2020-09-22 PPS School Board Commission Hearing

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District Portland Public Schools
Date 2020-09-22
Time 17:00:00
Venue Virtual/Online
Meeting Type hearing
Directors Present missing
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Event 1: PPS - Public Hearing on Property Tax Measure 9/22/2020

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uh thank you everyone for being here tonight uh good evening i'm james offsink vice chair of the tech supervising and conservation commission and i'm convening a hearing tonight um of the tscc we're holding this hearing to discuss measure 26 215 a measure that portland public schools has put forward for the november ballot the commission is a neutral body in this matter and conducts the hearing for the public benefit because it will be decided by voters on november 3rd we will take no formal action at this meeting first i would like the tscc commissioners and staff to introduce themselves and say if they have any conflict of interest or perceived conflict of interest with the district uh i'll third again i'm james offsink vice chair of the tscc this is my fifth year um as a commissioner um when i'm not commissioning i work at oregon health and science university nit and my local high school here is franklin good evening i'm margo norton i'm also a fifth year on the commission um my career was in government finance when i'm not commissioning i'm retired and my high school attendance area is grant good evening my name is mark wibold this is my fourth year on the commission and my day job on the senior policy analyst for the presidents of portland state university and i live just down the street from fabian and i have no perceived or re or you know conflicts of interest good evening everyone my name is harmony keita this is my first year with the tscc tsvc i am a former teacher i taught middle school math and science and currently work in curriculum and assessment on k-12 science i have two kids i have a a four-year-old and i have a first grader at atkinson near franklin and i am also the pta president at atkinson i have no real or perceived conflicts of interest with the district and then chair behringer i see that you're on if you wanted to just introduce yourself and okay this is weird i was on for 20 minutes and i got kicked off somehow i'm david behringer i'm the chair of the tscc and i welcome you all to this hearing and thank you james for getting us kicked off with that has the staff introduced themselves yet not yet okay my name is craig gibbons chair to the staff um and i am right down the street from north eugene high school my alma mater is where i have been for the duration of this pandemic and i'm tony blachard staff great thank you um with that with the school district representatives please introduce themselves my apologies for interrupting i was hearing staff and thinking of pps staff so deputy superintendent claire hertz and we have um i'll have asked the board to go ahead um board chair if you'd like to start with introductions uh this is max um and i am ailee lowry i'm the chair of the school board um and i am mom to one high schooler and two cats who want to become a part of this hearing tonight let's go ahead uh in alphabetical order uh by first name so we'll start with amy sorry about that good evening everybody nice to see you again my name is amy constam i have served on the board since 2015 and i'm a parent of three former pps students i guess am i next year lowry uh hi andrew scott i'm a pps board member for zone one parent of two pbs students and um uh frequent attendee at tac hearings and i saw that um director moore was on the call at one point rita are you there
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yes sorry i was waiting for michelle um rita moore um school boards fourth year um parent of a pps graduates and a former cbrc member so hi harmony all right and that's all the board uh that are here tonight um like i said uh director berman we have uh a student representative oh sorry student representative thank you jonathan hello i'm nathaniel shu i'm student representative to the board of education and i am a senior at jefferson okay and with that i think that i will ask staff as they are responding to questions to introduce themselves as they respond to a question at this point okay thank you all for attending um would you like to make any introductory remarks before we start our questions your chief operations officer dan young will um give us an overview of the bond absolutely good good evening everyone uh dan young chief operating officer so yeah i'll i'll provide a real quick overview of the scope of this bond and if you have any questions please feel free to interrupt and ask any time uh to give a little context uh well i think with some of our answers the questions talk a little more detail but the district has a long-range facilities plan they adopted back in 2012 and what that does is it identifies uh a plan of really a multi-billion dollar multi-decade plan of uh updating the entire capital portfolio over over a long term and it targets uh going out for a series of bonds over this period of time so the district has passed a bond in 2012 passed another one in 2017 so this is really a third step in what's intended to be a longer term process we started having uh preparations for this well over a year ago and started uh some public meetings here late last fall and looked at a lot of different different materials and information that helped inform the bond package that you have before you today so the total uh that is in the bond for november is a little over 1.2 billion uh we for sake of ease and discussions uh categorize the scope of work into a number of different categories uh one is modernizations so there's over 600 million dollars in modernization work that is in this bond package that includes uh funds necessary to complete uh two active projects we have right now uh the benson technical high school and the multiple pathways to graduation building that are in design uh modernization of the jefferson high school that we have uh 60 million dollars for the center for black student excellence and also funds for planning and