001Good afternoon. Today is May 13, 2025. The time is 3 PM. Welcome to the San Marino Unified School District Board of Education meeting. Here's our board president, C. Joseph Chang. Thank you. All meeting of the board of education are open to the members of the public unless publicly notice as a confidential cross-section as allowed by the law. Member of the public may address the ball as out in the public comment section of the agenda. The audience of the all meeting is recorded and a member of the public may be held liable for any sentence or otherwise deform statement in consideration of the ball and the member of the audience. Please turn off silence your cell phone while in the ballroom. The Sanino Unified School District is encouraging those with a disability to participate fully in
002the public meeting process. If you need a disability related modification or accommodation including the auxiliary aid or service to participate in the public meeting, contact the assistant to the superintendent at the jde l a t o r e smd us or call the 2997000 extension 1310 at least 48 hours before the schedule board meeting so that we may make every reasonable effort to accommodate you. Document provided to majority of the board of education regarding a open section item on this agenda will be made available for the public inspection in the district office located at the 1665 West Drive Sanino during a normal business hour. In addition, such writing as document may be reviewed on district website at the www.smusd. us. Uh before we collect the public comment, uh I'd like to do a roll call.
003Uh Mrs. Lamb here. Uh Mrs. Mi Mr. Song here. Uh Mrs. Mrs. Ryan present. Mrs. Gear here. Mr. Chen here. Okay, let's collect the public comment. Oh, let let me continue. Uh, a com communication from the audience concerning matter on the special board of education meeting agenda may be heard at this time but not responded to by the board of education. The board of education has adopted policy 9323b to ensure the public's right to be heard in any matter pertaining to the Sanino unified school district. Person who wish to provide a public comment will have a three option to submit public comment. First submit through a online form. Submit through a online form. Uh the property may submit public property comment for the open or close section on the May 13 13, 2025 from the
00411:00 a.m. through the 2 p.m. Comment received during the time will not be re during the meeting but will be provided to the board of education. Please submit a comment at the uh the website. Did we have any uh submission via the online form? There are no submissions. Okay. Second request to speak during the meeting via the zoom during the public comment. The meeting will post for one minutes to take a request to speak. This raise hand function is used to take a request during the public comment period. For online attendee, press the raise hand icon to add yourself to the queue. For phone attendee dire nine, the speaking order will be determined based on the order of a request received. individual speaker will be unmute and call to the speaker. Mr. Hong, please uh
005post the meeting for the for one minutes to collect the public comment. Well, we do not have any attendees online. We can skip this. Okay. Third, request to speak during the meeting in person via the public comment car. Please complete the public coming car and submit the completed car to the designated dropbox with the assistant to the superintendent. Opportunity for public comment are offer prior to the cross section and at the start of the regular open section for matter not on the agenda and for the matter on the agenda. The board of education reserve the right to add a public comment period prior to any individual item on the agenda. Five minutes may be allotted to each speaker and a maxima of 20 minutes to each subject matter. However, in the event there are more
006than four speaker on the same subject matter, the four president retain the description to adjust and limit the time allocated to each speaker to ensure that all wishing to speak will be heard within the 20 minutes minister arament. Do we have any public comment car at this time? We do not have any at this time. Okay. Okay. Let's start from the uh start the number four study section. I would like to turn into over to the Steven Choy to introduce our guest speaker who did the the post through a prioritization study section. Please. Thank you, President Chang, members of the board, uh Dr. Delator executive team um staff guests SMUSD community um we are conducting a study session today um on project prioritization and bond financing and I want to emphasize the term study session.
007I'm hoping that through this study session this afternoon, we'll have an opportunity to not just provide updates and share information and recommendations for project prioritization, but to also engage with the board um to seek guidance and feedback and input. So, but before we start with the project prioritization, I do want to provide some context and background on why we're here and how measure how we got to where we are. uh we will be concluding the study session uh on bond financing. So to start, you may recall this particular diagram which we showed to the board uh very early on immediately after passage of measure M. And aside from hearing from me today, you will also be hearing from our bond program management uh representative, Mr. CJ Nolan from Nolan Construction Services. You'll also be hearing
008from Chad Wang from Keegent uh on bond financing. Now there are others in the room as well. I want to also introduce uh and mention that we have district leadership as well as our schoolside principles here. We also have uh Miss Pearl Isuka who is joining us via Zoom as the SMUSD bond consultant. Uh we also have Mr. Jeff Morris, uh, who's the chair of the SMUSD facilities advisory committee, also alumni and parent of the district. And we also have Miss Kristen Gar, um, who is representing Piper and Sandler, our underwriter, uh, but also as a parent as well, who will also provide us some information on bond, uh, financing and interest rates and and all that good stuff later on this afternoon. So just to give us a very high level overview of how
009we got to where we are. Um it's important to remember and I see a lot of familiar faces in here. Um as many of you recall uh it was an extensive planning process. Um that was well over a year. Um and the goal of that planning really ultimately co culminated in a facilities master plan. And I want to just highlight the fact that the planning process wasn't just about identifying needs for facilities or the conditions of the facilities. It also involved um educational visioning. That was a key process um in this overall planning process which really makes the facilities master plan valuable. Um, it's also important to note that through the process, the district engaged in tremendous amount of engagement in developing a long-term facilities master plan, one that could last potentially 10 to 15
010years. And I want to again emphasize the fact that it has been an extensive engagement with well over 740 participants consisting of board members here today. Our extensive group of uh experts in the facilities advisory committee uh committees in our uh educational visioning process as well as the campus vision committees and of course our parents and students and communities. I still remember, as you can see from the photos here, the the town halls that we held, um the uh the meetings from the facilities advisory committee. Um all of that really contributes to where we are today. And of course, the tangible delivery through that entire process was the facilities master plan. This 117page document tries to capture that process and is posted on our website uh on the short URL smusd.measurem Measurem and just a
011reminder in terms of um measure M performing at the ballot um the ballot language as you can see here is very clear um it addresses a lot of the needs and it was a resounding very supportive response to measure M. it was over 71% uh yes approval on this measure and many people do ask you know what does this measure cover um and it's important to point out that in the measure M resolution there is a section called project list and this is just a snapshot of some of the key elements of this measure as you can see it covers a lot of infrastructure covers a lot of repair um items roof roofing. Um it addresses safety and security. Um projects related to uh CTE career technology. Um it also includes language to prepay or
012to pay off the district's certificates of participation. That was something that was very intentional in the drafting of the resolution. And for the full resolution, that is also on our website as well. And I just want to conclude this uh this kickoff to this session if you will with the fact that this measure um does require a lot of accountability which the district is very well prepared to provide but we are also approaching this measure M bron program with full transparency. The district has worked closely with the board u to form the citizens bond oversight committee. We've seated seven of those members. Uh there are also annual audits as well as an annual report to the board uh that the oversight committee will be providing. Uh we have also been providing ongoing updates at every
013board of education meeting and of course we have the measure M latest updates web page uh where we do provide ongoing updates to the general community posted on our website and we definitely intend to utilize social media and online uh platforms to communicate the progress that we're making on Measure M. So with that I do want to introduce and bring up Mr. CJ Nolan, who will walk us through um project prioritization. All right. Good afternoon, President Chang, members of the board, and Dr. Deator. My name is CJ Nolan. serving as your bond program manager for measure M and I'm going to be presenting on uh this or this bond prioritization study session. Um I do want to emphasize as Dr. Chroy just uh said that this is a collaborative process. So your insights or feedback
014and your input is really valuable for us to ensure that these projects are aligning with the district's long-term goals. Um, our goal, our goal by the end of this presentation is to have a uh clear direction that allows us to move forward with the design for some of these projects. I wanted to start off by uh acknowledging the work that was done by our facilities advisory committee and uh is de is demonstrated in the facilities master plan. So through the facilities master plan uh there was a robust process engaged with stake various stakeholders uh from the community our school sites and the board where they they separated our projects into t two tiers. Tier one focusing on our core learning spaces and modernizing those spaces um and other safety improvements in in the district. Uh
015the CTE career and tech technical uh programs are also in tier one. And tier two includes some of our larger projects at the high school um focusing on athletics on uh for for the facility advisory committee prioritize scope of work. I wanted to give a new perspective on how those priority tiers one and two look. So if you look at tier one, you could see that the dollars allocated for each school site are primarily at our elementary schools. Um this is Carver has 35 million and Valentine with 58 million. Um you can see the priority tier 2 is the majority is of the tier 2 work is at our high school which is those athletic facilities that I previously mentioned. Um as the facilities master plan was drafted, it was drafted in $204. So this
016is important when you consider escalation over time. Escalation is the increase of cost to build these build these projects or construct these buildings. So as years go by um costs go costs go up and we need to account for those in some way. In addition to escalation we also have interim housing. Interim housing will be the housing that is required to house students and provide classroom spaces while we are constructing new buildings. As we move forward through this presentation, we'll see that some of these new buildings are in the place of existing buildings. So, we will have to provide interim housing for that period. Um, as a facility's master plan was drafted, they drafted it in two categories with twothirds of the bond dollars being allocated to projects, hard and soft costs. I typically uh
