LASD Special Board Meeting - 5/12/26

001Good morning. I'd like to call today's uh special meeting of the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees to order. A recording and our broadcast of this meeting is being made at the discretion direction of the board, which may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. If technical difficulties occur or persist, the meeting will continue without broadcasting. I will now call the roll. Bryan? Present. Sella? Here. Jim? Here. Brandon? Present. And I, Shelly Sahi, am here as well. We have a quorum. Um let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everyone. Would any board members like to provide comment on today's

002agenda? No? All right. In that case, we have a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So moved. Thank you, Sella. Do we have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Jim. Motion to approve today's agenda as presented was made by Sella, seconded by Jim. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. On to the first, our only item today, our study session on the Slay's Master Plan. Right. So, process-wise, well, I think we'll have Eric do um the presentation, and then we'll pause for community comments because it looks like we have some public comment, and then you guys can begin discussion. Yep. If anyone else would like to uh submit a public comment card, please do so before public comment begins. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for being

003here today. Yeah, we're going to uh give you an update. Uh last time we met uh was at the end of March, and there was some uh discussion among um board members about some things that you'd like us to bring back and so we're here today to hopefully answer some of those questions, give some more updates and kind of discuss the program and some of our thoughts. We've also got some more costs in to kind of look at the what is feasible for like a phase two and we'll go over that in a little bit. Um today's agenda is to kind of review a draft project list. This is not the final list. I want to always emphasize the word draft. Um and also talk about cash flow uh anytime. Uh it's not really effective

004to do um the project list out eight years and give you the exact cost or even do the cash flow cuz things will change and fluctuate. Um if you look at your checking account at your house, it changes every day, right? Um we also want to talk a little bit about the middle school model and kind of where we're at with that um and and in relation to the measure e bond program. Uh then I we'll talk a little bit much more in depth on phase one and two of the projects and kind of the scope and then some next steps and then action that we'll be asking the board to do. Uh this is not an action item, I should say. It's discussion only. Um but then then staff will ask for some direction

005from the board if anything we want you want us to bring back uh for either the May 18th meeting which would be a short turnaround, but then also uh really for June 1st and June 8th. So measure e was passed by um the public in 2024. It it was uh $350 million general obligation bond and it was to modernize our schools, upgrade them, uh do some some uh the biggest component is for the San Antonio campus to help us solve the overcrowding at Egan and Bullets or Egan and Block. Um so, you know, we wanted to highlight this and always remind people that this was a a measure that was supported by our public and our voters and it's it's going to be a great to start working on getting our schools upgraded and modernized.

006Um this is a sample project uh list and draft of where we're at just for phase one and two, which in a whole I think I don't want to pause right here. I think we will I want to go kind of through the slides and then we can come back to this. Um this is also the cash flow. So when you're um just like our general fund, we have to have enough cash in the bank to pay our ongoing expenses. Well, bond program is no different. If you look at the beginning and then really kind of like the top and I and I will get into this a little bit more, but this is a sample of of how much your beginning balance is at the beginning of the bond program and then how much

007money we're expected to spend that month. And then we'll have to issue another series B of bonds probably in January, early March of '28 uh to have enough cash to finish the San Antonio campus, but then also give us seed money, construction money for future projects and for our other school sites. And the middle school model we've had a couple discussions uh February 9th and March 26th to talk about some um the what we would do at Block and Egan and I think there was good direction of saying, "Hey, >> [clears throat] >> that the remaining um students from Bulverde will be they will be placed at Egan and then the the the rest of the students will be placed at the San Antonio campus. So we've been working with our architect team looking at

008the numbers, number of portables we would need to implement middle school model. Uh the good news is uh we have some classrooms and some capacity to move our students to the middle schools with not a lot of a big outlay for the district. And um we talked about um I think we use kind of like the village concept, right? Where the sixth graders will still be part of the general campuses at Block and Egan, but they'll also have like a little area for their for their core classrooms. Um you know, which is a good for them as they're implement you know, as they're starting getting into middle school. So, it's a nice transition for those students. Um we want to finalize the middle school model and kind of what we're going to do. Hopefully by

009June we can get an architect and have some decisions made and the reason is if we're going to do any type of moving students and getting them the sixth graders to the middle schools in that summer of 2028 at the same time the San Antonio campus is opening up. We wanted to have the architect involved. What is needs to be entailed because there are some portables that will be removed from both campuses and we'll need to decide how many where is the best location? Is it this row? Is it this area on the campus at Block and Eagan? So, we do there is some a lot of work ahead of time. Um if we're not going to be doing a lot of moving things around, then DSA is going to be pretty easy to work

010with a for middle school as far as if we're just removing portables, there might be some concrete or asphalt restoration and removing some of the utilities that are being fed to them, but other than that it is it's it's not going to be super invasive to the campus. So, when you look at like our budget right now, we we're using a very um kind of a general budget of not needing a ton of concrete just moving portables. There is a cost to remove a portable, which is disconnecting all the utilities and then you have to have mobile modular if they're at least portable pick them up and take them away. Um so, that's so we're budgeting very low cuz we don't have all the information at this time. We did do a contract with AE

011DIS and then they're kind of looking in it and then our our timeline is still for summer. So, any work that happens is going to happen right when school gets out, we'll get those rooms or whatever we need to do to and we'll make sure the classrooms are ready. They'll have furniture in there. They'll be ready to go for sixth graders to attend in the fall of 28. Some of the things we wanted to kind of highlight is what are these and I shared this at the last meeting in March, but the site-specific modernization components um our classrooms um most classrooms when you do modernization, you're going to modernize the fire alarms and upgrade those. Um I think in this room do we have one? Yes. So, that pull station back there, that is not

012an automated system. So, if there's a fire at night, you'd have to somebody would have to be here to pull it to let people know, but nobody's around. Fully automated fire alarms are what the DSA requires. So, that would be smoke detectors, heat detectors, duct detectors in the HVAC. Modernizing uh getting our schools upgraded has to happen. So, that'll be what kind of scope of fire alarms. A lot of our fire alarm system in our schools are a bit antiquated and in not in great condition. We do have false alarms periodically and which are annoyance to the students and staff. So, we want to minimize that, but also get fully automated systems. Um HVAC um the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems are they usually last 15 to 20 years just like at your house.

013It's about the same thing for commercials and schools. Uh all of our units are past their useful life. They're failing. Compressors are failing. There's also a different refrigerant that is used for the compressors for for the cooling and that refrigerant is like not used in California anymore. So, you have to replace the whole unit as units go down. So, we are seeing uh more units fail, the compressors failing, hard to find parts and things from units that are 20 plus years old. So, that is a significant um you know, impediment to our maintenance department because it's hard instead of replacing the unit, we were trying to, you know, fix some of these things and it's not really that not that good use of of our funds. Lighting in California, we're no longer allowed have fluorescent

014tubes. So, all these lights that have the fluorescent tubes are not allowed. So, as these light fixtures fail and the tubes go and the ballast go, very hard to find tubes and and replacement parts. They have to be LED now. So, that's a significant cost. Um we have done a couple classrooms with LED lighting, a little bit at Springer, Block, and Almond, but the most of our schools have the old lighting systems that need to be replaced. Um ADA path of travel. Um several years ago, um we did a shade structure project at Gardner Bullis, and the division state architect who oversees all school construction made us upgrade the path of travel, and that is from the parking lot all the way to where the new construction is. So, that means the concrete has to

015be no more than 2% cross slope. Well, 2% cross slope is like almost flat. And so, uh that's so if you're in a if you're a disabled in a wheelchair, that the the slope is it's so at an angle, and that's what that cross slope is. So, you they want the wheelchairs to have a more natural uh flat flat path of travel. Um that becomes very expensive, but it's much needed to upgrade our schools. Um restrooms uh also have ADA requirements. There's a turning radius, the stalls, there's a lot of uh the height of the sinks, the height of the mirrors, everything has to be ADA accessible. Um they need to be upgraded and our restrooms definitely need that. Um not really required, but uh some of our schools, sometimes it's hard to find the

016main office, not all of them. Uh so, looking at the front of the school, the wayfinding, general classrooms, making sure the classrooms inside have paint and carpet that are upgraded. Um additional shade. Uh during the facility master planning process, there's a lot of discussion about shade in the schools, and uh the parents and community really wanted extra shade. We do have some pop-up tents and that are periodic for kids to eat lunches, um but those need to be upgraded as we do modernization. Um classroom AV and emergency communication bells and bells and the communication, um evacuation communication devices. You know, we are trying to go to more TVs and the smart TVs that can have Apple TV and really teachers can project using that. It's much better than these old antiquated projectors. That was the

017most modern technology back in the time, but TVs is much more modern thing. But our classrooms often need to be upgraded as far as CAT 6. Used to be CAT 5, now it's called CAT 6. And so we're working with Bell and our tech team to make sure our classrooms are modernized and we've got updated Wi-Fi, the wireless access points. And there's one right there above us. [clears throat] Um, the alarms and security systems. We do have alarms in some of our schools and some in certain buildings and that needs to be upgraded. It's old systems. The analog phone lines are failing. So these are things as we're looking at what is modernizing a classroom, it's a lot of things and it's not just one little thing. Our roofs, um, some of our roofs are