design of cleveland high school and wilson high school uh with jefferson cleveland and wilson that will round out uh all of the nine comprehensive high schools within pbs this bond also includes almost 200 million dollars of educational improvements and those include technology improvements uh curriculum purchases and improvements uh and improvements to our special ed classrooms and facilities we continue with health and safety work uh with about 217 million dollars that is primarily target towards roof replacements mechanical system upgrades uh security improvements throughout the district seismic improvements and ada upgrades as well this bond allocates about 12 million dollars for future capacity uh improvements we anticipate with some of the initiatives that are going on in the district right now a need for an additional capacity within our buildings or moving capacity within our sites we've dedicated some funds for that and additionally we've got about 150 million dollars for administrative administration costs uh and program contingency that will ultimately be allocated and spent in one of those other categories of work so again that tools a little over 1.2 billion any questions on that all right thank you um with that we'll start with our prepared questions and following that if there's any public comment we will take that at the end of the meeting and i have the first question the board originally had considered three options for the size of this bond measure and the project list the bond ended up kind of with a fourth option that was larger and contained more projects what factors went into the decision and what public input did this choice reflect how did that how did this choice reflect
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great well thanks for the question again this is um andrew scott board member from zone one and i'll go ahead and take a shot and then dan can fill in any uh any details i i might have missed um and i think it's a you know it's a really good question and i'm glad dan gave some of that overview because it you know it's been a long process to get here and a lot of the work frankly probably most of the technical work occurred you know before i got on the board um about a year ago um but with those 2012 and 2017 bonds right the district was beginning to make progress on this long-range facility plan and i think for for each one of those um you know there were decisions made in terms of focusing you know again on high schools first and then in 2017 there was the real focus on safety and lead and seismic etc and so for this bond what we did about a year ago as a board was you know lay out a process and we created a bond committee uh of the board um that met um pretty routinely i think we had um 15 meetings total over the last nine months or so um you know to review um what all the different options were and and you know to this question um we did we we actually brainstormed on a lot of different options in terms of what the spawn can look like i think we started thinking well maybe we finished all three high schools um realized that that um was was was very you know expensive and would be challenging but would also have crowded out some of the other things we needed to do as a district um and so i think what we really spent the last year doing was was trying to find that balance right how do we continue the long-range facility plan and specifically focus on the high schools while also doing some of those other projects that are really needed um i think you you you know this you know dealing with governments throughout multnomah county but um you know our our overall capital needs um far exceed what we can do in one bond um and that's one of the things that i am really excited about is that the district already has this this plan in place um that really goes out decades right to sort of fix all the capital projects and this is one more step in that so very specifically to your question about about these options you know we began holding these public meetings last fall um i had a number of meetings throughout the year to discuss um you know the different bond impacts the variables talked about the overall facility and educational needs in the district some of those guiding documents that dan talked about we talked about different cost estimates for different components of it we also gained input from community and stakeholders during those meetings and you know what what we ended up doing was coming up with those three options we went out to the community with what we heard back pretty loud and clear was the desire to be aggressive um and that was accompanied both in our public listening sessions and also some polling we did there was really widespread community support for a sizable bond and so um what we ended up focusing in on was jefferson and the center for black student excellence along with some of the educational accessibility improvements that were talked about and also some of the health and safety improvements so beginning to to sort of you know eat away at those backlogs as well as continuing the high school plan so that's really why once we heard all that feedback as a board we got back together and and i think you know combining that with kovid um which highlighted our need for technology right so so that was something that was was clearly there and then really the um um these cries for social justice and black lives matter um i think also highlighted what what had been um a conversation we were having and really brought that to the fore and and i think as a board we decided this was the moment um to really take a step forward on both of those things as well so that's where we ended up with a 1.2 billion dollar package so you would say that the public would see their input on this final result then yeah i think i think um yes i mean that i was i was um surprised at um the strength most in the poll and also what we heard from voters and and i will tell you um the the calls for specifically around jefferson and the center for black student excellence um i got a i got a lot of emails and and very very um very very passionate about the need that now is the time to move forward on that and frankly you know we probably should have done that in 2012 um and so we're already a little bit late but um i feel good about that it's included in that we're gonna make progress on it thank you andrew i have a quick follow-up and um i apologize that this is remedial i just don't remember but is this the largest uh bond in the region's history i believe the answer is yes but i don't know that for sure i think that's right because i think that 2016 bond was the largest one at that time and i don't think that we've had one larger since then i think that's right one of the things i'll add and maybe amy was about to say this i don't know um but you know one of the one of the principles the board has had going into this process is that we keep the tax rate the same um at two dollars and fifty cents per thousand and so one of the variables
