HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - November 15 2023 School Capital Needs Workgroup Agenda & Minutes ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
Capital Needs Work Group
November 15, 2023
Meeting— 8:30-10am
The Capital Needs Work Group is conducting a Virtual Meeting on November 15, 2023.
Members of the Group will participate in the meeting remotely.
Panelists: Jean Hamilton, Bonnie Hauser, Rhonda Rath, Jessica Goodell,Al Ciarochi, Alan
Dorman,Andre Stewart, Catherine Mau, David Sturtz, Dwayne Foster, Gary Donaldson, Greg
Wilder, Patrick Florence, Perdita Holz, Rani Dasi, Rob Olsen, Steven Arndt, Quamesha Whitted-
Miller, Travis Myren, Kirk Vaughn, Christy Dodson, Cy Stober, Jim Merrill, Johnathan Scott,
Riza Jenkins
1. Welcome—Commissioner Jean Hamilton, Chair of Work Group
2. Woolpert Inc. Update
David Sturtz (Woolpert)presented updated slides with edits from last presentation
(powerpoint presented with minutes).
Option D is what has been recommended. Option C is Phase 1 of the
recommendations and stretches the timeline from 5 years to 10 years. Focuses on
priority rebuilds and one new capacity school for Orange County Elementary.
For CHCCS: This is a shift since last time after talking to Al and his team.
McDougle Elementary would serve as all of the district language program for the
elementary schools in one location to consolidate their efforts and resources for
those programs. This swaps out an elementary rebuild for a new middle school
rebuild. The new middle school would be on an existing site near Morris Grove
Elementary. This allows the language program to be in one location. The rest of
the options remain the same where Frank Porter Graham serves as swing space
for the major construction projects throughout phase 1 as that will reduce the sunk
cost for swing space making it more efficient.
For OC: Move Gravelly Middle School to phase 3 since that is a newer school. It
had been identified for renovation due to undersized classrooms. Given the sum
of all the needs, Orange Middle and Orange High are both slated for rebuild on
the existing shared site as there is plenty of green space to do so. This prioritizes
Orange Middle to phase I replacement and preliminary design for the Orange
High in phase 2 as there could be some site efficiencies to be gained by looking at
that as a joint project.
This plan increases elementary school capacity, rebuilds Orange Middle and
incorporates a new change of combining Hillsborough and Central Elementary.
With the new investments in HVAC recently in Central, the discussion was to
pare down the cost of that option by not fully rebuilding Central Elementary
School but maintaining the majority of that building. Part of the building will be
rebuilt into multi-story to gain capacity for a relatively small footprint and to
provide some of the common spaces that are desired in larger elementary schools.
The Central rebuild will be for the Hillsborough and Central elementary
communities. With the new capacity, the existing Hillsborough existing program
can move to Central or to a location that makes sense for the district at that time.
The sum of Phase 1 major capital investments is $428.4m.
Phase 2 moves to focus on one priority rebuild, which is Orange High School, and
the rest is for capital renewals—renovations of existing capital infrastructure,
windows, interiors, roofs, and other items on the replacement schedule.
Phase 3 is continuing renovations and priority needs.
This project has focused on separating out the major capital projects and the
ongoing capital needs from a budgetary standpoint. This plan annualized capital
renewals or priority repairs in buildings not being replaced to be approximately
$5m/yr for the next 15 years. This is the bare minimum for ongoing capital
needs. Inflation will need to be considered in outer years. Industry standard
budget model, 2% of the present replacement value of the facilities for these
priority repairs and capital renewals, suggest approximately $36m/yr to keep pace
with ongoing facility needs. The midpoint is $27.5m/yr which considers the top
1-3 priorities for every building that is not being renovated or replaced in one of
the 3 phases. Woolpert suggested aiming for the $27.5m on average and work
down from there based on the priorities and what can be afforded on an ongoing
basis outside of capital debt.
A final report will be provided to look at funding needs over time, both in terms
of ongoing capital renewals and what needs to be planned for on an annualized
basis into the foreseeable future. The phases are set up in best practice model but
should be evaluated every 5 years to see if they still meet the current needs.
In consultation with the district teams,they feel confident in the recommendations
made strategically should be move forward at this time.
Hamilton thanked the Wolpert Team.
Bonnie: If Orange County Schools have a partial rebuild of Central and
close Hillsborough, does that increase capacity or is it a wash?
David: It would essentially be a wash on capacity however adding a new
school in the pipeline prior to the renewal of Central would have added
capacity. Before this project, the new elementary school would be online
to add new capacity and then reshuffle the boundaries accordingly.
David: A relatively small budget has been included for consolidations to
account for any site related removals of existing property to account for all
costs.
Bonnie: We are in middle of major renovations at Efland Cheeks
Elementary School. They are putting in a new HVAC and there is a phased
multi-year plan to upgrade the finishes in every part of the building.
Wondering if it had been considered to move the Efland Cheeks
improvement into this phase one.
Jessica: If that money is already allocated,we would not want that included
in a phase. We have not made any adjustments to the assessment data.
David: We have not specifically called that out however this would be
considered in the ongoing capital renewal budget. Woolpert identified
deficiencies per the facility condition. Efland Cheeks does not get included
in cost until year 6 and they have a total of $7.5m budgeted for those
renovations right now.
Jean:Asked for copy of slides and looks forward to Woolpert's presentation
at the December 4th BOCC meeting.