018in decent shape, but most of them are not. So, just like your roof at your home, they last 20 years, 25 if you're lucky. Some of our schools, the composition shingles are very thin. It looks like a piece of paper and then when the wind blows, the shingles lift up and then the underlayment will tear and then we get a roof leak. So it's very common if you look at some of our roofs, you'll see a nice patch of like new shingles around some old shingles because of things like that. So our roofs, um, you know, when you do roofing, the longer warranty you get, the more it costs, but you won't have to re-roof for 25, 30 years. And so that's the idea is getting a a more robust roofing material that's going to

019last longer and avoid those roofing leaks. Um, you don't want water leaks because water intrusion causes damage to the paint, to the walls. It's just not not place to be. Um one of the things in our master planning process was windows, and that's what glazing is called. And glazing is very expensive to replace some of these steel frames with aluminum frames and the double pane windows. It's very expensive. So, we removed that out of the master plan for a value engineering. It was just going to be too expensive. Um you can put that back in, but then there's a trade-off of doing that, right? So, we felt we could get more value, uh but it is good to have windows. You know, they're better that they're they're more um more efficient. There's also tinting and

020things you put on the windows for to keep the sun out to keep it cooler in the room. So, these are all things that when we look at moderni- modernizing a school, these are all kind of components when we talked about. Um painting, uh roofing, painting, and HVAC. So, I took a couple of pictures from some diff- different campuses. Yeah, it's really hard to see on the picture, but um the one on the left, that's the multi-purpose room at Almond. And as you walk up at Almond, you say, "Oh, it looks okay. It needs a little paint." But yeah, but if you look really close, it needs a lot of paint. The fascia, which is the trim boards on the outside that outline and then there's a piece of metal flashing, you can see the

021roof and the flashing and the fascia board are starting to to almost like dis- disintegrate or it's in poor condition. And that's where you That's where the Now that fascia board, if we don't get paint on it and sand it and get it primed, it's going to rot. And so, we were seeing that at multiple schools, multiple campuses that we need to start making sure we're painting our campuses. It's not just that so it looks nice, but it's also to protect to protect the asset, right? And when you paint your house, it's the same thing. You want to paint to protect the wood. Um I always have a good laugh at that movie Something About Mary, and the the old lady was always sunning herself and she was very like like leathery and wrinkled but

022she was nice and tanned, right? But but the sun is really the sun is very damaging to our buildings. You look at some of our campuses, the wood is damaged from sun. The doors need to be repainted from the sun. The asphalt when that sun hits the asphalt is not good for the asphalt, right? So when you think of the buildings it's also not good for your roofs, right? So the UV rays from the sun are very damaging to our buildings and so you have to do really good preventive maintenance to protect them and we just haven't had the dollars to do that. So the idea was as we're modernizing our schools, we wanted to refresh the paint, make sure that the school buildings are protected and then also do the roofs and all so

023that and then you can see the very thin roofing materials at the picture. I believe the one on the upper right is from Gardner Bullis. I think those both are on the the two right pictures. Um the roof is very thin. We had a couple roof leaks last winter. We have good roofing contractors to help us make these repairs but when you start spending thousands of dollars on repairs that comes from our maintenance department budget and that's not great use of their budget to do ton big big repairs. We've had to do this at Santa Rita, Gardner Bullis, every school has had to do roofing repairs like this. The one on the bottom right is an H vac unit at Gardner Bullis and that's in a permanent classroom but that is what is called a

024mini split system. Those H vac units are smaller, they're older, they have old refrigerant and if that unit dies, you can see it's up on the roof. It's like in a weird location, it's hard to service it. Um it doesn't allow for a lot of fresh outside air and I remember during COVID that was one of the things that we're talking about MERV 8 filters and all the things that we needed to do in our schools, but getting fresh outside air. Our HVAC systems, when we talk about upgrading, is upgrading the systems to allow for a fresh outside air. It's more efficient. It's also good for student learning. All students want to be in these well-lit classrooms that have good lighting, good fresh air. And I always say, you know, the Los Altos School District

025is one of the best school districts in the state, but we need to have the best facilities, too, right, to keep that learning going. So, I always I always tell our people is we need to have we have world-class teaching and learning going on. We need to have this upgrade our facilities at the same time. So, these are just a couple snapshots of kind of what the roofing, painting, and HVAC When I say modernizing, it's not just, you know, it's also protecting the asset. Classroom lighting, this is a good example of the fluorescent tubes. I think this was at Almond and Lisa Schubert's room. One of our TK teachers. And the lighting was failing. You can't find the ballast to You know, the ballast is used to electronically start the fluorescent tubes. And the ballast

026was failing, the tubes were failing, and what we had to do was kind of like a band-aid. We basically removed the ballast and we put in new LED tubes. And then we had to bypass the ballast and wire. And so, they met tons of electrical time and labor to just fix a couple lights that were failing. And the these lights are very common throughout our district. These are drop-down trough lights as sometimes they're referred to. And they were great at the time, but they are also 25 years old. And if you look at your And I was I do use a lot of examples at your house. When you look around your house and you walk around, you see things that are really old. You go, "I wish you'd replace that." And that's the same

027thing with a classroom, right? So, at the time these were state of the art, uh but they're failing and they're outdated and the fluorescent tubes can't be found in California. So, we we have to do a lot of retrofits and band-aiding until we have time to actually do the replacements. If you talk to teachers, they will say, "Yeah, my lights and HVAC." That's the number one That's the top two things that we hear from staff members that are in classrooms with kids, lights and HVAC mostly. This is example of us actually uh we did a full light replacement and this was at Block School and I can't remember what room this was in. Um but over at Block a couple summers ago, we actually had a contractor and we did not do every classroom. We

028didn't We didn't budget for that, but we did the worst classrooms that had the worst lights. So, at Block, Springer, and Almond, we went through and these are upgraded LED lights. They have motion sensors, so when you're not in the room, the lights will shut off, right? So, this is like modernized lighting, but the HVAC is still not done. The roof isn't done. So, so we did We have done a little bit of work over the last couple years as things have failed and we can't wait much longer. Um but this is a good example of like a room that we actually did do and you walk in these rooms and the teachers go, "Oh my gosh, this is wonderful. I can teach in a great environment." And And that's just for the lights, so

029you can imagine getting the lights in a classroom is a big deal to some of our staff members. Gardner Bullis classrooms, um Gardner Bullis I and I included this slide in a site map to kind of talk about it is um when the school reopened, um they they installed eight classrooms, all portables. We own three of them. And then we There's also like a bathroom building and like a little custodial storage at that site. And those are all leased and they've been in there almost I think it's almost been 20 years. It's been quite a long time. So, that we're leasing those. So, almost half of their campus is in portables, and that's not a great place for learning. We do have portables all over campuses in some form or fashion, but some of them

030are flex rooms for art and breakout rooms for music and things like that, but not permanent rooms all day long. These are permanent classrooms that people are using but not permanent classrooms, but portable classrooms that are being used by teachers year-round. They're not great. The kids when they hang their backpacks outside, they get wet from the rain, right? Cuz most classrooms have a long overhang. These are not like that. So, they do get wet. That's just a a kid issue, but it it does impact the kids. You can see these ramps are not the greatest to get in and out of the rooms. On the back side of these portables are these H are these units, and that's called a Bard unit. And that's the name of the unit that they attach to a portable.

031This room's in portable. And these units are loud. They're not efficient. They They're old refrigerants, and you can see and they're also you've got these loud noisy HVAC units facing permanent classrooms right next to it across across the walkway. So, this is kind of like a good look of what it looks like to be in these portable classrooms at Gardner Bullis. This map and if I can be super fancy with this pointer. No. I had it there for a minute. There we go. These rooms right here is the area I'm talking about. There are four portables here. We own three. I think we own these two and maybe this one, and then these ones are leased. And then there's a There's a custodial storage building here and a boys and girls restrooms. Last summer, actually

032it was two summers ago, the floor was so rotted and it's a rental. So the mobile modular came out and replaced it, but you know, the conditions are not great. Um anytime you go into a portable building, it's just not as good as a regular building. We can all agree to that. Um so this is kind of what it looks like. We're leasing five classrooms, uh the restroom building, custodial storage, the staff room up front is also leased. The main office and staff room are all up front here. The flex room is like right here behind it. Um the student center building here and the library are leased. Um and the total cost of leasing all these buildings is at 140,000 per year. We just got our upgraded costs. Um just like when you get

033your bills from your um when you go out shopping, everything is more expensive, the portable rentals every year are also more expensive. So every year they have costs so the the the leases don't the leases do not go down per year. Um so that's a kind of a good good little snapshot of where these portables are at on the campus. And then I wanted to kind of highlight what the master plan proposed was to we would remove those portables. These would be brand new classrooms. Now, what would happen is grade six will be not at the campus anymore. That will we won't have to build those classrooms, but we do need they're limited on space. This would be a music flex room. This would be a small lunch canopy for outdoor eating. This would be

