Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 56m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/930085062?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.

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

[00:00:36] - Good afternoon, I call to order this April 2nd, 2024 Loudoun County School Board Finance and Operations Committee. Chair Streffi will not be here this afternoon and I'll be serving as chair in his place. Do we have any public comment?

[00:00:52] No. Okay, so we will not start with public comment. We'll move on to action item 4.01 from the Department of Support Services, the contract award for IFB number 24-528, construction of Centerville Farm Drive.

[00:01:14] And I'll now entertain a motion regarding the contract award for IFB number 24-528. I need you to...

[00:01:30] I'll move that the Finance and Operation Committee recommend to the Loudoun County School Board to approve the contract award of IFB number 24-528, construction of Centerville Farm Drive, project William A. Hazel Incorporation in the amount of $8,495,000 and authorizes the chair of the school board to sign the final contract documents upon presentation. Do I have a second?

[00:01:58] I'll second that. So the motion has been properly moved and seconded. And before I ask for discussion, Mr. Lewis, would you please give us a brief overview of this item with any relevant updates? I'm going to ask Mr. Pasquarelli, Director of Construction, to provide that overview for you.

[00:02:14] Hi good afternoon. So this project was approved by the Board of Supervisors back in April of last year to be transferred to Lawton County Public Schools. And following that, in June of that year they approved the funding transfer in the addition of this, the school board approved the funding transfer in the addition of this project to our CIP.

[00:02:39] Following that, in October, the school board approved some supplementary funding for the project, which we determined was needed to complete the road project. And we received bids March 19th of this year. We received two bids, and William A. Hazel bid was found to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for that project.

[00:03:03] With that, I'll take any questions that you have. If you don't mind, Madam Chair, I'll add one item. This is to provide a second entrance to both Woodgrove and Mountain View Elementary School campus and was at one point a part of a development by the county to build a park in that area.

[00:03:22] And the county has since withdrawn their park plans, and so they transferred the money to us to build the road. So they kept the road as part of that. So it's a great thing for us. It allows us to get a second entrance into those two schools, which is critical. And so that's why we're building the road in case that came to mind as part of that project.

[00:03:40] Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Thank you, Mr. Pasquarelli. Do you have any questions? Okay, so I don't think that's any of his discussion. We'll now vote on the motion that the Finance and Operations Committee recommend to the Loudoun County School Board to approve that the contract award of IFB number 24-528 Construction of Centerville Farm Drive Project to William A. Hazel Incorporation in the amount of $8,495,000 and authorizes the chair of the school board to sign the final contract documents

[00:04:14] upon presentation. All those in favor? Aye. This motion passes with two and Mr. Estreffi is absent for the vote. And if you guys would excuse me, I forgot that we needed to go ahead and vote on the draft minutes. So we'll back up a little bit and move on to agenda item 3.01, the draft minutes for march 5th 2024 meeting do we have any changes to the minutes i don't think you were here so

[00:04:52] no so um i don't have any changes um i'll now entertain a motion to approve the midget the minutes i'll enter i'll entertain it but i i wasn't here for the last meeting so i apologize so i'll have a motion i'll move to approve the draft minutes is there a second i second it's been properly moved and seconded to approve the draft minutes and all those favor of approving the draft minutes aye and it passes with two and mr astraffy absent for the

[00:05:30] vote um let's see so we're going to have a little change in our information items as to the um the order that they are in so i think that we will first start with item 5.03 from the department business and finance rfp number r20252 architectural engineering services for miscellaneous projects

[00:06:09] renewal presented by mrs filia director of procurement good evening and thank you i have before you this evening a renewal on our miscellaneous architectural engineering services as you can see in the item these services are used for a variety of projects including school and school support facility planning, building assessments, space planning, new construction renovations, occupied renovations, and additions.

[00:06:38] The vendors that are on the current contract agreed to renew with no increases in price, and they are listed there in the summary. This new renewal will be effective from May 1, 2024, through April 30, 2025, and this is the final renewal option for this contract.

[00:06:58] Thank you, Mrs. Filiati. Do you have any questions? I do have a question. It's come to my attention that, and if you were at the board meeting, we had several people that wanted more storage in the theaters.

