2025-09-16 Board of Education’s Facilities Improvement and Oversight Committee

001So, hi everyone. The public meeting of the Board of Education's Facilities Improvement Oversight Committee for September 16th, 2025 is called to order. Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you for all being here. It's always such a large crowd. So, before we get started, I'll give a little preview of what we're going to talk about today. Of course, public comment. I do want to say public comment, as much as I love to let it go on, I've got to cap it at 2 minutes today. We have a lot to cover. We're going to review the committee charter that we went over last meeting and hopefully recommend sending it to the full board for approval. We'll review the comprehensive master plans for Jefferson, Cleveland, and I.W. Wells. We'll have an update on the athletic facilities improvements and then

002discuss the Office of School Modernization planning. So, let's see. Let's go ahead and do I'm going to go around and do introductions. Got some new faces. How about presenter? Hi. My name is Eric Gerding. I'm a senior project manager with the Office of School Modernization and been with the bond program for about 12 years. I completed the Fabian K-8 project as well as Lincoln High School. And now I'm on the Cleveland High School project. Nice to Nice to meet you. Hi. Steve Efros, senior project manager in OSM, working on the Jefferson project. Originally started in facilities and then transferred into OSM as part of the Kellogg municipal project. Nice to John Franco, senior chief of operations. Good afternoon. Tom Ojers, chief of integrated operations. Hi. Sarah Norman with Presidio, interim director of Office of School

003Modernization. Virginia La Ford, board director and chair of Facilities Committee. Michelle Chesmiller, board director for Zone 4. Euan, board chair. Kimberly Armstrong, superintendent. Deborah Kafoury, chief of staff. Liz Large, member of the I'm Tom Cody, manager. Steve Rosenblatt, manager. Michelle. I'm sorry. Yes. Hi. Michelle DePass, vice chair of the school board. Yeah. Patty Sullivan, school board member. Got everybody. So, for public comment, let's move into that. Do we want to I'll leave it up to whoever's giving comment, but you're welcome to come up to the table when you're giving your comments. So, let's see. Let's go ahead and again, please make sure when you begin your comments that you clearly state your name, spell your last name. You have 2 minutes and when you hear the alarm go off, you can please wrap up your

004comments. So, let's go ahead and start with Is it Derek? Is it Ranta? Ranta? Derek? Pretty sure he was for the last board >> for the last board meeting. Not this one. Am I in the wrong one? Hold on, guys. It's board meeting else. Today is the 16th, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah, he's down. Okay. Well, I guess we'll just go ahead and keep going. So, Megan Stephick? May I have Jan Watko before me? Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Jan, come on up. Yeah. I think we're going to hold each other's hand. I need a hug. Nice to see you. I know. I'm trying. I'm Jan Wat, a years-long resident of the Cleveland community and a very proud educator in that very high school building for 56 years. And I'm here because I cannot stop thinking about the

005need to restructure our Office of School Modernization that was announced in the last board meeting. To be very frank, the testimony to me was very troubling, especially as it pertained to a contract with an out-of-state entity. I'm extremely sympathetic to the new board members who obviously were very unsure about how to process these latest developments and frankly, I was also dismayed. So, I'm here tonight to ask, actually beg, please do not delay. Assure our community, along with Wells and Jefferson's, that we do have and PPS will not waver from the start dates we've been promised for our rebuildings. And to the two of you who are unaware, Cleveland has waited 14 years. 14 years, going on 15, for our turn. In 2011, Cleveland was named the very first high school to be remodeled and then

006for reasons that never have been disclosed, we all of a sudden were at the bottom of the list. But we have held very strong at Cleveland. We have a lot of Cleveland pride. Our enrollment consistently surpasses the PPS projections. Our staff and students are very adept now at dodging falling and ceiling tiles. We deal with heat and the lack of cooling daily. And our staff and dedicated parents for years and years have painted our own classrooms and our hallways while tirelessly maintaining our building's landscape and that of our athletic stadium just four blocks away. So, please vow, promise that we will not face any construction or project delays. The benign neglect of this extraordinarily successful high school on the corner of 26th and Powell has gone on long enough. I have witnessed it over and

007over again for 56 years and that fact cannot be denied. Allow us to move forward now. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, she's a combat ball player. My name is Megan Stephick. I represent, along with Liz Hooper, the turf Powell Park advocacy group. We are a movement of Cleveland parents of softball and baseball players advocating for equity and safety for athletes during the Cleveland High School Modernization. We challenged PPS leadership 2 years ago now to work with Parks and Rec to find a mutually beneficial solution for multi-use turf fields at Powell Park. Due to the lack of available land closer in Southeast Portland. Since then, we have taken a position as collaborators, partners in your process, testifying, raising awareness, and rallying the community for a successful 2025 PPS bond outcome. But I am here disheartened and

008frustrated by the lack of progress. As it is, student athletes miss two to five instructional hours per week depending on the the game schedule. Traveling to off-campus practices and games given Cleveland has one turf field at the stadium. Using the Marshall campus for 3 years does not solve the loss of classroom time. It only creates another layer of complexity given Cleveland stadium will also be unavailable for 2 years. More student athletes will miss homework time commuting to and from the Marshall campus for evening practices after having been at school. And additionally, students who cannot commute twice a day just won't sign up. Yeah. Additionally, you have all been updated about the homeless population, the vandalism, the destruction and theft that have become regular occurrences impacting the softball team at Woodstock Park and more recently the

009baseball team at Powell Park. The biggest concern, of course, is that our children may interact with drug paraphernalia that's left at these parks. All of these examples that I'm giving you contribute to why families leave the district. It's a lack of common infrastructure, instances of safety and security issues, and inequitable facilities contributing to factors in the declining enrollment numbers. I've been looking forward to tonight's modernization presentation for a long time and I was super excited to see it and I read it in advance. There is no documented update on any collaboration with Portland Parks and Rec and just before the meeting, I spoke to Chief of Staff Deb Kafoury who reached out to the City of Portland this morning and was told, after many, many phone calls, that the process is just starting and that

010they will provide an update. So, please clear whatever obstacles are stymieing this process. Please, please move forward with Parks and Rec for Cleveland High School. So, Megan, just so I'm clear, so I understand with the move out to Marshall and the Powell Park location, your concern is that students or cuz you know there's multiple sets of practices, I understand that, that they will, in terms of the time in between, there will be several hours where they have to travel home and back to the facility and back home later at night. Is that correct? It's about It's very common. 5 or 6 miles in Portland. It's actually there. Very common. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Next, we have Laura Westwood. Is Laura here? She will be here in just a moment. What's that? She's virtual. I'll send

