Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance and Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 15m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/910858243?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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] - Wonderful, so I'd like to call this February 6th, 2024 meeting of the Finance and Operations Committee to order. Thank you all for joining. My name is Arvind Estreffi, and I'm the chair of this committee. I'm also joined by both Chair Mansfield and Mrs. Griffiths, who are also members of the committee.

[00:00:21] We have a pretty full agenda today, as far as I can remember, and this is gonna be our first F&O committee, which I'm excited about. We have a few action items and a list of information items. Our original first meeting was supposed to be in January, but it was canceled due to snow.

[00:00:37] And the F&O committee meets twice a month. So these items, I'm guessing, do pile up if we don't get to meet. We're going to start with our first agenda item, which is public comment. Do we have any public comment for today? Okay, so I'm informed that we don't have any public comment today.

[00:00:56] So we're going to move on to agenda item 3.01, draft minutes, December 5th, 2023. finance and operations committee and I'm aware that in the last meeting minutes from the previous board in the finance and operations committee that the last minutes were certified and signed by the previous members to the committee and so do we need to go ahead and approve those minutes or have they been approved by

[00:01:30] the previous board just wanted to point of clarification just by understanding that they have certified to the clerk that they have approved those those minutes from before they left office okay thank you very much so based on that then we will move on to action to action items so 4.01 would be the first one so we have three action items for today and i will go ahead and

[00:02:03] start with 4.01 business and financial services rfp r23267 groceries renewal to be presented by Ms. Filia so typically we would have a motion first so that we can like introduce the item and then there would be a discussion and that's women's filial could provide the additional information and if get this score the committee members a chance to ask any questions and then after all the questions are answered then we could have the vote okay so the recommended

[00:02:40] action that's in there if there could be a motion and a second then that allows us to proceed on that item okay thank you very much ms willoughby so um i will then entertain the motion that the finance and operations committee recommends the loudest county school board renews rfp r23267 groceries to cisco usa 3 llc dba cisco virginia llc effective from february 14th 2024 through july 31st 2024 do i have a motion yes chairman i'll make that motion that

[00:03:15] the finance and operation committee recommends the loudon county school board renews rfp r23267 groceries to cisco usa 3 llc effective february 14 2024 through july 30th 2024. thank you very much and do i have a second um i'm sorry uh vice chair i need a little i need to read a little bit more on it before i can sure so um then i can second it and then we can open it up for discussion at that point then um so um it has been seconded um and i'll just open it up for discussion and

[00:03:53] presentation by ms afilia good evening and thank you i'm presenting to you this evening this action item for our groceries renewal this typically our process is information followed by action due to the cancellation of the meeting in january due to the inclement weather and a short timeline we're bringing this to you this evening as action this is for our groceries that provide the food and supplies for our school nutrition program at all of our schools.

[00:04:21] It is with Cisco. The current contract originally expired January 31, 2024, but due to the weather delay, they have extended the contract through February 13, 2024, with the new contract being effective February 14, 2024 through July 31, 2024.

[00:04:41] Subsequent renewals of this agreement will be annual. term was initially for six months followed by another six months to make sure we had our supply list in line with our needs for the school system this as I said this contract is a renewal for the six month following period and if approved we recommend moving forward to the school board consent agenda on February 13th 2024 and I'm willing to take any questions you might have thank you very much any additional discussion or questions if not I will entertain

[00:05:19] just a quick clarification of my understanding so yeah thank you very much for explaining these action items and and definitely noted that these would have normally been information items and and it's my and I am aware that a lot of the stuff that will come through this committee we'll talk about this later but will be awards that may be time sensitive or may have you know renewals coming up for for whatever reason so for this specific renewal normally for for

[00:05:52] renewal I believe there was only one vendor that actually submitted and that was the pre-existing vendor that we had the contract with it was not the pre-existing vendor oh okay we put out a solicitation and received no responses then we put out a solicitation again and received one response from Cisco reason being the this company delivers to every school in Loudoun County on a weekly basis they are doing all their deliveries on Saturday there is really no other companies able to handle a school system

[00:06:30] the size of Loudoun County Public Schools nor the area of Loudoun County therefore Cisco actually believe it or not on their on their way to do deliveries for a restaurant they stop and deliver to our schools they have trucks dispersed throughout the county on a Saturday and that's why we only get one response is the sheer size of our school system thank you any other discussion

[00:06:57] so we then make a vote on this motion on the emotion by chair Mansfield all those in favor of the motion yay yay so unanimous so we have three in favor so this will then be approved

[00:07:33] is I think the right wording there and we'll move on to action item 4.02 business and financial services IFB I two four three two two box trucks and do I have a motion vice chair chair of

[00:07:54] I have a question would you for this would we want to go to consent for the for the board and if so should we put that in the original motion yes please actually if you could instead of it going to action for the school board if we could have typically many of these would routinely go to consent but specifically this one because of the time sensitive nature of the contract extension if we could have this go on consent that would be very helpful and do we need a vote for consent just as a reminder no usually it's just direction you just give us the direction because you've already approved the item

[00:08:32] to proceed and then you just give us the direction of where it lands so then let's move this to consent perfect thank you so much are you able to provide a list of the companies I mean I know you said Cisco is the only one that provides to a big county like this but and they're the only ones that responded but did I mean is there any other company that we publish a notice of these RFPs actually on EVA which is the state of Virginia's website it goes out to any vendor that's registered with the state of Virginia we also maintain a database

[00:09:11] of vendors that we send it to so it goes out to a lot of vendors many locations will also have a centralized warehouse where the deliveries go so it's one stop one drop-off that's not the case here you're welcome thank you very much so then now we'll move on to the next action item 4.02 business financial services IFB I 2 4 3 2 2 box trucks is there a motion that's your mansfield I make a motion that the Finance and Operation Committee recommends that

