Minutes 02-11-2020 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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13 Commissioner Dorosin said there could be a school that has 585 student capacity that has 500 K-5 students, and 150 pre-K students, totaling 650, but would show up as being less than 100% capacity. Craig Benedict said correct. Commissioner Dorosin asked if there are any pre-K classroom size restrictions. Craig Benedict said he does not know. Commissioner Dorosin considered the same hypothetical scenario as above, and asked if the pre-K students were removed to somewhere else, would the report presented this evening change. Craig Benedict said the capacity of the school would still be 585. He said there would be more room for the K-5 students with the pre-K students gone. Commissioner Dorosin asked if the SAPFO number for that school would go down due to space being freed up by the removal of pre-K. He said it seems that the freed up space was already included in the SAPFO number because they were in the 585 number. He said it might change how crowded any particular classroom is, because there would be room for the students given the class size mandates. Craig Benedict said that is a reasonable way to look at it. Will Atherton, OCS Chair, said Commissioner Dorosin is correct. He said currently pre- K students are not counted in the school numbers. He said the challenge is to decide what happens to pre-K given the upcoming class size mandates. He said pre-K is being used generically, but there are state mandated pre-Ks, especially for exceptional children. Commissioner Dorosin said if the pre-K students are moved, the ability to meet the class size mandates would be impacted. Will Atherton said pre-K is not counted today, so it would not impact SAPFO. He said what it affects is the timing of when a new school is needed. He said the County has been discussing the expansion of pre-K, which would push this discussion even further left, and the question becomes where do these kids go, as growth is not included. He said the best case is the current numbers of when a new school is needed, and worst case is it is counted, there is more growth and the number comes in even further, which would present a new challenge. Commissioner Dorosin said he is just trying to clarify what is happening in the building. He said if the mandates go into effect, the schools will have to meet them. He said one option is build a new elementary school and one is to build a pre-K center. He said if pre-K was housed elsewhere, there would be room freed up in the current schools to move closer to meeting the class size mandates. Will Atherton said it would in the long term. Will Atherton said pre-k is not in every school, so some of this would help capacity but would also cause some re-districting. Commissioner Dorosin asked if pre-K is only housed in elementary schools. Will Atherton said yes, and this is due to unique requirements that exist for pre-K classrooms. Patrick Able, CHCCS, said the same is true in CHCCS, which still has 6 pre-K classrooms in mobile units, and does not account for them in the core spaces of the building (gym, cafeteria, etc.). He said there are 44 mobiles units in CHCCS, and moving pre-K students would likely get other students out of the mobile units and into brick and mortar. He said this is a great conversation, and appreciates the opportunity to comment. He said the slides shown tonight are the reality in CHCCS and OCS. He said all those involved are discussing this because there is not enough capacity, and the class size mandates have already begun. HE said CHCCS has had a waiver that ends June 30, 2020, and the district now has 2 years to fully implement the mandates. He said any additional help to insure future capacity is necessary, and all options should be considered.