Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Work Session, Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 2h 56m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ZRhX4GWw0
Official School Board page (FCPS): https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/school-board

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 2026-11-02. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:06] Okay, thank you, everyone. It's wonderful to be with you all for our first public meeting of the new school board.

[00:00:25] We are going to begin with certification of closed meeting. So in order to comply with section 2.23712 of the Code of Virginia, it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on January 9, 2024, 24 to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and Only such public business matters as were identified in the motion Convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting. Do I have a motion?

[00:00:59] Motion from mr. Frisch. Is there a second? Second from mr. Moon all those in favor Listen, okay. We have mr. Moon miss Anderson. Mr. Frisch. Mr. McElveen miss lady Miss Dixit miss st. John Cunning. Mr. McDaniel all those opposed miss Anders dr. Anderson and miss Merritt, okay now next

[00:01:35] Thank you Miss Sizemore hyzer has submitted a written request to attend this meeting virtually due in a personal conflict all those in favor of approving Ms. Sizemoreheiser's request. Please raise your hands. Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Dixit, Dr. Anderson, and myself, Ms. Lady. Okay, with that business taken care of, we can dive into what hopefully will not take

[00:02:10] four hours, but we have allocated four hours. Is that four hours or five hours? Can I not? Okay, Okay, five hours. So with that, I would like to first lay out a few ground rules. So as discussed earlier, if you would like to make a comment, have a question, please turn your placard up. And that way, Ms. Lady and I will be able to keep track of everyone who wants to contribute to the conversation.

[00:02:41] The run of show for today is we are going to have a presentation on the capital improvement program by our staff members. And I think since this is the first time we're meeting a number of them, if they could just briefly introduce themselves as well.

[00:02:57] And then after their presentation, we will dive into what looks like four and a half hours of questions. But hopefully that will not be the case. AS WAS MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY, EACH BOARD MEMBER WILL HAVE THREE MINUTES FOR THEIR INITIAL INTERVENTION, AND WE WILL HAVE -- WE WILL PROCEED TO GO BACKS AFTER THAT.

[00:03:15] SO WITH THAT, I WOULD LIKE TO HAND IT OVER TO OUR COLLEAGUES. AND PLEASE, AGAIN, INTRODUCE YOURSELVES. SO THANK YOU, MR. MCCLEBEAN. THIS AFTERNOON, AS WE WORK ON THE TOPIC OF THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN, I WANT TO INTRODUCE OUR CHIEF OF STAFF, MARTY SMYTH, TO INTRODUCE THE TEAM THAT WILL BE PRESENTING TO YOU.

[00:03:37] this afternoon. Hello and good afternoon everyone. I'm Marty Smith. I'm the Chief of Staff for Fairfax County Public Schools. We have our former Chief Operating Officer sitting next to me, Mr. Chuck Fanshawe. He is here in support today and we have our Chief of Facilities and Planning, Ms. Janice Szymanski, who is here as well. All right, good afternoon. As Marty mentioned, my name is Janice Szymanski. I'm the new Chief of Facility Services and Capital Programs here at FCPS.

[00:04:15] and today we are going to cover a summary of the presentation on the proposed capital improvement program for fiscal year 25 through 29. so just to start and give you an overview a capital improvement program or cip is a planning and fiscal management tool used to coordinate the location timing and funding of projects over five years the cash flow is submitted to the county for incorporation into the larger fairfax county cip the fcps cip includes an annual overview of student membership and facilities data to identify new capital projects.

[00:04:52] Newly identified needs are included in the estimated schedule of capital projects for the next five years and the capital cash flow tracks the funding allocation for these projects. As part of that we look at updated membership. So updated membership information for the division and the school is included in the CIP. This is based on the September certified membership data.

[00:05:16] For this school year 23-24 total membership as of September was 180,806 students. We continue to monitor the impacts of the membership from the pandemic and it remains still under the school year 19-20 by 8,204 students. Three main factors that contribute to changes in membership include the birth to kindergarten ratio, the migration of students, and the transfer of students. Data for these three factors have been included in the slides at the end of this presentation for reference and please note that the impacts of coven 19 continue

[00:05:52] to be uncertain membership still does remain as i mentioned under that 19 20 school year by that amount in addition to our just annual membership we also look at projections so the five-year projection set is also included in the cip and reflects a relatively flat within the five-year projection period. This is mostly due to part of the overall decline in membership since the COVID-19 pandemic, including lower birth rates and a decline of elementary and middle school cohorts

[00:06:30] over time. The largest cohorts of classes in FCPS are currently in the 10th and 11th grades. The Fairfax County Demographic Report confirms this trend with a decline in the school age population between 2020 and 2025. So with some of that decline and ongoing changes in membership, it's really important to highlight the projections are updated annually in the cip to reflect these conditions especially as we move out further from the pandemic this slide is just to give you a little bit of an overview on our funding sources especially as it pertains to facilities so funding

[00:07:09] sources for the cip include our mainly our general obligation bond as voted on by residents in the biannual school board referendum the annual limit for general obligation bond funding has increased over time and the most increased recent increase is a result of the joint cip committee in 2021 this increased the annual allocation to 205 million dollars a year and another increased up to 230 and is going to be implemented in fy25 and beyond so we thank fairfax county and the board of supervisors for their continued partnership which has resulted in an increase in funding for the cip

[00:07:47] as a result of escalation in the construction industry and many other factors we at fcps we continue to monitor these costs as they relate to capital projects and you'll see that reflected in the cash flow and then i also have here to know additional funds that impact the cip and that includes our general operating fund and some funds from the fairfax county board of supervisors for infrastructure management the capital sinking fund and proffers and the state construction grant

[00:08:21] this sort of gives you this graphic gives you more of an overview of the cip within context of greater planning we review and collaborate with county planning staff with residential developments going on in the county beyond just five years so to identify impacts on school facilities staff monitors new residential developments during either a plan amendment review process for fairfax county comp plan or the review process for rezoning application and then obviously as part of that

[00:08:52] five-year membership projection that we include in each CIP. So this slide really just talks to the type of projects that you will see in our FCPS CIP. They're kind of broken down into four main categories. They include new school construction, so adding a new school to the portfolio, capacity enhancements, so the addition of modulars or adding a permanent wing or addition to a property uh facility renovations that is the bulk of what you will see in the cip so that's working

[00:09:32] off of our renovation queue adopted in 2009 and then any potential sites so if we've identified areas where a new school will be needed and we would need to purchase land as a result of that so to give you some context here's a couple examples of recently completed capital projects so we have up on the screen braddock elementary fox mill highbla valley these were recently

[00:10:03] completed within the last year or two and frost middle school so our cash flow identifies funding for capital projects within the next five to ten years as outlined below to give you an overview for five years for new construction we have done loring elementary school for capacity enhancements we have justice and three modular relocations and then again as i mentioned the bulk of our cip is going through the renovation cycle so in the five-year cash flow we have 18 elementaries two middle schools and two high schools looking beyond the five-year out to 10 years

[00:10:43] we also have for new construction and repurposing silver line elementary school western high school the Route 1, Early Childhood Center, Tyson's Elementary, Pimmitt Hills Repurposing, Virginia Hills Repurposing. For renovations we have a couple more elementary schools and then any future renovations that would be part of the new queue. And then for site acquisitions we have in our 10-year the Western High School site acquisition. So this is a summary of the funding

[00:11:20] for these projects. The total five-year funding requirement is approximately $1.2 billion and as of today we have 533 million funded by bonds that means we have about 710 million that's unfunded and would be included in future bond referenda we do anticipate in our cash flow we worked it out so that assuming the cash the bond referendum do pass over the course of five years this unfunded portion would be funded and then you can also see in the 10-year total requirement

[00:11:54] We're looking at about currently $578 million with a total unfunded portion of $1.9 billion. So impacts to our cash flow and our schedule of capital projects, I do want to point out that just beyond Fairfax, but more globally speaking, construction costs have been on the rise.

[00:12:22] We are no exemption to that. We're seeing definite increase in cost of construction, inflation. Here in Fairfax, we're now having to incorporate prevailing wage. And there's also specific more to this local region labor shortage issues that are impacting our price.

[00:12:41] So we will say that construction bids reflecting the state of the market have been averaging, honestly, about 33 percent over our cost estimates. So in the past, projects were either value engineered to reduce costs and still needed to access the construction reserve, which was established by past project savings.

[00:13:03] The increase to the county's bond allocation to schools going towards these increased costs is not quite sufficient to overcome these increases, so we want everyone to be aware of that. And so additional cost increases are going to be considered when we're developing our cash flow.

[00:13:25] this is a just a general timeline for an average project that are listed in our cip so you can kind of see where we would fall through the span of a project architectural services are procured through an rfp and project assignments are provided to the board during that process the design of bond approved projects kick off in the spring following the vote and this phase lasts approximately a year or two depending on the size of the project we also allow for time for

[00:14:00] permitting here at fairfax county and then once that has come finished then the construction phase is started with school board approval of a contractor selected there are multiple school and community meetings throughout this process and in fact we had been working with cpdc on that engagement process in the past couple years so this slide really just shows the process for development of our renovation queue our current renovation queue will have funding for planning and design and that's going to take us through the whole cip so what projects you see in the

[00:14:39] cash flow are the current renovation cycle that we're working through and we anticipate that to take us through 30 31 after which we are going to develop a new renovation queue and so we completed phase one with a consultant being on board and they've begun to outline potential criteria they've engaged stakeholders beginning with the school board in early 2023 and then phase two will assess facilities using the criteria set compile that data and create a tool to generate a new queue and then phase three would to be to implement that so just wanted to give the new board an

[00:15:16] update on where we are in that process but i do just want to be transparent and say for the cip that you're seeing today we're still working through our old queue our current queue of projects another big topic of discussion for our cip is our commitment to sustainability and our jet goals so the 2020 jet goal recommendations called for new county buildings and major renovations to achieve net zero energy practices. So these types of enhancements will typically

[00:15:54] include PV or solar arrays, possibly ground source heat pumps from geothermal wells. And so active design and construction projects maximize some of these practices where possible and builds not to preclude future installations as well. So you know one of the examples I can give is for new roofs on and active construction and design projects in the CIP, we're providing extra structural support to support future PV arrays.

[00:16:25] So future projects starting in FY26 and beyond, we really want to up those measures. And so we're looking at energy reduction measures to really try to aim for that onsite net zero. So part of that includes funding for upgrading to the geothermal systems, upgrading your energy efficient envelope, going above and beyond what's required per code and making sure that we have enough structural support for PVs, be it on new roofs for new additions or existing roofs where we're renovating and possibly where applicable even canopies

[00:17:00] to make sure that we meet our onsite production needs. And beyond the energy reduction, which is a huge part of the CIP because it's a lot about building infrastructure.

[00:17:15] Here at FCPS, we are looking beyond that. have our get to green program that i do want to highlight we currently have 149 schools registered and 54 award winners we have our energy conservation program and we're a seven-time energy star partner of the year we are currently working with vendors and under contract on two for solar power purchase agreement where that would be at annadale high school and mason crest elementary school and then again the net zero piece that i spoke to before starting with that

[00:17:51] planning and budgeting in the cip for more net zero enhancements and building practices here in fcps you might be familiar with lead we use a similar credentialing program called chips or collaboration for high performance schools it's a little bit more catered to schools and so new school renovations are being recognized for chips design and then moving on beyond outside the facility we are looking at electrification across the board including electric vehicles so we

[00:18:21] currently have 28 school buses in operation and three more on order i do want to switch gears a little bit and start to talk beyond just big renovation bond projects and give you an overview of our infrastructure here at fcps so with the current cycle of renovations coming out to approximately 42 years after the recent cash flow exercise that is a lot longer than our 20 to 25 year renovation cycle identified at the onset of the of the queue so we do want to point out that

[00:19:01] we are tracking some assets throughout our building our goal is to expand on that but as you can see just looking at it broken down by category we have over a billion dollars worth of infrastructure pieces these are not this is the total value and i'll i'll clarify on the next slide but this was this is what it would cost to replace all the known assets to date in our facilities and you can see they're broken down by category we then sort of took a look at the actual

[00:19:36] assets that are currently passed through useful life and again this is a living living tabulation at the moment we're looking at approximately 379 million dollars of those assets i shared on the screen that are currently past their useful life we took the in this table we kind of broke it down into four major categories hvac athletic asphalt and other major maintenance so you can see what that breakdown looks like and by comparison our fy 24 infrastructure replacement budget

[00:20:11] is approximately 30 million dollars so we recognize the need to really increase this program to be intentional about replacing assets that are past their useful life especially given the fact that our renovation cycle is getting longer than it originally set out to be so as we wrap up i just want to show the timeline of the proposed cip today is the work session january 9th the new

[00:20:47] business is scheduled for Thursday. It's coming Thursday on January 11th. The public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, January 18th, and the school board is scheduled to take action on the proposed CIP on February 8th. Once adopted, we will work with the county government staff and we'll incorporate our information into their CIP for release mid-February. And that concludes my

[00:21:15] summary presentation of the CIP. Thank you very much. Well, that was a whirlwind tour. Thank you so much those you did that very expeditiously thank you so now we turn to questions and I apologize for the cold temperature I just tried to adjust it well we'll get things back to normal hopefully so please if anyone has any comments again we're going to begin with opening interventions three minutes

[00:21:48] each I see dr. Anderson is and and mr. fish are first before you start my time time. I just had a couple of questions regarding the additional documents. Were you going to review the membership trends? We are happy to. We provided them as an appendix to this presentation, so I will defer to the board. It's fine. It's just here. I thought you were going to review it. It's fine. I'm just going to dive into my questions. I remember on March 1, Mr. Frisch and I, and actually

[00:22:26] Dr. Reid, we engaged with DLR on that workshop to help set the criteria for the renovation queue. And I think I was surprised that we did not get the report until December when the date on the report, Dr. Reid, is May.

[00:22:45] Can you speak a little bit about that delay to get that information to us? Yeah, May 15th. Happy to. there was a lot of back and forth with DLR after their draft and I would have to defer to mr. Fanshawe on the readiness to have it be more broadly shared or its tentative completion one of the things that we did we paused that whole process was to let the strategic plan process play out completely so

[00:23:18] So that's why once we had the sessions and one of the requests from the contractor was to suggestion was that we make sure that we're aligning with the new strategic plan.

