Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County School Board Regular Meeting, Thursday, October 23, 2025

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2025
Place: Albemarle County Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 2h 41m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yrnhGcWk8U

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-14. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:14] - Good evening, everybody. This October 23rd meeting of the Albemarle County School Board is now in session. Do we have a motion? - We do, Chair Acuff. I move that the School Board of Albemarle County, Virginia, go into a closed meeting as authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information, section 2-2-3711A, the Code of Virginia, and the subsection B for consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by the school board, regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel.

[00:01:50] The purpose of this item is for school division counsel to discuss a new complaint against school administrators and to update the school board on the progress of contract negotiations with the Outmodel Education Association. -Do we have a second? -Second.

[00:02:06] -Motion made by Mr. Page, seconded by Ms. Lee. Any discussion? All those in favor? -Aye. -Aye. -Opposed? Motion passes, we're in closed session.

[00:02:18] Why don't we go to this meeting

[00:30:35] of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. School board is now in session. Do we have a motion coming out of closed session? - We do. I move that the board certified by recorded vote that to the best of each board member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, and identified in the motion authorized closed meeting were heard discussed or considered in the closed meeting do we have a second second motion made by mr page seconded by miss osborne uh miss thompson can you please call the vote

[00:31:14] dr berlin yes miss osborne yes miss prior is absent miss spilman yes miss lee yes mr page yes cherry cup yes so moved motion passes uh next those who can please stand for the pledge of

[00:31:33] allegiance we'll now have a moment of silence before we begin now i'd like to introduce a new

[00:32:22] member of the cabinet dr grant um he is coming in as our new chief communications officer he brings in more than two decades of communications experience most recently serving as a director of Advocacy and External Affairs for the International City-County Management Association in Washington, D.C. We are very glad to have him join the ACPS leadership team. Let's see.

[00:32:51] Where are you? Oh, there he is. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome aboard. Next on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion? I move we approve tonight's agenda. Second.

[00:33:06] made by Ms. Lee, seconded by Ms. Osborne. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have a spotlight on education, and I'd like to invite our student school board representative, Max Koffler, to make this introduction. All right. Thank you, Dr. Iacuff.

[00:33:30] Good evening. October is National Principals Month, a time set aside to celebrate and thank the remarkable leaders who guide our schools every day. Principals do so much more than manage schedules and oversee operations. They create welcoming spaces where students feel safe, supported, and inspired to learn.

[00:33:46] They work alongside teachers and staff to make sure every decision centers on what's best for students. And they help build the kind of school communities where we can all grow and thrive. Tonight, we want to take a moment to recognize their dedication and the difference they make in the lives of students, staff and families across Albemarle County public schools to honor them we'd like to share a short video featuring students and staff from across our division expressing their appreciation and reflecting on the many ways principals impact their communities before we start this i did

[00:34:22] neglect to do our roll call so i'll squeeze this in in between why don't we start with this Dr. McLaughlin good evening everyone Pat McLaughlin assistant superintendent max millen koffler monticello high school school board representative judy lee rivana district allison spillman at large representative ram page millow district kate acuff jack jewett district rebecca berlin whitehall district ellen osborne scottsville district rosalind schmidt chief operating officer matthew hawes superintendent josiah black school division council christine

[00:34:56] Thompson, Clerk of the Board. Jason Grant, Chief Communication Officer. Thank you. Now we can watch the film. Principals are so important because there's so many things that go on in the school that people just have no idea about. Somehow they have to hold all of that together in their head,

[00:35:32] present a good face to the public, stay happy for their students, and support their teachers, and it's a really hard job and we appreciate it all. The biggest shout out to all of our ACPS principals for all of the blood sweat and tears for all of the work behind the scenes for all of the energy that you bring everything that you do is breathing life into our children and we appreciate it all thank you for all the principals and what they do for us thank you for all you do I think what makes a good principal is someone that is able to lead with love in their heart and

[00:36:09] compassion humor and be able to have the courage to stand up for the least represented students and the student body. We absolutely love our principal here in kindergarten. They do so much for us in our grade level. They come down and Ritchie reads stories. She makes them feel so included all the time. She reaches out to them on our morning announcements each morning and they think it's so special.

[00:36:33] She's really organized, which I like, so now we've got everything like planned out and ready to go. And then also she's really nice, like she gives people like compliments in the hallway like the jacket looks very nice and stuff. The reason why we came into this work loving kids and wanting the best for kids he's making sure that we live that out every single day and that really matters to me. Thank you for all the principals out there for just keeping the schools running making sure we can do go to school safely. Thank you to all the principals of Alamo County um every time I see all the hard work that assistant principals and

[00:37:08] principals are going through and do for all the teachers one I'm thankful to I realized I never want that job because it's a lot of principles are important to the school because they keep the students safe but they also help foster a positive learning environment I've been with accounting for 10 years and I've had the chance to work with some amazing principals they are you know they're they're kind they're compassionate they they care about kids and I'm really grateful for the leadership that all of our principals show thank you thank you

[00:37:42] thank you you are loved you are needed and we appreciate you like to thank all of the students and the staff who shared their voices in this video and thank each of our principals for the extraordinary leadership you provide every day your work shapes the culture of our schools supports our teachers and staff and ensures that every student has the opportunity to learn grow

[00:38:21] and succeed. On behalf of the Albemarle County School Board it's my honor to recognize and thank you for your dedication and service. At this time we would like to present each of you with a certificate of appreciation as a small token, very small token of our gratitude. Thank you. Thanks Dr. Acuff and we'll start with Amy Morris principal at Broadus Wood Elementary School. Seth

[00:38:52] Kennard principal Mountain View Elementary. Joe McCauley principal Hollymead Elementary. Steve Saunders principal Greer Elementary. Mike Ironi

[00:39:30] principal agner elementary wendy eckerly principal murray elementary school jennifer underwood

[00:39:55] principal ivy elementary school jim kiner principal brownsville elementary school maureen jensen principal stony point elementary ashby johnson principal journey middle school emily uosef

[00:40:34] principal the center for learning and growth paula gately principal red hill elementary and i think our last order of business for the day is a group picture uh deb patrick you want them down in the

[00:41:14] the front of the... Let's do that. Come on down.

[00:43:07] okay so before we move on i do have uh first i just want to really thank uh some thank all the board members um in particular i really enjoyed spending monday morning at ivy elementary school with miss spillman we had a great time one of the things that we really enjoyed or i know we both enjoyed with the visit was principal underwood has a group of students that are leaders in the school and they go as the Bluebird Ambassadors and we had a chance to meet with them

[00:43:44] and two of the students greeted us when we got to the school to take us on a tour of the school so they really took ownership of the event. Also Judy and Allison, Ms. Lee, Ms. Spillman get extra credit because they sat through quite a lengthy slide-driven presentation about budgeting for student needs on Tuesday.

[00:44:08] a lot of stamina to get through that one so that was offered through the VSBA I want to say that I want to thank our child nutrition staff throughout the school system I spent Wednesday several hours at Murray Elementary School with Miss Peggy and Craig getting lunch ready and washing pots and pans in the kitchen and trays and helping them to serve lunch and you can see why the kids love our child nutrition staff and love having lunch at the schools and it was

[00:44:44] quite a pleasure I learned a lot from them one of the things that I think I knew but I didn't realize is that they have frequent on-the-spot health inspections from the Department of Health and when they come in they just come in with a thermometer and start taking temperature of whatever that is going to be served and so they have a high level of scrutiny in what they in the work that they're doing and a lot of regulations to follow but ms peggy at murray in particular really personalizes and does a lot of home cooking for the students and i know that cafeteria

[00:45:22] managers around the school system do take you know take that part of their job very seriously and today we had a couple of firsts for the beginning of the school year i had my first staff of the year meeting for breakfast this morning it's all the classified staff of the year and the teachers of the year get together and it's a great interaction and engagement with them to talk about hot topics and then have conversation the hot topic today was artificial intelligence in our mall county schools we also did that at lunchtime with um the student cabinet that's

[00:45:59] something new this year and max is on the student cabinet i thought we had a great meeting today we had a presentation and there was the students had an opportunity to provide a lot of personalized input to our technology staff around artificial intelligence so i really appreciate you coming today and i'm looking forward to meeting for lunch several times throughout the year it was a good meeting i also have special recognition for all of our board members from the virginia school board Association um so I'm gonna read off each one and then and and then give it to

[00:46:35] you all right usually yeah so Josh and I are a team on this we have there they are all Awards of Excellence which shouldn't surprise you and so the first one will be for Ellen Osborne for your commitment to effective school board governance through your participation in the Virginia School Board Association

[00:47:02] school board academy 2023 through 2025 and another award of excellence for judy lee uh for the same achievement so we'll go ahead and pass that off to ms lee an award of distinction distinction for

[00:47:29] uh graham page for uh the same achievement an award of excellence uh for katherine acuff for VSBA School Board Academy 23 through 25 an award of recognition for Rebecca Berlin VSBA School Board Academy 2023-2025 and award of recognition for Allison Spillman

[00:48:04] VSBA School Board Academy 2023-25. Chair Atuff, I'd like to piggyback on that. Attorney Black, if you'll do the honors please. I have an award of achievement for superintendent haas for um committing to effective school board governance through participation into the esba board academy if you will give that to that cost please

[00:48:33] thanks every thank you dr haas thank you mr black thank you miss thompson and we need to keep doing the good work i guess um is there any i know that uh mr koffler has it's his first time on the dais as a student school board member and I know you have an introduction and something to read. Yes, thank you Dr. Acuff. So once again my name is Maxim Linkoffler. I'm Montechilla High School's school board representative. So also first of all I apologize if my voice is a little croaky. We had an

[00:49:11] awesome volleyball game last night. So tonight I'll be sharing data from a survey with 95 student responses from all grade levels along with additional feedback from students who personally approached me with their ideas and concerns. So first of all I would like to talk about temperature imbalances within Monticello. Many students mentioned that certain areas of the school were uncomfortably cold while others were far too hot. This inconsistency can make it difficult to stay focused and comfortable throughout the school day.

