CorpusRecord 123316

May 5, 2025, P 12 Board of Education Study Session. part 2

A searchable transcript preserved as part of the Discourse Corpus. Passage numbers provide stable references within this record; verify quotations against the original recording when available.

Source
YouTube / Dearborn Public Schools
Date
2025-05-06
Location
Wayne County, MI
Material
Transcript
Extent
7,353 words · about 41 min
Collected
2026-06-20

Transcript

Verbatim source text

001because I I heard Trusty U Patrick say Ann Arbor is was one billion a billion dollars. So I was trying to gauge what what what is our expectation um if there was an expectation maybe we don't know it yet because we're still trying to figure things out under the fieldman story or our plan that over 30 years it would be roughly about $ 1.5 billion to kind of go through their model of what was new and remodeled and it was a hybrid of that. Okay. Now obviously the longer we wait the inflation factor continues to grow. So we don't expect it to be a decision made by a year from now to be the same dollar value. We expect it to be slightly higher. Okay. Um we talked because because the impression that I got

002is uh we um Quinn Evan came into the picture because there was no historical aspect to the first assessment. That was my impression. um what constitute [Music] um a historical building when when you do your assessment, how would you look at it to determine if it's feasible for a new building or it's historical? Well, if we're talking say capital H historic of things that we could evaluate to say put on the national register or if someone had a historic district, we really start looking at the buildings once they're 50 years old. So that's uh it's not just the 20 that's um the majority you know probably 75% of the buildings you had could be looked at by that date but then you would start to look at and say is what is it about them?

003It's not every building that's 50 years old you know has this character. So that's why we devoted we we do in our office have historians on staff. So we had our historian do some research and look at all the buildings so we have that statement on all of them understanding what features might or might not be important on a building. Uh not in terms of that means that we're we feel that building has to be saved or not. And then it's looking at the structure of the buildings and the structural integrity of the buildings is a piece that we look at on those buildings as well to understand that and their their neighborhood context can be important in that. It's very telling. It's interesting you know the site plans that we've done on the buildings

004and reading about them. There are several that were this is built in 42 and it had an addition in 43, 44, 45, 46. It had additions every year for like four years after it that people may or may not be aware of and you know some of them the what you may think of the Duval is the face of it's from the 50s versus from the 20s. So that's understanding that structure. We do know from our experience and our experience with Gilbane that um buildings that are those buildings of how they were constructed in the 20s and the 30s in some ways are very much more much easier to do major renovation work on just because of the concrete frame that they have and how they can open up and the durable materials that they

005have. And so some of that factors in as we start looking at options and and costs. So a part of it is is historic, but it's us walking through with our experience um with buildings of all ages. You know, we've worked on mid-century modern buildings. you look at McGregor Center in uh in Detroit, the Yamasaki buildings to looking at the the buildings, schools from the 20s to understand sort of intrinsically walking through, okay, what can we adapt and how much do we need to adapt to really make this a great learning experience? And that's part of I think that neighborhood school thought or not and and bringing us in piece of it is really bringing in current cost perspectives with Gil Bane. And then a piece of it is understanding and helping educate people on

006where that neighborhood school is so important and there's not the feasibility to show examples. We have a whole another presentation show on on how that can feel new. it can feel shiny and new and exciting and bright as a new school while it's still staying in its neighborhood character. And so I think that's where sort of just bringing that as an option and a possibility and then also pairing that with the cost model that we've been developing to help understand exactly what you're saying that that you know it is cheaper, it's not cheaper. What is that difference in cost? Just one more question. Um, you mentioned 21st century schools and when you're talking about a new uh an older building that's built in the 40s 20s and you have to change the infrastructure to allow

007open space, connecting rooms and how does that impact an older building that you're trying to renovate to a 21st century building? because it seemed like some of these buildings they're brick walls, you know, strong brick walls and and the structure there would be a lot of tear down and a lot of structure uh renovation. Not not necessarily actually. Um a lot of what you're seeing with some of your historic buildings were walls that were put up way after the original building. So they were walls that maybe they look like uh they go up to the roof deck, but they actually don't. Um, a lot of your older buildings have much higher floor to ceiling heights because that's that's how they were built, leaving a lot of space to put mechanical new mechanical systems into them.

