Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Superintendent's Recommended FY2026-FY2031 Capital Improvement Program, Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 32m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1031377671?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 2026-10-18. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:49] Good afternoon. I call to order this November 19th, 2024, Loudoun County School Board work session meeting. There's been a change in tonight's agenda. We will not have a closed session tonight.

[00:01:05] So at this time, we will start with disclosures, and I will go ahead and begin. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the items on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:01:28] Specifically, as a board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may also be affected, of which I am included.

[00:01:47] I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the Clerk of the School Board for five years. Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the School Board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:02:16] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included.

[00:02:33] I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. Ms. Donohue? Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance, and any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:03:03] Specifically, my spouse and I are enrolled in LCPS health insurance that may be affected by any potential changes to employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance. Additionally, my sister-in-law is an LCPS employee who does not reside with me and is not dependent on me. I forgot to add my children my two minor children are enrolled in LCPS health insurance as well these subjects include thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may be affected of which my spouse my minor children my sister-in-law and I am included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years

[00:03:40] thank you miss Donahue mrs. Griffiths thank you madam chair as a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with an item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees while in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which I am included I can and I will participate

[00:04:19] fairly objectively in in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records for the public records of the clerk of the board for five years thank you thank you mrs. Griffiths vice-chair Struffy thank you madam chair as a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits however affect thousands of employees well in excess of the

[00:04:58] statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank You Vice Chair Streffi. Ms.

[00:05:14] LaBelle. Thank You Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect the benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of

[00:05:51] which I am included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years Thank You Ms. LaBelle Ms. Chernoff Thank You madam chair as a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees specifically as a school board member I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee these benefits however affect

[00:06:30] thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may also be affected of which I am included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. We will move on to item three, our public hearing, and we will continue with the script for the public comment for the public hearing.

[00:06:57] Thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments from Loudoun County residents and believes that a strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system. Speakers must limit comments to the time allotted and on the subject of tonight's public hearing.

[00:07:15] I just want to reiterate that that today since it's a public hearing we have to stick to the subject of the SIPP and the CAP today. Based on the number of speakers the and the agenda this evening all speakers have been allotted one minute each for public comment. Please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time. All audience members shall maintain civility decorum and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times. Please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the podium or during a break. Violations of civility and decorum and respect include shouting, heckling,

[00:07:54] jeering applause or other noise which disrupts or dislays the meeting, obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa, interrupting speakers, attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair and approaching a speaker otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage or distract a speaker, staff member or other meeting attendees. Speakers should remain refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, defamation, profanity, or other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students or individual division employees during public comment. As a reminder, school board policy 2520 state speakers may not

[00:08:33] target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment. Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official. The school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee-related matter not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements.

[00:08:55] Speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board. Per LCPS Policy 2520, members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during public comment period. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to move the attendee from the remainder of the meeting.

[00:09:18] Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in, on the decision of the chair, public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons, or the public comment period ending for the evening.

[00:09:36] Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of the materials. Under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais. The public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available through LCPS-TV on Comcast Channel 18 and Verizon Fios Channel 43.

[00:10:00] The live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website. We look forward to hearing your comments. We will start with our virtual speakers. The first one is Laura Colossi, followed by Erold Colossi. Good evening, everyone.

[00:10:19] I'm Laura Colossi. I have a kindergartner with autism. I know you're going to get a lot of comments tonight about inclusive playgrounds and the transition center, and I'm one of those too. Please, please, please fund a transition center for kids with disabilities, and please build more inclusive playgrounds. It is vital to our students. It is really important. And I think it would be such a beautiful legacy for LCPS to be a place of inclusion for our students with disabilities. So please, please, please fund these projects. It is really, really important. Thank

[00:10:54] you so much. Thank you. Harold Colossi, followed by Amy Diaz-Paz. Harold Colossi, I'm the father of a six-year-old autistic boy in kindergarten at LCPS. I'm here today to urge you to fund inclusive playgrounds, as well as the transition center. The transition center is meant to help our students with disabilities transition to careers in the job market after high school, and I think it's really, really important. And it's also extremely cheap relative to Loudoun

[00:11:28] County's massive multi-billion dollar budget. So I think it's something that is absolutely doable and, you know, really is a no-brainer. And as for inclusive playground, I think, you know, Making sure that our children with disabilities can access these playgrounds is not just important for their development, it's also important for the development of neurotypical kids because they're going to grow up in a world where they do have to interact more with people who do have disabilities.

[00:11:56] And so the more they know about them, the more they interact with them, I think, you know, the more holistic they'll become as individuals as they go into adulthood. Thank you. Thank you. Amy Diaz-Paz, followed by Summer Portzel. Hello, can you hear me?

[00:12:13] Yes, ma'am, we can hear you. Okay. Thank you for providing the opportunity to share my concerns regarding an issue that deeply impacts our children and our community. Inclusivity is a necessary commitment, not something to be approached with a lackadaisical attitude. While progress has been made integrating students with and without disabilities in the classroom, we are still falling short in achieving true inclusivity in recreational areas. One of the most vital resources schools offer for social development is playgrounds, yet these remain inaccessible to many children with disabilities.

[00:12:48] It is crucial to recognize that not all disabilities or abilities are visible. Assuming that children with special needs do not benefit from accessing playground equipment that other students are able to enjoy is both ignorant and harmful. This pervasive issue has persisted for far too long in our county. Can you explain why my six-year-old is regulated to playing in an enclosed interior courtyard with donated toys, which many of us. Thank you. Summer Portsell, and then we will

[00:13:18] continue with our in-person with Liz Crotty. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Hello? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Hi, good evening. My name is Summer Portsell. I'm a Loudoun County parent, employee, resident, and PTO president at my school. Thank you for letting me speak on behalf of our students. I'm here to advocate for inclusive playgrounds at our local elementary school, and all students should have the opportunity to be safe on the playground. I personally find it heartbreaking to not be able

[00:13:53] to extend an invitation to my students from that school to enjoy and play exclusively at our playground. We recently had the perimeter of the school installed in the fence. This was the first step to ensure everyone's safety. I would hope next steps would be to approve budgets for an inclusive playground. I believe all backgrounds and abilities should and can play together.

[00:14:12] This helps support mental and physical health of all students. There should be no exclusion. I understand that funding is a concern but i also see many other opportunities and projects like this happening for our school i urge you to approve and start a five-year plan for an inclusive playground at our school legacy elementary thank you and have a great thank you liz crotty followed by carrie adams playgrounds seem like such a nice little amenity until you look at the research behind them which is what our sea act did there is overwhelming evidence that a playground is

[00:14:52] fundamental to a child's cognitive, physical, and social development. Why then are we not prioritizing that all students have access to these critically important spaces? If we took playgrounds away from our elementary schools, how do you think parents and kids would react?

[00:15:09] People would be outraged, and yet we have young learners in our elementary preschool programs who have never had a playground, and students with disabilities who have never been allowed or cannot physically access our playgrounds.

