Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 58m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1233583985?rel=0

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 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] - Good afternoon. My name is Dena Griffiths and I'm calling to order the Finance and Operations Committee meeting for October 6th, 2026. I am joined by Mr. John Pepper and Ms. Amy Riccardi. And with that, we do not have public comment today.

[00:00:18] So we'll move on to the minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes from the September 15th, 2026 Finance and Operations Committee? - Second. - Thank you. and seconded by Mr. Pepper and Ms. Riccardi. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Approval of the consent agenda. We will now move to that. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda.

[00:00:46] I move to approve the consent agenda for the October 6, 2026 Finance and Operations Committee meeting. Thank you. Second. Thank you. It has been moved to approve the consent

[00:01:03] agenda by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms. Riccardi. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. We will now move on to our action items starting with item 5. 01 business and financial services revision of policy 4330 remedies and bids and awards. May I have a motion to approve 5. 01.

[00:01:28] I move that the Finance and Operations Committee recommend the Loudoun County School Board adopt revised policy 4330 remedies and bids and awards. Sorry second. There we go.

[00:01:43] Thank you. It was the motion was made by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms. Riccardi. This item is being presented by Ms. Villa, Director of Procurement and Risk Management. Thank you. There have been no changes since we last presented this to you at your previous meeting where we had discussed this policy.

[00:02:04] So the red lines still remain as red lined and the document and it's clean. So there was like I said there was no changes. Thank you. Any questions? Any discussion? thank you madam chair um so i just had a couple questions i noticed we've got some feedback now from the public i don't remember if that was up last time or not um but i did i just i have a couple of questions i think both for both of these policies because it's part of the bigger package for procurement right so this is the last two i believe of the procurement policies that we've

[00:02:41] been looking at is that these are the ones that are due for review at this time so we and we have had a couple of other ones earlier this year and so i guess one of the questions i had um as i've been kind of looking through and kind of crosswalking all these policies one of the reasons why i wanted this to come back to action this time and not go to consent is that i i really want to see if we've done a really good job of closing gaps between policies number one there's no daylight between them so in the procurement process that we were making sure that we're not we don't have

[00:03:15] any gaps i still have some concerns about the both of these policies but for this one in particular we got some really good feedback about you know some accountability pieces of this so it says the summary says that this revision identifies who signs contracts by dollar amount and contract type but i don't see anywhere that in the red line in the or the clean copy that is not this policy that's our contract authority policy that has already been through committee and school board

[00:03:51] okay it's not 43 30. no it is not 43 30. all right so i'll ask this one then um i think in the right in the red line version i think it's line four about the appeal paragraph um is there a general

[00:04:24] appeal that was moved that is now item d in your policy if we go down you will see that in item d it talks about the protest of the award or decision to award that is your appeal process as it relates to procurement it was just spelled out in much clearer detail per virginia code and the process that is put in place so it was expanded in section d and removed from as an introduction paragraph okay that's helpful and then do we have maybe it's talking about an

[00:05:02] administrative appeal process for this which is that all just covered in that the process is there's a protest and in virginia it's also there's arbitration miss miss ewing can speak to that if if we need to but there's arbitration there's not mediation but it is explained in here what the process is for the protest and what happens following the protest okay that's helpful and then can we go back to section a two by the way i like the fact that we've got these up here

[00:05:37] like this a lot this is really helpful especially when we've got multiple we don't have multiple versions of red lines i don't think that i see in this one but sometimes we do and this is really helpful so um so i noticed it as in here the in the notice of intent to award but is that was that a change um we have the notice of intent to award or notice of award which is the process we have been following and there is no change in the policy with this revised policy we follow that

[00:06:15] today the notice of intent to award is issued and we issue the notice of intent to award to basically start the protest period there's the 10-day protest period upon successful award either award by the school board or the award following those 10 days we then issue the notice of award that is a process we follow per internal procedures but per the code you must do a notice of intent to award or notice of award and that has been in this policy okay and then does this policy have a companion regulation

[00:06:48] to it no this policy does not have a companion regulation great thank you Mr. Pepper thank you Madam Chair and thank you for your work on this policy I know it's very all these procurement things are very weedy and they have to follow state code and all sorts of best practices my question really is about section C on debarment and I might actually piggyback off of Ms. Riccardi's question about a regulation here the whole section to me my concern here is the vagary with debarment period In particular, it says that a contractor may be debarred for specified periods of time.