[00:07:15] Is that where this would come from? So it is possible. So we use these architectural contracts for smaller projects, so likely that would be the case. If we were to do the storage as a part of a larger project, it may be that the architects would be chosen, selected specifically for that particular project.

[00:07:39] We do have some plans for some interim solutions to those that may not involve architects at all. But if we do need to get a permit, so this is where we would use those to hire those consultants. - Would it also be for the lighting for the theaters as well?

[00:07:55] - It could be, yes. - Will you have a plan on that one? Whether you're using the money from here or as you mentioned, you may not need to to use the money from from here can you clarify that question I'm not sure well do you have a plan on how you're going I'm just curious if you have a plan yet on how you're going to do these storage spaces yes it's actually already been defined in the CIP the challenge we have right now is it's not in one of the first years of the CIP because we had some restructuring of

[00:08:31] some projects over the last couple years and we had to to push some projects out further that included some of these projects some of the baseball and softball press boxes the weight room expansions those types of things got moved around some so we'll have a full explanation of that plan for the board this fall as we talk about the cip the interim project that we're hoping to be able to do some maybe even this summer um will will hopefully be able to do and help the schools get through but until we're able to do these longer term projects but i will say that it's a it's a long-term project and it will not be done in the next couple of years at all of our schools

[00:09:07] and we have that project we identified this issue with the most recent probably last 10 or 15 years this great expansion of the fine arts programs in all of our schools including the band and music and choir and drama all those spaces have just become not enough in all of our schools we have this problem in in all 17 of our schools actually 15 of the two new ones we have more space in there So it's a pretty big project and it's not going to be solved quickly.

[00:09:37] The only reason why I bring it up is because I think parents or the students, the theater students, want to get an idea if this is being worked on and they'll see something. But I feel like, unfortunately, some of the kids that spoke will have been graduated at that point.

[00:09:56] And is there any way to do it any sooner? I don't think so, but what I'll do is how about if I can get with you and I'll share with you what the plan is right now and the timeline for the plan and share how the funding process works throughout the CIP.

[00:10:12] It's in the FY25 adopted CIP document, but I can point you to where it is and share with how it is. And then so a decision to make those projects go quicker would be that of the boards this fall when we present.

[00:10:28] So we'll come back to the board and present all of the projects, and then, you know, you can help us prioritize or make the prioritizations of when and where the projects are done. I look forward to seeing that. Thank you so much. Yep. Hey, I don't have any questions, but I know this would be brought back to the committee for action next time.

[00:10:49] And you have the option to either bring it back to committee as action or consent. You can give us your direction of how we could bring that back. I think we need more time on it. No, you may recall just the consent.

[00:11:05] So, for example, there are a handful of RFP awards that you will hear from Ms. Phil Yaw about. And so, hypothetically, if all those were sent to consent at the next committee meeting, it would just be one action, similar to with the school board meeting, that you're able to address multiple items with one action versus going through each individual.

[00:11:25] Well, let me ask, consenting to this, would it help move any quicker? to, you know, when we were going to discuss all these plans? I mean, if we already consent to it. So what we're talking about now is just the approval of this contract to renew this contract for them.

[00:11:48] And so what we're saying is at the next meeting when we come back, you can either take it as an action item and address it and take action on it individually, or you can group them with others just like we do at the board meetings and say all these information items will be grouped and you just approve them on consent.

[00:12:05] So either way, this contract will be approved at the next Finance Committee meeting, so it won't speed up or slow down either way. What it will do is save time in this meeting at the next meeting to just group them with consent. So I have here in the board docs that it'll be brought forward to the finance and operations as an accident item, and then possibly on the school board consent agenda after we vote on it, is that?

[00:12:35] That's correct, but you also have the option to put it on the consent for this committee meeting just to make that the next meeting go a little quicker. There's no real action on this anyway.

[00:12:52] It's not something that we would vote on. Yes, ma'am. I think it would be better to go to the full board as an action item, like later. Like after we do consent here and then it goes for information the next time so that we can have more information.

[00:13:10] No? I think we're getting confused. So the process, so at the next committee meeting, you will take action. It's just a matter of you're going to take individual action on this specific, so you will make a motion at the next meeting for this specific RFP and then another motion for the next RFP, or if you want to place it on the Finance Committee consent and you do one action.