[00:09:48] Loudoun County School Board award IFP numbered one I guess need to put my glasses on sorry I 2 4 3 2 2 box trucks effective February 14 2024 through January 31st 2025 per attached bid award recommendations and is there a second thank you is there a second I'll go ahead and second and open it up for discussion presentation by staff okay I've got this item as well this is once again being brought to you as an action item one the inclement weather and two because these trucks are literally sitting in the lot and we don't have to

[00:10:26] wait long lead time for delivery of those trucks these are for our distribution center being purchased through the transportation office through using our lease purchase funds and we are purchasing these vehicles from K Neal International truck and the information is on the other side it's eighty three thousand five hundred dollars per truck thank you very much and I'll just start the discussion just to confirm that one of the reasons why we've selected this vendor or recommending to award this is they are

[00:11:01] the low bid among the other folks who've submitted they're the low bid that best meets the requirements of the solicitation yes thank you any other questions or discussions what exactly using them for are they delivering food or what are they used for yes ma'am so we have in the distribution center they deliver all all types of products to our schools from paper to books also the the the mail that goes from campus to campus and through this building so there's assortment of things that they're used for I can't say exactly which ones this

[00:11:38] one will be a bit probably all of the above any other discussion at this time so then we should vote on the original motion all those in favor yeah so it looks like we have unanimous in favor of proving the motion and making the award and I'll since there's no kind of pending action items here or additional

[00:12:12] discussion we'll just move this on the consent as well thank you moving on to the next action item 4.03 support services grant of easement to Verizon South Inc at Rock Ridge High School do I have a motion I move that the finance and operation committees recommend that the Loudoun County School Board approved the Verizon deed of easement and plat associated with the cell tower on the

[00:12:50] Rock Ridge High School property and further that the chair of the school board is authorized to sign the deed of easement upon presentation thank you very much and now we'll just move it to discussion uh starting with presentation from staff hi good afternoon i'm joe pascarelli director of construction so following school board approval lcps entered into an agreement with milestone communications on october 26 2021 to construct the sale tower at the rock ridge high school at this point the tower has been completed

[00:13:27] and we're here seeking approval to grant this easement to allow verizon to run the fiber optic line to that cell phone power thank you very much and i will say since this is the first easement that we are i'll give you a little bit more information in terms of how these things go because we will see quite a few of these so we will get these requests occasionally whether it's a utility provides service to our school or could be a neighboring a neighbor needs to have access through our site and what we do is our civil engineers will evaluate that in terms of does this have any negative effects on our site will this impede any future

[00:14:05] development or do we have other easements which may be in the way we make sure that this is something that won't have any impact in our school and then after we do that we work with our LCPS division council and he reviews the language for the easement and provides any feedback and go through that process every time and at that point we would then come to you for seeking approval for the easements. Thank you very much, Mr. Pascrelli, and also I seconded the motion in my head. I just didn't say it out loud, so I officially seconded the motion. We'll get

[00:14:42] better at this, but I appreciate the clarification on the easements. Any additional discussion or questions? Yes. How much do we generally get from Verizon for these towers, if I may ask? Brian Stocks, our Director of Management and Coordination, manages the contract with Milestone communications and he's probably the best to to fill us in with how that process works um and i don't have a specific number um per say it is a it's in the master license agreement that's negotiated which is the same master license agreement that the county of loudon operates on

[00:15:22] and it's a percentage of revenue based on the service providers that subscribe to have their equipment mounted on the tower so obviously more service providers that are on the tower generate more revenue for lcps but um it is in our master license agreement and i would be hesitant to quote a number at this point in time but we can find that for you and have that information available it's a person if you could send that to us as soon as possible that'd be

[00:15:50] great yes it's a percentage split i'll get that for you any other discussion or questions the the only kind of other discussion um or point of clarification is that we have already just Just asking the question, we have already, as LCPS, entered into an agreement to construct the cell tower.

[00:16:15] Now, this is separately to approve of the easement to then access that cell tower by Verizon. Is that characterized correctly? Yes, sir. There's actually an extra step. Mr. Stocks referenced the master license agreement, which we have, the school board has with Milestone Communications, who then comes to us with a proposal for individual cell towers.

[00:16:37] And so they have the master license agreement, then they have a site license agreement for that actual tower, which we've already done. The tower is constructed, and now we're coming back for the easements to do that. So there may be times when there's more than one easement to serve the tower, but in this case, we think this is going to be the only one.

[00:16:55] And so we should be good to go. And I'll add a little bit to what Mr. Stocks said. We can provide you with what the agreement says and the percentages. We won't be able to tell you how much this tower will generate because we haven't got it up ready yet So we'll give you the historical things for the other towers that we have. Thank you. Any other discussion or Comments seeing none We'll go ahead and take a vote on this motion all those in favor say I

[00:17:29] The motion passes unanimously and I will go ahead and suggest that Given the nature of the comments and the questions seems like this is something that we would want to also put on consent Okay, so let's move on and add this to the consent agenda as well for the next meeting.

[00:17:51] Now moving on to information items. We have a list of information items, and I'll start with the first one, 5.01. It says, Istrafi, Finance and Operations Committee Structure and Discussion.

[00:18:07] I added this item here in speaking with Ms. Willoughby and Mr. Lewis originally, understanding that there is so much history in the Finance and Operations Committee and the myriad of items that could come to this committee and the fact that all of us are new, to leave some space for questions and even if staff might want to clarify kind of the, aside from awards or maybe giving some context as to the different types of awards that we could see,

[00:18:47] easements being one big topic or anything else that would give us a little bit more context as to how to really approach some of the items that we'll see in this committee or just open it up for any questions that we might have. One of the things that I'll kind of start the discussion with is we have Ms. Filial now, the Director of Procurement and Risk Management, for the awards that would come to this committee, we would assume that they've gone through all of the procurement procedures that have been laid out, not just in LCPS procedure but also code.