017define hard costs as things you can touch and soft costs as things you can't. Um, the other one-third of the cost allowance is to account for that escalation and the interim housing that I previously mentioned. So, as we move forward with prioritizations, I want to really focus on that one-third because in order for us to get to those tier 2 projects, we need to do our best at mitigating the spending that goes towards escalation or interim housing. We want to pull some of that one-third so that we're able to do the tier 2 projects. Um so just to recap the key considerations that were taken for prioritizing projects as we were drafting the FMP we really were focused on student impact like what improves those core learning environments. Uh what supports our kindergarten uh TK
018expansion. Um then safety and security, uh those pickups and drop off locations, site security fencing, um and seismic or aging infrastructure risks. And then we also did we also took community and stakeholder input. So this is uh what was reflected in the community through all the surveys, town halls, and all of that extensive process that has gone gone on for the last year. So with all of those being considerations for drafting the facilities master plan, now we want to cover some considerations for the implementation of the facilities master plan. Uh the first being the facility condition and urgency. Um this will cover your end of life systems that could be HVAC, roofing, electrical, um any deferred maintenance backlog or just items that have a high cost of inaction or failure. So if you think of
019uh something that might fail and could close close school or have a significant impact to the learning environment, those are projects that we want to prioritize and take care of relatively quickly. The next category I have is financial leverage. So which sites are eligible for state matching funds? um which which projects and phasing will lower our interim housing costs or mitigate disruption to the uh to the education process and then also mitigating escalation costs. So, what are our high dollar projects that we should be designing now so that we are able to build and construct them earlier and stay closer to those 2024 dollars and um not have es future escalation price them out of our uh bond dollars. The last uh category I have is the immediate impact projects. So these are design ready
020projects or projects that can be bundled efficiently, have minimal classroom or site disruptions and um do not require intensive phasing to occur. So So as we jump in, I'm going to start off with our with our districtwide and early impact projects. And like I said, uh the considerations for these type of projects, they address the most visible and high use areas for students and staff. Um they align with our facilities master plan top community priorities. They require minimal design or they have pre-approved designs through DSA. Uh they avoid costly interim housing and they improve just the overall safety, wellness, and student experience. These projects are really designed to build momentum as we start our bond program. So from reviewing the facilities master plan, walking the sites, I have uh included a list on the lefth
021hand side of some recommended early impact projects. And this is really where we want to have an open dialogue and um review some of these projects and see how they align with the district's current uh long-term goals. Uh the first recommended early impact project that is listed is the Valentine Elementary School and Carver Elementary School upper grade playground replacements. While this project will still require DSA approval, it is a project that is not in the way of future of future projects and it can be done relatively quickly using pre-approved design and just due to the overall condition of the existing place structures, it seems like it would meet a urgent safety need. Um the next there's any comments on feel free to interject at any time. Yeah. Okay. Um for the this wide uh H
022bar uh rep replacement and control. Uh I think that before we already have a project for air condition. So that that is that will that project will continue to fit into this one or separate. Yeah. Mr. Chief, this past summer we had the opportunity to replace several units at Valentine Elementary as well as Huntington Middle School using SSR3 funds. Um, this will address a lot of the units that were not replaced. Um, so there are still needs related to HVAC and replacing those HVAC units would be considered an early about the several the trailer in the uh in the Valentine. Is that the time you know they they very hard? Did you in install the new unit or No, I don't believe we replace the HVAC units at the portable units. Right. Nothing's right. So
023those trailer eventually Yeah. I think uh CJ's going to go into what we're going to do with the portable units. he has a very good um plan uh as well as an animation that will show us uh where those portables could be relocated for the purposes of interim housing. So, we will Good question. I'm being patient. Yes. Thank you. I'd like to address the first thing that we're we're on right now, the um the playgrounds. I know at Carver the TK playground is um a top concern because they don't have age appropriate playground equipment at all right now really. So, um, does that fit into the master plan and not disrupting future projects? It it absolutely does. Um, as we go through, we're going to go through each site specifically and the phasing that will
024occur. The projects that were listed here really do not require phasing or they don't require uh work to happen prior to these projects occurring, but we clearly do understand that the TK and kindergarten needs are very present. And as we go through to those sites, you'll see they're listed quite high. Um, I'm just going to move through the list and like I said, feel free to interject as uh as you have any input or feedback. Um, the district-wide campus security fencing and access controls uh from the facilities master plan. This was heavily mentioned and it was also uh it was also uh noticed on our walkthrough as well. Um, in in addition, we have our district-wide roof assessments and replacements. So, we've already contracted uh roofing contractors to provide an assessment of the district's roofs.
025Once they provide that assessment, we'll have areas that we can tackle quickly. Um, it's recommended that we improve entire buildings roof roof systems at the same time, but uh this work also typically needs to be scheduled over a summer break. So, we want to get ahead of it so we're ready to start that work immediately next summer. And then we also have the district-wide HVAC replacements and controls. Um, this would be just replacing our existing HVAC units and not adding new HVAC units. These, uh, this would not require DSA approval and is something we could move forward with relatively quickly. Uh the next project we have which was mentioned uh quite frequently in the facilities master plan was the uh lunch shelters and outdoor dining. Um while this still will require DSA approval, the designs
026are often preapproved and have a quicker review process with DSA. Um, this project, this next one, the district-wide restroom modernizations, this was probably one of the most uni unified and heavily mentioned areas in the facilities master plan from communities from the community and other stakeholders. Um, this will require DSA, but because it was so heavily emphasized in the facility master plan, we wanted to be able to target specific restrooms and tackle those immediately if that was part of the board's direction. And then the last recommended early impact project uh listed was the San Marino High School Medical Arts CTE pathway project. And this project was really listed to maximize the impact for students that are nearing graduation. As you could see the bond dollars for tier one and tier 2. Uh and tier one is
027primarily the elementary schools and tier 2 is where a lot of the high school projects are. Um, as we are prioritizing these projects, we are prioritizing tier one projects and that that would mean that the high school doesn't have very many large projects until we are able to uh save some of those tier 2 dollars to roll forward. So, it would be a good way to really maximize the impact for all students to uh focus on the CTE pathway at the high school as well. There were also other uh notable mentioned projects like the outdoor playfields and hardcourt reservicings. Um this is a project that sometimes can be difficult to do right at the beginning because you all have active construction going on at these campuses over the next several years. Um there are measures
028that we can take to improve the existing existing quality but uh in terms of a full replacement we would recommend doing that after construction is complete. Additional items include uh marquees scoreboard replacements and some counseling and wellness center upgrades. What what does DSA stand for? DSA is the division of the state architect. So they uh will they have a heavy review process throughout any construction project for a school. Um and really because of that review process when we are thinking of early impact projects we want to find projects that have an accelerated review process or don't require that review. Um but normally DSA is reviewing things like uh fire life safety um access and uh just other structural components as well. Ju just for the curiosity I mean the after we get the approval from
029DSA do we need to still work with the CD to get approval same time or is independent? Oh with CTE. Yeah I mean CT city of oh the city. No we do not have to work with the city. All right. So, uh, DSA is in place of the city review of plans. So, like in, um, in on the private world, the city would normally review plans. In, uh, for school districts, it's going to be the division of the state art. Okay. I got it. So, for those, uh, rec recommended, uh, early impact project when we anticipate to finish one year, two year. Uh I believe we these are all projects that we would be trying to tackle in that first bond issuance. So I would say over the next three years um depending on a
030prioritization from the board and direction from you, we could prioritize any of these projects in any order, but we would really be moving on a fastest possible timeline with these projects. Um, some of them are limited to uh the school year where like roof replacements for example can really only be tackled over the summer. Um, but we would be tackling these immediately. For the roofing project, have we ever considered like a solar roof or solar panel to compare with it or we haven't? I I can't speak for San Marino specifically considering uh solar roof panels, but with the with the division of the state architects review process, the process of installing solar on a roof can become quickly overwhelming in terms of these additional structural supports and additional structure required to support them. Most often
031you see solar as like individual shade structures over parking lots or like fields. I see. All right. So, uh I also included as a handout um the facilities master plans uh before and after for each school site. Um so if you go to Carver Elementary School, you could see the before the facilities master plan on the lefth hand side and on the right hand side after the facilities master plan. Um, as we as we are looking at these projects and prioritizing the phasing of these projects, one of the things we're really trying to do is mitigate interim housing and also uh mitigate escalation costs. So, by mitigating both of those costs, we'll be able to pull part of that one-third contingency and roll it to future tier 2 projects. Um the first the first project