[00:15:25] We should all be outraged. This is not in alignment with our core values of equity and opportunity and does not send the right message to our student body. I implore our school board to implement a five-year plan to address this developmental necessity. Thank you.

[00:15:41] Thank you. Carrie Adams, followed by Blair Crotty. All right, thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the school board.

[00:15:57] Again, my name is Carrie Adams. I'm here on behalf of my first grade son to advocate to get an accessible playground at a school and all other LCPS schools. I'm urging the school board to increase the cap funding to fund the 12 playgrounds a year that facilities says they can do to provide accessible play spaces for all LCPS students within five years.

[00:16:15] The 20-year plan that we currently have is just, it's absolutely unacceptable. Our disabled children face enough hardship. Play should not be one of them, not to mention the lifelong psychological issues that rise from exclusion in their early childhood development. I know LCPS preaches no child left behind, yet by not providing accessible play areas, my son is quite literally left behind on a daily basis.

[00:16:37] In a time where the futures of the disabled population is so uncertain, as in today, I'm urging LCPS to show that they prioritize their disabled students to the same level they do their able-bodied classmates. Leaving students without an accessible playground for 20 years shows exactly what you think of them.

[00:16:53] Your support to ensure my son and others are never left behind in the future is greatly supported. thank you blair karate followed by cora karate my name is blair and i am 13 years old i think we should have inclusive playgrounds because i remember so many times where because of my disability i could not use playground equipment because it was difficult and not fun for me to play on my brother and sister um had development delays and never had a playground during their

[00:17:31] special education preschool and instead were in a muddy courtyard with no equipment if we don't fix this issue it sends the wrong message to kids and they might think inclusion is not important no matter the disability a student has everyone should be able to have fun on the playground think about if you were a kid and most everyone else could go on the playground but not you that sounds completely wrong but you can change that by prioritizing in the budget to help build inclusive playgrounds that everyone can have access to, and most importantly, have fun on.

[00:18:07] Thank you for your support. Thank you. Cora Crotty, followed by Reed Crotty. My name is Cora. We're supposed to be a social playground.

[00:18:28] My name is Cora, and I'm in fourth grade. Inclusive playgrounds are cool for everyone to do, not just some kids. Please give playgrounds for all of my friends.

[00:18:44] They are really important for all kids. Thank you for everyone to share. Thank you. Next is Reed Crotty, followed by Devin Riley.

[00:19:10] My name is Reed.

[00:19:31] Can we stop the clock real quick? And are you trying to give him a stool? And then if we could just back it up back to one minute, please.

[00:19:56] If you're all done, you don't have to do it, okay, buddy? I don't. Okay. All right. I think we're good. Thank you so much. Thank you, Reed. Devin Riley, followed by Garrett Wilhelm. No, Devin Riley.

[00:20:24] Garrett Wilhelm, followed by Melissa Waugh.

[00:20:37] Okay. Melissa Waugh, followed by Rebecca Cook. Short, but not quite that short.

[00:20:54] Hi. My name is Melissa Waugh. I'm a parent of two students with disabilities who graduated from Broad Run. I'm the co-chair of the SEAC Policy and Compliance Subcommittee. And I'm also a special education attorney, and I'm speaking tonight in support of our transition center, which will help LCPS meet its legal obligations under the IDEA by providing a high-quality vocational evaluation for our students with disabilities and individualized support that is both coordinated and cost-effective.

[00:21:23] Regarding inclusive playgrounds, Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act require that school districts provide disabled students with equal access to programs, services, and activities of the school. Currently, only 29% of LCPS playgrounds are inclusive. And in only 9% of schools do preschool children with disabilities have access to permanent playground equipment. We need to make funding for all playgrounds and all playgrounds inclusive in a timely way Thank you. Thank you. Rebecca Cooke, followed by Benji Cooke.

[00:22:09] I'm pretty short. Good evening. My name is Rebecca Cooke. I'm the mother of a fourth grader at Legacy Elementary. A study from the CDC states that recess benefits students by improving their memory and attention, helping them stay on topic in class, reducing their disruptive behavior, and improving their social development. Depriving students of these opportunities is not in line the goals and responsibilities of this school system. LCPS playgrounds should be inclusive of all children. Playgrounds should be a fun activity where all students have the opportunity to

[00:22:44] participate and have fun with their friends during their break from class work. In addition to the inclusive playgrounds, LCPS should fund a transition center with services that teach our children with different abilities to learn to be independent and become productive members of society. This would be both beneficial to the students as well as our community. LCPS should embrace empowering our children with disabilities to grow and thrive into successful adults. Please provide proper funding for both of these initiatives. Thank you. Thank you. Benji Cook

[00:23:17] followed by Zan Khan. Hi, I'm Benji Cook, a fourth grader at Legacy Elementary. I feel sad that some kids can't play on the playgrounds. Some people are in wheelchairs or some may have a hard time climbing stairs, so we need ramps for the playground immediately. It's not fair to leave

[00:23:47] people out. Plus, recess is my favorite part of the school day. All kids deserve to have fun on school playgrounds. It's time to build playgrounds for all of us. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:24:05] Zan Khan, and Zan's going to get one minute, and his mom's going to get one minute. I'm in St. John. I'm 50 years old.

[00:24:31] I took a week to work with a school. I left to watch citizens' kids. my whole family that science is not what to be is science test too with grow up and I meet up now

[00:24:55] so I am hungry to work and make money but myself with grow up thank you thank you hi my name is Zan Khan. I am 15 years old. I go to Rockridge High School. I love to watch Sid the Science Kid.

[00:25:21] My whole family loves science, and I want to be a scientist, too, when I grow up. I need help now so that I am ready to work and make money by myself when I grow up. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, the next one is Shanaz Khan, followed by Stephen Meyer. Post-secondary transition services in LCPS currently do not meet the needs of students with disabilities. SEAC continues to hear about the lack of transition services across the county and the lack of consistency our existing models provide. The programs LCPS

[00:26:00] currently offer have limited spots available and students must meet criteria for them to be accepted. Together these programs serve only about 100 students. LCPS has tried for many years to improve these programs without thought success. I truly hope we can work together to establish a recognized central transition facility that brings all our existing programs together and does not limit access for our students. With regards to inclusive playgrounds, no child or group of children should ever be segregated from their peers. All children should have access to inclusive playgrounds, and this

[00:26:35] should be an LCPS priority to implement as soon as possible. Thank you. Stephen Meyer, followed by Jennifer DiDonato. Good evening. I'm ripping this up. I've spoken to many of you before. I want to give you a side of things that I haven't talked about. I was a case manager for eighth grade students with all different kinds of disabilities. The most difficult part of my year was the IEP

[00:27:10] meeting because I didn't have anything to offer my parents for their kids to have a pathway to success. My kids were behind in math. They were behind in reading. They had no chance of getting into MATA, and there was no program for them. So the Transition Center is essential for so many kids. I urge you to keep it in the budget. It's something that will move loud and forward.