[00:13:36] So regardless, just as Mr. Lewis said, at the next meeting, this contract would be approved. It's more about having a more efficient meeting at the next committee meeting if this committee desires that but i i did understand that um the thought was that perhaps maybe there was going to be a conversation between people but that's fine um so let's

[00:14:04] all right well then the recommendation will be good to go to consent agenda this time for for this committee at this time next time all right the next one looks like the next one that will be item 5.04, Department of Business and Finance, RFP number R23252, Geotechnical and Construction

[00:14:37] Testing Service Renewal, presented by Ms. Filial. Is that correct? Yes, thank you very much. This is also an annual contract that is up for renewal, and one of the things to keep in mind is when I bring these contracts before you, it is to continue the contract itself. It's not for a specific project. It's for geotechnical services for any project that may need to utilize those services.

[00:15:04] So the current contract for this one expires April 30th. We need a new contract in place May 1st. So what's brought to you this evening is the renewal. The vendors did agree, the same vendors did agree to no price increase to continue providing services to Loudoun County Public Schools during the next contract year this is the first renewal option for this contract as we did a new solicitation for it this past year so i present it to you this evening for consideration to put on

[00:15:38] the next agenda as either an action or a consent item i'm happy with the consent for next for next time and we'll move on to item 5.06 department of business and finance ifp number q558 787 petroleum products renewal by mrs filial this is brought to you this is an agreement a contract

[00:16:17] that we have done with the town of leesburg as well as the county of loudon for our petroleum products which includes our heating oil and some diesel you'll see that the estimated value of the heating fuel oil is $610,000 and the diesel fuel is $10,000. This is part of the facility services appropriated budget and brought for you this evening to continue the services with Valley Energy Company from May 1, 2024 through April 30, 2025.

[00:16:49] Is there any discussion? Do you have any questions? I do not. Okay, so thank you, Ms. Filiot.

[00:17:06] This will come back for as an action item on April 16th. Is that what I'm... You also have an option to do consent.

[00:17:24] Okay. We can just go ahead and do consent because it's just a contract. It looks like the next one in order is 5.

[00:17:44] 07, Department of Business and Finance, RFP back of the envelope audit renewal presented by Ms. Filio. Yes, this is an annual contract.

[00:18:02] This is the last renewal on this contract. We will be going out to solicitation again later this year for these services. And the value of this is approximately $35 million, which is the combined energy conservation projects and HVAC system replacements at Balls Bluff and Potomac Elementary Schools.

[00:18:22] And this contract will be effective from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. Do you have any questions? I do not. Okay, we can bring this back to the Committee for Consent Agenda for April 16th, I guess.

[00:18:46] April 16th, 2024. The next item would be Item 5.08, Department of Business and Finance, RFP No. R21268, Security Guard Services, Renewal, presented by Ms. Filia.

[00:19:12] Ms. Filia. Thank you. This is the third of four renewals on this annual contract. The new contract will start July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. This is to provide security guard services at our various locations, including supervision, labor, materials, personal supplies, and equipment to support those on-site guards and ensure secure facilities.

[00:19:38] And this will be awarded to Allied Universal Security Services. Is there any discussion? Yes, I have some questions. I guess my first question is, why do we need to contract with an outside security company when LCPS has their own security personnel and we have SROs?

[00:20:09] Mr. Clark is not here to respond to that, but I'll offer that the SSOs, which are the school security officers that report to each of the schools, Those are LCPS employees, and they are there at each of the schools to provide that interaction with the student body and the staff.

[00:20:30] The SROs, who are Loudoun County Sheriff's Department deputies, are assigned to each of our schools, middle and high schools, and then they do share some time at the elementary schools. Those are Loudoun County Sheriff's Department employees and only work during the school days for us.

[00:20:46] The security guard services manage a number of other things. We do have some visitor management at our schools, so some of our schools have one of those assigned. Like a school that doesn't have an SRO may have a security guard placed at their school. They also do things like you see them here for our board meetings, and they do security for those things.

[00:21:03] So it's a totally different job description, and so each of them has their different roles and sets of qualifications. Well, I'd like to mention that prior to June 2021, the LCSO was providing security at school board meetings.

[00:21:23] Why can't we return to that? So that is something I would take back to Mr. Clark and Dr. Smith as well. Those are negotiations through the sheriff's department that I'm no longer a part of. At one time, that was under my area.

