Minutes 02-11-2020 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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