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that we spent a lot of time with was do we go out for a bond now and then wait eight years or do we go out for a bond now and wait two years or do we agree bond now and wait four years and all of those you know we were able to size different things and and we have some flexibility there but um one of our overarching goals um that we've we've maintained and this bond will maintain is keeping that tax rate the same so it is the largest bond at least i believe it's the largest bond in the region's history but also one that won't raise taxes above what voters have already approved thank you i have the next i have the next question um building off the 2012 and 2017 bonds what lessons has the board and the district learn from those first two bond measures and how have those lessons impacted this bond measure yeah so i think i'll take this one as well and let staff fill in with any details um so so i think it's a great question and a really important question and and i'll just say personally um one of the reasons um that i ran um to become a school board member last year was um around the bonds and and actually both both positive and negative i've i've been doing uh infrastructure and and public infrastructure for a long long time in my career um and and as an outsider watching the district portland public schools is one of the few governments that has a long-range facility plan and a financing mechanism that they've put in place to do it um we have a lot of a lot of governments that have those plans in place that have aspirations but very few that have done i think what pps has done which is is passed these bonds in 2012 and 2017 to to increase the tax rate and now have a plan if we can maintain that and it's going to take a long time but it took a long time to dig this infrastructure whole it's going to take a long time to dig out you know i can say and i'm sad to say that's not something that the city of portland has that's not something that metro has it's not something for sure the state of oregon or the federal government has so i was excited um to both be able to contribute to that and help the district move forward um and there were also some issues that came up right in the 2017 bond in particular um and i wanted to um sort of be on the board to make sure that we had put some of those safeguards and internal controls in place to make sure that we could avoid those going forward and so you know we are really thankful to the voters for having passed those and i think we owe them from a public trust perspective recognizing that when we do hit those hit those bumps in the road when we do have those issues that we've taken corrective action um and so you know those those types of challenges come i mean they're varied you see these in all different governments in terms of overall scope and cost and schedule of projects um and um what we've done since then um in terms of of of putting different structures in place to insist in in assist and sort of understanding the health of the bond program understanding the causes and impacts um we've created as i mentioned um uh well actually i didn't mention this we created the bond subcommittee this last year um we created uh and had board member participation in early project planning efforts around these design advisory committees that are meeting with the different communities to design these projects um all master project all major project master plans are approved by the board significant deviations to scope schedule or budget come back to for uh board approval as well um i mentioned the subcommittee and then um engaging in this robust and continual community feedback loop some other things i would i would mention we we've brought in outside cost estimators to help sort of verify that the cost estimates the district has put forward for these projects are are as sound as they can be um you know we recognize that with all projects right it's always an estimate and um i think what we saw um coming out of 2017 with some of the cost inflation um we've seen that in every government and and i think knowing that um cost inflation is a is a is an estimate we need to make sure we've got robust contingencies in place so this bond includes those significant contingencies bond spending is audited by an outside auditor that we bring in we also have our bond accountability committee which meets regularly to review existing bond spending and also weight in on this package as well so i'm really confident um that we've put safeguards in place um both internal controls and and external safeguards to make sure that we know as much as we can that said we also know that things will change and i think we owe it um just to be really transparent about that and as cost estimates change make sure that we're really clear about the value engineering we're doing on projects when we're using contingency and i think that's what some of our outside groups will hold us accountable to director scott thank you excuse me how many i think one thing i would do one thing i would add to answer that question is that with the um external performance auditing that andrew mentioned um whenever there are um concerns or really they're not even deficiencies those audits have been really quite clean um i'm the district has a pretty impressive record of addressing