032on this list that really unlocks the uh potential for future projects is our new TK classrooms and play area. And you can see that on the upper right portion of the uh of the map. Um on our facilities master plan, it's in this area. But as you can see on the areas for exploration, typically you would see your TK and kindergarten areas near each other. and we would definitely like to explore if there's an option to maybe bring that TK area closer to where the existing kindergarten area already is. So with with this prioritization when we start the design process with an architect that is one area we will definitely be exploring. Um, so with those five new TK classrooms, that really opens up some of the portables that are on the left hand side
033that you can see are used being used for the existing TK classrooms. So as we are building new classrooms and we have portables that are currently housing those students, those classrooms will now be free to be a flexible interim housing space. So that is how we're combating interim housing costs is by building new structures and then keeping the portables for the for the uh bond program so that we're able to use that space while we modernize or do other projects moving forward. Uh the next project that we have is the two new kinder classrooms and replacing that play area on the lower left. Um, so you can see on the lower left you have the two new kinder classrooms and that would actually go right in the the building footprint is actually right in where
034the previous TK classrooms were. So as I was saying to avoid interim housing cost you have to you have to strategically phase these projects um so that you have housing throughout the bond program and throughout construction. The uh third project we have phased is the new fifth grade classrooms. Now, this is a project that is to replace the existing portable classrooms. Um, this might be another way we could mitigate those interim housing costs by maybe not putting them exactly in the same building footprint as the existing modular classrooms and then keeping those modular classrooms for the next two to three years to serve as interim housing as we phase the classroom modernizations in. Moving on to uh the phase one classroom modernizations. On the bottom portion uh it would be the the bottom row of
035classrooms in the administration area. We would be doing a first phase of classroom modernizations. Now depending on how many of those modular classrooms we're able to keep on our campus, we would be able to do this work partially during the year if needed or we could do this work over the summer. So, we really want to phase these classroom modernizations into bite-sized chunks so that we're not impacting the entire campus and we have that flexibility to provide learning spaces to all the students while we're modernizing classrooms. The phase two classroom modernizations would be the upper classrooms on the or the more the northern row of classrooms um which we will be doing the same thing. Now with those classroom modernizations completed that is when we would be looking to remove our interim housing and uh
036remove the port existing portables from the campus and the last uh the last project we would be doing is our playfields and hardcourt improvements. So with this schedule, we would we would be looking to solicit architects and begin the design process for the new TK classrooms initially and then be moving through the new kinder and then to the new fifth grade classrooms. That that wraps it up for Carver. So I just want to take this moment uh if you guys have any questions, concerns, feedback before I move on to the next site. What what what is a comment on the cover principle? Thank you very much. So you met and I think you did a really thorough job and stuff. I appreciate President Bill's question about CK areas made a lot of sense relative to
037combining tender and TK one area because when you experience you talk about what TK courts are now we have to make path so the adjustments makes total sense and I appreciate the expertise and the experience to envision Arthur is a beautiful campus and I think this goes a long way to helping beyond fine so yeah Dr. on the curriculum related to design. The well I think thank you President Chang. I think I well I very much appreciate being part of the process as we from start to this date and looking at really what our physical environment looks like with regards to the curriculum and innovation that we're bringing to our students. Um, I think that's a really important piece and really looking at the design of the classroom and creating flexible spaces and flexible classrooms
038is going to be key to allow our students to continue participating in like project based learning, um, inquiry based learning. Um, and really having state-of-the-art classrooms and equipment to support that type of learning. I I also want to include that the facilities master plan really is a uh it serves as a starting point for a lot of these projects and as we begin design we'll be in coordination with uh site administrators and the district to really uh to really finalize the best location for each project. Um just because certain locations on the fac are indicated on the facility's master plan does not mean that we may see new information as we go through design that indicate a different location would be better suited. Yeah, I app I appreciate um you know revisiting this site plan
039because I feel like this I know there's a lot of constraints with setbacks and seismic all all these different things that we're working with. But I do think that um there's probably a more efficient way of laying out this campus um and less disruptive and I understand that this is a starting point and they got all the elements in which is important but um I think that we would be um eager to see something little like reworked a little bit. Awesome. Yeah. So, as we begin that design process, we'll definitely be working with the district to make that happen. Just just curiosity though, can kindergarten and TK can share the playground? Uh, so the actual play apparatus usually they have different target age frames, but a lot of times they will share the same play
040area. So, the same fenced in area they they could possibly share, but you'll usually see two different play apparatuses. I see. Stuart, oftent times at Carver there's um parent concern regarding um traffic and how everything's going. And I notice here um the drop off, right, the the new one. And then I'm wondering if there's any other um areas that we can look at that would have allowed us to have access um to alleviate the traffic or somehow in some way redirect like are they coming from north south? Is there a way a different path in which we can lay out um you know like right near um where the playfield ends and you're coming down towards where it says uh TK and and now the structures right Mhm. Okay. There could not there couldn't be
041a pathway entry like a separate you know how Valentine has their separate circle for drop off. Was there a way in which to look at something for Carver like that? is there been a lot of traversally they have kind of fling out there by the TPA area which quickly done something that right into the car. So some kind of pass through down that will make those things although the process really does go pretty quickly or it is really very uh helpful in terms of getting more flow and come through on a daily basis. So it really doesn't it is under aggravation. Anything we can do to pay the mortgage. Essentially, the facilities master plan gets all of those ideas out on paper. And as we begin the design process, we can really in depth look
042at what the best traffic flow solution could be for this campus. And that could be something that is packaged with TK or we'd be working with the site administrators and the district to really narrow down on. Yeah, Paulie actually has a a great drop off. I don't know if anyone's familiar with it, but they have, you know, such a short space to drop people off that they have three lanes and people working them crosswalk in between and it's very well organized and safe. Um, and it just moves so fast. So, if there's any way to widen, you know, just at drop off point, it would be great. That is that is definitely something we could look at through the design process. And that's the feedback that's really critical as we start that. One of the
043things that executive team has mentioned maybe Dr. is the possibility of even looking at staggering um start times and end times um so that you don't have you know all of the parents in learning at once. Um so there are a variety of different ways that we can look at this and be creative in solving it. Um so um we appreciate that issue being raised because it is an ongoing uh dilemma. We just don't want to make it harder for parents with multiple Yeah. So that's another, you know, it's nothing is ever easy, right? It's all very complex and there are major to this issue, but we're looking at it from all angles, not just um it's a facilities uh perspective. So I just uh Mr. do you have any question on the No, I
044don't have question. All right, keep going. Moving on to uh Valentine Elementary School. Now uh if you remember from our tiered list, this was one of the campuses that had the most dollars allocated to towards it from the facilities master plan. Um and really one of the first things I I would recommend phasing is the relocation of the six portable classrooms. Now, when you look at uh Valentine's before and after on the facility master plan, you can see that there's a new twostory building that goes right in place of where those six portable uh six modular classrooms are. So, what we would like to do is to instead of purchasing new interim housing, we would like to repurpose the existing interim or existing modular classrooms and use it as interim housing. And the location that
045would most likely be ideal is the location that we will have to have to grade for the future NPR classrooms. It is also closer to Huntington Middle School to serve as interim housing for modernization of Huntington as well. So, these six portable modular classrooms really will provide a lot of flexibility um if we're able to repurpose them instead of uh getting rid of them and will save us quite a bit of money on interim housing as well. Um, as you can see, the new two-story building at Valentine Elementary School is located exactly where those six modular classrooms were previously located. Um, and with the with the construction of a new building, we also have increased flexibility or more classroom space to begin modernizations throughout the rest of the campus. Uh, question. So, what is the
046regulation uh in the elementary school for the two or which grade they can? Upper elementary. So, it would be your third, fourth and fifth grade. Yes. But uh uh is that once uh you complete is that you have to avoid the uh TK to Yeah. They they cannot be on the second floor. TKK first and second. They must be on the first floor. Okay. A and really the way these projects for Valentine Elementary School are phased is to provide as much additional classroom space so that we have the flexibility during the classroom modernizations. Um with the with the second and third phase being the new two-story building and then the new TK and kindergarten classroom area. These can really go concurrently but it may be a lot of work happening at the sites at one
047time. So, these projects both add classroom space, but uh we would we would recommend phasing the new two-story building first because it provides more flexibility and then the new TK and kindergarten uh play area and classrooms, but they could really be done interchangeably if that is how the district would like to proceed. So, I have a question about TK. This is sort of for Dr. Richter. Um, do we have enough enrollment to justify 10 sections of TK? How many sections? Yeah, because we have five schools. Yeah. Yeah. Um, we are right in the middle of enrollment right now. Registration goals in and typically we see a big surge in TKNK enrollment in midsummer. So June and July, we um have quite a few already pre-registered and completing the enrollment. Younger younger kids are telling, right?