[00:21:38] So I'll take that back and ask them to provide that summary. What I would like to see is maybe somebody from the LCSO come and give an update on where we are today with security. Would that be possible? I'll take that back to Dr. Smith.

[00:21:55] I don't think that would be, at this point, I don't think they're involved in our security, so I'm not sure it would be appropriate for them. I think it's probably better if Dr. Smith or Mr. Clark provided that, at least initially, and then we can take that farther if you had more questions. But I'll ask them that. And as far as Allied goes, do they carry guns?

[00:22:13] What kind of training do they have? some of them do you can see them here at the board meeting not all of them do but I would also defer that to Mr. Clark and Dr. Smith as well we'll ask Mr. Clark to attend the next meeting so this would probably be a good example of an item to be placed as an action versus consent so that they're so any other questions I have not today well we can certainly take them back and let him know so they can prepare for the meeting but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to answer that's just not my area of responsibility at this point so we're we're trying to provide as much information as can and we're happy to take those questions back to them. So is it better for me to

[00:22:52] email you my questions? Sure that'd be great. Okay if there's no more discussion then we'll bring this back for action next time and we'll ask that Mr. Clark come and also with Mrs. Griffiths questions. I think I'm okay for now.

[00:23:29] Okay moving along we'll go to 5. 05 we'll go back up. Department of business and finance rfp number r18172 k through 12 mathematics textbook and resources renewal

[00:23:48] presented by miss filial miss filial okay yes this is the um this is the renewal for our mathematics textbooks we went through math was actually the first program where we went through the formal adoption process per policy all the way through the solicitation award evaluation by teachers

[00:24:24] that's all in your packet there available to you and it is time to renew this contract and this is actually a one-year renewal from July 1 through June 30th 2025 the value of this contract is 1.5 million dollars and as you can see in your item I believe all the other relevant information that is available there for you.

[00:24:51] - Do you have any questions? - I do not. - So I'll just say that I had some questions that I got answered before this meeting. Something that I was concerned about was that we have new SOL standards that were adopted for mathematics and these would still take the old standards, but my understanding is that VDOE needs time to make their recommendations to and that's why we're having a year grace period so there were

[00:25:28] some questions about that so i just wanted to get that out all right and then so this can be put if there's no questions about this we can put this back on consent okay so now we'll go to 5. 10

[00:26:05] which is support services grant of easement to the board of supervisors of loudon county Virginia and Loudoun County Sanitation Authority, DBA, Loudoun Water at Sicklin Creek Elementary School, presented by Mr. Pascarelli, Director of Construction.

[00:26:28] Yes, thank you. So the county is planning on building a fire and rescue station on the other side of Evergreen Mills from where Sicklin Creek Elementary School is now. So they've requested an easement from us in order to get water service to this new building.

[00:26:45] And just as a matter of process to explain a little bit what we do when we get these requests is we review these internally as well as our internal civil engineer. We make sure that there's no potential conflicts with anything on the site or any planned work we have on the site.

[00:27:01] In addition to that, we have our LCPS counsel review the deed language as well to make sure that he's comfortable with any language that we're committing to. So that's just a little bit on our process on these easements because we do seem to have quite a few of these lately do you have any questions I do not thank you Mr. Pasquarelli I think this can move to our I guess it would move to our consent item for next

[00:27:37] time and I think it's 4 57 now do we want to do one more and then adjourn you think four to five no or is it 4 30 or 5 30 it's 4 30 5 30 sorry it's been a long night long day 4 30 5 30 already Okay, keep on going.

[00:28:05] Okay, so the next one will be 509 Support Services School Board Policies 6210, Student Transportation Annual Review of Walk Zones, presented by Mr. Kenneth Scott Davies, Director of Transportation.

[00:28:23] Is that correct? Mr. Davies. Good evening. So I'm Scott Davies. I'm the Director of Transportation. And every year we go through the... We're trying to get it to project.

