Minutes 04-10-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chair Jacobs said when schools have a leak in the roof, the decision of when to fix it is up to them. Paul Laughton said yes. Chair Jacobs said he had heard that there was a discussion at the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting that there was a school system wanting to revisit the formula for SAPFO. Craig Benedict said this was regarding the numbers for student generation rates, primarily for multi-family. He said staff is contacting a consultant to look at this. He said these student generation rates were a pre-cursor to impact fees. He said staff is getting close to a contract update with the consultant for these student generation rates. Paul Laughton said information has been received from both schools systems about improvements needed for older schools. He said the CIP does not include any of that. He said this amount is in excess of$330 million. Chair Jacobs said the Board is thinking about bonds to pay for this. Commissioner porosin said the Board should be conscious about not letting the discussions of renovations, repairs, and facility assessments be separated from conversations about capacity and building new schools. He said there is an opportunity for synergy here. He said Carrboro Elementary is an example of this, when you consider the potential cost of everything to repair it versus doubling its capacity so that it becomes Elementary #12. Chair Jacobs said that is part of the study, which is looking at safety, technology, and capacity. He said there is a push and pull on capacity as it related to how big school systems want their schools to be. He said there are different school capacities for different levels of schools. He said this may need to be part of the conversation, but the decision on what is too big is very subjective. He said Carrboro High is built with a core that can serve more wings, so that it could have higher capacity; but the addition has not been built yet. He said everyone would prefer to have capacity in the existing schools before this happens, but all of this is being considered in a holistic way in the study. He said there are some schools that are very old and need to be brought up to speed with the newer schools. He noted that the Board will receive this presentation at the end of the month. Commissioner porosin said that he is concerned with the order of priority, and he feels that older schools should be equal. Chair Jacobs said safety comes first. Commissioner Price said Cameron Park is an old school that had to be gutted and needs a total re-vamp. She asked when this shows up and where it shows up. Michael Talbert said these details will be shown at the presentation on April 29th. He said the School Board will be reviewing their plan and setting priorities prior to that presentation. He said the Board will receive a plan for all of the schools, not just one. Commissioner Price asked if the funding for a significant re-vamp like this would show up in the CIP. Paul Laughton said it would likely have to be financed, as it is beyond the scope of lottery funds and pay as you go funds. He said the Board would have to make a decision on this. Michael Talbert said none of those projects are in this CIP, as those are still outside of scope. Chair Jacobs said part of the discussion is a consideration of whether schools are beyond their life span. He said the schools will be coming forward with a series of proposals, and the Board will have to decide on whether to support those items being funded. Commissioner Gordon said this is entering a new era when the Board actually considers funding substantial renovations of older schools. She is glad to see this time has finally come. She said some of this is due to the rapidly growing school districts and the fact that there was an emphasis on building new schools, while older schools were just making do