[00:23:36] So we backed away from really doing anything. They had prepared their notes based on that, and through my remaining time as in my former position, really didn't address, move forward with that because we were launching really the strategic plan.

[00:23:58] So this was a step one as we looked at it. It was not, in my opinion, a launching point for moving forward without more engagement and more input. And I think that's where maybe I was confused because I recall that that initial conversation was to set the criteria, not that it would be the preliminary discussion to the phase two. I thought that was the job of DLR. I've been trying to get my hands on the scope of that contract, but I have not yet been successful. But I got confused there that we would now have to go

[00:24:34] out to bid to continue the step two. Can you speak to that a little bit, Mr. Fanshawe? Well, I think one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we did was to assess the condition of our facilities as a critical piece in any decision-making going forward so parallel with the the thought exercise the DLR was going through we're working to develop a contract to do the condition assessment for existing facilities which is should be a large component of any future queue I was also operating under the impression that we needed to move faster to get a new queue in place.

[00:25:14] And that wasn't really the realities of the market have kind of shown that we've got a lot. We have more years under the existing queue based on projects that are playing out now. So the urgency of moving into queue development, I think, was lessened based on that.

[00:25:35] No, thank you. So the conditions assessment that you're speaking of, what do we anticipate that to be the timeline? Right now, staff are drafting a scope of work to make sure that we can get the right team on board to do a broad assessment of our facilities.

[00:25:54] And I believe that Fairfax City has recently conducted a similar exercise. So we've talked with them and gotten a copy of their RFP as a starting point for writing our own scope of work. Thank you. Can you also tell me what was the contract for DLR for this part of the work, contract amount?

[00:26:15] I don't recall what it, I don't recall what that number was. Would that be able to, can somebody share that at some point? I'm sure we can find, we can find that out. Okay, thank you. Just kind of move on, moving on to the presentation a little bit. One of the things that I think I was surprised by and I shared with you, Janice, Ms. Semensky, is that we didn't have the typical two by twos with board members for us to really dig in.

[00:26:39] I know when I was a brand-new board member, this was a very helpful way of really becoming acclimated to the CIP, and we had a similar timetable. So I did want to express that that did not happen, and I don't think the board had any knowledge, because at one point, I had a meeting set up, and then it wasn't.

[00:27:00] I can speak to that, Dr. Anderson. I think the transition of new boards and the timing of the holiday and the timing of the building of the plan precluded the opportunity to do 2x2s.

[00:27:15] I think we had hoped with the work session today that the questions would be able to be answered today, hopefully. Well, I'm going to take the moment to raise the things I would have raised in my two-by-two, which is one, overall HVAC issues, which I think you alluded to in that document for $379 million that I have some questions about, which will probably come up in my go-back.

[00:27:43] But I do want to raise three schools in the Mason District, Wayanoke Elementary, Belvedere Elementary, and Luther Jackson Middle that I share both with Mr. Frisch in the Providence District. Those are the schools that I would like for evaluations by staff to be added to the queue wherever and whenever that looks, however that looks.

[00:28:08] I think I can go down the stats that you all have regarding the number of trailers, the dates of renovations. These buildings are highly problematic. And one of the things that stood out to me in the DLR report was that it said when facilities are in poor condition, they significantly decrease student and teacher engagement.

[00:28:31] They increase absenteeism and suspensions. I find that to be interesting, particularly in the case of Wayanoke Elementary, which in September had eight staff vacancies and as of today has seven staff vacancies. They're interviewing. Once people come into the building, they kind of accept other jobs.

[00:28:49] So I'm really very curious about that correlation. So I want to make sure that I ask you, Mr. Minsky, what should I look for the next step now that I'm raising these three schools to you as concerns? and then i'll put myself on the go back list i'm sorry oh sorry i was conferring with mr fanshaw but yeah we can take note of those so just so i understand the request is it to add wayne oak

[00:29:28] luther jackson and belvedere to the renovation queue yes i the reason why i'm particularly sensitive on this it's because last year when we were here i feel like i missed the boat on Glasgow which I'm glad that I see in the draft I don't want to miss the opportunity on regarding these three schools so I'd like to have clarity in terms of what is the process for me to elevate these three schools for the queue okay I think we can take those notes and then with consensus take a look at any updates that we would need to make to the CIP does that make sense I need more

[00:30:06] than that are we looking for consensus in this conversation are we looking at consensus at the adoption of the CIP. I hate to throw this out at folks who just got here but I just want to have clarity of process. I think that the process has been a bit muddled over time because there are some schools included in the queue that perhaps when you look at objective criteria might not otherwise be included in the queue and then there are other schools as we've discussed that when you look at a set of objective criteria might should be in the queue that aren't right so I think we need to take a holistic view of 198 facilities

[00:30:45] 198 schools agree on what those business principles are for the the pieces of those major operational topics as well as the condition of the building number of trailers etc and create a queue that stands the test of time that's able to be objective so I think hearing your concerns will be part that process. I think we're also creating cues around athletic topics and cues around safety and security topics so that anytime we find ourselves able to avail ourselves of a grant or perhaps

[00:31:20] mid-year or end-of-year one-time-only dollars that would enable us to plug some of the, you know, holes that we currently see, we'll have a list already in front of us so we don't need to kind of rediscover the needs every cycle so i think there's a little hedging around a direct answer to what the process is i want to name that i don't think it's intentional we don't intend to be weasley as staff but i do think that we're building the process while we take the input and i want to manage expectations okay because i i do want to walk out of this conversation

[00:31:57] out of this meeting with a response because my community is looking for me to move these forward and we're in this weird state and so i need guidance yeah i'll just echo what dr reed said and i think for staff's recommendation we recommend continuing on through our current queue to touch those schools that haven't been on the renovation cycle yet and then once we're concluded with that we are at an interesting crossroads where we're developing the new criteria and I think you bring up great points that should be considered when we're developing the new cue so that those issues will rise to the top and we can address them in our next cycle.

[00:32:35] Okay thank you Dr. Anderson. Mr. Frisch. Thank you. Can I ask you a question really quick? Yes. Are you talking about adding them to the current cue or prioritizing them for the next cue?

[00:32:51] You feel free to respond. I don't know. I just want them in the cue. Whatever the cue is whether it's the current or the new one I don't want for these schools to miss the opportunity for inclusion gotcha okay speaking to that I agree with the motivation behind prioritizing different schools for the queue I wouldn't be supportive of adding anything to the current queue and I do believe along the lines of what the superintendent Miss Szymanski we're saying that the holistic approach needs to be here are the criteria for the

[00:33:28] next queue and I think by any objective measure some of the issues that Dr. Anderson identified would be among those things so I look forward to that conversation at the last CIP work session I raised a red flag about the overruns that we were experiencing and how we might have to grapple with that and according to this CIP draft we are at that point of needing to grapple with that um by way of example um you know over the last few years the county has given us even more

[00:34:00] money for our bonds not enough but even more than we had previously been getting um and yet because of the costs associated with covid call it the covid bubble which is never going to burst um our projects are far more expensive than anticipated and it's not for lack of planning so dr anderson and I were involved with the Falls Church renovation, which was bonded just before the pandemic. And so when it went to contract, it was contracted before the cost overruns started.

[00:34:32] And so many, several schools are in that position. And now we're left with the decision about how we're going to do that, how we're going to handle that. It's joined at the hip with the discussion around the Joint Environmental Task Force's work, which I would like us all to stop calling recommendations. They were recommendations to our board that we then made directives to the superintendent. So they are directives of this board that we will accomplish those goals. Among them are moving towards carbon neutrality as a system which relies on us moving towards net zero buildings wherever humanly possible. And so I appreciate the approach laid out in this CIP

[00:35:10] for grappling with this heavy issue. It does two things. One, it attempts to move us in the direction of accomplishing the JET goals without too much of a disruption to the queue of projects and I think that's important we have committed significant resources over the last few years to the JET work and the community is counting on us to continue that trajectory our students certainly are as well so I appreciate that thoughtful approach and one question I have before I save my

[00:35:49] comments for the go back cpdc recently completed a um a new focused approach to communicating our renovation projects i'm curious um how you see that informing um whatever we whatever the board ends up approving with the cip as it relates to these new projects or not these new projects but the adjusted projects that we might vote on yeah and i think you bring up a good point we did work with the cpdc committee on developing a new plan for engagement to create more uniformity

[00:36:24] and more predictability to our communications plan which is overseen by our communications team so i think to your point it's a good time to start using that document as a guidance so we can approach all the schools in the renovation queue the same way in terms of you know informing the public when their project's slated to start i do think you know this is the time where we really reconcile the cash flow, make it as stable as possible so we can get ahead of

[00:36:51] those communications per that document. Okay, great. Next we have Ms. Marin. Thank you. I will start with the biggest thing that I think of when I think of the CIP and that's our academic programs and there's a section of content on page 14 of the CIP that says unique program offerings should be made available in all division periods in order to keep students within their zone pyramid throughout their K-12 experience where conditions are conducive to program needs.

[00:37:30] I will say, Dr. Reed, the main thing I've heard from parents the last few weeks has been, why is my student not able to get transportation from one pyramid to another if they want to take the academic program that's only offered in the other pyramid? So right now, that's our North Reston elementary schools that are in the Herndon pyramid, and their children want to go to the IB program at South Lakes, which they've already been going to at Lynx and Hughes Middle School and being provided transportation.

[00:37:59] So we really need to think of our buildings as how they're gonna provide the program so that each student could stay at their neighborhood school and not have to be transferred all over the county. I also think the maps starting in the resources page on page 259 are really helpful.

[00:38:15] They make the data make the invisible visible, as I know I've heard some of our school leaders say. I also wanna touch on the renovations and the backlog. So given the, on page 16 and 17 of the CIP draft, given the backlog of renovations, and the ones you mentioned today, Ms. Szymanski, given the backlog of renovations for elements that are past the useful life, what are your thoughts on working through the process of using CIP funds, either already bonded or to be bonded, to pay for these costs so that more students, staff, and communities receive that benefit sooner rather than just some

[00:38:51] school communities receiving something once every almost half a century? Yeah, I think it's a challenging topic we have to grapple and plan out as much as possible ahead of time because the more you divert the bond referendum funding from the renovation queue, the longer you're going to make that queue, right?

[00:39:12] So if we're sitting at about 42 years, diverting those same funds to infrastructure would only then prolong the time it would take to get to the renovation again. So I think we need to take a definite broader approach beyond just the CIP bond funding to come up with a way to expand this program.

[00:39:33] I do think you bring up very good points. Well, thank you. And, you know, children only get that opportunity to be in school once. And if their school doesn't happen to be renovated for three or four decades, then they miss out. So I think this is the conversation for our board and a great segue into a concern that I've raised to you all about the policies that guide our CIP review.

[00:39:53] And I have shared a memo that shows that the majority of the policies, most of which are identified in the CIP, that staff used to craft the CIP are overdue for a review, especially in light of the fact of a post-COVID accelerated climate change kind of world, not to mention our strategic planning and getting back to the academics.

[00:40:15] So I do think that is really critical for us to address, and part of that is what is is the renovation queue. Our current policy sets it at 25 years. So this is for the board's decision with staff guidance. To my colleagues, I just want to ask or say I do think we need more time to discuss this. There's just so much. I think Dr. Vansky and her team have done a really great job being new when we had Mr. Fanshawe here and we're a new board.

[00:40:40] So I would like more time. I'd love to call the board's attention to page 19 of the CIP has those October 21st JET recommendations, what does the board think about actually adopting those recommendations? And I'll talk about advocacy in my go back.

[00:40:56] Thank you. Great. Thank you, Ms. Mary. Next, we have Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. McAuliffe. It is always exciting to start a new term with such topic as CIP and budget.

[00:41:12] I cannot just hide my excitement doing this. Mr. Chairman, with that said, following what Mr. Chairman, Mr. Frisch commented on in JET Goals and Ms. Maryland as well, is a CIP that's been posted, proposed a CIP that's been posted on the bold doc, fairly in good faith, comply with directives from the school board regarding JET Goals?

[00:41:46] I think that as it's written, the budgeted pages do not comply completely with the previous board jet goals.

[00:42:06] Would you be able to show us where we could go to see the deviations from prior board's decisions? I do think when we talk about energy reduction and net zero, it is still new enough that it is open for interpretation.

[00:42:23] So I will say that projects that are actively under construction and actively under design are considering some net zero technologies. For example, we have, I think, all of the active construction and design projects where we have an addition and there's a new roof, it was built with extra structure to make it solar ready, which is a huge component of achieving on-site net zero.

[00:42:45] You need to generate power to offset the power you consume, right? I think what our efforts are moving forward are to really interpret net zero as really trying to get that on-site reduction to equal to zero. And I think we need to be more rigorous in our approach to that.

[00:43:04] And I do think it starts with the CIP planning and budgeting, making sure that we have the funding to have a premium enough HVAC system that's energy efficient enough so that getting to that zero is possible, or we're doing it to the fullest extent possible.

[00:43:20] So for the purposes of transparency to the public, and board members as well, do you plan to post something somewhere to show to the public that there may be a deviation from our previously adopted JET goals?

[00:43:39] The current purpose of CIP includes those deviations? Because, you know, if it's been already posted, I want to know on which page of a CIPI could go to really be able to share with the public that this is what is being proposed.

[00:43:55] So what's been posted is currently a draft document. And I think which pages did we, because I know to your point, Mr. Moon, for example, geothermal structures are not fully funded for all projects in design at this time.

[00:44:11] What page would we draw attention to? And because it's a draft, we can also elaborate and add more detail to the document prior to it being a final document. - Yeah, for the purpose of my own education and also being able to share with the public, I would like to know where I could go to get those information to share with.

[00:44:33] So that is one, you don't have to answer right now. Hopefully you can provide the responses later on. - Well I also, Mr. Moon, I think what I wanna say too is I think when we looked at preparing for this, conversation and looked at what is the definition of becoming zero carbon or carbon neutral there are a variety of strategies you can use in construction and design and i think what miss samansky shared is that we've tried to incorporate some of those i would say it hasn't been as robust an incorporation due to funding and cost escalation of construction

[00:45:09] but i think um we will provide that's the kind of information that's the kind of elaboration that i'm looking for you know obviously i was not on that board who adopted those jet goals and gave the superintendent directives so but that was a decision made by the board and we are honoring hopefully but i want to see if there's a deviation what the deviation is like be able to share with the public and we need to be transparent about that yes sir because we will be voting on the cip

[00:45:40] And related to that, the JEC goals were adopted, if I'm not mistaken, not just by our board, but board of supervisors as well, how much they are aware of our potential need to deviate from those goals, you know, jointly adopted by the both boards, whether we are planning on having any discussion with the board of supervisors, both on this.