034classrooms with the boys and girls restroom permanent and like a little outdoor maybe seating area, little quad mini quad out in the front. So this is kind of what we're talking about, six new classrooms, bathroom building, music storage, and a little outdoor area. And then what we, you know, we haven't figured it out yet once we get decisions is you could pop a portable in during the summer, no problem, but this is permanent construction. It can be built pretty quick. Um the idea would be though is that we'd have to do some sort of temporary housing for a period of time to house students and then get this construction done and built and then the students would move back in and that would be is kind of our thought on how we would implement that

035plan. And then um one of the things this was a Timber Quest project. We went to Menlo-Atherton um to Sacred Heart School in San Atherton actually and we went gosh it's been over 3 years now and this is a product they did it's a prefabricated building it's mass timber. Uh it's very popular. Hoover Elementary School in Palo Alto built an entire school using this this prefabricated and it's beautiful. I visited Sandra Knight went over there one day. Um it's beautiful the campus looks great. It doesn't look like it's like they're not portable. Prefabricated is not portable and I think there's always this misnomer that it's cheap. No, it's it's actually permanent construction. It has a 50 plus year lifespan just like any other new construction. So one of our thoughts would be uh it's very

036cost-effective to have these buildings built. Uh it comes in panelized systems. They get built offsite and then they put it together like an Erector Set. It's actually amazing to watch. Uh they crane in the roofs and the building materials. Um well we watched them do it at Palo Alto Unified up at Hoover School. It was really fascinating. You can see the high ceilings the bright lights coming in uh natural lighting. This is a kinder kindergarten classroom here and you can see there's their circle rug and all their little the little furniture I love the little furniture right? But you can see they've got casework for supplies and things. Really a nice um it's a really nice learning environment. More schools are going to these type of systems. Uh cuz it's a cost savings. Um you

037can build things offsite where it's cheaper have them assembled on site and there's a cost saving and you're also saving not just on the materials but on time, right? Cuz the less time you're on the site doing construction, you're saving dollars. Still have to pay for electrical and upgrades and getting the utilities there, but the actual building cost per square foot is less than new construction. So this is the Timber Quest of kind of things we've looked at in the past and then we'd be you know, asking to to look at that into the future as well. So a couple options that we're thinking um based on some discussions at the last meeting was one of the options is we could um modernize Santa Rita and Oak, which we we we felt was a higher

038priority at the schools and all schools are priority, but we just felt the first phase would be Oak and Santa Rita and then building uh those new classrooms at Gardner Bullis. Another option was to do classroom modernizations of Santa Rita Oak and then Almond or Springer depending um when we look at the facilities, Almond and Springer are about the same as far as the condition of the HVAC and the lights. Um they all need work so it's deciding which one would go first. Um you know, my my thought would be we would do Almond probably first. Um um and then future discussion is are there any small quick start projects we can do in the summer of 27 28? Based on cash flow uh it would not be multi-million dollar projects, but could we paint

039a campus to protect the the assets? Could we do a small roofing project or a small uh lighting project? Um you know, we can do that, but we have to be mindful that we can't do these humongous projects that might trigger DSA and other things. Um so it might be a small project, but there are ideas. Uh can we do another smaller project between now and the summer 29 at the school sites and we'd have to, you know, talk about what that would look like. Um that's kind of like what we were thinking is like, what are some options for you? And then really, you know, ask you you know, ask give you the opportunity to ask some questions and um and go from there. Some next steps um either at the next meeting on

040um May 18th or we would do it June 1st or June 8th is that we would approve the final budget revision to measure N. Measure N has some remaining dollars in it, and we would ask the board to allocate those dollars for the San Antonio campus. Then we would also get ask the board to approve an initial measure EE budget and project list. Uh and and at at a relative timeline, it will change. Um when we look at our multi-year projections in our general fund, that's all a bond program is is a multi-year expenditure plan, but instead of doing it for staff and teachers, we're doing it for facilities, right? That's really what the bond program is is just a multi-year expenditure plan for your facility upgrades. Um in order to stay on track and

041to be able to meet timelines for DSA and submittals and things, we would hope that we could get some architects. Uh we might not get the architects hired by June 8th, but we want to have the board give staff direction to get the hiring process started. We could hire architects over the summer, and then when everybody comes back and by August, um we could have started getting the meetings going. And then if we are going to do a design-build, which is what we're doing for the San Antonio campus, if we were choosing to do some new classrooms at any school, and if we were choosing to do that, the the you have to do a formal RFQ, request for qualifications, and a request for proposals for design-build. Um because if you have an architect is

042and a builder is a design-build entity, you have to do a process for that. And so, that's kind of what we want to make It has to be a formal process, just like we would do with the San Antonio campus. Um so, those type of things are a lot of work that would that are ahead of us uh really for the rest of the school year and then into the summer. Uh none of this has to be done right away, but we do need to have staff will need some direction in order to move forward with architects. Um and I think that was like kind of our last slide. Um and I'm very happy to open up to any questions you have and talk about um what questions you might have on your mind. So,

043we'll do clarifying questions from the board, um then public comment, and then we'll go to board discussion. So, I know we have some new people who walked in, so if you want to submit a speaker card, now's your chance to do so. Or leave. Open up the comments. So, clarifying questions from the board. Start with Uh Eric, one thing that changed between our last study session and this one is that um the phase two went from two campuses to up to three. Is that Is that something that you determined that we'd have enough on dollars left over yet to do the third school? Okay. And then um another uh question that came up last time was whether we might be able to use the portable that block um to house the GB students, but I

044don't know if the staff if staff determined that it'd be better to do temp housing at the GB site rather than that block. Yeah, I think um we haven't gotten into that much of the level of detail yet. I think if we if we start getting into the planning process, we'd have to decide that. Would we want to have half of Gardner Bullis at in a portable somewhere else at that offsite? Back then they called the um camp school, I guess, back then. Yeah. Um it might be better to keep them all on the same campus, but that's a decision we can make. We don't have to make it that today. >> Okay, but that it's like to be determined. Correct. Yeah. For in in there will be a cost of moving them moving cost

045and all that, but it might not be as expensive as it would be if two but it to move the portables. Yeah. Can you grab on the question? Let me just give a benefit of the audience as well. All of the projects on this list and also throughout the rest of the phases are have been allocated to this bond measure. So, it's not a question of whether these things are going to happen. It's just the order that they're going to happen in. So, there is Yeah, and then we also are looking we're trying to budget conservatively and we have some money built in for escalation and contingency, but again depending on what the scope is and we and we talk internally like, you know, maybe we can't afford to do every single thing on this

046list, um but I but I you know, my from my experience is, you know, you want to get as much of the classroom modernizations possible. It might not need interior paint or interior carpet, but the H back and lights and you know, are a priority. The roofing are priorities. The fire alarm are priorities. So, I think every school in some form or fashion is going to have to get have some some authorization work done. All of our schools need it. And maybe to answer your question differently Brandon from previous board discussion, this plan for measure EE on 300 350 million dollars included the construction of the San Antonio campus conversion to middle school and the modernization of all nine campuses and um upgrades to Gardner Bullis with that portable area. So, so let's go back

047to still on the plan right now. That's what the budget So, then going back a slide or two to the options that right? >> [clears throat] >> It's the order. Moving going to Austin here doesn't mean for example that new classrooms at Gardner Bullis won't happen. It just means that'll happen later. at a later date. Yeah. And then what I did is on the last time we met, that's a great question. I moved Gardner Bullis up. So then money that we had allocated for construction escalation went away. Right? Because if we're going to move instead of having like the Gardner Bullis new classrooms in phase five or six, if we move it up to phase two, we're going to get it done sooner so there won't be that escalation cost in the out years. Um

048but as I but then I also have to be mindful if we're going to do new classrooms at Gardner Bullis, then we would probably have to do some upgrades of ADA path of travel, fire alarm upgrades. We might need to do all of that at the same time we do this new classroom. It might be more cost effective. Um because you don't want to have uh one of my old districts, um they had two fire alarm systems for the campus and the one fire alarm system failed and they had to do what's called a fire watch. They had to have somebody stay on campus 20 like all during the day in case there was a fire. So because the fire and they had to spend a lot of money to do an emergency fire alarm

049replacement. And DSA, the Division of State Architects, oversees fire life safety. So you have to do it according to their standards and that becomes very expensive if you're doing it in emergency. So it's better for us to if we could do the proper planning, it helps us save money. We don't have these unattended problems, right? So the more planning you do and the more thoughtful we are on what we get done, I think we can get more things done at all the campuses. Good. I have some other questions but I think they're for discussion. This one might be too but on the on the new classrooms at Cardinal Bulbul as you were talking about prefab Mhm. and I remember but I need a reminder on the different ways that you can build classrooms. I know

050we can build them from scratch, we can prefab them, and are fully a building different than prefab or something or Yeah. I don't know like I mean we would specifically do prefab but I guess you know that's to some cost benefit. Cost benefit. >> Please so folia and timber quest are both prefab. >> Yeah. It's a different brand. >> Yeah, okay. Yeah, they are both prefab. So that there's really kind of three constructions. One is stick stick out Stick built means From scratch. You just build it brand new, you design it, and you build it from scratch. That's right. DSA has never seen that design. It's usually more expensive to do stick built. Prefab is um it's normal regular construction. It's just they build parts of the building offsite where it's cheaper, more cost-effective, then

051they bring them in in panels. Sunnyvale middle school just built a new folia building. It looks beautiful. Um the Hoover school in Palo Alto built a timber quest. It's pretty It's pretty common for schools to use these products. Um same lifespan, same quality materials. Uh it's just more efficient. >> And they're DSA pre-qualified. >> And they're and a lot of them are DSA pre-checked. So the DSA approval process is much quicker. Um the other advantage is you're not you're saving uh square footage cost of cost per square foot to build, but then it's also time. And time is money cuz you you pay for the superintendent and the construction team and everybody to be out there. So if you can cut your construction time down by 4 to 6 months, that's significant savings to the

052district. So the And then the last form of construction is portables. And they could be portables on concrete foundations or they're portables on like a wood like pressure treated wood and that's really So that's not like or modular modular portables are very similar. Yeah. Any other classroom questions? One more. You said glazing the windows that was taken out of the master plan. I just wanted to ask what kind of windows do our schools have now? When we when we what I mean is not what kind but like not casing in the window but like are they single pane? Are they insulated or storm windows? Yeah. >> cost us money in like energy bills. Yeah. >> that problem at at our house. Yeah, most of the windows depending when they were modernized last are single pane.

