. We have a couple property leads that we're actively, actively working on and trying to secure. So the lease is up in six years. We're not the property owner, and it is the charter school's. Really, a property big enough to accommodate what they would like to do they don't like shuttling kids back and forth to different areas trying to accommodate them in classroom space it's not good for the teachers it's not good for the students and as mr bergman said this this is a temporary situation we could propose an addition onto the building which is something that we thought about doing but it's not our building it's why not just hold your enrollment to the numbers that you're currently allowed in that facility and not go outside why you know i'm not a fan of going outside i think aesthetically they're terrible looking i don't think it's good for students my kids went to riverhead school district and they in and out in the rain and all the days going out to the trailers outside i'm not not a fan of it but i understood the concept at the time that they were actively under construction and they were actively expanding that classroom size here i feel like you're putting trailers down on a property with really no long-term plan so if you don't find a six years and the leases are renewed or it is renewed at that point this is more like like you're circumnavigating it you're using a temporary thought process for a long-term permanent solution and i i well we are pursuing a long-term and i think right now to not allow it is punitive to the charter school because they have a successful successful enrollment i don't think they should be penalized by not allowing to have more children and we're talking about three trailers i don't think they're going to be penalized i think they're going to be penalized i think they're going to be penalized i think they're going to be penalized i think they're going to be penalized i think in the grand scale of things there's any environmental impact there's no traffic impact uh it's well screened property it's in the back and i think the town board members are aware that the charter school is very actively seeking a permanent spot for this here's my problem with this i was on the planning board when this was originally approved and it was made well known that there were a number of changes in the planning space in the space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space lenient at the time because this was a pre-existing use of a schoolhouse prior and i don't think that this is the integrity of what this area should be i have to disagree with you there was no cap that the planning board or the town board imposed when we did our special permit or site plan it was never a cap there was never any representative from our charter school that said we're going to hold at this number and there was never any condition placed on the special permit which was unopposed by anybody site plan was unopposed by anybody the fire marshal issued an occupancy amount in that building so you know essentially there's a cap whether it be through means of staffing or students and so forth every building has an occupancy load there was no zoning cap and there was no building department cabbage there may be a bar marshal plaque inside i don't know what that number is i don't want to speak for the architect but i think that occupancy cap is around two and change 275 is around the number i believe it is because we looked at this as far as issues with the bathroom bathrooms because obviously you're adding more students students and teachers are in that building now by 130. so why can't you use why are we going to trails why can't we continue to use the space in the school for expansion because you can only use your figure and i'm i can't speak for the architect but there's a building code requires you to have a certain amount of square feet for every student in a classroom um and if there's going to be some natural growth to those classrooms you can't condense it more than what the building or the building department would allow so the state building code excuse me so uh that's why one of the trailers will be is actually just for administrative purposes um the other two would be used just for classrooms just based on that natural growth they need they need a little bit more space i mean in theory you could try to compact more but it would be against the university just the administration does it have to be on site away can you use the office space hometown um we had a couple of town board members that came to school i would love for them to talk about their experience and how we have administrators that in the hallways because they don't have access to being in an office or having office space i would love for anybody that was there yeah uh joanne and i visited me toward both campuses um and you're right it's tight the way it's set up and with space for classrooms and the principal actually did sit in the hall i mean he had a little spot out in the hall where he was hanging out uh i can understand the need for the expansion but what bothers me number one is that you went and put one there already without having permission to do it and it kind of just rubs me the wrong way when people come in and just bully their way through the town and figure out i'll do it i'll worry about it later so right away that just makes me not want to go any further because if you you put one without having permission and now you're going to put two more for a total of three