[00:07:27] Without specifying the periods of time, is there a matrix or a decision tree or something we would use to determine what that said period of time is, should a contractor be debarred? I will tell you that routinely, in my experience, we have followed one year of debarment, basically giving them an opportunity.

[00:07:45] We have, in my experience, I think I've debarred once in 30 years. Most of the vendors, we work with those vendors and solution through the protest process, cure letters, conversation, and we don't get to the point of debarring someone for failure to perform.

[00:08:06] I mean, it's good that we're not debarring people. I am a big believer that we should have, and it could possibly be a regulation, some sort of matrix or decision tree about what the length of period of debarment should be that accompanies this policy. So I would highly recommend that.

[00:08:23] It is also, later on in that sentence, in line 72 of the red line version, it mentions for contracting for particular types of supplies, services, insurance, or construction, and my question is, if a contractor is debarred from one of these, are they necessarily debarred from others?

[00:08:45] Not necessarily debarred, or are they debarred? Because I know this question did come up. Mr. Pepper, Janice Ewing, Deputy Division Counsel. So we had a discussion about that specific language, and I recommended that they keep it in as far as being specific types, because a lot of times, especially looking for construction, you may have someone who wants to bid for a roofing contract, and they're better at painting and flooring.

[00:09:12] They don't have the requisite expertise, and so while we may need to discourage them from bidding for roofing projects, we still want to encourage them to have other projects, but you wouldn't want to debar them from all construction with LCPS. So by saying specified types lets you identify the specific type of commodity that they may not be eligible or qualified for.

[00:09:34] But if we don't do what's called a pre-qualification process, there isn't really a way to stop people from bidding. And someone could underbid, and if it is an IFB, we would have to accept the lowest bidder. There is a responsibility check, but if they kind of clear all those hurdles, you could still have an issue.

[00:09:50] So it's just another avenue for staff to be able to hold vendors accountable for specific types of projects without keeping them from an opportunity. I appreciate that, and thank you for helping clarify the language and why it's written the way it's written. Those are really the two questions I have on this policy.

[00:10:06] I appreciate your... Thank you, Mr. Pepper. Per this policy, I know we discussed previously that you have a lower bid than somebody else who made a bid and they could protest.

[00:10:23] But then that person can also rebid to come in lower. We talked about that last time, correct? No, they cannot submit a new bid to come in at a lower price. Oh, they cannot. If it's a low-price IFB, for example, they cannot change their price.

[00:10:40] RFB, you can negotiate with them to adjust their price. But they can't come in and say, oh, my gosh, we just saw this award and realized they bid $1,000 and we bid $2,000. We want to counterbid now with $1,000. Okay. I just wanted to be clear on that. Also, just for clarity, I did make a motion as far as ownership to change some of the verbiage in here where it says his or her to make it there, T-H-E-I-R, to show ownership.

[00:11:12] I did that because I was looking at the clean copy and the red line, and it didn't sound right. In the clean copy, you took out his, her, a bid. I just want to clean it up and show ownership. It says a bid instead of their bid.

[00:11:29] So I wanted to go back and do that. So I wanted to make a motion to clean up the policy and use ownership as far as where you might have taken out his slash her. um and i can give you the lines if you're interested i can give you the lines oh did you want to say something i was going to say that i know we we loaded um into board docs your motion and we would just need the committee to formalize your motion and a vote we can take a vote on that

[00:12:03] now um all this in fit yeah and on my amendment to just clean it up to make it um to show ownership because if you do read it, it doesn't read clear. So have you both read my amendment, or do you want me to read it for you?

[00:12:20] Madam Chair, can we make a motion for the amendment and have it seconded and then discuss line numbers? Do I have a motion to – oh, here, let me read it. Let me read it. Of course I don't have it in front of me, so hold on one second.

[00:12:41] Oh, you got it? Okay. All right, so here, do you want to read it? Yeah, sure. Thank you. I would like to make a motion on policy 43330, remedies and bids and awards. I move to amend the motion to replace his, her thoroughly throughout the document with their, T-H-E-I-R, as a possessive pronoun determiner that shows ownership.

[00:13:06] Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. A couple questions, Madam Chair. Sure. First, I'm assuming that you're looking to amend the clean version and not the red line version because if you're replacing his, her, the red line version, they've been removed.

[00:13:26] Is that correct? That is correct. They were removed in the red line, and the clean version, it just says a bid. It's not clarifying ownership. So I would like to fix it in the clean version. But if you do look at the red line, you will see that it was red lined to come out.