[00:49:38] Secondly I would love to highlight substance abuse. Many students express that almost every time they go into the bathroom they don't they don't necessarily feel unsafe but uncomfortable again. And third would be the metal detectors and 10% of students reported that they make it difficult to get to class on time and create an unpleasant start to the day but I feel if we took this survey like now I don't think many students would talk about the metal detectors just because we have improved on them so much and now within Monticello areas that are currently being improved by us are keeping the

[00:50:14] bathroom stocked and clean some students said that they couldn't find toilet paper or just paper towels in general. Also school spirit we want to have more assemblies and clubs as well as making sure the student body feels connected and finally finally our main highlight this year is going to be on communication. With help from the Student Senate we identified this to be our main goal and we want to make sure that students feel comfortable spreading their ideas asking for mental health just making it so available that they don't think twice about asking for it.

[00:50:46] And finally I want to highlight Dr. Costa actually just because it's national principals month she's been doing an amazing job really so thank you all so much go stanks thank you and and Max can you make a copy of that available to miss Thompson to have put into the record yes absolutely thank you is there any more school board or superintendent business I was just gonna give a shout out to Ralph Bradley on Tuesday he and I sat on a panel at Western for gun violence prevention and he was great talking about what we're doing to keep

[00:51:24] our schools safe both from a mental health standpoint and from a safety standpoint so I just appreciated him having being up there with me I thought he did a great job I was at that at that town hall as well and I think both you and he did a great job thank you Dr. Acuff one more thing last week I went to the African-American Teaching Fellows celebration.

[00:51:51] And teacher from Walton was honored, Deja Granger-Pascal. She was honored, along with the Charlottesville teacher. And it was just a great event to see the support network that they've built. - Outstanding.

[00:52:07] Any other school board or superintendent business? Then we move on to public comment. And Dr. Berlin will be managing that tonight. - We welcome public input at our school board meetings To sign up to speak during public comment period, you can do several things online.

[00:52:26] Sign up is available from 9:00 a.m. on the Monday of the meeting week until 2:00 p.m. on the meeting day by phone by calling the school board clerk's office at 434-972-4055 to sign up until 2:00 p.m.

[00:52:41] on the meeting day or in person. Sign up at the meeting is available from 6:00 p.m. until the public comment period for in-person meetings only. Please note that public comment is not received at special board meetings unless specified on the agenda. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak, but the chair with the board consent may reduce this to two minutes should there be more than 14 speakers.

[00:53:04] Tonight we only have three speakers, so we will stay at three minutes. Speakers should state their name, address, or voting district, address comments to the entire school board, not to individual school board members, limit comments to school board governance or school division operations, provide written statements and supporting material the clerk the school board will use a timer to track each speaker's time once the time is up speakers are asked to wrap up their comments to maintain respect please refrain from clapping or other audible forms of support you may raise your hand instead debate with the school board is not

[00:53:39] allowed and the protection system is for staff presentations only and as i noted we have three speakers today laura harrison phil reese and gene lock please approach the dais and just remember to bring the mic to your mouth so we can hear you clearly.

[00:54:00] How's this? Perfect. Thank you. Laura Harrison, Rio District. I'm here at first to thank Allison Spillman for having the courage to speak the truth about the hate group turning point. Naming a hate group as a hate group is never controversial. What courage she has shown, and the rest of you haven't even taken the time to condemn the vicious attacks on her or show her support in any way.

[00:54:25] While you all tiptoe around fascist feelings and fears of lawsuits, the safety of our LGBTQ and BIPOC students is being eroded. This is not about free speech or viewpoint discrimination. This is about enabling a group whose rhetoric is an unequivocal call to violence against anyone who is not white, cis, heterosexual, and Christian.

[00:54:49] And that sounds a lot like another hate group you might have heard of. It's called the KKK. really same values there um so here are some direct quotes from the turning point founder charlie kirk transgender people are an abomination to god they should be taken care of like in the 50s and 60s trans is a mental delusion prowling blacks go around for fun to target white people we've been warning about the rise of islam on this show to great amount of backlash we don't care that's what we do here and we said that islam is not compatible with western civilization

[00:55:26] buy weapons buy ammo if you go into a public place bring a gun with you end of quotes this is what you are supporting your students to organize around it's pretty disgusting it's a vile hate group and it's a call to violence we also have a teacher who by all accounts is despised by her colleagues but somehow luring students into a hate group with promises of pizza and gift cards and she's being funneled all this money from turning point if that doesn't show you

[00:56:04] that they are utilizing our school right as a breeding ground and a recruitment area for these people to become white supremacist christian nationalists i think you're kidding yourselves one of you has courage and the rest of you have a choice to make you will be sued by queer students it's going to happen so the question is not whether or not you will face a lawsuit it's whether you'll face a lawsuit for having done the right thing or for having capitulated to fascists.

[00:56:35] We demand an end to all the hate group chapters in our schools. Publicly condemn the campaign of threats and harassment on Allison Spillman. Reject these white supremacist Christian nationalist cult members values and follow your own policies on transgender students and anti-racism.

[00:56:58] Phil Reese. Good evening. My name is Phil Reese. I'm in the Rivanna District. I have three kids in Albemarle County Schools. First, I'd like to begin by thanking you all for the time and energy each of you devote to serving our community. I know it's not easy, but thank you. I also want to thank you for upholding free speech in our schools. The decision the school district made a few weeks ago to allow the Turning Point Speaker was the right decision. In the last board meeting, one of you

[00:57:37] spoke on behalf of the board, stating that the board disagrees with the views of the turning point speaker. And that's fine. Disagreement is part of free speech. I have no issues with that. But you were quick to criticize an invited speaker for their opinions on gender, yet silent when a fellow board member, Ms. Spillman, compared that student-run club to the Ku Klux Klan. Not one member of this board spoke up to condemn that. Why the double standard? Why did you condemn the Turning Point speaker, but not Ms. Spillman. Do you agree with Ms. Spillman's words? Because if

[00:58:14] you're not willing to condemn her words, you condone them. Imagine being 16 years old, part of a student-run club, and you see that a school board member compares you and your club to the KKK terrorist organization. That isn't leadership. It's bullying. I need the speakers to make sure they are addressing the entire board and not calling out one individual. I am addressing the board. Thank you. It is bullying, and our own school policies say bullying has no place in the school system. I'm asking each of you tonight to publicly reject the comment that Ms. Spillman

[00:58:50] made. Show our students that the same rules apply to everyone, including board members. You ask students to stand up to bullies. I ask you, will you do the same? Thank you. Gene Locke. I'm Gene Locke from Crozet. I have grandkids at Western Albemarle,

[00:59:14] And I want to thank Dr. Haas for responding to my letter in which I objected to the decision to allow the turning point speaker to come and for referring me to your equal access policy and the policy about teaching about controversial issues.

[00:59:42] but viewpoints or free speech are not abstract. They're not just opinions. They can, when they foster a hostile environment, do real harm to students, and so I don't see a policy about that will help you decide when you've crossed a line and are allowing a speaker who will target some of your students. So where do you draw the line? Would you welcome a speaker who was a Holocaust

[01:00:21] denier and thereby create a hostile environment for your Jewish students? Would you permit a speaker who touted the advantages of slavery and thereby create a hostile environment for black students, many of whom in this district are descendants of slaves? Would you allow a speaker to come and allege that Turning Point USA is part of a white Christian nationalist national

[01:01:00] organization with an agenda, a white supremacist agenda, to turn the U.S. into a fascist theocracy. Would you permit that point of view when it would clearly target and harm the students in Turning Point USA. And finally, you have invited or welcomed a speaker who invalidates the existence of transgender students. And I think probably that will help foster a hostile

[01:01:38] environment for those students. So free speech or viewpoint diversity, whatever you want to call it, our intention with safety of all of your students. I plead with you, urge you, to take on a moral responsibility to put the safety of all of your students before simply the minimum of following the law. Thank you. Thank you to all of our speakers for their comments tonight.

[01:02:14] The next item on our agenda is approval of the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? I move we approve the consent agenda.

[01:02:33] I second. Motion to approve the consent agenda made by Ms. Lee, seconded by Ms. Osborne. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Our work session is next. Almost all of the work session will be focused on capital and our capital needs and a report from our long-range planning advisory committee.

[01:02:57] But first, Ms. Kumazawa. Good evening, school board. My name is Maya Kumazawa, Director of Budget and Planning.

