Agenda - 03-10-20; 8-a - Minutes

Browse Search

14 1 Commissioner Marcoplos said prior to committing to building new schools, the County 2 needs to have all of the remodeling and redistricting options. He asked if staff knows when it 3 will have this information. 4 Patrick Able said staff will bring some information to the joint meeting on February 251n 5 and the district is getting as many classrooms ready as possible now, and next year will have 6 reassignment for the start of the 2021-22 school year. He said class size reductions will be 7 heavily considered in this planning process. 8 Will Atherton said the redistricting has a bit of a chicken and the egg quality to it, and if 9 pre-K is an unknown, it is difficult to determine where to move other students. He said 10 redistricting now would look very different than redistricting with the removal of pre-K. 11 Patrick Able said the February 25th discussion will include the aging facilities and 12 needed renovations. 13 Commissioner Price referred to the renovations piece, and said some campuses, such 14 as Grady Brown, need to be secured. She asked if doing so would build capacity, and if this is 15 considered in the numbers. 16 Craig Benedict said through the Capital Improvement Planning (CIP) process, staff will 17 develop a CIP that may or may not include capacity increases, and once that reaches a feasible 18 fundable CIP, in the years targeted, then they can include capacity. He said it must be 19 financially feasible. 20 Commissioner Price asked if the school boards are expecting that capacity will be added 21 if renovations occur. 22 Will Atherton said OCS CIP focus has been for repairing schools for safety measures, 23 and he said they are exploring whether increased capacity is possible through renovation, 24 which will not be realistic in some of the older buildings. 25 Patrick Able said CHCCS long-range facility planning processes did include some 26 feasibility studies and assessment as to what makes sense with large-scale capital projects and 27 meeting capacity needs. He said it is unclear if these capacity increases would align with the 28 reassignment processes. He said this will all be shared at the February 251" meeting. 29 Commissioner McKee said going forward all the boards need to have an in depth 30 discussion about pre-K. 31 Commissioner Price referred to the mandatory pre-K programs, and asked if these 32 students are included in head counts. 33 Will Atherton said no, but exceptional children (EC) classrooms are adjusted correctly 34 for the sizes. 35 Commissioner Bedford thanked the committee that worked on this, and she said 36 SAPFO is a good tool for the County and assists in predicting capacity and allows for changes 37 in capital budgeting. 38 Commissioner Bedford said the notion of suspending the ability to deny CAPS does not 39 solve the problem, but what it does do, if pre-K numbers were added in, is prevent law suits and 40 waste of money defending them. 41 Commissioner Bedford said some of the trailers at Ephesus Elementary School are 42 beyond their useful life, and are not used full time for the kids. She said remaining trailers at 43 the school are used for children full time, and are a security issue for children. She said trailers 44 are not part of SAPFO, which is good, but in reality they are used but really should not be so 45 any longer. 46 Commissioner Bedford said the best choices moving forward may be different for the 47 two school districts. She said in 2013 CHCCS brought forward the issue of pre-K, and there 48 may be more land in OCS than CHCCS. She said she has always wanted pre-K numbers 49 included in SAPFO, and believes pre-K is one of the greatest strategies for closing the 50 achievement gap.