001All right, I'm going to call the meeting to order at 2:30. Um, opening ceremonies and moments of reflection led by Trustee Pearson. Sure. Please stand. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, roll call. Rosie. Trusty Wagan here. Trusty Ursuloop. Trusty Murphy here. Trusty Pearson here. Trusty Anderson here. Trusty Crane here. Dr. here. Okay. Do I have an adop a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. Second. Um moved by Trusty Pearson, seconded by Trustee I'm going to say Murphy. Roll call vote, please. Trusty Wagan. Yes. Trusty. Trusty Murphy. Yes. Trusty Pearson? Yes. Trusty Anderson? Yes. Trusty Crane? Yes. Okay. Motion carries 50. Um, community input on special agenda items only. Do
002we have any comment cards? None. Okay, seeing none, let's move into the discussion action and we will do that at 2:32. Um 6A, ratify lease lease back agreement between Swintton Builders and Newport Mesa Unified School District for various projects in the Costa Mesa Estansia High School zones. approve amendment one with the final guaranteed minimum uh maximum price. Mr. Trader, so what you have before you this afternoon is the approval of the final guaranteed maximum price for these projects that we'll be doing over the summer. We're doing uh touching all of our MPRs with fan uh and audiovisisual upgrades uh installing new playgrounds and restroom renovations, some new restrooms too to accommodate our TK population. And so it is a um it's a lot to do over the summer. And uh in order for us to
003start work, we need to um have the board approve the guaranteed maximum price. In determining the guaranteed maximum price, um we have a cost estimator who goes in looks at all of the um components cost components for a project like this. And uh for example, the labor the GC markups, I'm sorry, general contractor markups, those kinds of things. And then um we come up with an estimate and we want to make sure that that estimate is uh comparable to what would be out there in in in the marketplace. And so we're presenting to you the final guaranteed maximum price that includes uh estimates that we believe are representative of what we would uh be able to get on in the market at this time. And uh part of uh our reasoning for doing such an
004expansive project over the summer is that uh we're we're experiencing still a lot of inflation on the um construction side. So when uh the department of general uh the California Department of General Services actually does an index for construction inflation and uh as of May if you do a year-to-year take and as of May it's over it's 5.58% on the construction index site. So, it made sense for us to do uh a lot of work this summer to to try to uh reduce the cost in the future. And and a 5.58% uh increase in inflation actually equates to an entire school that we could do with play, shade, and restroom renovations comparable to Whittier. So, um we're hopeful that by how you say putting all this effort in uh during this one summer and and
005it is candidly it's um it's not something we would uh choose to do if there wasn't a benefit to doing it because obviously, you know, it's uh it's worrisome, you know, because you want to make sure these projects all get done before school starts. uh the next year and so but we do feel like man if we could squeeze out one more school right for about four and a half million5 million dollars that it makes it worth the effort um to do that. So anyways we have before you uh an approval of the final guaranteed maximum price. Thank you. Do I have questions from the board? Trusty Murphy. Jeeoff, I certainly understand why we're going to do this. Absolutely makes perfect sense, but and so this isn't necessarily related specifically to the agenda items, but
006what do you think our chances are of really getting this all done before school starts? We are doing everything we can. Dr. Smith has been um pretty clear that we will have it done. And so what we've done is we've created a collective and this includes our uh construction management folks, our contractors, our cost estimator um and our staff. And we said, look, we've we've got to make sure we get things done uh before school starts. And so we've actually entered into agreements to start work early. And so we have we want to start work early. And that's why there's kind of some urgency to get this guaranteed maximum price approved so we can start work. So we want to do as much work on the front end so we relieve pressure on the back
007end. And we've done um a lot of work with the collective in terms of how this work's going to get done. We've ordered things in advance where we can. And so we're we're we're pretty certain that we can uh that's that's not a really good term. We we have done everything we can to put the advantage of getting this done before school starts. We may we do know that we do have some lighting issues for the multi-purpose rooms where we might have some they're called light bars and we we do recognize that there may be a delay in those but um uh those should be here I'm told by October but it's just a simple light bar. That's the only um concern that in terms of equipment uh that I've been uh that people have
008shared with me. So, we're we're good. Um thanks Jeeoff because that's probably the biggest question I've been getting from the community is whether this can really happen in time given that we've all had some experience with some contractor at some point in our lives. So, um, so you think lighting might be the only detriment to being completely finished by that's the the known known. Do you have any ideas about what the unknown might be? Because I just keep thinking about how old our buildings are and what we might um come across, what we might run into. So, we've done a lot of pre-work. We've already done all of the remediation um ahead of time. So things for like asbestous, those kinds of things that that we would normally do. So all of that has been
009taken care of already. So we're those buildings are really ready to go. Um I would expect uh of course there's you never say never, but we've done everything we can to eliminate all of the surprises. Um thank you. I bet you and your team have. Uh and then my last question would be so say we don't get it done by the start of school. Do we have a plan for how that could be handled and how we might you know take care of that? So um and I'll let the ed services uh side talk a little bit about that. But I'm I'm told that NPRs we could uh we could get along if if an NPR wasn't um ready to roll. If an NPR wasn't ready to roll by the time school started, we could
010figure out uh and have plans to to take care of uh to mitigate uh any kind of disruption there. With that, we we are concerned about Anderson. Anderson has to be ready to roll um in that regard and there are some conting contingency contingency plans in the event that that Anderson isn't ready to roll by the time school starts. And so uh Dr. Smith has again has been very clear about you will have a contingency plan in the event that we aren't ready to roll with Anderson. And so we have come up with a plan for that. Um, I don't know if there's any anything you want to add. Share that plan, the Anderson plan. We could share that. Should we do it under 28 or since this is this is right now about it?