we'll worry about it later i don't i it's you're not a good player when you do that in my mind so i have a little bit of an issue with this or at least the trail that's there on site should have been you know immediately removed and you should be coming here with a clean slate and not you know with you you're sitting before us in current violation of town codes and and now you're asking for a permit after the fact i can only say we're we're trying to come into compliance now uh the trailer i don't i don't know how big it is but i think it's a good idea to put it in the hallways if you're in a space that might be a space that might be a space that might be a space that might And it's unoccupied. There's no students in it. It's not being occupied by students or staff or faculty. And I would just say portables for any school district is not an uncommon thing. It's not uncommon to see. I myself went to high school here and I had a lot of classes in portables. Didn't have any. It was nice walking across the field to go in the rain to go to class. But that's not the case here. The portables are right in the back. There's going to be no sanitary, no water. So the kids are going to be using the restrooms inside the building. We don't have to do any sewer hookup. We don't have to run any water lines to this. And I understand your. Fear that if we grant this and it goes, it runs the six year. You have you have special conditions that you can put into your permit if you want it to run every year that we have to come back and renew it. That's something you can put into a special permit application. Just to make sure that we are being faithful to finding a new location and trying to. And I think we've been pretty good at trying to update certain people. So that we are looking and that and we will certainly let you know when a spot has been secured. There there is a spot that we. We would like to, but there's a zoning issue. We're hoping at some point when the comprehensive plan is updated that that will be addressed. And there are at least three properties that the charter school is actively trying to secure. So if if if your fear. That we're going to run, we're going to keep those buildings there the full six years. You can put into a special permit approval that it's only valid for a year and then we have to come back and update you with. And I don't think it's necessary because I think we're pretty close to. Finding a place to land. But that's certainly something I understand if if you want to put into an approval, if you want to limit how the length of it and. Really if you want to leave space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space occupants versus students your code is written as those for number of students not number of occupants we have to design the system with fuji clean to handle and we oversized as well because we knew this was a lease it was in the owner's best interest to oversize the system because if actually the school would leave and you would have a system in place that you probably want to reutilize for something right it's an ia system that is an ia system so it would be something something more intense i mean it doesn't have to be restrapped because we were never going to prepare food so if the proprietor were to do something that was a food use you'd have to intensify the reach trap to handle uh that that flow i just want to go on a record and say that we have no desire to be on sound app past the six years um after this lease is over like we're not going to be there um we feel like we're not welcome there um in terms of just everything that happened prior to and so with us trying to purchase nectar whatever and so we we understand the sentiment of the community and um we're definitely making a good faith effort in order to be closer to our campus on middle country and so i'm on record with saying that we're not trying to be there past six years i wouldn't say that you know i think i think you you're welcome with open arms i think you did it you did an amazing job building in the restoration and i love the fact that i'm passing by i think the property is pristine now i think people were not comfortable with the expansion of it but don't feel that you're not welcome there i think you're very much welcome you did you did a great job on the whole property i think and it looks wonderful i'm i'm grateful for what you guys put into it and your investment there i think people have concerns about you expanding going outside of there and continuing you didn't see the finals by the charter school it said no charter school that was there but that's somebody i think that's that was so that was not well expansion property there was zero opposition to the original site being the charter school i wasn't on the board but i love driving up and down saying you know i love what you've done with that property you've made that property well that's the property owner that did all of that but it's beautiful and it wouldn't have been done if they didn't yeah so i wouldn't say any of that i think people have concerns about the expansion process and where it goes you know because like right now it looks like this beautiful historic home that's been like restored you know upon and now into what you know beautiful building well it was originally a schoolhouse yeah the restoration is great and just to be clear i mean if you drive by the school right now today and we mentioned that one trailer is there it is fully screened by 20 foot tall 30 foot the intent is to not we don't want this to be an eyesore it's a trailer we all know it's a trailer we all know what it looks like but if you go to that site today there's a reason why these are strategically uh put in the back corner the 88 ramps will be metal they won't be fully installed into the ground these things will be leased they won't be owned the intent is obviously um there's and it doesn't make sense to dump as much money into this if it's not a permanent solution so what i've mentioned it seems permanent but the reality is we're paying lease we're going to be leasing these items to once remove these things and the reason why they're positioned in a place that is in the back right corner is because that was the least impactful for what we the school actually had helped spend to re you know redo repurpose the school so um once these trailers are gone they would be replanted as grass and it just remained as as it was prior to that so these if you were to drive today you wouldn't even see these trailers for and that's once again we're not talking about the trailers are there and it might not be right that they're there but the reality is we've strategically put this close enough for the students