Agenda - 12-14-2004-9b - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 The Orange County School student membership projections reflect no requirement at this time for additional school seats during the ten-year planning horizon, beyond the construction of Middle School #3 that is in progress, and slated for opening in August 2006. Other Observations • Recently, the Board asked County staff to review estimates by both school systems' architects regarding likely shortfalls in the established budgets for OCS Middle School #3 and CHCCS High School #3. Both school systems have been advised that higher prices for steel, concrete, and fuel, among other factors, make it very likely that construction bids will significantly exceed the project allocations for construction, County staff have been working with the school staffs and architects and plan to bring responses on ,January 24 to the BOCC-requested analysis about factors affecting the anticipated cost overruns for the two new school projects, • The Manager has explained during the past several months that the County faces significant constraints, under its own policies, regarding the issuance of debt beyond that already programmed in the County's debt issuance schedule, That fact was reviewed in detail during several Board work sessions this fall, The accompanying chart depicts the County s anticipated annual debt capacity aver the next ten years, with very little latitude to assume any non-programmed debt through FY 2007-08. Estimates of potential cast overruns just for the two new school projects have been in the range of $6 million to $7million. The Manager has made it clear that he will not recommend that the County issue additional debt to address additional funding requested by both school systems for the new school projects, beyond that already programmed, until the County regains additional debt issuance flexibility beginning with FY 2008-09, • In view of that, the Manager transmitted a September 24, 2004 memo to both Superintendents soliciting ideas about how the anticipated cost overruns for the respective new school projects might be addressed through reallocation of resources available to the school systems through their CIPs and other revenue streams. • To this point, there have been no expressed written alternatives to the Manager's proposal that a portion of the planned issuance of $12,8 million in debt for CHCCS Elementary School #10 be shifted to address anticipated cost overruns for the two school projects and other County capital projects that are in development, • In the absence of viable alternatives and with the SAPFO-calculated postponement in the need for the opening of CHCCS Elementary School #10 until the 2009-10 academic year, the Manager recommends that the BOGC indicate its intention now to redirect some portion of debt planned for Elementary #10 to address other, more urgent capital funding needs. • The adapted 2004-14 Capital Investment Plan (GIP) would be amended to reflect the need for funds to construct CHCCS Elementary #10 with a revised opening date of August 2009. • The Superintendent reports that the project architects have advised her that construction on OCS Middle School #3 must begin by mid-February 2005 to keep the project on track for an August 2006 opening. Accordingly, the Orange County Board of Education will likely consider awarding the construction bid and approving associated contracts at their scheduled meeting on January 24, 2005, • BOCC action to reallocate specific amounts of planned debt to provide appropriate revised capital project budgets would be scheduled no sooner than the next BOCC regular meeting on .January 24, 2005. That action could take the form of endorsement of specific project budget amounts and/or the adoption of updated capital project ordinances, • The existing interlocal agreement between Orange County and CHCCS establishing the project budget for High School #3 at $27.8 million plus $1.9 million for "smart growth"