[01:03:14] This evening, I'm going to present the Capital Improvement Plan recommendations along with the Long Range Planning Advisory Committee. I'll first start with an overview of the CIP program and also provide some information. Excuse me, Ms. Thompson, is it possible to turn the volume up a little bit?

[01:03:36] Thank you. I'll also go over ongoing programs that include our maintenance and replacement programs. Next, I will review some background information, that's the data. and the information that drove a lot of the decision making and prioritization.

[01:03:52] And then we will present the LRPAC recommendations. And then finally, there will be time for discussion of the presentation. This is a high level look at what the CIP or the Capital Improvement Plan development process looks like.

[01:04:08] The first step is for the LRPAC, the Long Range Planning Advisory Committee, to present their recommendations. This happens on a biannual basis. It's a comprehensive recommendation. During the off years or the years where we don't make a comprehensive recommendations, there can be updates to the CIP, but mostly to move the years forward and bringing in a fifth year or update costs.

[01:04:33] After the presentation, after the recommendations, the request goes to the school board. It is the school board's request at that point to approve or amend what was presented in preparation for a joint work session with the Board of Supervisors in December when the request will be discussed.

[01:04:52] In February, the county executive will include the CIP, the proposed CIP as part of the recommended budget in the county's budget document. And then in March, the Board of Supervisors will discuss the presented budget and make any changes and set tax rates.

[01:05:10] In April or May, the Board of Supervisors, as part of their budget process, they will appropriate the first year of the Capital Improvement Plan program they will adopt a five-year plan. So the five-year plan is adopted each year but that can change during the budget process and only the first year is appropriated as part of the budget.

[01:05:32] On July 1st the fiscal year begins and funding for the capital projects would commence as well. This is another look at the process in a little bit more detail with specific dates. Today's work session's purpose is to listen to the recommendations that are presented, to discuss those recommendations and propose any changes and then prepare for the approval of your cip request which is at the next meeting on november 13th this is a summary of the current

[01:06:10] adopted cip so from the current year fy26 through fy30 we have projects totaling 81.9 million dollars and they include the northern feeder pattern elementary school high school renovations ace academy at lambs lane and mountain view upper elementary school separately we also have ongoing programs that mostly comprise our maintenance replacement programs we have project management services school bus replacement school maintenance and replacement and school network infrastructure

[01:06:45] these ongoing programs over five years total 107.7 million dollars i'll next go over the next five-year request for the ongoing programs. So the first one is project management services.

[01:07:04] These are mostly the costs of five FTEs that are employees of ACPS building services that provide CIP and project management services and a small amount of operating costs. This request is for the CIP to reimburse the ACPS budget to cover these costs that several years ago were part of the CIP and were transferred over to ACPS. The services remain the same. The costs have been updated for current staffing. It assumes a 3% salary increase and commensurate benefit cost increases and then it also assumes an

[01:07:42] increase in the health care premium. The next ongoing program is school bus replacement. Now this request is for 30 million dollars over five years. This program funds the replacement of school buses and ancillary equipment for about 30 buses per year.

[01:08:05] There is a significant increase in this request, largely driven by new EPA emissions guidelines that apply to buses that are starting to be manufactured in 2027. That's driving about 15% increase.

[01:08:24] With that, plus inflationary increases, the request is to increase the five-year program by $6.2 million, but maintains the same level of services. The next ongoing program is school maintenance and replacement.

[01:08:40] This is our largest program at $78.4 million. There are no substantial changes in this project request. It simply takes out FY26 and adds on the fifth year of FY31.

[01:08:58] And then finally, our last ongoing program is our School Network and AV Infrastructure Program. This program provides resources and technical support for the communication and data infrastructure throughout the division. There is a new request that's been added this year to replace and purchase AV infrastructure.

[01:09:20] This infrastructure would support the necessary construction for installation and supplies needed for large group meeting locations at our schools. The increased request is about $1.4 million. Some drivers of that increase include increase in data center battery backup cost, capacity and battery life, an adjustment in the web filter system renewal cycle, and then, as I mentioned, the addition of AV infrastructure costs that were previously not included.

[01:09:54] In summary, these are the four ongoing programs you can see over five years and the five-year total and the total ongoing programs request is 119.4 million dollars are there any questions about any of these i think we're good next i'll jump into the background of the data and the information that was used to drive the decision the decisions made around the recommendations as well as the

[01:10:30] prioritization we'll start first with a look at a population growth forecast for albemarle county the orange columns represent the population for every decade in the county and then the forecasted growth the source is weldon cooper and they project that the county will grow over 30 years by 36 percent relative to that virginia is anticipated to grow by 20 so this is here to show that albemore

[01:11:04] county is growing quicker than the rest of the state these are the acps student enrollment projections. As you know, in recent years, we've been up and down, but overall, we are still increasing steadily. Over the next 10 years, this represents about an 8% growth rate, which is a little less than the population, but that has been the trend historically as well. Looking more closely at each of our school buildings, this is a chart that shows elementary and middle school

[01:11:44] enrollment so the blue columns indicate the number of students that we have this year and then the dots that are floating above it or in it that's the capacity so for example agner's dot um oh sorry i flipped it it's like agner's over capacity agner's dot is the number of students and then their building capacity is the blue column so they're kind of like buildings so you can see that they're over their capacity. Mountain View's capacity number includes the planned new building

[01:12:20] that will open next year. So you can see that with the addition of Mountain View Upper, there'll be plenty of capacity for K-5 for Mountain View. Next is the high school building capacities. And again, as you can see, and we will discuss throughout this evening, that all three of our high schools are over their capacities. And over to the right, we do have Ace Academy at Seminole Place and Ace Academy at Lambs Lane we are including the student enrollments within their base schools and so you can see since it's not exactly defined which

[01:12:59] students will attend the Ace Academies the student counts are at zero for Ace Academies we can see the additional capacity that those schools will provide Albemarle's capacity does include the planned connector wing which will add 115 seats that is included in the blue column and that's planned to open during the school year and that's another way to look at the capacity versus enrollment of our schools are is a list of our mobile classrooms that we currently have you'll see that in the previous

[01:13:36] charts where schools were over capacity they often have mobile classrooms as a short-term or temporary solution and and we will be talking about most of these schools as part of the project recommendations and looking further into the long term probably past the next five ten years this is a summary of the albemarle county residential development pipeline so the map on the left is a map of the county divided by our high school boundaries and you can see in the red

[01:14:13] outlines those are the development the development projects that are currently underway so you can see many of them are along 29 north in the pink boundary which is albemarle we have many in crozet at western and a few down in the monticello district as well i'll point out the most significant number of developments those are happening at north fork at north point hollymead and brook hill and all these developments are along the 29 north corridor and we'll spend some time on that

[01:14:46] this evening looking at it in a bit more detail this is a these are some tables by school and how many unbuilt units there are unbuilt units that are in the approved pipeline so you can see for the county as a whole there are 11 230 units that are unbuilt this is as of april early this year so it's just a few months old some notable elementary boundaries include agner baker butler in Hollymead. At the middle school level, it's largely in Burley and Lakeside, and at the high

[01:15:26] school level, largely in Albemarle. And these are all units that have been approved or are by right. This next slide, these are units that are under review, so they're not approved yet, but it's important to consider that they may be upcoming, and so it's a lot of the same boundaries.

[01:15:51] Most notably for elementary schools, this would be Agner and Red Hill, and then at the middle school level, Burley and Walton, and then at the high level, Albemarle. So these are not approved yet, but we're keeping an eye on.

[01:16:09] And then finally, I wanted to bring your attention to our master plan studies. These are studies that we have conducted over the last several years, and all of the detail and information that are driving the recommendations are included in these master plan studies. So if you're curious and wanna read more, I would encourage you to read them.

[01:16:28] There's a lot of information in them and not enough time to present them. Although we have presented summary levels of these over the past several years. And there's also easy URLs for those who can't access the links. And then at the bottom are our facility assessments.

[01:16:44] So these are the conditions of each of our school buildings that are studied from a lot of, in terms of their aesthetics, their capacity, and their HVAC systems, all the systems that make up that building have been studied in detail.

[01:17:00] And we have all those assessments at these links as well. And you will see that the recommendations are also driven by a lot of these condition reports. I'll pause here again for any questions on the background. - Two quick questions.

[01:17:15] On slide 18, you said that pipeline, what is like, do you know what the timeline is for those buildings? - It is probably, I would say, 15, 20 years is fairly average.

[01:17:35] We do look at each project and community development gives us data on when they think they'll come online, but the real answer is it's unknown. - Yeah, but, okay. - Yeah, but it's, I mean, it's safe to say some of those units are coming on in six months. - Okay, so anywhere from six months to 15 years.