011her the link right now. >> Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Thanks, Laura. Great, thank you. And apologies for being virtual. I'm going off to lead our PTA meeting right after this. Uh hello. Thank you. I'm Laura Westwood, the PTA president at Irvington Elementary School. I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak today about a significant safety issue at our school that parents have been trying to correct for over a decade. I want to acknowledge that this is a very small problem in the scope of what the board is currently tackling. Irvington does not have a fully secure campus. And we are requesting help to install a fence along Northeast Brazee Street, which would enclose the remain the remaining perimeter, providing much more safety and security for our pre-K and elementary-age students and school staff. I

012included a map in the board materials that hopefully you have received. In recent years, we have seen an increased need for this security. We've had off-leash dogs on the campus at all hours, leading to increased incidents, including dog bites and harassment, and unsanitary pet waste. We've had people unaffiliated with the school attempting to traverse campus during school hours, and sometimes not leaving when asked. And we we have had acts of vandalism, including a car driving through the unfenced area, damaging our soccer field. The PTA received bids, secured a contractor, and raised $25,000 for this project. In March 2024, our principal submitted the PDR. What we thought would be a simple project approval has turned into over a year of back and forth, including being told it was denied because the fence would hinder the ability

013to remove leaves during the fall, and because of zoning issues, all of which we disproved. Most recently, we were told for the first time that the fence requires a concrete mow strip. We got bids on the mow strip per PPS's specifications, and it adds an additional $30,000 to the project. PPS's own bid for the fence and mow strip came in at $60,000. Unfortunately, this is well beyond the $25,000 that we took so much time and effort to raise. So, I come today to graciously ask for your help on this necessary project, and request funding from from PPS to install this fence, with the PTA contributing $25,000. On behalf of the Irvington PTA, we appreciate our partnership with PPS in providing the best environment for our students, and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank

014you. Thanks, Laura. Okay, that concludes our public comments, and let's go ahead and move on to the committee charter. Last committee meeting, we reviewed a draft committee charter, and the revised draft that I've included in the materials includes your feedback that we noted during the discussion, and we can walk through it real quick and make sure that everybody's comfortable with the changes, and we can then recommend that it goes forward to approval at our October meeting. The changes that we've made in here are related to our purpose, where we clarified that it's our purpose to provide financial oversight, strategic guidance, and formal recommendations to the full board regarding the development, implementation, and ongoing refinements of school modernizations, physical facility improvements, health and safety projects, and other district-wide strategic initiatives, including alignment with the district's long-range

015facilities plan. Yes. I'm sorry to interrupt, but there was one more person >> Oh, I Nia, you're not on the list. Come on up. Obviously, this is Nia Brooks, but I'll let you introduce yourself. >> Yes, I'm Nia Brooks, and I talked really fast when I timed myself at 3 minutes, but I've shortened a little. I'm a parent of a first grader and a fourth grader at PPS, and I'm speaking as a member of Safe Structures PPS. I know seismic safety is not going to get a lot of discussion at this meeting, but it's very much on the minds of the families in the community, and we wanted to react to the new engineering report that was released at September board meeting. The report is a sobering read. It highlights the extremely high level of

016seismic deficiencies at a large number of PPS buildings. On a 10-point scale, PPS has 49 building parts with a risk score of nine or greater. That means like a, you know, piece of the building was all built at the same time. And 131 school building parts with a risk score of seven or greater. Keeps going from there. Um the resolution 7109, passed by the board this spring, stated that after the listed projects in the bond and the reserve fund for urgent projects, the first and highest use of funds available is to address critical repairs at the eight to 10 schools assessed to pose the greatest risk of injury or death in a significant seismic event. Per the information currently available, the eight schools that have the highest risk building parts are Beverly Cleary K-8, Jackson

017Middle School, Rose City Park Elementary, Jason Lee Elementary, Buckman Elementary, Rieke Elementary, Kelly Elementary, and Capitol Hill Elementary School, all of which have risk scores of 9.4 or higher. Um If there were additional savings from high school projects, that could fund critical retrofits at other high schools, including Roosevelt High, Ainsworth, Beach, Glencoe, Kelly, and Rigler, all of which have buildings with risk scores of 9.2 or 9.3. However, to the extent that bond projects go over budget, the district must find a way to ensure this does not leave less funds for critical seismic repairs, and more lives lost during a major earthquake. Um I I want to say that Safe Structures supports decision-making that will save as many lives as possible in the event of a major earthquake, and based on the information shared at the

018September 9th board meeting, that would be option C appears to be the the most effective method. And I just want to say that PPS has failed to fulfill the terms of 7109. They have not presented a report with prioritization sequencing of more more than 200 buildings that require repairs. Thanks very So, Nia, just so you know, option C that was discussed in the meeting, I've asked staff to incorporate it into the deck so we can see all three options. It's only A and B on the deck posted. We will touch base with you as soon as that's done, and then we also will be starting the the cadence of every other month in October. So, the next facilities meeting we'll have an update, and hopefully we'll hear something about, you know, kicking off the process

019that we're talking about. Awesome. Yeah, just a quick reminder, yeah, that PPS said was directed by the board to have this report by no later than September 1st with full prioritization. Thank you. Roseann, we got everybody? Yes. Okay. Um okay, so back to our charter. Um okay, so board advisory on facilities and capital planning. I'm not going to read the whole the whole thing here. I just wanted to just go over the changes. So, um clarified that um you know, they're in consistent communication with the board of directors on board-facing facilities-related and capital planning initiatives, serving as the key liaison to the full board for project updates, approvals, and we added that will require full board votes. Um Under environmental health and safety, um just a clarification, and there's a little bit of reordering. Number

020two, support PPS goals related to environmental sustainability, responsible stewardship of public resources, energy efficiency, and climate resilience. And on our last point under charter review and revision, we talked a little bit about that in terms of like how often we want to revisit this, and uh I went ahead and changed annually to as needed based on everyone's feedback. I was a little concerned about regularly because I felt like we're revisiting it all the time. It's not, you know, a solid document that we can work against. So, hoping that everyone is comfortable with as needed, so that when something comes up and we're feeling like if this, you know, doesn't meet our needs or, you know, answer to the public in a way that we need it to, we go ahead and revise it. So, um

021with that, I guess I'm asking Directors Pass and Chase Miller if they're comfortable moving this forward to the next board meeting. I reviewed the changes prior to the meeting, and I think that they look good. I'm comfortable. I'm also happy to move forward and like the added flexibility of adding the as needed rather than annually. So, it feels like a living document, and that we can change it as needed. So, yeah, thank you. Great, thank you. All right, so with that, um I think everybody's ready for next one, our revised comprehensive master plans. Our next topic is an update on the revised master plans for Jefferson, Cleveland, Ida B. Wells high schools. And following today's presentation and discussion, the three master plans are scheduled to be brought to the full board for approval on October