[00:13:43] Do you have the line numbers of each? I do. I do. I have line 14, lines 28 and 29, line 31, and line 35, and anywhere I may have missed in the document, but that's what I have.

[00:14:10] Yeah. So I see that you guys have made the changes in the red line to just, yeah, so this is like the bid or the claim or a bid. Is that, are we standardizing that across all of the policies, not just the procurement policies, but is that, how are we, what's the nomenclature that we're using generally across all policies right now i would welcome miss ewing to chime in but i believe we're doing it to be in line with the other policies where we removed him her his her we remained silent and did it the way that the red line was shown and is that is that standard for how we're doing it

[00:14:47] across the board from a legal perspective that's my understanding i believe at the last committee meeting miss willoughby had a little bit of feedback from cabinet and i think it was discussed across the board of all policies, but I think we are removing the possessiveness or at least the use of specific pronouns in our policy.

[00:15:07] If I may, I believe this is the APA language that we don't have to use it. We choose to, but we don't have to. To make the policy sound correct, we can use what I'm adding today, which is the possessive T-H-E-I-R for the policy.

[00:15:31] - Yes, it's up to the committee on the version that you wanna move forward to the full board. - Thank you. - I guess my question is, I just, I wanna make sure that we're being consistent for all of our FNO policies along with what we're doing.

[00:15:47] I guess I'm asking the global question, is this the process that we're using going forward with all LCPS policies from the school board? So as they're coming back through, we're just removing pronouns completely and just going straight to the, in this case, the nouns? - Ms. Riccardi, that's my understanding, but I can always verify that.

[00:16:04] A lot of these go through the legislative committee, and so we can just confirm that that's the process that they are continuing with the other policies, not only ones here, but in other areas. So I can verify just to make sure. - That would be really helpful, and it's not that I don't agree with the amendment, it's just I wanna make sure that regardless of what we're doing, we're just being consistent across the board, and if this is a new approach that we're taking policy-wise, and are you seeing this at all in your-- - So what I'm seeing is these, Unless it's specific, we're doing things like him or her with the student in other committees.

[00:16:41] So we're trying to keep it very – we're basically removing all the pronouns. And it reads fine. Truthfully, I believe that the policy without their or his or her reads completely fine from both – and Miss Yu, you can correct me – from both a legal perspective and a policy perspective. And for consistency's sake, I think that we should just leave the pronouns as is and not include them for now.

[00:17:05] And we can always, and if we do get this through and it is different, and Ms. Ewing comes back to the report, we can always change this at the full board level as well. Well, if I may, when I read the clean copy, line one, A1, a bidder may withdraw a bid, but the bidder is withdrawing their bid.

[00:17:29] That's what I'm trying to point out there. Not a bid, not just a random bid. They're withdrawing their bid. So in the lines I provided, it generally, it's responding to somebody and showing ownership in particular to this policy.

[00:17:46] That's why I wanted to clean it up and keep that in there or put that in there. So I just want to clarify. I understand, Ms. Riccardi, where you are on consistency, but sometimes I feel like show possession and, you know, have the language written correctly.

[00:18:04] Thank you. Ms. Griffiths, if I can add a point of clarification. Sometimes with procurements for multi-awards, they may submit pricing for more than one item, and so they may have a miscalculation on one aspect of it. So they could withdraw in part, but not the full one.

[00:18:21] So I just wanted to mention that because there may seem like their entire bid and not a portion thereof, but I just wanted to note that. Mr. Cardi. Okay, so I read through this before, but now that I'm reading it with a different lens, I mean, I think there are a couple of places in here where we do need to show possessives, Like Section B, it talks about the superintendent's designees.

[00:18:50] It's not, the clarity is that the super, it's the superintendent's, the superintendent or, and that his and her were taken out, designees. But it's really the superintendent's designees, not designees in general. So I think there are, there may be some places in here where the possession is important to clarify.

[00:19:10] And I agree also with the bidders, like their claim or their bid. It does need to be theirs. They can't just withdraw any bid as it's being read. So I think we need to kind of take a look specifically, especially when it comes to procurement, about making sure that as we're changing those pronouns, we're not changing the meaning of the intent by pulling it out.