[01:17:52] And then, I mean, would you say the same for the, under under the review or under like if we look at under review are we talking things that could be 30 years out I mean I know it's so it's a guesstimate but it's okay 20 ish up to 20 okay and then the last question is the I guess it's three questions sorry the when was the last time we updated the elementary and middle school facilities when did I just the assessment the assessment sorry with the assessment when were those I can't remember when those reports were

[01:18:27] done you're talking about the ones that are referenced in the previous slide uh on slide 20. just those the two where we say red yellow green those releases yeah so um we first published the elementary school facilities condition assessment two years ago uh in 2023 we updated that assessment as well as introduced this new middle school facility condition assessment so those are new newly published as part of this report okay and so those would have take anything we did those

[01:19:03] the summer projects those would have been included like that's correct yes thank you very much i should introduce myself i'm sorry yeah i'm matt wehrman director of building services sorry i'm here to answer any questions any other questions mr kumazawa i know we all read with great interest the announcement a couple weeks ago that global pharmaceutical giant astrazeneca is going to build a massive factory in the county it'll be its largest factory in the world i have to believe that that's going to result in the influx of several thousand new residents of albemarle

[01:19:39] county and my question is do these population projections and enrollment projections take into consideration this new development i don't see that they would no fasten your seatbelts

[01:20:03] with Red Hill, do you know where those housing units are going to be built? That's driven by one development. Are they going to be in the urban ring or close to the school? It's called SEAG, and it's at the intersection of 29 and 64, I believe, in that area.

[01:20:20] So it's right on the edge of their boundary. Okay. Yeah, and that's an interesting one. We've had some debate among staff, right? You could redistrict that and move it to your Mountain View capacity, but there's a lot of benefit to keeping them in Red Hill and making...

[01:20:36] in order to do that you would have to expand expand that facility that project's not in this list not but that school would benefit from right it's already our smallest school what about 200 kids yeah so so it would benefit follow that development closely we'll have to make some

[01:20:51] decisions on it any other questions for miss kumazawa now okay so we'll be excuse me tag teaming this a little bit there's no convenient way to do this so tag teaming is fine just introduce yourself. Of course. My name is David Storm. I'm the Scottsville appointee to the Long

[01:21:29] Range Planning Advisory Committee. I was first appointed in 2018. I'll also mention that for seven years I served on the 5th and Avon CAC, so I can talk a little bit about development work, but not a ton. I also am currently the Scottsville appointee to the Economic Development Authority.

[01:21:49] i can talk a little bit about what astrazeneca may be bringing um as long as uh it's it's stuff that's been out there but really i'm here to talk about our long-range planning proposals and i am kate barrett i have served on the long-range planning committee since 2017 as a superintendent appointee i reside in the rivana district and i am the current chair of the committee. Today we are bringing you a recommendation covering 21 different projects

[01:22:25] totaling 547 million dollars in needs-based recommendations. This request is largely built upon previous comprehensive requests presented with a focus on school capacity issues at each of our three levels and building renovation needs. As mentioned previously, Albemarle County's population is expected to grow by 36% over a 30-year window and there are currently 11,000 plus homes residential housing units approved in the development pipeline. An additional capacity for students will continue to

[01:23:02] be a large need for the division. Our largest or our highest priority recommended projects include the construction of a new elementary school in the northern feeder pattern, land acquisition for any future projects that may arise, construction of a new high school, our highest priority recommended projects for renovation include Stony Point Elementary School and Albemarle High School. For ease of discussion

[01:23:37] today, we've broken this into five categories. Our capacity projects, which are shown there, our renovation projects, the Lambs Lane Master Plan, school walk zones, and then our capital needs assessment. So we're going to start off with our greatest long-term needs, which are capacity.

[01:24:01] so while you have read the ranked order in the presentation that you were provided earlier in order to maximize efficiencies of scale and cost where possible that is what you see when you look at the rankings themselves we've chosen to group them together just so you can understand the different categories that we were discussing throughout the past school year the proposed timing of capacity in those projects that you see are specifically in alignment with the projected

[01:24:36] growth that we're looking to in the county. So the committee itself had a lot of lengthy discussion this year around how to minimize costs and maximize the benefit of any capital improvement projects that we brought to you today. So we're going to start with one that's already on the docket the northern feeder pattern in elementary school this was the first comprehensive elementary school or since Baker Butler which opened in 2002 so it's been a it's been a minute since we've added a school to our district as

[01:25:15] stated earlier Baker Butler and Holly Mead elementary schools are currently overcrowded student population is projected to continue to grow in those areas and we're looking at the highest impact of more than 900 students there is a 10 acre site for which the new elementary school was proffered as part of the rezoning of the North Point development on 29 north and it's a fully graded site which saves us a little bit of money which is always nice and the design of the school is scheduled to begin in financial year 27 with

[01:25:51] construction beginning the following year in 28 and the opening of the school beginning in school year 2930 our second priority item is land acquisition for a future project we see this need occurring not only in the next five years but in the period beyond that we know that albemarle county continues to be a desired place to live to work to grow a business to raise a family and that's not going to change in the in the near future based on the actions that we're

[01:26:27] seeing. So, our recommendation for land acquisition in the first year of the CIP reflects that need. And we also know that barring something that we don't really want to think about in terms of an economic collapse, land prices are only going to continue to rise. The comprehensive high school which we are recommending does not include the acquisition of land for high school in its costs.

[01:26:56] so that is one piece that we may want to have some land for. Phase three of the middle school study recommends construction of a new middle school to deal with capacity issues. We may need to acquire land to put a new middle school on. Elementary school construction we continue to anticipate a need for following the construction of a school in the northern feeder pattern.

[01:27:21] We look to the western feeder pattern for need and quite possibly elsewhere in the urban ring. we have on our list a preschool center which would be a great opportunity for some consolidation for some efficiencies of scale to provide some desperately needed expansion of high quality preschool opportunities in the community the division needs administrative space we don't talk about this very much but they are scattered throughout different locations where they are leasing space so from a standpoint of being able to consolidate those operations that would be

[01:28:01] be good and then an operation center when we talk about so we talk about building services technology child nutrition in the lease space and lastly the lands lane master plan includes moving the vehicle maintenance facility and we don't have a spot for that all of these different uses would require land that the division does not currently have so having money appropriated for the acquisition of land would help us in any number of ways as we move through

[01:28:31] the CIP and into the out years okay so comprehensive high school this has always been a big topic around our table and for several years and so we are here once again to recommend a comprehensive high school be considered by the school board there are multiple alternatives for addressing this which have incurred including current and future capacity conflicts with all three comprehensive high schools. Those alternatives include a new high school center, additions to buildings on

[01:29:11] existing high school campuses, and a new comprehensive high school. Based on the school board guidance, the long-range planning committee recommends the construction of a new high school and the reasons supporting this recommendation include adequate long-term capacity and the limiting size of the existing high schools that we have. Long-range planning also encourages the community to continue advocating to the commonwealth to enact the ability for all localities to submit to local voters a referendum for the 1% sales tax that would be dedicated to the construction of all school projects. This comprehensive

[01:29:48] high school in our initial design is 14 to 1600 students. It would be in the northern feeder pattern where we're seeing the majority of the growth. Design and construction on this timeline would be proposed in year 28 through 31.

[01:30:05] with the projected opening in school year 31-32. So you can see from this chart, there's a phased rollout of multiple projects in order to meet our capacity needs within the county.

[01:30:22] The connector wing, which opens at Albemarle this school year, will add 115 seats. ACE at Lambs Lane opens the next school year, and that will add 400 seats for the county. The design and construction for the new high school will take longer given the scale of the project, So we are projecting four years for that.

[01:30:43] And the timing is structured to align with the greatest capacity conflicts, which start in the fall of 2031. Currently, that would mean our third graders that are attending school now will be our ninth graders potentially in this new high school.

[01:30:59] So this is an example of a fit test that was done on the one existing site we could entertain, which was the site just west of 29 and north of Rybana along Berkmar Drive. this site is not without several challenges including two streams that cross as you can see in the white in the to the right and almost to the middle stream to the right is an intermittent stream and the one to the left is an active stream the property has steep terrain it has

[01:31:39] it would need a geotechnical study we would need consulting around the streams in terms of whether we could mitigate that and right now the convenience center is currently slated to actually be developed on part of this property the entire property itself is only 58.4 acres and the red shading is the usable portions of this site given this fit test without streams being adjusted and that constitutes about 30.4 acres of usable space which is just below the

[01:32:11] VDOE recommendations for the size of school that we would have. This design site assumes that the intermittent stream has been mitigated. That would also require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to intervene and approve the design. We could ask them to look at both streams being addressed.

[01:32:37] That's the risk. If we decide to go forward with this, if the board decides to go forward with this particular property that's one of the potential sunk costs is the investment in a consulting project to see if that could even happen this would this particular site would give us the same number of tennis courts as albemarle and monticello the same number of practice fields as albemarle and western but there's not enough space to actually construct additional roads on the high school so there's a little bit of transportation design that we have to get creative

[01:33:16] with and lastly the site doesn't have adequate space for horizontal expansion so if we are going to build a high school on this site we have to go up we're looking at three to four stories which would require special circumstances from the county and so there's there's a lot of there's a lot of paperwork that would be involved with this site however it is possible assuming that several of these things can be mitigated. One thing I didn't mention when I was introducing myself, I am the father of three Elmada County Public School students. I have a fourth

[01:33:54] grader at Mountain View who is very excited about his new school for next year. I have a sixth grader who is at Burley and an eighth grader who is at the community lab school. So I did want to share that with you because this project I get to know a little bit about because I'm in that building on on a fairly regular basis.