[00:19:26] Are there exceptions to that or are there, you know, unique situations where awards might come obviously could be under the $250,000 limit or any types of factors that would make certain awards unique that we would need to consider?

[00:19:45] It's just a little bit of clarification. so per the code and LCPS policy as you reference absolutely that is what's happening before these items arrive to the committee level for approval in terms of what is outside of that one example would be items that are awarded on a cooperative purchase agreement and a cooperative purchase agreement and we'll use my layman's terms is where there's already an existing contract with let's to say with another school division that include a language that allows us to ride that contract

[00:20:21] so rather than having to go through a whole solicitation process which sometimes can take you know several months we're able to utilize another jurisdiction's existing contract and ride that contract because it's already a previously awarded contract through that jurisdiction lcps has not historically brought those awards through committee and school board They are, though, in terms of transparency, posted on the procurements page on our website.

[00:20:53] So there is visibility there. So even though it may not go through an official award process, there is the information there. And then there's one category of expenditures related to legal services in real estate that are exempted by the code that don't require, well, they're exempted by code for bringing through a committee.

[00:21:13] So those two specific types of actions are outside of the committee and school board. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Chair Mansfield. Thank you, Chair Struffy. I was wondering, sole contracts, could you explain those a little bit?

[00:21:33] I mean, I see them that not necessarily have an RFP, but they're sole.

[00:21:53] So there's different methods of procuring goods and services. So there's a traditional RFP solicitation process that we bring through the committee. There's a cooperative, and the third grouping is a sole source. Sole source are for procurement of items that meet a very specific need where it's identified that only this one vendor can meet the request of LCPS.

[00:22:21] Typically, I think there's service-related type of contracts related to sole source. Historically, those also have not been brought through committee, so that is something we could look at in terms of the dollar threshold. And if anything, in talking with Ms. Phil, we may want to take a little bit of time to do a little bit of research to see if there was anything that's not coming to our mind immediately of why there wasn't, or if there was something to point to of why they were not brought forward through committee.

[00:22:50] Because I know that reading, writing workshop, a lot of that, and a lot of Heinemann products are taken through sole source contracts. So I just want to get those flags sometimes.

[00:23:06] We will go back, look at the org resolution, look at the code, look at our policy. Just kind of look at everything as it surrounds sole source. And we could bring that information back at the next FNO committee meeting of what we're finding as well as, you know, just to further the discussion related to sole source contracts.

[00:23:26] Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? other comments or from from staff that you think might be worth mentioning at this time we're gonna be in a learning posture for a while so it doesn't have to be now but there's anything else you want to add no thing I would add is that you know we're here to help you all get through that so if you have any questions we're happy to have conversations ahead of time so don't hesitate to call some of these things can be quite complicated and you know take a period of time and then have several phases so it is complicated and we understand that so we're happy to walk you through at any time you want to

[00:24:03] we'll get that and that'll help you get through this meeting quicker too and so anything we can do to help we're happy to do thank you very much so seeing no additional discussion we'll move on to information item 5.02 business and financial services RFP r2 3 to 5 1 building commissioning services renewal and we will hand it over to his filia to present I'm going to start this by saying for renewals our standard renewal terms are you have an initial term generally of one year with four annual renewals and an optional sixth or fifth

[00:24:42] renewal that is our standard term so when I bring before you renewals one of the things I will mention like I did in this one this is the first time we're renewing this contract so I just want to make sure we're clear on that and this is for building commissioning services it's brought to you as the estimated value of this award is 1.5 million you will see an explanation of what building commissioning is how it is done with our school designs and can also be done with the professional services I do have mr. Pascarelli down on the other end that can provide any additional information on what this is specifically

[00:25:17] this all RFP is allows us to award to multiple vendors when we award to multiple vendors we try to distribute the work as best we can some some of the vendors may have a specialty. So we'll go to them. But if we've got work there, we've got other vendors available. And we will do that when there is so much work, one vendor cannot possibly do all that work. So you will see from time to time, like on the grocery one, it was one vendor.

[00:25:44] This was awarded to multiple vendors and goes through our RFP selection process, which involves review of the solicitations by committee, interviews with the vendors or demonstrations, and then a selection process to pick the top vendors.

[00:26:00] with whom then we will negotiate with so I did want to add that in that there's a very formalized process to these as well very much any discussion or questions at this time under summary are those the companies you're working with currently for renovations yes all the originally awarded vendors agreed to renew at the

[00:26:31] same price for an additional year any other questions will you be bringing big projects to this committee if there's gonna be a big project would you be

[00:26:52] bringing it to this committee so we could discuss it this is a third party commissioning agent who worked directly for us so we don't come to the committee

[00:27:28] with awards specific for projects under this contract any additional questions and so seeing no additional discussion we will just move on to the next information item or should we make a recommendation so you'll want to make a recommendation would be helpful and then I'll use this opportunity to to share so to make sure that the other committee members are aware FNO is

[00:28:03] structured similarly as the school board where we also have a consent and this and actually this agenda is a perfect example to highlight how a consent would be helpful because if with all these information items if they were to roll over to action to the next committee you would be taking action on each individual item versus having the opportunity to have these items go to consent for F&O so while the the agenda item references that this could come back to F&O on February 12 20th as an action item this would be a perfect example where staff would could recommend that it come back as consent

[00:28:42] for F&O committee yeah thank you very much for that miss will be so it sounds like based on the timeline and the discussion this might be one of those items where we just move this to consent for the next Finance and Operations Committee meeting in that case yes well well future projects that you might be working on will you be bringing them up at future meetings I can ask for a quick

[00:29:18] clarification you're talking specific to this contract yes so it's individual project so this is a service contract that we have these these firms will be providing services on many of our different projects and what mr.