that have you know that need the ada support but the ramps but also as you're driving down south after you wouldn't see it from the road um we will see the additional buses the additional cars well i don't want to speak for the school but i don't think any of the students drive i think it's part it was part of the special permit that they would well if you're expanding our um not very many we were able to um utilize the staff members that we have so we would have maybe like five fte influence so not very many staff members um and not very many uh additional buses as well because the buses that we're using because we actually paper the buses because it's outside of the 15.2 mile radius and those buses are not packed um there would be probably a couple of a couple of an additional riverhead central school district buses but not anything that would impact traffic a great day greg could that be what we refer to in some projects as a decommissioning plan that these would be required as per the special permit to be removed from the property yeah absolutely i mean because it's a special permit you can absolutely put those conditions on that at the at such time that the school vacates the property and the trailers are removed so yeah so i do know you are working very hard at at finding other property and i do know you really don't want to be there because it doesn't fit the needs for what you have up there um but i will also say that in touring the property i was very impressed it really was uh just the kids the students the setup and the space that you're using um i think it's well used you've got all the venues right now and i understand the need for expansion uh i just again thank you for making space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space falls on me and so moving forward i'm here i'm on record as saying that whatever you guys allow us to use that space will be that we will not come back to you for anything additional um we feel like this is the best way to move us forward in terms of um accommodating our student growth for the next uh six years well your your lower level students your lower grades are expanding so now you so we're putting a cap on um but what i'm saying is yeah that's part of the reason you need this because the grades coming up are larger than yes when you originally started so and that's a good thing i mean that shows you're doing a good job and enrollment and people like what they have there um but that's that's just my concern that you know if it's administration space the question wasn't answered is why does the administration space need to be on site why can't you rent an office in downtown in one administration so many many school districts do that off-site administration there's also a house on the property can you use that um that's i believe that's the landlords yeah i don't i don't think we have permission i mean but that's something i think that is in use by the landlord but that's another thing that would fall under the special uh various use i think when we came uh with a plan to develop the backspace uh it was not included in the original schoolhouse usage and so it was we were deterred from from developing that house into space the landlord aware that you want to put these yes and he's fine with that yes yeah you find the owner's endorsement for the special permit application so when we talk about administration we're talking about school um school administrators so you're asking for us to put a school principal in an off-site when he has to run the campus so like these the administration space that we're talking about it's not like uh an aid or something like that or like a would it be like a break room for the faculty it's like a break room for the faculty and then also for like the school leader the dean the uh college counselor and people of that nature to have the space to be able to like have conversations with kids so it's not um the type of admin space that you're thinking and to convert the house into an office you'd have to go back to the health department you'd have to upsize the system it wouldn't it's not designed to be an office outside of the the leases and stuff just from a engineering perspective i mean it'd be a little bit of work to convert that into office space but maybe just as a thought if you if you made an arrangement with the landlord and then you filed building permits if you're going to you know take over that house and you're going to restore that house and upgrade that and then this was something where you needed your portable units for a year you know and you were actively you know under construction to you know you're going to have to do that and then you're going to have to do that and then you're going to have to do that and then you're going to have to do that and then you're going to have to do that you know to utilize the entire site i i would be more amicable to you you know seeing a future plan i just have concerns sitting here and going you know property is expensive and you know so um i just don't want to be looking at trails for six years and then eventually i get it i just think but in doing so if we if we put the investment into that backspace given the fact that we're leaving that space and we have no intentions of being there moving forward i don't think we're going to be there in the future without the space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space The reason why I ask is, hypothetically, if you found property next year, you would start building and you might be out of this in 40s. That's one question. I get that. I did go over this with Mr. Bergman the other day. My concern was the bus traffic. Now, you said two buses. Two, three. Okay, that's two and three. No, he always said two or three. No, I mean, this is the first time that we're having this conversation. Currently, you have how many buses coming in and out? Four. I believe we're over the U-turn, which was you were going to purchase other land and really expand. I know that's what people were against. You landed on that and you were willing to move, which I think is... Great.