[00:46:08] I know that they have increased the level of cash flow to us, to the level of 235 from FI25. Whether we want to stick with our regional jackals up to 2021, whether they would require even higher level of cash flow, I mean, that may be worth to be brought to the attention of Board of Supervisors for their consideration as well.

[00:46:38] I think that's a great idea. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Next to speak is Mr. Dunn. Thank you.

[00:46:56] So I have a few questions, and I'll just outline them rather than let me respond to each one individually just to conserve my time. Number one, I'd like to know to what extent, if any, FCPS has a team focused on federal grant opportunities for green school construction and renovation, the purchase of electric school buses, etc. There are literally billions of dollars available under legislation enacted under President Biden's leadership that could benefit FCPS while reducing the financial burden

[00:47:34] on Fairfax County taxpayers. And FCPS does not have such a team. Has FCPS considered hiring a vendor to assist with this? I think as reflected in page 10 of your presentation, we're operating in a time of increasing need, lengthening construction timeframes, and increasing budget constraints.

[00:47:53] So we really need to think outside the box, we need to reconsider our current business practices and look to how to do more with less. My second question is, to what extent, if any, has FCPS actively engaged with the construction industry through requests for information, industry days, and draft requests for proposals?

[00:48:13] Engaging with industry, sharing data, requesting their ideas, seeking best practices and lessons learned would enable FCPS to be more cost-effective in its approach to school construction and renovation. Third, I'd like to know to what extent, if any, FCPS has actively engaged rather than passively waiting to be contacted with the construction industry and developers to discuss potential private-public partnerships in which the private sector brings money to the table and contractors assume some or all of the risk for construction overruns as well as maintenance.

[00:48:49] I note the 33 percent in construction overruns under a public-private partnership that might have been borne by the contractor rather than FCPS, as well as maintenance over 10, 20, or 30 years. Other school districts in our region, as well as many school districts across the country, utilize public-private partnerships with great success. For example, South County High School my district was built successfully through a public-private partnership. And fourth, I'm particularly focused on pages 15 to 16 of your presentation. As noted, many of the elements that make our schools great from playground equipment to HVAC equipment have lifespans

[00:49:28] significantly shorter than the current renovation cycle of 40 years. And I'll note that for HVAC equipment the typical duration of 20 to 25 years that maybe our parents enjoyed is closer to 10 if you talk to people in the industry uh what is fcps doing to ensure that a dedicated portion of school bond funding perhaps 10 to 20 percent is allocated to meet these infrastructure requirements uh over time i believe that we saw for example during the pandemic the results of having outdated hvac equipment uh held together with bubble gum and duct tape so we need to solve

[00:50:02] the infrastructure problem now not later and thank you very much so i can answer that first question mr dunner around our grants office so in the department of financial services we do have a grants team and they work with our departments and offices across the division identifying those federal grant opportunities for transfer transportation specifically we were one of the recipients of one of the first transportation grants for electric buses and we've applied annually for those grants and as we look at how those grants are allocated across the country

[00:50:41] they oftentimes will try to spread that around and so we have not been the recipient of those federal dollars but we still continue to go after them. And I can reply to the other. And I have to clarify we were a recipient in the first round but we haven't been successful in subsequent rounds but we again will continue to go after those dollars. And I believe Mr. Fanshawe can speak more to the engagement he did in the marketplace during his tenure, but since starting with FCPS about four months ago, had numerous conversations with some of our industry partners, both working

[00:51:18] on active projects and ones that I've worked with in other marketplaces and other divisions that might be interested in working. Again, trying to get more interest in competition in the marketplace and just hear some general lessons learned. What are their considerations when thinking about bidding on our work and then also to just getting their general sense on where the marketplace is going this was information was used to kind of come up with some of our planning for the cip and we want to continue to engage with our partners because i agree we need to maximize all avenues

[00:51:53] possible and try to do the most we can and maximize the funding to the fullest extent possible so i definitely look forward to working with them as partners even more we've started to talk to them about opportunities for other procurement methods and even started to engage my team with training on a couple different methods. Again, just trying to expand all of our tools and our tool belt for getting our best value with the dollars that we have currently. To answer your question on P3s, currently we're under contract on two solar power purchase agreements. So that's

[00:52:29] the starting of our PPA journey at Mason Crest and Annandale. We're under contract with two different vendors where they would use our roof space with little to no upfront cost to us of build and permit solar arrays and then would be charged a usage for the electricity. So I definitely see that as a launch pad here at FCPS. Growing beyond to bigger projects, like you mentioned the renovations, we started to talk to a couple partners in the marketplace that would be interested because it is such a new endeavor for fcps i think it's good to start asking them

[00:53:07] the types of questions their experiences working with similar size jurisdictions so we've started those conversations more as information gathering so that again i'm open to using tools if it's in the best interest of the division and trying to understand what that would mean to do here at fcps and then i believe your last question was on the slides 15 and 16. can you repeat that please sure so many of the elements that make up our schools from playground equipment to hvac equipment have lifespans significantly shorter than the current renovation cycle 40 years and the quality of

[00:53:43] equipment from hvac to playground equipment has much shorter lifespans and historically was the case whether that's manufacturing or materials hard to say but you know what what is fcps doing I saw on slide 16, you know, $30 million compared to $1 billion in need, right?

[00:54:03] What are you considering proposing to the board as potential solutions? And one solution would be, you know, dedicating 10 to 20% of school bond funding on an annual basis to infrastructure needs, not just at one school or particular schools are being renovated, but, you know, across.

[00:54:19] And I'll say that part of this is, for example, accessibility, you know, wheelchair ramps, elevators, um and playground equipment that works for for you know neurodiverse children so um all of those needs need to be met yep i i agree with you and i agree on the more portfolio-wide approach to that and so i do agree like that is one method that we could talk about together with the board on a way to fund that i think it definitely starts with understanding what our where our assets are where our exposures are where our priorities are so there is a section in the cip that goes into

[00:54:55] more detail in that and i'll even point you to a graph on page 222 where we've taken all those assets that we know about and have categorized them by um by type and then we've gone with manufacturers to really understand what the useful life is for each of those different types of components for you know parking lot maybe it's 20 years but for exterior paint it's 10. so we've started to then break that down by useful life cycle to help better inform us what our needs are and helping to develop priorities with the board and just as a follow-up i'd ask that while

[00:55:31] developing like kind of general or industry standard lifespans for playground equipment hvac etc might be useful i would encourage fcps to actually undertake a comprehensive audit not a random sampling but a comprehensive audit school by school of all of those systems because if you look at my district for example mount vernon district franconia springfield we have historically been underfunded and I'd also ask that the on slide 16 the untracked expenditures be tracked as so because if you look at athletic facilities just as one example there's a vast disparity

[00:56:07] between eastern Fairfax County and western Fairfax County and in the interest of the one Fairfax policy to ensure equity throughout we need to make sure every school has world-class facilities from athletic to classroom. And Mr. Dunn, your time is well over.

[00:56:23] We'll have go-backs. But I think Dr. Reed wanted to reply to one of your points. Yeah, thank you, Mr. McElveen. To the federal grant point, I did want to highlight a recent federal grant, and I want to ask our Chief Operating Officer, Andy Muick, to share the EPA news, please. Yes, ma'am.

[00:56:40] Mr. Dunn, as Mr. Smith alluded, we have two folks in transportation specifically focused on the fleet management to include grants, conversion of diesel buses to electric vehicles and everything that we just recently, at the beginning of this week, were awarded from an EPA grant pool, a grant for 16.5 million to buy 42 electric buses.

[00:57:05] And they have, and there's another grant that's due at the end of this month that the transportation fleet team is working on pulling together and should have done in a day or two. So they are constantly looking and applying as quickly as they can. Thank you. Yes, sir.

[00:57:21] Okay, thank you, Mr. Dunn. Next to speak is Ms. Dixon. Hello. My question is also regarding the infrastructure replacement requirements. And I'm just saying it's like, you know, $1 billion of money is needed to replace everything and we only have a part of it.

[00:57:44] How do you say which are the most critical items of this list? And I would say there are too many fire sprinkler system which are out of their useful life, which is potential safety issue.

[00:57:59] So my question is regarding that, how do you prioritize that? Is there a way to see the severity of the, you know, the systems and kind of go with that? The oldest get replaced first. And the other thing I wanted to talk about, Sully District specifically about what's the update any update on the construction or sorry renovation of central high school thank you yes i think you're you're right on right now when we look at our infrastructure replacements we are looking and categorizing which assets are past their useful life and

[00:58:37] prioritizing those and going off of a combination of the condition they're in in the last replacement year and continue to work through that with the funding that we have available to speak to centerville currently the project is in design and we have an architect team on board and they're working through that and i can follow up with more information on when we expect that design to go in for county permitting okay another follow-up on that i was noticing something that in design process it takes one to three years in any school design and the construction starts after

[00:59:17] that and obviously um is that a standard industry uh timeline because um coming from private industry and seeing buildings being up much faster is there a reason the design process itself takes one to three years yeah i think we put that range in to be very general depending on the year the time of year which we end up making the award and if there's any possible unforeseen conditions we we try to build that buffer in.

[00:59:47] Typically, we try to be on the front end of that range, and it really does depend on the scale and complexity. Centerville High School's over 400,000 square feet, very complex. It's a high school with much more infrastructure-heavy programs like lab spaces and whatnot versus maybe a smaller elementary school.

[01:00:09] So there is going to always be a range. Again, we were trying to be broad brush enough kind of cover that whole spectrum my last question is about the western fairfax high school has the site been acquired no not at this time any timeline on that i can follow up with you on that one thank you okay thank you miss dixit i recognize mr mcdaniel thank you a couple questions the

[01:00:46] slide calling out the enrollment projections i think that was slide four so the third bullet says demographic projections decline in school age population age group 5 to 14 from 2020 to 2025.

[01:01:01] Have we gone back and compared the projections to actual? I'm going to ask staff to weigh in on that one. We look at the accuracy each year with our projection set as we develop the next projection set and there is a dashboard online that has the comparison division-wide as well as by region or by school. Okay, thank you. Second question and this can be a request for information. Can I get some historical data five or ten years doesn't matter of modulars how many students and or per

[01:01:33] square foot or maybe both students and square feet division-wide yeah and then slides 10 the the circle graph with the funded versus unfunded i just want to be very clear for the public this does not when we talk about funded versus unfunded you have it in the fine print but it's not called out in the data visual the data visual does not show what we anticipate to receive in bond funding

[01:02:06] so when i see a big scary red circle on the 10 years that shows two billion dollars unfunded that does not take into consideration future bond sales that we anticipate to receive correct that is correct okay thank you and last question the slides regarding slide 16 and 17 regarding the infrastructure replacement requirements that 1 billion dollars and the 380 million dollars is not reflected in slide 10 the total bond correct that's just for the CIP cash flow of bond projects so really the 10-year unfunded

[01:02:45] if we throw in the in the the infrastructure replacement is the 2 billion plus another 1.4 billion so we're looking at 3.4 billion correct okay thank you thank you mr mcdaniel would anyone who's not spoken like to speak okay at this point i'll recognize mr mckelveen hey um i'm sorry i have my hand up i know it's hard to see the screen okay right but go ahead and go i can go after you i'm fine you have the floor thank you and i apologize for not being there i'm a little under the weather this um

[01:03:24] afternoon so you get my big head on the screen instead so congratulations on your first work session for the new board um a couple questions i know the cip was posted later i mean i didn't even see it as of last night and there's a lot of data in here like to dig into so i would i think one of my colleagues mentioned having some time to dig into this and i would welcome that i really also um i think dr anderson mentioned the two by two and i found those very useful as well so although i do understand that we're in this weird space of creating a new renovation queue so i think the first thing i wanted to lift up is that we need to figure out as a board with um staff

[01:04:00] guidance on what are the factors going into our new renovation queue and which include criteria we can all agree on but in addition what are the factors we're going to use to determine what might be urgent before then right and is that just sticking with the queue we have now are there other things that we need to lift up sooner than that other capacity issues and i think there's some guidance we need there because we are in this funny space that's the first thing i'm and it'll sort of lift up.

[01:04:27] The other thing I wanted to lift up is, you know, as Mr. McGill and Mr. May mentioned, there are quite large gaps between what is funded and what is needed, especially on the renovation and maintenance issues. And so I really think we need to work on some sort of communications plan around an advocacy plan.

[01:04:47] You know, if we have 319 million of renovation, maintenance needed and only 30 million funded for it, that's a problem. And maybe I'm reading the numbers even correctly as I just looked at this this morning as it was posted. But that's a huge problem that I think our community and our funding partners need to be aware of.

[01:05:07] So I don't know where that could be. I think that some work could be between our facility staff and even Mr. Malloy on our legislative package. So I think that is very important to do. I wanted to mention a couple things Braddock School specific. When we're looking at our renovation queue, and I know Candice and I talked about an infrastructure plan.

[01:05:30] Is there, do you know historically why the secondary schools did not get renovated like two schools? I mean, they're contained in middle school and high school, but there's one theater, there's one track, there's one gym. So when we're talking about equity and facility access and equity access, so I'll pause and ask if anyone knows historically why there wasn't more facilities put in place considering there's two schools in one.

[01:06:00] Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, I don't think staff has an answer this afternoon, but we will look into that and have an answer in the Friday letter. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I bring that up because two secondary schools are in the Braddock district, but also, you know, there's always urban legend at Lake Braddock that there was a little theater because at some point there was supposed to be a big theater, right?

[01:06:20] But I wonder about the equity for middle schoolers and having to share all those facilities. I know it became an issue when we're looking at middle school sports as to whether the secondary schools would be able to do those. So I think that's important when we're looking at our renovation queue to look at that. I also wanted to lift up that there's quite a few schools in Brack that you're watching. The Capacity, Kings Glen, Old Creek, Irving, West Springfield, Woodson. So when you're looking at the renovation queue versus urgent issue, I'd like some more information on whether those are urgent needs now. I know some of the same HVAC and other facility issues have affected recruiting staff for some of those schools. I know my time is up, so I'll pause and just ask if there are urgent needs for those schools now that we need to look at.

