Minutes-09-26-2023 Joint Meeting with School Boards

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25 Bonnie Hauser said the Orange County School Board is considering expanding the alternative high school and starting an alternative middle school. She asked if Woolpert could provide recommendations about what that might look like for the middle school. David Sturtz said absolutely, and it will be added to the mix. Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked how alternative high schools are over capacity. David Sturtz said that a traditional classroom could hold 20-25 children. He said that's not how an alternative high school works. He said they looked at what the building could accommodate. He said if the building had a different purpose, they could make it fit, but it does not. He said he should have shown that information differently next time. Ashton Powell asked what the timeframe for policy changes is based on the DPI standards. He asked if CHCCS has been behind in complying with those standards for five or fifteen years. He asked how long they have been out of compliance. David Sturtz said he cannot speak to the exact dates. He said that standards keep being updated, but buildings do not. He said the standards are for new design. He said they took the new design standards and compared them to the existing buildings. Sarah Smylie said the recommendation to build a new school at the Central campus was surprising, because there are limitations to that site. She said that AL Stanback has the highest FCI, and she was surprised that Orange Middle was recommended to be replaced rather than Stanback. David Sturtz said the question is what is driving the FCI. He said it could be the roof that is the driver, or it could be a variety of other things. Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked about slide #5. She asked if those priorities were included in the critical needs. David Sturtz said yes that they are included everywhere. He said that if they assume you cannot meet all of the condition needs, they start with saying you will at least take care of 1-3 priorities for starting the discussion. Commissioner Fowler asked what the difference between essential and necessary is. Jessica Goodell said it is shades of grey. She said priority 2 would be a roof while priority 3 would be electrical components. Chair Bedford asked if a $130 million bond covers Priority 1 and Priority 2 needs. David Sturtz said yes. He said that would cover nothing else. Commissioner Hamilton said it would be$1.8 billion to replace all of the schools. She said that it is helpful to look at options over time and allow them to be economically responsible while meeting the needs of the students. She said they have to consider how they are going to make investments in the schools that make sense. David Sturtz said that $1.8 billion is the basis for creating the FCI. He said that industry standards suggest that organizations set aside 2% of the total need of replacement value for annual repairs and maintenance. He said that would be $37 million for repairs and maintenance. He said if you do that math over 10 years, then that is bigger than $130 million so they will work with the team to develop scenarios to consider in terms of low, medium, and high budget assumptions. Vice-Chair McKee asked if$37 million assumes they are starting off with new schools. David Sturtz said yes. He said the 2016 State of our Schools Report addresses the issue. He said that since the county and school systems have not been keeping up with the deferred maintenance, the recommendation is 7% rather than 2%. Vice-Chair McKee said they have to do something but there is no alternative to doing a lot. He said this is going to be a heavy lift. Commissioner Fowler said that they had been investing $3 million a year, but that they had been doing $30 million for a couple of years to try to catch up, but even that was inadequate. Vice-Chair McKee said that the county and school systems are losing ground.