[00:19:39] Does that make sense? To me, it does. It may not need to happen everywhere, but it definitely needs to happen when we're claiming about somebody else. and if I may these are these are bids by specific companies so to say remove a bid well was it their bid what bid are they removing as miss Riccardi mentioned so I think in this policy there are cert there are situations where you need

[00:20:07] to show possession thank you mr. pepper I'm just I'm trying to process this so for example there are some things I do agree with like line 48 does read very strange perhaps it would be better if it said the superintendent or superintendents designees with an extra superintendent in there but at the same time I I still read it the way that perhaps Miss Ewing reads it with a bitter may withdraw a bid perhaps that better has multiple bids and just wants

[00:20:37] to remove one or one part of one I like it the way it is but I really don't know that showing position is a big deal it's just cleaning it up you know I know you You would like to follow the APA guidelines, but it's not always appropriate for certain policies.

[00:21:06] Sometimes you can. Sometimes you can take things out and it sounds fine. But to me, when I was reading the clean copy, it did not sound correct. And as far as consistency, I know we're using the APA guidelines in other areas, and I understand that but our English language it should sound it should sound like our English language and not take things out and change it around so with that being said can we take a vote on this or you had a second before should I go with can I have

[00:21:40] a second again to we're okay good so all those in favor say aye aye no so with that if we can go ahead and make those changes I would really appreciate that.

[00:22:01] And then I guess it'll be coming back to us through action next time. It's on action. Well, you're making the changes and it's coming back again. So I think you need to make. Madam Chair, we have amended the policy.

[00:22:16] Okay, so it'll be good to go to the board. We have to vote to approve it, Madam Chair. Well, let's approve it. Sounds great. All right, so we're good on that one. No, we still have to vote to approve it, Madam Chair. Okay, let's go back to the main motion.

[00:22:33] any other discussion? We will proceed to a vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. That should go back. That should go to the board then. Thank you. Item 5.02, business and financial services revision of policy 4340 procurement procedures. I may have a motion to approve 5.02.

[00:22:58] Madam Chair, I move that the Finance and Operations Committee recommend the Loudoun County school board adopt revised policy 4340 procurement exceptions thank you it's been the motion by Mr. Pepper and then seconded by Mr. Carty this item is being presented by Ms. Villa thank you once again there was no changes made in this policy based on comment received from the community

[00:23:36] the comments appeared to be more related to transparency in our equitable practices which are addressed in our standard operating procedures within LCPS and the Equity Council did have a comment regarding SLAM but we do have policy 4360 that outlines our SLAM policy thank you any discussion mr. Cardi so for this policy so I went through and took a look at policies 4310 through 4370 just to kind

[00:24:11] of do a little bit of a crosswalk as I'd mentioned before I mean I've got about nine different things in here that I want to clarify but I'm not going to do them here for that so I guess one of the questions is I have on this policy is about the the no anti-splitting rule if you could explain that a little bit more

[00:24:32] may I please get a line number where you're at on that I and 42 to 45 in the

[00:24:59] administrative exemptions I'm not seeing anything related to splitting on those lines that might be just the ceiling on that give me one second took notes but didn't put the line numbers which i should have probably done i can tell you what i'm what i'm

[00:25:35] going for here really quickly so i want to make sure that so policy 4320 has a rule that says or in there says that we're not there's a 5 000 and a 50 000 limit on i think splitting contracts those limits are established to determine what method of procurement we can use and it's for the purchase of like commodities so if we are purchasing something that is a one-time purchase of three thousand dollars you can just do a single quote

[00:26:13] if we are purchasing like items that are between five and fifty you must get three written quotes or attempt to get three written quotes fifty up to two hundred is an RFQ request for quotes where we must try to get at least four responses above two hundred thousand is our formal solicitation process which relates to our IFB and RFP process the splitting of purchases generally comes into play to ensure that there is no attempt to try to bypass those limits as established the key criteria with that though is the purchase of like items not

[00:26:52] the purchase from a vendor we could purchase from a vendor two hundred thousand dollars of something but as far as a like commodity it could be five thousand dollars and it's based on the purchase of like items when you have vendors that sell many types of commodities you could have different contracts for them with different goods or services on it and so what happens then i guess when if you have multiple vendors that you're buying the same product from but all underneath the 200 that's 250 000 threshold that we that we have once again with the purchase

[00:27:31] of like items if we are purchasing for purchasing for example music equipment we purchase music equipment and when we open a new school it exceeds two hundred thousand dollars therefore we do a solicitation there may be another year where we don't buy that much in equipment if we're not opening a new school in that case we would go to the other method of procurement the likeness is in the fact that we have various criteria we have percussion and keyboards is one we have secondary music that is one and we have elementary music because those instruments vary they are treated