008Um, so every building truly is different. And as we're walking through, it's it's amazing because um there's parts where there's just high ceilings with the ability to do a lot with them. And there were some historic buildings we went into that didn't have those high ceilings. It was just dependent on what the need was at the time and how they put it together. Um sometimes it's a little bit more challenging for newer buildings to do those renovations too. Um so every building is different and that's what this team is looking at. Um we we are literally not looking to do the cookie cutter one-sizefits-all depending on what year the building was built because we can't. Another thing with the um a lot of the buildings from the 20s and 30s with the concrete structure is

009that we might not get the perfect square classroom with no obstructions. If in a 21st century learning model, if we want to make that classroom bigger, there might end up with a column or two within there. And that's that's kind of a trade-off that you don't really notice after a while, you know. But that would be that would be one thing. But you can clear out everything between that. All of those locker bays is pretty common construction type that we've seen many times where the mechanical and the lockers are kind of running down that corridor wall and most of that can just get cleaned out and you have a couple of columns left and it really does leave a very open floor plan to work with. I have a question on foundation. Um, do you

010look for each individual school if the foundation is sound and good enough for the next 30, 40 years that you would be able to do major renovation while the foundation is still sound? We did um there are some schools that will have to consider what to do. Um, anything can be renovated. It comes down to cost and I I think there's there there's probably one or two schools that we may have to make a tough choice on um just because the existing um infrastructure structure of the building is um you know you talked about spending a little bit more money. you would be spending a lot more money to the point that you know people might question why why are you doing that and so that's part of that feasibility that we're looking to provide

011with the with the different cost models when we're looking at each of the buildings. So, and the other thing is the operations. I know we've seen photos of the exterior buildings and how they look like and the multi-purpose rooms and space rooms, but for down inside the the boilers for example. Yes. Yes. Right. Is is that something that we can maintain and find people who are still knowledgeable in those uh systems that can maintain these kind of I wouldn't recommend it and here's why somebody mentioned about the embodied car carbon embodied carbon just isn't about the bricks and mortar it's also about your operational costs. So reality is if you have the opportunity to spend some money to upgrade your mechanical systems to energyefficient systems, your operational costs will actually go down, which gives you

012more to the general fund, which is more towards what you need for anything from teacher salaries to whatever the needs are of the general fund. That's an important note to make when making these decisions. Every one of the the assessments we're looking at is looking at upgrading your mechanical systems because if you're saving on energy cost, you're saving saving on um on on sustainability. You're helping sustainability. It's less gas. It's less um carbon. It's reducing your carbon footprint. So, it's not just about the embodied carbon, but it's also reducing your carbon footprint on natural on your resources. So, and I think that's important also to look at. Let's hear from I know you have a follow-up question, but Well, I was going to respond to Trustee Zar's um about neighborhood schools just as an aside

013because when I was first on the board back in the early 2000s, the board as a whole because we had a bond, a large sizable bond that we were doing and we created a resolution actually to support our um vision of neighborhood schools as being paramount and that we would not disrupt the um neighborhood school um concept and we all signed off on that at that time to um ensure that the community understood that we would support individual schools and not and not do something different that would upset that. So I just wanted to let you know there we we did it then we could do it again if we felt it was necessary. Thank you Trusty Scott for that perspective. Uh trustee Mary and then we have Trusty W. got a few questions. First

014one was a comment when it was mentioned earlier that uh we will not be going out to the public with the options. That got my attention. I'm sure all the old out there got their attention. Not what I if you can get closer to the mic. So I just want to thank you and thank Tom for stepping up and clarifying that because I didn't want to go home and my phone ringing off the hook. So yeah, I know that's not what you meant, but I'm just wanted to thank Tom and Ann for kind of clarifying that. My first question is for Stephanie. You mentioned in an arbor their first phase they're putting in air conditioning, then their second phase and third phase. So should I assume I did not do my homework like my colleague

015here. So I assume that they're not building any new buildings. Oh, they are. They are. They are. Yeah, it's a combination of um of renovation, major renovation and um new buildings. So, they've decided on new buildings and not they're not spending any money on air conditioning there, right? Um on any of the early um beginning of the phase, no, they did not. Okay? Because they knew they were going to be going into those schools within the next five years. But for schools that are later on in the phase, because you know, re reality is you're not doing all 34 schools in 10 years. Okay? There's not even the labor market to to support that. Um, but for schools that are later on, they looked at it that they didn't want the students to wait, you

016know, 8 to 10 years. They did different levels of improvement. Um, for example, let's talk about boilers. They did boiler upgrades to any school that was going to be about 10 years out. Why? You can always reuse the boiler. So, if the boiler's still good, they would just take that boiler out of that school when the time came, put it as attic stock, and use it towards another school that maybe didn't need to have an immediate boiler uh changeover. Air conditioning. schools that were a little bit sooner, they went with window AC units. When they're done with those window AC units, they put them back in attic stock and they rotate them back in for the later schools. So there was always a plan for them in the major scheme of things that whatever um

017they weren't if it wasn't at the end of its useful life, their plan was to reuse it at schools that were later on in order to maintain a building or to um continue uh continue on with its operation until the major renovation came to it. Great. Thank you very much. And uh in your presentation you mentioned enrollment at Duval is uh you know projected enrollment uh easy math was it's going to be down going 8% to 10%. Uh where did that information come from? Where did data come from? So that came from the demographic study that was done in 2022. So that was a earlier study that uh we were given. Okay. I just I I have that information. I was wondering if you had some update information. No, we didn't have updates on the