[00:29:35] Pasquarelli was saying we'll have a job assignment that says we're building Watson-Matton Middle School one of these companies will get that award another one will get the one for HS 14 those are the ones won't come back but when we bring individual construction projects yes they do come as individual projects that was my question thank you so much thank you so in that case we would move this to the consent agenda for the next F&O meeting so the next information item is five point zero three business and financial services IFB I two four three

[00:30:12] two one secondary music instruments and furniture for new schools and ongoing needs presented by Miss filial this item is being brought before you we do a solicitation for this one on an annual basis as our quantities and needs may change you will notice on this one that this is for new schools this will be for musical instruments for watson mountain middle school as well as for any ongoing needs of the school system watson mountain middle school will be paid out of our cip for that project and the ongoing needs are purchased through the music services appropriated budget we did

[00:30:50] experience a six percent increase in pricing from last year to this year a lot of that is due to just the economy the environment inflationary rates and various things that's something we started adding as we saw the pricing increasing. This is a multiple award contract. It's awarded to the vendor that bidded the low price on the specified item or an acceptable substitute, which is an invitation for bid. So I bring this to you this evening as the estimated value of this contract is $875,000. Thank you very much. Any discussion or questions? Yes, I do. Chair

[00:31:27] so I'm wondering doesn't don't the kids actually have to rent these instruments I can understand tubas and like the big instruments and the very expensive ones like the contrapassoon and those kinds of things but I'm seeing also things like clarinets and oboes so is this is this a new initiative or something that's going on no this is actually for the equipments that go the equipment that goes into our other schools this is not the rental of

[00:32:01] equipment we do have an agreement for rental of equipment if an if a student wants to rent an instrument but this is what we equip our middle schools and high schools with in the way of musical instruments paid for out of CIP and the operating budget I guess my question is that typically the kids rent these instruments a lot of them and they have second instruments like the tuba and the big ones so that they can use them at the school as well as then they have

[00:32:36] maybe something at home so that's I guess I'm confused so this is like a basic outfitting of a school not for every student so each school will have a a certain number of clarinets flutes it could be also to support classes not necessarily you know the marching band where you know you're expected to have an instrument so each school has a certain level of instruments that they have on hand for their use for the instructor if perhaps maybe even if someone's instrument was broken and they loan one out for the day but it's not setting up

[00:33:15] an entire we're not providing like if Watson out in middle middle school has a middle school marching band it's not providing instruments for each band member if that's helpful so it's like a base level of providing instruments to a school and we could have mr. Pearson we could ask him to come to the next meeting so like this could be an example that doesn't go I consent at the next F&O and we can have it on as action and ask mr. Pearson to join us and he could

[00:33:53] answer some of your questions or we can let's entertain a little bit more discussion and then we can kind of keep that in mind I think I would like and after we entertain more discussion because I do yes thank you very much any additional discussion comments I just look forward to the next discussion on this thank you okay so then the recommendation it sounds like is we're gonna move this to action on the next F&O committee meeting and we will look

[00:34:33] for a little bit more update on the question that chairman's field presented and then we will go from there thank you so information item 5.04 would be the next information item do we have any chairman yes I'm also open to talking with him personally after you know before this anyway as well just to get a even more clarification before he comes to the information as well absolutely okay so we'll still keep this on action but you may also get additional

[00:35:11] clarification before that next meeting. Is that what you're saying? Okay. Perfect. Any other questions or comments? All right. So that will be the recommendation then. We'll move on to 5.04 Business Financial Services RFP R20251 Instructional Supplies and Related Services Renewal. And this is presented by Ms. Filian. Presented to you is our fourth of four renewal options on this contract with an optional one-year contract extension available

[00:35:50] for instructional supplies and related services to equip our classrooms this is the contract that the teachers use in order to get their basic necessary supplies in their classroom you will see that the elementary school level they place orders before they leave in June and then the materials are delivered in August ready for them to unload and put into their classrooms I have also included for you as an attachment the market basket the market basket is the most frequently purchased items where we get special pricing and volume discounts for buying such large quantities in our school system then on top of that they do get a percentage

[00:36:29] discount off of catalog items so this is being brought to you to renew the contract with school specialty incorporated for the period march 1 2024 through february 28 2025 thank you very much just a bit of clarification so this is the incumbent vendor and we are recommending exercising that additional renewing for that additional year yes this is the fourth of four renewal so we still have one more contract extension

[00:37:05] languages okay thank you any other discussion or comments questions from members yes miss Griffiths it does look like you're providing a lot of supplies to the schools I can only go by you know the schools asking for donations on a regular basis for supplies so are these supplies listed not lasting from the beginning of the year I'm just trying to understand why as parents we always have to donate supplies and there's always like a there could be a fundraiser or

[00:37:44] whatever you know to to raise money so it looks to me like you're providing a lot of the items that they ask for yes we do I think one of the challenges that that we have experienced over the years you may have heard that there is a new teacher and returning teacher allotment each teacher at LCPS receives an allotment and it's with that money so if you're a returning teacher I think it's $100 and if you're a new teacher I believe it's 200 they use that allotment to then buy off of this contract to buy their their what they need in the

[00:38:23] classroom so they that's how they make the connection they buy off the supply list it's not provided is that what you're saying schools also receive an allotment that then they can also purchase things there's not necessarily I think it's kind of a flip-flop versus I'm hearing you describe of like the district providing something to a school it's rather kind of a flip-flop where the schools purchase what they need so they identify what reason what items what materials that they may want and we provide the contracts for them to buy