3. County Staff Update: Discussion of Bond Plan
Kirk Vaughn presented the Capital Planning Timeline (powerpoint
provided with minutes)
The County Facilities Masterplan was reviewed on November 91h
The next two big items are:
• Woolpert will present on December 4th
• On December 12th, County staff will present the Financing Options
for Woolpert's recommendations to the Board.
In January, the Board will work toward a tentative plan for the bond
referendum. Staff will then work with Local Government Commission
(LGC). In February, the School Boards will adopt a resolution supporting
the referendum. At certain board meetings, there are opportunities for the
Board to change the bond referendum plan if they deem necessary. Then
the bond purpose and "not to exceed" amount will be set on April 2"d. The
purpose or"not to exceed" amount cannot be changed after that point.
Next the Board will appoint a Bond Education Committee. Staff will work
with the LGC to apply for the bond and set public meetings working toward
a November 5th bond referendum.
Bonnie: What assumption should School Districts be using for Capital
Budget Planning? With Capital Budgets being due soon, what should they
be planning in terms of shovel readiness for bond projects? What is the
bond number? Heard $140M, is that correct? Are we to continue to
capitalize maintenance? Are we going to be funded separately?
Travis: The current capital investment plan represents a $130m bond but
this timeline sets us up to determine what the final amount will be. Will
have general scenarios at the December 12th meeting for the Board to
consider. Those will have both tax rate and debt to revenue policy
implications. Will create different scenarios between December 12th —
January 16th as directed. Then we can set out tentative plans. There is room
for refinement in March as we get more and improved information,
including revenue projections. As we get closer to the introduction of the
capital investment plan, the better information we will have.
Kirk: We have not asked the school districts for their CIP submission at
this time. We will be sending out CIP request and ask that they prioritize
capital year 1 projects that need to get done before the bond kicks in.
Rani —Are we looking at a total pool of funding consideration or are the
county projects prioritized?
Travis: The County Facility Master Plan was presented to the Board last
week. Over the same 10-year period, that is $130m. We will layer the
county,school,and school bond referendum plan to see the amount and then
we can make changes.
Jean: Asked for all of this to be presented at one time for ease of decision
making with limited funds.
Al: Is it safe to say that we will see a tentative amount for the school
improvement category, at least for Article 46, so they can start planning as
in the past. Same for deferred maintenance money so districts can do some
items that need to continue regardless of timing on referendum approval.
Kirk: yes, that information will be in the current CIP
4. County Staff Update: OREd Projection Update
Kirk informed the workgroup that OREd has presented draft capacity tables
for both districts to the district staff and Orange County Budget Office.
A reminder of what OREd is and how it fits into this process:
OREd—improves our projections for enrollment by looking at land
use and projected developments that add students as they get built. That is
helpful as we build out the projection while looking at future capacity and
future capital needs. In draft report, neither district is showing out of
capacity over the 10-year period. The capacity numbers that OREd use are
from the projections we give them based on our new SAPFO projections.
That information has assumptions and limitations that we have identified in
the past.
Since Woolpert has more recent review of the buildings and different space
assumptions for different usage(ex: PreK and EC), OREd is going to build
a capacity numbers using Woolpert data. We will see how the capacity
tables are impacted by that. As the Board approves different phases of the
Woolpert Model, we will get information on how each of those phases and
projects affect capacity. That information can be overlaid as capital projects
move forward and how they affect capacity in the next 10 yrs.
Bonnie: What is the timetable for updating the SAPFO agreement?
Travis: As part of the MOU,if we are going to change the projection model,
we need to provide notice to parties by February. Between getting updated
projections from ORED with adjusted PreK and EC assumptions and
February, we will make the determination on which projections to use for
the MOU moving forward.
Bonnie: We are in the middle of a redistricting process. We added EC,
PreK, and specials back into model and it threw the #'s off by 10%, which
has created a semi-urgent problem. Dwayne can provide the updated
numbers. It is creating a dilemma because if we move one school from
120% capacity, we end up with 2 others that are at 120% capacity.
Jean: It is important to get the capacities to reflect what is actually going on
in the classrooms. It is important to understand the assumptions the
projections are based on such as items how many children in schools are
generated from new developments and what is the impact of the older
communities as residents turn over and bring in families with school age
children. We need to check on assumptions to see how students are
generated and confirm the accuracy.
5. Discussion and Group Next Steps
Bonnie: Has there been any conversation in the facilities plan about
operating improvements or efficiency improvements (ex: staffing, energy
usage). Curious if there are any financial improvements based on these
improvements.
Hamiton: We don't know what's going to happen. This group was to focus
on capital needs however operations is an important consideration for the
Commissioners and others.
6. Next Meeting is TBD
Jean: Do we need to meet in December? Future topics for next meetings?
Rani: January would be good. Would like to learn more about SAPFO
changes to take back to school district before February board meeting.
Connect on Commissioner's discussion on funding.
Cy: Perdita is working on Abstract for initial draft of the annual report for
January BOCC Agenda.
Jean: The BOCC business meeting is on January 16th. The next meeting
for this Capital Needs Workgroup will be Jan 171h 8:30-10. Topics to
include update on enrollment projections and what BOCC decided.
Adjourn
Capital Needs Work Group virtual meetings are open to the public to attend remotely. Should
any member of the public wish to view this meeting,please click the following link to register:
Capital Needs Workgroup Registration Link
After registering, you will receive a follow-up email which will allow you to access and view the
meeting. If you have any comments or questions, would like to submit any written comments to
the group, or would like an emailed copy of the entire agenda package for this meeting,please
email Kirk Vaughn at kvaughn(d),oran eg countync.gov