That's really it. My concern was the traffic and knowing that you're going to lease the trail as year to year. I know you are actively looking because I've sat with the planning department and also looked at where you're looking. I'd be happy to support if it is a change of zone, where are you going and if it works to support that change of zone. It's in an area that's more... I think it's beneficial to you and beneficial to the community. Right. So again, Aaron, back to what I said earlier, apologizing for the initial trailer being there. Let's have a think about kids, right? And that should be the focal point of any conversation with regards to expansion. And so right now we would have 40 to 50 kids that would be displaced if we didn't have these trailers to be able to put them in for next year. Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. everything that we're talking about, but I want to leave you guys with the understanding of putting the focal point on students. I understand that, but you enrolled them with the expectations. That's your business. You know, you knew your capacity, so you should never have enrolled anybody beyond your capacity. That's not, that just can't be put on us. I mean, you can't tell them they can't, and when I say come up, they started in first grade. You can't, when they start hitting ninth and tenth grade, say you got to go to a different school. We don't have nine years ago. Exactly. I mean, this was, you knew your capacity, so you must say the kids are staying. They're staying with us. They're not leaving. You know, where will I be in nine years from now? Each year, as you grow, and you, what was the plan back then? You can't put the guilt on us, like you're going to displace kids. That's an unfair statement. This was part of a long-term plan. Each year, you're watching your students grow. It means you're doing a great job, so what was the plan six years ago? The plan was that you're going to displace kids. That's an unfair statement. That's an unfair statement. We were going to acquire the adjacent property, and that fell through unexpectedly. That property just became available a year or so ago? Yes, after we had already been in contract with them, and the subdivision plan was not filed, and he still hasn't finished out his subdivision. That property, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Bergman, is not a, it's not a separate lot at this point. It's got to have, the map is not filed. The planning board's not filed the final subdivision map on it, so that was one of the issues when the charter school was in contract with that particular property owner. There was a due diligence in there that the property owner had to have things finalized, and it just didn't happen, and we were devastated by that, because that is the property that really should be the full point. It is. Absolutely. So I believe the charter school is in negotiations again, but again, the map is still not filed, and we can't make the property owner finish it. We can only maybe try to go back into contract again. Again, there's a zoning issue that I think some of you are aware of, but that was the plan. That was the plan to build that, and that thing, that school would have been built by now, and that's where they would have been. So I'm just asking, I could see that most of you are upset about this, but I think also you have to look at it. We're trying really hard to find a new place, and we're just asking to give us a temporary place for these kids to go to classroom. You know we're looking for a new place to go. We're committed to it. We're not going to stay here, and if you really think that we're going to go past the six years, or the six years is the issue, you're talking three buildings that are fully screened, no one driving on sound up, and you're talking seven buses during a non-peak time on Sound Avenue. So what time does school finish, Mr. Ancrum? 2.30. 2.30? You're talking 2.30, and what time does school start? 7. Okay, I don't think you're going to see cars lined up on Sound Avenue for seven buses at 7.30 in the morning and 3.30, 3.15. 3.15 in the afternoon. So if your biggest issues are traffic and viewshed, I really don't think I've lived here my whole life. I've never seen traffic on Sound Avenue at 7.15 in the morning. How many buses are going up on 25? What's the comparison? Probably about 13 to 15. I sit there every morning on that. You and me both. I sit there as well. So I just want to be clear on something. We actually met with the planning department in December. When we... We put this plan together, it was because of the other application that we were going to go into in March. And I believe, Tim, you were there, Greg, you were there. I know you were on family leave. But when we had spoke and you had asked this question, this was the transition plan to the next parcel adjacent to us. So we were going in with an application for this, and we were going to move into the parcel to your point. And the intent was to take the two years of the average permit process of one to two years to get that approved. And then we