Agenda 02-03-2026; 6-a - Approval of the School Construction Interlocal Agreement

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2 This draft was provided to members of the Board of County Commissioners and staff of both school districts. The school district staff have requested three additional changes to the ILA, for the Board of Commissioners' consideration. Those changes are: • 4.01 i d & e - Amending the approval to appropriation. This is meant to clarify that by the Board of County Commissioners approving funding for projects in the budget, they are approving the projects. • 4.01 iii - Changing the design payment timing as design is paid at milestones, not all at once. • 4.01 v - Removing the requirement for Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR), changing it to a recommendation. School staff have identified that there would be projects that use bond funds that are not new construction, such as HVAC and Roof replacements, where CMAR would not be a reasonable procurement method. The attorney for both school districts additionally contends that General Statute 143-128.1(e) does not permit any public entity to delegate the determination of appropriate construction method. As design funds have been authorized by the Board of County Commissioners, both school districts have proceeded with design of their first school construction project. County staff have met with school staff in December as a precursor to the formal CORE team. School staff have committed to following the structure of the School Capital Funding Policy and have already committed to using CMAR as the construction method for both first elementary school builds. Both districts will be releasing requests for proposals (RFPs) to select a construction manager at risk in the spring. Along with the ILA, the County reviewed options in managing this process, and determined that it would be preferable to have staff provide oversight and communication during the project construction, rather than hiring a project management firm. The Manager recommends adding a 1.0 FTE (full time equivalent) School Capital and Financial Analyst to coordinate the meetings of the CORE Team, report back to the Board on school construction, and manage all public communications, including maintenance of a dashboard and all non-online materials. This position would also consolidate other school related tasks that currently reside in different departments, such as the coordination of the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance Technical Advisory Committee (SAPFOTAC) and the reporting of capital expenditures for financing and reimbursement. This proposed position would be funded from Pay-Go funds set aside for Project Management. Funds totaling $500,000 were budgeted in FY 2026, and $1,000,000 is planned annually for future years. The County would retain approximately $36,000 for a position starting on February 3, 2026 for FY 2026, and retain approximately $90,000 annually in future years from that pool to fund the position. The remaining funds will be allocated to the School Districts for project and program management expenses. These funds were set aside from school project budgets to ensure that the districts would adequately invest in project and program management functions. The Manager recommends that the position be approved by the Board with approval to proceed with the ILA. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with discussion of the Interlocal Agreement. The School Capital and Financial Analyst position would utilize funds already budgeted in the FY 2025-26 budget. ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC PLAN: This item supports: • GOAL 5: PUBLIC EDUCATION/LEARNING COMMUNITY