02214th. And Dr. Franco, do you want to go ahead and introduce this? >> Yeah, thank you. And so, just so you know, we are very excited to talk about this today and talk with you all about the revised comprehensive plans. And this will be a team approach. We do have project managers here, and and I'm going to kind of drive drive this from my computer, but we will have folks coming up depending on the project that they supervise. And if we could, and we practiced this, I have a little timer here in terms of presentation. So we thought that we could give the presentation and then after each one, we'd set some time up for questions after each one. Does that sound okay, Director Lefort? Okay, perfect. Okay, so just as a quick kind of

023executive summary, so I so and this was all in the memo and you'll get more detail in regards to um purpose. And really the purpose today is to really summarize the comprehensive plans for Jefferson, for Cleveland, and for Ida B. Wells. And and what comprehensive plans generally mean is scope, schedule, budget. Right? And so the scope it is aligned with the cost reduction framework. The schedule you could see here um consistent starting in summer of '26, school opening all three of them in the fall of '29. And then you could see the projected budgets for the three here. Uh what we'd like to see is a conversation or actions or decisions needed. Today is provide feedback on the comprehensive plan presentations for our OSM team to incorporate and then confirm the coordinated project schedule recommendation

024as Director Lefort said that we could take to the board on October 14th. That's that's um ultimately what the timeline is going to be. Um and so in between then we want to definitely finalize these comprehensive plans and presentation materials for the October 14th board meeting. And then of course then present the plans to the full board for approval. So what is a comprehensive plan? As I just mentioned, it is scope, schedule, and budget that will be carried through for the remainder of the design and the construction phases of the project. And the board authorizes comprehensive plans through resolutions. This I know is very hard to see and I'm you know, the intent is for you not really to um pay attention really to what's on the left cuz we'll go through all this. It's

025really just to give you a visual depiction of the three high schools and the timelines associated with each. And just to and and as you can see, it's very consistent with all three. And and it falls in line with what the the scope is in terms of timeline, in terms of starting uh in the summer of '26 and then completion in terms of the fall or kids are ready to move in terms of the fall of '29. And so with that, we're going to start with Jefferson and I'm going to turn it over to Steve. And is this okay for everyone? Can Can you guys see this? You want me to Can you see this okay? Is okay? Okay, perfect. Okay. Okay. Great. Thanks, John. Yes, so a quick overview of the agenda. Um we

026have uh the plan uh overview which will basically be what John described as the the the work that we've done since the cost reduction study. Uh we have the current design work that we'll look at uh the latest design renderings of the exterior and the interior. We'll look at the current project schedule um in terms of the latest design and construction timeline. And then an updated budget summary uh which is uh a summary of the new budget and the savings that we achieved since the cost reduction study. Go to the next. So this is an overview of the site plan and um really much of the site plan is the same uh as before the cost reduction study. Um the building design was updated to meet uh the board's uh cost reduction uh study framework.

027Uh the general orientation of the site is with the building on the north or the right side uh facing Killingworth. Uh you can also see the um North Port Portland library in the northeast corner, kind of the lower right-hand corner. Um it has a cross block connection which is actually similar to the Lincoln modernization uh that connects uh Commercial which is at the bottom to Kerby at the top. Uh we have uh athletics fields that are south of that including the track and field, tennis courts, baseball, soccer, and softball field uh south of Alberta. And the building footprint itself which is on the right um has changed from before um but the cross block connection has largely remained the same and just adjusted to uh the shape. And there are now also new plaza areas

028where the uh teen parent center used to be. Go to the next. So this is really just an overview of um of the cost reduction study and how it affected uh the design from where we were before. So the cost reduction um uh uh board framework included adjustments of the building area um to the Ed Spec requirement of 295,000 uh gross square feet. Um however, the major organization of the building that you can see in blue, green, and yellow has largely stayed the same. Um the updates um included uh achieving the goals of the board framework uh through several major moves. So one of them was the relocation of the teen parent center from a standalone building that you can kind of see in white there on the left-hand diagram. Um uh from a standalone

029building into the main building. Um it also included a reduced footprint of the theater which allowed more program to wrap around that space. And then finally an overall area adjustment uh that allowed the main gym to to move to the ground floor from being on the second floor before. Which I think everyone agrees is an improvement. Go to the next slide. So this is just a quick overview, very high level of the floor plans just so you have a kind of a little better idea of how things are organized in the building. So here's on the ground floor. Uh we have the entry into the building um on Kerby which is on the left-hand side. Um and that uh opens into the commons uh which is at the center of that academic wing that I

030spoke of before. Um you have an academic wing or sorry, you have a um uh administrative uh bar in pink that's right next to the main entry. Um you have the teen parent center at the bottom, kind of at the the that kind of pointed area of the building close to the cross block connection. And then you have the servery right at the center in gray. Uh moving into the arts wing uh in green uh upwards to the north, uh we have the theater at the center. The choir and band on the west side and the construction CTE on the east. And then you have um we were able to um essentially adjust the media center which is that bar on the top on the north side of the the floor. Um so that it

031faces and is directly adjacent to Killingworth. Uh and then finally the athletics wing in yellow with the entry off the cross block, kind of that little notch uh close to the cross block. Um and the main gym gym along Commercial and then there are supporting spaces around that. Go to the next slide. Uh you have the second floor plan on the left. Um we have the main common stair up to the second floor with uh partner spaces at the top. Uh the rest of the wing um uh includes um general ed classes in blue. Then you can see in the arts wing we have um CTE and visual arts spaces around the theater uh facing Kerby and Killingworth. And then the two Jefferson dancer studios are facing Killingworth and the North Portland library. And then

032finally the athletics wing on the second floor includes the aux gym and the weight room. Um and then on the third and fourth third and fourth floor on the right, we include um uh the two academic bars, those kind of the horizontal and that diagonal bar which are uh general ed and science classrooms in blue. And then at the center of the kind of the intersection of those uh is a student flex space on both of those floors. So this next one is a uh uh an overview of the Ed Spec um kind of a comparison of where we were to where we are now. And each of the projects is going to present a similar diagram. So you can see on the left we have the total building area in red uh for the

033Ed Spec minimum. We have it in yellow for the prior design and then uh in blue for uh the current 2025 design. And then on the right you'll see that it compares how the areas allocated across different program categories. And then you'll see some of those areas are um lower and some of them are higher. Each uh modernization has sort of adjustment to make based on uh that school's program focus area. So obviously Jefferson's focus is fine and performing arts so you can see that it pops up a little bit higher there. And some of that allocation is taken from the general ed, particularly the elective classes um on the left. Go to the next. So these are some renderings of uh exterior views of the building. Uh this is a view of the main