[00:39:03] off of so if this school identifies that they need a hundred boxes of crayons and notebooks they use their school allotment to make those purchases it's handled that way through a school allotment because each school has their own unique needs each school also has different communities some supporting them one of the things that I always think is a little find find interesting is that for example a title one school where you think you know we need additional resources one of the things that we have seen sometimes in our

[00:39:42] analysis is they may not use all of their allotment because they receive so many donations from the community I'm not that they are necessarily soliciting those that they just receive those donations so each school receives an allotment each teacher receives an allotment and then they are able to buy what they need for their school and for their classroom what you have described about the wish lists is is something that we struggle with as a division in terms of why that occurs we have looked out I've asked Miss Filia over the last couple years to look at what what is being asked for on those wish lists are

[00:40:21] we not capturing something on one of our contracts and I think the example I gave was like Kleenex for example just remembering whenever I had kids it seemed like Kleenex is something that was always asked for parents to provide are we do we have Kleenex on on our list so that schools can you know make sure that they are able to access those items easily versus trying to you know pay retail so we have also seen when we've done our analysis is that not all of the allotments especially with the teachers are being spent and so again it's working with the schools it's it's an ongoing discussion with the schools and the

[00:40:59] principals to make sure that the schools are utilizing the funds that the district provides as well as continuing to engage conversations with procurement so that we can make sure that they are meeting their needs and not having to do these wish lists what happens to the funds that aren't spent at the school level they they fall the fund balance and then become part of the return that goes to the county or if it was designated you know at the end of the day a bunch of different things fall the fund balance so some of it may become part of the the year-end request that we're going to bring to the school board

[00:41:37] to reallocate for one-time purchases but if not then they fall to the very bottom and they get returned to the county thank you any other questions or discussion thank you chair this is a sore subject with me because I just got I was contacted to bring tissues in just recently which you know it's cold and flu season I feel like those supplies should be on hand for the teachers and I

[00:42:14] think this is a further discussion that we need to have because I know many teachers that are buying their supplies and whatever allotment you're giving them is not enough and if you have supplies left over I I think if there's requests made by the school it should be provided I don't know if you're keeping them in a warehouse if you have things left over items left over you know I'm constantly getting emails can you donate to the school so we should be able to provide a lot of these items without having to ask the parents that are paying

[00:42:53] their taxes to have these items provided already that's just my my thought thank you thank you and just to add to what miss Griffiths is saying I think it's you touched on this miss will be I think it's also that at the school level you know folks are you know maybe under the impression that even when there are funds that there isn't enough money to buy some of the necessary items and so what my question would be what do you think would be the best or recommendation

[00:43:31] from you all to maybe get additional some additional clarity on this or what are we working on I would recommend so this would be a perfect example of a budget initiative regarding like if it's not enough then it would be about increasing the budget allotment which would then increase the budget so what I I would recommend in terms since we're adopting tonight obviously that we add this a future F&O meeting as an information item we could bring information regarding the historical spin pattern how much money is left over related to allotments just kind of bring the whole whole package to this

[00:44:10] committee to begin a discussion that could perhaps inform a budget item for the development of the FY 26 budget thank you for that is there just a head nods their interest among the members to entertain that okay thank you so that sounds like that would be a really good initiative to be able to look at those funds across however you divide it but maybe across the different schools and just to see what's left over and what is fully spent and any other metrics that you can you think would be useful yes miss Griffiths yeah and just to just to

[00:44:49] reiterate that if there are supplies left over and teachers have gone over their allotment they should be able to dip into whatever you have left over wherever you're keeping it requests from the school the principals they should be able to make those requests to you that they're running out of supplies it shouldn't be on the teachers to buy all these supplies out of their pocket because if they go over their allotment they tend to do that or ask for donations and I say this as a parent because for many years they were begging

[00:45:23] me for donations that I didn't understand why aren't we providing these items to them. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Chair Mansfield. Vice -- thank you, Vice Chair Streffi. Would you guys explain the process again?

[00:45:39] Because I think that there's a little muddled there. Because I think that what I'm hearing is that there's an allotment of money. They can go and spend that allotment on this list that you guys have pared down and gotten a good price for those items is that correct yes and thank you for the question that's what I wanted to try to help provide some clarification because I'm hearing a description that presents a picture that we have a warehouse of supplies and we don't so there aren't surplus supplies the district solely provides funding to the schools via an allotment and to the teachers be an

[00:46:15] allotment and then we set up like and again this is a perfect example where school specialty with this they can go online and they can make their own orders because again each school is different each teacher is different so in terms of if a teacher used up it's a their entire allotment then they would have they would need to elevate that to their principal to have a discussion with the principal regarding the overall school allotment and then is there available funding there and historically we generally see that there are there are some schools that will go over if there was still a need beyond that then again

[00:46:52] it would be elevated next to the next level perhaps with like the level director because maybe there's a note you know if this elementary school has used all of their allotment and this elementary school over here is saying you know I'm not going to use it all then absolutely we would support you know moving funds around it's not trying to hamper or restrict any school but again And I think that's where it's, as I mentioned at the very beginning, we recognize this as an ongoing concern and that there needs to be further discussion and working across all 98 schools to try to get everyone on board so that we can meet the needs of all the schools.

[00:47:30] One more question. Yes. So I know that this is, it seems like this is mostly school supplies. I didn't, I might have missed the tissues on here, but there could have been tissues on there. I must have missed it. But this also brings to my point about the HEPA filters.

[00:47:49] We're getting some talk about some teachers who want another HEPA filter. How do they go about doing that? So that is done through a work order process in facilities, and we have purchased another year's worth of supplies for replacing those HEPA filters.