[00:28:03] as like commodities in reference to the titles of the bids as I mentioned okay thank you any other questions Mr. Pepper just really briefly and you may have already addressed this the section on the red line between 90 and all the way down to 144 about discrimination aliens sex offenders I assume that's somewhere else that is in the regulation that I shared with you as part of your packet

[00:28:32] for this evening. It's already been added into there. Perfect. Just want to make sure that everyone knows where to find it. Yes sir. Thank you. If there's no other discussion we'll proceed to a vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. We'll move on to item 5. 03 support services approval of capital improvement fund transfer and supplemental funds request for view transition academy.

[00:28:57] May I have a motion to approve 5. 03. Madam Chair I move that the Finance and Operations Committee request that the Loudoun County School Board request the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, appropriate $20,039,095.33 from the county-held LCPS Contingency Fund or other county funding sources available, and transfer $3,930,904.67 for multiple completed capital projects with available funding to the VIEW Transition Academy project.

[00:29:35] Further, the completed capital projects identified with an asterisk in the chart on board docs policy 5.03 are to be closed we have a second second thank you this item has been the motion has been made and seconded by Mr. Pepper and Ms. Riccardi this item will be presented by Mr.

[00:29:56] Pascarelli thank you thank you so during the information session we had on here there was a question that Ms. Riccardi had regarding the nature of the contingency fund so subsequent to that there was information that was sent to you and other board members with some details as well as the Board of Supervisors action items related to that so I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have. Mr. Riccardi. I thank you I appreciate the information so we have the 20

[00:30:32] million and just shy of four million dollars how are we making up the gap again on that because you're asking for 47. So we currently in the CIP now we have the remaining dollars that we need to fully fund the project in the CIP this is supplemental funding that will fully fund the project so i'm a big supporter of this um the view academy i just think one of the things we're going to hear really quickly um i've actually i've already been hearing about it is the fact that we've got you know lower enrollment and we're um we're asking for significantly more money than the

[00:31:10] original um project was initially spec'd at and so um i know we're expanding the footprint i know it's the building but it's getting renovated and added on to so big expansion i know from here we were starting with 100 students and we're looking to expand to 500 in that facility is that i believe ultimately that's the goal yeah i just want to make sure that the public number one is aware of that and that can you also um from a transportation perspective we're busing students to this

[00:31:45] facility how is that all working yeah i could i could speak a little bit um actually do you mind mr davies jumping in yes that is correct uh we will be providing transportation to the transition academy and and uh we're working with with the group that is organizing that on when how that will occur and from where and all that stuff is that from base schools or is that from home that

[00:32:16] will be from home do we have an estimate for the transportation costs for this at this point not Not at this point, no.

[00:32:31] If I may add to the discussion, it went from, and we sort of discussed this offline, but it went from 24 million to 48 million. Just for clarity, so the public knows why it jumped so much, my understanding is putting the state-of-the-art CTE programs in the building, if you could, if somebody could give more detail on that for the public so they understand why it jumped it doubled in cost thank you a couple things I'll say about that is this program is a brand

[00:33:11] new program for LCPS so it's much different than for example you know high school or elementary school that we currently do where we understand with the with that program looks like in this program was expedited through our capital budget program so we were starting design roughly this time last year when we were actually submitting for that number so program hadn't been developed that far and as a program developed you know we received cost estimates and the ultimate program included an extensive renovation as well

[00:33:44] as in addition to the building thank you and also I'd like to point out with budget issues that we're having a lot is going into this building for the transition center which I totally am for I guess I have a couple questions well because we're having budget issues and we're gonna have great CTE programs there will is it just gonna be specifically for special ed or other kids able to other students able to use the facility my understanding is it's focused on special ed students.

[00:34:21] Okay, so just special ed. And probably not going to like this question I'm going to ask. Is the, because it doubled and we're spending this amount of money on this building, is that, that's going to take away from other schools if they need renovations or they need anything?

[00:34:42] Can you, can you elaborate on that, please? Yeah, I would say, so this is not taking away from any of the programs in the capital budget. that's that's why the county had created this contingency fund for us they had their they have a contingency fund for their projects and they recognized back in 2023 when they established this for us that these these projects do happen and unexpected costs do occur so the majority of the dollars that are being requested are from that capital contingency fund and then roughly four million of it is being transferred from existing projects that completed with balances where

[00:35:21] we saw some cost savings so it will not affect any other projects that we have going on. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Mr. Pepper. Just for clarification, Mr. Pasquale, the board of supervisors replenishes this fund on an annual basis. Yes, sir.