011Maybe should you have a comment quickly about the contingency plan? I mean, we'd have to relocate classrooms at other sites. That's the plan. Yeah. Okay. um we have portables there so we're able to house you know very strategically like the younger students something like that we don't want to have them displaced come back to a new school acclimate at the new school we've got space let's say at a school in the zone like Lincoln um where we could accommodate transportation to accommodate again so we start day one and then as soon as it's ready we open but that's just a contingency as of right now with this meeting today, we're we're good to go for Anderson. But just in case we're not, that's one way that we could accommodate it. And I guess my last
012sort of question at large would be um what's our communication plan with all of the parents and families and folks in the neighborhood? Yeah, we've started to do that already with uh the little they're not 3x5 cards, but they're little cards, you know, color cards. We'll be doing that throughout giving them updates. Here's where we are ready to start, etc. Um, and we're hopeful the parent square is one of those advantages that that helps us get to more of the families so that they know. But that'll be a big part of it. And we've already started to send out that first round of those. Yeah, that Annette Franco has created flyers for all of our principles. They're very nicel looking and so the principles have them and they're ready to at their discretion to uh
013disseminate to the community. Okay. Well, I think this summer bittersweetly, we also learned kind of what we can do and when things aren't done on time. So, because it's the MPRs, we can function at say for Anderson and we really don't want to talk about a contingency plan because that, you know, would mean a lot of things, but the MPR's worst case scenario, there are ways to serve students. The kitchens aren't down. We can get food to students and there are places to eat. It is summertime. There are places outside that are shaded. Like we can figure that out. And we found multiple things for students to do during recess that weren't the equipment. We fortunately have lots of space and and we can corner off areas if we have to. Again, that's should not
014happen this year, but if that h if that were to happen, we do know we can get through that without an issue. the movement of teachers from one classroom to another and one site to another. That's pretty routine. Anderson is of course a completely different issue. Trusty Crane. Oh, sorry. Yes. Well, I said that was my last question though. I have more, but it's okay. Well, we'll get you back in. We can do a second round. Yeah. Trusty CR. Well, first thank you Dr. Smith and staff for pulling the items from the last meeting because I I do think that the trustes had a lot of questions and I'm I'm happy that you are you slowed it down for us a little bit so we can digest it and also understand what we're into. Um
015so I appreciate you doing that although we are spending you know extra time here but it's okay because that's what we do. Um, so, um, Trusty Murphy, you covered a lot of my questions about contingencies and what could, uh, go wrong if it did and all that. Um, and my my my biggest thing is u just making sure also that process is respected as to, you know, ratifying versus approving. I think this says a lot. I very much care about the fact that we need to approve something um versus ratify it. But I understand you're doing that because um of the fact that we need to move quickly because of the summer deadline and wanting to launch fall as smoothly as possible. So um couple of questions. Um, is there a contract language in these
016these uh in the GMP that allows for if a contractor does not meet the deadlines and things like that and the the the price points? I mean, I know that they it's a maximum price, but are there is there language in a contract that is more of an incentive for them to get the work done as quickly as possible since it's at least lease back and they have control? So, uh there are uh provisions in the contract for uh things that might be out of the contractor's uh control that would u supply chain would be a um one of them kind supply chain or or or those kinds of things where um we're giving the contractor ctor um would be given some grace there, but the the contract calls for a very specific u uh
017time to be done. And so I believe it's u uh August uh 6th is when that that's all in the in the contract. They're supposed to be done by August 6th. That is the agreement. And that's uh there's very little provisions for them to to in the contract to to not make that deadline. Okay. Other you know other than things that aren't in their control. Okay. And then the other thing is Trustee Murphy hit on is the fact that we definitely need to inform our community, our parent community of of the scope of our of our construction because it it is hitting it's affecting 26 schools out of 33. That's a lot. That's a lot. So, um, Miss Franco, please make sure and and not just Oh, oh, I I do hope that Dr. Smith