[01:06:59] I can let staff chime in to speak on that, and we can definitely follow up if we've identified a very critical need that would need your engagement. Great. Thank you. Thank you for the time. So you asked my questions for a go back.

[01:07:24] I just want to clarify, are you referring to the schools on page 38 of the CIP? You're muted, Rachna. I think my last four years would teach me not to do that.

[01:07:45] I think it's page 38. I was looking at some other pages. I don't have the exact page number in front of me, but I noticed King's Grand is right now 89%, but it's projected to 103% in module. Earl Creek is 109%. Irving is 107%. Lake Braddock numbers are going from 92, I think.

[01:08:01] Again, I'm right in front of you, 96 or 97. Robinson is trending in the same direction. So I just, and I know Old Little Run has some facilities issues that I've looked at up before. So as I look at some of these numbers trending in the higher, right, going upwards in terms of capacity, and I know when some of those schools are renovated, I just don't know right now, and this is something I would have brought my two by two, what urgent needs may be to address for those schools before the renovation here.

[01:08:30] I hope that answered your question. - Yes, thank you. - Okay, great, thank you, Rachna. We enjoyed seeing your big face on the screen. - Thank you, everybody. - So I will go ahead and take my turn and then I'll turn it back to Ms. Lady.

[01:08:48] So it's great to be here with everyone. lot of similar songs that we've heard in the past but unfortunately a lot of things have kind of gone out of tune over the years so there were there were three major shocks that came to me when I was looking through this report so the first I just want to underscore is that our renovation cycle over the past four years has increased five years it used to be 37 now we're at 42 and that was a pretty pretty big shock secondly the bond increase sounds nice that was

[01:09:26] something we've we've fought for for many years and it took a couple joint board committees to get us there but as others have stated you know an increase of 30 million when we have individual projects that have increased by a hundred million or more in cost is not going to suffice and the 30% cost overruns that we are seeing is is quite a shock as well and the third major shock is that when when mr. Moon and I left the board in 2019 we had a list of

[01:10:00] 90 schools that were solar ready developed in collaboration with the county and here we are now at looking at two for power purchase agreements so that is a major blow obviously there are reasons for all of this and this is not just a FCPS problem this is a county problem as well and they can't place the blame on us because we're in this together but one of the things I would ask for as a result of this situation is a clear communication that we can send

[01:10:39] to the community that we can each individually take out there to explain what what has happened and because we have legislators breathing down our necks as to why we have had such a massive failure when it comes to solar and I do believe it's it's a failure next I would just say I agree with mr. McDaniel on the ominous red circle I would as I've mentioned previously I would like a A breakdown annually of the shortfall, both including modulars, trailers, and just for renovations.

[01:11:19] In the old days, it was $273 million, which you'll note is still far exceeds the $235 million that we have. So I would like that number. I imagine it's in the $300s, if not higher than that now. So that would be grateful.

[01:11:35] And just while we're on the point of next steps, for everyone, I would clarify that Christina Setlow has shared a document that where board members will individually be able to put their next steps on at the conclusion of the work session within the next three days.

[01:11:54] That's new to our prior practices. When we used to vote up and down on the screen, maybe that's a welcome change for folks. But please just take note of that. And with that, I'll turn it over to Ms. Lady. And actually, I'm going to recognize Ms. St. John Cunning before I'll speak.

[01:12:12] Thank you. Thank you. I don't think I got that up quick enough. I just had a basic question as we're looking forward and we talk about educating children now for jobs that don't even exist. And if we're looking at how we're going to renovate or build new spaces, are we looking at programming in tandem with how we're going to do that?

[01:12:39] And I come from the lens of the concept that maybe there might be some community school expansion. And if that is one program of many programs, or as Ms. Marron stated, different programming that we want in different schools.

[01:12:55] When these decisions are made, are you looking at program requirements as you look at the renovation and as you look at building new buildings, number one? and then number two i just want to point out as someone that has been working in schools for the past 26 years the infrastructure situation is very real and makes a real impact on students and on staff and it may not seem like uh it's a critical issue and it may not raise to be something that is raised to a critical issue when we're looking at it on paper but in day-to-day experience it truly is if you're in a very cold building where you can't regulate a classroom or

[01:13:35] hot building. I just want to state that for the record because that's where I come from and that's what I can bring to the table. Great. Thanks, Miss St. John Cunning. Next, Miss Lady. Thank you. Thank you for everyone's comments. I'm learning a lot as I sit here in this new chair. But understanding the Q and the new Q and the complications thereof, I just feel I'd be remiss if I didn't piggyback on Dr. Anderson's comment and make an ask that McLean High School be also evaluated we certainly have a major capacity issue they were last

[01:14:14] renovated under the old way that we did renovations which was piecemeal and patchwork but not a full reno I am grateful to the previous board for I believe voting to replace the bathrooms and it's my understanding that one set of bathrooms that was successfully completed over the winter break so thank you for that and just want to make sure our community knows that that is happening and the other three will be renovated and the only other thing I really want to add is that I'm very much interested in transparent communication with our community I believe strongly that we need to repair trust and to mr.

[01:14:49] McElveen's point regarding information for example with the solar panels on our schools I believe that a lot of what's complicated that is absolutely cost but But also, that's my understanding, that the SEC is also looking at Virginia Dominion Powers, I guess, ask of about 3,000 to correct us to their panel, connect us, should I say.

[01:15:15] Those are the things that I think our community needs to understand as they try to follow these things because we're partnering with them. I just want to make sure that the Office of Community Relations works hard to endeavor to be transparent around press releases or otherwise to make sure that they understand what's going on and what we're doing at our level to -- and at staff level to address their concerns.

[01:15:39] Thank you. Great. Okay. With that, we can launch into go backs. I know Dr. Anderson was first on the list for go back. So please proceed. I just want to check on time because -- are we still doing three or two?

[01:15:57] We seem to be really good for time. Okay, we're going to convert to two minutes now for go backs. It's not even two o'clock. Right. I'm saying nice to the chair. He told me two. Okay, I just don't want to have a go, go back because we are here until 4.30. I would like to advocate for us to keep it at three because we have the time and there's a lot here.

[01:16:18] Okay, I have conferred with the chair. We're going to keep it at three for this next round. Thank you for conferring. Hopefully you can get as much out. Okay, there we go. Yes, I just wanted to kind of talk about a little bit. I mean, it's very clear from this conversation and previous conversations that our needs have far outpaced our resources.

[01:16:36] And from hearing from my colleagues speak around the table, I think there's appetite for additional conversations, which I will lay on the table. Obviously, everyone wants to have a diversification of revenue. We have, you know, Mateo talking about going and really being earnest and pursuing all possible potential partnerships.

[01:16:56] I know we've had that conversation with the group that I know you're following up with. But I also wonder, when will it be time for us to have the conversation with our colleagues and the Board of Supervisors as a group regarding a plan that was put forward in 2016 to have the meals tax?

[01:17:14] Because we could certainly use what was proposed at that time, which is 70% to come to the schools. This is 70% of guaranteed money every year. That could help really push forward some of these things, particularly the infrastructure, which is not bonded.

[01:17:30] So I really want to elevate that part of the discussion with my colleagues, and I hope to further that in a forum topic to be coming very soon, because we cannot escape that conversation. Additionally, I wanted to lean in a little bit in terms of something Mr. Dunn said, which is would we have the appetite to take part of the bond in order to deal with the infrastructure needs that we have that far exceed the $30 million that we have each year?

[01:18:01] And I'm going to couple that with what Ms. Lady said, which is how do we have that conversation with our community in earnest? We do not want to diminish the trust from our community because we know when they go out to vote on these bonds, they know, generally speaking, that we've said it's going to serve school X or school Y.

[01:18:21] But maybe it's time to have a different conversation with our community so that we could actualize some of these infrastructure issues so we can make sure that we, I heard what you said about the cycle being expanded, but that couple with some other initiatives may get us to a narrower timetable.

[01:18:41] But I think it's time for us to really have that conversation in earnest. And I also want to say, as I'm listening to this conversation here, I am feeling the appetite to review the cue that we currently have. Is it still serving us? Does it still have what we need to have happen in 2024 Fairfax County?

[01:18:59] So I'd like to put that on the table to hear what people are thinking, because if we had to set an objective criteria, as the superintendent shared, maybe some of those schools don't meet it. maybe others do. So I would love to hear with 15 seconds back on the clock. Oh, Ms. Zemeski, that's you as well. Can you please clarify what you're looking for staff to address?

[01:19:30] I guess I'm looking to see from you, and let me start with the easiest one that Mr. Dunn shared regarding a portion of the bond being able to be utilized for infrastructure needs. And also, Dr. Reed, you could speak about the community engagement. What would it take to have this conversation with our community if we were to have a different plan for the bonds that have already been passed and voted upon again i think you bring up a good point as i made mentioned before there's a lot of moving parts and components to it so you know if the board has an appetite we can certainly as staff look and see what that does with the model and what it does for where the money was

[01:20:09] originally intended to go and what are the outcomes so i think that's something that us staff could definitely take a look at further what would that mean dr reed for our community engagement i would say that if we're talking a number of the projects we've discussed are already in design at this time and or have been designed and are on the beginning of construction and i i would certainly want to take a hard look at the question you're posing and get back to you

[01:20:44] as i sit here right now it seems like once those designs are put into place like we're we're moving on that project for that school i would also say that if the community feels that they have voted on bond dollars for particular specific school projects then we ought to keep those commitments to those specific projects and it's clear that with the cost escalation there isn't extra money within those bond dollars to do additional projects we're going to be stretched to

[01:21:19] meet the targets of the current queue projects having said all of that I think Ms. Dixit's comment about the number of types of maintenance projects and how we prioritize that could be more clear to the board and the community and I think that as we think forward on future or adding to our queue i think that it's going to be important to think about what are our business rules that place the school where it does on the queue and if we could it would be great to have some consistent business rules that over time don't change because i think that's a challenge to

[01:21:56] communities who think their time has finally come only to find out something else has been you know placed in front of them i think that's what's hard so it's not an easy question to answer But I think our community would respect us keeping our commitments and being very transparent when we have to make a change in course.

[01:22:18] And I think the engagement plan that CPDC has worked hard on is also trying to anticipate needs so we're not changing course often. Hopefully we're able to anticipate needs that keep us on course. So those are my thoughts right now, but I'm certainly willing at the board's direction and to take a deep dive into the question you've posed.

[01:22:42] - So let me go back in my nine seconds that are remaining and maybe I'll go to a go-go back. The business rules to which you are referring, is this the phase two of the queue or is this something you're looking for the board to start to think about and to put together concurrently?

[01:23:00] - I think it would be one and the same. As we develop the phase two, take the information that we've gathered to date on feedback and develop some sort of rubric, as Dr. Reed mentioned business rules as you will to help plug it into the queue and out spits the list that's something we would definitely want to consider okay I'll just wait for my go go back all right thank you Dr. Anderson next to speak is Mr. Frisch thank you as to the question about augmenting this queue with schools that are not in it I would be inclined depending on what

[01:23:40] information we received back from staff to to not support that because the schools that are currently on the queue waiting renovation have waited the longest right that's why they're at the end of the queue so the end is in sight I think what I think what I'm hearing from this board discussion is a extreme appetite for more resources so that we can address these problems I think the discussion needs to be there right and taking money from one to feed the other doesn't get us any closer to the goal right all it does is extend this cue when Mr. McElveen was

[01:24:17] talking about the 37 year mark for the initial well not initial but the previous estimate between renovations I chuckled in because when we got the extra money from the board of supervisors I was so excited to tell people that it was down to 35 years and then not too long after that we started seeing the uptick in costs from COVID, which pushed it far beyond even where we were before when we had righteous complaints. So I think we need a holistic approach to determining the next cue. I think that's a requirement for that work. And I might add

[01:24:56] that when I look at a report that tells me in five years time, many of our schools will be at 55 or 50% capacity and many of our schools, it'll be 120, 115% capacity. That speaks to the need for other conversations as well um that i don't think we can delay um and so i look forward to these conversations i've asked the clerk to uh and i'll i'll discuss with the superintendent about other opportunities for further discussions um and i'll circle back later this week with uh some information about that and seek board um input as we move forward um but i

[01:25:31] appreciate all the work that's gone into this it is not easy to come to a board of a school board and tell them that not only are these projects more expensive but to actually solve the issues that we've been asked to solve we need to do things differently and it's going to take longer and it's going to cost more money but that's the kind of transparency we expect as a board And that's the kind of transparency that the public expects as well.

[01:26:00] So as we continue these conversations, my mind will be on two things. One, being transparent. And two, holding fast to our goal of being equitable with the projects that we pursue and ensuring that we are thinking about the far away future and that we are sticking to our climate goals and the JET directives of this board.

[01:26:24] Thank you, Mr. Frisch at this point. I'll recognize mr. Moon for a go back. Thank you Miss lady Just a couple of questions first one has to do with the new renovation queue the timeline This is for my own clarification. Just wanted to make sure that I understood this correctly So are we done with a phase one or are we toward the very end of the phase one?

[01:26:52] So we have set Criteria who are we're still setting criteria? I'm going to ask Mr. Fanshawe to answer that please you've been most How do I say intimate with that? No, I would say we're not I said the criteria is not has not been set has not been set So has that work begun or hasn't begun? I'd say the conversation was held and some ideas were generated before

[01:27:30] the strategic plan was complete so I would think a prudent course may relook at the previous discussion in light of how does it align or not align with the strategic plan and then to further develop the criteria that satisfies not only the alignment with with the strategic plan and the ideas that were put out previously. Okay, I guess this question then goes to our

[01:28:08] superintendent. Are you planning on updating us sometime soon or are we going to wait until next year for the CIP discussion on this one or? When you say update us what specifically? What is being done, will be done, and when that will be done? Or if you are asking for further input from school board when you are asking for that input from us? So I think that we certainly can provide further information. I think that we have a bit of a script that had some specific buildings that we

[01:28:46] were looking at. I don't know if you want to share that at this time, Ms. Siminski? Sure. So we as staff can follow up with a timeline or anticipated timeline for developing this queue. One of the big components of the queue, though, is really understanding the state of facilities. And so part of these efforts is to develop a facility condition assessment, because it's going to be a big weighted factor when it comes to developing the queue. Currently, we have staff working on a scope of work for that project. It's almost a standalone thing that informs the queue process.