[00:35:37] Thank you. Mr. Cordy. I would just also like to just make sure that our communications team does a really great job of getting out into the public i don't know if anybody here is from the comms teams here but just really doing a great job getting ahead of this with the public and explaining the the incredible value that this is going to have for our students i think that's going to be really key as we're getting into a season of budget tightening and just being a little bit more mindful of that i think we've really got to make sure that we're explaining to the public exactly what the benefits are, who's being served,

[00:36:16] and why this transition center is such a value to our community in general. Thank you. - Thank you. Is there any other discussion? If not, we will proceed to a vote. All those in favor, say aye.

[00:36:32] - Aye. - Thank you. We can now move on to 5.04 support services, Town of Leesburg proffer funds. May I have a motion to approve 5.04? - So moved.

[00:36:47] - Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Riccardi. - Second. - Thank you, Mr. Pepper. This item has been moved and seconded by Mr. Carty and Mr. Pepper. This item is being presented by Mr. Joseph Pasquarelli, Director of Construction. Thank you.

[00:37:04] - I'm gonna substitute for Mr. Pasquarelli update. Last, at your September 15 meeting, we reviewed this item. There are, the town of Leesburg collects cash proffers to offset the impact of new homes being built within the town limits and onto the public school system.

[00:37:24] Currently, there is an estimated $3 million available for projects, and I believe, Ms. Riccardi, you mentioned last week, our last meeting that you were going to confer with Ms. Chernoff, and so I will defer to you. Ms. Riccardi.

[00:37:40] Thank you, Madam Chair. So, yes, Ms. Chernoff has done a really great job, and I know she's talked to Ms. Tate and I think some other folks from the operations team as well about what she's looking for. So she'd proposed a couple of different options on this. And her preference is what's called option B.

[00:38:00] And I know she's submitted, although I guess we didn't put it in here as an attachment, but we have a list of those items in here. And I have it pulled up. It includes an inclusive playground for Loving Elementary School, outdoor learning space for Catoctin Elementary School, the preschool play areas.

[00:38:29] Oh, I wish I knew all of her. I was gonna say all of her. No, she wants B, actually. Yeah, because it's just under $3 million, which is what she was looking for. So she's looking at preschool play areas for three of the elementary schools, tennis court, lighting for Tuscarora and Loudoun County High School, a walking path and track for Heritage, and Frederick Douglass.

[00:39:00] Thank you so much. Pickleball court and a volleyball court. HP is Harper Park Middle School. So the total is $2,248,500. no she's not not asking for this one she changed her the total amount that the estimated amount initially was at four million or so that was the original number we got but I think after conferring it's really more like three million so if I may clarify there is approximately three million dollars

[00:39:36] available but it's choking me up talking about it but part of the item does reference a four million dollar threshold in order to utilize the funds it would be additional monies on top of what the Board of Supervisors has already approved for capital budget so in conversation with mr. Jones and the Budget Office we elected to put a threshold of four million dollars in your item so that you would not have to go back on the chance that these are cost estimates project estimates that were submitted by the principals in some instances and there may be where the cost would increase slightly once

[00:40:13] construction facilities scopes it out and so we wanted to set the bar a little higher for the request for the board of supervisors so that we did not have to come back to you to ask you to again request the board of supervisors that we needed two thousand dollars more so we set the four million but the available monies right now are three all over three mr pepper may i ask a few questions on this first of all miss tate i when you say board of supervisors do you mean leesburg town council no sir so these are additional monies coming in for the school system to use

[00:40:50] coming from monies the town of leesburg collected but because the board of supervisors has funding authority for the county like they approve the capital budget the operating budget we have to go back to them because this is supplemental above and beyond in some instance what we have planned in our capital budget we did not plan to put in a pickleball court at harper park as an example we did not plan at this instance to put outdoor classroom or a preschool play area so those are projects above and beyond what were approved with the capital budget so is the best

[00:41:26] way to think of this and you can tell me i'm completely off base here it's kind of a pass through funding situation where the town of leesburg has collected a set of monies to be use for capital projects and they give that money to the board of supervisors they give it to us then what do we need the board of supervisors for i'm pleased that's where that's where i get lost on this the county adopt or appropriates the budget the capital and the operating budget to lcps so similar i'll give you an example related to the operating budget that the board recently did