[00:27:44] Thank you. Thank you. Jennifer DiDonato followed by Joey DiDonato. Good evening. I'm Jennifer DiDonato, parent PTO Hillside Elementary and SEAC member. I'm here requesting that we fund the building of 12 inclusive playgrounds per year. I've spoken to the board, to LCPS employees, board of supervisors. I brought parents and students asking for you guys to provide these inclusive playgrounds. At the last meeting, it was mentioned that it's great to see moms advocating for their kids. And that's true. But it's important to know that this isn't just about

[00:28:23] moms advocating for their own kids. It's more than that. My children are able to use the current playgrounds. But as a parent and as an adult, I have the responsibility to advocate for children who cannot do that for themselves. There are children who sit by idly every day at school while others are allowed to play. For $3.2 million per year, we can fund the building of those 12 inclusive playgrounds and enrich the lives of all of our students. Please fully fund inclusive playgrounds for Hillside Elementary and all elementary schools. Thank you. Thank you. Joey

[00:29:00] DiDonato followed by Anna DiDonato. Hi, my name is Joey. I am in fifth grade at Hillside Elementary. Inclusive playgrounds are really important to me and my friends. Every kid should be able to have fun on the playground at recess. Tonight, you could ask for money to build 12 inclusive playgrounds a year. Please do it. Please support the students by giving inclusive playgrounds to Hillside

[00:29:37] Elementary and all elementary schools. Thank you. Thank you. Anna DiDonato followed by Erin Roselle Poe. My name is Anna. I'm in second grade at Hillside Elementary. Our playground should be a fun place for all my friends to play not just some of us it's not fair that some kids must sit and watch while everyone else can play this is my third time speaking to you i want all kids to be

[00:30:16] able to play on the playground but i'm only in second grade i can't do it alone please help me support hillside elementary and all schools by giving us inclusive playgrounds so all students can play together thank you thank you aaron rosello poe followed by tom ketchum good evening as you all are aware children are struggling to access their school playgrounds over time this is going to lead to a heightened risk of exclusion for these children as well as impacting their social

[00:30:55] and psychological health currently we have a budget allocation of three playgrounds improvements over the course of 20 years we can increase that timeline to five instead of 20 to meaningful play I'd like to ask LCPS to reassess their budget priorities to utilize these funds in a way that speaks to the importance of accessibility and inclusion for all of our children, especially those with disabilities.

[00:31:25] This mismanagement of funding needs to stop in the focus return to our children. Children are designed to move, explore, and be curious about their worlds. Please provide these opportunities for all of our students and do not confine them to the brick courtyards. Thank you. Tom Ketchum followed by Paula Goodedge-Kunwar.

[00:31:46] Good evening, I'm Tom Ketchum. I'm the proud father of four exceptional children, three of which are students here in Loudoun County, all four of which have received special education services. I have previously sent an email to everyone on the school board with some more detail and facts and figures, which are too long to get into here in this short minute.

[00:32:09] So let me offer this thought instead. Roughly 13% of students in Loudoun County Public Schools are part of our special education program. That's 13%, more than one in 10. Think back on your own experience in school.

[00:32:27] Think back on your time at recess, unstructured play, using the playgrounds. As much as 13% of our student body will not have that experience. So I ask you to please fund the program to be able to accelerate the implementation and installation of these inclusive playgrounds.

[00:32:48] Thank you. Thank you. Okay. they really wanted you to sit down just teasing um okay paula good edge uh kunwar followed by aaron kunwar i'm the mom of a child with special needs that needs an inclusive playground to play most of lcps playgrounds fall short of inclusivity inclusive playgrounds provide meaningful interactions typical peer modeling free play that is safe and provides an interactive and thriving

[00:33:27] environment for all. Please prioritise funding and a pace of updating playgrounds to maximise access for all students to thrive and engage in full play activities. This is an investment in all children's equitable and brighter future, where they can experience cognitive growth and physical development. I'd also like to say that my daughter in eight short years will be ready to transition. There is nothing in Loudoun County for my daughter right now. I would ask you and urge you to support the Transition Centre for all children that there's currently nothing available for.

[00:34:03] Thank you. Thank you. Erin Kunwar? I am a sixth grader in LCPS, and I have a sister that has special needs.

[00:34:23] I am here to ask if you can renew playgrounds for children that need an inclusive equipment before you replace playgrounds where no child with special needs plays. Every child likes to play, but children with special needs need special equipment to make playing accessible.

[00:34:46] During elementary school, I needed time at recess to play, explore, and let off steam. My sister and her peers do not get to run and play. They don't get to play with typical friends. They don't get to learn from watching, playing, and interacting with other friends at school.

[00:35:07] My sister has been made to play in a courtyard that is dirty, cold, muddy, and with no toys to play with. Why can't my sister have access to playground equipment that helps her? Thank you. Thank you.

[00:35:23] And with that, we will end our public hearing. Thank you all for coming and providing your feedback and your public comment. We're going to be moving on to item four, work session.

[00:35:42] work session on the superintendent's recommended FY 2026, FY 2031 capital improvement program and capital asset preservation program budget presented by Mr. Kevin Lewis, our chief operations

[00:35:58] officer.

[00:36:55] Thank you, Chair Mansfield, Mr. Streffi, Dr. Spence, members of the board. We are pleased to be here tonight to go over the next installment of the work session for the capital budget for FY 26 to 31 you can see my team is here and hopefully we have everybody we need to answer any questions that you may have for this evening i will start with a little bit of housekeeping this evening just a reminder that everything that that we have is in board docs we have tonight's presentation is there we also have a playground replacement program document that has a good bit of information

[00:37:32] related to our playground program we have the previous cip documents meetings from the other things just so we have them all in one place so anytime you come to the current meeting you have all the documents we put out together we also have the updated cip project list which we handed out the yellow sheet which is a replacement for page three in your cip and has the changes that were related to the november 12th update um filling in some blanks in that document we also have an updated q a document from the questions that we received on november 12th so those are there

[00:38:08] for your reference as well tonight we're going to be talking specifically about our sustainment projects and the things that we the projects that we have identified that are critical to maintaining our investment in sustaining sustaining our inventory and i'll go back to the yellow sheet the the sustainment projects are in the very top section of the yellow sheet so they're easy to find if you're looking for examples of what sustainment projects may be and then we are going to go deep into playground program this this evening so we're hopefully going

[00:38:45] to be able to answer some of the questions that have been posed and we'll be here to answer more of those as the evening goes on and i was forgetting to advance the slides so i apologize for that so this slide is just a reminder that of what you saw before the table at the top is the is a summary of page 3 in the CIP, the table below that, identified as November 12th update, is the one that is reflected in the yellow sheet that we've added as a supplement.

