Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance and Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 33m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/827411953?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:04:05] Good evening. Welcome to the Tuesday, May 16th, 2023 Finance Operations Committee meeting. We'll start. I understand Ms. Corbo will not be joining us, so we'll move straight into public comment. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak? Seeing no one rushing to the terminal there.

[00:04:23] Move on to item three, draft minutes. Is there a motion? Mr. Mejedevi. Yes, I move that the Finance and Operations Committee approve the meeting minutes from April 18, 2023. I'll second that. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. raise your hand. Aye. That motion will carry 2-0 with Ms. Corbo absent for the vote.

[00:04:40] Thank you. We'll move on to item 4.01 Business Financial Services RFQ 558787 Petroleum Products and is there a motion, Mr. Madity?

[00:04:59] Yes, Chair. I move to the Finance and Operations Committee recommend that the Loudoun County School Board appropriate $160,000 and receive proper funds to FI 2023 CIP Capital Facility Renewals and Alteration Budget for a play area at Medellin Elementary school. Mr. Morse, that item is actually on the consent agenda. Good point. Yes, we do have several on the consent agenda, so we'll move through those. I move that this committee approve the consent agenda as opposed to the board docs. I'll second that. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye and raise your hand. Aye. That motion will carry 2-0. Ms. Corpo

[00:05:38] absent for the vote. Thank you. You saved us a couple minutes there. All right. Takes care of a broad run as Well, on item 5.01, which is Department of Instruction, Thomas Jefferson High School Science and Technology, school year 2024-2025 agreement.

[00:06:09] - I move that the Finance and Operations Committee take action to recommend to the school board to renew the Loudoun County Public Schools contract with Fairfax Public Schools for 2024-2025 school year and to add as an action among the consent agenda to the May 23, 2023 school board meeting.

[00:06:26] This will allow staff to notify FCPS of the school board decision by June 1st, 2023 deadline. - And I will second that, any discussion on that? - No. - Okay, seeing as there's no further discussion, we'll place a motion to vote.

[00:06:44] All those in favor of the motion, please say aye and raise your hand. - Aye. - That motion will carry to 0. 5.02, we're just flying through this. - Can I make the motion?

[00:06:59] - Yes. - I move to the Finance and Operations Committee recommends that the Lowndon County School Board approves the budget transfer requires to support fuel expenditures in the support services department budget. - I will second that, further discussion?

[00:07:15] - So I think we discussed this last time, I believe, right? Or I'm not, maybe in terms of this, the fuel cost that's coming, unanticipated cost in fuel. I don't know if we can speak to that, Mr. Lewis. - Yes, it was just that over the past year, the fuel costs have just been ridiculously high.

[00:07:34] And so they've been wavering back and forth and we're watching that on a daily basis. Mr. Davies gives me a report every week on what the prices are, and we're looking for an opportunity to lock in again, but so far, it's just been so volatile, we haven't done that. But that's a big cause of that, it's just the prices were, as you know, during this period, it just went, I think, above $5 a gallon for many of those things.

[00:07:59] - Just for clarification, by locking in, does that commit us to the higher price throughout the term of the period? - Yes, sir, so what we do is we lock in in 40,000 gallon strips, what they call, and so we would buy three or four of those, and those are the ones that we buy and are delivered to us, and we still buy to pump it other places around.

[00:08:20] So it does give us a bulk of fuel that we're guaranteed the price for, and it's always best to find that at the low spot, obviously. And so during this period when it was high, then our strips ran out, and we decided not to lock back in because it was going up and down every week.

[00:08:38] So at this point we are not obligated to any of those strips and we'll continue to look at that and lock in when it becomes appropriate to do so. - Thank you. Further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye and raise your hand. - Aye. That motion will carry to zero.

[00:08:56] Onto item 5.03, which is from the superintendent's office revision of former policy HS3 fire drills. Is there a motion, Mr. Madhavi? - Yes, Chair. The finance and operation committee recommended the Lownder County School Board approve the new policy 6720, safety drills and the deletion of policy 83 fire drills.

[00:09:14] So I think we'll be recommending this policy to the school board, right? - And I'll second that motion. Further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye and raise your hand. - Aye. - That motion will carry 2-0.