018um gets staff to make sure that they do reach out to the community, not just once, but a couple of times. And then especially maybe an update um maybe late July, first week of August of how things are going. Um, and then, um, I I think that the big thing would be Anderson because that's probably where learning will be most affected. So, I do appreciate you all keeping that on your radar and making sure that that we are specifically making sure that the classrooms will not, you know, is the least disrupted at answer Anderson if we can make sure that that stays on track. Thank you, Trusty Anderson. Uh, thank you. Um I am glad as well that we are able to bring this back and discuss it more. I had a specific question about
019a it looked like at the bottom one of the other things that might be delayed is the Costa Mesa High School tennis court. Is that will that impact um the girls and boys teams will impact only one? Is there any way we could push that forward? Is there something else that's a time constraint for that? So I'm sorry the the question is is the t the deadline for that so January uh when it would be completed. Yeah it's the only out of A and C on A it says the Costa Mesa High School tennis court could be completed by January 1st. Correct. Um that's the timeline that the contractor believes that they could have that done by. Um I don't know. We uh there's two things that's going on there. It coates the the tennis
020courts and then the the netting. And um the contractor has given us a date uh that he would have that done by or uh I we have not had discussions about pushing an forward an earlier date on that. Okay. Would that be something that we could possibly Dr. Smith or Dr. Torres consider having a conversation just I mean it's in a different it's not impacted you know like on the main structure but I think particularly if it's a whole season of girls tennis I would not if we can if we can change that that would be great if we haven't had that conversation yet I don't think we've had the conversation regarding moving up the construction timeline I know that we have conversations centered around being able to uh provide the teams um with courts
021to be able to play on. Um and they've already relocated on on several occasions because they're in poor condition as you may know. Um so the team is looking forward to having the new courts um and we would find alternative locations for them to play um so that they can stay competitive, but we have not had conversations right now to move up the timeline. Okay. Um, and then I just wanted to confirm. So the is the August 6 date that's the deadline for all three for all of the zones for all the projects or is that only for item A? That's correct. For all for all all the zones. Okay. Um, and then I know we hire the construction management firms to help with the deadline checking and all of that. Um, sometimes in working
022with, you know, a lot of cooks in the kitchen, things can get more confusing. And so, I just would ask that we would be able to get updates maybe in our our Friday update or just much more routinely than we do typically for construction projects. So, we can make sure that all of those things are flowing and are happening at the rate they should be. Um, and even something like the white bars if we know those are late. I mean, that could be something we could perhaps figure out locally. I just I think I'm excited we're doing all of this. I think it's so much more cost effective. Um, and so I'm I'm glad that we are leaning into this and working on communicating um our plans out. Well, thank you. One of the things
023we've added to to your um point is we're going to have twice a month meetings with the Pinner Group because they're overseeing all of those. So our exec cabinet will meet every other week with them to get an update also to hold their feet to the fire a little bit and we can then turn that update into a trusty update. So every other week we can give you an update on where we are, what we're expecting, what we see happening, etc. So, putting things into place this summer that we hadn't even thought about last summer, but we had to because we saw what happened. Um, and so that's one of the things and it'll help us give more timely updates to all of you. Thank you so much, Trusty Pearson. Yes, Dr. Smith has done
024a very good job communicating with me about Anderson and um trying to get everything on schedule. Um, if this is a go today, um, are we still scheduled to get those trash bins on the 23rd after open house and start the and start the project? Are we we're still a go for the 23rd? So, um, uh, so we're talking about the the the trash bins or the the moving bins? The Well, both. I didn't know. Yeah. So, yeah. All bins. So, yes, that that's all um scheduled. we're we're set to go with that and and be on time. We've also um provided significant uh help in terms of moving uh assistance to the the staff there. And so, yes, we're we're confident that um they're going to have plenty of of assistance and time to
025be able to uh pack up and get their stuff out, which is so so kind. I actually read Dr. dismissed text to me about how much you were going to help with the teachers and the Benz and um I was with a bunch of LA Unified School District teachers and they could not believe what they what they were seeing. So, thank you. Thanks for doing that. I have a I have a question if no one else has another question. Um so, I noticed on this on in our meeting here, we last meeting we actually pulled another contract with Element. I just wanted to see I didn't see it on this contract. I wanted to understand um why for those you know watching or or evaluating this um why we don't have element and then also