[01:29:20] And so with staff developing the scope of work, we're actually looking to model the city of Fairfax recently underwent a very similar project. We've gotten a copy of their RFP and we're looking to develop our version of that as another next step to answering your question.

[01:29:36] But we will follow up with a more broad timeline on developing the queue itself. Okay, thank you. Dr. Reed, it may be just this one school board member, but something I would hate to do is after a work session like this and going out to the public, when public asking a question, My answer to be, I don't know.

[01:30:04] I don't know when that's going to happen because I don't know. I mean, that is the last thing I want to do. I mean, that's just I wanted to share with you as a one board member. It may be okay with other board members. They are maybe a little more patient than I am, but I'm not.

[01:30:22] That's I wanted to share with you. And having said that, with one minute and 30 seconds left, let me go to infrastructure replacement budget. This is something mentioned by Ms. Seismerheiser, that our, you know, including current backlog, our need up until FI 2019, that's a five-year period, is close to $380 million, according to staff's presentation.

[01:30:52] At the same time, our infrastructure replacement budget for FI 24 was only $30 million. And if we just use the same number for the next five years, we'll only have about $150 million, which means we are about $230 million deficient for our needs.

[01:31:14] So, is there a way for you to share with us? I don't know whether you have this ready or you have to come up with a little more research looking into this, But it is general understanding by people that when you delay replacing certain things, that there are implications.

[01:31:42] You know, it is not being able to replace an infrastructure in a timely fashion. I mean, I have to assume that it will have negative impact on our programs, operational school system, and even on the long-term cost.

[01:32:01] Whether you will be able to verbalize, you know, describe those impacts, including whether you will be able to quantify, quantify long-term costs, not being able to, long-term financial costs, not being able to replace this infrastructure in a timely manner.

[01:32:21] And also, if I want to go one step, oops, my time is up. I just wanted to see whether there is a comparison between our needs versus county board of supervisors' needs. Because money will have to come from supervisors, and supervisors always talk about their old needs not being met.

[01:32:39] I want you to see how we are compared to county government's needs. So I think what we could do is, I certainly agree that maintenance deferred is maintenance problematic, right? I mean, in fact, we're reaping those outcomes right now across the board in a number of areas.

[01:32:59] But we also don't have the funds to resource the maintenance needs we currently have. So I think I will ask staff if we can calculate the cost of not conducting maintenance, I believe is what you're asking. And we can certainly conduct that cost because that or I sort of I would say construct that cost analysis and then couple that with the current expense to maintain the resources to look at.

[01:33:30] It might actually be cheaper to pay it now, obviously, than let everything continue as we are. And I think, to your point, it makes certainly for a rich conversation with the Board of Supervisors because, at the end of the day, our resources are our county's resources. We talk about one Fairfax, and it's sort of one maintenance plan as well.

[01:33:50] Our facilities are used by our children, our staff, our community, across the board. So I think we'll ask staff to see. I can't promise by this Friday, but we'll work on that for the next couple weeks. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Reed.

[01:34:06] Yes, sir. And I think what we can provide is maybe more of a broader range. The thing about preventative maintenance and assets is that I can't predict accurately, in five years three HVAC systems are going to break what we can predict is using manufacturers recommendations the anticipated useful life how many are at that point where they're at or past their useful life we can quantify how many years passed and sort of give you that range of risk I think would probably be the next best step for you because at the end of the day I want to be able to

[01:34:41] bring this to public and bring this to a board of supervisors I thank you at this point like to recognize mr dunn for a go back uh thank you uh i have a few more questions and again i'll read the questions uh first uh when students go to school today uh where they go school is determined by school boundaries that were established nearly 40 years ago many schools are under capacity and other schools are over capacity my question is if fcps were to undertake a comprehensive review of school boundaries across the county what effect would

[01:35:19] that have on school construction and renovation available funding and would it have beneficial financial impacts uh my second question is uh early education especially pre-kindergarten is one of the most effective mechanisms to reduce the achievement gaps that exist throughout our county there's been some movement but not sufficient to establish a universal pre-k in fairfax county but i believe it we all agree it's inevitable that it will happen So to what degree is FCPS planning for the potential universal expansion of pre-K?

[01:35:53] My third question is, can you please provide an update on the security vestibules? It appears from the presentation that it's been accelerated, but I'd like to know when all security vestibules will be completely constructed at all schools in Fairfax County. And I'd also like to know are high schools and middle schools being included in that because they have a lot more entrances. My fourth question is, it's my understanding that the recent security audit was a random sampling rather than a comprehensive audit of every single school building. As a parent, there's no greater worry or concern than random gun violence. I think

[01:36:28] random sampling is great from a statistical perspective, but it gives me no security from a parental or educator perspective. So when will FCPS perform a security audit of every single school building, at least in my district, the Mount Vernon district? Fifth, as a security measure, video cameras inside and outside every school are necessary i was a bit disturbed to learn last year that fcps relies primarily or exclusively on grants for this purpose so when will fcps use its available funding operational or school bond to make sure that every school has updated hd day

[01:37:05] and night video cameras uh for inside and outside uh six when will every trailer be eliminated at every school. Eighth, you had mentioned having conversations with a couple construction firms and I applaud your initial efforts but I as a government contracting attorney I do want to encourage you to utilize formal procurement mechanisms such as requests for information in industry days so that you're inviting the entire public not just people you may have experienced in prior positions and that may be familiar with FCPS but firms that may be new to FCPS new to Fairfax County to come in including citizens because we have a lot

[01:37:42] of highly educated, very experienced citizens, some retired, some actively employed, who can contribute great ideas and tell us how we can do things better. Ninth, has FCPS considered green roofs and white roofs to reduce heating and cooling costs?

[01:38:00] And finally, to what extent has FCPS considered working with the county to construct multi-use facilities? For example, Lorton Community Action Center combines a library, athletic space, meeting facilities and a playground. effects county elsewhere has constructed a police station with a library. To what extent could we combine costs and thus reduce our construction costs so the county is paying some of the costs.

[01:38:29] Thank you for those questions. I think that the I'll try to be brief there were a number of questions. The boundary conversation I don't know that it will impact funding but it might impact decisions on which schools to renovate or remodel or where to cite any new schools that are projected.

[01:38:48] So to that end, I think it has certainly is a foundational piece to a larger conversation. It also goes to Ms. St. John Cunning's comment about the types of programs we're planning to have in schools if we move to a more multi-age option versus not so much or how we design our learning spaces also has a great deal to do with the age of students that are in a school and so forth.

[01:39:16] So I think there's a lot to unpack there. Early education, I think the board, our former board had a high interest in that and are committed to that. We've set aside funding to increase particularly inclusive preschool, and we know that's a high priority and certainly look to Richmond to more fully fund that because we know closing achievement gaps is best done the younger, our age group.

[01:39:42] group. The security audit you're referring to, we did have an external security audit that was done in addition to annual school reviews that are done by our Office of Safety and Security. So all schools are reviewed annually, I believe. That is correct. All schools are reviewed annually. This just happened to be another external audit where folks came in and went through a variety of protocols, I believe, on at least 27 campuses. There There were some consistent themes and patterns and action steps that we're taking as a division as a result of that.

[01:40:19] The cameras were utilizing some mid-year dollars, one-time only dollars, to supplement grant dollars. But as you've seen on our maintenance projects, it's, you know, cameras would sit with sprinkler systems and all of the other types of maintenance projects that honestly are being deferred to Mr. Moon's point to what end and at what cost, but we are certainly working on adding cameras to those schools that are not. The security vestibules, I don't have an actual tight date that's mission certain or date certain when those are done, and I'm not seeing that staff do,

[01:40:57] but I will do my best to get you information about that. When we would have every trailer removed, I don't know that I have a date certain for that as well. I think that's part of our renovation plan and perhaps boundary discussion. And so I think everyone could look forward to a day when we don't have trailers. The green roof, white roof county project, I think the solar ready construction that we're talking about is a step in that direction. I have to say I'm not, my wheelhouse is not green roof, white roof. Those aren't terms I'm familiar with. Janice, do you

[01:41:34] want to, or Ms. Zeminski, do you want to comment on that before I talk about, actually I'll talk about multi-use centers and then you can comment because then I think we're done multi-use centers we're still struggling to get the schools in our own queue done at this point I think for future visioning great idea so white roof green roof sure so right now most of our big bond projects where we're replacing the roof or adding new roofs we're focusing more on solar readiness and especially in instances where one of the big benefits of green roofs is your storm water management and water retention ideally if that can be achieved on site on the ground water belongs

[01:42:14] on the ground then we would like the opportunity to utilize the roof as real estate for solar arrays i do think in instances where you might have a tight site and you can't optimize in a cost effective way water retention on the ground that's when we would look to bring it up to the roof and so that's sort of been our guidepost as we think about is it green roof is it solar roof and what What are those priorities?

[01:42:39] I thank you. At this point, I'd like to recognize Ms. Maron for a go back. Okay. So I think to follow on, Ms. Lady, your point about explaining the bond to the community, that's really essential. I think our bond committee provides invaluable services, but to my experience, some communities don't understand what the bond is and that the $3 billion we get annually is not going to contribute to our capital funding.

[01:43:03] Ms. Massey, can you please remind us how many structures the county government has that it maintains the county government? You know, I'll have to get staff to help me get that number. I was seeing in their CIP a 12 million square foot number being referenced, but I think it excluded parks and housing, so I would need to follow up to confirm that.

[01:43:27] I do know right now for FCPS, we are at approximately 28 million square feet. Okay, so we are double the amount of the county. I think, let me just, before I get into the advocacy, actually, I didn't scroll up enough on my notes.

[01:43:42] The renovation queue. I was glad to hear some of the conversations about reviewing the renovation queue. And at what point does SCPS cut its losses on design fees so that more benefits are seen by more people? So for instance, we had mentioned the security audit, which this board does not have the opportunity to discuss yet.

[01:44:00] But could we have a little for everyone rather than a lot for some? So I am fairly confident that residents would be okay with having basic security features updated and working in all the schools, instead of, again, decades at a time for a school to be done.

[01:44:16] I mean, I have families where they have one student in one school and it's new, and one student in one school and it's renovated. But there's other families that come to the system without that history, and they might be walking into a brand new school, and that's great, but they don't have the sense of they've been waiting. So I think that mentality might need to shift when, again, with the security needs where I have met much more parents and families asking me, they want to guard, well, that's personnel, but they want to make sure they have all the appropriate fencing.

[01:44:41] Fencing is a huge issue. Making sure all the alarms are issues, are door locks. So I've heard those things more often than I'm waiting for my whole school to get renovated. And I think that even that mindset, we could have that conversation about what does it mean to renovate a school? Is it to do a whole top to bottom everywhere renovation?

[01:44:57] Or do we want to make sure every school has the proper amount of bathrooms that are modern and gender-appropriate or gender-inclusive, rather? You know, I think that that's the kind of conversation the board can have to really inform this work. I also want to say, well, first, Dr. Reid, I just actually have a question for you.

[01:45:16] Can the board receive a report of how the emergency federal funds used during COVID were spent on HVAC and facility-related or health-related? Because I know we approved funding, and I'm really surprised that there are so many issues with HVAC. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And I will quickly say I appreciate the details about split feeders being included on page 251, and I'd like to know, Dr. Reed, what you and your staff know about the impact of split feeders on students' experience and success. So I don't know if Fairfax County's done an audit on split feeder success. I think that it can be positive and it

[01:45:55] can be detrimental right I think that children make friends and develop relationships and if they then end up going to separate next schools those transitions become more difficult there are also students who make choices to go to programs that might be different than programs that their neighbors or friends are going to because they want a different program so I I think the research is mixed but in general we would like to have fewer mixed feet or fewer split feeders in particular for our students who might struggle with relationships. We have some programs that only exist at certain sites and then it takes students out of their neighborhoods and their peer group. I think

[01:46:35] I see your face. You know how I feel about that. I do know how you feel about it. Yes ma'am. I I think that it goes back to Mr. Frisch's comment and others in terms of the need perhaps and Mr. Dunn talking about boundaries because you can't resolve split feeders unless you resolve boundaries. Thank you. I'll mention super briefly about special education classrooms. We have a rising number of students who are identified for needs. By and large, the accommodations are to have a lower staff to student ratio, so that is directly going to impact the ability of our classrooms and our class sizes. Just a fine point about advocacy that was raised about the county. I love what you said, Dr. Reed, about one

[01:47:14] Fairfax, one maintenance plan. The board has a regular conversation around compensation when we do budget people ask why does the county have their scale and we have our scale they have their retirement benefits we have not that I'm not saying get rid of any retirement benefits to be clear but I'm just saying that we have two we have lots of different systems and we have one county when I look at all of the environmentally focused elements on the county's plan resilient Fairfax operational energy strategy green building policy why is FCPS excluded I think it's a great topic for our upcoming retreat with the board I'm sure they welcome that discussion

[01:47:46] thank you miss mayor and i'll now recognize miss dixit for go back i have a question about the contracting process as we can see so much of dollars are spent into this building the schools what are the contracting process you are following is it firm fixed price or cost plus those are the questions i have because 33 higher cost could be reduced by a different contracting

[01:48:22] process sure well we implement a couple different procurement methods but here for our big renovation projects our big bond projects we're doing low bid competitive seal so that is one thing my team and i are looking to explore further you know i think there's pros and cons different procurement methods and we should always look to providing the right procurement method tailored to the risks and the scopes of our individual projects so our team's undergone some training on some other procurement methods that might be advantageous to large scale complex projects

[01:48:59] again with the overall effort of getting the best value not just in terms of dollar value but in terms of quality of product of timeliness of product and so we want to make sure we've left no stone unturned when it comes to you know maximizing our procurement tools and our in those methodologies so are you saying that even though somebody got the award they were able to come and ask for more money sure i mean right now again we're using low bid price so if there is a change in that work again that's a again a lump sum that's been submitted if they were low they

[01:49:38] get the award but say an unforeseen condition were to arise or a change in the work right now our architects are contracted separate from our general contractors so if something was missed on a drawing if the drawings weren't as tight as they could be then there could be entitlement for the general contractor to come back and ask for more funds and so those are some of the typical things you might see in an everyday renovation that would cause for change orders to happen yeah understand that uh but if you if the architect is producing a plan that's a scope

[01:50:11] of work goes to the construction so how can yeah i think that means we need to be very mindful during our design process to making sure that we're putting controls in place so that the drawings being designed are accurate to the budget that we have in hand again i think the last few years it's been very unpredictable so we used to kind of go through that have good rules of thumb make sure yes this design is reflective of the budget we have it's been very difficult in recent years so that's why we're trying to again start by reconciling to make sure we do have the right

[01:50:47] budget for our ed specs for our goals of the project before it even starts but then to your point we really need to make sure through design we're monitoring that we're maintaining it and i And I do think looking at other methods for procurement could be advantageous, especially when it comes to that pre-construction services.