were going to take the two to three years to construct that big piece, because it was a much bigger piece, which would be that four to five year threshold for us to transition over. Now, obviously, we know what happened with the application adjacent to us. But let's not recite that part of the conversation in December was this is what we want to do in the meantime while we move to the parcel adjacent. Now, obviously, the plan has changed, and now we're looking at different parcels. But that was always the reason why Ray was looking at the numbers and the amount of kids that were coming up. In December, we looked at this. We met with the planning department. We discussed this as a temporary action plan for the adjacent parcel. And that's how we derived to these numbers that Ray has mentioned, that displacement of numbers. It was derived based on hypotheticals that we had discussed back in December. And now, obviously, we're approaching the summertime. And to Ray's point, there's students that they have to figure out what they're going to do with, because the end result has obviously pivoted because of what has happened. But the end result is still the same. So, if there's a space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space people who just go and do things without notifying the town and that that is an issue you apologize for that and doubling the site fees and I did go through the traffic so and I understand it I know you're looking for more property I'm not gonna stand in your way I'm gonna support what you're doing and I and I drive by there a lot and I I didn't even know there was a trailer there so and I understand you're gonna screen it all so I'm just gonna say I met with mr. Bergman and went and he went over the plan with me and one of the concerns I had was also to make sure that you can't build up on top of those trailers right no no there's no way to do that just that's one of the things I was concerned about you also started to mention some first of all sir you do have an amazing school and the students were wonderful I'm actually going Friday yeah I'll be on career for career day I'm going to be speaking for a few minutes there I'm very happy to address the students I am also started mentioning something and I wanted to go back to you said you can I thought I've heard you starting to say you can put a cap on the grammar school enrollment so right now because of this issue with who's advancing and moving up absolutely so to give you guys like a case in point we usually take in about four classes of kindergarteners which is about 25 kids per grade this year we kept it at three classes because we're thinking strategically about the upward growth and what used to occur is that when kids got to a certain grade when they got to like eighth grade or whatever they were like go back some of them will go back to their local high schools or whatever and so we could account for that so we were looking at our data from the past we'll be like oh this kid's going here they're going back here or whatever but because we're doing so well we're having our first graduating class this year and we have eight kids that got into our one universities with our senior class like these kids aren't leaving here anymore and so it's an anomaly in the data but it's something that we have to account for so it's a good problem to have for the most part until you have to meet with the town board and you have to explain it but our kids are no longer leaving. You can tell the town board is nice. We just have to put the concerns out there. But that's the issue that we're having like our kids are no longer leaving and going back to district because the product that we're offering is of competitive nature to the parents. There is one complaint other than everything you've heard about anything is the bell between classes is really really loud and the residents can hear it. I've heard that from more than one. It would be nice if you could just tone that down. We will definitely do that. I will take care of that as soon as I walk out. So are you guys putting a cap on the enrollment for grammar school? Yes. So for grammar school we took in 80 kids this year as opposed to taking in a hundred plus. That's your lottery right? Yeah. You might have read in the paper that that's the lottery that the charter school had. Yeah. And so those are some of the thinking until we can get a permanent site and we know exactly what we're going to be able to do we're definitely limited enrollment. How many people applied for the lottery? So we had to turn away upwards of 50 families. We took in 80 and had to turn away about 50 families. And a lot of families that we had to take turn away was students from other districts right because like we had in our charter that would get preference to Riverhead. And so because of the amount of families from Riverhead that apply for our school we couldn't really take in students from other districts to kind of balance that out. So. And you're comfortable with and I think it may not be a bad idea just to go. Yeah. Year to year so that the board can be updated. Yeah. I