053They're They're safety glass or so they're they're tempered glass and they're safety but they're not the double pane, you know, well insulated windows with the aluminum frames, right? Which are like that's the new you know, that's the new version of windows. But yeah, so some of our glazing is older and different depending on when the school was modernized last. Well, do you think that would cost us money in energy bills? It does. The longer we keep the school the better. Let's venture into the special education. Yeah. Is it Is it more cost efficient to do the um modernizing upgrades by site than it is by category? Yeah. And One of the reasons is when you have your general contractor out there and you have an inspector out there and all the other special inspections that

054are required by DSA, it's more efficient to have one person doing all the work at one time. Um you could piecemeal it but then you'd be hiring people two or three times to come back out to do all that work. Um so it is more efficient I think to try to do as much of the work in one summer or one time period as you can. So you don't have to keep going back to that school multiple times, right? It's less disruptive, is that what you mean? Yeah, it's also, you know, we we really have short windows to do this work. If we're going to try to accomplish modernization during the summer, so much that's why the timeline is so important. We want to get everything dialed in and and uh procured and ready to

055go. So, when uh school is out June 3rd, we can come in, you know, remove everything, do all the demolition, and then put all the classrooms back. Ready and have it ready by August. Uh it's a very short window and it could be done. Uh but the so much of the planning has to be done well ahead of time where you really need everything approved ready to go a year in advance. Uh that means DSA approval by June of '27, so we can or June of '28, so then we can actually start the work in the summer of '29. Yeah. >> my last question, actually. The work that we're talking about, it's only going to be done in the summer or there parts of it that'll happen during the school year? Um modernization, our goal

056is to try to get it done during the summer only. So, there's no disruptive to classrooms and teachers and kids. All the work would be done when kids are off. Um there'll be impact to our summer camps, but we would use other classrooms or portables for the summer camps cuz those are important to our community. Um if we do new construction, though, that takes more than a summer. So, if we did Gardner Bullis classrooms, we could start that project any time, but we wouldn't want to say, "Okay, if we want to have the classrooms ready by the summer of '29, then we would need to start a little bit earlier, right?" And that means we might So, to answer Stella's question about using portables or moving students to another campus, possibly, we would need to

057have all that happen during the summer of '28. So, then we can start maybe in the fall of '28 or whatever, in spring of '29, start the construction at whatever campus we do it at Gardner both for example and then we can open up that school depending on timing. Yeah, it's hard. Um, the if we you have to know a well in advance to plan in order to execute it. It still takes a full year to build those to like install those prefab. I don't think I don't think it'll take a full year, but It won't take a full year to install them. They'll be built offsite. And then it'll maybe we could I don't know how long it takes to actually put them on site, but Yeah, it it it depends. There's going to

058be a lot of utilities and underground and infrastructure work that has to happen. So, all that has to connect be happening. Assembling it and doing the finish work and and finishing up won't take as long, but there's still going to be a lot of time to get the the building pad ready and all of that. You got to move us into public comment cuz I think we're venturing into discussion territory. >> sure. Um, we only have one person for a public comment, Lena. Um, we'll give you about 3 minutes. Yep. >> [clears throat] >> Um, good morning. Um, I'm Lena. I'm the parent of an LASD student. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um, I'm here today because I I have concerns about the proposed San Antonio site plan and how measure BB funds

059are being allocated. Um, as you guys had already mentioned, voters approved this measure to modernize facilities across all of LASD. Um, I'm I'm just struck by how large the funds fund allocation is. Over a third of this is being allocated to this site. Um, which if it runs even more over budget, it's going to take money away from the other schools that really need modernization. Um, you know, I reviewed the LASD Citizens Advisory Committee on Finance report in June 2025 with a California Department of Education projecting a 2022.4% decline in the LASD enrollment in in next decade. Um, so it's it's a little confusing to me that um, you know, with the declining enrollment, this this huge proportion of the funds are being allocated to a new site. And furthermore, um, you know, I I'm

060confused, too, because BCS has formally and consistently objected to this relocation. Um, they cite California Education Code 4764B, that charter schools cannot be moved without their consent. That's the last I heard about this. So, I I see so much planning going on, and I appreciate time is money argument. Um, and I see both sides. You know, we need our lead time to plan things to get DSA approvals. But, at the same time, I also don't have a I'm not confident that BCS is really on board, either. So, should we instead be spending this the remaining calendar year allocating money where we already know for certain modernization is needed. You know, you mentioned some other schools in future phases, like Loma Vista, and then eventually, you know, other schools, you're going to touch other schools. So,

061like, why not flip it around and modernize those first, and then, once you have more of a sure collaboration collaboration from BCS, then, you know, do that kind of planning. Um, I'm just I'm confused. Maybe I'm missing information, but from what I can gather from news articles and from what I'm hearing from the community and board meetings, this is my understanding. So, I just wanted to just, you know, urge my information is correct. I'd urge the board to plan a process plan, reconsider the allocation and the order of planning, and really engage all stakeholders. And, you know, bring transparency to the community. It is really confusing up here conflicting information, and it just makes sense to me the way things are being presented in this order. Thank you. Thank you, Lena. Um, as you know,

062the board is not permitted to comment on your comments. I highly recommend that you reach out to a board member and have a conversation with one of us. There's a lot of misinformation out there. Um and of course our board is bound by an NDA with those charter schools, so there's a lot that we cannot say. Um but I recommend that you speak to one of us who can clarify some of the misinformation that you may be getting. Okay. Thank you. All right, onto board discussion. So um I kind of want to keep this a free form, so I don't want to get super formal. So we got something to say. Does anyone have something to say? So far? Please introduce yourselves. So in this document where we've said new classrooms at Gardner uh we

063would move those up. Um This is just for the new classrooms, right? So my concern is I I did put some money in there for fire alarm and all that. So this budget for serpentine because we know that's going to be a problem. There there is there is there is money in there um we feel to do the new classrooms, fire alarm, and some ADA path of travel. Um until we know the exact scope, we're we're going to budget this and we're hoping that that this number of 17.9 will go down. Right now based on today, not knowing all the things I know, but like with that include because in these modernization plans of other schools, we're putting in lunch canopies or shade canopies or whatever and we know 100% that the lunch canopy has

064to be replaced at Gardner. So Can I Sorry, can I follow up? Because so there would be other modern like in a future phase modernization of the other Gardner bowls. Right. So Is there a wasn't clear to me why we would not just do all that work at the same time. Like why would we pull the Gardner Bullis classrooms up to phase two? Um I I don't know if we'll have enough cash to do all that. Um we'd have to really analyze it. For right now, we're trying to do Well, right. But so then why would we pull the classrooms up at all? Like why wouldn't we Like option two makes more sense to me if that it means that we're doing the new Gardner Bullis classrooms at the same time as we're doing the

065rest of the Gardner modernization. Like that seems more cost-effective. >> Sure. Okay. Yeah, we can I mean again, this is just a draft. I don't think it's the final decision, but we can we can we can say if we're going to do Gardner Bullis modernization or does it have to be almost sprinkler? Could be whatever we think we can get done. Okay. Yeah, so there is another phase just to be more clear. There's another phase where we could if you selected an option two, a future phase could be uh inclusive of Gardner modernization and the classroom upgrades. Sure. Well, but I'm I mean I think that's what Brian was asking about, I'm also saying I mean, you know, Gardner wants new classrooms and they need new classrooms because their portables are in bad shape, but

066we don't want to create more problems and we know that if we put classrooms there, we have to take that canopy down. Correct. And then we don't know when we're going to put that new one up yet. So, I'm just trying to make sense of why we would create problems. I mean we're solving one problem by creating another problem. So, Well, there was at least a canopy as part of the reconstruction plan. That was Well, >> an upper grade lunch canopy. >> That that's a small canopy. Yeah. Yeah. But I wasn't sure if that was included in the cost of new classroom. >> It is. Okay. That whole lot area. For that little space, but then the big canopy would go away. They're in the work for sure, similar to it. I would say more