[00:42:02] where we received additional funding from the state we need the the relevant spending authority to adjust the budget since the county adopts and improves the budget for the the schools they have to go back and amend the budget so we can receive the money from the town like we could have it in our account today but we don't have the spending authority behind it we have to get that authority from the county via their appropriation and this is a request to amend the appropriation thank you miss will be that definitely clarified it up because i i was like all yeah so can i ask

[00:42:41] one more question related but unrelated related to this item when we make this so this this action item has been moved and seconded however has not been moved and seconded with a specific option should is it in our best interests to remake this motion noting the projects that we wish to be completed we do we need to withdraw the original is it parliamentary probably need to withdraw the original motion so doing it okay so we're gonna make an amendment on to that motion and we'll go

[00:43:19] back and we'll do another motion that the we're not making a choice as of right now and it'll go to the board did you want to make a motion again making just make an amendment okay all right madam chair i move that we specify the projects for this the proper funds for leesburg to option b presented by miss shernoff where the most schools are impacted to include an inclusive playground at

[00:43:56] loving elementary an outdoor learning space at catoctin elementary the preschool play areas at evergreen mills balls bluff and oh loving elementary tennis court lighting at tuscarora high school and loudon county high school a walking path and track at heritage and frederick douglas elementary school a pickleball court and volleyball court at harper park middle

[00:44:30] school for a total of two million two hundred forty eight thousand five hundred dollars second so moved um we'll go ahead and take a vote all those in favor say aye aye aye uh let's go back to the base motion as amended all those in favor aye aye thank you so now we will move on to i lost my microphone madam madam chair sorry oh i'm sorry go if i may um we i wanted to go back real

[00:45:06] quickly because i don't think we i got the clarity or my team on 5.03 um is is the committee uh is recommendation to move that item as a consent to the board's agenda it'll go to action okay yeah we voted on that to go to action that's fine yeah actually that's fine oh and and for 5.04 as well

[00:45:40] that one will go to action as well is that is that clear for you mr moment okay um we'll now move on to our information items um item 6.01 business and financial services IFB number one two seven one zero one toner and ink cartridges art cartridges this item is being presented by Ms. Villa a director of procurement and risk management thank you thank you before you this evening we do have the contract that we bring to you on a regular basis for the toner cartridges to for the printers throughout the school system with the exception of our large

[00:46:19] xerox work center machines that are used in all of our locations the contract attachment includes the toner cartridges being purchased and the vendor that will be awarded these contracts you will see that this contract runs from december 1 2027 through june 30 2027. the reason for the period shorter than one year is because when we do it for a year we experience hp's price adjustments in the middle of our contract so in order to better accommodate that we do a shorter period for this contract to allow for those increases since a number of our cartridges are hp

[00:46:58] thank you mr cordy thank you manager i think you mean december 1st 2026 right yes that is what i mean any other discussion uh does everyone feel comfortable putting this on consent thank you we'll go ahead and put that on consent now we'll move to item 6.02 business and financial services rfp number r24251 automotive and special vehicle parts renewal this item is being presented by

[00:47:35] miss philaw director of procurement and risk management thank you being brought before you this evening is the contract that provides the parts for our central garage operation and their parts department to work on our vehicles this has various vendors on it as well with discounts off of the price and you will see that this contract runs january 1 2027 through december 31 2027 the prices did remain unchanged the discounts remained unchanged for these services and this is the third of four renewal options for this contract thank you any discussion no

[00:48:15] if all in favor of going to consent the next meeting okay we'll go ahead and do that we'll move on to 6.03 business and financial services rfp number r24252 legionella water management programs renewal this item is being presented by Ms. Phila director of procurement risk management thank you this contract is scheduled to expire on January 31 2027 with the new contract period being February 1 2027 through January 31 2028 once again there was no change in pricing on these

[00:48:50] services and this is the third renewal option on this contract any discussion should I wait a minute we're good okay so uh consent for this one as well okay that'll go to consent now we're at item 6.04 business and financial services renewal of rfp r25 272 medicare advantage this item is being presented by miss philaw director of procurement and risk management this item is being brought before you this is the first renewal on this contract with the current contract expiring on