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um all the concerns that have been raised in the past so i would encourage you to look at that um most recent audit which we just received within the last month and it goes through how the district has responded to the issues that arose in that last cycle so it is kind of evidence of this continuous improvement cycle i think you answered my planned follow-up fairly well in terms of how you're addressing voters about the cost overruns but i'll give you a chance if there's anything else you want to say kind of put on the record um to say to voters about the cost overruns that happened in the last bond measure and how you're addressing them yeah no and i i would just go back to reiterate so it's it's making sure that we've got um the best construction inflation estimates available today that we've got outside cost estimators making sure that the estimates we are moving forward with are realistic that we've built sufficient contingencies in um to the overall system um and and i you know i'm confident that we've done that um you know but again recognizing these are multi-year plans um and you know you know from from other governments i mean we saw tremendous cost inflation in our metro bond projects and city portland bond projects um you know state of oregon as well um that have led that led um you know to a lot of adjustments um and i think that um you know um the district has now put in place i think everything we can and will continue to monitor an ongoing basis on changes in that environment thank you this is mark i've got the next question um we've been at a very high level very macro here talking about the large the larger system we'd now like to ask a question about a specific project one of your modernization projects benson high school can you please update us on the status of the high school modernization work and what work is yet still to be completed and how will the work be impacted uh if and i know you have had a wonderful record of getting your bonds passed but um if for some reason this one should not how would that work be impacted at benson thank you for the question i believe i'm the one responding on this one marina creswell i'm the senior director of the office of school modernization um when we talk about the benson high school project we have uh we use it as an umbrella for four different kind of smaller parts below that so i'm going to talk about each of those parts it's the benson high school main building the mpg building on the benson campus and then our two swing sites that we'll be utilizing while construction is underway those swing sites are at the marshall campus and at kenton so uh the work that is already complete the benson high school main building recently completed their design development phase and they've received landy's approval from the historic landmarks commission they have completed an extensive assessment of existing building conditions and during that investigative work they've also done some minor abatements for the mpg building the master plan has been approved by the board of education and schematic design started at the end of august for the swing sites we have completed roughly half or a little bit more than half of the modifications that will be needed at marshall to accommodate benson students and programs we've also completed some draft construction documents for an additional outbuilding that's going to be necessary to include their auto and construction programs the marshall swing site will be housing benson high school pioneer and virtual swa scholars the kenton swing side our secondary swing site will house dart clinton the alliance at benson and reconnection services we have completed construction draft construction documents for that site as well work that remains to be completed we are scheduled to complete permit documents by december for benson high school main building we will be negotiating the gmp amendment to the cmgc construction contract in early 2021 with permit issuance and start of construction scheduled for summer of 2021. construction will take roughly three years the school opening is scheduled for fall of 2024. the mpg building is at schematic design in the design phase they're earlier in the design process of the main building but they don't require as long to construct after they complete design development construction documents permitting and construction procurement the construction for that building will start closer to 2023 but still be complete for the fall 2024
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opening with the benson main building we do need to do additional renovations for occupancy at both marshall and kenton swing sites those need to be completed before we move the benson high school and affiliated programs into them in fall of 2021. so lots of work oh i just wanted to follow kind of get the end of this question uh talked about a little bit which is lots of work going on lots of progress being made um but if the bond or i'm sorry the ballot measure does not pass uh what's the plan to to finish the work the board passed resolution 57-80 that if the bond measure does not pass a full faith and credit loan will be used to fund the completion of the project thank you margo norton um i also have a specific project question but it is not a project we have talked about before in the previous bonds and that is the project that was added after option three to the final measure the center for black student excellence director scott talks a little bit about that but could you um give us a fuller picture of that project what are the origins how is the public involved in the planning and then we'll go from there i have some additional questions thank you uh this is jonathan garcia chief engagement officer here at pps so for as long as our communities have been fighting for civil rights uh equitable access to public education has long been a rallying cry in the fight for racial justice so building on that legacy of advocacy for black children here in portland and catalyzed by the social movement for black lives this summer and the ongoing uh movement for black lives black portland community leader during public input sessions put forth the concept of the center for black student excellence a vision that and