067or Like right here, this would be a lunch canopy for grades four and five. Right. TK already on their own out there. >> Yeah, they eat there. So this is a four five is eating here, then this canopy that's kind of like down this main area. >> [clears throat] >> Maybe it would be a smaller one or we'd give them market and I mean that would be a discussion item. What, you know, you're going to get four or five in here. We're also and I always tell people when sixth graders go off to middle school, there's going to be less kids eating lunch at the elementary. So you guys the lunch canopies can maybe be a little bit smaller. Sure, right. But I I mean I don't I don't mean to harp on that, but

068I mean it cost a lot of money to take it down and it cost a way more money to put it up than we anticipated. So even if we took it down during the construction and put it back up like that's going to end up costing a ridiculous amount of money that we could be using somewhere else. That is I I mean, I'm fine. There's a current permanent canopy. No. As well, but but we're there where your point is not right. No, that's the Yeah, that's the small shade sail that uh is behind the like library student center area back back here. That one's DSA approved. That one's there. And then I think if we do this new classroom project, then they would build uh you know, a grade four or five. It doesn't have

069to be four or five. That's just a master planning. They could extend it out, make it bigger, you know, it all depends on what we decide the scope will be. Okay. Yeah, for master planning, I think they just said, "Hey, it's going to be grades four or five." And then, you know, maybe they extend it out and, you know, two or three get together or whatever. Yeah. Are we looking at So, I agree here in our beautiful sunny California, lunch canopies are super important. But, I'm kind of thinking about this project list and what has the greatest direct impact on student learning versus quality of life. And And if I'm wrong in thinking of it this way, please tell me and then I'm happy to change my thinking. But, I think of lunch canopies and

070things like that as more of a quality of life. And I think of classrooms, like putting permanent classrooms or or modernization or fire alarms or the windows that are no longer Like, I feel like those kinds of things have a direct impact on student learning. And so, in my head, um when I'm looking at these project lists and thinking about what order we do it in, I'm prioritizing what has a direct impact on student learning, student achievement. Just a thought. I have a question. So, I know so far we've really only looked at the cost of modernization at each of the campuses, um but we did get some public comment at the last city session about TKP facilities. And um Let's say for example, in phase two, we wanted to focus on uh has Well,

071[snorts] I guess I'm wondering why we haven't like kind of broadened the discussion to maybe consider like doing the TKP classrooms at those sites rather than moving into a third school. And I'm not saying this is what I want, but I just, you know, like we're it's not even presented as an option. And so, I was wondering [clears throat] if there was a reason for that that like we ruled out doing it. Like maybe that's not an urgent need to upgrade the TKP TK cuz the facilities are adequate for our needs. I just was wondering if there was a specific reason that we didn't include that. I guess I would say in So, right now we have all of our TK and kinder classrooms in permanent buildings. I'm going through my brain to make sure

072that that's an accurate statement, but I believe it is. And with the work of modernization, those bathrooms would be upgraded. All of those pieces would happen. The original facility master planning was around adding additional TK classrooms. I don't know that we're that we need that. Okay, frankly. I mean, we're now in for next year year two of full implementation. I think we will be at the exact same number um of needed TK classrooms. So, I don't know if I think we had planned for two TK rooms at every school campus. I just don't know if we need them, and I would hate to build classrooms, and they sit empty and or get filled with somebody's stuff, right? As happens as we vacate spaces on our campus. So, I don't think it's a priority for us

073right now. Okay, so and then just to make sure I understand this. So, when we when we originally approved the facilities master plan, we did have TK K facilities as a priority, but that was under the assumption that we would need two TK classrooms at each campus, which hasn't um you know, come to fruition, right? Yeah, and you know, the one thing is um the master plan is these are the needs for the next 10 plus years, and the needs will change. Um who knew that we'd have, you know, universal meals, universal TK. Those are things that have changed over the last several years from the state of California. Um Um, we know there's always more needs than you have dollars for. So, then the I the idea would be prior to the you know

074prioritizing uh what is the biggest need. I you know, and I always say I always have to remind myself as a former teacher, where did I spend the most of my time? In a classroom with kids. And so, um you know, I think all of our we have many needs, new classrooms, new buildings, or there's so many things we can do. We just have to say that how much we can get done in this bond program. Um, and knowing that you know, this is an investment in our facilities and then we're going to keep doing those investments over the over many years. Uh and you know, you always want to be upgrading as much as you can as as much as you can afford. Do all of our existing facilities and the universal meals, do

075they all have like appropriate serveries or what not? That's a great question. The first word I used was the appropriate. Some of them are in a permanent building at the end of a building like over at Springer. Almond has one as well. But then you've got like Oak and Santa Rita that are like serving out of a portable that we've kind of retrofitted and modernized. Block and Eagan are set up like you know, somewhat of a servery type thing. Um, every school is a little different. Lyola is number one in it. Um, so every school has a different setup. Um, but it's not if they're not big enough, we don't have full kitchens. We're just an elementary district. Most elementaries don't have full kitchens. Um, so yeah, some of our rooms are in more permanent

076buildings and some of them are in portables. But they're adequate for our needs I would say right now. Within code compliance and all. >> Yeah. Yeah, they've all been approved and they're there's we're serving kids Yeah, I think it's fair to say that the staff recommendation is to focus on modernization of our schools. In in previous discussion, there was a question as to whether or not the permanent um replacement buildings for Gardner Bullis should be moved up in the queue, which is why we brought that forward as an option for you. But, I will tell you, and I see our maintenance team here in the back, like the the need for modernization across our campuses is great. Yes. Well, given Jim and Brian's comments, it seems like there's interest from some board members to combine

077um the new classroom construction at GB with the modernization, and that makes sense to me as well. So, I would be in favor of seeing that pushed back to phase three, and then doing Almond in phase two, cuz Eric, you said you thought Almond maybe had a little bit more urgent needs, right? So, um so, that would be Santa Rita, Oak, and Almond in phase two. And I think there was also a question at our previous meeting that Well, just about there are other things I I mean, leaving Gardner out of it, but like at Santa Rita, and I think Oak, also, they have multi-purpose room needs or other needs as well, and so I you know, would it make sense to do those, or is it even possible to do those at the same

078time, so that you're only on a campus once? So, what if you just did Oak and Santa Rita, you modernize them, and put in whatever building you need to put in. And then you move that third school to phase three with Gardner, or but I I'm just asking. Like is it possible to just be on the campus one time? I need to ask a question. Well, let me let them they should respond to that question then then I would like to add a comment. I think the answer is anything is possible. But it it would it would certainly take the modernization of several schools off of this bond. Okay. project list >> would just move that down because of the all right then okay. So Yeah, I mean I think it's So there are districts

079that sort of take that approach right but like Palo Alto just totally rebuilt um Hoover Hoover yeah Right and so there are districts that do that like they'll just rebuild this campus every 30 years and then rebuild this campus. I think you know as we've gone down this path we've chosen not to take that approach right and so we're trying to sort of do but yeah that's my impression is that So the answer to can we also do the multi is no not if we're going to modernize the schools. I think all right um My other comment is that I and I think this is this is more so of like thoughts and direction as opposed to changes or whatever but you know as we look at the when you were sort of talking about

080the roofs being very thin and one of the concerns that I have is that in trying to sort of modernize every one of our permanent classrooms that we will end up in sort of a budget crunch and end up with cheap materials again you know because we sort of have to I'm a little worried that we're going to actually stretch too thin um and sort of end up being penny wise and pound foolish and like having to redo all of this stuff again in 15 years um so I don't know I don't know how we be conscious of that but my sort of understanding is a lot of these numbers I mean these are estimated estimation numbers, right? So, my impression is that they're sort of square footage based and, you know, we'll see what

081things actually cost. Um so, I would hope that as we actually get into the, you know, as we hire the architect and get into the nitty-gritty for each school, we just make sure that we're doing what we do well and not like trying to do everything in a, you know, and then having to skimp on materials or or cause ourselves more problems than they're Well, yeah, and I mean, I know we it's probably cost prohibitive, but like for roofing, is there a reason we wouldn't put on a 50-year metal roof? Cost. It's so expensive. Okay. All right, that's fine. And then I mean, just wondering. Or I mean, is the Does that roof I mean, or any of these options, does it extend Do those things last longer than the lifetime of the current permanent

082structures? Like at some point, those structures currently could just come down and be rebuilt, right? >> Correct. So, You want to put a million-dollar roof on a building that's not worth that much, yeah. Um you know, if you you want to do one of the things we brought to the board and we'll ask you to approve the final district standards at our future meeting. As we brought the draft standards, we do believe in having district standards that we work with our maintenance staff and and all of the team has a lot of experience is that we are going to get high-quality materials that are proven and high-performing. It's also high-quality, but high-performing. Like you don't want to put a roof that's very expensive, but it doesn't perform well and end up leaking or it's not