[00:29:14] chair mansfield while they work out the technical issues um the next item 501 which was our ninth

[00:30:03] prioritized item is a fairly short item oh never mind i stole just enough to have it apologize for that um so every year we conduct uh each most of our schools have a walk zone that's associated with that school it's essentially a transportation exclusion zone um that students that reside within that zone that are pretty close to the school for elementary that that boundary is within one mile of the school one mile walking measured from along a walking path from the front

[00:30:38] door of the school to the property line of the of the of the students each year we conduct a review of each of the schools of each of the campuses in the surrounding neighborhoods look for new infrastructure look for look for signs if there's construction if there's unsafe areas and we make adjustments accordingly and if we have new construction things of that nature or things that we overlooked in the past we'll make adjustments uh either by enlarging the the walk zone or and we have a couple in this case that we are actually reducing um so every year

[00:31:17] this requires us to to do a thorough review that begins in november time frame and usually concludes right after the holidays and then we present that to uh to the fno committee finance and operations committee and then it goes to the to the school board as an information item we contact the public all the affected parties and we sent notices three times this is one that the previous board had requested that required us or requested that we notify affected parties affected families at least three times so we sent out messages last week the week before last and

[00:31:53] yesterday last night to notify families that that this was going to be taking place so they could could come and participate and make comments and then we send out official written notices in the mail and by email in by no later than June 1st and then then there's an appeals process that takes place after that if there's any any concerns and then they become effective next the fact makes for the next school year so this gives you a brief timeline of what the walk zone process looks like so as I mentioned it begins in November goes to the the we

[00:32:30] update our maps we do surveys in the field we bring it to the committee here in April next month we'll notify the principals and then we'll go through the notification to households and then there's the appeals process that follows the the policy that governs walk zones is policy 6210 and that specifies the one mile walking distance from the front door of an elementary school to to the to the property line and one and a quarter mile for secondary schools and then there's an exception rule so if you have cul-de-sacs or other isolated areas that

[00:33:10] are within uh within a given neighborhood that say you had to go to the end that that the end of that cul-de-sac had fell outside of that one mile zone but was within uh for elementary within a tenth of a mile or two-tenths of a mile for secondary we could include that as well so you didn't have to have an an this isolated odd oddly placed bus stop uh in the middle of a walk zone or within a neighborhood that's within the walk zone.

[00:33:36] So that's what that is for, and it's essentially to cover those unique circumstances. We don't have very many of those. We don't usually, they're a little controversial, so we don't generally utilize that exception rule often.

[00:33:53] And then this policy 62-10 also covers the review and modification process, which I outlined earlier, and the notification process for when households are either losing their transportation or gaining it.

[00:34:14] This also covers, we work closely with the LCSL crossing guard unit. So all the crossing guards are employees of the sheriff's office. And so we work very closely with their supervisor on proposing new locations for crossing guards, putting in crosswalks, and we work with VDOT for doing that.

[00:34:35] Right now we have, we do not have crossing guards at high schools. All of our crossing guards are elementary and middle. And right now we have 34 crossing guards at elementary in that there are 29 different schools. And six of those positions are currently unfilled.

[00:34:50] And when they're unfilled, they're covered by an LCSO deputy. So you'll see a squad car out there with a uniformed officer filling that vacancy. And then for middle school, we have 16 crossing guards at seven middle schools. And then again, as I mentioned, there's not in high schools.

[00:35:08] For this year, for this annual review, you can see here the list of schools that are impacted and the reason for the proposed change. So I don't need to walk through each individual line, but like Buffalo Trail is one that is the result of an annual review.

[00:35:28] And for Catoctin, there's new construction associated in that neighborhood. and there's 22 students that will be affected by the inclusion of that new construction within the walk zone. So for each, this is what gets posted on our website once the review process is completed.

[00:35:50] For Buffalo Trail, you can see here in the yellow, this is the additional homes that are within, that fall within the one mile limit, and they would be included in next year's walk zone. there's seven residential seven students that are that would be that fall within that yellow highlighted area that would right now they have a bus stop they would not have a bus stop going forward next year and you can see the maximum walking distance as measured on the ground along

[00:36:22] the sidewalks is 0.89 miles that's up in the upper corner there for catoctin elementary school there's a new development that's completing construction right here this is all brand new and there is a new connection to the back side of the school right here and I showed a picture of that that sidewalk that's been installed that and there'll be a gate installed there on the back side of the field for Catoctin Elementary and so all the students that reside within will be able to walk through that gate directly to the school and there are 22 students record that are there

[00:37:01] that have been identified there this is Elaine Thompson so again this is all new construction on the west side of the school, and we are working with LCSO to have it, and they've proposed a crossing guard here at this intersection, and we'll also be working with VDOT to install a, actually, this is not VDOT property, so we'll just be installing, working with the developer to install a crosswalk there for the crossing guard.