018projections. It was from that 2022. I question those numbers then and I'm still I know what's going on especially in that DVA area. So, uh um Jah uh there's no solid numbers that we're projecting for right now. uh back uh you know 2019 when we put out a bond for 240, we knew that within two years before we completed our project, we were already $240 million, another $240 million behind, but we weren't ready to go out for $500 million. So this is all going to come down to what we hear tonight and moving forward and you know what number comes up we come up with it's going to be you know on this board for this board uh design. Uh I like what I'm hearing Stephanie. Uh I think for the last couple years I've

019always asked you know from our professionals give us give us the information. Let's keep politics on the side. Uh, you know, with all due respect to our good friend Ian, we have former board member here, Mary Puja, and I'm sure we'll be hearing from former board member Mary Lane and Glenn O'Reay and many, many others. That's on us to sit down and talk to. We need to know. I mean, the fact that you, you know, tell us, yes, define what a historic building is or not. Uh, you know, what's important moving forward? How are you going to heat this building? You know, some, you know, maybe these are hard decisions that we have to make and the fact that I'm hopefully looking for the from the administration to keep politics out of it, let the

020politicians deal with the politics, but what we're paying for is we we need we need your professional opinion. So, I welcome that. So, I believe that's all I got. Thank you, Trusty Barry. Trusty Watson. Yes. Um so I wanted to say thank you because your presentation um was um invaluable in giving us a different way of looking at education. Um so thank you. I would say a couple of things. for instance um and I think with uh trusty peskov in terms of when we're talking about for instance the common space I think all of us have known the classroom to be right this sort of square or rectangle and so when we go out there to speak with all those individuals or those here like the use of the common space or that common area

021what is that what is the purpose uh you know I'm looking at that and as a preschool teacher I'm seeing kids running up and down the hall like right you have that long hallway you got kids running up and down, but you start to fill in those spaces and those sound system uh the sound barriers from the ceiling, you start to really get a creative warm space. Um, so I see the elements in there. Uh, so thank you for bringing that in. But I think just for all of us moving forward, how do we speak to that when we're out in the public? because we are educating what we used to. We we're re-educating ourselves as to what the classroom looks like, but it's also more of the educational shift and philosophy of project-based learning

022in groups. Um, so that's just my one comment. Um, the other thing is in terms of the support space, I think that really kind of struck me as um looking at this space and and seeing how overwhelming it can be. I think we have a lot of the source support spaces for our students and teachers to kind of have a quiet area and that's I want to make sure that when our bond is going forward we do truly have a space that is conducive um for discussions and that it's a welcoming space and it's not overly um overwhelming. So those are just two of the notes the the kind of the before and the after right so where we can come to um and then I do you know I thank you for sharing the

023sort of strategy and timeline of what you're saying in terms of the ACS I think some of the discussions that we have had was we know we're not going to not everybody's going to get what they want when they want it but knowing that could perhaps you were saying like having the ACs and then how do we take those ACS and reuse them so having that understanding of what are those phases and how do we create those phases so that um we're being mindful and fiduciaries of these funds and that we're not going to be throwing them to the curb side. Um but last is really the labor costs and I think part of that is I know last time we were here and we're talking and it was post or maybe it was co

024and talking about how we had a labor shortage um and now we have these these tariffs. So can and not to put anybody on the spot but can you share with us what was that jump perhaps during COVID and is that same sort of percentage jump where are we in that sort of in that area? I do a lot of speaking on this topic so I'm staring right at you. I'm not I'm this is not news to me. So um I'm going to break it down into three different categories. One is labor and what happened postco. So postcoid um we have seen a 30% increase in overall uh costs labor and material. Um it has not gone down. The thought was that it would subside but it hasn't subsided because we've gone into a global

025economy. And so um we also continue to see a shortage of of labor of our trade labor and our workforce and that is also driving the costs up. So there's a two-part thing. um will they you know labor and material uh dip up and down over but we're not we will never go back to precoid pricing. Those days are are unlikely. If they did we're going into depression at that point or severe recession. Um so now let's talk about um tariffs. Tariffs change on a daily basis. Um, I see it I get this asked this question every week from several different boards. Um, and I'll say this, everybody thought the tariff happened when it left wherever it came from. No, the tariff actually happens once it's processed at the port of entry. It could arrive

026in the port and sit there for three weeks, a month, two months. In the meantime, that tariff could have gone away. So, it's not about it's a hard thing to pinpoint at this point because um what we're talking about today could be gone tomorrow. What we're talking about today um may not be here yet. Um the one thing when we look at providing you those projected numbers is there's two things. escalation, which we've built in to an overall program. And the other thing we're looking at is um the the potential that uh you could be looking someday at a at a tariff, a pandemic, a n natural disaster. Really, because we're dealing with a global economy these days, which will never go away. Um there are so many things that now impact uh cost of