[00:09:31] On to 5.04, which is support services, revision of policy 6320 playgrounds. Mr. Madhavi. - I move to the finance and operation committee recommend the Loudoun County School Board approve the staff and committee recommended revisions policy 6320 playgrounds well i'll second that further discussion i will place the motion to vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye and raise your hand aye that motion will carry 2-0 as well with miss corvo absent for the vote all right i think we're up to 6.01 at this point

[00:10:09] let's see now we still have 5.05 the grant of easement to dominion energy hillsborough is there a motion mr maddie yes chair that the finance and finance and operations committee recommended that the Lowndes County School Board approve the easement associated with the Hillsborough Elementary School property.

[00:10:29] Further, the chair of school board is authorized to sign the, no, is that the motion also further? - That would be. - Okay, isn't it right? Further, the chair of the school board is authorized to sign the easement upon presentation.

[00:10:44] - I'll second the motion, further discussion. Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye and raise your hand. - Aye. - That motion will carry 2-0, thank you. With Ms. Corvo absent. All right, so we're on to information item 6.01, Business Financial Services, RPR 22283, Property and Casualty Insurance Program.

[00:11:08] And Ms. Willoughby or Ms. Filio? Ms. Filio. This is actually the renewal of our property and casualty insurance with VACorp. As you recall, we did put out a solicitation last year, received one response from VACorp.

[00:11:24] This year we're seeing a 3% increase in the annual premium compared to last year, but last year we did see a 6% decrease. So we're actually about back to break even again. The only other change was they added a $1,000 deductible for cyber insurance in the event of a cyber incident.

[00:11:42] And all other limits remain the same. Very good. $1,000 for cyber insurance. I'm good with that. Deductible. Any further discussion on this? Is there interest in placing this on consent for the next? So please place this on the consent agenda.

[00:12:00] 6.02, Business Financial Services RFP back of the envelope audit renewal. Ms. Filio? Yes, this is a renewal of a contract we already have in place with CMTA, and same terms and conditions apply. Okay, are there any questions or comments on this?

[00:12:22] Could you walk us through what this renewal is for, and just to help us, help me? Mr. Traynor? This renewal is our energy services contract with CMTA.

[00:12:43] This is the company that is designing and executing all of the energy conservation projects that we're doing in the school system. At this time, it's everything from LED lighting retrofits in our existing schools to installing PV arrays on the roofs of our schools, water conservation measures within the school, replacing transformers.

[00:13:06] It's going through. Ultimately, we hope to get to every single school in the project, but we're doing a handful of schools each year based on funding availability. We are also using this contract to do some of our critical system repairs in replacements and those are the two schools that are mentioned in this in this award and that is the ashburn elementary school critical system replacement the balls bluff critical system replacement thank you so this the value of the total contract is 30 million that was the what we had previously and how many years is that that's one year and it's a combination between

[00:13:44] the energy most of that 30 million on this one is approximately 28 million which is the two critical system replacement projects 14 and a half million a piece uh one at ashburn elementary school and one at balls bluff elementary school and it's 14 and a half million at each site and that is uh 4.1 4.2 million of that is a grant funding that comes in um that we got it's cfl it's listed it's listed in there it's a six six digit grant um but uh these are the last two

[00:14:19] schools as part of that four school grant package we got a 16.1 million we're spending just over 4 million per school we're also then adding to that supplementing it with 12 million of our cip budget to go through and do critical system replacement which is effectively replacing the entire mechanical system in the school so we have as a point of reference we've already started on cool springs in algonk and those projects are happening this summer and we have started the work in those right now in the hallways working at night and then over the summer it really gets crunch time where we go through all the classrooms and start ripping systems out putting new systems in so

[00:14:58] thank you so so we were saying is it's 14 million dollars to let's say if i take ashman elementary that's the cost to renew the entire age rack system uh the 14 million and covers the entire cost of the new system it also includes upgrading the system to a geothermal water source heat pump system. So the well field itself is part of that project, as well as then replacing all of the mechanical equipment in the building to go to that geothermal system. And the $14 million also includes the solar array on the school. Mr. Lewis, we were looking at building a new school for like $40, $50 million. That's why I'm trying to, and this is just for renewal, $14 million just to do

[00:15:37] edge racks. I mean, just to get, you know, again, $40, $50 million to do a complete new school that be doing at Waterford, it was $50 million, $47 million to do, I'm sorry? I think we're looking at Waterford, we're looking at an addition, not a new school, correct?