034entry on Kerby. So you can see the cross block uh connection on the right. Uh you can see in the distance is the uh athletic wing. Uh you can see the academic wing in the foreground with the arts wing in the distance, kind of far to the left. And then uh you can also start to see some of the building materials that we're beginning to select for this uh including brick. And that actually has an important reference to the original 1909 building. And then you can also see blue on the stair and at the entry and that's also obviously an important Jefferson color. So this is the work that we're doing to kind of add more information and materials to to the project. We're also adding a layer of what we call cultural placemaking elements

035on the exterior and the interior and that's really based on a lot of community engagement and feedback on the project. So we hope in the future to show show more of those details going forward. The next view is from Killingworth and you can see the arts wing in the foreground with the media center having kind of a prominent place on the corner of Killingworth and Kirby. And that contributes to bringing more activity and life to this Albina neighborhood street. You can also see a little bit to the right are angled walls of the band and choir rooms and those are actually reflections of the angled acoustical walls inside. So we're again we're starting to see more and more of those details. And then finally on the upper level you can see the visual art spaces

036as well as CTE and then in the distance kind of to the left there is one of the dance studios that looks overlooks Killingworth. And this is a final exterior rendering that is a view of the athletics entry cross block and track and this is a view from the track obviously with the the athletic wing on the left and then the sorry on the right and then the academic wing on the left and you can also see some early ideas for athletic graphics on that facade facing the track which obviously it has the demos name there but this is just sort of an early concept that we have going forward. Just a couple of interior views obviously the the main gym. This is we're not showing any materials or colors yet. We have showing some

037possible wood trusses here but I think the idea is to try to take as much inspiration from the current Jefferson gym as possible because it's such a storied building. This is a view of the commons and this space is really as as you saw in the plans at the center of the school and it brings a lot of the qualities of the current Jefferson center hall if you've been in Jefferson. That's an important social and school community gathering space obviously in addition to being a cafeteria space. And again you're also starting to see presence of mass timber structure which is used in this wing of the building. And this is finally just a bird's-eye view just giving you a little bit more context within the larger Albina community. So yeah a quick highlight of the

038schedule as John kind of showed zoomed out. Obviously we're undertaking the redesign since the cost reduction study and that work will continue through 2026. We have the land use effort which will actually get underway next month. And permitting will follow that effort as well. But with students and staff staying on site during construction we've created actually a separate early fields package that will allow us to start construction next summer and complete these fields so that they can be used before the start of building construction so to provide access to playfields practice fields during that period. Then we have building construction starting in 2027 and complete by the summer of 29 with students moving in in the fall. Then one final period of building demo and site work until completion in the fall of 2030. So

039this is just a budget summary again you'll see this is a standard form we use on all three projects and this provides an overview of the budgets from 2022 23 and now 25. And so what we're trying to show here is really the changes that have occurred particularly from 2023 from the the prior pivot on the project. And so some of the changes include the the reduction of the hard cost of construction there about 357 million. Additional allowance of about 2 million for additional offsite improvements. Obviously below the line there you'll see the increased design cost related to the post cost reduction study effort. A slight increase in what we call FF&E it's basically furnishings and equipment just based on cost escalation. We have a category called move swing space and temp facilities. Every project

040has that category but this is just referring in our case an allowance that we've put together for um student transportation offsite at temp facilities. So it's just limited to that that additional cost. And then finally the contingency which always adjusts based on the total cost of the project and so at the 10% requirement we're at about 2 million. So our total is 466 million which yielded savings of about just under 25 million. Yeah so this is just really next steps. We're undertaking our schematic design end of phase approval which includes document review and internally page turn review meetings. Estimating by the design teams or levers estimator RLB with our new CMGC on board Colas Hoffman we have them also undertaking a separate estimating process. Also working with us on logistics phasing schedule workshops and OAC

041meetings. And then our next community engagement meeting will be an information session on October 15th. Thank you Steve. Yeah excellent. Questions? Actually a couple of questions. Eddie? I'm sorry. Director Wong and Director Bynum. I've got a couple. Um so first of all it's amazing. I I stand over I went over to the last community meeting and I standing there I was trying to understand like how it was going to look and I still can't picture it so I just I cannot wait until what actually happens. I mean I get it but until you're standing in front of it. Um it's really impressive. So thank you. Um I had a couple questions. Um one I know the the board adopted a framework last spring. The framework for cost reduction and I wanted to ask um I

042noticed that one of the one of the things they asked for was that projects should only have teen parenting centers if there is a demonstrated need among students at each school. Um and then I saw the article in the Oregonian this morning that said there are currently three children at Jefferson that are utilizing the teen parent centers. So my question is do you consider this data showing that we have a demonstrated need? We have three kids. I mean I I think there was a broader effort through district staff that looked across I think all of the schools and kind of did that evaluation. I don't know the details of how that evaluation occurred but I think each school was evaluated on its merits and kind of what the prospective need would be not just now

043but going forward. Obviously now there's also I think just about 400 students so you know that will change over time but I don't So maybe this is a question for Dr. Franco. Do you think at any point during the process I think it was about 3 and 1/2 million dollars. Um We have 16 kids I think in the district. If this is something we felt we we don't necessarily need Jefferson. At what point in the process do we remove it? Yeah I mean that's I think that's tough to to say like right now. Um just because there's been so much forethought that has gone into this. And so and when you right when you design a building the reality is there's so much that goes into it in terms of projection and so many people

044um go into it in terms of like it's not what the building is now but what it has to last for several years and so I think that's the piece that I think that Steve was talking to in terms of your your other question around what do we do if it turns out it's not needed. Well you know that's the adjustment I think which potentially just have to make but we're going to build it according to what the input and the stakeholders felt that it is needed for the future. >> just pointing out that the book that the board framework specifically said only if there's a demonstrated need. So I just want to call that out. Yeah I if I can just add so we did have staff look into that and what was discussed

045was not just a demonstrated need at the school but also like what are what are the supports in the community to support teen parents and served in that in that area. And so I think that's the framework. And I think another key move which I appreciate is the building being moved from in a standalone building to inside the school because that means that that's usable space that we're able to reallocate differently if it isn't parent teen parent center. And I think that that opens up >> I think that's what we're trying to do even with the health centers right? How are we designing spaces that can be flexed to be used differently should there be a different demonstrated need. Um and then for on the budget page on the budget summary, so the range of