[00:37:31] This is Farmwell Station Middle School. No students are affected, but just for consistency's sake, This is the senior living center.

[00:37:52] On occasion, there may be a student that might pop in there so that might reside there. So we wanted, for consistency's sake, wanted to include that in the walk zone even though there are no students that reside there and right now there are no students that would be impacted by this change.

[00:38:09] And the maximum distance there is 1.13 miles. Hillsborough, Hillsborough has undertaken a lot of many infrastructure improvements the last few years installing sidewalks they've installed a new sidewalk on the west side of the of the town and that has provided access to the highlighted area here as well as over here and again no students are impacted by this but just for consistency so we're applying the the um the policy consistently across the board as part of our annual review for independence high school you

[00:38:49] You can see the highlighted area here, total of maximum distance of 1.23 miles from the high school. That includes only one student is impacted by that addition.

[00:39:04] For Loudoun County High, same development that's being constructed behind Catoctin. Total of 11 students, 11 high school students, reside within that area. And there is a total of 1.25, 1.23 miles distance if they walk around the backside.

[00:39:23] Most of the students will walk the short way directly to the school and just cross Drive Mill Run, but the safer walking path is the long way. Madison's Trust, this is an example of where we're actually reducing the walk zone.

[00:39:40] One student is impacted by that, but this area in purple is deemed beyond the limit of the distance limit, so that we recognize that and we're making that correction right now, or making that correction for next year.

[00:39:59] so that one student would gain bus stop and would receive transportation. Moorfield Station Elementary School, there's, we're working with LCSO.

[00:40:15] This is another one where they've been, the neighborhood has been requesting a crossing guard. There's a number of, 222 students that reside in this collection of townhouses, and we are gonna be putting a crossing, working with LCSO to have a crosswalk installed and a crossing guard placed right in the middle of this that will provide easy access to Moorfield Station.

[00:40:38] So that's just something that the neighborhood has been requesting. Pine Brook Elementary, again, this is a new construction of a new sidewalk connection on the backside of Pine Brook and provides access to these homes here with a maximum distance of .38 miles.

[00:41:02] And there are two students that are impacted by that. This is Sully Elementary School. This was another oddly shaped walk zone.

[00:41:19] And there's a house on the corner here, up in the upper corner here, and then also down here that were excluded in error. And we just corrected that error to include those homes in the walk zone. Again, zero students are impacted by that.

[00:41:35] And that concludes the walk zone proposal. Any questions? I have a question. I didn't see Belmont Station up there. Belmont Station. Unless I missed it. Belmont Station is not on the list.

[00:41:51] Buffalo Trail was the first one. With my own personal experience, you have Portsmouth. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that road, Portsmouth, to cross. Yes, yes. Okay. For years, I wondered why kids were not, there was no crossing guard there, and why a kid could live across the street, but they're still taking the bus because that street is too dangerous um so i don't know if you can add that uh to your list of um you know walk zones to add i think this is very important

[00:42:26] uh that kids be able to walk to school um my kids could have been able to walk to school if that was all set up with a crossing guard and um a proper side i mean there's a sidewalk there But there's no crosswalk or anything there, I don't think.

[00:42:45] No. So generally, we have guidelines. As part of our guidelines, as part of our annual review, there are speed limitations and sidewalk offset limitations that we have in place.

[00:43:02] So if the sidewalk, for instance, Evergreen Mills, the sidewalk is very close, the one that runs right along Evergreen Mill Elementary is very close to the school, and very close to the road, and further down it's outside of the school zone speed limit sign, so it's a higher speed limit.

[00:43:25] We would not have students walk in that area on the far north side. The houses that are close to the school do fall within the lower speed limit and have the offset required. So we would allow that. So those are part of the analyses.

[00:43:42] And generally we don't have elementary students crossing four lane roads or roads with a median without a crossing guard. We do have that in elementary, middle school and high school will have that, given if the speed limit is within a specific limitation.