027goods and services that we now have to just build them in. And that's when you see the costs come through that is building in an escalation that's going to span over many years and I think that's important to know that. Thank you Trusty P. Okay. I I want to do a quick followup. Um, the reason I asked for this was because the fielding study in all three of their option visions had the same number of schools being torn down. Basically, it just the location of where they were going to be replaced was changed. um there it was a concept more than a um design in my opinion that left out what I thought was a very important piece especially for the city of Dearbornne the home of Greenfield Village I kept hearing from a lot

028of people well we don't want to just keep on putting a band-aid on the problem that's how they wanted to phrase what we were doing every time we did anything to a school building to make it safe and at least least as comfortable as possible for the current generations that were in there. I wasn't just focused on the historic aspect, although that was extremely important to myself. Um, I was also the environmental aspect, the adaptive reuse that I started reading about was important to me that we could manage to maintain the same buildings and not add them to the landfills but be able to get the quality of interior educational experiences that we were looking for and update and upgrade was a possibility. ility and if we could do it in the same cost frame

029then why not explore that as an option and the fielding study didn't really include that and I wanted to make sure when we go out to the community that they understand that that could be a potential option for them to choose from and not disrupt their neighborhoods by impacting moving students out of a building, demoing buildings, putting up as much as it might seem like an easy fix for it. And I don't want everybody to think we're just putting a band-aid on the building because we're talking about trying to preserve these buildings that can still be perfectly functional. Hopefully feasibility is important and I expect to get the reality check here that uh not everything is going to be salvageable. But I want to know that I did my homework and gave it to the

030community the the true um options that that exist for this. My last question would be because of uh the price points. My husband was in commercial construction for decades and I know the uh cost factors can change and shift. Whatever we end up choosing and we put a number on it at the time because we have to put it on a ballot and then we get into the thick of things and this is a 30-year plan basically we're not going to be doing it and things go south for us really fast. How flexible, I mean, are these designs that we can say, "Uh-oh, we don't have the money going forward. There's no way." And and we have to uh back off on certain um potential options. Is there a way to not only to have

031the excalation costs factored in, but also the options of what can we scale back on if we need to save money that way? So, I think that's that's why it's important we're looking to bring different cost options with um the renovation, major renovation and new for you to take a look and see um what your options are. We're not looking in any of these scenarios to put a band-aid on anything when we very few buildings have new mechanical systems. Even your buildings built in the n in the 90s are going to be coming up on the need for new mechanical systems. Um I will say I you will not hear come from my mouth the recommendation to keep an old boiler from the 1950s. You're not going to hear it come from me. Um that's

032because of the operational um costs that are involved um and the new energy efficiency that's there. Um it's a much smaller system. you can re reclaim space that you didn't have before. There's like so many levels of why I would never recommend that. I think it's important for everybody to understand that any of the recommendations that are being made, none of them include putting a band-aid on anything because that was not the direction that we've heard from anybody that we've talked to to this point. And I'll say on the escalation point of it as we dig into cost model on that what we're looking at is a system where we can start putting time frame to it so that you understand how that changes you know over the whole whole picture versus um you know

033prior work that might have said okay this is the dollars assuming everything is built in two years which right you know is not is not true that that we have that escalation built in and we have a mechanism to look at it to say what is what is that cost for the first project and what is that cost for the last project. Thank you. Uh Trusty Dresio, what's the average days of air conditioning that do we use in these schools versus the cost of it of putting air conditioning in these schools? Just that question is for time and operations. Do you know Marcus, it varies these days, right? It varies depending on how you utilize schools. For example, we have summer school at most buildings recently, but not all buildings. Um, so depending on the

034summer schedule, that could make a big impact. But usually we look at the May, a late April to June as, you know, a hybrid of number of days because that's when we kind of switch over. It all depends. we've had cold, you know, summers and we've had very warm summers and then the August, September time frame. So, you're looking at five months of the regular school year that it could come to play, but not obviously every day. But, if you're going to get into the summer, that number is going to raise quite considerably. So, there's not a I'm sorry, but there's not really a an average that I have heard for Houston design climate change. Let's hear from Trusty B, but I I want to get Dr. Maliko's perspective. Trusty Ambrosio too. Uh I mean

035there was a while back when we considered year- round school that discussion didn't last long because of lack of air conditioning uh and summer school programs. I just want to go back to the quote unquote bandaid. We're not hearing you say that some of the renovations might be bandaids. We're just looking at what we went through years back when we knew we needed a half billion dollars. couldn't go out for it. And we kind of, you know, told the administration, sharpen the pencils a little bit and we came up with 240. And the public said, "You're just looking to put band-aids on these buildings." And it was like a big push for new buildings and your fourth high school at that point. And and that's probably one of the one of the biggest reasons why