diverse endeavors to center the experiment promote opportunities accelerate outcomes and celebrate the achievements of portland's black children and which was reinforced by many in the community who participated in the community sessions and focus groups and surveys this new collective impact effort channels the decades of visionary leadership and culturally responsive and pedagogically sustaining approaches a community-based non-profits like self-enhancement inc cairo speedwx and among other black-led culturally specific organizations here in portland this emerging concept community-led concept seeks to unify and elevate the educational experience of portland's black children and their families connecting a constellation of community schools such as boise elliot humble elementary dr martin luther king jr elementary harriet tubman middle school jefferson high school and black led community-based organizations in the uh albino neighborhood together the center for black student excellence and the jefferson high school rebuild will rally students families and community stakeholders to develop a coherent set of strategies that will positively impact student achievement and outcomes while affirming black student identity and will include promoting and supporting culturally responsive and sustaining teaching and learning from cradle to career we believe that this investment supports the schools in the heart of what was once the black albino community and will serve as a concrete literally and figuratively investment in our black communities it will reinforce and anchor our schools as centers of our communities and help create the conditions for moving the needle on the stubborn inequities that our black students continue to experience under our watch thank you so since you brought up concrete um the materials that we looked at um suggested that the 60 million was for planning design and phased construction so i would like to know how much construction will be done under this bond and do you have an estimate of the full build-out cost for this particular project uh a really great question i'll i'll start uh and then maybe uh uh our chief operating officer can weigh in uh i think the beauty of this uh endeavor um and and in the moment that we're in is
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that we're really uh turning uh uh turning to our community to help shape what that looks like uh and so i think that's the you know the trickiness of this moment and this and this this opportunity in front of our voters we have an opportunity to say we believe in our black children and our blacks uh and our schools that serve our black kids and we want to we want to bring our community alongside to help us design and create what those possibilities look like so again really how do we how do we connect the consolidation of schools uh both as built environments so uh it might look like re rebuilding aspects of those buildings it might look uh look like rebuilding uh a standalone building i think all of those are on the table as as we collectively envision with our community what this could look like dan do you want to add anything there yeah i appreciate it i think jonathan hits it on the head and that this is an opportunity and it's and it's unique it's different than some of the other scopes of work that are in this bond and have been in our other bonds and that the the scope is yet to be defined in many ways it's not a specific site it's not a specific building so the emphasis is on the community engagement and on the planning uh and that effort will um will deliver what exactly the hard capital improvements that go in place are where it's easy to quantify that with a roof replacement for example on something that takes this much engagement and community involvement it's just earlier in that phase before we can identify exactly what that build environment will look like follow-up since you have spent some of your time this evening talking about transparency and keeping faith with the voters i think andrew knows metro's promises made promises kept motto um is your community expecting to see this center when i mean i think uh director scott mentioned that it's in this bond it probably should have been in the previous bond but since planning and design aren't done and since 60 million isn't going to handle construction sure so i uh what can the voters expect i will connect it to again i think i think it's important to connect the center for black excellence to the rebuild of jefferson right we we have to think about this as a constellation of schools that we're supporting uh uh and that's really the endeavor so so when our when our voters will you know look at what's being built the first uh stage of that that you will begin to see is a jefferson rebuild that's connected to this broader constellation of support it might be a standalone uh building and it might be that we need to rebuild uh or rebuild aspects of tubman or whatnot so i think uh so jefferson will be the first uh uh kind of living expression of the investment in our in our uh black student excellence uh and and really continue with with the the rest as we explore that with our our broader community and you know i'll just i'll just jump in here commissioner because i think your question is a really good one um and to to be to be really frank i think we are changing things a little bit and i think we're changing along with some of the expectations in society i mean one of the things that we've learned over years is is the need for co-creation with the community and and i think that um to be really frank mistakes that the government has made in the past is is having um you know uh behind the scenes staff people such as myself you know develop these ideas that then we sort of we sort of put out and say hey you know please pass this and and we really are trying to flip that around a little bit with the center for black student next list and say look this is an important investment we have some concepts right about what we want to do they're district concepts and they're also community concepts but we really need to take this we need to see you know hopefully there's support in the community for it and then go back to the community again and say let's continue to build this and let's continue to develop it and you know that's not the way government has traditionally worked but i think it's actually something government needs to do a lot more of um and we see that with some other projects um you know in in the region i'm thinking outside of pps but i think this is an opportunity for pbs to show that we can co-create with the community as well and be transparent in that process and deliver something at the end of that and i think the only thing i would add to that director scott is you know for for our black community participation in the design is is as is as important or even more important than the brick and mortar so i think uh really participating and helping design the future of what uh public education should look like for uh for all of our students every one of our students but particularly our black