[00:44:00] What are the restrictions? I don't know that off the top of my head. I'd have to go back and look. We'll look at Belmont Station in particular and look and see what those conditions are. And also, I mean, to work with VDOT to maybe get the speed sign or the lights flashing, something like that as well.

[00:44:21] Yeah, Mr. Davies' team works with those. It works directly with VDOT. They have some very strict limitations on where that is put. I'm guessing that they would not allow those signs to be put on Portsmouth because that's not the road in front of the school. I don't remember the night watch, I think is the road in front of the school.

[00:44:38] And so the flashing zone sites are likely on night watch, but not on Portsmouth, and they won't allow that. And so we do have, but we can ask that question, but we appreciate you calling attention to that, and we'll take a look. Yeah, I appreciate you taking a look at that, and I appreciate the walk zones because if you were able to fix that situation, that might possibly solve a bus situation.

[00:45:04] I know we're short on bus drivers. I mean, there are kids that live a block away that they can't cross Portsmouth and have to take the bus. And I just, I think maybe it could save you a bus driver. I mean, I'm just throwing that out there, but.

[00:45:21] Yeah, and we do look closely at that, as Mr. Davey was saying, there's certain criteria that we've established over the years that we've deemed safe or not safe for certain ages. And so when you get to certain speeds of traffic and the distance from the curb to the sidewalk and those types of things, we look at that differently for elementary age kids than we do for middle school.

[00:45:40] But we'll definitely take a look at that. And if I may throw in the middle school there, trail side, they don't have a crossing guard. I did see they put teachers out there, but they don't have an official. As far as I could see, they never had an official crossing guard.

[00:45:56] Correct me if I'm wrong. No, and we don't. And keep in mind that our teachers can only direct traffic on our property. They cannot go out into the right-of-way, and you have to be a certified crossing guard to be in the right-of-way. Yeah, I only saw them in one spot when you're coming out of Trailside.

[00:46:13] They're still on school property. But there are certain sections where you might need a crossing guard. If somebody chooses not to take the bus, Gloucester, if they cross Gloucester to get to Trailside, or even cross it to get to Newton-Lee, that would really be helpful if you can research that area, too.

[00:46:36] I know it's a middle school, but you also have Newton Lee there as well. Sure. When we have multiple lanes, it makes it really difficult for a crossing guard can only do one set of lanes. So when you have a median, then you have two required crossing guards. And the resources the Sheriff's Department have for that are limited as well.

[00:46:53] The resources more are people willing to be crossing guards than there are for funding. And so that's a real challenge. But we'll take a look. Sure. I have a similar issue with Cardinal Ridge Elementary, as well as Lunsford Middle School.

[00:47:15] I remember it could take, living not very far away, it could take an hour for the kids to get back on the second bus. But my understanding is because Braddock and Edgewater were so large and fast, so I don't know if that's still the case for them or not.

[00:47:34] - Yeah, I'm very familiar with Lunsford 'cause that intersection we've looked at a number of times and I know, and I've seen a number of students just, they have a bus assigned, but it's easier or faster just to wait for the light and walk across and they do. But because of the volume of traffic and the mainly the volume of traffic and the proposed construction, we were looking at that last year, But they are planning on widening that raddock in that area in the next year or so.

[00:48:08] So that's why we held off. One more question. So we have walkers, but what are the bike riders? Do we have bike riding? Do we have, like, places for kids to put their bikes in the elementary schools or the middle schools and the high schools? Yes, we do that through facilities.

[00:48:24] Mr. Woehead and his team will get a work order, and then we'll put bike racks out if they're requested. And so we have more riders at some places than others. But I don't think that was your question, but they have the same constraints as walkers. So when they ride their bike, they're considered a walker. I think that's all my questions.

[00:48:44] Do you go? No, I just wanted to say thank you. And if you could research that further, I think it's great that you're doing this already to provide walk zones for the kids. In my own experience, I know that some kids got together and got a sidewalk put on Portsmouth closer to Claiborne.

[00:49:04] I don't know if you remember that. It took them a while, but I was happy to see that sidewalk there. So, yeah, certain situations like that. Well, the kids got together, I think. They band together, and they wanted the sidewalk. But more research to be done on, you know, walking zones.