083a good material. So, we're going to make sure that when we approve things, that it's high-quality and high-performing. You know, you want high-performing flooring that's good low VOCs that are good for indoor air quality, things like that. So, there's a lot of things when we do our district standards that we're not going to go cheap. Um school construction is not cheap. So, uh we're not going to put it We're not going to spend uh money on high dollar, you know, union labor and contractors that are really good and then put in like really poor materials. So, that's one of the reasons why we're having district standards is that we're going to put in what we believe is a high-performing We want like a Toyota Camry. Something that lasts for a long time and has good

084resale value. Like it's good quality, but it's not, you know, a Lamborghini. >> Yeah. But we would want an electric So, that we need to put metal roofs on current buildings, but like if you're building new classrooms that you expect to last that that you expect that every five buildings last like 50 years, yeah. Put on a Put on a roof that's going to last so that you don't have to replace it after five years. I don't know. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the roofing materials, you know, it's it's based on the warranty. So, the better, thicker roofing, you know, the the thickness of the composition shingles gives you a longer warranty period. So, we always want to go with a 30-year if we can. And like to add to Brand's comment was yeah,

085you don't want to put on a um you know, those this very expensive roofing material that's going to you're going to tear the building down in another 30 years. Yeah. I mean, do we Do we know what year we need to tear the building down? Well, it all depends. I mean, um DSA has a threshold requirement. So, DSA will There's a This is a new requirement where if you start spending so much money on modernizing, they want you to tear the whole building down. So, we also when as we're doing our construction cost and estimating, we're going to be mindful of that. Most buildings can last 50 or 60 years. The good news is our buildings are very are good for a seismic, right? And sometimes so much seismic work needs to be done to

086make it seismically retrofitted that you might as well just tear it down. Our buildings are in good shape in that in that form. So, I think we would have to determine how the like we have a a couple of buildings at some of our schools. The buildings are in good condition, but you can see the building settling a little bit. So, some flooring materials are cracked or the door is not like closing all the way. And so, then you go, "Ah, that building's probably getting past its useful life." So, then we would make a determination, "Hey, maybe it's more cost-effective to tear the building down." Which sometimes it is versus um doing that. Still a good question. Oh, well, I had a couple of comments on It's a good question, though. Your question, actually we

087had Tali asked like a very similar question of like Randy Kenyon and we said Elson Elson. Elson. About the architect um that we used to hire and she had indicated that she thought that the envelopes of the buildings were going to be good for a while and that it was much more critical to replace all these parts than it was to like do a full tear down. And that if once you have replaced all these components, that actually the the buildings still have plenty of useful life left in them. Um and then I was also going to respond to like your question about, you know, can we just touch one campus one time and then be done with it? But like as a homeowner, I know that you're never done. You're never done. Like things

088just keep breaking and needing to be replaced. But like the way I think of it is like, you know, for this bond and this maybe 8 to 10-year period or however long it is, right? We try to touch each campus once, perhaps. But then we will have to pass another bond. And for that bond, maybe we can get to the multi-purpose rooms and then we'll have to touch each campus once again. Right. But Yeah. >> Yeah, I mean, the goal of your previous district is really a model, Fremont Union High School District, every 6 to 8 years you're passing a bond and many of our neighboring districts have done this and for whatever reason our district has not done this. Um because you want to get in this cycle where we're constantly not just maintaining,

089but we're actually improving facilities. That's the goal. And I think if you look at the master plan, that is part of the master plan goal is let's get rid of all the affordables, let's build some new buildings, and really modernize our campuses. But the master plan is like our blueprint and then it it doesn't mean we can and I think the master plan was $800 of of improvements, but we know we can't raise $800 in one bond sale. So authorization, so that that is the continual investment that we need to look into in the future. And I mean we've had presentations before on the sort of cash flow issue, right? So we're looking at implementation that's going to run from like now through 2034, right? Of this bond money. And I want to be careful

090because like the last time all the campuses got renovated, right? It was also long process and they ran out of money, which is why we're dealing with a lot of these portables. And so I I would like us to make sure that we're being extra conservative about what we plan to do at the first couple of campuses so that the ones that come later don't end up getting, you know, I mean we have disparities in our district right now because this is what happened. Then we did work at some schools that we then couldn't afford at the later schools. So I would much rather be conservative about project scope and then have you know, like not going, you know, if everything goes well and like wars end and stuff stops, you know, inflation reduces, then

091like then maybe we have enough money left over for when we get some money back from the state, like maybe there's money left over to do phase seven and do the Santa Rita multi, right? Without Sure. with with the money here, but like that's I'd much rather be in that position than a position where we run out. I mean, that could be a reason not to combine the two Bullis projects into one phase as well. Very sorry. Sorry to say that. Not running out of money could be a reason to not combine the the new construction of Bullis versus the modernization of Bullis. Or the Bullis. Right. Because Okay. Then we're then we're you know, then you're loading a bunch of money into one campus that might stop a different campus from getting any Yeah,

092it's another reason in my mind to move the new classrooms. I mean, this is the trade-offs you have to make, but it's another reason to maybe move the new classrooms back. But it's it's definitely reason not to do those as separate projects, right? Because now we're just spending whatever it costs to like Well, do this like work. Yeah. But yeah. Sorry, I picked on the shade structures just because I mean, I think I don't know. I'm not So, I'm pointing out that No, but I think well, but I think that's the kind of thing that we're going to have to look at. Right. That the our architect is going to have to look at carefully at all of these sites. It's like once you get down to the nitty-gritty of exactly what are we doing,

093like we're going to have to be flexible enough to adjust and say, you know, like maybe there will be classrooms that we don't modernize because if we touch that building, then it's going to cost us an extra $3 million. Whereas we can save that money and and stretch everything a little farther. Which is why today and this, you know, by the end of the school year, we're asking you only to kind of approve that phase two, phase one, phase two, and we will learn more about the nitty-gritty as we do and plan for phase two that will inform what happens beyond. Okay, yes. I also had some comments on that. Yes, so I agree with you and I think that's something we should factor in further down when we have maybe four schools left and

094we want to think of very carefully about which we save for last. You know what I mean? Cuz those are the ones most at risk of not having sufficient funds. But the first five schools should hopefully be safe. And then I wanted to comment like on the glazing and that sort of thing. Like I I also think about like how can we save general fund dollars right in utilities isn't that category? But I'm hoping that with like the HVAC and the roofing replacement that you know, the windows aren't going to Yeah, exactly. Do so much harm cuz even though we are paying like 3 million a year in like utilities or whatever, you know, that I'm guessing the windows cost like so much more that you know, it's not worth it. My The only The

095only reason I brought that up is cuz when we remodeled our home recently, we could have done or not done the windows, but our single pane windows and the You know the window when you're supposed to bring your plants inside? We moved our plants closer to the house because the heat that was >> [laughter] >> coming out coming out of the house was enough to keep the plants warm through the the freezes. But and that that was the one thing that my husband and I said like no matter what we did we're changing all the windows to good insulated windows. So that's why it's But you're right. I mean if you put like a new roof and do all this other stuff it might minimize the harm. windows So what direction are you is staff

096seeking today? I'm sorry. Yeah, so we are seeking direction because we want to bring back an action item before the end of the school year on the specifics of phase two. And I heard Stella talk about suggestion that phase two include Almond, Oak, and Santa Rita. >> [clears throat] >> Um if people have other thoughts beyond that. When would this phase start? Whatever Whatever gets moved to phase three for example, when would that Based on cash flow, so our initial cash flow would be if we just did series A in March, we would do series B for 85 90 million dollars in spring of 2028. And then our number of bond financing is in every other year issuance. So, probably 2030. So, the summer of 2030, we could probably do one or two projects. And

097then if we have enough cash, um and then summer of 31, we do another another you know, we do another series intro sell series C in 2030, and we would you know, there'll be some there'll be work doing. The idea is that we we're selling the bonds and spending it as fast as we can, but there's our constraints, right? The constraints are based on the AV. If the AV holds um at least 4% per year, then we we should be on our tax rate to be able to issue the bonds at what we expect to. So, phase two would be spring of 2028. Phase Phase two would be summer of 29. Um and then phase three would be summer of 30, possibly 31. We're pretty much on it like a three-year cycle from making the

098decision to then planning, DSA approval, doing the work. Correct. And so, next a year from now we'll be talking about phase three, Right. which tees us up for a three-year um Yeah. process to get that work done. And then and then I think if you look at your cash flow sheet, I think it might be helpful because um because um the cash flow is tied up to the issuance. So, for example, right now, we will want to get into into planning. So, when you're doing a project, at the beginning of the project, the lowest cost is just getting started and hiring the architects. So, if you look at it says phase one, we would this summer, it says 26 27 programming, we will do programming this summer and then by the end of the year,

099January, February, we'll get any things that we need that might need DSA approval, we'll get them into DSA. And then in the summer of 27 28, we'd bidding things out. We'll be doing the work in the summer of 27 28 because that's the summer that we're doing the middle school and any things that need to happen are all happening then that summer. If you look at phase two, I've got us pretty much 15 months of design. Then we get into DSA at this time next year and that's 9 to 12 months of DSA. Then we get into construction in the summer of 28 29 and that's kind of and then the cash, if you look at the cash flow, the cash flow is part of where we're at in the project. So, if you look