046potential savings that was presented to the board in April was 25 to 33 million. So we're seeing about 25 here. So we're at the low end of that range, but we've added an outside expert Presidio for the last 3 months specifically to cover Jefferson and to find additional cost savings. So I'm wondering um uh Sarah, have you been able to identify any additional savings aside from what staff uncovered? >> We actually have a We actually have a comprehensive plan that we're going to deliver, which is one of our deliverables that was talked at length at the last board meeting and we will have multiple options that we are investigating that will have cost data and schedule impact. And so we're we're looking forward to presenting that and by by October 10th. Okay. And so is

047it your opinion that right now that we'll see additional cost reductions? It depends It depends on what options the the board decides to to go with. Okay. If any of those options are viable to the community, if those options are viable to PPS and the board. Are those Is that anything that we would be voting on? At that Not at October 4th. >> Okay. So I assume that the next our facilities meeting is October 8th, I believe. So is the plan to do it at that meeting? I don't think we'll be voting on anything at that meeting either. No, not voting, but I think that update actually goes to the facilities committee as opposed to the the board. Is that correct, Rosanne? Um I actually The update would start here in the facilities committee meeting

048and if it's something that would require board action Yes, then we would. I'm so sorry. Sorry about that. I missed that. No, no, no, you're you're fine. I just wanted to make sure I knew what meeting it was. So it sounds like we'll be seeing some additional options for Jefferson um in a few weeks. Just a follow-up question to that. Um I'm wondering if the delays on this project any options are going to introduce any potential delays. No, that's the that's the idea is to provide options that would actually hopefully if you know, just we're going to present everything that's out there. And I want to just give credit to the team at OSM. This team has been working tirelessly for many years to get this project to fruition for the community and the kids

049and they they are trying to meet every criteria that is there. And so I definitely don't want to say some of that I mean that 25 million that or 20 almost 25 million that you're seeing there is the work of the individuals that are in OSM. That is who did that work. And so I don't want that to be lost. And the presentation that we're going to provide is just additional ideas that potentially that potentially the board could could execute and I identify and see if it would be additional cost savings, but no, the ideas and any of those ideas is to expedite schedule, not delay schedule. Absolutely not. >> And I just want to underscore that because I hear that it the the primary reason wasn't just saving cost, it was dual. It was

050looking for cost savings, but really to expedite the timeline for Jefferson High School because of the multiple delays. And so I think that will be included in the report, too. And I think by expediting on the timeline also then delivers some savings that and that I've been talking about the timeline from Jefferson probably the moment we began talking about the schedule plan. So So I will say that that is a key driver. And then the other thing, I too want to thank the team for getting to this point. I know that we began this journey when I began pushing back on the cost of the high schools when they were set at 490 and I know that brought in a lot of frustration and a lot of like you know, changing plans and redirecting. I

051appreciate the board trusting that and creating the framework so that we can find additional costs and I mean I'm excited that we're almost 25 million dollars later that that, you know, first question and push resulted in 25 million in savings. So I just appreciate the work around that. I got Okay. Um I had a comment. Not necessarily a question, if I may. Yes. Um my my comment was, you know, that 100 years ago school board school leaders imagined a future they couldn't even imagine. They invested in 81 plus campuses and buildings when Portland had population of a less than a third of of what it is today. And those buildings have gotten to be 100 years old in some cases 80 years old. And our board is tasked with the same type of future focused

052um decision-making where we can't see the population in front of us in 100 years. We can't see the need for teen center out 100 years. And so we have to like the like the former board members take that leap of faith and design for, you know, into the 22nd century. The other comment was just um I also don't want to do anything that causes delays. Um the patience is is thin on the delays. So that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we are going to move to Cleveland. And so Eric. Yes. Eric. Okay, Cleveland High School modernization comprehensive plan update. So as a reminder, this is an update to the comprehensive plan that was passed in 2024 by the bond. So that established the primary scope and approach to the project and this is the

053the update based on the board framework for cost reduction. So we'll be looking at kind of what our site opportunities and constraints are with Cleveland, the proposed building design, some of the area reductions during the cost reduction process. We'll look at updated floor plans, interior renderings, we'll look at the athletic fields and then our schedule, budget and then also some next steps. Next slide, please. So here's our Cleveland High School campus, which is a collection of three properties, distinct sites. We have the main school kind of at the center there along Powell Boulevard, which is a state highway. We have our Cleveland stadium, which is about four blocks away and then there's a parking lot across the street across 26th Avenue. And then not shown here, but just sort of below the main school is

054also Powell Park across the street that is important interest for the project. Next slide. So the the existing main campus building and site is it's the smallest site in the district that we have for for a comprehensive high school. You know, on the state highway there's sort of extra challenges with us with design and approvals. The you know, the current configuration of the building basically occupies the entire site. There's been little to no outdoor secure space for students. Recently some areas have been kind of fenced off to provide some secure space, but it's really not very desirable and we see that as one of the opportunities in the new design. Additionally, just with the the constrained site, even though we're surrounded by neighborhood, these this construction condition is more or less just like building in

055downtown Portland among high-rises. We have very little construction logistics and laydown space. So we have a lot of challenges just with construction itself. So our opportunities, main opportunities with the design are to create more open space for staff and students that is secure, as well as reduce the actual footprint of the building to reduce some of those construction logistics complications. Yeah, next slide, please. So there you can see the proposed building on the right, which is configured of two primary structures that are four stories. So we have kind of in the back of the image that is kind of our main building that's along Powell Boulevard that houses our large volume spaces such as a theater, gymnasiums and we have two levels of classrooms up above. Then the north building along Franklin Avenue that's a

056little bit more in our the residential side um has primary just classrooms and our main entrance and commons and servery. Next slide, please. So the Cleveland site has about an 18-ft grade change from the east side down to the west side. And so this is looking at that interior courtyard space that we've created where kind of the the eastern courtyard will step down and ramp down to get down to grade creating different areas for students and staff to to occupy space outside that's all within a secure perimeter. And then you see what we call the connector, which is a kind of small piece of building that's connecting the north and south buildings. Next slide. During the cost reduction study, you know, one of the primary you know methods we used to reduce costs, which was

057part of the board framework, was to get our building size down to approximately 295,000 sq ft with some adjustments we're able to get to 297, approximately 297,000 sq ft. You'll see the areas that are highlighted in yellow, which were more or less parts of the building that we just kind of removed from the design to reduce the square footage. Also on the on the right hand image where you see right where the cursor is. That was kind of in our big volume um auditorium spaces. We also reduced our basement construction area in that in that study as well, which was part of the board framework. Next slide. This is a program comparison that's looking at the education specifications. The the red bar is actually looking at Lincoln High School, which was used as kind of

058an example during discussions with the board and sort of right-sizing our project. So we're comparing to where Lincoln ended up and then the green bar is Cleveland High School and and that's looking at kind of how the program is spread across the education specifications give us the flexibility to make adjustments to accommodate the the programs on each site, which is why you'll see differences between different schools, but but more or less, you know, they kind of all add up to to a similar area. Next slide. So the the general organization of the the main level the the low I'd say level one where actually on the right side of the slide is the part of the site that's underground at that point where sort of under the hillside. So you see the the south building

059has our primary athletic spaces. We have our gymnasiums and locker rooms and fitness center and support spaces. We have the the courtyard that's between the the south building and the north building. This is the western courtyard that is more or less one level. So it all slopes down from the east and then on the west side is more of an open sort of one level courtyard with a large actual turfed grass area so that the fitness center can kind of open up onto that. And then we have our art classrooms on the other side of that courtyard space that have space they can open up onto. We've got an area for what could be a little outdoor stage and gathering spaces for the students. The north building there as you see has our art spaces.