048Yes. And then age eligibility is pushed back through um September 1st. So they have to be five before September I mean four before September 1st and we have currently four at each school or three three at each school. We have three at each school currently. Okay. So with us prioritizing the Carver Elementary School TK hopefully that would be able to alleviate some of those concerns so that we're able to appropriately phase Valentine's Day. That's what and that was my line of thinking is if we do one school and we do the full five, we have overflow from Valentine that goes there at the time until it's really justified. I I just don't see like doing all 10 at once in my um opinions. Oh, I'm so sorry. I was going to say about the ratio.
049Yeah. So, the TK ratio um next year will be changing unless the governor changes it in his main revised. So instead of having one adult to every 12 students, you can have two adults in the classroom with a class of 24. It would be 10 to one. Okay. Yes. So that's pushing the numbers too. Yes. Yes. As pushing numbers and the number of classrooms that we have to have space for. Um but moreover, we also um need to be thinking about five years from now, 10 years from now, what we want our school district to look like. And one of the things that we have been talking about um on and off at this district for I mean the last 20 years as I can recall is wouldn't it be wonderful to have a preschool
050program that can serve as a feeder um into our schools because when young families move in to say I'm moving out if they put their kid in a private preschool um they get to know those private preschool parents and sometimes they go the private school route instead of the San Marino public school route. And as we know based on our previous experience um after having been able to bring back some of those private school families um whose schools burn down in January due to the funders, they didn't know that San Marino Unified had such wonderful programs um and facilities until they got here and they were very happy and they're going to stay. So uh Dr. has many stories about that. They're resident students. Had they started here, they would have known that they probably
051would have gone the the public school route. And so I just think that that's something that we should be thinking about to build for the future and to try and retain resident students in San just something to think about. Um but we we don't have the facilities to do that now. Um, our facilities um were never designed for transitional kindergarten. That's something that is very new uh new university kids kind of transitional kindergarten. Great. Yeah. And and those classroom spaces need to be designed um to support children at that developmental stage and age. Um you need to have pedestrians that are in very close proximity for those kiddos. Um so there's just a whole uh different um requirement for children of that age. Even the teacher credential requirement is different for children that age because
052their development of need. So, I just wanted to plant that seed because um many of my predecessors going back to Jack Rose um used to talk about, you know, it would be really smart for us to have a preschool, but we've never had the uh facilities to be able to do that. And Dr. Tro has been a long time, too. What's your thoughts? So once we have those new TK and kindergarten areas in place and we have those existing modular classrooms repurposed as interim housing, that's really when we want to start phasing in our modernizations. Um so we split uh Valentine Elementary School into two modernizations with one being the eastern portion of classrooms and the second phase being the west portion of classrooms. Um once those modernizations are complete at for both phases, then
053is when we would begin removing the modular classrooms and moving forward with the new NPR and food service facility for Valentine Elementary School. That wraps up Valentine. So if there's any other uh questions, comments, um I have a question for these kindergarten. Is this just walking it out? They're not all individual building, right? That's just like blocks for space on a pipeline. Yeah. And it's a little bit hard to tell. There's actually restrooms in between. It's just really small. Oh, yeah. Because of that restroom requirement that Dr. Deatory was referring to previously. Um they're usually connected by restrooms that serve both of the classrooms. That's been found to be a fairly efficient way to design it, but the drawing is just quite small. Before we move on to the other school, I just want to
054mention one more thing um that we don't often talk about, but um we have the last two bonds. Most of the money um was actually spent on the high school um and Carver had that big beautiful library that is still amazing to this day. Um so when we talk about you know it looks like and understand these master plan is being driven to the elementaryaries. Um that maybe because the elementarymentaries have been u facility wise not as well cared for in terms of our bond money over the years. So, we need to invest in our elementary campuses and we also have more children um attending both elementary schools than we have had in the history of our school district. So, I think that's an important factor. We have more wear and tear because we have
055normal feet running up and down the hallways and going into the classrooms and going into the cafeteria and Valentine doesn't even have a catcher. So, I just wanted to make sure that we all were reminded that most of the money from the prior two bonds was directed to the high school and Clark. And before I move on to Huntington Middle School, I just I want to emphasize the location of those uh repurposed modular classrooms for interim housing is strategic so that when we move over to Huntington Middle School, those could potentially be used for interim housing at Huntington as well. Um again, as much as that one-third we claw back and do not spend on interim housing or escalation, we're able to put forward to those tier 2 projects which would go to the high
056school and Huntington Middle School as well. Um but in terms of tier one project for Huntington Middle School, uh it really is just the classroom modernizations. Uh the classrooms are there are more classrooms at Huntington. So we did split this into three phases. Um the phasing for this particular campus is something that we're going to have to dive into a little bit more detail with the site administrators to see what would possibly work best for them. And Valentine Elementary School is really plays a big factor in how we want to phase Huntington Middle School as well. So essentially the two elementary schools are purposefully phased oops phased ahead of the middle school and ahead of Huntington Middle School and the high school for that part. So we have the uh phase one, phase two and
057phase three classroom modernizations. Um and here is the uh fully implemented facility master plan. Uh, one of the things I I can say is that the uh, hardc court reservicing and the playfields for Huntington Middle School, since there are not any new construction uh, related projects in tier one or tier 2 for Huntington Middle School, the hardcore resurfacing is something that we could look at doing earlier for the middle school where that isn't so much the case at the other sites. And then lastly, we have the San Marino High School, which is our uh classroom modernizations, but in tier one specifically, we're only going to be modernizing our rooms with the greatest need only. Um that is just because we're trying to meet the dollars available for the bond. Um but as and as we
058move through the bond and we're able to take back more and more of that one-third that was allocated towards escalation interim housing, we will be able to do more classrooms as part of modernization, which is just another reason why you would want to phase the high school and the middle school somewhat towards the end so that you're able to efficiently allocate those save dollars into more modernization and greater impact for the high school and middle school. Um, another area that I would like to explore for the high school specifically are other CT are other CTE grant opportunities just to allow for additional funding uh for the site. And then the last area that I wanted to uh oh, sorry. And here's the fully implemented plan for for San Marino High School as well. Um you
059could see a lot of our tier 2 projects near the athletic facilities. So with minimizing our interim housing and phasing things in a way that we are spending more dollars on new projects sooner, we're hope we're hopeful that we can turn those turn that savings into our tier 2 projects for some of the athletic facilities at San Marino High School. Have we start to uh explore the city plan? We are just starting that process. Yes. So as we go through as we go through that process, we will begin working with ed services and Dr. Troy to see what uh what programs fit best for San Marino. Do we have an idea what how big the one? There are a couple different grants um that we are aware of. based on ADA or based on the
060program or based on um I don't believe it's based on AD some of the ones that I've researched are not based on ADA and some of them are significantly large grants um if awarded um there are number of like there's a CIG grant there's the uh we just looked at it golden golden state pathways or another grant that's something along those lines and they offer a substantial amount of funing if if you are awarded that grant. So, those are two that we're looking at, especially as we look to expand our medical arts academy, whether we're going to look at um expanding other CTE programs or adding on to our medical arts academy as a CTE pathway. And then the uh last slide I had that is probably going to be covered in much more detail
061presentation after me is uh just our measure M budget forecast and our considerations for bond issuances as we uh move forward through this bond program. Um bond bond proceeds must typically be expended within the first within the three years of issuances. So you don't enter arbitrage for the bond which requires that cash flow planning must align with the project phasing and scheduling for our projects. So we want to make sure that the bonds that we are issuing we're going to be able to spend within that three years. Um another interesting thing with uh measure M is many of our larger high-cost projects are categorized as tier 2. So as we are going through bond issuances, the later bond issuances may be larger depending on the savings and the feasibility of those tier 2 projects. Um
062construction bond expenditures typically follow a bell curve pattern with uh with lower spending early and higher spending during the execution phase of these con construction uh projects. Uh like I said the design and pling planning phases require minimal cash flow with the execution phase uh ramping up construction costs. Um if bond funed projects are spread over a longer timeline that traditionally flattens flattens the curve um and it becomes more gradual in terms of spending and then vice versa. A faster implementation schedule compresses it and you'll have more of a bell-shaped curve for your budget forecast for the bond issuances specifically. Sorry. And with that being said, that wraps up uh the pro my presentation on uh the prioritization of bond projects. So, uh just to go back to where we where we started, what um
063we're hoping that this aligns with the board's long-term vision for the district and we're able to start the design process and soliciting architects for some of these initial projects and those early impact projects as well. Yeah. Um, I would like to see um the concession stand bathrooms at the high school be a part of that modernization for the top tier um priorities. Is it I mean districtwide restrooms. They're just it's embarrassing. They're so it's embarrassing. So I agree with you 100%. You've been saying that to me very long time and I have been saying that um to you guys for a very long time. So, um, we were talking about, you know, engaging in some of that work with the stump. Is that correct? The modernization of the bathrooms. It it would we'd have to