[00:15:57] Yes, sir, so ES32 is under contract for, that total contract price is close to $60 million for that project, and keep one thing in mind, that whenever you're retrofitting a system within a building, and you're working around students, everything costs more because it takes longer time, we're working in evenings and nights and those types of things, and And a mechanical system is generally 30% to 40% of the cost of a building when you're building it new.

[00:16:21] So the mechanical system is a big part of the infrastructure of that building. I mean, I have nothing to, I mean, I just want to understand it better because it seems, you know, even if it's $60 million, so it's 25% of the total cost of building a school.

[00:16:43] It's interesting. So are we going to change the ducts and everything else in the building too, or just the mechanicals? So this facility is run mostly through hydronic piping, so there's not a lot of duct work to that, but the entire system will be replaced.

[00:17:00] One thing to remember is it's all in the ceiling above all the other things, so we've got to take the ceilings out. And we're replacing the lights, too, so all the lights in the corridor are being switched over to LED, so that adds to the cost of that. And as many of those things as we can do right now as we're going in and refreshing that school, because that system is 30 years old now, and it's time to be replaced.

[00:17:20] we have some real concerns. Mr. Traynor referenced those as critical system replacements and they are critical systems because if that system goes down, the whole building is down. It's not like certain, some buildings where you have a single air conditioning unit goes down, you're okay.

[00:17:36] We know that the hydronic piping system that runs through the entire building, it's at the end of its life and we could at any point have a failure of that and so that's why we've labeled this as critical and trying to get this one as well as Algonquian and Cool Springs are another, the other two buildings are in that similar condition.

[00:17:54] One last question. So when is this work schedule or plan to be completed? If it starts, let's say this is approved, when would they complete that by? It's the fall of 23, right? So this fall? So the two schools listed in this, Ashburn and Paul's Bluff, we've had to basically split those apart further, different years because of just lack of capacity to be able to do the work with our contractors.

[00:18:20] So Balls Bluff, we are starting part of the project next month, putting in the geothermal wellfield. Then we'll be coming back next summer to do the mechanical system replacement in the building. And then we'll come back the following summer to do the solar array.

[00:18:36] And then Balls Bluff will be getting the wellfield put in next summer, mechanical system the summer after that. And so the grant has a timeline on it for the grant money, but it's based on the contract award date. and we will have both of these projects, Balls Bluff and Algonquin, will be awarded this summer because the lead time right now, I mean, mechanical equipment lead time is pretty horrendous still.

[00:19:03] So as we move this forward to action and then to the board, I think two pieces of information would be valuable. Number one is the estimated savings, energy savings. We talk a lot about that and how bringing in this effort, specifically the arrays and the geothermal system, that is saving us energy.

[00:19:28] So the energy savings costs and also what a standard replacement would run. So if we were just to replace the HVAC and just replace the mechanical system without modifying it, how much would that expect to be? And please don't get into any significant detail.

[00:19:46] I'm just trying to look for what the difference would be between a traditional installation and the modified installation that we're doing. So essentially a cost-benefit analysis, one or two thing. Absolutely, we can do that. Any further questions on that? Okay. So we'll place that on the action item for the next finance and operations meeting.

[00:20:07] Okay. On to 6.03, which is RFP R21268, Security Guard Services Renewal. Ms. Filia, you take it. Yep, I got it. Thank you. This is the second of four renewals for the security guard services provided in our schools as well as here at the admin building.

[00:20:27] You will notice that there was an hourly rate increase of 5% for this contract. The anticipated spend of these services is $1.46 million. Therefore, we are before you this evening regarding award of the renewal to Allied Universal Security Services. Any discussion on this?