[00:49:23] So I really appreciate this conversation. Thank you. Interesting fact that we actually built that sidewalk, the school system built that a few years ago because of all the trying to improve that walkability. I did want to point out that this is not a required for action.

[00:49:42] This is information. This policy requires us to come and bring this to the committee. We will also take it to the school board as information, but it doesn't require votes. We're just providing that, and we're required to notify all parents before June 1st. Did you go over the notifications you did before?

[00:49:59] Yes. Thank you. All right. So I'm hearing that there's no action here, so it can go straight to the school board information item, And it will be timely because we're going to be talking about buses and transportation at the same time.

[00:50:18] So it's going to be an interesting conversation. All right. We'll move all the way up to item 5.01 from the Department of Business and Financial Services.

[00:50:34] FY24 budget transfer for existing obligations presented by Mr. Casey Jones, our Director of Budget and Financial Analytics. Good afternoon. Each year, the school board adopts a budget that includes estimated expenditures for the following fiscal year.

[00:50:52] When actual costs in that fiscal year exceed those estimated in the budget, staff typically offsets or covers smaller deviations with realized savings identified elsewhere. Occasionally, costs exceed budget estimates by larger amounts. This is particularly true when there are significant and recurring year-over-year cost increases as we are experiencing with AP test fees.

[00:51:12] For both instances that this item brings before the committee, AP test fees and contracted security services, staff has identified realized savings and transportation fuel that can be used to offset the additional costs through a budget neutral transfer as outlined in the information item available on BoardDocs.

[00:51:30] For larger budget transfers such as these, policy 4120, Management of Funds, requires Finance and Operations Committee consideration and school board approval of intra-department transfers in excess of $100,000 and inter-department transfers in excess of $250,000 when it transfers for purposes other than designated.

[00:51:52] We're bringing this here for your consideration. I'm happy to answer any questions we can. Do you have any questions? I'd like to research it more before I ask any questions, so I apologize for that.

[00:52:07] So no questions today. So our policy for AP courses are four, is that correct? Correct. The regulation will cover up to four per student per fiscal year. Do we do an audit of how many kids are the average two or three or four?

[00:52:29] We actually have that number this year. There are 3,300 approximately students who are exceeding that four average for a total of a little over 5,000 tests, I believe, or 8,000 tests. 8,904 exams over the four.

[00:52:46] I guess I have AP test fees. I mean, I'm hearing a lot outside of our district that sometimes AP courses are not transferring to college, which is unfortunate because then we're testing because they're either not testing high enough or they're just not taking it.

[00:53:10] And I'm always interested in the difference between like dual enrollment as well as AP and what is the best way for our kids. I know that it does increase their grade point average, but sometimes I just wonder about that.

[00:53:26] It is kind of funny to take transportation fuel to make that into AP. Yes, Ms. Willoughby. So I just want to highlight that this action is just to cover the cost.

[00:53:42] And what we could do is share the questions that you have brought to probably Mr. Slevin, Dr. Ellis, just to share. And if they wanted to provide additional information regarding the program itself. And in terms of while it may seem a weird alignment, the budget team is just looking at where there are, you know, surpluses to help cover the overages.

[00:54:09] And so it just so happens to be that it would be in the fuel line. So we're fortunate that there are some fuel savings to help offset where we are short on the budget.

[00:54:31] So then we will just move this to, I guess, do we have to have action on this? It would just be considered a consent and then move to the full board later. Yes, please.

[00:54:52] All right. And then we will go to 5.02, Department of Business and Financial Services School-Based Allotments Overview, presented by Mr. Jones. Would you like more than five minutes for it?

[00:55:13] I mean, what do you think? The presentation will take five minutes. So then we really wouldn't have any discussion questions afterwards.

[00:55:31] So maybe we'll hold off on this for the next one, because this is something that I think you were interested in, the school-based allotments overview. And we will just hold it there. And Dr. Leticia, Dr. Ellis Williams, thank you for coming.

[00:55:51] But we're going to move our next one over, the school name review, to the next one. So is there any new business? - I do not have new business.

[00:56:08] - Okay, seeing no more business, let's go ahead the April 2nd, 2024 meeting of the LCPS School Board Finance and Operations Committee is now adjourned.

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