064look at those restrooms specifically. There might be something that Mr. Craig was telling me that it's been freshly painted. Freshly painted. And I Oh, I haven't been in there. Yeah. So, how long ago? Few months. So, we have done some work in that restaurant. I mean, yeah, they are kind of beyond that. Let me hear you. Let's be honest. Yeah, it needs it. It could just do like a surface refresh and maybe not part of this, but like I was hoping that we could get some of that restroom work done over the summer if at all possible. But like you said, depending on the work that needs the scope of the job, right? I I get that. But we just said that even the students have brought that issue and and and the worse that
065it looks the less respect that they show it. And so I feel like, you know, when you're in a nicer environment, it's just sort of natural to respect it more and to maintain it at a higher level. Um I they just don't you know create such a massive um um additionally the seats in the stadium I know that's of concern a safety concern. Is it something we can discuss? CJ Gil and I went out to the high school to take a closer look at these seats and I am more concerned that it is a safety hazard more than so that is something that we will prioritize as a safety related project. Absolutely. Yeah. that would fall under that like deferred maintenance backlog type project. So that's something that can be tackled relatively quickly. Um I
066have a question generally speaking um what kind of metrics are we using to account for how long the planning process and the execution process will take in terms of each campus. So I see like some of them is like over the summer we could probably schedule something but is it planned to be finished in a summer like a certain project or Yeah. So typically like for roofing replacements for example you would plan during the springtime and have that project start usually the first day of summer. And our summers have gotten shorter and shorter over the years. So we'd really have to be efficient in ensuring that it's completed by the start of school. Um any project that wouldn't start and complete but over the summer break would require interimm housing which is why in the
067phasing we have the projects phased in such a way that uh we're able to utilize some of our existing portables. So um to clarify the interim housing is kind of the contingency plan if the timeliness of a project is not completed. Well, some of the projects just it's not feasible to complete over the summer. So, you do need it can serve as a contingency plan, but sometimes interim housing is required regardless. And just one more comment on just the structure of this. um just an awareness of if we do these smaller projects up front instead of bigger projects. Um the money saved on the one-third is what we could actually use for smaller projects later. So just to clarify, these smaller projects would be going on during the design process for the bigger projects. So
068the initial phasing of the other sites, the design process for those new buildings often takes quite a bit longer. So they would actually be going concurrently with these early impact projects. It's just like with play equipment. Mhm. That is money that you save and you can spend that at the end instead of spending it first. Uh so es are you talking about escalation specifically or in the sense of the escalation, the thought costs of all these things. Um, I mean, yeah. So, you're never going to recoup enough savings from that one-third to pay for those tier 2. I mean, they're just double the tier one, basically. So, it's that I I don't know how we pull those piece those out either because they are big projects. So, the way the uh facilities master plan was
069budgeted, they actually budgeted the $204. So the tier one is only $140 million. Um where tier two the projects are $127 million. So yeah, it'd be a it'd be a tall order to do both of both of those large projects. But there is there is definitely some feasibility and possibility to tackle uh one or a good portion of some of those tier 2 projects uh by saving some of the bigger projects. You can't like that. There's no stopping point kind of if you're gonna build a big gym. I mean, you have to build the gym, right? I mean, that so that's where we'd kind of have to revisit and through updating the board seek guidance and feedback at the as we go through the bond program, which is kind of why we have it phased
070with the high school towards the end. More phasing. I hope that answered the the question. It is. It's just I think some of these things that are priority the top priority like a playground equipment although important isn't as tier one as as I as I don't think it's tier one playground and then I have a sorry about like the understand what I'm saying you do yeah but I have a different but similar question related to like the budget forecast so this bell curve where it starts off of like smaller um planning and execution projects. What kind of a number as we move on from each section to each section that eventually you know expends all of the 200 so million. It it really it really depends on the length of time or duration of your
071bond issuances which I believe is uh being presented at a future future board meeting. Um but the longer the say you have issuances over 10 years that that bell curve becomes almost flat uh because you're just spending equal amounts of money over the 30 or over the uh three-year period. But the more compressed you make that bell curve, the more money you're spending. So, say you took out a 50 million issuance at the beginning, then maybe your next issuance might be 75 million because the designing and that front cost or soft costs are not nearly as expensive as the uh actual material and the building itself. Does that make sense? So are we expecting kind of like different options in terms of the forecasts of how it would be broken down like whether it is
072likely going to be the typical bell curve or a different sort of model that might happen. So, I think we were looking at um prioritization to help drive that decision in terms of what the uh dollar amounts of the issuances are. And we we may also wait to hear from our financing um experts to kind of shed some light on that as well. Um but the goal is um for our May 27th meeting to present um what those issuances might look like or at least the first issuance. Um but we want to we wanted to get feedback and input from the board uh in in terms of how you feel about this particular approach with financing. Thank you. There's no plan for the district office though, right? Uh it was not included. We're going to
073have a nice office for the Mr. Joseph Chang. Yeah, those are uh usually rough projects for administrators. I see. I see. That might be tier three. Yeah, tier three. Tier three. Take the white stuff. There be quite a few tears before that. So, I think Kent was going to answer what Joanna is really asking because I think we're initially talking Chris had said like four issuances of 50, but that's not really reality, right? I mean, it depends. That's just like a it they they could be adjusted as we go through the bondage process, but um if if you were spreading it over a longer period of time and going at a slower rate, that might make sense, but then you're also losing dollars towards escalation and other things. Um so by doing more in a
074less period of time, you're going to have more of that pronounced bell curve than you would if you did a 10-year series of issuances. Okay, thank you CJ. Um, like to invite Chad to come up and present on bond financing. Thank you. And uh, good afternoon, President Chang, members of the board, um, Dr. Voy um, and executive team. So, this is the finance presentation that will review some of the variables that will inform the, as Dr. Troy mentioned the sizing of the first issuance of bonds. Um and then so we'll review um your assessed valuation. Um um my colleague here Kristen will review the bond market and then we'll look at next steps. So um just to recap on um you know you've heard a lot of information on the projects from um Mr. Nolan
075and um you know the work from the facilities advisory committee with Mr. Morris. And so that's going to inform one part of the equation, which is the scope, the cost, and the timing. And then on the other side of our equation is the financing constraints. How do we generate the proceeds to pay for the debt service, which will service the amount that you decide to issue for the various priorities. So based on that, we'll look at your assessed valuation, interest rates, tax rates, and some of the legal parameters that we have to abide by. So the first one uh on assessed valuation this is the value of all taxable property within district boundaries primarily residential properties. You can see that the district's assessed value has never had a decline um going back to 1985 not
076during the recession in the mid90s not during the great recession. So in the most recent fiscal year your assessed valuation grew 4.6 million or 4.6% to 9.2 2 billion. And one of the um an interesting fact is um even though homes in your community might sell for2 million3 million, $5 million plus, the median assessed value of a single family home within district boundaries is $1,395,000. So that's what drives the growth in assessed value, where if properties change hands, what was once $1.4 4 million now gets assessed at $2.9 million. And we'll look at the interest rates before going into other variables. Thanks, Chad. Good afternoon, members of the board, members of cabinet, and superintendent deatory. Kristen Gar with Piper Sandler. We are a bond underwriter. I focus exclusively with school districts in California and community
077colleges. We wanted to give you a quick backdrop on the interest rate environment. And I think the two charts that you see, one is uh a 60-year history uh and then we uh zoom into a five-year history of what's called the bond buyer general obligation bond index. And what that index is is it's a um index of the the borrowing cost for a 20-year financing of a general obligation bond. and that's what the district would issue um that was authorized under measure M for a double A rated and I'll go into credit ratings but a double A rated um borrowing for about 20 years. So it's it's similar to uh what the district is contemplating. We show the movement of that interest rate over a 60-year period on the left hand side and then zooming
078in on the five-year history really more relevant to us. We all lived through the historically low interest rate environment during the pandemic and then we started to see a lot of inflation in uh 2022. In March of 2022 is when the Federal Reserve started raising their short-term interest rates. Um they were as low as 0 uh 0 to 0 uh.25%. They raised them 11 different times all the way up to five and a quarter percent through July of 2023. Then in uh took a pause as those interest rate increases started impacting the economy, things started to slow down a bit. They started to lower rates um in the fall of last year. They lowered rates three different times. Now they only impact the short-term rates, but long-term rates kind of followed suit. Um they lowered
079rates three different times in 2024 um bringing that short-term rate down to uh a higher end range of four and a half percent. Since the beginning of 2025, the Federal Reserve has elected to keep rates steady. And that's been in large part to what we've all seen unfold on a national level with the current administration. Um, and then if we zoom in even more on that right hand side in the five-year history, you can see sort of a sharp rise in interest rates. And that's really reflective of what's transpired over the past couple of months. In particular, of late, the announcements with regards to tariffs, uh, trade tensions and the potential economic uncertainty um, has caused uh, interest rates to rise. In fact, since liberation day, uh interest rates are up about a quarter of
080percent. So, we are in a higher interest rate environment, but if we take uh 30,000 foot view from that and look at this last 60 years, we're still within historical averages. Um if we we do have a lot of school bonds. We uh San Marino School District is one of 200 school districts that have passed bonds. So there's a lot of school districts coming into the bond market. There's a lot of competing supply. I think what's great about the potential of timing with respect to a bond sale this summer is when we usually see investors receiving a lot of money from bond payments um that are already outstanding. So money to put to work that um investors have to to invest in bonds which helps drive down the cost. If we look at what uh