agree. You know. I agree. And because you're on a year lease with your you know your trailer company and then this way where you know the board and everybody knows the community knows what's going on. Year to year with some kind of decommissioning plan. Yeah. So and one of the criteria for the special permit I think is in 301-312 is that the property size is of reasonable it's basically able to facilitate like existing land. Right. Right. And I think that's an opportunity for us to start locating operations and future expansion so that this may be the opportunity to say you know whereas the first time when we came in for the conversion of the existing schoolhouse there was no cap that was mom it was just we're converting schoolhouse. Like this may be an opportunity now short of I'm not saying constructing an addition to the building but you know maybe this would be the opportunity to set a cap on. Right. This is what you're going to have for this site. This is the last bite of the apple for this property. It's not you know the site is probably limited in size. Yeah. is probably limited in terms of what they'd be able to facilitate in terms of parking, sanitary, that sort of thing. So this might be the opportunity for that. Then you are, in fact, putting a new field here. Play area? This one's there. It's already there. There's a couple of soccer nets out there. Part of the permit was that we had to identify. I thought it went this way, though. I thought what was there went east to west, not north to south. Yeah, right now the soccer nets are set up east to west. Okay. Again, it's really not formalized. It's sort of just a field. And that road in the back already does exist. Yes. Correct. Correct. That road exists, and a majority of the gravel parking areas that are behind there do exist and existed at the time when we came in in 2021. And you're in the ability to live with the cap. This is it, right? Yeah. This is it until you move and you find a new location. Like I said, it's not news that we're looking for a place that can accommodate, that are accommodating. This is not. I'm sorry. Appropriate for the amount of students that we would like to have on site. And we're trying. I can say we're trying. We've got different people working on different places.

Yeah, I'm aware of that for the last three months. Following where you're looking and stuff like that. Am I correct that subdivision's not finalized? The department one in Calverton. Yeah, it's not. It's not finalized yet. You may need a lottery for the kids that can stay in the school, past grammar school, if you keep expanding and you don't have the ability. I think we're going to find some place soon. I feel that we're close to, very close, I think. There are two promising properties, two promising places. So I think we're very close. I'm hoping if this is granted. I hope so. And then we go through place. We go through planning board and that's granted. You won't see us in a year for, I'm hoping. That's our hope. So, and I don't want you to, I'm not asking you to disclose where you're going, but would it be, just so I understand the length of time these trails would be, is it a pre-existing, are you looking at pre-existing buildings or are you looking at a lot of land and it's still going to take you two to three years to build a school that you want? The latter. I don't, if you know of any pre-existing buildings that we, let me know. But even if you buy land, you're still going to be having these trails sitting there for six years. It's going to take a period of time to build it. Possibly, possibly I can't disclose, but maybe, but I'm hoping not. Or on your new land you put trailers in while you're building, depending on the size of the property. I mean you have, you have a lot of... I lived in a trailer when my house was being built, so. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just want to go back to the property owner real quick and make sure that he's also aware that there might be buses going behind the building in front of the residents. He is. I spoke to Mr. Reid when Mr. Bergman got together with me and he said this is something that they would like to see. I spoke to him about it and I took a picture of what Mr. Bergman drew and I sent it to him and he told me that he was fine with that. Okay. Greg, what does the fire marshal say in reviewing this? You got room to get a ladder truck fully around the building to drive around? It wouldn't have to be an aerial apparatus road. Basically on the west side of the building it's got to be 20 feet wide. They can extend it. The maximum length would be 150 feet. I did scale it out with fire marshal Smith. Oh, that's the picture you showed me, right? Yeah, so if they do provide it basically along the west side here, it will get them. It will meet the maximum length of the roadway. They can access. This would be considered an access point. That's within 150 feet. And this will be within 150 feet. So fire marshal Smith was satisfied with that, that it would meet the emergency access criteria in chapter five of the New York State Fire Code. Okay.