[01:34:12] This is a recommendation to add to and renovate Community Lab School to increase admissions from the current 240 students to about 400 students. A two-story addition would include new classrooms, a dedicated media center, their current library are carts in the hallway, and a specials community with direct access to outdoor programs.

[01:34:34] There would be some heavy renovations to the existing facility to allow some gathering space the common space that they don't really have. That is something the principal has been very active in requesting. There will also be moderate renovations to provide additional administrative teacher and academic support spaces and some external recommendations for the parking. As you may, as you probably do know, this was built in 1959 as Rose Hill Elementary School, and a school designed for elementary school students having middle and high school students walking through the hallways. It's a little bit of a different fit for them.

[01:35:11] can i just ask one little question i know that uh community lab school does not have a cafeteria and they get their their meals brought over from burley i was surprised not to see that on your design or your list of improvements there is a chin listed here i'm seeing it right below the i think that's right below the multi-purpose room okay um i i again this is a proposed plan it can certainly be i just be addressed i didn't know if you were just relying on burleigh to keep

[01:35:51] bringing the lunches over or not yeah you know it's it's something that my eighth grader has talked about the fact that they don't have that that same capability before i move on to western i want to add another point to albemarle there are several um but the ex are the expansion for the new high school with the convenience center currently located or planned to be on the site that we reviewed if the board decided to go forward we need to move pretty fast right right we have in my conversations with the county we've talked about the recycling center

[01:36:31] and moving the transportation center over there would i mean i don't know what land costs are right now we can talk about that later but it's not ideal just the elevation how much agreed it will have to be it's not it's not the best location it is a location that we have so the price was right when we got it right 100 okay so western albemarle as we said albemarle school or albemarle county in general all of the high schools and their additions are pretty much a temporary fix it's not going to be a long-term solution for the capacity that we're looking at

[01:37:10] as we come into the next 10 20 years the western albemarle addition proposal does address current capacity issues and the high school is currently over capacity by 189 students and it's anticipated to be over capacity by as many as 333 students over the next 10 years so that is a significant jump so while ace academy could provide some potential relief as we all know it's it's a jaunt from western to the lambs lane campus so it's not necessarily dependable for us to rely

[01:37:47] that we're going to move all of that capacity immediately over to the lands lane aces campus there is currently one eight classroom unit used by the students at Western Elmoral High School and the 2000 in 2022 23 we had a master plan study recommendation for an optional project for Western Elmoral this is we're bringing this back for a topic of discussion and the proposed recommendations for this optional project included a two-story edition with 9,200 square feet with a new administration wing on the ground floor and four new classrooms on the

[01:38:24] second floor. So portions of the existing second floor and the existing ground floor office space would be renovated to accommodate additional four to six classrooms. This would allow us to remove our trailers at Western. We would also provide a small group space and some additional common area for the students in the design. This project does assume that we do not need additional bathrooms in this in the design so they were not included so that would be an additional cost if we decide we want to add those. Our last project in terms of addressing

[01:39:01] some capacity issues is the consideration of a preschool center in the urban ring. Most division elementary schools host these programs with participants living both in the respective elementary school district and neighboring districts since the programs cannot be offered at all of the schools. Centralizing these services may provide a higher level of service, greater preschool capacities and cost efficiencies. Providing adequate capacity for K-5 instruction continues to be a challenge. Pulling the preschools out of the existing K-5 schools then opens those classrooms and gives us a little more flexibility that we can then time into whatever construction

[01:39:40] down the line of additional elementary schools that we might need. And so this is a way to address a handful of things and with hopefully the ability to maybe expand preschool offerings in the county which we as we know is just a continuing need of families of kids who are pre-kindergarten. Do you have even a ballpark dollar amount we could pencil lightly lightly in? We'll work on that

[01:40:15] before the joint. Okay thank you. There's some debate about size of it. Right my understanding that we have what nine to 11 pre-k classrooms in the urban ring schools now that we could I could move okay there's the pre-k and then there's the early childhood special ed as well so okay okay so now we're going to move on to renovation projects so while we know the division consistently and adequately funds our ongoing maintenance there are many buildings that are still

[01:40:52] do for comprehensive renovations that will more efficiently and holistically bring our aging buildings up to date. So some of these projects are for schools that have been passed over due to capacity. They are not threatened by capacity. They are either steady or losing capacity in their schools. However, they are some of the oldest schools in our division. The first is a personal passion project of mine because my kids all went to stony points this is a sweet little school if

[01:41:32] any of you have visited you know it's it's the oldest school we have and it shows so there's not a lot of natural light in some of the areas where we have natural light and other existing facilities so a big part of the goal is to bring this up to up to par with those schools that have been renovated. The highest priority in this recommendation is selected based on the comprehensive facilities conditions assessment. So the assessment was developed, as we already discussed, by the

[01:42:10] county and we've been looking at for the last two years on the committee. It's been an invaluable guide to us in terms of deciding which school comes first in any of our recommendations and which schools are needing the most attention. Some of the significant improvements that you would see at Stony Point include bus and car lane changes right now for those of us that live in that area we can see car lines going around 20 in the morning and the afternoon when parents are coming for a drop-off which is not exactly the safest sharp ear pin turn that I would want a car full

[01:42:47] of children with. So expanding that and would mitigate some of that drive out or the hangout over into the 20 area the plan also would remove the existing trailers and take those classrooms into an inside space so we would encapsulate additional classrooms near there we would utilize that space where the trailers exist for additional parking which is also in need of the facility this would also include an extension in the cafeteria with more light and more space which

[01:43:25] which they need both of, in addition to the library, which would include some light because there's one tiny little window in that room. And they're overstuffed with their books. So there's not a whole lot of space in that particular area.

[01:43:41] And then in addition, we would move the stage and add some additional storage, which would be potentially lost from the storage that's being used in one of those trailers right now. - The second elementary school improvement addition we are recommending is to Murray Elementary. The the highlights of doing this would be relocating student support spaces from corridors to dedicated spaces which would allow those corridors then for student gathering, adding abundant daylight, enlarging the library by relocating some resource spaces, creating some tutoring and collaboration spaces in each wing,

[01:44:20] building a five to six classroom addition with some support spaces which would allow us to remove the trailer that has been at Murray and then external site improvements are fairly comprehensive here resurfacing courts replacing and repairing equipment installing a canopy for car riders replacing adding additional asphalt services and then upgrading the fields which get continuous use here around and then creating an accessible path to the lower playground field this is a pretty standard thing that you're going to be

[01:44:53] hearing as we talk about our elementary schools that haven't gotten the renovations that some of the other ones have recently, and just trying to bring them up to a more equitable standard across the county. So this may sound a little bit like a repeat, but the next is Broadus Wood. So this is our second oldest school in the district, and this also includes some site improvements for bus lanes and parking and car lanes. It would also add a covered portico for those students that are dropped off so they wouldn't have to walk in the rain in order to get into the school it's a it's

[01:45:32] a decent amount of sidewalk they have to cover in order to get into the school this would also include renovation of the external athletic fields and track which are in a little bit of a disrepair they've been well loved there's also an extensive path walking path around the school which has been covered in roots I should say so it's a little hard it's very hard for anyone in a wheelchair with limited mobility to access that site so we'd like to add some asphalt around there so that we

[01:46:08] can add a much more accessible walkway around the school. Inside we're looking at adding a maker space in addition to a rear corridor or courtyard again moving a stage and cordoning off the old stage to be a permanent classroom that it serves right now new restrooms that would be ada accessible relocating the clinic for accessibility and adding hardscapes to save on maintenance costs in the future and reconfigure the

[01:46:42] administrative suite and staff lounge toward the end of the five-year window we are recommending additions and improvements to Greer and Holly made those really need to be studied at this point but you can figure that they're to be along the same lines as those that we are already have been making in terms of recommendations you can see from some of the pictures right the use of the learning cottages and you can see the use of the hallways for storage neither of which is optimal at this point we're also recommending a new second elevator at mountain view this will be mountain view primary the current plan is to

[01:47:21] have the upstairs at mountain view become the art and music area currently they have fourth graders up there so that's sort of just those groups up there and they're only going up and down for their activities but if you've got your essentials or your specials up there you'll see a lot more traffic going up and down the current elevator does not fit a standard ems gurney at this point so the the fourth grade teachers and as i mentioned my fourth grader his teacher mentioned well we got trained on using the slide again this fall and it's it's a hard thing to hear when that's

[01:47:59] going to be the way they need to be able to move those people around okay so the high school improvements at albemarle also include an elevator um again for the same reason so all the schools that we have recommended an elevator addition to within their projects are related to access for contemporary gurneys to be utilized, and also to enable access for students with mobility issues to actually get to their classes on time.

[01:48:37] The locations can tend to be a bit of a challenge for some of those students, depending on where their classes are. The breezeway and hallway improvements, there's locker room improvements, collaboration areas will be added, sprinkler systems will be added where they didn't exist before, and we'll add some expansion and daylighting in the basement and the arts wing.

[01:49:01] I did want to go back briefly to ... We'll go this way back. The recommendations and the improvements at Greer would also include some of the Lambs Lane improvements that are mentioned there in terms of the bus loop and the parking reconfiguration.

