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12 <br /> Commissioner McKee asked if, in a worse case scenario, the County may be looking at <br /> 2 '/2 new schools county wide by 2026, if it chooses to implement full pre-K, in addition to the <br /> legislative mandates. <br /> Craig Benedict said when SAPFO was first put together the model to increase capacity <br /> was to build a new school, but now the model is not necessarily a new build as there is so much <br /> work to be done on the existing schools. He said capacity has been added to some of the <br /> schools in recent years, and the new model may be redevelopment of existing buildings, as <br /> opposed to new builds. <br /> Commissioner McKee said the existing schools are in need of extensive work, costing <br /> millions of dollars, and if this worse case were to come to pass, it would be another -$75 million <br /> for new schools. <br /> Craig Benedict referred to the slide that indicates 775 seats lost due to legislative <br /> mandates and pre-K, and said that equates to 1.5 schools. He said OCS would also have <br /> enough seats lost to warrant an additional school. <br /> Commissioner McKee said regardless of how the problem is tackled, it will cost money. <br /> Commissioner Marcoplos said he is concerned about the reduced class size, and asked <br /> if this has been well thought out and if there are better ways to deal with this. He asked if the <br /> County is bound to follow the class size formula, or could the class size be a bit bigger but an <br /> additional teacher added to the room. <br /> Commissioner Bedford said if the County fails to comply, the State would take over the <br /> school board, and suspend the license of the superintendent. <br /> Commissioner Marcoplos said the current legislature would do that, and he asked if the <br /> current educational establishment might have alternate ways to deal with classroom numbers. <br /> He said these are unfunded mandates from the State. <br /> Student Capacity and Projections (chart) <br /> Commissioner McKee asked if the school board staffs and members would like to <br /> comment. <br /> Commissioner Dorosin asked if the first set of numbers are based on changing class <br /> size and the second set of numbers are based on the pre-k seats currently taking up space in <br /> the schools. <br /> Craig Benedict said there are pre-K students in the schools, and staff takes that <br /> capacity and assumes it is used for K-5, but they are actually used for pre-K as well. <br /> Commissioner Dorosin said a school might have 585 students, and asked if that number <br /> includes the pre-K students or not. <br /> Craig Benedict said staff is counting the capacity of the school, and assumes the <br /> capacity is for use of K-5th only, when actually a certain number of seats are being used by pre- <br /> K. <br /> Commissioner Dorosin said he is still not clear. He said a school has x number of <br /> spaces for K-5, based on the classroom size mandates set out by the legislature. He said, for <br /> example a school has 585 seats, and when the students are counted and number 585, then the <br /> school is at 100% capacity. He said if the number is higher the school is over capacity, and if it <br /> is lower the school is under capacity. <br /> Craig Benedict said yes. <br /> Commissioner Dorosin asked if pre-K students are currently included, when students <br /> sitting in seats are counted. <br /> Craig Benedict said no, pre-K students are not counted. He said the original MOU said <br /> to not count pre-K against the capacity in the school. <br />