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students it's going to be particularly important thank you i have a good follow-up i'm just having trouble visualizing is this a building for the students or is this a building for the support for the students this the the center for i got i think the the the easiest way for me to describe it the center for black excellence when you think about center think about center as this little c and the big c i think the little c is again in the center of the discipline community the albino community the constellation of schools harriet tubman uh boise elliot dr martin luther king jefferson but it's also going to potentially be a center of lived expression of uh of a continuum for students of course this is meant to to educate our young people right this is going to be a classroom experience a school experience that that is in the heart of our community i have a i have a follow-up so i think i understand how the the bond is the capital expenditures to to support the building of this connected network um whether that's at jefferson or at all these other schools in our historically black neighborhoods but i'm that is one piece of that really programmatic idea so i'm interested if there's any thought or planning being done around um paying for the operating costs associated with the expansion of that kind of pro a program right like that if if this is a conceptual idea i understand how the bond is going to pay for the physical aspects of that right the the new roof or playgrounds or whatever that looks like um to support our black students but that there are programmatic aspects and operating costs that go along with that um and i'm i'm interested in i know that's likely to evolve as well but um in in lean budget years like we're experiencing at the moment and are likely to see for the next several um i'm just curious what the what the thoughts are around that operating operating cost sure i think again i i will i would just highlight that um i think part of the beauty of this project and the endeavor in this moment in time is our our opportunity as a public agency to to come alongside our community particularly our communities of color namely our black communities to to think about what those operational uh things are i mean i could sit here and develop a set of strategies but i don't live don't have the black experience uh or the portland experience and so i think it's gonna be important that we bring our communities our students our families uh together to really outline those operational uh strategies and those uh curricular strategies and i think once we have a real determination of what the community really so desires for for our for the future of our schools and our programmatic nature then i think that's where we're going to have a lot more of those conversations harmony about you know what what are the costs right and and i think the beauty here is that the uh we have uh partners uh up and down you know our nonprofit partners our business philanthropic partners and our our government agencies in the region all committed to to really living up to this lived expression of of supporting our black families and our black students well in um harmony i would add that our dollars follow our students too right we receive resources opera for operations based on the number and types of kids that we have and so um so when we are moving um kids to a school as as the enrollment in a school or a facility is our program um then those dollars tend to follow those kids so um so there are you know operational dollars available for all of our students definitely and i think i think it's also important i think you know uh and i think uh danny lodesma who's our senior advisor on racial equity can really speak to our broader investment uh areas around uh supporting black student achievement across the district uh through our racial equity uh and social justice portfolio uh of partnerships as this body knows when uh we you reviewed our our budget you know we did see a 65 increase in uh contracts uh to uh racial equity uh uh social justice organizations so uh you know we are living into that commitment uh in a number of ways yeah i think it's a good it's a good reminder that as urgent as these things are urgency can sometimes be the um the enemy of good and responsive work um so i appreciate your patience with our questions about uh the timelines and all of these things