[00:20:45] Mr. Mejedevi. Thank you, Chair. so how many total resources we get from allied health or hours i should say i mean mr clark sorry could you repeat the question how many total schools well no how many resources i mean i guess obviously we have one for each school so how many total resources and i know it fluctuates so i guess maybe person hours that the what we contract for the whole year i guess i don't know what would be the best whatever the best ways to answer the question just trying to get a sense on how many resources or how many person hours we use sure so the school resources they work eight hour days

[00:21:23] every school day mr. clark i'm asking for the whole year i understand it's eight hours per day but total contract hours person hours that this contract value is going to be so how many resources do we get for these 1.46 million it's not a difficult question i mean again we would have to do the math for that question and go back and look at the invoices to provide you that detail we can bring that back with the action item at the next meeting okay thank you so we'll bring

[00:21:57] that one back as well on the action item agenda thank you 6.04 which is superintendent's office adoption of 6730 school crisis emergency management and medical response plan Mr. Clark yes so this is basically a new policy that is outlining the annual requirements of the Virginia school safety audit. The requirements are not new. We've been in compliance with these. We are just now putting

[00:22:29] it into policy. Thank you. I have one question. It mentions the fact that let's make sure I'm on the right policy before we go. It says shall immediately contact. Okay, so looking through should include a provision. So on lines 38 through 40, the school crisis emergency management medical emergency response plan should include a provision that the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice

[00:23:08] services in virginia criminal injuries compensation fund shall be contacted so you have a should and a shall in the same statement um i wonder if there's a reason why we said they should be and not they they shall be is there a reason why we would not want to contact them in okay in case of an emergency i suspect we would always want to contact them so the first should i believe uh we should have a shell and that that's the only comment any other uh mr maherby thank you chair So, Mr. Clark, in the Virginia safety audit, who does the audit?

[00:23:46] It's mandated by the state of Virginia, and I'm in charge of it. So you do the audit for the safety? So the department does its own audit? That's what I'm coming back to. I coordinate the audit.

[00:24:03] Every school does a piece of the audit. There are five basic requirements to the audit, and every school takes part in it. Did the legal go through this policy so far?

[00:24:19] Did they provide any feedback to this? Did who provide feedback? Legal? Yes. Okay. Legal basically drafted this. And do you know if this is just language drafted from a VSBA or from a state template, or was this crafted whole cloth?

[00:24:39] This incorporates a lot of that language, but it was crafted by our legal division. Thank you. Further discussions? No? Okay. So let's move this on to the action item for the next board meeting as well, or the next committee meeting, sorry.

[00:24:58] So that takes us up to 6.05, which is Support Services U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean School Bus Grant Program, round two. Exciting. Mr. Lewis? Yes, sir.

[00:25:13] So I may need Mr. Davies to chime in, but this is essentially an opportunity that Mr. Davies and his team has identified as an opportunity to expand our electric bus fleet. We currently have five in service and has been at the Parkview High School.

[00:25:31] We have 11 more buses that are on their way that are expected to be in service by the end of June of this year. So they have been awarded to us through the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. And those buses, as I mentioned, are on the way. You may recall that within the last year, we also brought to you a grant opportunity to ask for 25 more buses.

[00:25:52] And we did not get awarded any of those. So this is an effort to now apply for these. So essentially we're here tonight asking for the board or the committee's recommendation to move forward with this application and request some more of the electric buses.

[00:26:08] - So last year's attempt to get any, there were 25 buses from EPA for the state of Virginia. Is that where it was distributed? - Can you clarify? - At the, back in the fall, EPA announced round one and we applied for 15, 25 buses.

[00:26:24] We were not successful. And so this is a resubmission of the same application for round two. to see if we're accessible. - Any feedback on the application that could make it any stronger, or we just resubmit? - It's very straightforward. The first round was really focused on schools with more constrained needs, and so we didn't qualify because of our socioeconomic status and such.

[00:26:53] I think they've opened that up a little bit more, and that's why we think we can-- - Well, in our long-term goal to move to more electric buses. Is this maintaining that flow of procuring new buses or are we getting behind because we did not?

[00:27:13] - So technically speaking, we're still in the pilot. And so we've had these five buses in play and in service and we're collecting lots and lots of data about that. The drivers love them. We had a little bit of a rocky start with some of the reliability, but they seem to have worked a lot of that out.