[00:39:18] So that is their four-year reference along the way. And just to show that essentially what we've done is we've focused on FY26, which is the first year in the CIP. You'll see that we are running a deficit in the out years of that, 27 through 31. so we have not gone through and reconciled all those based on estimates we've had conversations with county staff for so we want to dig into sustainment projects and went too far um i just

[00:39:52] want to pause here for a minute to just describe that these projects are probably the most critical in our system they are the ones that we've spent over decades putting together building new schools and continuing to improve our increase our inventory of schools and so that the projects that are included in this statement are the ones that allow us to be able to build and maintain and specifically maintain the interior environment the exterior environment that's expected in our schools so every day our children go to our schools into our buildings outside of our buildings on our campuses and they deserve and expect and their parents are paying for

[00:40:29] well maintained buildings and these are this is the section of the cip that makes sure that those buildings meet that standard and provide that interior environment and the exterior environment for those students and our staff on the day during the days so again we'll just refresh here that these sustainment projects are ones that you see a few examples there we're going to go deep into each one of those and we've broken up our presentations over the past couple of work sessions to be able to go through each of those in detail so we want to talk about why we should prioritize these because here tonight as you see we have

[00:41:07] decisions going to be made board members you have some difficult decisions to make with the CIP so we just wanted to be able to share why these are very critical projects you've heard the terms over time you know the triple bottom line the environmental the economic and social impact and so these projects are the ones that are really indicative of those things and make sure that we are maintaining our environment.

[00:41:30] That's both interior and exterior, as I mentioned before. They also help us with maintaining our buildings. It's very important to do these projects all on time because as you saw when we built 10, 20, 30 schools in the decades previous to this, now that bill is coming to be paid for all the renovations.

[00:41:52] So we need to make sure that we continue to hit that so we don't end up with systems that are in disrepair. And then the social impact of that. You can see this lovely little girl here in the picture. You know, our environmental literacy, how we're learning about our environment, and we continue to make an impact on the social impact on our community.

[00:42:16] You know, the sustained projects come in several different categories. There's actually six different programs, and we're going to go through each of those a little bit more in detail. but they include the capital asset preservation plan that we call the CAP. It includes critical system replacements, CSRs, and energy conservation and efficiency program, school bus replacement, school nutrition equipment replacement, and technical security.

[00:42:40] We're going to dig a little bit deeper into each of those, but those are the ones that help us manage our resources wisely over the county and plan them wisely to make sure that we're keeping our buildings operational in a way that they need to be done and also helps us save money over time.

[00:42:57] Some of these projects not only keep us from having buildings and equipment in end-of-life or in disrepair, but also these systems also save us literally millions of dollars over time and reduce energy costs of the inventory. So just a quick reminder as well that the school board prior to this in 2020 adopted a resolution that talked about environmental education, student advocacy, and voice, reducing our carbon footprint.

[00:43:33] So that statement there alone is being addressed specifically in our energy replacement, our energy projects, our critical systems replacement. So there are several ways we do this that may not be obvious. We just wanted to come back and relate these to this Action for Climate Change, the resolution the board took to make sure that, you know, we are, as staff, are following that direction from the board. So as I mentioned earlier, the first category of these sustainment projects is the Capital Asset Preservation Program, and these are simply projects that are greater than $10,000

[00:44:12] in value and have a lifespan greater than 10 years. So to try to boil that down, you can see there are some examples on that slide where, you know, clocks, fire alarm system, chillers, boilers. Just in the finance committee a few minutes ago, earlier this evening, we talked about replacing a chiller. And so this program allows us to continue to do those types of replacements, but also smaller system control system, HVAC controls, cooling tires, asphalt concrete, all those types of things. So this is how the buildings in our campuses are presented.

[00:44:45] this is what our community sees when he come in and this is what our staff and students learn in every day so these systems that are done this is more of a component replacement in a minute you'll see how we replace whole systems but this is when when you have questions about what's in the cap and why it's critical these are the things that greatly affect the in the everyday operations of our schools then I'm going to jump to critical systems and this is a minute ago with with the cap, those are component replacements. In this situation, we change out or renovate or revise

[00:45:21] or replace whole systems, and that's hydronic piping, boilers, chillers, and all those whole systems. We've done that several times over the last couple years. We've gone into the schools, tear down the ceilings, put on all new HVAC systems, and have those buildings ready to go for another 20 years. And those are, as I said, that we call them critical because these are the ways that we are able to maintain our buildings so we don't have a catastrophic failure.

[00:45:47] If we have a major system go down and we have an entire school that can't be occupied, sometimes we get lucky if the system goes down and the weather's not bad, but that's not always the case. Sometimes it's hot, sometimes it's cold. In any case, we don't have fresh air that's required for students to be able to thrive in that environment.

[00:46:05] So these are, you see, some examples of our critical system renewals. Then we move to energy savings projects, and we have a whole program to replace that.

[00:46:22] In some cases, when we do a critical system replacement, we also do the energy savings, the performance contracting. You see there we've had $375,000 in excess savings achieved to date. That's above what they were proposed to do. So we have a fantastic contract vehicle that Ms. Pilyal and Ms. Willoughby and procurement help us get that contract underway, We're in the middle of replacing that contract now for the next area.

[00:46:48] And these are projects that we do through that contract that provide us with a guaranteed savings of energy. And what this note is saying is those guarantees came in plus that much more. And so that contract is performing above what we expected. And you see some examples there of some of our what we call energy conservation measures or ECMs for solar installations, equipment modernizations, upgrades to systems.

[00:47:17] You know, if you can see the pictures there on the right, those are electrical transformers and we have infrared cameras that come in and tell if those systems are giving off more energy, if they turn red like that, that means they're not running efficiently and we're wasting energy. It also is a sign that that system or that piece of equipment may be in need of some physical repairs or replacement just from a condition perspective, but it's also using energy unwisely every day.

[00:47:43] And so those are the types of things that we go in that most people never see, but those are what's included in these projects. So other things that are included in that, which we generally don't get a lot of airtime but are very critical to that, we have our school bus replacement and associated infrastructure.

[00:48:03] So we're talking about when we're doing electric buses, that's where we also provide our charging systems. We're expanding our program, our pilot program, to include propane buses. So this will help us make sure we have propane filling stations where it's necessary and where it will work.

[00:48:21] And as we go through that pilot program and be able to get to the point where we're ready to make a recommendation to the board, we had this conversation in the Finance Committee a little earlier today, too. As that pilot goes down, we're comparing diesel buses with propane buses and electric buses to see how they all perform.

[00:48:39] And so this is part of that program right there. We also partner with School Nutrition with the replacement of their equipment in their kitchens. And the technology security improvements is one that really doesn't get a lot of airtime, but is hugely critical to our systems. We have literally tens of thousands of cameras and security systems, all the badge swipe access things.