081one of the unique and great aspects of San Marino Unified, it's the district's strong credit ratings. So credit ratings, much like when you get go get a a a car loan or home mortgage, they look at your credit score. This is effectively the same concept. There are uh three rating agencies that give credit ratings, but the district has two outstanding ratings from the the leading uh agencies, Moody's and Standard and Pors. The district's uh Moody's rating is the higher of the two at double A1. That's one notch below aa the highest rating. Um and then the second rating is from standard bores at what we call double A flat. Um, the Moody's rating was upgraded in 2023. Uh, and I'd like it. I I brought their credit report. It's really really positive. They talked about
082the district's credit strengths being the robust reserve and liquidity levels, the exceptional resident income and wealth levels, which Cadet touched on in terms of the the sizable tax base and just our community. Um, the health of our overall community. and then importantly the strong local community support um and the approval of the parcel taxes. So other revenue sources outside of just being reliant on state funds. These are all uh really important credit metrics because the rating agencies we will you would seek you need a credit rating on these bonds because the investors they're going to read those these reports and make a determination whether or not they put in an order for San Marino school district bonds and much like when you're selling your home the more orders that you have on your bonds or
083the more offers that you have on your home um the more we can in turn lower interest rates. So, uh, the great and very strong credit ratings are a true credit positive. And I guess one last final point just with respect to the current school bond market. While we've seen all this interest rate volatility, we are in a higher interest rate environment. A lot of schools coming to market. We were just in in the market earlier this week. Um, and actually Keegent was a um adviser as well for a school district up in the Bay Area. very similarly. They have a AAA rating. They're a basic aid district, but they also have a parcel tax. So, there's there are a lot of similarities. They sold 57 million and they received 264 million in orders. So,
084four times the amount of orders for their bonds um than they had bonds to offer. This is a great position to be in. They had 43 unique investors. So, um, all that's to say and in the end we're able to lower interest rates after a successful sale and, um, all that's to say in a highly competitive environment, high interest rate environment, we're in a great position, San Marino school district is in a great position, um, given how strong this district is and the high credit quality. Okay, question. Yes. Um, is there a way to for us to get it up to AAA or No, not really. Um, so the way that you're rated, even though the risk of default of your bonds would be 0%. Yeah. Um, the rating agencies rate you against a median
085scale of other districts. So, as Kristen mentioned, the district up in the Bay Area is is basic aid, whereas you are an LCFF district. And that really does limit your upward mobility um into the AAA. So double A1 really is the highest that we see LCFF districts. Great question. Um so we talked about the assessed valuation, we talked about interest rates and we'll get into the uh tax rates and just as a bit of background um as you know the district has two prior bond measures. The one from 1996 and the one from 2000 for 34 million and $18 million. And you might recall the measure M bonds were structured as a no tax increase which was to coincide with the expiration of the 96 and 2000 bond measures. Graphically you can see this on
086slide 7 where absent measure M coming in your bond tax expired in the 2425 fiscal year. So measure M would start its first tax in the 2526 fiscal year. And um uh you heard uh Mr. Nolan mention earlier whenever you spend your bond proceeds the IRS has rules for when you issue taxexempt bonds. Tax exempt bonds are supposed to serve the public good. And to serve the public good, they want you to rev up the economy and start spending your money versus holding on to it and it earning interest on those balances. That's why if you don't spend your money within 3 years, you have to rebate any arbitrage back to the IRS. So, what informs your um bond plan is how much can you actually spend within a three-year time frame. So, the specifics
087of the rule are 5% committed within six months and that's entering into contracts. Whereas 85% spent, that's dollars out the door within that threeyear of the issuance of the first series of bonds. So if you only issue 30 million of your 200 million, that three-year rule only applies to what you actually issue, that 30 million. Okay? So this was the original plan that had been um put together at the beginning of measure M. This was a starting point never intended to be what you actually issue. Uh so these were based on various assumptions on assessed valuation growth. We assumed 4.5% over the life of the program whereas your historical averages have been about 5 a.5% going back to 1985. We assumed interest rates of 4.6% to 5.1%. that was conservative before the spike in tariffs,
088but it's still reasonable in this current time. And then we've got the final tax rate in 2015. And each financing itself uh was planned to not have a term exceeding 30 years. So how did we access the the 200 million? You can see on the bottom left hand corner equal issuances over three years. And I think part of the um prioritization project process is how what projects did you want to address initially and then that will determine whether we access 30 million 50 million $75 million because the issuance schedule shown here is not set in stone. Your assessed valuation is going to change by the time we issue series B. The interest rate environment is going to change by the time we issue series C and D. And so the bond program is very nimble.
089Um, and one consideration outside of the facilities is the district does have its certificates of participation that are still on the district books. It is a allowable bond project to pay off these uh cops. That has a current outstanding principal amount of $2.65 million with an annual debt service of about $235,000 a year. And once the board determines the amount that series A is going to be issued for, bond council will draft the various legal documents and bring them back on May 27th for the consideration and board approval. It's about 200 pages plus of documents that's summarized on this one page. The authorizing resolution is going to specify the terms and parameters of the bonds. are you issuing 30, 50, or $60 million? It'll specify the term, whether it's 25 or 30 years, and then
090um authorize district staff to take the steps necessary to complete the issuance of the bonds. There will also be draft documents that will have a bunch of blanks in there. That's intentional. Those will be completed when the bonds are successfully sold and issued. That includes a preliminary official statement. That's the prospectus that Kristen and her team at Piper Sandler will take to market the district's bonds to 40 plus investors who hopefully participate in purchasing your bonds. There will also be a bond purchase agreement which will finalize the actual parameters by which the bonds are sold and then the continuing disclosure certificate. Anytime you sell bonds in the public market, you covenant to investors that you'll provide ongoing information like your audit, your budget and demographic data. So the next steps are um again documents would
091come for approval on May 27th and then because the bonds would be issued in the next fiscal year in addition to the resolution uh to authorize the issuance there would be what's called a tax levy resolution and that will authorize LA County to set the tax rate at the beginning of the fiscal year to make sure that that tax rate is continued and doesn't go down to zero. So with that, welcome any questions you may have. Uh so the May 27 uh we we need to approve resolution. That's correct. And the resolution is that need to uh be by four member app or just majority. You need uh just a majority for the resolution. I have a question. um as it relates to just inflation because I I see the interest rate and I understand
092that part. But um there was earlier when he was presenting he mentioned how fawn phases can be longer or shorter depending on our priorization and since we only have the 200 or so million isn't that going to be worthless as time goes on and everything will so is there that type of analysis in here that accounts for that? So the great question. So this $200 million, that's just going to be nominal dollars. And so whether you issue this in four issuances every three years versus three issuances every two years, you would have more purchasing power the more bonds you access upfront because is you know a a bond financing 10 years from now will not be able to uh generate as much sort of purchasing power for um you know what you need your your
093dollars for. So, I think that's a really a function of what construction inflation might look like and where you prioritize how much and when. Um, but this $200 million is is really just set um as a nominal amount. Jack, did you can I ask a question? Yeah. Does the district need to know the size of each of the bond issuances at this point in time or they only know that initial and that's very common because two or three years from now what you think is a priority today. I mean knock on wood but maybe there's a weather event and your roof falls down and that's not something that you had planned on. So um that's why the bond program is nimble um to be able to accommodate changes not only in the project side but
094on the economy side in your assessed valuation and interest rates. So in the each time we will issue about 50 million right? That was the the plan but you are not bound by that. Uh-huh. And and then each time when we sell the BL and then we get the money in. So is that the school district need to uh open a new account and give the money there? Great question. So all bond proceeds with uh when bonds are issued, they're deposited with LA County. So LA County will work with your business office to establish a building fund. Um, and that's where the dollars will be deposited. Is that they can earn the interest? And as of the most current uh quarterly report, the LA County Treasury pools earning about three and a half%. Oh, it's
095a fixed always a Oh, it's variable. Um, I've I've been talking to some of my uh counterparts and other school districts that have been through bomb projects before and they have said to me it is less expensive for the district to have issuances than it is four. Of course, can you talk a little bit about that and and how, you know, how expensive it is and because I see four there, but I was advised by other superintendents to try to do three if at all possible. Um, because it saves you I said an inordinate amount of money, but I don't know what that means to them. Right. So, with every anytime you and that's a great uh point. So, every time you issue bonds, there's going to be costs of issuance. So that's our fee,
096underwriting fee, legal fees, credit rate. Every time you get a credit rating, you have to pay a fee to them. And it's to the tune of um several hundreds of thousands of dollars each time. So if the district has the capacity where you say, you know, we can accelerate the spending and assuming the assessed value is, you know, sort of robust and grows to allow us to issue more. If you can issue more under less financings, you pay us less and you get more for your important projects. That would definitely be the best case scenario possible depending on the system. Correct. Okay. And and the interest rates, the financing constraints. What What would be the maximum bond um issuance? I would like could we do 50 if like three is what like what Dr. Dr.
