Agenda - 04-25-2006-1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I Facilitator's Notes Schools /County Collaboration Group Monday, February 13, 2006 9:00 AM — 11:00 AM Orange County Schools Central Office, Hillsborough Present: Shirley Carraway, Randy Copeland, Steve Halkiotis, Al Hartkopf Barry .Jacobs, .John M. Lirdc, .Jr., Neil Pedersen, Lisa Stuckey, Rod Visser (staff), Greg Wilder (staff), Andy Sachs (facilitator). New Members The group welcomed BOCC Vice Chair Steve Halkiotis and acknowledged that the City School's Vice Chair Jamezetta Bradford, although not present today because of work commitments, is also a new Collaboration Group member. John Link introduced Greg Wilder, who was recently promoted to Director of Operations in the County Manager's Office, Mr. Wilder will be attending Collaboration Group meetings because the issues under discussion are within his areas of responsibility. His participation also will ensure that the County will continue to have two staff persons with direct experience in the Collaboration Group after Mr. Link retires. School Construction Standards Mr. Visser distributed three handouts: • School Construction Standards for elementary and middle schools (approved by the BOCC on 5/16/96) High School Construction Standards (approved April 20, 1999) School Construction Standards Discussion Points (dated 2/7/06) prepared by the Superintendents and County Manager for today's meeting. Mr. Visser said that in the Schools and County staff's judgment, a comprehensive reassessment of the County's school construction standards is not necessary. Approximately 80% of the construction standards work well in practice, he said, such as the acreage and some of the square footage standards. However, the staffs recommend that some of the existing construction standards should be reassessed, such as those relating to square footage for urban sites, school capacity, construction costs, inflation, site preparation and development costs. I-Ie noted that the actual cost range for recent elementary school construction is $175 -180 per square foot, but the existing cost standard (adopted in 1996) is only $90 per square foot. As the group began its review of the staffs' Discussion Points document, Mr. Jacobs said that the State has recommendations — but not "requirements," as stated in the handout — for school acreage. Group members discussed the relationship between school construction standards and the community's use of school facilities. Mr. Hartkopf said that OCS is raising the rates it charges the community to use school facilities, and suggested that school and County