[00:49:01] that's all taken care of there so as you go into our buildings and get access into different spaces this is where those systems are replaced and just like any other electronic system their technology so they have a short lifespan you know five to seven years and that that technology gets outdated and so it's it's obviously again one of those critical systems that we continue to to put an emphasis on to make sure that everything's running correctly so just i guess a recap of how important these systems are and why we've put them at the top of the list and why we continue to consider

[00:49:40] them as critical to sustain our system. And again, to the triple bottom line of the economic and the social and the environmental impact of our systems in our schools. And as an example to our student as far as environmental literacy and how we're taking care of our campuses and our facilities.

[00:49:58] And, you know, I wanted to circle back, Mr. Streffi, you had asked a question about how is our mindset shifting on how we're managing these projects. On November 12th, we talked a good deal about our facility condition assessment, and so our mindset has shifted.

[00:50:14] So last year, we provided an information related to the facility condition assessment. When we took the engineers and architects report, we provided those in priority order. This year, we changed that mindset, and we went through and looked at the actual chassis of the building and all the spaces that are in there and how we provide instruction and how the principals and the teachers have all the right spaces that they need for breakout rooms or for offices for special ed folks or deans or vice principals all those things are done and that we we added a component for how the program fit and so that was a little bit and that changed the order of the

[00:50:51] projects that we produced in that facility condition assessment and recommendation and then put those in order of of how we were planning to do those and that was in that facility condition success. We're happy to revisit that at some point, but that is just one example of how we've gone through and trying to evolve over time. Also is true about playgrounds, and we'll get to that in a few minutes, and I'll talk a little bit about how we've changed that program over time. So that leads me to playgrounds, and we want to talk about playgrounds, but also the playground fencing

[00:51:30] program so just a quick overview we have 21 now 21 inclusive playgrounds throughout the county and our goal is as the the program is set up is to have to make sure that we have at least one inclusive playground in all of our elementary schools and the way we've done that we've gone through with a prioritization you'll see that here in a moment about how do we decide which schools are replaced and when and the best way to do that in our assessment was to go and we were able to find the age of each playground so we put them all in the order of the ages and so you'll

[00:52:08] see that that program is based on that and in the cap we have produced a plan to replace three of those playgrounds each year but part of the evolution of that you'll see this year we have in the CIP starting in year FY30 we've added six more so it'll be a total of nine three for the first four years and then the last two years of the six-year window we'll be doing nine of those um so our goal is to try to catch up as quickly as possible we think that's um i don't want to call it a fairly aggressive it's more aggressive than we were before we realize the importance of

[00:52:43] these i think it's also important to remember that it was only in 2017 that we began to put playgrounds in in schools at all prior to that ptas and other outside organizations were required so the the school system did not provide the playgrounds so it's it's a fairly young system of providing playgrounds, and so that technology and the equipment that's available has evolved very quickly and continues to evolve on a regular basis, and so we are trying to catch up to that.

[00:53:13] We do believe we have a reasonable plan in place, and we're happy to have those discussions, and we know how passionate our families are for the playgrounds, and we're glad when we hear from the community so we know where people stand with that, and we're happy to have those those conversations I will say with the plan that I just outlined with three per year in the cap and six in the CIP it is a plan that is should that will be complete in FY35 so it's it is a 10-year program and I know there's a lot of misunderstanding that it's a 20-year program I recognize in 10

[00:53:47] years still a very long time but it is not quite as long as what we had expected and so I just wanted to be able to share that that we were get we're getting closer faster than what we had in the past so we've done is provided and this is the first year we didn't provide this in the past but we have put in order all the schools and how they're going to be replaced so everyone can see when their school is going to be replaced and this is also in that playground document that was attached to the to board docs and you'll see there for FY25 those are already been funded in

[00:54:21] last year CIP and already underway being planned under coming under contract soon if not already and then we have three for each year of 26, 27, 28, and 29 and then in FY30 and 31 we begin doing nine playgrounds a year. I would say we do have one risk because picture in FY30 20 years from there we're also going to have nine schools that must be replaced in that year so in 2050 there's that so with the same bubble that we're talking about we're building schools and we need to do critical systems that same bubble will take place in the playgrounds but we do believe it's a sustainable

[00:54:58] plan and we're happy to move forward with with that like it is and you know looking forward to comments from board members as well so the last i think it's the last slide in our presentation we just wanted to recap our play fencing the board under with the end of year funding provided us funding to put fencing around all playgrounds in in all of our campuses and and i say playgrounds but it's really not the right term.

[00:55:25] It's play areas. So we went and Mr. Woehead and facilities took every single campus that we had. Drew out a sketch. We shared that with the school staff principals to say, hey, this is what we're going to do. We're going to encompass not only the playground, but a play area and sometimes asphalt play areas, sometimes grass areas to make sure there was an area that students could enjoy and enjoy together.

[00:55:49] There was a concern that if the fence just went around the playground itself, then students would still be separated at some point we did have some concern about it being too big of an area but since that time mr. stocks and his folks have met and I think we're in a good place with that I think we've resolved most of those concerns there's still never going to be a perfect solution to anything but we do believe that we have in place now with the fences going in all new playgrounds will receive fences as well and so I think that is we believe that's in a pretty good place there some of the things we looked at was like

[00:56:26] safety and the campus operations some of those fences went through where we had fire lanes we had to look at that we had put gates in for people coming in and across the campus we also have considerations for parks and rec and the things that they do in those areas did have a few questions about locking those and they will most certainly be open to the public after school hours you know by policy we don't have visitors to campus during school hours anyway but playgrounds will be open and accessible. And then so, you know, we feel like that's going to be

[00:56:57] something that still allows the public to use the playground after hours. So this is a reminder of our calendar tonight. We're in the center there, the November 19th, talking about sustainment in playgrounds. On December 2nd, we have, we're going to talk about improvements, and we've had some examples of those, lighting projects, press boxes, those types of things, weight room additions. Those those are the improvement plans and when you all did your exercise for your priorities those were

[00:57:31] the projects that we mostly focused on for those conversations and we did as miss mansfield mentioned earlier we had a change in our agenda tonight we'll have closed session that night as well so that concludes our presentation we fully anticipate lots of questions and conversations so we're happy to take those and the folks here at the tables are ready to try to address anything you might have thank you very much thank you mr lewis i think um it would be really great if

[00:58:04] if you have we can all start with three questions and then we will you know see how time is and then we'll continue on um anybody want to start well maybe we don't have any questions yes mr strafi i don't know if i have three just yet but um i just want to thank you all for uh this presentation and i love how you all you know the whole team is here appreciate that um for me um connect what

[00:58:39] you were saying before i think that you know um that having a kind of a checklist of all of our facility items and then prioritizing facilities versus now and this is just me trying to connect to what you were saying uh looking at the facilities and the needs of each school community and the challenges that they face within each building and having that holistic approach and that's how i connected to what you were saying and i love it you know i i think that is fantastic and i just loved hearing it and i really appreciate it um from my perspective also um just

[00:59:13] wanted to ask the question that wasn't a question um how many inclusive playgrounds um are elementary schools currently i don't recall so i believe mr stocks has put together a great deal of information i'm gonna let him take that because he is more well versed in these these playground information thank you so we have 18 elementary schools with two to five age appropriate playgrounds that are inclusive and two elementary schools with two to five and one high school with

[00:59:47] two to five so 21 total inclusive playgrounds with 18 of those being the standard five to 12 at elementary schools okay thank you very much yes mrs griffiths thank you madam chair um it's not that I don't have questions today, but I am looking forward to budget talks and moving money around to possibly playgrounds. I know the ask is 12 a year, 12 a year, and I see in your report

[01:00:23] you're doing three, so that's a lower number than I think that was asked for, but I don't want anybody to think that I'm not interested in moving money around because we are going to have extensive budget talks with the CIP program. So I guess at this point, for me anyway, I would need to take a look at the budget and that sort of thing and see where money needs to move around before I start asking a lot of questions because I have very different wants than my colleagues.