036we failed that year is because the the people against was putting it out there that they're just asking for this money. Put band-aids on the buildings. Just to clarify, we didn't hear. I didn't hear you. I don't think that's what Trusty Petro was getting at. So, thanks for and just one more comment 201819 we also made that every school had at least a gym or a cafeteria at that time to make sure they had some aspect of your Sure. Sure. I'm sure. So, first on that, I just want to say um you know, our engineers work very hard, especially with the old buildings, and this time of year is very challenging for them because we don't know what's going to happen every how many of us maybe have switched from the heat to the air

037in the last month a couple of times. Um, you know, because I was just hearing it last week, we we had more mild in March and then April was really cold and then all of a sudden heat comes and people are wondering, uh, why isn't the air on already? you know, uh, we heard those comments just last week. But anyway, I just want to say I I appreciate the great work of our operations crew that works very hard to to accommodate under some, you know, trying conditions when they can't predict, you know, in the fall and that. I just want to say that we met last week and I was very impressed with this group. Uh, we had a very detailed meeting and a lot of data that was presented. I know it's not finalized

038yet, but they're getting close and they needed this meeting to finalize the report. Um and I think um you know moving forward that this study really cuz you work with fielding in collaboration. So the fielding is there and this then builds off of it. Uh I think the board is going to be very pleased once the final report comes out and we start working with the the uh building and site committee on some of the detail and then getting the full reports with the detailed information to the board. Um I I did like their you know the their uh philosophy. It's almost like Tom's budget. um uh most likely uh least likely uh best case they've got major renovation renovation new construction and they got a lot of data behind it and they got the

039costs and I think when you start looking at the individual buildings as it's finalized it's going to make a lot of sense on certain buildings you're going to say hey it fits here it fits here and there may be others where we may have to make some decisions on but they have a very detailed report again I was very impressed um I think that data is going to start filtering to the board they're finished because it's still in draft. We want to make sure that they're comfortable before you get it. But they needed to do this right here today uh before they could finalize that because they want to hear your thoughts and your opinion as they finalize that report. So I appreciate that excellent meeting we had and I could tell you they have

040a lot of experience. The other thing some of the main things that I'll just say which we know as we're looking at buildings whether it's new new construction renovation or major renovation and take that into the fact that some of our buildings have additions and things that we have to account for as well. and that's what we uh you know discussed. But I know some of the priorities they put up there we I heard from the community and I told the board I was at the state superintendent conference in January and I went where the new bathrooms uh were going to be and so we that is something that we heard from our students before and we need to take care of that. I think that's just something that would be you know across the

041board whether it's in a new building or a renovated building to accommodate the community and make sure that it's up to par for the students. Other things I do think are safety and security that were mentioned, technology. We all know we need it. I also just have to throw these two components in there and there's different ways to go about it, but we have to take care of our special education students in the district and I think that's going to be important. I know we had something in the 2019 bond that's critical. And then with the state, we know that early childhood, there's a continuous move towards that and we need space for that. So, there's different ways to do that. We know right now we have cotter and then we have you know uh

042places in the buildings but then we also have buildings that they can't really accommodate the preschool anymore because of space. Those are some of the things across the district that I think uh you know we need and then it's going to be getting to the individual buildings and I do when it came up trust about the neighborhood schools we all know you know those are important you know we saw some of the fielding consolidation and concept ideas but we're I think we're well aware of that and I think it's going to be a well thought out something that the community uh we're going to have some difficult choices to make. There's no doubt. But I'm confident the board can do this and I know you will and I know we need this and I'm appreciative

043that we're we're getting this data because we're going to have a lot of data to make an informed decision to be fiscally responsible to protect old buildings and possibly to build new where new is needed. Thank you, Trusty Watts. Uh but I also have a question just before I final report. When do you expect now that you have heard from us? When do you hear expect that report to be finalized? Well, go ahead. I would I' I'd say it depends on on over the next uh month, but I would hope to have that in early June. I trust you once. Um yeah, I just final thing. I know that we're talking about safety and security inside the building. We're talking about those proper doors and entrances where you have to go to the office. And

044I was just thinking more of we had talked about the parking lot, but the security and safety outside like once those little ones leave our building, how many are running across the street? Some of those things we have um systems in place, but I'm also wondering like forward thinking, how do we reimagine that? I mean sadly we had somebody one of our students that was hit by a car um last year on a major road and we're speaking with um city and Wayne County about that but always thinking like we h once those kids leave what are we doing and or how do we design that so we have that sort of safety measure in mind because we do have those neighborhood schools so just something for thought that's it Jeremy you have a question