[01:49:16] That would be included as part of the Greer improvements, not necessarily as part of the Lambs Lane when we get to that a little bit later. Coming back to Western Albemarle, improvements include full corridor improvements, commons improvements windows upgrades a small classroom addition in the athletic wing a maker space expansion um teacher space improvements special education area improvements again windows upgrades and then the conversion of four sets of communal restrooms to single user restrooms and again an elevator addition here you're hearing sort of the same thing in a lot of these that we're seeing in

[01:49:55] terms of some of the space needs that we've got monticello since it's the newest does not have as many extensive for addition or improvement recommendations but we are recommending the conversion of four sets of communal restrooms into single user restrooms to match the other schools as well as an additional elevator for this facility for the same reasons starting this year the division operates the intensive support center post high and the center for learning and growth

[01:50:30] at the trailhead learning community formerly ivy creek with that adoption of those centers Some renovations are needed including parking, playground, furnitures and fixtures and equipment, post high facility programming, renovations to provide life skills that are unique to that community.

[01:50:51] We've got here a picture of a potential parking reconfiguration. Nothing's really been specked out yet. This is just one potential option there.

[01:51:08] - And Walton Middle School is also on the list this year for FY 29 and 30. The project scope includes a renovation to improve the school so we can conduct redistricting studies as well that would go hand in hand with this.

[01:51:24] So as a result of the studies, the division may redistrict students to Walton to better fit and meet its current capacity of 501 students which it is not at as we all know. The renovations would also include improvements within the current footprint.

[01:51:40] So we are not adding square footage, we are staying within the bounds of the actual school. based on the looming overcrowding issues that we're seeing at henley and at crozet and journey at the lambsland campus a redistricting study would be recommended as as part of the middle school adjustments that we might need to make in the county our last school improvement project for this cip is improvements to burleigh middle school with funding for design work in fiscal year 31

[01:52:20] to renovate and improve to equitable standards construction funds would be in the capital needs assessment moving forward but this again is just part of that comprehensive look and the middle schools plan that you've had a chance to look at in terms of a very comprehensive way to improve and address all the middle schools through the process okay so the remaining three categories we have put in one uh one segment of presentation first is the lambs lane master plan and the work

[01:52:56] that we are proposing is the loop road as we know would be proposed for financial year 27 and the journey loop in 31. so um years one through five include that design and construction of the main loop road from lambs lane to hydraulic with the associated wayfinding signage etc and the construction of the new Greer bus loop, which we mentioned earlier, and parking configuration would also be a project that was a portion of the Lambs Lane master plan, but that is included in the Greer numbers.

[01:53:35] Design for Journey Middle School bus loop and parking configuration are also included in years one through five. And then in years six through 10, you would construct the Journey Middle School bus loop and parking reconfiguration, the design of the Elmoral High School bus loop the parking lots so you're seeing a lot of road construction in this phase as well as movement potential movement in the design of the transportation facility construction of the transportation vehicle maintenance facility construction of the north section of the main

[01:54:09] loop road and construction of the new albemarle high school athletic fields we are also seeking money over each of the five years in the cip for school walk zone improvements and expansion these were started in 2021 by the division in response to the national bus driver shortage however there could be some unusual safety hazards involved railroad crossings laugh at lack of a safe crosswalk infrastructure topography road curvature things that make it dangerous for

[01:54:48] pedestrians and difficult for drivers to have them to see there are currently 12 schools with approved walk zones and this would allow us to expand the number not necessarily the distance involved in terms of how far the students would have to walk as that's based on the age of the students and the age of the schools this graphic just shows a proposed one for woodbrook elementary the solid line is an existing trail and the dotted green lines which have the connection in to the neighborhood however there is a stream crossing that creates a barrier and so we would have to do a little extra

[01:55:23] work there to be able to do that okay which leads us to our final category which is capital needs assessment which would be in years six through ten and that would include the administrative spaces that we mentioned earlier operations facilities the potential for an urban ring elementary school which based on projections we'll need to start planning for and the continuation of existing cip projects such as the middle school master plan master plan study the elementary school

[01:55:57] improvements and additions the lambs lane master plan and the school walk zones and if anyone now it's we're open for questions why don't we um do it by section list in front of capacity questions we can ask those and we'll just go section by section if that works for you all sure

[01:56:21] miss lee do you have okay um did you look at any other sites for the high school one thing i was surprised how high up it popped up you know with uh north point has already been approved so that's yes it's number one but it's not really number one yeah um and uh so i was

[01:56:54] surprised well I don't even know what to say I think it will just to give you a little idea of why we ranked it high more highly is because of the length of the project so we it's urgent that we started sooner rather than later in order to meet capacity I guess in thinking about it I have what I would hope is that with four high schools in the 1,500 student capacity and also of of course, expanding community lab school,

[01:57:32] we would be looking at solving the capacity issue for our high schools for a generation plus. Is that? - That is the hope. - Well, that is the hope. But I mean, that's the way I would think about it. I know, well, Ms. Spelman.

[01:57:53] - You were talking on the comprehensive high school location and you were talking about consulting cost. Do you have an idea of what you were saying was a sunk cost, obviously, because we couldn't lose it. Do you have an idea of what that cost would be? - The initial sunk cost, if just for the consulting fee, would be around $120,000.

[01:58:14] - Okay. - Right? - Thank you. - Okay, my question, I guess, is sort of hypothetical. But if the subdivision that's shown on that first chart is billed and Red Hill would be accepting those students, I don't see anything on here.

[01:58:34] i guess that idea wasn't thought about or discussed at all right because it's not anything on um the recommendations involving radio no it wasn't this um so this proposal first came uh was proposed i think back in 2020 or 2021 um the developers went away did some more planning um some more thought with it they brought it back to the planning commission recently um and they uh requested

[01:59:08] another deferral at this point so so there's they're a long way from from anything so they would have a rezoning first um and then they would have to to look at when they would do the construction much like with what with what we see at southwood a development of that size wouldn't be overnight you're seeing at southwood the phasing of their neighborhoods i think they're up to neighborhood three they just did their neighborhood two um dedication a few weeks ago so so it's not firm enough as a proposal yet um because they they are in the pipeline right that's

[01:59:48] one of those pipeline projects and not a buy right project at this point so so they couldn't build that number of homes in that location without and probably a couple of years at least lead time in in which case then we can start to figure out for the 27 recommendations that we would probably have to do something and look at Red Hill at that point.

[02:00:14] - I mean, one of the challenges we always have as a school board is making recommendations and knowing that capacity trumps everything else, which is why Stony Point School hasn't been touched enough and we never get to those investments in our core facilities, which I think is really too bad.

[02:00:34] I do hope we could get this one-cent sales tax and that that is not set aside, that doesn't offset current spending levels, which are also inadequate. I mean, the challenge is, you know, making this case and making, I mean, with a comprehensive high school, and I have not always been a fan of it, but with a comprehensive high school, we eliminate 30 half of the trailers that we have we eliminate 32 classrooms in trailers

[02:01:11] across the country when we first bought the well the first eight classroom learning cottage at Albemarle in 2016 we rented it because it didn't occur to us that we wouldn't be further along in planning for um high school capacity than we are now and then we bought another eight and then we bought had them for both monticello eight units there and eight units out at

[02:01:44] western albemarle i mean we really need to be i think as a board bold in our needs-based funding request and we fell behind as i'm i know i'm editorializing but we fell behind even before I was on the school board with the Great Recession and there were years where nothing was done except making sure the roofs didn't leak and the um yeah and the HVACs worked and then we were just getting

[02:02:15] going and um with the approval of the centers um and COVID hit and so I'm disappointed that the center model which was an acknowledgement of the fiscal challenges to get anything funded in this county that you know it was delayed by five years and cut 30 percent in size so we need to decide what we're going to do next and I think we have to really let the community

[02:02:50] know that we need more space and we need to upgrade our current facilities because we've been talking about trailers at these schools for how many years? I mean years and years and years and we need to make our schools accessible to our students and our faculty. Anyway, no more so. Add again about the center model when we first talked about that it was always with the understanding that there would be renovations at the high school. And additions. Right, additions and renovations at the high school. So that just completely fell by the wayside. So

[02:03:26] we really got behind with that. We recognize that and you noticed that we do continue to recommend additions at the high schools knowing that that's an option right we don't know where the board wants to go and that's your decision so we wanted to give you as much information as we could we in our discussions would frequently see the additions of high school at the high schools of four classrooms eight classrooms as a band-aid right it's it's not addressed it addresses the current needs it's better than more trailers but but it but it doesn't get us as you said the potential for a generation at the high school

[02:04:03] level and we certainly have other challenges at the other levels but but this is we we understand this is a big swing um but this might be the time for big swings is that why you put western edition so far at the bottom then i i think so because it was only a stop gap i can i can speak for why i did it and and that was sort of where it was it was it was we can we can give them this they've had their trailers for four years but we look and we look at albemarle and they've had their trailers for nine years and the western edition would be great it would take care of

[02:04:42] their trailers but it's short term it doesn't address the overall needs for the entire county and it's important to get those done but if we invest up front and and we've put that in fiscal year 27 but if we get 12 million dollars there we can't just say board of supervisors we need 72 million dollars in fiscal year 29. yeah we need to ask them let's start putting that money aside right bit by bit so we can get there and we can break ground when we need to break yeah and i think what we were talking about in our prior meeting was doing both was doing the western