[01:51:05] Okay, I still have time, so do I have to ask that is there any penalty for any contractor not to, you know, construct at a certain timeline or they are just given a free pass?

[01:51:23] That would be a good question for our contracts and procurement team. have to see what language we currently have in our contract and is something we could look at for future contracts okay thank you my other questions is I don't know who'd answer that it's about revenue as we know that's the primary source of our construction plan we are obviously the property prices are going up in Fairfax County there is no way to show that how much more funding we might be getting as a projection from the as the real estate values are going in this that leads to

[01:52:01] higher tax amount on the property tax and i'll stop at that then i have another question so miss dixit are you asking us to sort of um forecast how the revenue for the county would increase based on the property tax increase or property value increases correct okay so mr smith do you you have any thought on that? I know Ms. Burden's out today. Ms. Burden is out. I know that we work very closely with county staff and at the fiscal forecast the boards were given an update as to

[01:52:38] where county staff feel that real estate values are going. We can certainly get some clarity from the county but again it's their staff who do those value assessments but we can provide the board with with some additional information after conferring with them. Thank you. The last question is about use of school buildings. It's a biggest asset for our schools, like you know the building itself is a biggest asset. And I know in the past when I was trying to get rental at this one of the school

[01:53:14] buildings as a part of a nonprofit organization, I was asked for a one million dollar insurance to even get a room for one hour. So I feel there is a a lot of barriers to entry when you come when you come to get a rental at the you know use the building and that could be a revenue not too big but at with as a with time it could increase because a lot of people are now looking at our buildings to rent them out when the schools are

[01:53:45] not in session that was my last question and we can provide some more information that area is under Mr. Muick for community use, and we have actually gone through a couple of audits from -- I see Ms. Ko sitting there in the room, and our community use has actually gone through several comprehensive audits from her office, and we've talked about some of the issues and specifically around the insurance rates and also looking at overall building use rates, and so we can provide the board an update from some of those reports from

[01:54:23] Ms. Koza or work with her office to get that provided to the board and then also work with Mr. Muick's team to see what recommendations we might have for that work. All right at this point I'd like to recognize Mr. McDaniel for a go back. A question and comment. Can we get to Mr. McElveen's point you know having 99 schools ready for solar and today two have been accomplished could we get a response from staff why that's the case what obstacles and barriers that we're facing

[01:54:58] and that can just be a later point in time so mr mcdaniel i can speak to that i think number one i didn't realize we had 90 schools solar ready so i'm not entirely sure what that meant to be solar ready but when i arrived we were still negotiating the contract to have solar panels because that had been with legal and contract services and procurement mr fansha is looking familiar because you and I were trying to untangle where we were on that topic um Mr. Foster also so it

[01:55:32] wasn't until very recently that we were able to finalize the contract with vendors for the solar panels for Annandale and Mason Crest so I don't I will be curious I'm going to ask staff to go back and find out what the other 88 schools were but it was essentially contract negotiations that I think had been going on for years prior to my arrival and we were actually pretty excited to finalize the contract and get moving and just as we were getting ready then Dominion came in with a different type of a I don't want to add some type of a charge and I've recently in fact last week spoke to

[01:56:09] Brian Hill at the county and asked for some intercession with Dominion to mitigate fees so that we could make those connections now that we have a vendor with the solar panel project and I don't know Mr. Fanshawe if you want to add to that. Sure I think one of the what Dr. Reed mentioned is Dominion imposed a fee on both of the vendors to connect for safety reasons to their net to their network which is dark it's an upgrade to the infrastructure it's a dark fiber

[01:56:48] interconnection fee and so for any system over a certain size and schools be a clinical it's not a residential it's a commercial installment we were anticipating an added cost of at least three hundred thousand dollars per school so as you can mention as we were negotiating through on some of these this definitely threw a bit of a wrench in that and so right now the scc is in review with some solar advocates arguing against the necessity of this so we're kind of waiting and seeing and taking our legal guidance in the meantime we are looking with those two vendors to see hey if this is a requirement what would that do to our rates would

[01:57:27] it still be financially advantageous to keep going we've also gotten a little creative talking to some vendors seeing hey would a cellular connection which would be maybe a tenth of the cost would that be permissible to dominion so we're having our solar vendors take a couple look look at other options or finding ways around this but as you can imagine this is all kind of unfolding in real time So I'm happy to provide an update of where we are today, knowing that as we get more information from the SEC, that could change.

[01:58:00] But we're still trying to see how much we can move this forward. With regard to the previous list, so there was an initial list when we were working with different vendors in the county. And based on the criteria at the time, looking for those schools who might not necessarily be roof ready, but ready for further review for solar.

[01:58:23] So I think that as that was communicated with that particular set of vendors and working with different vendors, we find that we're in a different place now in terms of that roof readiness. But we can provide some information to the board around the decisions that were made at that time with those particular vendors and how we've gotten to this point today.

[01:58:42] Okay, and a timeline of how we anticipate to carry it forward would be great as well. I think based on the conversation, this would be the first of many long-term conversations on not only the Q policies, but potentially on boundaries as well.

[01:58:59] But fundamentally, what this all boils down to is funding. And I think everybody around this table knows that. So I'm looking forward to having those conversations with our partners just down the road. So that's all. Thank you.

[01:59:16] At this point, I'm just going in the order of that. I recognize people to speak at first So miss Sizemore hyzer. Do you have anything you want to speak to as a go back? Okay, seeing as though she may not be near her Microphone, I'm gonna recognize miss st. John coming. Thank you I just really want to thank everyone for being very intentional in their questions and thank you for your report on I Concur with mr. McDaniel I think that there's a lot of things that we're gonna have to look into to i think that there are people around this table that want pretty much the same thing but we're all

[01:59:53] going to have to be creative and figure out how we're going to accomplish a lot of things with a lot less but i really want to thank everybody for their work thank you mr mckelbeam um i personally have nothing further only to foot stomp uh what um sema mistakes it brought up regarding community use i think this is we've seen fees escalate we've seen the insurance policy implemented supposedly i've heard blame on the prior board on on the prior prior board for doing

[02:00:29] that and i don't recall doing that but but maybe we did so we need to look at that again okay so now um why don't we do a um if if it's okay with everyone a 10 minute break and then we'll come back for um third go backs which will be two minutes each okay so we will reconvene at uh 2 42.

[02:01:03] okay so um miss seismor hyzer wanted to go so can we reset the clock to three and then revert it

[02:01:53] back to two quickly okay rajna go ahead hey thank you sorry about that um and thank you for getting to me um i just wanted to sum up a few things that i think i'm hearing from everybody um the renovation queue is the first thing i wanted to mention i know that the previous board had talked about it but it seemed like something that would be really the purview of this board but what i'm not really seeing right now is sort of a project management plan for lack of better word or a plan for this renovation queue. Ms. Mincy I really appreciate you mentioning some of the facilities assessment right and looking at what Fairfax City is doing but I would love to see some sort of plan of what

[02:02:31] are the steps we're going to take to get to the completion of the renovation queue. What is the you know what assessments do you need to do? What is the role of the board? What in community engagement do we need to do potentially what advocacy do we need to do what's the timeline right so we all are clear on the process and you know the steps to get to this renovation queue and i again like to see some analysis on urgency and need in between i think with mr fresh that i think we should be looking forward at what the renovation queue should be so that's the first sort of thing i would lift up the other thing i think it's really important

[02:03:09] Dr. Reed and Ms. Minsky and me working with OCCR or at least one-blood hall is an advocacy plan with talking points including responses to any sort of pushback we may get on some of these issues like what does their maintenance backlog what's the impact on safety and security getting rid of trailers sprinklers accessible spaces sensory spaces environmental jet goals cost of community use costs long-term versus short-term of this maintenance backlog I think we all kind of have ideas and we talk about it but i think having a really clear talking point so when we're out in the community to help people understand what does the bond pay for versus operating funds i think

[02:03:48] that's really really helpful for us to have and then sort of in response to that what's the plan for us to um address our backlog of funding right is that advocating to the board of supervisors and what does that advocacy look like is that the state is that grant funding is it all of the above and what does that look like i do think we need a community engagement plan um that takes both of those into account right and then also that looks at what's the impact of capacity funding and um program placement and equity access to program and also individual needs of the school

[02:04:24] right in a burke school for the population that burke school have what their facility needs may be may be different than um a different second middle school or elementary school the secondary schools i really need to look at that mr minsky you and i have talked about what are the rules around letting outside organizations build facilities right do we have an ed spec for athletic fields do we have an ed spec um that includes if a booster organization wants to build something what um do we have any permitting process for that internally um and then i think we do need to look at the procurement process as well to miss dixit's point right with these costs

[02:05:00] overruns with the cost of inflation the cost of building how is that built into a contract to insulate us from this cross overrun so you know i'll kind of stop there but i think i feel sort of an appetite for a sort of how you did the strategic plan right here's what the pieces are to get from point a to point b i see that appetite here as well so thank you any comments i welcome those i think uh ms seismorizer that obviously um at this point defining the queue and then how we're going to get to the end of the queue um would be an excellent project management

[02:05:38] plan and i think staff are nodding and we'll be taking notes and do a draft for an upcoming friday letter thank you thank you for all your hard work i appreciate it this was kind of you and you had to come up with speed on a lot of things okay thanks miss sizemore heiser so um i see we have uh two um placards raised so um we'll go to dr anderson first thank you just a couple of things one for consideration and one just more of an inquiry when i worked in loudun one of the things that they did with all of the schools that they're building every five minutes is to have pretty much

[02:06:16] three different design plans and they just rotated across the three and frankly they were the same design plan with just a different color scheme have we given any thought to having kind of a template which will really reduce costs because every time we have a project it's a new design plan it's a new committee I'm just wondering to hear how that may land here and I can have mr. fans shall chime in but I believe we have it here at Fairfax utilize the prototype approach where applicable is that correct right and it works well with new construction and new schools not so much with

[02:06:56] renovations because each of those facilities is unique and its issues are unique so you do have to dive into the what are we trying to solve and what do need to add to bring us up to the current ed spec so i think i'm a big i've used prototype schools before they work great and they drive costs down but it's new schools and i believe that was originally at first considered for dunloring but then again you also have to factor in is the site advantageous can you actually plop it down appropriately are you going to have to make

[02:07:30] some modifications and at some point does it just make more sense to have a responsive design to that site to those existing conditions. And I'll echo what Mr. Fanshawe said. We have mostly renovation projects that we do. And on top of that, they're occupied while they're under construction. So we need to be really mindful and strategic that when we're even adding new construction to a building, it has to work with still safe logistics, safe operations throughout the life of construction. So I think because of that, it usually does end up becoming very nuanced in one-off and that's probably why we're not seeing too much prototype design for our renovations but

[02:08:07] i think it's a good point i mean it just brings up the point to really maximize all the tools you have for you know getting the best bang for your buck if we have finite resources so in terms of maximizing tools if we were to be able to secure a swing space and not have occupied construction what would be the impact to the timetable and the cost well i would certainly be willing to take a look at that and analyze that. It's one that I implemented with another division. So again, there's pros and cons. You have to update and provide that temporary space. So that does have

[02:08:42] an investment component. However, it does allow for a lot more flexibility on the design. You know, you're not beholden again to certain design moves because you have to have the building occupied. It allows you to construct a little bit quicker. So we might be able to get the construction timelines condensed so again i do i definitely see pros and cons to both and my time is going while she's speaking i'm so sorry okay and and so yeah i definitely think if it makes sense from a logistics standpoint if there's a facility that would meet that temporary need and it's relatively

[02:09:17] close and we could take a look at that i would be very curious to see how that can be impactful you kind of raised a question that's been coming to me as of late only because in cpdc we had a lot of those conversations regarding dun loring um it wasn't a bonded project because i was originally blake lane and i know back in 2020 no okay so can marty's gone um can somebody speak to kind of that original thinking for me please because i have a follow-up question uh ms gillis i can also go

[02:09:53] ahead jessica i can pull up what i sent in the friday letter i sent a update on that god jessica so the original thinking for den loring is that the question yes sure so the original bond project was the fairfax oakton elementary school and the anticipated site was the blake lane park and when that was not an approved site by the county we looked for another possible site to use those funds and at the time we were struggling with overcrowding at shrevewood i think stenwood

[02:10:28] mosby woods was a renovation project but it was several years down the line it was the aap center and there were a few other projects in the neighborhood and also looking at the run of the development that was happening in tyson's in the periphery we discussed moving the identified project of fairfax oakton to the dunloring site which was an an identified repurposing and the reuse of the facility in the cip for several years at the time So I believe it was a forum topic that was discussed and approved by the board.

[02:11:02] No, it was. The reason why I brought it up, because, again, we discussed it in CPDC, Mr. Fanshawe will remember, it was repurposing that is now a completely new construction. That's correct. So that's a different cost. Correct. Right now the proposed plan for Dunloring is new construction.

[02:11:20] I think Mr. Fanshawe can speak more to it, but that was a decision actually driven by cost because I believe the existing building had different elevations. there's a quite steep topography and whatnot. So actually we were finding it was costing more to retain parts of that building than to just tear it down.

[02:11:39] And Dunloring is a great opportunity to do that because we don't have students in it. So our options were a little bit broader here and we had the opportunity to do new construction. - And Dr. Anderson, I think Mr. Frisch wants to reply as well.

[02:11:54] - I can use my time. - Yeah, I'll just have one more. I don't have a lot of time. I don't know if you wanted to add something Sir Fanshawe? No, I mean, I think she covered where we are. Okay. And so, is the new Dunloring going to address, and again, not my area, so I don't know. I just have inquiries from my community.