100at phase one, not a lot of money is going out at the beginning because we're just in the design phase, but as we get into construction, that's where your costs are coming in. All your all your construction costs, inspection costs, all those costs started coming in at that time. So, it's just like our multi-year projections for our general fund cash flow, it's the same thing, but it's how much revenue we have and then you can see at the very bottom, the very very bottom, is at the beginning of the year of this fiscal year that we're in now, we had $40 million, and then we have spent a million dollars per You can see the quarterly expenditures. And then the last quarter, now that we're starting demolition, we're going to have a big big big

101expense between now and the end of June. And then you can see the negative numbers coming in, and then you can see in quarter three of 2027-28, we're going to sell 85 to 90 million dollars, and then that when our cash gets low, so like in the 20s, it might be and it could be more, could be less, it's just a projection. And then we'll sell another series of bonds, and that's kind of what we have to do is you're in this normal rhythm of one project's in design, one's in construction, or one's in design, one's in DSA, one's in construction. While you've got one in construction, the other one is getting DSA approval, and it's getting teed up and ready for the next summer or the next open time you have it. So it's

102really the bond program is you're constantly in design, DSA, or construction. And once you're done with construction, you're getting the next project closed out. You're getting that project closed out, and you're Once we do one summer, then we're getting ready for the next summer, and it's going to be It'll happen very quick, but the DSA and the planning is what takes the longest. So to have a successful summer project, it's all the planning ahead of time that makes it happen. So if we were to push the new classrooms at Gardner Bullis to phase three, which would be summer of 2030, like they they would be able to manage with what they have now for four more years? I'm not sure. Yes. Okay. Right? Everyone manages. We manage. So right now we have nine campuses all

103getting uh more or less equivalent modernizing upgrades. And then we have Gardner Bullis getting the additional upgrade of new classrooms. It seems to me that we would not want an outcome where if you run out of money late in the process and seven schools get the modernizing upgrades, but Gardner Bullis gets those upgrades plus the new classrooms. Right? Getting the best best of everything, but two schools get nothing. Right? So it I mean, to me it feels like maybe a a better way to sort of break that up is would be to keep the two Gardner Bullis projects separate. Front-load whichever one we think is more important, and then subordinate the other one until phase whatever the last phase is. Well, that's what happened in the last bond vote. Like well, by the time you

104ran out of money, I think Almond was the last one that got a brand new permanent multi, and other schools would not get funding. And I know that that caused a little bit of friction between the schools. Yeah, you have to be always be mindful of the mission and what is our master plan, what are our needs and priorities, and try to focus and try to stay in that um have those blinders on because uh sometimes you get this thing called scope creep. Oh, since we're modernizing, let's add this, and then the project becomes out of budget. So we want to be mindful of that. Um there will be anytime we bring things to the board, any budget changes, budget revisions, if the project is over budget, we're going to ask you to increase the

105the budget for it. If the project finishes with money left, then you then we're going to that money's going to go back to the program, and then that money can be be reallocated for other projects and other things later on. Um that's the good part of it is there's going to be a ton of times that where the board can make decisions, and because we are going to bring uh contracts to you, budget proposals, um and we're going to make sure that you have as much information as you need to make good decisions. And we'll be very transparent. We've been very transparent with our whole process with the facility master plan with a lot of input, and we want to continue doing that. And our goal also is to go out for another bond before

106this bond runs out, right? That Yeah. And that we have projects to show for the first phases of the bond, right? To show the community. Right. So, I think even if there were two schools that did, you know, had less of this round of bond funding um applied to it, I think that we would still get to those schools and get to those projects, but it might be at a later date after the second or after another bond has passed. Well, wasn't there I don't know. There was another plan that had like six phases. >> Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we put Egan and Block at the end for Yeah, and like Egan and Block are the two schools that were at the very end. For their modernization. Right. Right. But we're not asking you

107to prioritize because we we figured too many things can change over the next 10 years, right? There might be a problem at Egan that just needs to be addressed and that it has to become phase three. >> Right. Yeah. And we we also um and we need to be mindful of if our number one priority is get something done in the summer of '29, we have to start That's our critical path. Our critical path is get architects on board, get our scope, what what's the scope we're going to do at what sites, and get that process started, and then we can come back at another time and say, "Okay, now that we've got phase two started, what will be phase three?" So, when we look at the master plan and Sandra made a a great

108example, something might come up that we have to say, "Hey, we can't do that school this summer. This one has major infrastructure needs or something happens." Um it's a flexible master plan. The bond program is um it's it's it's allowed to you're allowed it's not just set in stone. The first phase, once we get the first phase started, but we do have to get started for sure. Yeah, I just want to since you were on the board at the time, like when we're having the discussions about what sort of pull in pull out, like we pulled the the um new classrooms at Gardner Bullis kind of up into this Measure EE scope because if we didn't do that, then it was there was looking like sort of the Gardner Bullis students would be Gardner students

109at Gardner Bullis would be the only ones sort of among across the elementary schools who weren't in a permanent classroom for their regular classroom, right? Because with moving sixth grade and enrollment shrinkage, like we basically already have enough permanent buildings everywhere else that the permanent class that the main classroom where the students spend most of their time will be a permanent classroom everywhere except for Gardner Bullis because of just the history, right? And so, pulling that in I think makes sense because Measure EE, even if we can't pass another bond like at the end of Measure EE, every student will be spending vast majority of their time in a modernized permanent classroom. And like we have enough money to get that we do all that. I'm also I'm a little bit more optimistic that we

110won't run into the sort of we ran out of money problem with this phase because the last bond, even though it had problems, like we were stick building nine different campuses. And so, like part of the reason they ran out of money was the cost of steel doubled right after they decided to, you know, build Egan out of steel. And so, like those once we do the first couple, the work, as I understand correctly if I'm wrong, but like at that point the modernization work at the other schools is like the same work that we're doing at Santa Rita for the most part, right? With the district standards it should be like the same HVAC units, the same all the rest of this stuff. So, we should have a much better idea of what it's

111going to cost to do the other schools. So, I'm cautiously optimistic as long as we, you know, manage the the remaining risk. I also just sorry before I forget it. Um I just wanted to say that Santa Rita, Oak, and Almond make a lot of sense to me as the first three because Santa Rita and Almond are two schools with the highest proportion of um socioeconomically disadvantaged students, right? So, and then Oak is the third makes sense because it was sort of the most impacted by the we ran out of money problem the last time around outside of Santa Rita and Almond. So, like to me those make a lot of sense as like here's why we're doing the three these three first and then Well, and if Gardner moves potentially into phase three, that's

112two years earlier than the original plan. Just trying not to get shot out My point is only that I, you know, I you there's been talk about whether it makes sense to combine two re arts and nobles. No one's put any numbers next to why that that's the benefit. So, if it is a benefit cost wise, then okay, we can take into account but yeah, like but unless that's a meaningful benefit, right? There's doesn't seem to seem any reason why we we should think about like the why that should factor into the like the Yeah, I do agree with you that we should probably decouple the two Gardner projects. When we get to talking about phase three, those are some options that we don't bring to the table. Well, but I guess I mean like

113why that why that's important is is that that maybe keeps the one Gardner project in phase two versus Right. Yeah. No, right. But, I think there's a just from previous Gardner projects, there's a lot that can go wrong with that that I think if we're modernizing schools Yeah. Then that's what we're doing, and there's less that can go wrong. Yeah. I mean, I don't I don't I'm I've just been to Gardner, so I don't know this intimately. I was there yesterday, so I saw this like in person, but you know, my view of it is is that the the need for new bathrooms exceeds the need for modernization, but I but I mean, you know, I'm also not an expert. We're going to sell [clears throat] it You're going to have to kind of build

114straw poll to see how people feel about this. Well, like what I'm hearing from Jim is that he's concerned that if we were to build the new classrooms, it would trigger all these DSA complaints issues, and we'd be forced to modernize anyway, you know what I mean, but like not having planned for it so that like what cuz they're going to have to inspect the new construction, and then they're going to be like, "Ah, well, you're in violation of all these things. Now you got to fix all these things." And like we didn't budget for it in phase two, and then now we're like in trouble or whatever. And I imagine there must be efficiencies from like just doing both types of construction at the same time cuz you only have to pay once for

115it, like the fencing and the porta potties and all that construction set up versus doing it twice. That's what I imagine. I mean, I would rather have a better understanding of what our risks are of I have post-traumatic stress from the Gardner project. Yeah. So, like they need new classrooms, but I am concerned that all of a sudden I mean we lived through this, like, "Oh, yeah, now you got to do this. Now you got to do this. Now, you got to do this. And Also, keep in mind Gardner's like 5 years newer than I think the next oldest classroom, right? It was only done in the mid-2000s. I don't I can't remember exactly when it was, but it Gardner is only 6. Only half the school. Only half the school. But it also seems

116like it's you know, and that's this is the thing is that like the modernization of the rest of it seems like it probably a little or intuitively would be a little less of a priority because it's 5 years newer. Maybe that's wrong, but yeah. Anyway, I think we're all saying the same thing so it doesn't matter if you want. Yeah, so it what I'm hearing is or one proposal on the floor is to go with option two, classroom modernization of Santa Rita, Oak, and Almond. Um and how do people feel about that in terms of giving direction to We've already spoken. >> We already spoke about it. All right. You guys, what do you think? I mean I'm okay with it. I mean, my concern with option one is we just don't know what's going

117to happen. If we had a better understanding of that, I might make a better choice a different choice, but I would also prioritize new classrooms at Gardner as well, but I completely understand your point about it triggering a whole cascade of other costs and issues that we have not planned for. I mean How do you feel about option two with Almond instead of I'm okay with with either version of option two. I I think I slightly favor option one over option two, but for right, all those reasons, but I you know, and I mean, but if there's a compelling reason to do option two over option one, then we'll you know, go with that as well. Um yeah, I'm kind of like either or both, but um but yeah, I am worried about the cost

118of stuff that we haven't planned for. And you're being very judicious, Eric, about planning for all the contingencies, and I don't want something to be derailed. And I just want to give my input, you know, just like we have reserves in our general fund, you know, we have project contingency, we have design and construction contingency to cover things. When you're doing new construction, it's a lot easier cuz the only thing you don't know is what's in the ground. Right? Because everything else is new. And so there's no like unforeseen conditions in the new building. It's all brand new design. But when we're doing modernization and something that hasn't been touched a long time, when you peel the wall back or the roof back, there's the what's called unforeseen or unknown conditions where you don't know.