097Delator said what what we can do is um run the numbers because these assumptions are sort of they're sort of static. So in order to get 50 100 and 50 certain of these variables will have to change. Either the interest rate assumption has to come down or the assessed value has to go up. And um you know again these are reasonable on the interest rates and on the assessed value. But it might take something like increasing your assessed valuation growth assumption to that five and a half% figure. Um, but it it's certainly doable. Um, it just depends on how less conservative you might want to be on building your bond program because if assessed value doesn't grow the same rate that you project it to, we risk going over our $60 legal tax rate limit.
098And that's something that we're going to try to maintain for the life of the bond program. So, so we can potentially issue one time with 20,000 I mean 20 million. A if um you could spend the money within three years. B if interest rates I mean I mean if there was a period of time where districts were issuing bonds in you know with a 2 point something percent. If interest rates were that low um then you know all things equal yes we could do something like that. I see. So uh during the underwriting process so the the credential is just depends on the credit rating or they are looking for uh the school uh annual report the the positive uh certificate from the L education. what what they are looking for. So then we need
099to maintain a strong Yeah. status. That's a great question, Trusty Cheng. So it's four categories that they're looking at. Um one is the local economy. So the tax base and the assessed value and it's the growth over time, the strength of of the tax base. Um you know, ours is largely residential. So, we're reliant on the turnover of homes, but as Chad mentioned, the value of our homes is uh quite notable. Um, and it really drives and attracts people to buy homes as they become available here. So, and then being surrounded in just in the local greater Los Angeles County, the uh economic activity here that brings people within our area, even even some of the small businesses, those are all contributing t factors to the strength of the the local economy and then our
100town itself um and the tax base. That's one big component. The second significant component as you mentioned is the district's finances and our the continued strength of the district's fiscal condition that one contributed to the upgrade in the rating from Moody's to double A2 one notch below uh AAA is hugely important. So um as I mentioned as well the um the parcel taxes the the support by the foundation these external uh revenue sources for the district are contributing factors that they even mention in their their report. In addition to how the district has managed one-time monies that many districts hired uh additional staff that they're now in positions where they might have to lay off staff. Those are the fact that the district has managed through an unprecedented time um through the pandemic and emerged
101with such strong sound financials and and financial position today um is a major factor in the credit rating. Um and then the district management the continuity um from the board uh to district leadership uh is a a significant factor in the in the rating criteria. And then the the fourth one is the low debt burden. I mean, we were virtually until the passage of me measure M debt-free. And the fact that the district may elect to pay off the coops for the bar facility is eliminating debt on the district's general fund also a credit positive. Um, so those are the key points. How relate to the pension? I mean, I'm sorry. The pension there mention about the district or pension. Yeah. So, that's something that's um going to be part of the uh the credit
102rating analysis. And I think the good thing is for your stirs and pers liabilities, that's something that all California school districts are grappling with. And so, investors know that that's an ongoing liability. So, I don't want to say they sort of rush it aside, but they realize that that's going to be a factor whether they decide to buy San Marino bonds or Arcadia bonds or Burbank bonds. Um, you know, Kristen touched on the the credit strengths and the categories. Investors are looking at those as well because they usually will want to buy the highest credit quality school district. So, all things equal, if you have a double A1 um, San Marino bond that you can purchase versus a um, you know, a double A3 U district not in LA County, they would probably decide to
103choose San Marino Unified School District bonds. Is that just question. Is that just limited to pensions or are we talking about, you know, districts that have debt because they um pay for retiree health benefits? That also includes OPED as well. Yeah. OPED. So, there's a lot of districts that do that. We do not do that. So, we don't have um an OPED liability because we don't contribute to the cost of retirey benefits in any way, shape, or form. They can continue to be on our policies, but at their expense. Got it. That's a great point. So your suggestion uh we pay of outstanding COP that would certainly be how soon once the Well, as soon as we Yeah, we want to we want to capture uh savings um by not having to pay the interest
104on that that service for the COPS. So, we can utilize funds from measure M to pay that off to uh reap some savings from that interest in our resolution to the board. Um, so we were very transparent about our plants to pay that off. Um, and because we got some state matching money back, I think our outstanding balance is what 2.4 million. 2.6 million. Oh, 2.6 million. So, we've got that balance way down to 2.6. And so, um, it's not going to be much um to pay it off and you should pay it off. We will save like millions of dollars and you have.3 million.3 and interest and I think that is it speaks for itself. Yeah. Out of our general fund. That's where that savings will be. Right. Well, yes, because we would norally
105have to pay for that out of our general fund, right? Great. Go back to Yeah, we finish this first. Anyone have a more question? Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'd like to ask you the question again. So, right now in the construction, uh, how much per square foot? I know the the party look like a 12 right yesterday. But but you guess about three 300 400 500 dollar per square foot for like a standard classroom. Yeah. For classroom, regular classroom. Uh building new or moderniz building new. Um I would just guess it's probably in that 500 to 600 range for a standard classroom. Now if you're going to like STEM or performing arts, it's upward of0.0 000 if not more. It's it's quite expensive to build a new classroom. Okay. Thank you. You um asked to hear
106from Stuart, but you didn't ask the other principles. They had some Oh, sure. Yeah. I'd like to say Yeah. Uh I'd love to hear their input, but we've heard a lot of input over the last two. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Um looking at plans for Valentine's Valentine. Um priorities are really outlined very clearly and in a way that um the traditional kindergarten area Um, thank you for keeping our parking loss the same. That was a major um point for parents and community um to have additional way in one way out. um with the TK in kindergarten area though it does get our kindergarten circles um which is V2 used for pick up and drop off for those grade levels and it replaces it with parking spots off Huntington which again uh they're backing into backing out
107into a street. Um I'm not sure how that will work. Um again we can talk about through the design process, right? That would be wonderful. There's overall CJ might have a comment. Maybe they'll do the slant the other way. So, you back in and then pull forward. Just going to say exactly how you ended it. During the design process, we would be uh contacting site administrators and really figuring out what needs to happen. um when we walked that site, we saw that traffic circle and it seems like it serves Huntington and uh Valentine in different ways. So, it's something that we would definitely explore as we get closer to implementation. Is there is there any way that we can have a three TK classes like a kind of outside of the one to the push
108back to the side on the TK in there because we're not sharing the the TK I kind of worry about three TK classes outside that they're not sharing the king the playground. Absolutely. Everything that's shown on the facilities master plan is really diagrammatical and once we have an architect or design team on board, we we'll be presenting those design ideas to the board to seek further input. This is really just to uh begin that process. I see. Okay. Uh you have a more question. Okay. Okay. Next, Mary. Thank you very thrilled most of all to be getting more classrooms and the Valentine's edition we're able to reabsorb some classrooms and I know um as our uh enrollment continues to grow year after year. I start to get nervous about where am I going to put
109this group if I need to open up another classroom where we open that robotics right right now sort of talk about that um so we're thrilled about the additional classrooms um the recovery of the hardcore services we've got the garage so yes if that's an easy first um plan that would be great safer for the kids um the bathrooms and the overall um internal services so faster So we would agree that the modernization um is in line in that way maybe changing as we talked about our um our central area and our ladder to a more multi-purpose room. Um so yes we are um happy and excited about the renderings and the conversations that our master site team has come up with. So we'll look forward to more next phase. Any question specifically about any
110question? Does the um does the playfield as it is um serve enough sports teams? I mean, is it could it be made to be more multi-purpose like the track or like, you know, just anything beyond just that big space? Well, I was even looking yesterday and I was thinking kids really use all of that grass space. Um, especially at lunchtime and during PE for soccer and all the fields and football. I was told and people who have been here longer, we used to have a track there was it was by the and our I haven't been asked that by our um track in our cross country or our the kids run the lap. It's actually probably softer than adult to do grass. And as long as part of the plan is to I think rebraid
111and um improve the grass so it's more level overall. Um I think that would be wonderful because you know again the basketball courts our PE classes use every single space they can right the tennis courts wrestling the gym the outdoor spaces. So I do think it's we utilize it well but we'll keep talking right as we progress but yes my um athletics and motions were Jason okay next Dr. So since we're only talking about initially the the medical RS and CTE facilities, there's one issue that I have and I don't think it's affected by the bond. I think he'll correct me if I'm wrong, but we were working towards this solution anyway. But as we move back into the 300 classrooms that are technically outside the safety of of our campus, we need to extend
112the gate that goes all the way across that driveway so that we are walking those students in just like we are rest of our students. But we had walked it this year and we're I think we're heading towards that. our next conversations. And then um since we talked about a safety issue and and you brought up the stadium seats, uh I would also point out that we're well past the lifespan of the actual football field and track and then there are starting to become some safety issues there as well. So not sure how we'll get to to addressing those, but those are some smaller things that don't rely on building. Yeah, that would be impactful though. Still small project, right? Uh by the way, uh we uh talking about school sign and especially we talk