045yeah so just clarify ification on uh the cost that I was asking for. With any budget, you have to have some kind of projection of what you're willing to spend or what bond are you willing to put in place. Um I thought maybe we we put some thoughts into it, but it's not necessary. It was just a question to see what's our ceiling for a bond. Um, as far as my question on Fielding versus Quinn Evvan, one other thing that I was challenged with is did we change vendors because we prefer preservation versus new building because I was told that Fielding was more new buildings. Uh, and you guys are doing a great job. I just need to to know what the board's direction or uh district um marching orders is to preserve first. I

046I truly believe in preservation if it's practical in effect cost effective and it's the right thing but we want to make sure it's an objective um assessment you know because I feel like we change vendors this is my understanding and I could be 100% wrong because the the first vendor did not consider preservation and I I don't want it to be that the board has given direction to say you know preservation first if if it's practical you know, I would love it if it makes sense. I would love it. Um, so that goes with that. The buildings you talked about in Ann Arbor and other places, would we be able to see any of those to see, you know, the finished product of any buildings that you have, whether it's in Ann Arbor or anywhere

047else? I mean, not all the board members are going to be willing to show up, but I would love to see what is presented, what a school looks like that you preserved or a new building as well. And Arbor is tough because we're just starting construction on some of these. So, um, but the the work in the Washington DC area is very accessible and and shows well that that work. But it doesn't have to be not a it's a go with the eighth grader and your eighth grade. that information be provided virtually though like to see but yes we can we can walk through much more elaborately virtually and and like I said I think we had enough to to digest today but we have another 60 slides that we have that we can sit

048and talk to any member that wants to to look through those befores and afters and to talk a little more in depth about each of those projects and and what it looks like. You know, our example here, it we have a new where we could fit a new on the site. Um, it was a elementary school that my four kids went to. And I said, "No, that's not a one we want to we we want to say because of so many of the pedagogical factors that it's it's in these weird hexagons, uh, strange shaped classrooms, and you just can't clear it out to give you that great learning and that, um, commons environment where where kids can go and do group work and they're seen by the teacher. They're not sitting out in the hallway.

049That's one of the uses of the commons room which is which is really wonderful that they can mix. That's a that's a big piece of using that that commons. And I think the difference between a previous report and this was this one is going to give you options. So it'll give you the option um three different options for almost every building. I don't know if the last report provided options for you to assess with cost option for each option. Yeah, I haven't seen a detail building by building and by field and so um yeah, I can't say but I just want to make sure that practicality and feasibility. It's an objective report, not not something that's swayed one way or another or influenced. Yeah, the the fielding did have recommendations as far as to replace

050or to keep or to combine schools. Um, but it did not have costs. And that's that's besides pre preservation. That's another reason why we wanted detailed information on each building costwise on various options. Uh, Trusty Barry, you had a question. That's exactly what I was going to say, but I also want to add it was not of this vendor or that vendor. We wanted more information. That's why we're here right now. And they work with field. They work together. They use that information. We didn't replace them. No, I I I just heard that the focus was uh Fielding was not focused on historical. They were not They were not They were futuristic. We also wanted to know detailed numbers as far as if this is a historical building, how much is it going to cost

051us to keep this building and have major renovation to bring it to 21st century. So I hope that report I'm hearing that we going to have that cost and that is very good information for us board members. It's very good information for the public uh to see that and I'm sure that report will be made public for everybody to see and it's it's it's going to be up to the voters to decide but we will have to provide them options and that's why we have Quinton um Evans and we have the other firmarium to to come and help us present those options to the public and get that information and say hey this is what we want to go forward. This is we want to preserve this building or this building really needs to be

052gone. I'm just the majority of the res. It's a very valid question. It's not fair. I'm asking a question. Yeah. I don't want people to get defensive. I I just want to know this is what was told to me when I first came that Fielding focus on new buildings. So, if it changed, that's fine. if there's a different story to it. I just like to know why we change directions because when you make decisions or you support something or you sell it to the public, you have to know reasoning behind it. So I I just want to make sure that questions are not taken as if it's uh meant to uh say something else. Trusty Bear. Yes. Uh yeah, just to kind of like answer your question a little bit. Nobody changes direction here and

053nobody's getting defensive, but we asked Fielding to give us this is what we're looking to do. We want to go out 30 years. What they did they did great work. What we did that after that presentation is what we do best. We listen to our, you know, constituents and we heard loud and clear that they wanted, you know, this also considered. That's why we're here. It's not like we told Fielding give us three options and they came back and said oh you have to replace these buildings. When when the community reached out to us in meetings and at Kroger at phone calls we decided to go this direction. So so Field and gave us what we wanted. They gave us they they gave us exactly what we asked for and it was presented just like