[02:12:13] Is the new Dunloring going to impact the same schools that Ms. Gillis just talked about, Shrevewood, Stenwood, Mosby Woods? Is it still going to be those schools that are going to have their capacity be reduced by the new Dunloring? So, our current process is that when we go under construction from Dunloring we've agreed as a body to go forward with a boundary discussion at the same time so we're designing it as a K-6 elementary school as opposed to when we built the McNair Upper which was a split three through six elementary school there was no discussion about

[02:12:52] that so the boundary has yet to be established so those schools were the schools that were overcrowded at the time of the discussion and the schools to be included in that boundary study have yet to be identified and because i didn't look at this are these schools still overcrowded currently you mentioned at the time of the discussion it has not changed or there has been some change hold one second while they're pulling that up we can get where that projection

[02:13:26] is gone our team when they develop projections don't look at any planned developments they only look at projects that are actively under construction that you can really quantify. So I think one of the benefits of the Dunloring project identified by the planning team is that it addresses the long-term growth in this geographical region that's not necessarily quantified in the projections.

[02:13:49] But I'll let them speak to the actual data and any change since then. Yeah, so the existing capacity utilization has gone down a little bit since then, but Stenwood's currently 97%, Shrevewood's 95%, Fair Hills adjacent to where the property sits in Stenwood at 96%, and then Pine Spring is also adjacent to Shrevewood at 116, and you can go out from there.

[02:14:16] It's on page 86 of the CIP. Oh, thank you. And those would be most likely the sites in consideration for the boundary that Ms. Gillis talked about? The site sits in Stenwood, so logic would be anything that surrounds it is potentially impacted, but until we go through the process we couldn't say absolutely thank you appreciate it okay great next i have uh mr dunn followed by mr moon um i'd like to first i'd like to ask mount vernon high school to be considered part of the queue renovation since we're making those requests second i'd like to request a comprehensive evaluation of traffic signage in our neighborhoods

[02:14:55] to the extent that fcps plays any role and i understand they do I learned recently that Washington Mill Elementary School does not have the appropriate signage saying this is a school zone slow down. All throughout Fairfax County and pretty much everywhere in the U.S. we're seeing too many people speeding in our neighborhoods, partly Google Maps or whatever reason you want to give.

[02:15:16] So if FCPS could please undertake a comprehensive evaluation, not just for Washington Mill, but all schools, at least in the Mount Vernon District, to make sure that we have signs telling people it's a school zone slow down. I'd also like to encourage FCPS to work with local civic associations, homeowners associations, to establish speed bumps or speed humps on streets where many children cross the street to go to school.

[02:15:40] We need those, especially given the lack of school crossing guards, since we're having trouble recruiting them. Third, I'd like to encourage FCPS to work with VDOT and the county to establish dedicated bike lanes protected by physical barriers of some kind because studies show those actually protect bicyclists and so students and families can bike to school because they offer a lot more protection than just a line paint on the ground. I also wanted to comment forth that the first instinctive response of SPS for each and every problem seems to be to hire a vendor but we should use our talented

[02:16:18] dedicated advisory committees such as FPAC which is very underutilized they'll do the work for free rather than having to hire a vendor who doesn't know anything about fcps and finally i'd like to understand the uh the contracting process that was used for dlr because i've reviewed the materials and i'm um while i'm i applaud fcps staff dlr has done a fairly underwhelming job and i really don't want to base any cue based on any work done by dlr because i don't see um anything meaningful that could actually be contribute you know cause or contribute to a meaningful discussion thank you

[02:16:54] okay i will try to answer all your questions i might ask for some clarifications noted on the mount vernon piece and your question about the traffic signage being comprehensively reviewed we do have a safe routes to school program we have an office of safety and security and we have an office of transportation that would all play a part in that i do know though that will require for actual implementation um county partnership right because all public space be it along the

[02:17:29] sides of roads or even outside our property on our blocks or what have you those are all managed by either vdot or vcdot so any kind of signage would be built and implemented by them so i just want to make sure that you're aware of that but we are happy to take a look at you know where the needs arise and knowing about the transportation and safety needs across the department i can speak to the contracting process i might rely a little bit on mr fanshaw while he was in the role when the

[02:18:04] ae was procured but it's my understanding that here at fairfax every couple years we do put out a competitive rfp to solicit ae vendors so they would come people would put in proposals and then they would be ranked in the top 10 or so would be then selected and so as ae needs come up we would use and go down the line in respect to contract value and so i believe

[02:18:31] that was how dlr was awarded the project okay so your outstanding questions this is there something oh sorry um i i they were more comments to encourage fcps to work towards dedicated protected bike lanes and speed bumps on streets with really no dead children thank you okay thank you mr dunn uh next we have mr frisch thank you uh along the lines of uh mr dunn's questioning

[02:19:09] at the last cip um the board approved unanimously a follow-on motion um directing the development of an annually updated school traffic and pedestrian safety assessment program that would be similar to how we do the cip right and so uh obviously we can only work our side of the street so to speak um and partner with allies who are responsible for other elements of these issues which can be a headache and that's one of the reasons why and a you know a more systematic approach is necessary can you uh it doesn't have to be today but could you provide a an update in the friday letter or

[02:19:47] or the next Friday letter about where that work stands? Yes, sir. We did take a look at that actually very recently, Mr. Muick, and in terms of traffic patterns as well as safety. So I'll make sure we have an update, if not this Friday, for sure next.

[02:20:05] Thank you. Because, you know, to Mr. Dunn's point, it's not just the signage, right? Sometimes it's the traffic that gets backed up in front of a school because of kiss and ride. It's all sorts of different issues that present themselves. And while I had initially moved on that topic for one specific need, in talking to colleagues, Dr. Anderson and I spoke to several colleagues, and everybody had things like that all over their districts.

[02:20:30] So that's good to hear that we're moving on that issue. Secondly, on the topic of Dunloring, I'm happy to share additional information, and I'll email it to colleagues.

[02:20:47] The initial discussion about done lowering was repurposing of the site and in any conversation that I had with the public or with colleagues about The building they would always ask how long is it going to take how long is construction going to take and the answer was always We don't know until we get into the building and that doesn't begin until the work begins and so I know that we've Gotten quite a bit down the road on that at this point the area continues to grow and new You know I get updates, you know every month on new developments that are being approved in the area or in the periphery and I look forward to a very

[02:21:27] Broad and holistic conversation around how the school gets used both from a boundary perspective But also from a programming perspective those are things that get decided towards the end of this kind of timeline Okay, Miss lady followed by mistake Dixon. Yes, so As I sat here and have listened for about three and a half hours, I want to go back to a comment from Ms. Marin in her first remarks regarding the need to review regulations or policies.

[02:22:01] Actually, we create policy that have not been revisited in a long time. I've heard several alluded to today. 8210, established management response for capital improvements. 8230, procedures to follow for school design. I could go on and on. Leasing community use, 8130.

[02:22:19] I just want to put out there that I do agree with Ms. Maron that I think that some of these are things we need to revisit because a lot of these questions could be better answered if we review policy given post-COVID, given costs, given where we are right now.

[02:22:36] And just it'll help staff then operationalize those policies and then can hopefully move us along and better answer some of the questions we've been posing all day. thank you okay mistakes it my question is regarding the joint environmental task for there's one point here says commit to zero waste by 2030 I just want to know how are we doing going doing that and do we have plan in place because there's a lot of I can see waste happening at the schools and I think

[02:23:15] that's something that we can actually provide the new board we recently provided a jet update including zero waste in a fairly recent Friday letter and I think it makes sense to resend that to the new board if the superintendent's in agreement. Okay yeah so I'll read that but in currently are we doing any recycling of any like anything in school right now

[02:23:42] in terms of paper waste or any other waste, plastic, I think if we reduce that, recycling comes later, first is reduce, so would that be included in the letter?

[02:24:01] We, it is included. I know Mr. Muick is also here. I know with our, in particular, and Mr. McElveen's aware of this, with our lunch program, we've eliminated the plastic flatware. We've moved to bamboo, which is recyclable and compostable. We're looking at compost plans, looking at trays and doing away with the styrofoam, you know, looking at trays and dishwashers and that type of thing.

[02:24:28] So there's a lot of, I would say right now there's more discussion than there is action, but the flatware, like there are pragmatic steps. We are moving forward on that because to your point, that shouldn't be as costly as the carbon neutral footprint. I mean, that's simply around shifting practice, but not necessarily adding expenses, although the initial investment into equipment, dishwashers and that type of thing.

[02:24:54] But we are looking at that and I don't know where we are with recycling with the county, Mr. Mewick. I don't know if you have an update on that, but this is definitely, I think, a key strategy. No, unfortunately, I don't have an update for you on the recycling right now.

[02:25:10] Sorry about that. Yes, so that's encouraging to hear. My other question is about some of the schools I can see are not utilized to 100%. obviously there are maybe less students attending the schools and they're they're less than 100 percent so my question is there's a way we could i guess boundary discussions are another thing but is there a way we can open like a finance park on one of those schools which have lesser

[02:25:46] you know students but have more like a space available to them it won't cost again a lot it It will be more of repurposing, but personal finance and budgeting is a very important tool and that's something, I guess, FCPS can take on.

[02:26:05] - Thank you, Ms. Dixit. I know we just signed in December a Memorandum of Understanding with Finance Park, which is located adjacent to Frost Middle School. And it is an important program. I visited it with Ms. Darnak-Kovacs in our last fall.

[02:26:21] I think we are looking at different program possibilities. This morning before our work session, I was visiting our Montrose Middle School program, which is near Holmes Middle School on the campus of Holmes, and just discussing what are our program availabilities, where are they located in the county.

[02:26:40] So there's a lot of work that sits around program options in addition to boundaries. It almost reminds me of back in the day, we used to have different colored overlays on reports. dating myself but there's sort of boundaries and then there are programs and then right like and then needs so and then the actual renovation queue like where in the county are those things happening so a lot of opportunity it's a very target rich environment uh thank you dr reed uh another thing is the innovation lab which you have discussed i think uh it'll be a great um use of

[02:27:16] affinity of our school facility which are not used or repurposing any other schools because we want to get that done sooner than later not push them back in the queue like all the other programs i mean we have a lot of uh those things where we everything is pushed back in the queue but some things takes uh i think more they're more urgency because science and technology is changing rapidly and we need to get our students ready for that and get ready for that next

[02:27:46] generation workforce so that'll be something we would like to see thank you okay miss lady um i'm just going to speak as a former employee regards to your question about recycling um i will say that the especially with the get to green uh you know every school has get to green specialists i can tell you at chantilly that uh they were one of the school one of the school system hired get to green folks was in our building. So we definitely had designated spaces for recycling of paper, of plastic, of cans. I will say we needed to stay on top of the training of

[02:28:25] new custodial staff as there was turnover. And then also I think we need to reiterate all the time with staff that something can't suddenly become recycling to a trash receptacle because of what someone threw in it. So there needs to be more clarity. I will say that the effort is there we endeavor to we've been endeavoring to do it also reduction of paper I think the fact that with one-to-one hopefully has addressed that as well but it's something that we cannot take our eye off of but I feel confident in all of our schools that these initiatives should be in place

[02:28:56] okay seeing no further placards okay miss mayor okay so I wanted to state that something that I'm hearing that we're we're continuing a practice of advocating for renovations and whoever, whichever board member is the most effective advocate gets the renovation and that's not equitable, it's not efficient, and so part of this is part of those policies that we need to determine a system because I'm not comfortable approving renovations

[02:29:34] haphazardly because of the way an advocate or group of advocates makes that happen. Secondly, I've wanted to mention traffic safety, so thank you Mr. done for bringing that up. I've compiled summaries of transit safety related advocacy that I've been involved with for constituents and one of them starts in 2012 and when a crossing guard was hit and that school system continues to advocate after in 2021 a parent a grandparent was hit while going to school to get their student and to date the project is just getting into the queue for being addressed in Fairfax County. Another elementary school is almost seeing

[02:30:10] the completion of a project it has advocated for since 2017, and local residents advocated and got a grant for the county's use. And most sadly, as recently as 2022, we've had three students in two different -- related to two different schools killed while commuting from school.

[02:30:29] Now, these are not school-hosted grounds and properties that we are responsible for, but they are adjacent to our school communities. And I have been going around. I met with Ms. Szymanski and her team, but this is not a facilities thing. In some cases, there was one case where it did come down in a different school about planning and where a crosswalk was planned during the design of the building, and that was rectified.

[02:30:48] So I do think that was a lesson learned for facilities. But all of these things, this is that one Fairfax again, but also we cannot be expected to spend our time advocating for traffic solutions if our goal is to focus on excellent education. I think that is a really great item for our agenda for the Board of Supervisors, too.

[02:31:06] Mr. Frisch. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I do want to mention that although as I was looking at the report and I was looking at schools that are 88 percent and it appears that they have space, again, because I've been in the schools, I know that there is no space there.

[02:31:31] And so if you really go talk to the people in the building trying to find spaces to implement programming, even though on the report it looks like, oh, there's space there, there truly isn't.

[02:31:46] and so i don't know if there's an audit mechanism where we can say how is it really being used um because i know in the building that i was recently at there is no space but it shows that there is and people are struggling to find a room to go do this or go do that and i understand that it's you know we're looking at capacity but we have to look at true capacity and we have to look at how the buildings truly are being used and people down on the ground are very flexible but they're also very frustrated and i just want us to be honest about what really is happening down

[02:32:26] on the ground okay thank you miss st john cunning uh we have miss sizemore heiser online thank you everybody and just briefly um dr i ended with uh an ask for project management plan and sort of an advocacy and communications plan, you know, and in looking at the DLR report, they outline very broadly, you know, what the next steps in sort of phase two planning is. My question is, what has been done with the recommendations of the DLR report to date, and how would that fit into the suggestions I made around the plan for the renovation queue, is the first question. I

[02:33:06] have a second one, so I'll pause there. Thank you. I don't believe there's been anything that's been done yet with the recommendations from the dlr group and um so there shouldn't be any problem interfacing with your suggestion um at this point so i guess my question is i know there are some staff responses to the dlr report but um what was what is your plan i guess moving forward to date i mean i know i've made suggestions but what have you guys been planning to date in terms of how to make this renovation to happen as well as address some of these issues on the backlog of maintenance

[02:33:41] i'll pause there so great question i think we were trying to get the cip done um because it's coming due for a variety of reasons at this time of year and then working forward on a project management plan for the three cues i mentioned one facilities two security and three athletics i think you need to add um a plan for the implementation or the integration of the strategic plan into those three plans right and the priorities of the strategic plan so automation that's part of that conversation um as well as just you know you're looking at those looking at

[02:34:18] access to facilities and i think it'd be helpful as you look at those three plans to ms marin and miss lady's point what policies then need to be updated because one thing i think i'm hearing in the last four years is that we're not always doing that crosswalk right between changes we make in plans or um and the crosswalk to a policy we'd be updated um i know miss max i've talked to about briefly and affecting mr frish and i miss man's brought this up too about a process for reviewing policies right we've been reviewed a thousand series but do we have a process within your internal staff to crosswalk this policy so we're not after the fact saying oh wait a second

[02:34:56] that policy hasn't been updated and yet we're now on that policy talks about a and we're now on x so i'll pause there and ask that question about that crosswalk that proactive crosswalk and you're asking about crosswalking policies to the plan and you're saying the plan for the queues is that correct well even like the strategic plan right like the strategic plan in place have we crosswalk to any policies that need to be updated um when we do a cube it just feels like when we're doing this work are we cross walking back to policies to make sure our policies are reflecting the state of the schools let's say i think we could do a better job of that i know a number of our policies

[02:35:33] are not current so we've been often relying on a regulation which we have a little bit more control over uh but we can do a better job of that so i appreciate you pointing that out yeah i think if any more times if i just briefly i would recommend as you're coming up with this project management plan that's a piece of that yes ma'am thank you i appreciate it no one further for this round uh your next round um we will revert back to go go go go So, okay, Mr. Dunn?