[01:01:01] I would like to move money into areas that differ, I think, from my colleagues. So I think that will come up at a later date. Thank you. If I may, Mrs. Griffith, now is the perfect time to have those conversations.

[01:01:17] As I've pointed out in the second or third slide, currently the proposed CIP is balanced with what we anticipate the supervisors will be able to fund. Of course, they have to make those decisions yet. But if there is a desire to move money, the sooner we know what those questions are, we can come back with a plan.

[01:01:38] So we have another work session on December 2nd, and I'm happy to meet with you offline if you'd like to talk through those things so we can come back and say, okay, to accomplish this, we would need to do this, but then that's going to create a tradeoff. So if something moves in, then something has to move out, and then we can help with how that would be done because we have one more work session on December 2nd and then the board slated to take action on December 10th so the sooner we can have that conversation the better. Yes Ms. Griffiths. Thank you Madam Chair. I do have a list here. What I'd like to do is send it to you and see if we can

[01:02:16] work with it. I don't want to get into it right now but I'd rather discuss it on December 2nd and see if we can move things around and see what we can do as far as working with special education and playgrounds. Thank you. Yes, Dr. Rashid. Thank you, Chair. Out of curiosity, hypothetically speaking, if we had full funding to make inclusive playgrounds, could we actually do 12 inclusive playgrounds per year? Could we actually do that? Yes, ma'am. We believe we can. We have three contractors that we have worked with that have all the right certifications that we need.

[01:02:56] The playgrounds that they would produce might have slightly different equipment because they're just different manufacturers but they would all meet our standards the challenge would be is likely we would not be able to do that in just the summer break so we would plan to do those throughout the school year so there would be the disadvantage of that is there would be a period of time four to eight weeks where the the playground would be offline from the school we'd have protective fencing those types of things but we would have to do that work during the school year and be able to open this the playground I don't think we would we would be successful in trying to do 12 in that summer break of two and a half months but

[01:03:34] certainly we could do that in a year's time so i would say like a little bit over a year i i don't know if i could just put a number on it or an estimate of a number on it because you said there's a certain point where you it kind of freezes you can't really build on it but you said that at some point in time you can yes ma'am we would still be able to do the 12 there's just a period of time. When it gets to certain temperatures, we can't do certain types of work, but we work around that just like we do every other construction project. Thank you. I think four to eight weeks, I think that kids would be okay with 48 weeks of not playing on the playground for a little bit.

[01:04:14] Ms. Chernoff. Thank you, Madam Chair. And if we were to do 12 playgrounds a year instead of the projected three and then six, what would the cost associated with that be? How much would that cost each year to do 12? So I'm going to let Mr. Stocks help me with that.

[01:04:30] But essentially, they come in increments of $350,000. So have we done the math on 12 times 350? $4.2 million. Thank you. And I got the answer from the audience when they were nodding their heads if that would be amenable to them if we had to sit kids out for a little bit.

[01:04:52] I guess my questions kind of circle around, well, I have two, one for you all, and then I'm curious about where my colleagues fall on this. I am wondering about something you said about if we could just go back to slide, what number is this, 10, talking about energy savings, and you said the term, we evaluate systems that are using energy unwisely, so can you expand on that just a little bit more and give me an example of what that might look like?

[01:05:24] I know you said it's behind the scenes, but what would that, how do we evaluate that and what does that look like? Sure. So the term unwisely may not have been the best one, but probably the best example I can give you is on the picture on the slide. And so you can see that on the right-hand side, the four at the bottom, the upper right-hand side is a transformer that just converts power in the mechanical room.

[01:05:47] Just to the left of that is an infrared photograph of that very piece of equipment that is running hot. And so it's warmer than it's supposed to, so it's generating heat, which means it's using energy to generate heat instead of generate power. And so that's a sign and that's a pretty typical thing. You just put a infrared camera on these types of equipment and you can see when they're not running as they're designed.

[01:06:08] So that's using energy that it doesn't need to produce that heat and that's telling us that that machine needs to be replaced. Okay, I appreciate that. I know a lot of these energy saving performance projects are going to help us in the long run with saving money and earning that back.

[01:06:27] And I fully embrace that and am on board. What I'm struggling with, I'm sort of using this as an example, so if you'll give me a little grace in that, I would appreciate it. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around some of these behind-the-scenes things while important and can give us more money down the road when I think about our little friends standing on the playground and not being able to play.

[01:06:51] And I'm really struggling with that. And so I'm trying with a more limited scope than you have and your team has to figure out where we can find that money.

[01:07:06] And so that is my question back sort of to my colleagues is would it be, I know for me personally, but I would like to know if that would be something they would like to pursue before I put your team to work to find that money. I would like some options to accelerate the plan on inclusive playgrounds.

[01:07:25] I, being a child development major in college, I mean, this is just, it's fundamental and kids need to play and it has so many impacts and just not even, I mean, the speakers have been very impactful and I thank you for coming out, but I just, that image, it just keeps coming to my mind when I think about all these decisions that we're making, but also knowledge is really important and I've talked a lot in the past about what gets bumped and so we do need to understand what those different priorities are and I'm hopeful that maybe the options there are some other options that aren't

[01:08:01] school building related where we could find some funds because my fear is is that the options that will come back or my worry is that the options will come back and it will pit me choosing one building structure versus another and if that's the reality then that needs to be spoken and we need to make some tough decisions but i think there may be some other programs that maybe down the line could really help our buildings but right now we've got to take care of our little ones sure so i appreciate that and i think one of the things that um and i'll just use this because

[01:08:37] that's the example we're talking about that piece of equipment is running hot for a reason and we don't know what it is so it is wasting energy so i didn't want to leave the conversation with just thinking the energy cost is the only reason we do that there's something wrong with that piece of equipment and so it could also fail and so that's where the skill of the folks here at the table with me help us make sure that we don't allow something like that continue and then we do have a failure so that's why these categories are so critical and it's it is impossible for you all to understand that because you're not seeing that and working that but I so I appreciate the question I think what really helped us if if the board were to help like the conversations we've had