119So when we get our construction team on board, they're going to do us some pre-construction surveys, and they come out early and try to uncover these unknowns, and that's how you kind of try to mitigate your risk. Um you don't want to start a roofing project without taking a little peek. And like looking in the attic. And you know, they do core samples. You can take a core of the roof to see what's going on underneath it. And so there's a lot of work that is done in pre-construction that hopefully uncovers some of these things. But you know, so when you're doing modernization, you usually carry a bigger contingency for design and construction issues because there's a lot of unknown things cuz this is it's an existing building, and we might not know the original

120drawings. Good can we find these things? And so we don't know. So when you're um so we want to be conservative and have and we also have a project contingency because of the architects might cost more, the inspectors might cost more. So there's a lot of contingencies built in to cover some of these things uh to hopefully mitigate some of the risk that you there's some concerns about. And again, once it comes to bid time and we get to the final numbers, then we say, "Okay, that's the number." Right? We will have a thing called a guaranteed maximum price, and that that's the maximum price. There'll be some allowances and contingencies, and if they're not used, then the district gets those back. Like in the San Antonio campus we're holding if you see on this

121top sheet there's $6.8 million in design and construct construction contingency. If we don't use that that money comes back to the district as a deductive change order and then that project cost instead of $127 million the total budget is going to go down by $6.8 million. So if something comes up during construction at the San Antonio campus we would take it from that design and construct construction contingency first. If it goes past that then the far right column we've got project contingency and that's for the overall and if we go past all that now we got to pull from the program contingency to cover those costs and we would bring that back to the board to ask you hey there you know something happened out there and we've got to increase the budget for this

122project but we're hoping that that doesn't happen but those are the type of things to help protect the bond program. If you've got to have but you don't want to have it all in contingency and then you're leaving money sticking stuck in contingency that you can't allocate towards projects right? So there there has to be some movement and there will be as we finish a project if there's money that we budgeted that doesn't get used we can the board can allocate that to another project and maybe expand the scope of adding classrooms or doing whatever we need to do. So that there's some flexibility but we do want to get some direction so thank you. So it sounds like but if I'm wrong but the direction is that is to go forward with option two

123classroom organization of Santa Rita open enrollment. And in phase two thank you. So any further discussion? Wait. Sam can I vote on this one? Oops sorry Adrian. Sure. I said there we go. >> [laughter] >> I mean, I guess my lingering question is so you brought up a lot of concerns about doing the new construction at Gardner separately, right? >> be >> And I guess my question for Eric is are you as concerned that it could far exceed what's here cuz I hear that we're almost like split and what the priority is. >> I Well, then after you just were talking about those contingencies, I mean, I'm kind of like, "Okay, if you feel like we're not going to go off the rails on new construction, then I can I can get behind that, but

124like I'm seeing barely a million dollars in contingencies and uh $80,000 shade structure cost us almost a half a million dollars. So, that's why I'm worried, but if you feel like I mean, yeah, I might I might say option one is the better choice, but but well, that's where I'm concerned. >> there's the other there's the other thing that makes me uncomfortable. So, there's the number of things making me uncomfortable with with putting the portable classrooms in option one, but one of them that I think you alluded to was that we haven't started sort of planning any of these modernizations in detail, right? And so, I'm a little uncomfortable moving forward with trying to do the new classrooms before we even completely understand the modernization projects at our existing campuses because once we do some

125of the One once we do the first modernization projects, then I think we'll have a much better handle on like what the unintended consequences of adding the new classrooms at Gardner Bullis could be. Like you talked about like the alarm system fire alarm systems are a large line item in these estimates. And it sounds like if we do the new classrooms at Gardner Bullis, we'd basically have to do the fire alarm modernizations in the rest of the campus so that we just have one system. And at that point like okay, if we're doing the fire alarm modernizations like now we've got electricians in the attic like should we do like I sort of feel like if we if we move forward trying to do the new Gardner Bullis classrooms in phase two, we're going to

126end up doing all of Gardner Bullis and then we are out of money for phase two. So I just it just doesn't make sense to me both from an optics standpoint and from a risk standpoint. Like I just can't can't get behind it. And we're really talking about possibly only a one-year difference in start time. Right. Like 20 29 to 30. Or 29 to 30. Yeah. Right. And potentially it moves it up from 32 when it was a possibility on the Anyway. Like yeah. And I think there is interest like kind of amongst all five of us to see it done earlier rather than like at the tail end. Yeah. Basically it's like right in the middle. Right. I mean you know, we want to be thoughtful in planning but also it's in our best

127interest to spend the money as quickly as we can. Still have to stay under the tax rate so that's why we can't issue it all at the same time but we want to be getting this normal rhythm that we're doing construction all the time and then that gets as we're spending the dollars as we have them and that helps stop any escalations going to happen no matter what. And so just Bay Area alone is 5% per year and there's other factors triggering, you know, global wars and things like that that are triggering, you know, gasoline. All these workers drive cars at your site so um, I just want to be mindful that we are going to try to be as thoughtful as we can, but also, um, there's a sense of urgency to to go

128as quickly as possible, but not go so quick that we're missing things. Um, you know, but we do we we there's a sense of urgency to to get the bond program going. So, only other comment that I would have, nobody smacked me. I like I'm fine with option two I with both schools Amador and Amador. But, um, I do think and I this could just be my perspective, but I do think that um, it sounds like we're taking a different and more thoughtful approach to um, just general maintenance and um, modernization and bond programs in general. And so, it would be good if we can come up with a way to communicate that publicly so that people do feel like they understand. I mean, it does feel a little bit like a change. I'm not

129I mean, fears of anybody, but I like it does feel like a little bit of a change and I think some education for the community somehow through communication might be beneficial as we work through things. >> clarify the change? Oh, just, um, like you were I mean, we were talking about how we want to be in like this three-year process, like, you know, constantly be working on things. Um, and then you had mentioned specifically that at Fremont Union, like, they planned to go out every year and I've And again, this could just be my perspective, but I feel like in our community, people don't feel like previously there were plans at all and if there were, there weren't necessarily thoughtful plans. They were more reactionary. And so That's right. I feel like this is a

130little bit of a Sorry, talking about doing it. Yeah. >> Like a press release or something. >> I don't I I don't know. I I don't know what the answer to that is, but I mean, like we've heard from the public and they have some concerns and confusion and and I think it would just help us I well, I like I like storytelling opportunities, right? And I think you know, I've talked to Sandra about this, like getting People are always going to be confused because you know, it's a lot to keep track of, right? People come in and what You know, if you can get If you can get the story up on the web, you know, just like a three-paragraph narrative on the website, I think we'd go a long way to sort of

131like Well, then here's the plan. Well, I mean, I I take your point because, you know, a few years ago when MVLA went out for a bond, not the one we but the one before that, the whole community that I spoke, they all were so in favor of it because, you know, MVLA, they've got a plan, they know how to spend money, blah blah. And they were quite negative about LASD and us going out for a bond. And I think to your point, I I mean, I don't I know what the public perception is and then I think that with the storytelling opportunity, we can show that we are being very thoughtful and planning and planning for like like contingencies and things, it'll make it easier to go out for the bond that comes up.

132Yeah. You know. Yeah. Cuz we know there has to be another. I mean, we knew when we passed this bond that there were Well, it's not just us. There always have to be bonds. That's the only way to pay for schools. It's the only way it is. It's the only way to do it. Yeah. No, and we, you know, we're we are going to apply for state funding for some modernization and new construction. Uh but you have to put your application in and you have to wait. Um and so if some of those funds come in in the next four to five years, those funds can go into our bond program and that can fund another project. So that's another source of revenue. Um but like Brian said, there there really is no other source

133of revenue for capital improvements other than either state bonds, which is very limited, and then our normal general obligation bonds that we pass on our own. Great. Thank you. Thank you. That was very helpful. This is a good conversation to have. So then I adjourn our meeting? Thank you.