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i know this is a ongoing process and it the community investment is is at the heart of it and i appreciate that focus and with that i have i have the next question that i think is somewhat similar would you please a slightly different topic but would you please elaborate on the purpose and location of the most multiple pathways to graduation programs and what construction on that is funded by this bond measure yes the multiple pathways to graduation program will be located in a new separate building that's actually on the benson high school campus the purpose of this building what we call the mpg building is to accommodate the existing multiple pathways to graduation programs that are currently operating within benson high school including alliance reconnection services and dart clinton it also includes the relocation of the alliance program unique to the same building the modernization of the existing benson island main building does not include excuse me bringing these programs back into the main building because it's been recognized that these students need a facility designed more specifically for their learning needs the mpg building will also house some shared services with benson high school such as the teen parent center and the available 2017 bond funding for the benson modernization project which includes the mpg building is being utilized for the design phase of it but in order to move forward with construction we will need additional funding whether it's from the new bond measure or from the full faith and credit loan that we discussed earlier thank you i'm interested so multiple pathways to graduation are there similar programmatic components at the other high schools as well beyond benson i know that's a focused set of students that are pursuing alternatives to our traditional graduation process right where the bulk of them are currently housed is it cincinnati okay okay that makes sense to me thank you i have the next question and we're changing gears uh completely now so in the 2017 bond measure the district had included 150 million for health and safety improvements to mitigate lead aspects and radon hazards and to upgrade alarm and sprinkler systems we want to just follow up on the status of that work and to learn if the 150 million covered all of the work or if not how much more has been identified and what will it cost and i guess also if there is additional work to be done if you've identified kind of where that's going to be paid for from yeah that's a great question this is dan young again and consideration of time i'll try to answer this one quickly but happy to answer any follow-up questions as well uh so we're happy to report that the district has made a lot of really good progress on the health and safety components of the 2017 bond uh the bond language specifies that the districts spend 150 million dollars on eight different uh health and safety scopes of work in addition to the bond uh we received a grant for eight million dollars that also went towards health and safety improvements uh in uh or to date we are well on our way to uh spending 158 million dollars and also reaching all the goals that we had for the number of projects that we would hit so we don't have any concerns that we're going to be able to meet the goals of the 2017 bond in planning for the 2020 bond we recently completed a facilities condition assessment and that assessment helped us estimate what our total need is in health and safety and that total need as well in excess of 2 billion and that is why we see in this bond and anticipated in future bonds as the district looks to go out for them we will continue continue to see health and safety improvements as part of that scope of work because it is significant as important as large scopes of work that we continue to pursue wow um okay that's great thank you uh two billion dollars is a very big number um do you have a sense of i mean i guess what i'm wondering is you know the health and safety concerns that were addressed um with 150 million dollars definitely seemed like you know the district had been playing catch up to you know a lot of deferred you know maintenance or deferred care on facilities do you feel like with you know the recent most recent bond and this upcoming bond that the districts has really kind of turned a corner and is
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being a lot more proactive about handling those things so that we don't end up in you know health and safety kind of deficit unforeseen in the future that's a that's a great question and i and yes i do i believe that that's what we've done the district and it's also i think in accompanying with other efforts as well we mentioned earlier that the district has a long-range facilities plan we're in the process of updating that long-range facilities plan right now anticipate having that done in 2021. additionally we're working on a five-year capital plan so that will target specific improvements over a five-year period that looks to drive down these deficiency costs either with bond funds or other resources that we have i think the district has done a great job uh over the last number of years of really being intentional about understanding what the deficiencies are uh and putting plans in place to address them over the long term because it will take a long time to address all of them great thank you in the um ballot explanatory material submitted to the elections department we noticed what seemed to be a more specific discussion or mention of flexible adaptive special education learning spaces and technology tools and it made us wonder i mean we had been assuming that the um space requirements the ada requirements had been was being met in all of the new construction all along from the initial bond so i guess i'm asking for you to at least confirm that um that it has been addressed in grant high school with the new buildings that have been completed including the elementary schools and then secondly um what is planned specifically in this measure for those adaptive learning spaces uh that's a great question uh a couple parts there so let me make sure uh i answer them uh appropriately so all of our new construction projects our modernizations do meet current code so our grand high schools our franklin roosevelts all meet current uh ada requirements uh very few of our other buildings in the district do because of the age of the buildings and the code changing over time so in this november bond there's a couple of different components one there is an ada component and what the goal is there is to continue to bring the district closer into conformance by removing barriers for accessibility so i think it's roughly 30 or 35 million dollars a camera call of hand so that will continue our trajectory towards becoming fully accessible district-wide there's also a component to look at our special education spaces in our facilities condition assessment we have an educational evaluation component and that looked at the deficiency of some of our special ed classrooms so we have a i'll say a preliminary