[01:09:16] this evening if you're trying to find a way to do playground 12 playgrounds a year that helps us figure out how much we're talking about rather than just say let's have a plan to expedite playgrounds that's that's open-ended but if you can zero in on what you would like to see that helps us find and try to figure out a way to do that I can only speak for myself in this but I'm I would like to see that option at least presented based off of what we have heard for myself um let's go with Ms. Donahue since she hasn't talked yet and then we'll go to

[01:09:49] Vice Chair Streffi and then Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Mr. Lewis and thanks to your team for preparing all of this information and presenting it to us. I have a couple of questions starting with hypothetically if money were no object how many playgrounds could we do in one summer break? I'm not not sure we've put that thought in there but my guess is a contractor could probably do two and that would put us to six

[01:10:27] is that a fair assessment um but i do think i would really like the board to to recognize that we don't need to limit ourselves to the summer and so um because that is that is a a crunch time and you know i know we had conversations about calendars and possibly having a short summer at some point too so um i think if we allowed ourselves to be able to do some of this while school's in session that really helps us be able to plan a program okay thank you uh and and i apologize if you already addressed this and I just missed it, but why is there the switch from

[01:11:05] planning for three playgrounds a year through FY29 and then jumping up to the six in FY30? I mean, I see that it is there. That is where you're adding CIP funding, but why are we adding CIP funding at that point? Excellent question. We obviously also recognize the importance of these and we have looked for a way to try to expedite that.

[01:11:30] But it's also a function of funding capability and what the amounts were there. And so as we go through those, every year we'll look at those again and if there's any space. But the one slide that I shared, the beginning of the slide, this one, you can see running across the table at the bottom, the total overfunded, underfunded, every year we have a deficit going through there.

[01:11:56] So we have not made any adjustments in the out years because next year we'll go deep dive on FY27. If there's opportunities there, we can look at that, but that's a conversation we'd have next year. And so that program that we put in there, we think we'll be able to manage that over time.

[01:12:13] And just, unless I misunderstood, we're going from three a year, adding six for a total of nine, instead of going from three to six. Just want to make sure that was clear. So in FY30 and 31, we'll be doing nine playgrounds. Yes, thank you for that clarification.

[01:12:30] That was my understanding from your slides. So to Ms. Chernoff's point, I would also like to explore options for accelerating the plans for playground replacement. I understand that there may be reasons why we can't do it in the five years that we're being asked to do, But I would like to explore if there are at least options or opportunities for us to accelerate the timeline, at least somewhat, from the 10-ish years.

[01:13:07] And then-- comment, I guess, not a question. And I wanted to mention briefly, when you and I spoke earlier today, and you mentioned the possibility of other potential funding sources, like year-end funds or other things that we could elect that would not be part of this, you know, listed planned replacement, but could result in accelerating the completion of the project in the future.

[01:13:39] Can you address that? - Sure, I mean, that comes up, that opportunity comes up every year. Obviously there's other pressures for those funds as well, but you know, as a board, you have that, you know, authority to make those decisions and make those requests. So I think that's just one tool in the toolbox.

[01:13:55] And so what we'll do is we'll go back and, you know, hearing that at least two of you so far want to accelerate that process. And if that's the general consensus, then we'll continue to do that. And we'll come back on the December 2nd with some more information on how that might be possible.

[01:14:15] Thank you. I said that I would go to Arvin and Ms. Griffiths, but Dr. Deans has not talked yet. So if we could go with people who haven't talked first, Dr. Deans. How many playgrounds do we need to change, sir? numbers, starting with the total number. So we have 18 current elementary schools with 5 to 12 standard playgrounds inclusive. Six are funded this year through the current cap and through three proffers out of the town of Leesburg. So that leaves us with 36 remaining elementary schools

[01:14:54] that would not have an inclusive playground when those are complete. So 36 schools to answer your question. And that's 5 through 12. That's not 2 through 5. Correct. Okay. I was just looking for that total number yeah is that it are you want yeah you're done um miss chandler since she hasn't talked yet thank you madam chair and um thank you for your hard work and for this presentation and and for entertaining um the needs of the community and the asks that have been brought forward um i

[01:15:30] really appreciate the growth mindset um and i'm happy that we're able to have these difficult conversations um with that said um in looking at slide 15 i'd like to better understand the prioritization. One of the questions that I've had throughout this process is if there is a way to prioritize, and I know it's very complicated and you don't like to, I know we don't like to bump the order of things, but in terms of thinking about the spaces where students with the most

[01:16:04] challenges have the least access, I wonder if we could change the prioritization to serve the children who have mobility devices sooner where those programs are housed at specific schools could you please give me some perspective on what the challenges around that might be about the challenges of prioritizing those schools where mobility programs are housed sure and so we'll as a group avoid providing names of schools just for student privacy purposes I will say

[01:16:43] that the challenges are that students move in and move out every day and so So if you plan a program around a certain group or certain students and then that changes, then we've bumped a school that may have the same need. So that's, for lack of a better term, a moving target because student enrollment changes at every school every year, which is why we've developed a program simply based on age.

[01:17:06] And so we did that to make sure that we were addressing the oldest playgrounds first. Of course, the board has the authority to change that order however you want to do that. And so just the challenge would be it just changed, the environment changes.

[01:17:23] Thank you for that. I am curious if we could do that without, I mean, I guess theoretically, if we are doing more playgrounds a year, it is possible to address places where there's more need without necessarily sharing student private information, students' private information, or being in violation of FERPA.

[01:17:57] Yes, let me get with my folks and put together some thought to that. I'm not sure the best way to do that, but we can at least put some thought into it. Talk to Dr. Ellis and Mrs. Richardson as well about those opportunities, and we'll have something more for you in a second.

[01:18:18] Okay, thank you for that as well. I appreciate that thoughtfulness. And my last question is in terms of the replacement list, Are there preschool programs at schools that are noted to be for grades, let's see, I see you have two through five.

[01:18:41] There aren't any like K through five. So that everywhere, the preschools are getting updated as well, I guess, is essentially my question. No. I'm not quite sure I follow that.

[01:18:57] I'm sorry. I would like to confirm in the schools where there are special education preschools, if their playground equipment is included in this plan. So if I'm understanding correctly, you're asking if two to five playgrounds are in this plan to be replaced, if there's an existing playground?

[01:19:21] Where there are special education preschool programs, I am curious, and I can certainly wait for more analysis, but what I would like to know is if those programs are going to be served by having the appropriate play equipment in this plan.

[01:19:43] The standard currently is 5 to 12 for elementary schools and a 2 to 5 where there is a CTE program at a high school. So if there's an existing 2 to 5 playground and it reaches end of life, it will work its way into life cycle management at any site.

[01:20:06] But this does not add two to five playground, age-appropriate playgrounds at elementary school sites in general, period, whether they have an ECSE program or otherwise. So, Mr. Chandler, would it help if we were to provide a list of the schools, maybe take this list and share which ones have the preschool programs in them?

