Minutes 04-25-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Chair Jacobs reviewed the location of Hampton Pointe and noted that the new apartment developments have not come online yet. OCS Chair Coffey said the district has not seen the CAPS sheets for these new developments. Craig Benedict said SAPFO projections are based on the students who show up in school as of November. He said there are five different models that project forward and are averaged all together. He said as soon as children come to school, projections are affected. He said that this means the wing for Cedar Ridge might be ten years out at one point, but it may be moved forward as projections change when students show up for schools. He said the models show there is not a need for new capacity in OCS schools, but that could very well change with the new development. Chair Jacobs asked about the $39 million for the new middle school and if this number includes land. Several people answered no. CHCCS Board Member Jamezetta Bedford asked if OCS has numbers that do not include the addition of CRHS. Paul Laughton said the addition was kept in because it was in the OCS CIP last year. He said this dialogue was continued due to student generation rates. He said the project has been moved back to year 3. Commissioner Dorosin asked about newer developments that are not being counted. He questioned, coming out of a recession period, how attuned the county is to new developments and how quickly numbers can be revised. Craig Benedict said there are two parts to the SAPFO process- 1. Projections based on historical patterns, and 2. The Certificate of Adequate Public Schools (CAPS) System, which estimates seats left in a school, and then uses a student generation rate assigned to a development type to gauge it against those seats. He said this is looked at when a development requests certificates of occupancy; and if necessary, the development will be asked to delay a certificate of occupancy to allow time for building the school. He said that spikes are handled very quickly with a technical advisory committee managing adjustments in the CIP. Commissioner Dorosin said he is encouraged that the science wing will delay the new proposed school, however he feels that there should be a constant awareness of the need to increase capacity. Commissioner Rich noted that Culbreth is not only building a new wing but is also upgrading an older school in a holistic manner. Todd Lofriese said there will not be a complete building renovation but there will be some upgrading as a result of the wing. CHCCS Board Member Greg McElveen asked about debt capacity. He noted that the manager's proposed CIP budget said, in Scenario 2, the debt capacity would be exceeded in year 6. He asked what happens after year 6. Frank Clifton said it is hard to say at this time. He said this wing project is an unfunded project that got into the system and there may be other unfunded projects that enter the system in the coming years. He said there is flexibility there from one year to the next, and the county is in good financial shape. There are just some issues with limits on when debt can be issued. He noted that for the past 4 years, taxes have not been raised, but debt has been issued. Clarence Grier said that in either scenario where the capacity exceeds 15% in year 6, the percentage would likely continue to rise after that. This is because there will likely be issues with bond rating and debt issuance. CHCCS Chair Brownstein asked if the current CIP has the same issues with overage. Frank Clifton said there are proposals to defer projects for a year or two at a time.