[00:49:29] in december 31 2026. this is our for our contracted services with united healthcare for a period of one year commencing on january 1 2027. the funding from this will come from the self-insurance fund and we are seeing a 16 increase in the rates over the previous year any discussion mr cordy thank you madam chair so i always have to ask what's driving the 16 increase i mean i know this happens periodically so i have miss brown here if she'd like to address

[00:50:02] I understand that costs are just increasing anyway in general labor yes costs are increasing across the board and it is largely dependent on CMS reimbursement rates so every year they are updated and published and then the administrators adjust their costs accordingly so my second question is kind of what does this do then to the self-insurance fund generally besides obviously costing us more it does come this these this contract does come out of the self-insurance

[00:50:38] fund. I am not sure of the dollar figure for the 16%, but the total value of this particular contract is just under $4 million. Okay. And so is this then money that we're budgeting for in this upcoming budget cycle? Or is this, this has already been, this is part of the current fiscal year because our plan year and our fiscal year runs at different times.

[00:51:05] So it has already been budgeted for this fiscal year and this will become in effect for 2022. January 1st 2027 okay so we're gonna was this already was this increase factored into the budget or is this going to be supplemental requests no it won't be a supplemental request at this time again with the budget being an estimate you know things can come in higher and lower and so this would be an example where the the premium for this is coming in higher and again this is where we are

[00:51:37] purchasing a commercial plan for our retirees and so with the total value of being 3.9 million the rate increase being 16% too late in the day for me to do the math in my head but it would be a relatively small amount compared to the overall self-insurance fund and we've got a budgeted somewhere we're gonna or it's been part of the budget it would be part of the projection so in at the second meeting in October will have our first quarter financial projection and the health self-insurance fund is one example of the projections and so this

[00:52:17] is where the we would actually capture that along with all the other projected actual costs and then compare it to revenues and then compare it to budget and so all of that will will be incorporated in that presentation I guess my question is did we have are we on track with our projections for this if I understand your question that is what will be presented at the second meeting in terms of on track with projections are you referencing the entire fund were we expecting the 16% increase I mean no when we adopt the budget that budget as you know was adopted in February and when we're preparing the budget we work

[00:52:55] backwards off of that and the solicitation obviously occurred after that since it's now being brought to you for award in October so we did not account for a 16% increase if I may I did get some people require inquiring as to why they couldn't get the documents on board docs now we could as school board members but they were not able to access the documents for some reason I don't know if that's an executive thing that we it is okay documents are only

[00:53:33] available for executive viewing or through an information request they're not available for public viewing and why is that they are some of that information is proprietary in nature some of that information is also for internal viewing only and solicitation documents such as those would only be provided through a FOIA request with that being said and I know you mentioned we're going to go over it just so we don't have issues and we're completely

[00:54:08] transparent um what is the do you know what the breakdown of the rate increase is um that you could say it publicly or this is a purchase where we purchase a commercial product for our retirees so the only cost that is being borne by the self-insurance fund is the premium that we are paying for the commercial product which is estimated to be 3.9 million um percentage paid by employer versus retiree no again there is no we are buying a commercial product we aren't

[00:54:45] self-insuring and where where this is impacting premiums that retirees are paying and there was no way to negotiate better contracts it is what it is it's 16 percent is that what you're saying as as miss brown shared it's based on the rate the cms rate so that rate drives this increase okay um this cannot and my my thoughts are it cannot go to consent um we have to review this

[00:55:16] again um and have it come back i guess is a action to assist the board since you're not able to place this on consent if we could get clarity on what other information we can bring well basically more details for our retirees. They're not able to access what we are able to access. They should have an idea of what's happening. I don't want to blindside anyone. This is a huge issue. The

[00:55:48] Medicare is a huge issue, the Medicare Advantage. The cost of this contract will be what LCPS bears. It will not have a direct correlation to the retiree rates that they pay for their Medicare advantage plan for next year so those rates have already been published and retirees will have an opportunity during open enrollment to make any changes but the rates that they will pay for 2027 have already been established and they won't be impacted by this decision thank you any other thoughts i mean personally it seems pretty straightforward but i'm happy to take it to

[00:56:26] action if you guys want more time to deliberate on it you're good um okay so you're looking at consent then it's madam chair it is your call um and then it'll go to the board um okay sure thank you um um could we get clarity was that okay for consent oh yes yes yeah thank you for

[00:57:03] action yeah yeah for action well i mean we could put it on consent but i think it should come to action so now we'll move on to is there any new business no okay so with that i guess we'll adjourn for today. Thank you.

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