054tonight. But then we heard from the community saying hey we need you to take this into consideration and we said yes. So, we're we're spending a lot of money doing this, but to tell our constituents, we hear you. We understand you. We want to, you know, we want to listen to the whole community, not just part like not just, you know, the loud people on the community. We want to listen to all the community out of respect to everybody. That's where we're at. Dr. Michael, do you have anything? Yeah, I would just uh one thing on that because I know I saw it when I was with them with the draft. They're not done. Um, but I would just say on those three areas, if we go into valuing where we know we we all

055know the historic value of certain buildings and all buildings and then um you know buildings that need because you said like the infrastructure or the foundation is something that you need to deal with right so I think what's going to make sense a lot is once you get that data and I think it really is specific and once it's finalized if you go in open-minded because I think it once you see the options the financials to the value you're going to And I would encourage you not to look at it holistically like the whole district or I think you need to look at each individual building with this data. I think it's going to make a lot of sense. And so I would say be open-minded on all three of the you know preservation versus

056and I think this data they have it's fantastic. It's not ready yet but it will be soon once you get it. I think so that's what I would encourage you do because that's what I did when I started looking at the individual buildings. Well, it made sense to me because I knew that building and this may work there and I knew there was some historic value here and then I knew this building had a renovation that maybe you could still use the renovation piece from a financial aspect. So, I think if you start looking at the individual buildings versus and I know we got to take care of the whole district and there's some things that'll be uniform, but I do think that I think you you mentioned it as well that you got to

057look at those buildings because each building is a very unique in Dearbornne and you said it was similar to Ann Arbor. So, I honestly think I think this is a great meeting and it's a a start off to the finalizing, but I really think trustees that once you see the individual data and the options, you're going to be pleased and and and in a lot of cases, a lot of us may come to consensus after hearing from the public because this is going to make sense when you look at financials with preservation and other things. And I believe they came in very open-minded, objective. That's the data they presented to me that again, it's not finalized, but it will be soon. It's great. Um we're looking forward to the report and future steps of working

058with other firm and um thank you everybody for for tuning in if there are no more questions. Okay. So before we uh end this meeting, we do have another uh issue of business for the other institution that we serve on which is Henry Ford College. Can we provide a little bit more information? Yeah, sure. Okay. You want to talk about the committee sens so uh just to uh just to let you know where we are with Byron and Fisk. Um we've been working with them as well. They've also been working uh with all the folks over here so that everybody's on the same page and coordinating efforts. Uh their next steps will be uh three different aspects. Uh they will do some one-on-one uh stakeholder uh interviews with just a few select people um a

059board member uh maybe the mayor uh some other influential individuals. Then they will do several focus groups with broader audiences. Um but again upon recommendations that we give them so that um they are reaching out to all the community. Based upon that information they will then do a communitywide survey uh that will try to touch on as many people as possible to to get feedback uh from all of them. their job and their go what they are what they want to do is they want to do exactly what um you're asking and that is to get that sense of where the community is at. Where is the community on dollar figures? Where is the community on historic uh preservation as opposed to new buildings? Where's the community at on a variety of of topics that

060are important to them? and that's what their work will be over the next several months or couple of months. So that's where we are with them and with their work questions on that. And just to kind of touch base on future millage rates, uh when the state law requires you to hold a bond based on a dollar value, so the board is going to have to say we want to bond for, you know, 500 million, you know, billion, you know, 1.5 billion. The board's going to decide on that overall dollar value. That does not mean we're going to go out on that day and and borrow that much money because we don't want to pay interest cost because we can't spend it that fast. You know, there's uh I'm sure Go Bank could talk more,

061but on the actual dollar value you can do in any given summer is limited because we only have that nine to 10 week. We could actually have construction costs unless we're going to look at transition schools and say, "All right, we're going to close one school and combine them with another school temporarily, do nine months of construction, move them back in." So, all depends on how we're going to structure this then because people are going to ask, well, how much is this going to cost in millillage? So if you look at that, you could only do anywhere from, you know, a 100 million to 300 million any given year. So you're looking at this could take 15 years or it could take 30 years depending on how you package it all together. And depending on

062how fast you do it and how you want to spread it out, it's going to have an impact on the millage. The longer you spread it out, the lower the millage rate is because you're going to do series of bond sales over time. Could be 30 years. So that goes back to one of the questions we're going to have to the community is how fast do you want us to get this done? Faster we get it done, the higher mill rate you're going to pay. The slower you want to get it done, we can manage that mill rate to be much lower. So those are the kind of questions because everyone's going to know what's the bottom line to me. So that's the community feedback we're going to get to say how do you want

063us to design this program? Do you want to wait for a particular building, you know, 20 years from now or do you want to have it all done in 15 years so everybody can see the impact? So that's going to be the impact that we're going to have to figure out. I can't throw it out a millage right now because interest rates are going to change. If we're doing every three years, you know, a portion of that that bond program, interest rates are going to go up and down. And some of the higher rates, we can potentially refinance them, make them lower again. So what you do on the ballot question is once we design it is what is the first year millage and what's the average millillage? And that's what will show up on