[00:48:05] I will say that they are units that were bought during COVID, and so they won't last forever, and our program is not to replace them as we have one more year of filters, but then we'll start aging those out in the next year or so any additional discussion or questions yes just one more ideally what I would love to see and what I think would be fantastic is if all the schools I and they may have it already and maybe you can tell me because you said you don't warehouse

[00:48:38] anything if they have a supply room with all these items in case the teachers run out and so on and went over their allotment do you happen to know if they're keeping a good portion of the supplies on site last school year I went out to several schools to meet with principals and actually talk to them about the allotments so again as I said like this this is definitely a we recognize issue and and I share the you know the frustration because you know us seeing

[00:49:13] the wish list it frustrates us because it does paint the picture like that that the divisions not doing something but yet we also see these leftover funds whenever I went out to schools each school that I visited had a very distinct model of how they manage their allotments how they manage the supplies that they purchased I saw what what you have described of literally like a closet where teachers could come up and they could pick from from you know their stash of supplies I've seen others where it was very the administration was

[00:49:50] very more kind of decentralized where each teacher was just here's your allotment you know get what you need I've seen others where they consolidated the teachers allotment to perhaps get me on better buying power so each school has their model and we've really tried to allow the flexibility because again each school is different but give them the the structure and the kind of the guardrails of what they can and can't do but I definitely appreciate the question and I think this is like a perfect example that kind of goes back to 501 of items to bring to F&O to me this is like a perfect example for this

[00:50:28] committee to do a deeper dive discussion and see where you know where there could be improvements thank you very much any other discussion or comments okay so what we'll do is we'll disconnect I mean my recommendation would be just to disconnect kind of that discussion and I would go ahead and recommend this item move to the consent agenda on the next F&O meeting so we'll go ahead and move forward that recommendation and we'll move on to 5.05

[00:51:02] Business and Financial Services, RFP, R24254, American Sign Language, ASL, Interpreter Services. Ms. Filial? I really am trying to get to the end of my list. Thank you for your patience. This contract brought before you is a new contract that was awarded for American Sign Language Services.

[00:51:23] These services are provided by qualified state-certified ASL interpreters. We provide these services, the Department of Human Resources and Talent Development will provide these services to adults needing interpretation services, and then special education uses this contract for any students needing ASL interpreter services.

[00:51:46] Therefore, the budget that is hiring that individual for a meeting or whatever the case may be, actually would be the budget that pays for the services. You will see that we have multiple vendors awarded on this contract as well. That is primarily due to demand.

[00:52:03] We want to make sure that we have that interpreter available when we need them due to the companies hiring and having issues getting someone or illness or whatever we need to have a multiple list of vendors available to us. So, I bring this new contract award before you this evening to award the American Sign Language Interpreter Services contract for March 1, 2024, through February 28, 2025.

[00:52:29] Thank you very much. Any discussion or questions? Yes, Ms. Griffiths. Now, this is a contract for, let's say, the superintendent has an event and he needs somebody to translate, correct? Yes, that is correct.

[00:52:44] so it is possible to find ASL people we're struggling with teachers right now in ASL so I'm just curious to know I only I only have one example from the other night when I was allowed in academies where we had two people doing sign language to each other and the reason you have to yeah every session is they can only interpret for such a period of time and then they need a break yes if someone shows up so they may have very well been practicing as well but they need to be there in the event we have someone that is hearing

[00:53:22] impaired and needs those interpreter services joining us at the table is Jeanette Evans she is the director a director within human resources talent development who oversees the ASL for adults so we use interpreters also at graduations you'll see two interpreters at each graduation when members of the public make a request it is you're right it's very challenging to find find interpreters and that's why we have the multiple agencies so that we can reach out to more than just one agency to provide services and also for our deaf

[00:54:00] and hard of hearing staff I just can't help but think how badly we need them for special education special education courses I know this is getting away and this is from that and this is a contract for you know just to have a translation but for like dr. Spence or dr. Smith but I guess what I'm trying to say the fact that we're able to contract and we're not able to find the teachers just

[00:54:37] astounds me we really need those people I do have an example of a class that took place last year one ASL teacher and I know I'm getting away from your contract but when I see ASL I think about that situation where we had kids in three different locations one teacher on video screen and she could not see what was going on in all the classes the kids were not paying attention it was it was a disaster I don't know I mean we're able to contract with a company but we're not able to find the teachers which astounds me so that's why I'm bringing

[00:55:16] that up but I am getting away from what this is about I just wanted to to voice that that that's a concern thank you any other discussion or questions thank you very much so based on no other discussion we'll just move forward with the recommendation that this be brought as a consent agenda item on the next

[00:55:46] Finance and Operations Committee meeting so moving on to information item 5.06 business financial services IFB I two four three two three library furniture for LCPS school system and Miss Filia this particular contract is also done on an annual basis this as you will see is to equip Henrietta Lacks and Watson Mountain Middle with their library furniture for the start of the school year as well as any ongoing needs you are going to see that this is a unique

[00:56:22] award if you notice under the summary it talks about us grouping like items within an invitation for bid we reserve the right to group like items many times we will group those items I'm in this case we need the color to match on everything so we need to buy from the same vendor so we get the same lot of material and the same color another example you'll see is toner cartridges will award you know some machines take four different toner cartridges will award it to one vendor so when a financial tech needs to order them they can get them all from the same vendor.

[00:56:55] You'll also see on here that you've seen on other ones, sometimes we'll have no bid on a line or no award. No award is due to no vendor bid on the specified item, and the substitutes were not acceptable. And then no bid, nobody bid.

[00:57:11] But what we will do in those instances, we will go out and get quotes for the specified items to make sure we're getting the best pricing possible. So I did want to share that with you because I know down in the summary you're seeing a lot of line item numbers, And that's why you're seeing those various line item numbers, because our invitations for bid we can award in total by group of like items or by individual line item.