scope of work of how we think we'll address those spaces but as we get further into design and have further conversations especially with the users of the space we will we will further develop that scope of work uh to ensure that the improvements we put in our special ed classrooms meet what their needs are i want to excuse us for just a moment i wanted to give us the 10-minute warning our school board of directors is scheduled to start their regular board meeting at 6 p.m thank you thank you uh david behringer chair i would be willing to let this uh question go i think we've talked about many elements um and in the interest of time that would leave us uh two more questions if that's okay with you sure that sounds fun mark thank you so then i have the next question um when bonds are popular and your bonds tend to be um they can be issued with a premium and i'm just wondering if any of your previous bonds had generated a premium and if so how that money was used if the district is anticipating a premium on these bonds and how they will be used uh previous bonds have generated varying premiums it really depends on the market conditions and those premiums are typically applied into that category that dan young described as program contingency those premiums similar to any kind of interest earnings or other revenue sources are essentially used to support existing bond projects that may need additional financial support or to fund new bond related scopes of work that is the main purpose of that program contingency
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for future premiums we don't typically forecast those because the financial markets can really vary widely in what we anticipate so we try not to anticipate too much were the previous premiums significant or were they just modest i i think it would depend on your definition of significance relative to the size of the bond um there were several million dollars in premiums they were put as i said towards you know projects existing bond products or new bond related sculpture work okay dan young i think you can probably answer this question but in 2012 i believe it was 55 about 55 million dollars in bond premium and in addition to contingency it was also used to absorb costs on some increased scopes of work yeah that's correct it was right around that amount okay great thank you james you have the last question i do thank you um so we're wondering to the extent that you can answer this question how the board is reaching out to the public about the bond measure and with especially with current economic uncertainties the pandemic the aftermath of the fires the civil rights uprising that we're in the middle of how confident the board is that the bond venture is going to pass if that's just floating out there i'm happy to respond since it was asked of the board amy i had to ask uh director depos to respond to that question earlier michelle are you ready michelle are you here with us uh director to pass i think you're muted it looks like thank you for that i'm here present um so i'm prepared to respond so yeah so um the two-part question how the board's reaching out to the public about the bond measure i'll answer that first and that's board members have been involved um over in the early bond planning project engagement opportunities including participating in several conceptual design advisory groups for jefferson high school cleveland high school in wilson the board has held over a dozen public meetings and invited public comment and board members have been involved in community survey efforts uh virtual town halls and public events and those are the formal engagements and the informal engagements are happening in grocery store aisles and you know out out at parks and and that type of thing so we've been involved in in hearing back from community and what we've heard is this is a great time to put this bond on the ballot um because it's responsive to covid and responsive to black lives matter the second part of your question um had to do about the how the confidence in how and that the board measure will pass there's been some initial polling that showed that uh there was there was a very high support over 50 percent uh maybe even 60 percent um for the bond in general at the higher amount and then once the center for black excellence and jefferson high school questions were asked about specifically about those projects the those numbers increased the support for the bond increased once the public likely voters heard about those two projects so you know in general the feedback from the community is strongly supported not only proceeding with the bond in november but also engaging you know encouraging a larger bond package the community recognizes the significant capital needs of the district and understands the only way to improve the physical teaching and learning environment is to continue with the pps's long-term capital improvement plan community conversations and polling data have supported um the proposed bond package as presented i've got a follow-up question can i ask michelle real quick mark okay so this is the third in a series of bonds and uh how does your polling compare to previous two that's a great question that i'm not really prepared to answer i don't know how the polling uh worked on the other two amy um can you speak to that uh you know so the the threshold for go our no go is generally around 55 and so the polling that we did for this bond was just a little bit higher than it was the last time a little bit more
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comfortable feeling and as michelle said we know that that that sentiment only was compounded as we started to talk to the community more about the investments in a center for black student excellence great thank you so that concludes our formal questions uh craig did anyone sign up to make any comments there my microphone was bouncing around okay no no one has signed up to make any comments okay great so we're at the end of our meeting thank you all for participating in your thoughtful comments to our questions and with that i will now close the hearing and again thank you for your attendance


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