064the bond program when they go out to vote. Just want to share some of those facts that once we get closer, we'll have a better idea of what it will cost, but it'll be the public impact and how they want us to format this bond. And projects, the projects sequence that could change the board. And again, we're just proving the dollar value. So, we can say we're going to work on these five buildings first and then next year these five. We'll have a general conception of that, but doesn't mean one building can move up or another building move back. That's the flexibility the board has because we're just living a dollar value and some things will change. You know, we don't know what all their costs are going to be. They put that escalation figure

065in, but it's based on, you know, the state building code. You know, they 10 years from now, they might say everybody has to have a hurricane level of building, you know, and that means the changing the dollar value per square foot could really rise. So, that's why we have to be very careful how we put this together. The quicker we do it, the higher the admin costs. you know, the longer we do it, the lower admit cost. So, there's a lot of factors that go into it, but the voters are just going to, you know, vote on that total dollar figure. I just want to share those kind of facts with you. Especially Barry, did you have a question? Did you say hurricanes? Well, they they're talking about that, aren't they? Question for your town.

066We don't have hurricanes in Michigan, but they want to put that in the building code. I'm just saying 1.5 billion. Yeah. No, that's a real number, but uh I heard that the final report probably sometime in June, then we have to go out to the public. Should I assume that we're not going to be on the ballot in November of 2025 or don't make that assumption? Most likely not just because we don't want to rush it with the public because people are asking, it's going to take time to educate everybody to make sure they're comfortable and knowledgeable about it and you just can't rush that. So, as they go through their process, they'll ask, you know, those kind of questions to see when is the correct time to go out to vote. Absolutely. Thank you.

067Sorry. No, you're good. You're good. Some of the Just to follow up, Trusty Barry, um if if you look at uh scheduled elections right now, um obviously this November, uh there is uh May of 2026 would be a time August of 2026 and November of 2026 would all be regularly scheduled elections. That would be possible time frames to look at. But again, as Tom pointed out, we can't rush this. It's got to be a process to make sure that everybody is digesting the information. I just want to throw I just want to throw that out there that uh yes, we don't want to rush things, but I can speak for myself. I always when you're going to go out for a bond, you're going to ask the constituents, taxpayers, that kind of money, I would

068probably shoot for November instead of an off election. just put that out there. Thank you. Uh for discussion. So, do do we have any more questions on the items that were just laid out questions? Okay. Inclusion, final thoughts, Dr. Malik. uh just that we I think we all realize we need to do this for the the long-term um you know stability of the district, for the students, for the community, for everyone really. We know how important schools are to all ends of community um you know to real estate values and all sorts of things. So this is very important um thing that we're moving in a methodical manner with a lot of data um and I think that it's very very important that we eventually move forward with a plan and I think we'll get

069there. Thank you. Thank you. Uh thank you to everybody who tuned in. This was very very insightful and uh definitely over the next uh meetings we will get our hands on that report and we will have more discussions. Um Dr. I'd like to see this uh to be discussed further uh in our upcoming meetings. Maybe um in in June as a possibility if if we saying that we going to get that report early June so maybe we can have it to be as a as a discussion item in the June meeting. Any other thoughts? Trusty Z. Yeah. Can I make a motion? Sure. Um, I'd like to move. Are we done with everything else? I believe we are. I believe so. Yes. Okay. I'd like to move that the board of trustees meet in a

070closed section under section 8 of the open meetings act to review and consider an application for employment or appointment upon candidates request that their employment matter remain confidential. Uh, it needs a twothirds roll call vote. Support. So, this is pertaining to Henry Ford College, not the district. um appointing an entry president and we did have applicants and interviews and an ad hoc committee that was assigned to uh gather information and in this close session we will be only receiving information from the ad hoc [Music] committee making any decisions Uh, trustee Eljie, yes. Trusty Barry, yes. Trusty Drosio, no. Trusty Petoff, no. Trustee or Vice Chair Watts. Uh SE Trust Zar. Yes. Uh Chair Mosep. Yes. Um so this does not pass. Uh we can't go into close session. I'll I'll be corresponding then with everybody

071individually. Um, I was hoping to have um everybody receive the information at the same time, but um I uh would like to also be calling for a special meeting for the college to appoint an intrium. Um I don't think we do need a roll call. Motion died at the table. We get to go home. Yeah. Okay. I I'll call a motion to uh call for a an open meeting, special meeting for the person died at the table. Let's just stand. No, no. Another motion for an open meeting. Or do we need We don't really need to post. We don't need to do anything now. Okay. Let's just Let's just We get to go home early. That's all right. But we will be I'll be calling for a special meeting for the college. An open meeting

072to appointed and stream. Thank you everyone for attending. trust. Yeah, chair. You could ask for

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