[02:05:21] addition because that does solve the problem now and there is continued growth in crozet and the comprehensive high school at the same time yeah you're right the addition at western would solve your immediate problem by the time we get to 30 30 or to 31 you still you have a problem all over again at western and you have a bigger problem right in the other two high schools right exactly i i appreciate you including such a high level land acquisition because i agree i mean this is like we are quickly um particularly because of lots of people buying large

[02:06:01] loss of our land um uh there's not a lot left and it's just gonna get worse i guess one of my questions and i guess i've never and maybe there's this is for another work session like i've never really understood the proffer process and so one of the things that i think about is you know if there are 11 000 units coming and then that have been approved and another 4 000 like who's doing the negotiation around and i know this is they're not legally required to profit and so that's part of it they're not i guess the question is they're not legally required i hear you right however can

[02:06:39] we become more and again it's not stringent yeah can we can the count i'm going to talk in general terms how do we as a board convey convey the fact that as we are agreeing to all of these things as a county there is there is a p like the need for this land because we will not be able to provide these families and constituents the services they need because we're in a way land poor um so i don't know if that's you know where we do that super little pin in there and maybe for future

[02:07:18] conversations but if not I mean I think we need the cash it's like either or like that that's a piece we need because unless we you know can get a county to approve 10-story buildings for schools and multiple elevators like we need we need land for schools like in the end we need to protect it Well, if we're going to do a traditional high school, we have playing fields, and that takes up most of the acreage.

[02:07:46] I mean, we could build a school on 10 acres, but we can't build a traditional high school unless you have 50 to 60. Yeah, a comprehensive high school requires a minimum, or the BDOE recommends a minimum of 36 acres. That was actually helpful.

[02:08:04] So a minimum of 36 for a middle school and elementary school, approximately, do you have a field? there's no so any chance you can follow up it is smaller less than that okay i do remember reading it but i don't remember um could i jump on that land acquisition question also and ask about the figure is that supposed to cover all these things listed beneath it or is like two or three as much as we can get with 7.5 million dollars in the next five years it's a five-year when basically we're

[02:08:39] looking at what can we do in the next five years so i would honestly if we're going to if we're looking at needing to build all these facilities you're going to see a recommendation again for more land acquisition funding okay land acquisition in the urban area in the development areas about moral county is probably going to be more expensive land acquisition now on the especially toward the the north with the addition not only of AstraZeneca coming but a lot of the work that's going on over in North Fork in terms of the Commonwealth

[02:09:16] bio accelerator bringing in a lot of early-stage biotech businesses the demand for the land is going to be there there are a lot of competing interests there are people trying to develop wet lab space sort of that next step in the urban area in terms of what's zoned appropriately, so that gets a little tricky. Obviously in the rural areas it might be a little less expensive, but it'll have its own challenges in terms of water and sewer versus septic versus whatever that looks like. So it's, I don't know what we can get for seven and a half million. I've got faith in in the staff being able to

[02:09:55] negotiate well and get us what they can. It seems a little low. It seems a little low to me. I mean yeah you can certainly I'd have no problem with asking for more when you get to 574 million you just you're like okay I think we're here in terms of an overall number I mean I've come around to supporting I think the comprehensive high school it seems to me with the Mountain View elementary upper elementary school being built with North Point being our next school being built we've

[02:10:29] added 600 no we've had 1200 1400 seats I can't do the math a bunch of seats in our elementary level and then with a new high school we'll be adding you know another what thousand fifteen hundred seats with some adjustments at community lab school maybe a hundred seats so then we'll have to you know years down the the road, we'll have to really look at middle schools. But I mean, with these two projects,

[02:11:04] we could solve the capacity issues. Long term for the high schools, we're still going to have to deal with middle elementary schools again, but we will have made a big, big bite out of what we need. And then we have, this is as difficult as this cell will be for my view of the BOS I mean they never get around to appreciating the need for renovations and I think we need to have joint boards meeting at what at Stony

[02:11:36] Point yeah great location is that part of this is like this isn't a one-time ask like you know like this is what it needs to look from now on right like it should have been but like I think that's it is like this isn't a one-time like five-year thing like if you are going like there's a to me there's a turn in how we're marketing this right if you are going to be the county that you want to be right if you want to be the county that you want to be to get astrazeneca here and you know to win that against everyone else you then

[02:12:11] now need to show that you are going to create the pipeline of future workers and families who are able to go to work and have their kids safe in schools and motivated in schools and so and this is not just a one-time thing this is this is what this county is going to need forever and again because that's what you have now that's where we are taking this county and this isn't a one-time thing this is every year and we spoke uh uh miss billman and i spoke to um someone who had done some work in fair a lot of work in fairfax and in fairfax that's just what it is it's like this is

[02:12:47] what it is every year like it's not a one-time thing like this is just how we have to operate from now on out like how we have to operate that this is not just a schools issue this is a communities economic development issue and if we are going to continue to attract four point built five billion dollar AstraZeneca's or that kind of industry then we need to have the community needs to show its commitment to good public education and the way you do that at least the visible way you do it. One of the ways you do it is by having school environments that promote student

[02:13:25] learning. And you can't do that in dark trailers and, you know, 80-year-old school buildings and, you know, having to schedule a series of lunchtimes for, say, at Elbenwell High School because they don't have a big enough cafeteria. And it shouldn't come at the expense of our learning and things like that we shouldn't be taking one thing to get another thing it needs to be both and exactly you're absolutely right um i will mention briefly since dr acuff said the magic words of economic

[02:14:01] development as we were putting that's right that's your other hat one of one of several uh one of the things that came up in our meetings with the business community agricultural community in Albemarle County as we were putting together the economic development strategic plan, which was approved recently by the Board of Supervisors.

[02:14:22] The schools and the education came up regularly, and Supervisor Lapisto Curley, who is our liaison, has heard this. I have told her many times that I will be coming to her and reminding her that a lot of what drives the investment in Albemarle County, and we talked about AstraZeneca a lot already, but we also had a $200 million investment in a company that was already here in afton scientific in albemarle county and while the 600 jobs that that astrazeneca is talking about which are very right six-figure jobs and and but they are professionals with with doctorates and

[02:15:00] master's degrees many of afton scientific's jobs are done by people who can come out of high school and if we can be in a place where the schools can help prepare our current residents for those jobs that's helping our community now and it's not necessarily bringing in other people and other families with other kids these are people who come through our schools they want to stay in our community these are the jobs that as emily kilroy talks about our career ladder jobs they don't necessarily require a bachelor's or a master's degree you can get them coming

[02:15:38] right out of high school or working through pvcc in their program so bringing these types of jobs town morrow county astrazeneca talks about the educational opportunities here from post-secondary all the way down through the elementary schools so so economic development school the quality of our schools is part of economic development and you have to think about the employees at astrazeneca if they tour stony point how are they going to feel about moving here with

[02:16:13] their families for this great job but then they look at this 80 year old school it doesn't it doesn't fit absolutely i think that's a great point ms osburn is is and i you know we're i'm already starting to have conversations with families about that who are coming down and again there's like we have amazing schools and amazing teachers however people deserve teachers office staff students families enjoy uh deserve schools and as we are seeing movement from northern Virginia as well as you know other places in the country that's what people expect tonight and

[02:16:48] there's a big surprise to them I mean it's true so sorry we're all on our high horse we're practicing for we're all passionate about that because I believe we need to pitch all five uh 574 million dollars like I I don't there is nothing just like when we talk about our budget right for learning um we've cut at this point we can't cut anymore we've you know we've delayed um uh service on our schools for our school buildings for so long there's nothing there's nothing on here that i

[02:17:23] feel like we could take off i mean it's just every every every child in this county and every teacher in this county deserves you know what um croze elementary looks like like that's just what it is like i had one last thing i wanted to say and that was uh to give thanks to uh miss kumazawa mr wortman everybody uh on the staff sheila hoopman lisa walker um in particular those are the ones we work with most often and then the rest of our our committee who couldn't be here today um they put in a lot of hard work over the last nine ten months um since the year started to put

[02:18:03] to pull this together for you um and i think you can see the amount of work and thought that went into this and i think we're very proud of what we've done we know it's a big ask we know it's a heavy lift but we also wanted you to to know the truth and know what we think is out there and what we need as a community dr acuff you asked us to think big a few years ago so we are thinking big well mr stormed uh beat me to the punch i was going to say i so admire and respect the work that the long-range planning advisory committee has done year after year you

[02:18:39] know you all do it out of your volunteering I don't think you're doing this for the high paychecks but it's certainly a huge benefit to our community I know we have many great staff working with you but I you know it's sort of the gold standard on what we need to be thinking about it's way I view it your reports sort of the gold standard of what we need to be thinking about as a school board in terms of capital and it is our ammunition our argument let's just say when we make the pitch to the Board of Supervisors and I

[02:19:14] do think as a board we need to think hard what the statutory obligation we have to submit a needs-based budget and that's what we do we sometimes become too timid and and start cutting before we get there and this is what it takes to have a first-class educational infrastructure to help I mean we need to get our teachers light in the classrooms and not have you know having parent

[02:19:50] teacher meetings in the hallways and stuff like that we need to do that and we need to start advocating that just a note that for just for later I appreciate what you said, I mean, about the elevators, as a teacher of children with delays and disabilities, for part of my career, children who were in wheelchairs or heard family members in wheelchairs, very scared about the fact that we might not be able to evacuate them in an emergency.