060We have our health clinic, teen parent center, building support spaces and our CTE construction program. Next slide, please. And so this is moving up a level where we've got more student support and commons and administration on the the north building. South building is showing our performing arts and at our gymnasium that ring around the gymnasium space is showing a raised track, which is a an alternate within the aspects and we're hoping to add that to the project as currently alternate. Um that's really due to the the fact that we're four blocks away from our track and field that we'd really like to provide more facility for athletics and PE at the building. Next slide, please. And then looking up at the the the the level three and the level four is really just classrooms continuing

061up on both the north and south building. So you can go to the next slide as well. Um just a different organization of general classrooms, science classrooms, and CTE. Next slide, please. This is looking at the Cleveland stadium. So the existing track and field will stay where it's at. We will do some improvements to that and then we'll be expanding the grandstands, rebuilding the the existing field house, which is in pretty poor condition. And that new field house will also have a batting facility for baseball and softball because we currently don't have PPS baseball and softball fields. Get to that in a second. And then we're adding a turf practice field up in that northwest corner. These are some interior views. This is after you come in the main entrance to the building, you're you're

062walking past administration then you come into the commons area, sort of the you know, primary indoor gathering space for students. And the windows on the left are looking into the courtyard space. And this is coming around that commons area. We're now in the connector piece between the north and south building. Again, looking down into the the courtyard and the commons activity actually kind of extends around into the connector. Next slide. And then as we come around, this is the the at the same level. This is the lobby out in front of performing arts center. So the idea is that entrance from the north building wrapping around the connector and then into the south building kind of has a similar feel and quality of material and and daylight and furnishings to create that cohesive experience. Next

063slide. This is a view inside the gymnasium, the main gym looking at sort of what it will look like you know, with the bleachers retracted. You can kind of see the the track above. Next slide. And then this is up on the running track looking around seeing the the bleachers extended to what would be the center court. Next slide. Powell Park. So this is our current design diagram we have for the fields at Powell Park. We're looking at improving baseball field, a multi-purpose field that provides facilities for soccer and lacrosse. And then also adding a new softball field just to the east of that, which is the smaller field you could see that's kind of standing alone. So this is our sort of concept diagram that that leadership has taken to the the city to

064talk to parks about making arrangements to get this moving forward. We're currently getting the team set up to start the full design work as we move forward. Next slide. Looking at our schedule, similar to the last schedule you saw for Jefferson, you know, we're currently in design documents and we're getting into construction documents at the beginning of the year. We're starting our land use review process at just toward the end of October and going into building permits. We start off with moving the whole program out to the Marshall campus and then with demo and abatement as you saw from the aerial, we have a lot of building mass to do abatement and demo on. So we have a number of months to do that work and then we get into the new construction of the

065building. We are pushing the construction team to complete the Cleveland stadium a year before the main building so we can provide that facility to the school community. So we're looking at fall 28 for the stadium to open and then fall 29 for the building. Next slide. And then here is a summary of our budget compared to the board approved comprehensive plan from last year and the revised plan that we have now. As you see there's you know, some reduction in in hard cost based on the cost reduction study. But we've you know, we've also made adjustments to some of our other budget line items based on new information. We've got we reduced a little bit of our offsite utility cost information after speaking with PGE. Some of those requirements are not as much as we

066had anticipated. However, you know, we do have some additional soft costs related to design to redesign from the cost reduction study. Similar to what Steve mentioned, our FF&E furniture and equipment budget, we've increased that just for cost escalation what we're seeing in the market with increased costs. And then we also added some additional budget for work out of Marshall campus just understanding that that there's kind of more need to have work done at Marshall to accommodate the the program for Cleveland to move over. Somewhat kind of undoing some changes that were done by the Benson program and also just some upgrades that need to be done as that building needs to be ready for Cleveland. So the summary we have after all that is about 11 million dollars of savings. You know, we were at

067about 14 million and just the other budget shifts, you know, kind of um sort of counteracted some of that savings we received. And then you'll see that there is a 15 million dollar budget that was an allowance that was included in the 2025 bond for the Powell Park fields. So that's being included in the overall Cleveland project budget. So that's why you see that's why that's the highest budget number is because of that additional work at Powell Park. Next slide. So next steps, we're in our design development phase. We're ongoing design review with our PPS stakeholders. We'll have our next milestone documents issued on October 24th where our CMGC contractor and third party estimator will conduct another cost estimate process to you know, sort of validate where we are on costs. Our CMGC Skanska is

068um you know, we're working with them in pre-construction services and we're also going out for trade partners to bring in major subcontractors to work with us during design for pre-construction. And for community engagement, we have our design advisory group meeting. Next one is in two days on Thursday. Excited to get back with the community there. And then having an overall community design workshop on October 4th. And going out to Sellwood Middle School to talk to families there about the projects in October. Okay. Good job. Thank you. Lean over. It's okay. It's all right. I didn't say anything. I was about to say two claps. Questions. I always have questions, but Yeah. Is um the in the design and review process, are our special educators participating in that? Yes. Yes, at at at Cleveland specifically for

069their program needs and also coordination with with the district level. Okay. Thank you. No, I'm so thankful. Okay, I've got a couple. So it looks like I'm just curious like I definitely you know, the the Cleveland site is so challenging. I spent some time over there and I was just curious looking at the savings from the 2024 redesign knowing how small I think it's four acres, right? For the building that is so small. Um I would like to know your opinion about whether or not you think that this cost savings from reducing the amount of space, it's $11 million. Is it worth it for space that small, or should we keep the space? It's kind of what I'm wondering. Uh well, that's that's I I would say kind of a a high-level question as far