[01:20:26] Would that help? Okay. I think we can do that. And just as I have had my three questions, thank you so much. I just want to express that I'm also supportive of at least exploring an acceleration. Thank you. Just real quick, I understand we have 19 MD programs pre-K through 12, so we could look at that as well.

[01:20:53] I would like to know the board's thoughts on if there's a consensus about bringing back a recommendation to accomplish. the 12 playgrounds a year also well how about that yes or no yes thumbs up general consensus yes yeah yeah okay Ms. LaBelle thank you I'm so glad you're back Samara I have a question about the difference between the 5 through 12 inclusive playgrounds and the 2 through 5

[01:21:32] playgrounds they are listed could you tell me what the difference is yes so in a 5 to 12 the equipment is rated for ages 5 to 12 and so it's just slightly different equipment and it would be wrong to say that the 2 to 5 is shorter but that you know the it was made for smaller children that are in the age from 2 to 5 which fits into the preschool category which is the conversation we were having about which schools have preschool programs so some of those as you can see have a a two to five playground on them that has not been the um the standard for us we have focused on

[01:22:11] getting the five to twelves and our playground program is built around making sure that we had an inclusive five to twelve at every school before we went back and did other schools unless they were part of a ecsc program at a high school a second question that i have um if you go back a couple of pages, you have a picture of an inclusive playground. And I recognize that. I'm pretty sure that that is the one at Lovettsville. Am I correct? I think I recognize the background. That's why I'm

[01:22:50] asking. But you have it listed also as a school year 29 to be put out there. I wondered if maybe that's been put in there twice, because there has been one just recently put in at Lovettsville. I was that it's grand opening with Mrs. Donahue.

[01:23:11] So I'm wondering what happened. That is Waterford Elementary. That's the Waterford one. OK, we did have one put in at Lovettsville. And it's already there, and the children are already using it. And yet it's still listed as the 29 school year, FY29.

[01:23:32] Is that an error, or what happened? Sorry, I got a lot. She's still waiting. May I-- do you need to answer what I was about?

[01:23:49] Oh, I'm sorry. I have that answer. The replacement in 2029 is for the two to five existing playground. And it's reaching end of life. So it would be in part of the life cycle replacement. Okay. So the one we had put in just recently, a little bit earlier this year, I can't remember what month it was, September, I think it was, Ann, wasn't it, roughly?

[01:24:13] I believe so. Yeah. Then that would be due in FY29 for replacement again. No, that's a 5 to 12, two totally different playgrounds. So we'll have two playgrounds there. Okay, that was what my confusion was. And I want to say that I appreciate that at the bottom you have the little tags that tell us where we can find all this information in the budget book.

[01:24:35] I appreciate that greatly. Thank you very much. It looks like we have 48 ECSE programs across 33 school locations, And some of these schools have multiple ECES programs.

[01:24:54] So I would think that we would want to prioritize the ones that have multiple at this point. But I would like to know a consensus of the board if they would like to bring back a recommendation to accomplish 12 playgrounds a year.

[01:25:13] Thumbs up. One, two, three. Just a recommendation. Right. But we need to know the recommendations first. there's one two three four five six seven eight and then also um maybe some options to look at the two to five playgrounds as well and how that impacts the numbers what do you guys yeah to see it and then if we could move the elementary school programs in front of the high school programs in

[01:25:49] terms of priorities yes um mr streffi did you have more and more question then we'll finish off with Mrs. Griffiths. MR. Actually, you covered most of what I wanted to say.

[01:26:05] Chair Mansfield, which is great, covered a lot of ground. Just want to reiterate, I think-- I agree with Ms. Chernoff's comments. They're spot on. I think we need to know the proposals and the trade-offs, specifically around the impact to sustainment. And that needs to be very transparent for us.

[01:26:22] And we need to know how to accelerate this process. You also need the guidance from us, which I appreciate. So from my perspective, I believe play is a fundamental human right, and it's a right for all students, and it is a priority, so you have that feedback.

[01:26:42] I'm also touched by the comments around the fact that how important it is that students with varying needs and abilities be able to engage in play with neurotypical students in a setting together, and how important that is for their development.

[01:27:00] And so I just wanted to highlight that as well. And I agree with prioritizing elementary schools. Thank you. Mrs. Griffiths, I'm sorry. Thank you for your patience. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to piggyback off Ms. Chernoff. The climate change and energy projects seem to be a little bit of pet projects for me.

[01:27:19] That's not something I think we should be spending our money on. We spent $4 million on solar panels. Correct me if I'm wrong. that's going to bring us money when i don't know uh that four million could have gone to playgrounds but um you know i am going to send you a list and we did have our fno today but i did want to say um in case uh you didn't know i am not for a recovery school i know my colleagues are but that money can go to a transition center um so i just wanted to mention

[01:27:56] And that's one of my items that I'll be sending over to you that I think money would be better spent for a transition center. And the climate change and energy projects have to be put last on the list or not at all. We should be renovating our schools first.

[01:28:15] And I would consider playgrounds as well. So it's a matter of moving the money around with our budget talks regarding CIP. So thank you very much for your presentation today.

[01:28:34] Are there any questions? Yes, Mrs. Donoghue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am absolutely not opposed to your previous suggestion of asking staff to come back to us with a recommendation for accelerating to 12 playgrounds a year.

[01:28:54] But I also-- the only reason I didn't do a thumbs up was because I wanted to respectfully ask if we could request a second proposal as well that could be a compromise proposal that would take more than five years but less than 10 to see what those trade-offs might be.

[01:29:22] And what are you looking at? What kind of year are you looking at? Years. Just more than five and less than 10? More than seven to eight. Seven to eight. Right. A middle of the road. Okay, last one.

[01:29:39] Ms. Chernoff. Last question. I only asked two before, so I still have one in the bank. I'm a rule filer. Are the preschool, the two to five year playgrounds and the five to 12, are those mutually exclusive? Like if we can only do 12, is it 12 from that whole entire bank?

[01:29:55] Or is it we could do some two to five while we also do 12, five to 12? Asking for a friend. That's an excellent question, and I'll just hesitate and not answer that right now because the two to fives are generally smaller, but in reality, they're the same project, so it probably takes the same amount of time, so they're probably the same.

[01:30:21] But we'll look at the 12, and I know that number's been thrown out there, and we've said we can do that. Maybe we can do 13 or whatever, so we've got some good conversation here, and I think we've got a good idea of what we're looking at. and so we're going to go back and put our heads together and come up with some different options appreciate you so much okay any other questions no okay thank you mr lewis thank you team for all

[01:30:54] your hard work i know we ask a lot of you but we appreciate it um okay it looks like we are going to we don't have the closed session so it looks like we could move to oh adjournment okay because there's not even any more business on here so um the november 19 2024 loudon county school board public hearing and work session for the fy 2026 fy 2031 capital improvement program

[01:31:31] and capital asset preservation program is now adjourned please drive safely home

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