[02:20:24] So any details that you or the staff can give us when we go, because unfortunately it has been something that the Board of Supervisors has not supported in the past. And so about the evacuation of the new gurneys, any written details that you can give us that Cherry Cuff and I can have for our presentation because there's a fear in my head that we're going to get a call one day that someone didn't get out of the building and it was because it wasn't a working elevator.

[02:20:54] In addition to that, I also think of teacher safety because they're the ones that are going to be evacuating the students. Yeah, exactly. bodies are heavy. And not everybody has a super strong back. So we're looking at teachers or other staff that are literally carrying these students down with their own hands in the event of a fire. Well, thank you. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Another quick question on the Lambs Lane Master

[02:21:27] Plan with the Connect-A-Loop Road. Do you think the state would give us any help on paying for that. The county has to apply. It may be partly funded, but we don't know. So I could provide some clarity on that. Local government is submitting a revenue sharing application. I came from the timing of it. I think it was submitted this summer or this fall. Anyway, they are including the

[02:22:02] intersection improvements along hydraulic road and bike pedestrian improvements along hygienic road it does not include the loop road in our study right yeah this is I'm not asking you like you know this is rhetorical but like why like you can't pay for a road for my kids to get into a school like I don't understand from a you know from a common-sense perspective a common-sense perspective again this is rhetorical this is not for you guys this is just like you know frustration you you may recall that one of our recommendations was using excuse

[02:22:41] me using some of the money generated the revenues generated by the speed cameras in school zone right to make to make right the school zones safer yeah that would be yeah this is our recommendation that we we continue to ask the community to support in terms of having to go to the board for for some of that use of those funds. We don't want people speeding near the schools so if we're making the school zone safer and there's revenue generated from that let's plow that back. There was about a half a million dollars raised in the first year on the hydraulics. I think that money is restricted how they can use

[02:23:19] it but I think it's restricted for safety so it sounds like safety makes sense here but certainly intersection improvements correct traffic or travel through a school site would all be safety related in my opinion I'll make that argument today well thank you miss kumazawa are you going to tell us what we need to do with this and I think you both know mr. storm and miss Barrett that we have our next school board meeting we'll be making our decisions about this I don't know if you plan to be there or not but you are welcome if you have the

[02:23:56] time so in preparation for that next meeting if there is any specific direction that any school board member wants to provide so that we can prepare for that we did have a discussion exercise where everyone kind of talked about their top five priorities so we know that if you were on the same page with this we would come back with this project list next month or if you wanted to see something different we would be prepared to do that so we're not having that discussion on the spot next month but we're doing that tonight does that make sense so what would people like to do

[02:24:33] do we want to write we want to take these home and write them or yeah do you want to take a minute and just discuss i was going to suggest talking to the person next to you about what you think about these rankings and then maybe reporting okay does that work yeah sure oh i'm sorry i would um just did max did you have any comments or questions about the school capital i forgot to even ask you i'm so sorry no you're right nothing really from my side i guess i do just

[02:25:10] have just could you clear up the astrazeneca thing just because me personally i just don't know what it is it is a very large um pharmaceutical company that has committed to build a four and a half billion dollar plant up by Ravana station on land that the county recently purchased and they're estimating perhaps 600 jobs over the course of whatever. I mean it's it's a so I don't know if

[02:25:46] they're making vaccines they may be a spectrum of products. Consumable drugs so okay possibly a GLP one type as well as some other stuff that they're doing that they would manufacture there we have our own as epic factory okay a little bit right and that's 50 ish acres 600 jobs coming in the in the plant alone their CEO said that they create five to six ancillary jobs in the communities for every job that they create and they are talking about being open by fiscal year 30 and

[02:26:22] And they will be adding to the capacity issues of Elmore County Public Schools. Those 600 employees, probably a lot of them have kids that want to go to school. Yeah. Okay, thank you. But we should also add that a $4.5 billion investment would also add to the industrial tax base, right?

[02:26:43] That would be great. So one of the things that the Board of Supervisors has always talked about is reducing the need on residential income, residential real estate taxes and the tax rate that has to fund local government and by bringing in business like this it would make a a size and add a sizable chunk once it's fully up and run

[02:27:03] into the county's overall budget thank you max um i know that school board owns some property but

[02:30:08] does the county own any property that they might be willing to put into a school that would offset the cost of us buying you know you're taking it from they're going to be paying us to buy the land do they own any land that we could potentially use already like 36 acres of it just off the top of my head this is a sticky question i think our next step on the height the high school thing is we're gonna we're gonna look at them all right we're gonna look with county owned we're gonna look at what's available for purchase we just presented that that proffer was provided for high school

[02:30:47] right and here's what it is okay so we just wanted to prove it is possible here are all the limitations it's enough limitations let's start looking elsewhere okay but if there's not a good option let's come back to it so if we were to say like because we obviously feel passionate about this um when would you have an idea of that what i mean are we talking years from now are we because i don't want to like get no i think it would be something that we would start actively looking at um when is the designs i mean it would be between now and design right you're like fy28 yeah what

[02:31:25] was your question i do think it's worth i think it's prudent to note that that convenience center that is on that site is currently funded for design and is actively in design so can you repeat that sorry i didn't hear you the convenience center that's on that parcel is currently funded for design is actively being designed so um the the property on burkmar was proffered to the schools in the county and they would love to have and we've been talking about the transportation

[02:31:59] center there plus the recycling thing there it's not very big it's just on the flattest it's the best part of the site um and you'll see our fit test proposes the soccer field at that location i really don't love the idea of a recycling well so i just i point that out because that is a current active project that is being moved forward so if if the board desired this site there would be benefit to knowing that at an earlier date so um there could be conversations

[02:32:32] about that i think i think for this evening if we focus on the 21 projects and the priority order so that you all can take these recommendations and these become your own recommendations and then once the priority is adopted by action in november we can start to dive deeper into the details of each of the projects well if i don't like counting uh north point as one of the five because it's

[02:33:12] already been approved and so i'm crossing it off just because it's already there right d there but

[02:33:56] we wonder if there are further benefits in terms of education looking at improving reading scores giving some families some relief in terms of child care issues we think that probably is more important than number 21 tbd more more than which one then just then just being by the model oh i see well but that's number 21 you're only looking at your top five i'm saying take 21 and

[02:34:33] even as we're building the high school I think we're already 200 over capacity it's just going to continue to get worse so for me largely that the way that it is already ranked makes sense

[02:35:04] very elementary school the child and we did that for two reasons I mean a because Allison has been

[02:37:16] making that advocacy point for some time but also because our original list only touched northern feeder pattern schools and we always try to sort of spread the spread touching schools across the county this still leaves out the southern feeder pattern so we got we have Mountain View but we have Mountain View now right we did but just we debated that as staff level - I just think you need to remind what you did in the last five years the reason you don't have an elementary issue western feeder pattern is the crozet addition right and then

[02:37:51] the mountain right exactly yeah I have one final question have we looked at grants for the elevator additions like disability grants or something like that because I think that there may be yeah like we've had organizations that have funded like ramps for us for camp and things like that so I'm just obviously it's not on that scale but just wondering if that might be an option I don't have a specific information.

[02:38:22] It might be something to look into, and that might alleviate some of these on there, too. So how can we get these to you, Ms. Kumazawa? Well, I heard three people asking to flip number six and seven, Murray and Western Improvements, and then I heard three people say they want to see the preschool center move up into the top five.

[02:38:42] Okay. Is there anything else? Would you like us, other than the questions you've already asked, Is there any other information that you would need to prepare you for the next meeting?

[02:38:59] I would love to know how much 50 acres of property would cost if we had to purchase it. I mean, I actually directly asked one of the supervisors, why don't you give us 50 acres off your Ravana parcel?

[02:39:17] And she nearly laughed me out of the room. She said, that's for a higher economic purpose. I said, well, having a good school system is part of your economic planning. Investing in our future. Yes, exactly right.

[02:39:34] Any other comments, questions, laments, praise for our long-range planning committee? Much praise. Thank you. Thank you, David. I so appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[02:39:53] How do we make it fly? Thank you, Maya. OK. Are you done, Ms. Kumazawa? OK, thank you. That's a lot to think about, and we need to figure out our strategy going forward.

[02:40:15] Is there any other business by board members or the superintendent? I will note that the December 3rd meeting is not on our calendar, so while we were meeting, I added it to mine, but just make sure that you all are free. Right, right.

[02:40:30] And also the BSBA conference needs to be added to our calendars as well, those of us that are attending. Ms. Thompson, is that something does the student reps go to or they had a day before the conference starts that they do that?

[02:40:52] I'm sorry, you're asking about the conference? No, they do. They have a day. Do you want to explain it, Max? I was just going to confirm, yes, that is true. Okay. It is November 19th. They actually drive up very early in the morning. They ride with Ms. Roberts the day before, so then they have a special day for student reps.

[02:41:11] All of them are going, too. That's great. Well, thanks everyone for tonight. And if there is no business, further business, this meeting is adjourned.

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