070as, you know, nuanced about its ed specs and the scope of our equity in our projects that we're building for all the high schools. Um I mean, we've been able to make the the program spaces that we need, you know, work within our reduced area. It It does provide some challenges. Um one of the reasons why our buildings grew a bit in this round of high schools is that we were applying lessons learned where some of the spaces within our ed specs maybe don't provide as much storage or as much support for certain spaces. Our gyms were a little bit smaller, so we're trying to right-size them. But the design team has done an amazing job of really kind of shifting things around to make sure that the areas that really needed that sort of

071extra attention have have received that, and we're looking at just how to be more flexible with storage and building support as well to kind of accommodate for some of the reductions. Do you know what the So Sorry. And if I can add, one of the things is we are down the road a bit on this current design, and we do not want to go go backwards. So I would I would say for what we have presented and what we are providing, meeting our technical specifications, our ed specifications, and equity across the district, the design that the design that has been presented is we've recognized the savings, which is our fiduciary responsibility, and at the same time we're meeting all our programmatic needs for the school itself. And so we definitely don't want to cause any

072type of hesitation with proceeding with proceeding with the design that is currently on the table, especially almost being to Um what did I just write down? 75% design development documents. So I just wanted to add that for context. So in terms of the ed specs, um what are the what are the ed specs for high schools? How many hundreds thousands square feet? 300,000 square feet? Are we meeting minimum ed spec in terms of total square footage? Well, the the ed specs are also nuanced because there are base requirements, then there are preferred and optional spaces. So there's a range from 281 to over 300,000 of of space that the ed spec provides, and so it's really our job to kind of right-size it for the schools, and based on the board framework that we received,

073you know, that was direction to kind of give us a limit within to utilize the ed specs within that area. And then, you know, for Jefferson, we're doing the fields first, and you know, we've heard from our friends at Cleveland Park for at least a year now telling us what a significant priority doing Cleveland Park now is to the community. So I see that the stadium is slated early for fall 2028, so a year early. What do we need to do to put Cleveland Park on the same schedule? The community's made that clear. I feel like we're still not seeing it. Is there actually a logistical problem, or are we choosing not to? Why Cleveland Park at the end versus tracking it with stadium? Well, well, first of all, I can say since Cleveland Park,

074you know, is not a PPS property, it's it's taking more time just to make arrangements and have communications with the right folks at the city to get the process started. We've already had an early assistance meeting with the review review bureaus at the city specifically regarding Cleveland Park, so we, you know, the design team is already starting on the work. We're getting proposals to you know, for the full scope of work. So the design team is is not delaying or or waiting. There's a there's a a lot a land use process that we have to go through. We we know we've seen challenges uh in other land use processes when we've been doing fields on Portland Parks properties, so we're anticipating that that may, you know, not be so fast. And also there are agreements

075that that the district and the city need to come to agreement on, which I imagine our city council and and mayor approval. So, you know, that those are high-level conversations that that I know that Deborah's been working really hard to to foster those along. And have to say Megan and her group have been great in from the community standpoint to really um help help get that momentum going. So Deborah, where are we with the city? Like what's They've had significant change, as you know, turnover in the office. Um almost every person that we've worked with over the years and developed relationships is no longer there, and they have a new person who's the head of parks. It's also not extremely clear, I think, who's on first. You know, we have they have this new new

076format. You you've seen what's happening. You You just have to pick up the papers to read what's going on at the city of Portland. So I think there's just a lot of confusion about who actually gets to make decisions over there. Um I did receive word from them today that they are going to be uh uh reaching out to our team ASAP. Um they've been saying that I definitely share, I'm sure, the Cleveland community's frustration, and um and we need to have continually and not be in a place where we seem to be able to connecting Connect the dots between PPS and the city. I'm not looking I'm not here to I'm not blaming anybody. I'm just wondering what the solve is to expedite the the communication. What can we do to help facilitate the

077communication between Having personally been through it with PPS and the city, what do we need to do to I I don't actually think there's anything much that that we can do besides what we are doing, to be honest. I think we all share their frustration. My kids all went through Cleveland. It didn't look like that. It didn't look like that when they went there. Um the mayor's chief of staff's daughter goes to Cleveland. I mean, we have we have a lot of um ways that we've been trying to attack this problem. I think it's just going to we just have to let them get their their act together. That is. Um is it possible that we could could we have a goal of trying to get Cleveland Park on the same timeline as the stadium?

078Is there would there be anything that would prevent it from happening? >> There's nothing on this There's nothing within design or construction or that is that we are stopping to not make it happen. >> Okay. But what is hindering us is an MOU with the with the Parks and Recs and city because we do not own the property. And then we have a 120-day land use land use that we've got to go through. So there are there are just things ahead of that that are hindering us from getting started, but everything on the design and construction side of the table we are pushing. >> Okay. So in terms of logistics, there's nothing that would prevent it from moving separately. Correct. >> Correct. Correct. I just wanted to make sure I didn't know I didn't miss

079something. That's why I looked at you. So Um and then let's see. The other one I just wanted to comment that I think that, you know, knowing how facilities are laid out there and having track and stadium, you know, four blocks away, I when I first saw the track, I was like, can we afford that? And then as we talked through it, I'm looking at it, it's actually a really interesting idea um for the students, knowing how far away it is, especially during the winter. So I kind of I love that idea. Just wanted to call that out. Is it from Cleveland West? Okay. All right, we >> are going to Thank you to move. Thanks, Eric. Good job. We're going to move to >> incredible, by the way, the Cleveland Alliance. I mean I

080It's incredible. I want to introduce yourself. Good evening. My name is Donna Bozarth. I'm the senior project manager for I B Wells. Okay. All right, and you Yes, I got you. For the agenda, we have very similar slides to the other two high schools that you just saw with the board framework that we'll start with, and then the plan overview, the schedule summary, and our next steps. Uh we know that you guys love these charts. So this shows the I B Wells square footage at the time of the comprehensive plan, we were up to 311,000 square feet. The ed spec is at 281,000, and as we've been talking about this evening, the board requested framework put us at 295,000 square feet, and so we are right about that exact target. This is a similar slide

081that you saw for Cleveland where we show I B Wells compared to Lincoln. Lincoln is that middle bar. I B Wells is to the right, and you can see where we're um pretty close there all the way across categories. Go ahead. How did we get to that 295,000 square feet? Our CTE spaces were right-sized. We adjusted some of the flexible learning areas, teacher planning and collaboration spaces. We adjusted some storage needs. Um we do have a health clinic, although we do not have the provider yet. We are PPS is working hard to find that provider, and so we're planning space on the main floor of the new building. Um Lincoln High School does not have a health clinic, so this could potentially serve the students in the Lincoln area as well. This school will not