[02:36:10] - I'd like to ask about bathrooms. So I attended a safety and security forum with Dr. Reed at Sandburg Middle School, which is where my children attended.

[02:36:25] And the comment was made by a parent there that at that moment, all of the boys' bathrooms in the entire school were locked because they had all been destroyed. destroyed. And this is just a few weeks ago. This is not like back when the TikTok trend was happening. So I'd like to understand where the money comes for that, and then understand maybe some security practices are being put in place with bathrooms, because I know that's been a discussion of the prior board. Second, I wanted to encourage, given that Ms. Szymanski are new,

[02:37:03] we have some amazing volunteers like Kathy Hozik in the audience, who has gone to, who's a member of fpac and goes to different meetings and and has found to reinforce missing john cunning's point that the people who are in the buildings uh aren't uh communicating with the people who are planning the buildings i think really the people playing the buildings who should be doing have the burden of the communication and so you have renovations being planned that don't make any sense right and so questioning the queue i think is very vital but also having that communication because gatehouse is not so large that people shouldn't be talking to each other

[02:37:38] across offices and finally I just wanted to emphasize on FPAC and elsewhere we have people who you can consult with in-house for free about solar and as someone who's been in the utility industry for a long time I can tell you that those interconnection fees are high because Dominion doesn't want interconnections it doesn't want more solar that's how it's regulated on a state level and the fact it's kind of an abusive monopoly so I would encourage you to not just look at solar you know solar for roots because that's going to be hard given Virginia's utility environment also geothermal and other renewable energy options including purchasing electricity

[02:38:16] from renewable energy sources. Mr. Dunn I'd like to respond to the Sandburg Middle School concern around bathrooms. You're correct we did hold a meeting that evening the next morning Dr. Ponce myself and Mr. Lynette the regional assistant superintendent for Sandburg visited the school to meet with the administrative team. I walked the entire campus inside and out with the principal, Mr. Underhill. There was a bathroom that had yellow tape across because facilities needed to be repaired. I did connect with Ms. Zeminski that morning and I believe it

[02:38:50] was the repairs were completed by the end of the day. It is not true that all the boys' bathrooms were inaccessible at any time but we did resolve the bathroom very near the front door that had some equipment concerns based on vandalism so we are definitely committed to that and we do have funds that are set aside to do repairs of routine maintenance in the schools i would just

[02:39:22] pick up me speaking personally for myself on the bathroom renovation issue so about 12 years ago we We were having a major bathroom issue in the county, particularly among the legacy schools, including Falls Church, and Oakton, who were the last to be renovated in that queue.

[02:39:43] And we set aside around $5 million, I think, at the time to renovate those bathrooms. And I would be interested to have some sort of sense of how our bathrooms are doing countywide for those schools that have not been recently renovated and see if we need to do like we did before and allocate funding for those renovations.

[02:40:06] Because, you know, I think as we saw at McLean High School, they badly needed bathroom renovations and we were able to make that happen. So kudos to staff and everyone who's doing that work right now. but they aren't the only school that needs that and that brings up another point maybe maybe two or three other points but the first that I want to raise is on access to menstrual hygiene products so that's been something that we've worked on for many years it's now state law to have dispensers in at least the female restrooms but what I'm hearing from students is that products are not There we have the dispensers, but not the products

[02:40:44] so I'd be curious to know if we have central funding set aside for that or if School schools individually are supposed to fund those products and if so, it's an equity issue because Not everyone is having access to those products when it's not only our policy, but it's now state law And also I would be curious. We were at a forum last night at Justice High School four of us along with dr. Reed and others and we heard about cameras being placed at bathrooms now I was not sure if they were talking about inside or outside the bathroom okay well that was not clear from the

[02:41:22] conversation but when it comes to security issues I'd be grateful I know the prior board has done a lot on the pilots for for vape sensors and things like that I think we we really could have a whole work session devoted to bathrooms so I'd be eager to hear updates on on those efforts yeah dr.

[02:41:45] Anderson or did you dr. Reed you honors sure sure so updates on restroom facilities and we just I think we are working on renovating as reasonable the menstrual product availability I think is more likely than not maintaining a supply because probably as soon as they're put out because they need to be freely accessible they disappear very likely so i mean they're used quickly so i think likely

[02:42:17] we're trying to determine what type of uh secure accessible way we can provide these products because i think there's it's clear the division has an intent to make sure those are provided and that um they're also that we can keep up with the supply and demand so i um we will do a tally to see where we have challenges on that topic but there's a commitment to making sure we have that and it should be division I mean we can order at a scale very differently than a school so it would seem like that's a division funded initiative and I'll leave it at that

[02:42:56] at this point I the rest of the bathroom topics I think sometimes we also have to I would just encourage our community to check in with principals or teachers when they hear things about bathrooms being closed. We recently had an elementary school where I was pinged also about no soap in restrooms. And as it turns out, that's not true. We did have one soap dispenser that was vandalized and we're waiting on a work order from October, which I'll meet with staff about to get that replaced. But I think sometimes we hear a piece of information or a data point

[02:43:30] and then it becomes a bit of a suburban legend. And we sort of, in the absence of probably if communication that could be clear if we knew that was a topic, it takes on a life of its own. So we want to make sure we have some balance. Also to your point around the vaping sensors, we are looking at ways in which to keep our bathrooms safer. But to put a fine point on cameras, we never will have cameras in a bathroom. The cameras would be outside in the hall to be able to assist staff in determining who went in or out of a restroom at a given time so i just want

[02:44:08] to clarify that great thank you so much dr anderson thank you i remember what i wanted to say and so much more my initial question was about boundary i know you've heard it come up in this discussion we have talked about it in my one-on-one with you multiple times where are we in terms of having a planned discussion on that um i would defer to our chair mr frisch i'm all ears uh we recently received a forum topic uh requesting the board to consider um a holistic review and update to

[02:44:45] the boundary policy um i think i got it last week and we're going to be talking about scheduling it uh in chairs this week so stay tuned okay thank you um secondly we've talked about a lot of cues obviously we have the renovation queue and conversation that we've had we've talked about maybe a school fencing queue um we talked about the school traffic queue we've talked about turf fields queue athletic fields queue how do we put all these things in one easier package to manage kind of akin to what ms eyes moheiser said with the or the project management but how do we keep

[02:45:22] track of all of these different things that are generally related but they're different some of of them we could achieve with one-time monies because what I want to have these queues be teed up for is when we have mid-year funding, end-of-the-year funding, that we automatically slide them into the conversation and into the funding. So the fencing queue would be in the security queue because fencing cameras, door locks, vestibules are all connected in terms of safety and security.

[02:45:52] The turf fields would be in the athletic facility queue because they're part of athletic facilities. And I agree, each of those queues are critical to manage and maintain. I would also argue that several of these queues are department unique.

[02:46:07] The safety and security queue would fall within Office of Safety and Security. Athletics would fall into our athletics office as well as facilities and planning. But at the end of the day, it's senior leadership going to have to manage a queue dashboard for lack of a better term uh but you're right absent cues all we have is sort of the loudest voice or who happens to be the last person heard and i don't think that's going to be you know in keeping with our strategic plan that reinforces equity access and opportunity thank you for that but more importantly i appreciate what you've just said

[02:46:44] but the criteria to establish all of these cues that has to be what is articulated to not just us but also to the public because it cannot come across as if whomever's the loudest is who gets your ear yes ma'am i that goes back to what i can what i call business rules or you can call them working assumptions uh in prior divisions where i've worked for any number of projects we had to clarify those assumptions and frankly honestly that's an elected board of director in my opinion That's your setting sort of those we talked about swim lanes with our last board, but

[02:47:20] what are those working rules that we have to consider when we're putting a queue together? And I think the board has a vested interest in that. Then I can pivot to staff once we've agreed on those business rules and I'm happy to bring a draft for a forum topic or a work session.

[02:47:37] But once we have those business rules set, then I can work with staff on making sure that we apply those. rigorously to make sure that our cue meets the expectations for the board who are elected to represent our community. Well, I don't, I want to lend my voice to this, Mr. Frisch. I would love to have a work session on the criteria that's going to be established to satisfy each of these cues. I don't want it to be a forum topic from one of us if it doesn't have to be a forum topic one of us it's already ongoing work um the other thing that i wanted to to raise bathrooms i've

[02:48:14] seen some that have doors some that don't have doors that kind of have that front little section what is the criteria what's the ed spec regarding doors on restrooms i'll have to defer to staff on uh ed spec criteria i do believe you might be seeing some differences because again oftentimes we're working with existing conditions you don't want to have no doors where there's sight lines right so it makes sense to have doors in other instances where the sight line isn't there you

[02:48:48] could have the doors taken off and it could still function so i will say i think existing conditions are probably what's driving the differences and then i can have staff chime in you know where it's a more even playing field say new construction or what what our ed specs were like and i wasn't advocating for one or the other i just know also it's the difference that i do see but i also know it matters to our school staff from a security perspective there are different things that either option provides a benefit so dr anderson can i pause just for a moment i i want to be clear that the community listening understands when we're talking about doors or no doors we're talking

[02:49:25] about the entrance to the restroom we're not talking about being able to utilize the restroom privately okay i just wanted to clarify that because okay i just want to make sure our community understands that no thank you for that clarification um and lastly i do want to echo what mr um mckelveen shared i i have heard from the students of justice high school particularly not having the sanitary products available to them on a regular basis and and digging into that a little bit what i was told is it needs to be ordered by the school and the school was in delay of ordering and i was never able to get an answer as to who is the responsible person because the

[02:50:05] school then says it comes from you know this warehouse either way there's no products i will look into that and make sure we remedy that and i also just last thing to make sure that they're available at our elementary schools because i don't think we have that um equity of access there and we do have students who do require it yes ma'am mr moon just a couple of quick questions

[02:50:41] regarding a capital project funding sources on page number five of the PowerPoint presentation. Capital sinking fund, about $9 million for FI 22 and 23. Is that two years combined was $9 million or just each year was about $9 million?

[02:51:01] Yeah, again, this is the carryover funds from the county, so we don't have an accurate prediction, but we're anticipating based upon what we got last year to be about $9 million. Now, I'm only asking what's on the slide number five.

[02:51:17] It is $9 million in FI-22. That's in the past. FI-23, that's in the past. Whether there was $9 million each year or both combined? It's each year. Each year. And there is no guarantee that this will continue.

[02:51:34] Is that? Correct. Okay. And for the proffers allocated to capital projects, for FI-23, it was 4.4. Do they generally come in with the conditions to be used for particular projects within a particular school, or do they come in to be used for any capital projects for a particular school or a particular area?

[02:51:59] Yeah, I'm going to have Brian answer that one. Yeah, proffer funds have to be used specifically for schools and capacity to build capacity in those schools to offset the development. There's often some other stipulations with them, but generally it has to be specifically for a school to build capacity.

[02:52:16] So if the school is already slated to get a certain amount of funding, this additional funding does not increase the amount of funding, but basically displace the existing funding that will be allocated?

[02:52:32] If a school that's under construction receives proffer money, then that bond money that was allocated to the project goes back into either the construction reserve or to the next project it's not that the school will get additional okay thank you okay uh miss uh dixit then miss st john can oh wait you don't need it okay miss dixit hi uh my question was in the queue a lot of people discussed this queue question i see then currently uh the queue which started in 2009 we're in 2024 and those renovations

[02:53:08] have not gone through so we can see those uh how long did these schools have been waiting to get renovated so any changes on their renovation would be detrimental because they they were listed to be renovated for a reason and identified by the school the current queue which i guess is now from from now which new queue we're talking about new schools developing that is something can be tweaked based on I guess boundary discussions and

[02:53:43] other thing but for for personally even seeing how late how long the schools have been waiting there should not be any changes in my opinion and and I'm seeing that there are schools high schools particularly are on the western side of Fairfax are over capacity that's where we have to put our brain together and find some creative ways to you know the the western high school we we know that the the chart says is a land acquisition by 2030 that's too late um that's like six years and

[02:54:22] now and the renovation and i mean the construction could start another 10 years and um whatnot so we have to see the urgency of situation um high schools the students um it's a very important time for them as they're getting ready to go to their you know next phase of life and career and uh i think overcrowding can lead to a lot of issues as all of all of us know and management is poor if there are too many kids in the building and lack you know less staff to handle them so i think we need to focus on these high schools even in the new queue as well thank

[02:54:59] - Thank you. - Okay, I think that's it for this round. So if not, we're gonna start the next round. Dr. Anderson and Mr. Dunn.

[02:55:15] Dr. Anderson, go ahead. Two minutes each. Oh, you don't need it. Okay, then we're down to one. Are you done? Okay, well, seeing no further placards, we will adjourn, but first let me say that, remind everyone that next steps can be submitted at the link online that was provided by our fantastic clerk earlier today.

[02:55:45] And I will turn it over to, you have any closing remarks? Turn it over to our chair just to, if he has any final remarks in advance of our upcoming meetings.

[02:56:01] Thank you everyone. We did it, we got out 50 minutes early. Cheers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com