Minutes 05-23-2024-Budget Work Session

Browse Search

21 Commissioner McKee said he does not disagree. He said that getting schools up to adequate safety is important too. He said he doesn't want to put funds into schools that will only get 10 more years of useful life. Chair Bedford asked what school he is referring to. Commissioner McKee said Grady Brown. Travis Myren said there would be about $84-85 million left for other projects. Chair Bedford said she thought they should follow Woolpert and every school has to have basic safety/fire etc. and then the remainder of the funds can go back to the school board to determine allocation. She said that they can still do levels 1,2,3, but not 4 and 5. She said those must wait. She said Orange County is going to have to do a redistricting. She said that the school board can look at safety needs and bring those back. Commissioner Richards said Grady Brown is $16 million and there is money to do that. She said that they will still have the funds to prioritize that if they wish. Travis Myren said there was confusion about the Central plan. He said that it never planned to merge the two schools. Kirk Vaughn said the use of the word consolidation confused that. Commissioner Hamilton said she wishes there was an option 3. She said she feels a little unclear and they didn't get the details on it soon enough to be able to dig in. She said that seeing sequencing provided by CHCCS and output numbers really helped to clarify what they are trying to do, and not having that from OCS is difficult. Chair Bedford said what OCS did was that instead of following Woolpert's recommendation, they came up with their own list and she said that is putting lipstick on a pig. She said that's the same plan. She said buildings just keep aging. She said she wants to see a new elementary school. She said that they will need to go back to the school board and have them lay out high priority needs and let the school board identify other priorities. Chair Bedford said OCS's approach wasn't what she expected or wanted in order to not keep kicking the can down the road. Commissioner Fowler said Option 1 does give OCS some leeway on the Central rebuild and their point about not replacing Orange Middle School because there was 7-10 years of warranty left, but the plan replaces that around 7 years. She said that there are other schools with open design, and they have to be addressed. She said she agrees with Option 1. Commissioner Hamilton said she agrees that the Woolpert principles are what they paid for and asked for. She said that the schools need to follow that. She said that she would like another option for OCS to bring something closer to the plan. Commissioner Richards said the decision goes back to why the Board decided to spend the money for Woolpert. She said they wanted an objective look at the schools and total assessment of facilities in the county for their children. She said when they start educating people about the bond, it's important to go back to that principle. She said that she does not do see how that is possible by spreading it out to all the schools. She said even though she voted against the study initially, she thinks it was important to get to this point and they need to remain focused on why they started this process. She said she is supportive of Option 1. Travis Myren said even within Option 1, the county will not prescribe high priority items. He said those will be selected by the school system. Commissioner McKee said he agrees with Commissioner Richards's points. He said he supports Option 2 but whatever decision they make, he just wants to get the longest life out of the buildings. He said his fear is if they go with both new, they will burn out a lot of the funds. He said that safety is his number one objective. Chair Bedford said that Grady Brown proposed plumbing and some mechanical and adding interior walls. She said it did not include connecting any buildings. Chair Bedford said the school system can decide on the sequencing which high priority need to address.