[00:57:33] And that's what we've done here, is a series of that. So I'm presenting to you the library furniture contract for new schools and ongoing needs, which will be effective from March 1, 2024 through February 28, 2025. Thank you very much. Any discussion or questions?

[00:57:52] Yes, Chair Mansfield. Thank you, Chair Streffi. I just wanted to say thank you for, it looks like there's some flexible seating in here, and I appreciate that. Thank you for thinking about that. Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and move forward with the recommendation to move this on consent agenda for the next Finance and Operations Committee meeting.

[00:58:19] Moving on to Information Item 5.07, Business and Financial Services, RFP R24253, Benefits Consulting and Actuarial Services. I believe in my tenure, this is the first time this contract has been brought forward for approval.

[00:58:39] In the past, we have used cooperative contracts for our consulting and actuarial services. Cooperatives, as Ms. Willoughby mentioned to you previously, we decided due to the number of benefits we're looking at, the number of new initiatives, the amount of financial analytical work that goes into our benefits, to put out our own solicitation.

[00:58:59] The recommended and awarded vendor is Aon Consulting that has done some financial work for us in the past. It is contingent upon contract approval, I will add that, because we were working out the details of the contract as we brought this before you. So you will see this contract is going to actually be providing Ms. Evans' area with benefit consulting, helping us develop RFPs as we look to go out for new initiatives or improved initiatives, and financial analytical work that will benefit Ms. Evans' area as well as Mr. Jones, our Director of Budget and Financial Analytics.

[00:59:33] Thank you. Any discussion? I'll just start off just by asking for a little bit additional clarity on the work that we've done with Aon in the past, and a little bit more context as to why we're moving forward with them in this contract.

[00:59:51] And then separately, would we make the recommendation to move this to action or consent? Just thinking about the fact that this is contingent upon contract approval. So just wanted to get some clarity around that.

[01:00:07] So I can speak to the Aon piece. Aon currently is providing our workers' comp actuarial assessments and our IB and our incurred but not recorded information on workers' compensation. The consultant contract, the RFP we went out for covered our health insurance as well as workers compensation 403b vendors they had the winning bid I will add that this did go through the formal RFP process that I mentioned to you previously we actually opened it up for competition to see what else was out

[01:00:45] there I believe we received I think six responses to it and so we evaluated all six we ranked them we brought in the top two we did interviews with them and then And also, I would like to bring it back as action primarily because we still are in contract negotiations.

[01:01:04] Understood. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments? So then let's move this to action on the next Finance and Operations Committee meeting. Moving on to Information Item 5.08, Business and Financial Services, IFB, I23321, HVAC filters for ongoing needs, renewal.

[01:01:25] This is actually my last one, I promise. This is a renewal for HVAC filters. So these are not your HEPA filters but the actual HVAC filters. We did this as a new contract last year to try to get a competitive price and the best price we could.

[01:01:42] And then we did see a 10 percent increase in costs this time around, but that was due to increase in materials that are used to make the HVAC and freight costs. So due to those increases, we did see a 10 percent increase. The current contract expires February 29, 2024, and this is the first renewal from March 1, 2024 through February 28, 2025 for the HVAC filters from Air Cleaning Technologies.

[01:02:11] Thank you very much. Any questions or discussion? Yes. Does the funding for the HVAC, does that come out of the CIP program? The funding for the HVAC filters comes out of our facility services budget. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion?

[01:02:31] Seeing none. it looks like we'll make a recommendation for this to be on the consent agenda in the next financial finance and operations committee meeting moving on to information item 5.09 support services professional services construction and construction contract approval process so this item is being presented as an information item for this committee only at this time what we'll talk about the purpose of this item is to document the processes and procedures regarding school board award of professional services and capital construction contracts

[01:03:11] so what i'll talk about is what was agreed to previously what has changed since then and what we're recommending going forward with regards to these processes back in june of 2020 an information item was presented to the committee to document these processes and included the following processes and procedures so the first one is upon initiation of a solicitation for a request for qualifications for building design services staff would present an information item to the committee including key documents our design standards and those kinds of

[01:03:46] things so what that means is prior to award of a contract to an architect we would present the criteria for what goes into design of the school for example I call it the recipe for the school right what are the things that how many classrooms would we have how big is a site some of those things would be presented that time the second item is that upon completion of bidding an award for construction staff would present an action item so when we did a construction contract we would present that for action to the committee that

[01:04:23] was the other part of it and third part was if there's something that wasn't included in the CIP and the committee may not be familiar with it we would present that as an information item and then followed by an action item and that was what agreed to back in 2020 so what's changed since then starting in FY 24 our design standard requirements have been added as an appendix in the capital improvement program so what I reference in that first paragraph is now documented as a standard that recipe I mentioned with regards to how we develop our schools so we're recommending going forward is because these are documented

[01:05:01] all new school projects including the CIP will incorporate these standards and each building and site design will be presented to this committee as an information item at the schematic design phase what that means is we're following the design guidelines that we have documented and we will come to this committee with drawings and sketches to show what the school will look like and how all the you know how we interpreted that criteria at this particular school the next two items haven't changed so if we have a contract award for a cip project we bring

[01:05:38] that as an action item if it's a non-cip project we will bring that as an information item and lastly request for easements well this is new will be presented as an action item slash consent for school board consideration thank you very much yes I have one thing last night we presented at Parkview high school with schematic designs of the school and that was part of our process to go out and and get feedback from the community a very similar presentation that we did last night will be coming to this committee so that we have the full board

[01:06:17] having seen what we're providing to the community and to the uh to the contractor so that's part of that information process so we won't put a project out the bid that you all haven't seen what it's going to look like and so that was a preview you got last night at that meeting mr streffi was there for that meeting and so we'll bring that same very similar presentation here okay thank you that was you actually answered my first question which was you know the this process is pretty long in general at what point does it reach this committee and you've pretty much answered that thank you yes chairman thank you chair Straffi so what if that recipe changes will you bring that to the board I mean

[01:06:54] because like right now we're talking about different kinds of bathrooms and things like that and what if there's a change in the recipe we would if there were significant changes in that recipe we would bring that to the board yes Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? And I noticed that one of the items here is that once the bidding and the recommendation of award is done for that contract, it'll come directly as an action item.