026um how how you believe we can complete this um construction work without um a fourth uh contract. I'm sorry could you repeat the last part of that question and how you believe we can complete this um this work without element as one of our contractors. Yes. So we we expect to bring Element to you at at the at a next board meeting. Um we just need to um uh dot our eyes and cross our tees on that one. Um the uh pure sorry procurement is a really important uh issue in in the world of of uh construction. And so, uh, it can get a little wonky in terms of of making sure that we've done everything we need to in order to, um, make sure that we've Thank you. that that we have, um, procured
027that appropriately. And so, we just need to do a little bit of work there to make that happen. And we'll bring that to the board at a future meeting. We expect that we're going to need that support, but we can get along without it here for the next couple weeks still and not have an issue. Okay, great. Thank you for answering that. Any any other questions we have up here? Um, yes, go ahead. So, uh, so I guess Jeeoff, what I was asked a couple times was about our big audacious construction project. we have like a name for this endeavor that you know people can kind of understand or um just be I mean I was asked you know I was it was called a couple different things well um when people were asking me
028about it so yeah I don't know if we have a nickname for it um it I would I'd just say let's get it done okay let's get That sounds like a good thing. That works for me. Deferred maintenance mother project. Yes, I have been I did I did bring that up quite a few times with a few people that that we were addressing deferred maintenance issues. So, and we appreciate the board's support in that regard. Um you recall the uh a couple budget study sessions ago, the board did say, "Hey, this is important. We we have to maintain our facilities." And so uh we are doing that and uh the board's been very supportive of that and and there is a lot of deferred maintenance that's happening along with this in addition to what you
029have before you um there's a whole lot going on on the other side too where we're doing a lot of maintenance work. I I just want to make sure that for all those people watching Julie at least um that that you're really as a group of trustees getting the credit you deserve. you prioritized as part of our three-year strategic goals the facilities master plan which we did and then you said now let's get the projects done right we've we've had uh some folks interviewing recently um don't get me started on that one but we've had some folks inhouse that have some construction backgrounds and two of the comments that that struck me one was the schools look good in low light and another one was the schools look really good at 45 miles an hour,
030right? Which is to say, your concern over our schools and their repair is right on the money and we need to address those things. And this is an audacious uh attempt for sure. The summer collective is what we've just called getting everyone together to be on the same page. Um but haven't named the projects. Maybe we're both audacious. That's good. But but again really this is your vision for making sure that our facilities are the types of facilities our students need and deserve. These are old buildings. Um and so thank you for the the courage to do that and we take it very very seriously. And we've told our folks in these collective meetings this is bad for superintendent if it doesn't get done. It's worse for you because we'll probably need to hire people
031again lots of times. your ability to finish this on time, on budget will be one of those determining factors, right? And so to a person, they've said, "We got this. We want to work with you." And they do. Oh, great. I think, um, one of our goals, too, is to be good, you know, stewards of the community and communicate effectively. Um, and I think this is that, you know, to make our schools look good in the community, but also provide the facilities for our students that they deserve. So, do I have any other questions up here before I call for the vote? All right, Rosie, roll call vote or motion for 26. Do I Excuse me. I need a motion. Do I have a motion? So moved for 26, right? I mean for a 6A
032for 6A. Are are we comfortable clumping them all together? Because it sounds like we had the discussion for all of them. Can I make a motion to just uh approve 6 A, B, and C? Yes. Are we do I have trustees? Okay. I move that we approve um 6 A, B, and C as stated. I second. All right. Uh moved by Trusty Crane, seconded by Trusty Murphy. Roll call vote. Trusty Wagan? Yes. Trusty? Yes. Trusty Murphy? Yes. Trusty Pearson? Yes. Trusty Anderson? Yes. Trusty Crane? Yes. All right. Uh it motion carries 6. and we have approved um 6A through 6 C. All right, with that being said, I'm going to there's no other comments. I'm going to adjourn the meeting at 2:58. All right, thank you. Thank you.