Any other questions or concerns or anything we want to address? I mean, we do it. This is a special permit, so the next step would be to schedule a public hearing on the application. Board's amenable. I can find the next available date and we can get that set up. I'm fine with that. All right. Yeah, I'm fine with that. But is the application going to say one year? I mean, that. That's something the board needs to. We need to come to a consensus on. And the reality of it is from a strictly impact point of view, and I'm not getting into the charter schools just from a land use perspective and potential impacts, whether they were there for one year or they were there for six years, the impacts would be negligible. What's the lease agreement with the trailers? Year to year, right? It's going to be year to year. Year to year. Let's get some trailers. It's a prefab. Building. I just want to say I love what you're doing. I really do. I support the charter school. I appreciate that we were given the opportunity to come and see your facilities and meet the children. And you've got a wonderful, wonderful school there. So whatever happens with this, it's not about that we don't want the kids there because they deserve an opportunity. And you're giving them a very good opportunity. So I say we go to a public hearing. Goodbye. I agree with her sentiments. I think you're doing a great job. My kids grew up and they have friends that went to the charter school. They all think very highly of it. Programming there. I'm proud to know exactly what you're saying and that you wanted to stay there, don't we? I just need you to find a new piece of land really quick. So we can move on. I understand. Right. I think they share that concern. One thing I have to tell you I really like in the high school on Sound Avenue, the map of the United States with the push pins in it. Yes. Where the kids are going to college. Where they applied to was a different color pin than where they got accepted to. And the number of pins that were in there for your graduating class is pretty impressive. Thank you. So you should be congratulating. How big is your class? Thirteen. Okay. And I bet there's thirteen pins in that. About seven million dollars in scholarships. Yeah. That's fantastic. It's pretty impressive. And the kids were so respectful. Kids love it there. Not such nice kids. It's a different atmosphere than the public school system. Mainly because it's smaller. I mean there's less. And for some kids, and some of the students told us that. One girl was saying she went to William Floyd High School. And when the bell rang she just like melted. She hated going out and all that. She hated going out in the hall. It was too noisy, too busy. And this is more personalized education for her. And she said she's striving there. And she wasn't thriving at her home district. So there are good stories coming out. Thank you. Okay. All right. We'll be down for a public hearing. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take turns we talked about. If the board, you should visit the Rotary Garden Festival over at 10. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll be there. Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? a flower a plant a shrub they got trees they have everything Kim it's open Friday Saturday Sunday yes okay and from 9 to 6 9 to 6 okay come on down and it benefits Operation International and Northwell Health or Peconic Bay yes it's a good cause yes the Brian McQueen pies are only $30 the creams are only there in the morning so don't we took you have to do the cleans will be gone and there goes that's anything else okay just a couple couple quick notes here that's because that's all we have for open session just a reminder that Saturday May 11th 830 in the morning the Riverhead Police Athletic League has the bike safety rodeo up at Stotsky Park it's registration starts at 830 and it gets It's underway at about 9. Kids in grades K through 6 who can ride on two wheels are invited to participate. They have new bikes to give away and lots of prizes, so go on down. Rain day is Saturday, May 18th. And a reminder for the beach stickers to get up to the Recreation Department. Again, as the weather is getting nice, people are going to the beaches, and we don't want to start hammering everybody with tickets, but it will happen if you don't have your sticker. They're very easy to get between here and online. And most importantly, Sunday is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. And as I mentioned at our board meeting, moms are not just the biological moms, but they're aunts, they're grandmothers, they're sisters, they're anybody that's any female that's been part of raising a child. And sometimes they say it takes a village. Well, it takes a village of mothers sometimes to raise children. So happy Mom's Day. And enjoy. Enjoy the weekend. And we have three matters to go into executive session. Happy Mother's Day, Joe and Denise. Thank you. We have three items for executive session. We have matters surrounding possible change in status of employee with Stripland TO. We have matters surrounding possible change in status of employees, Prudente and Howard. And we have matters surrounding possible license agreement for food concessions with Waski and Howard. If I could have a moment. I would like to ask the motion to close the open session and go into executive session. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. All opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We are closed and we are going into executive session. Everybody have a great weekend. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.