[00:27:29] So what we hope to do is to get a few more of these in place and then be able to come back to the school board at some point in time and recommend whether or not we continue to do this little by little or we do full blown and ask for funding to do the buses directly. One of the reasons we're in the mode we're in right now is because these grants are providing funding for the gap between the cost of an electric bus and the cost of a diesel bus.

[00:27:54] So it's not affecting our CIP or our funding from the Board of Supervisors. So we're still putting out the same number of dollars for the buses but getting the more expensive ones because of the grant. So we get to the point where we recommend to go all electric, it's gonna be a significant increase in cost.

[00:28:09] - Okay, that's helpful, thank you. Further questions? Okay, interest in placing this on consent? Okay, so let's place that one on consent for the next meeting, please. Onto item 606, which is revision of policy 6220, student safety and discipline on buses.

[00:28:31] Mr. Davies or Mr. Davies? - Yes sir, we had previously brought this to the student disciplinary committee and they had made a recommendation of adding in the classroom under online 14/15 under A2. And so that was, that change is highlighted there.

[00:28:50] And if approved by the committee here, then we'll put this out for public comments. - If I may, Mr. Morris, if you recall, we brought this to the Finance Committee. I think Mr. Meheve suggested, one of you suggested to take it to the other committee. So we've done that, brought it back.

[00:29:06] And you see the results, as Mr. Davies pointed out, they just asked us to add those three words in there. And so now, because this committee governs this policy, we're bringing it back to finalize that. - Very good. We appreciate the quick turnaround on that. So the second highlighted area, can you remind us how that was in line 65 through 68?

[00:29:32] - So that was the primary reason why it went to the Student Disciplinary Committee. There were no changes made to that. - Okay, all right. Further discussion? Interest in placing that on consent? Okay, so we'll place that one on consent agenda for the next committee meeting as well.

[00:29:54] Oh, okay. Yeah, that's fine. Then we'll just place it on the action item. Fine with that. Yeah, good point. Okay.

[00:30:13] So I think that that covers us for old business. Is there any new business? Is there no new business? We are adjourned. Oh, not so quick. Go ahead. I promise I won't take much time.

[00:30:30] So I think if, I guess this is not a new business, but I guess I want to talk to the committee. So, for example, we're going to do this renovation of the HWAC at, let's say, Ashburn and Balls Bluff. There might be other projects we're doing as well across many of the schools.

[00:30:46] Is there a way we can, at least from a board member perspective, I mean, I'm asking as an individual board member, can you share any such major projects that are going on in Ashburn District? If you could notify me, like around completion or somewhere around that, that would be really helpful. Absolutely.

[00:31:04] And we had crafted some information for the public listening sessions that Dr. Smith is having. And so we have a lot of that readily available. If you're talking specific to these types of projects, we can certainly do that. Because I've seen other elected representatives shows up in the school, but board members just don't have any information.

[00:31:24] So I feel, you know, again, I think that will be helpful for that matter. Absolutely. Okay. And then as far as my other comment to make about the hours, what my question was simply when we contract, you know, $1.42 million, it's a personal contract.

[00:31:42] It's not, and I was just simply asking how many resources did we acquire or how many person hours, because sometimes you may only use five resources for this week and then 10 resources next week. So I'm just trying to get a ballpark of how many resource hours. I don't want to call it man hours, because now it's not politically correct to say man hours, it's person hours, and that's what I was trying to get into.

[00:32:04] So I didn't mean to disrespect Mr. Clark or anybody, but that's where, you know, I know it's an eight hour a day. That's not what my question was. So anyway. That's all I wanna explain myself. - So full-time equivalence, FTEs is a good term that we use.

[00:32:19] So it would be hours, numbers of days in the year, number of schools provided, assuming it's one guard. So that should be pretty straightforward. - Yes, sir. And we'll communicate that to Mr. Clark. And I think between us and Ms. Filiall's help to do that, we can craft a summary of what the service is for and what it's been provided for in the last couple of years what the plan is for this year.

[00:32:44] As there's no new business, we are adjourned. Thank you.

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