113more about classroom. uh for this 200 uh million pound, how much we want to invest in IB? There is um money and a budget set aside for those priorities related to technology and in fact technology is integrated throughout the modernization even in new construction as well. Um, and you know, I I've been learning so much from working with just working with CJ over the past couple of weeks, um, when he was educating me on the fact that you want to do your modernizations at the end. Uh, because as you build new construction, you're going to have new standards and then you do your modernizations which will bring your um your older facilities up to that standard as well. So I I that was a complete um gamecher for me because I was so eager to
114modernize right away because I can see there are some you know some areas of improvement but I think this process has just just been so valuable. Uh so yes there there are funds uh uh earmarked for technology. Uh but um overall I I'm just so pleased to be able to work with CJ uh because he has the experience and the knowledge um and as a team I think by with this session uh of being able to work together we're going to really achieve some amazing things for our facilities. So yeah for me that safety piece is so important. um you know, making sure all of our campuses are secure and truly closed campuses so we can control the access and not just um think that we do, but actually, you know, um especially for the
115high school and middle school, I feel like the um the two elementaryaries are pretty well um controlled or, you know, uh but I think that like Dr. Wolf said, getting that the east driveway. Um, and then we could figure out something for all the glass at the front of the foyer and carbor as well. So, agree. Yeah, we've been looking at all those things and um I agree overly that safety is really critically important. Uh Jeff, you have a more comment. Uh yeah, I do. Yeah. Go ahead. So I was talking mention guilty track that was identified feeling that's pretty streamlined process but that could be probably in that first set that's very visible early win for the district to be able to show the community needs your knowledge for I uh I had a
116question on the restroom modernizations is there any concern concern that modernization trigger new standards or along those lines. Not necessarily for all gendered restrooms, but ADA for sure. The I saw the lunch shelters you had on the early project recommendations. Um, and I think that that probably applies to Valentine because our first lunch order to expanded, right? Okay. Um, heard the fire sprinkler. Is that I'm talking about the storm that's along the south side of the playground there. Everything down issue, right? Pardon? a braiding issue there. Yeah. Yeah. You can expand the feet of the plant. That's not Let's see. I had a question. There was a question that came up about the TK place structures which um was not identified in your early project recommendations, but I was curious if those were purchased now
117installed someplace in the playard is it easy to be able to relocate them later into one that plays continued. It's really not something that's really easily relocated. Um I I haven't seen that done at the school. Okay. Probably poor footings and all that that you're not getting them up. Yeah. Victoria portal. See I did I had a question um actually one regarding interim housing and relocation of existing portables the inground portable that harbor right now if those were to be re moved to a different location on campus it's much more difficult to move portables with concrete foundations um I'm assuming the stucco ones that are on the near near the fire lane. Those would be much more difficult to relocate, but uh it'd be something we'd be looking to explore or possibly just um configuring
118our our designs to incorporate that structure there if that makes sense. Yeah, that yeah, that does make sense. Where I was kind of going with the questioning was logistically if you had to if you were to explore relocating those, you had to relocate prep. Is it something that can be accomplished? Yes, relocating portables can typically be accomplished in the summer, even in ground. Uh we we would just have to look at a lot more get a lot more into the weeds to figure that out. But typically it it could be um inground makes things a lot more complicated though, so we'd have to look into it. Well, all of our portables are way past their life and not on ground. Oh, really? Yeah, because the above ground ones we purchased used. That gives you any
119sense of how timing wise. You mentioned the the balance not shifting existing above ground portables down uh to make space for the two structures and then also utilizing them potentially to keep them out of uh and and Valentine what whatever needed. We we just want to increase our flexibility prior to disposing of those classrooms. We want to make the best use of them. Yeah, I I think I like that plan. That made a lot of sense. The only question and this would give you how that might be impacted wise by the construction there. It it it does push that construction towards the end. Um, one of the other reasons we like that location is because we would have to grade for those the placement of those portables, um, which is work that we'd have to
120do for the NPR regardless. So, it kind of met two needs there. And then there was just one one other one I one other question we mentioned at Valentine doing the twotory building a building as uh said you consider doing them together could be done together but you were thinking about doing them in two phases in two phases or slightly staggered. Um really we want I I would not want to start both of those projects at the same time for that campus just because you you want to have the site acclimated to the construction that's going on and see how that first project is going and then see how manageable that second one would go. Uh the design process can start concurrently for those projects. Sure. Think in terms of you know the longer you
121can spread it out the more it's escalate. It's it's that's the battle we're trying to fight. Okay. U Okay. Thank you. How about a cabinet? Anyone want to contribute? I think um we're super excited about um the opportunity that Measure M brings to our school district. Um and you know, we feel like we have hired the right partner. Um and certainly agent in um uh Christ are wonderful partners as well and we're so grateful for their support and professionalism and we're just excited to move forward. We are committed to providing um not only the board of education with regular updates. We continue to meet with our president of the board and vice president of the board um every other week to give them updates on where we are with measure M. We have a standing
122item on the agenda at the board's request to make sure that we are um updating not just the board again but the entire community in a public uh open session meeting about uh the progress that we're making on Henderm and uh we're committed to doing just that. Uh so we're going to be as transparent as we can be in uh talking about where we're headed. Um we really appreciate all the board's work and support in this uh project going forward and um we're just at the beginning of this. Um so lots more to be revealed as we move forward, but we're going to do it in partnership with um certainly the board and our wonderful principles. Um and it's never easy. I I was not in this position when we had the other two blogs,
123but I would tell you I was an interested observer and I know it's hard. It's just it's a stressful thing when you have construction going on at any school site. So, we'll just need to uh prepare ourselves. The principles will have to prepare their teachers and their staff uh just to have some patience. And um that happened for a while, but we need to really be ready for that. Um and certainly the district office will continue to provide assistance, but um we're just raring to go. Um we're ready to Yeah. move forward. Hi. Yeah, I moved out of my seat so I lost my turn. Um the elephant in the room which is really about change orders and escalating costs. Uh I would imagine you're managing um that. Uh I am not doing the construction
124manage management specifically. Um but we would provide guide guide rails in our contracts and everything to prevent uh change orders and provide for contingencies. and and the district um you know being trained on uh least lease back which is um something that Mr. Nolan had talked to me about extensively before we even got to this space and stage and that would provide in and of itself um some um barrels and protections against uh change orders and it provides um an incentive to the company that's doing the construction not to have change orders. So, there are ways that you're looking at to prevent that. I cannot guarantee that there's never ever going to be a change order because I never heard about something that is that perfect in all my life. But we are certainly aware
125um that we don't want to see change orders. And so, we're going to make that crystal clear. And um Mr. Norland, Mr. also that we have um contracts with language that protects the district's interest in that regard. We also have an attorney um through DPR on Council Sant Santana who's also very adept at making sure that there's contract language that will protect the district's interest in Dr. Choy um who has been really um you know immersing himself in all of these legal uh aspects going forward. Uh I feel like we are ready for that and we'll guard against it to the extent that we possibly can. Now if something happens in our our state something like fires which happened in January happens perspectively. You know, those things we can't anticipate. We're just going to have
126to work together on that might be some, you know, contingency that happens that we couldn't have planned for. Um, but day-to-day business, we're going to be very wedded to preventing that. And I just want to add, we we will be bringing more information to the board uh in terms of procurement options uh because you may have different uh procurement uh methods depending on your projects. So um we will be bringing the board along with that. It it wasn't the focus of today's study session but we will definitely bring that back. Yeah. One of the things I learned from members that oversaw the previous bonds was the need the imperative that we communicate and we overcommunicate what is happening. um the community will not stand for something that's happening that they're not aware of it if
127if it affects roads, if it affects safety. I mean, we need to get out in front of that. And also um thank you Mr. Chang for u making sure that we have these conversations because uh the more informed we are the more we can inform the community and it is imperative because what we don't want happening is what happened last time when they went out for a bond then they say oh don't quite have enough money and so they had to go out for a second bond and that was not like the the community was yeah was very upset about that. So, we really want to manage this money. This is an incredible opportunity for us to um build something for the future of our community, for our children, and it's it's so critical that
128we have all the pieces and the importance of agree. Okay. Anyone want to make a comment? If not, I think the the meeting a job. Thank you, President Chen. Good job, Mr.