[01:07:32] And maybe you can just give a little bit of a background as to, you know, what brought that on. So one of the things to remember is when we're bidding a major construction project is bidders will only hold their bids for so long. so we we say that we are required when they submit a bid to us at the bid table they'll hold their bids for 30 days the process we have built in with this committee for information action then to the board information action it took us two months to get a an approval and so we've outlived our bid hold period so one of our ways things we're trying to do is try to find a way to make sure that you all had the information you need that's why we're posting it and put it in the cip and it's a whole

[01:08:11] chapter in the cip what these standards are so you have that information and then we would not bring any project to you that was on the capital budget um that you so anything that you had seen in the capital budget we would come straight to action item c was if it's a project that wasn't in the cip and i don't have a good example of that then we would bring this information action so you would have the opportunity to see the whole thing so during the cip development you have the information item as such and then we come there and it's partly built into the fact we really need to get the contractor rolling and in many cases we have summer projects and if we don't time it just right

[01:08:48] if we have a snow day like we did one time we have a you know items postponed then we miss a window for the contractor to act so we're just trying to make sure that we get you the information you need and can get these contracts rolling i appreciate that that makes plenty of sense any other discussion or questions okay thank you very much um and there is no recommendation or action on this it's just an info pure information that's correct so we're providing this process for this this committee so it doesn't really thank you very much for the background we'll move on to the next and last information item 5.10 support services

[01:09:24] acceleration of capital asset preservation program cap projects mr. Lewis yes sir mr. woehead our director of facilities operations is going to walk us through this item good evening I'm bringing forward an information item informing you of the accelerated award of three FY 25 or 26 cap projects to address premature equipment failure. This is being done to prevent impacts to instruction or extracurricular activities. The first two projects are for the rebuilding of chillers at Legacy Elementary School and Briarwood High School. Ordinarily, these projects are done on a 10-year

[01:10:00] lifespan. During our preventative maintenance inspections this winter, we found these two units to have leaks that need to be rebuilt. If not rebuilt before the start of cooling season, we could see unexpected outcomes preventing chilled water to be processed and then move towards the HVAC equipment. If it's not done now, it could be a two-week outage if done during the school after an unexpected failure. The third project I described is the ahead-of-schedule replacement of the Dominion High School artificial turf. This turf, which is under warranty, has

[01:10:35] experienced premature failure, causing the fibers to shed, mat, and then pull away from the backing. This project was ordinarily planned for a summer of 2025, but due to the extensive failures of the fibers, we need to replace it ahead of schedule to prevent possible safety concerns.

[01:10:55] Thank you very much. We'll entertain discussion. Chair Mansfield. Yes, Chair Streffi. So I think I read that because it was old, it is now going to be different. Yes. And so is that an increased cost, or are they going to be giving us that with warranty?

[01:11:14] so i think you're speaking of the dominion high school artificial turf correct it is an outdated spec as part of the warranty they would replace it or repair it we don't want that existing so we're using that value that they would provide as a warranty towards a new project so we'll update with a new shock attenuation pad we'll provide it's a currently an outdated fiber so we'll provide a better fiber with different infill which is the material that keeps the fibers going straight up and down so to answer your question in short i i should have done yes we will be upgrading it but we are getting value from the existing material that has failed so um we're still working through

[01:11:53] the final process but it should be the prorated cost it's a normally an eight-year process or an eight-year warranty we're getting six years of use out of it so in theory it should be two years worth of value so are we paying above you're saying are we are we going to be paying more for the updated materials i guess just to be clear yes we will be paying for a better product a better product okay thanks and that is an fy25 it was budgeted for the upgraded project thank you perfect if i could add a little bit of context um one of the questions we anticipated was how

[01:12:30] you're going to pay for that since you're accelerating it so one of the things that we have in the capital improvement plan is two areas of the of the cip the cap the capital asset preservation plan and a capital renewal and alterations sections both of those sections of the CIP have multiple miscellaneous smaller projects still capital in nature that we have some flexibility with the funding so from the board of supervisors they each one of those gets funded to us in a lump sum so we have some flexibility with those values in that and this year we were fortunate that some of our other projects came in under budget so we have some flexibility in that thing in that budget so we're sharing with the board

[01:13:09] we do believe we have the authority just to do that we want to be transparent make sure you're aware of what we're doing so we're moving those projects up from those later years into the current year and using that excess fund from the low bids we got on the other projects so it's fortunate for us we have two three early failures and some some you know some surplus funding in that area to be able to accomplish that so it's not costing anyone anymore we're still spending the expendable amount, and we'll revisit this this fall in the CIP and reallocate those funds for the projects we moved.

[01:13:45] That makes sense. Thank you for that additional context. Any other questions or discussion? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and move on to new business. Is there any new business?

[01:14:02] No new business? Okay. With that said, we'll go ahead and move on to adjourn this meeting. I move to adjourn the February 6th Finance and Operations Committee meeting.

[01:14:20] Do I have a motion? I've motioned it. Oh, I've adjourned it. We're already adjourned, folks. Thank you very much.

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