082have a teen parent center, um but those services are offered at Lincoln. Okay. So, for our site opportunities and constraints on this site, there's several interesting uh features of this site. The topography is one. It slopes down about The grade changes about 60 ft from the right, or the east, down to the left, or the west. Uh the low portion is down there where Ricky Elementary sits on that far left corner of the site is Ricky Elementary with the drive in between the two school properties. Um the high school sits on the high end of the site there on the right. It kind of sits on on the crown of the hill, so to speak. If you look at the site access and transportation on the picture on the right, you can see where Southwest

083Capitol Highway is to the north. That's where the main bus stops are, and where most of the students that take the bus would be coming in. Uh Southwest Vermont Street is to the south. And that is where the current entry to the school is, and it will remain off of the Southwest Vermont Street. Um another key feature is the Wells pool, which is just about in the middle of the site in the northern part of it, right there in the middle. That is uh remaining in the same place, and we're not doing any work to the pool, which is run by uh Parks and Rec. Little better picture of the site. Um again, the existing school would be on the right, or the east side, where the baseball field is shown there now. Uh the

084parking lot to the southeast, there is an existing parking lot there. That parking lot will be getting a lot bigger. Um and that is to account for uh the trees that we're adding all all the way around the property. That ring road is there and will remain, but the improvements to the site include all of those trees being planted. Uh so, for all those trees being planted, it takes away a parking spot, and we are um going to be adding those back in that southeast parking lot. That means that the um total count of parking spaces will be just about the same as it is right now. Um yeah. I think uh we can go ahead to the next slide shows the sites as well. Yeah, this is perfect. Uh you can see that the

085track and field is on the north end of the site. That is where it exists now, and it will remain. Um the building is broken up into quadrants. It's uh nice and simple the way it's laid out. With the purple area there is all the performing arts. The yellow is the athletics, so that's the uh main gym and auxiliary gym. The blue represents what we call the south bar, which is the academics and administration and so forth. The white right down the middle is part of the building, the commons, which ties it all together. Go ahead. Another look at that. Um where you come in to welcoming entry from that southeast parking lot there on the right. And you come into the commons. We're taking advantage of the topography. The building does step down to

086the left, or to the west. Um and then we'll have lots of beautiful windows there to the views to the west over that multi-purpose field. It's right where it says views to the west. There there's going to be a nice um section cut drawing, too, that we can show through that commons area. Okay. Here's the building section. So, um this is the entry way is there on the left if you came in the main entry, and you can see where as you travel through the building, it opens up to a beautiful two-story space. It'll be light and bright, and students can spill outside um to that covered terrace area and have lunch and out after school, or whatever. Um we have a couple of exterior renderings. Um this is really meant to see the massing

087of the building and the size and scale. It's not meant to depict any of the finishes, as those haven't been selected yet, but this is what it looks like from that southeast parking lot, so towards the main entry. That main entry is in the middle there. And the next slide shows the opposite view looking from the track and field corner of the building. And that area that's two-story commons is right there in the middle. Lots of glass there, and the area where the students can come outside and enjoy outdoor space. So, this is the main level. Um this just shows a little bit more detail for you. Where you come into that white white space represents the commons and lobby area. There's an upper commons and opens up to the two-story commons to the left.

088The yellow are the gymnasiums. The main gym is on the lower level. The auxiliary gym is on the main level. The purple represents um performing arts spaces, so theater, band, choir, and so forth. Uh pink in the front is the administration. Uh light blue and pink. Uh that whole bar is mostly academic with the media center is um to the to the west there in the corner, yes. So, pretty easy to find. With the health clinic is also on that main level. So, the arrow on the south is the entry um where you can go directly towards the health clinic in the center of main level. This is the lower level, or terrace level, that we were talking about where that commons space is on the lower level with the kitchen servery directly adjacent. Um

089also to the south there, you can see the wood shop and maker space, and that has areas where they can come outside and do outdoor work as well in an outdoor yard. Um building support is tucked in um to the southeast there, and the yellow shows more of those athletic spaces, including wrestling room, weight room, and then some athletic storage and team rooms, locker room, and toilet shower areas. This is also a great opportunity where we've provided the entrance to the main gym um from the north, so that you can come into the building that way, too, and not necessarily have the entire building opened up for those weekend tournaments and so forth. Loading zone is there off the south of Vermont. Um you can see it in the southwest corner. So, um very easy

090access to the building support, kitchen servery, and wood shop. This is the second floor. As we step up on that south bar, you see um most all of the classrooms. And it's got some CTE CTE spaces. Some flex spaces are on the ends. And the fourth, or the third floor, looks about the same. If you go to the next floor, essentially the same with all the science classrooms up there on the top. Some nice renderings of the interior. The top two photos show what it would look like inside that commons. On the left, that's a view again uh that two-story space, how it would look from the upper floor. On the right is how that looks from the lower level, looking out again at that beautiful view. And then some spaces of the corridors are

091shown down below. Again, no materials are depicted. Next slide. So, the overall schedule that you've seen before compared to the other schools, um all three schools are planned to be open August 2029. We are just finishing schematic design documents and moving into design development. Um we look We're it's looking like we'll be moving in for the fall of uh 2029, and then the following year we would finish up with the site work, demoing the building, um and having that fields and site work complete by August 2030. So, on the budget summary, um when you saw this last, we were saving uh approximately 3 million to 15 million when you saw it in the spring. Um currently, we're saving approximately 5.6 million there in the lower right. Um Our hard costs did drop significantly from 359

092to 345. We are currently in the middle of VE exercise right now. Um just really getting started. Uh we do have two cost estimates that just came in. Both of them came in high, but we're working to bring that down in this VE exercise. So, um we're approximately 8% or 25 to 28 million over that 345 target for hard costs, but again, we're working to bring that down, and that's not unusual as we go into VE. Um For our owner direct hard costs, I can talk about what's included in that that you can see there where we're utilities costs, additional right-of-way and public improvement improvements which are still being worked on with the city. There's some things that have not been finalized with our current plan. Soft costs includes includes design engineering consultant services, permitting,

093insurance, etc. And that also includes some added redesign costs as we went back to the drawing board. Uh as part of the cost reduction study, we did find a lot of ways to find savings, but um there was also some details that weren't worked out as part of the cost reduction study. So, that's why we didn't have the savings quite as large as we had hoped. But again, we're still working on those costs. Um we'll have more information very very soon. Really by the end of this month, we'll be there. Um Uh as far as the numbers that went up in soft costs, other things that went up, we did talk to to furniture suppliers, got a better idea of what escalation is going to look like. Um We have adjusted the schedule. We're out

094a year farther than we were before. So, that did add significantly to some of our soft costs. That escalation is included in the hard and soft costs that you see there. Um And like I said, we're expecting those um new numbers by the end of this month. That's noted there at the bottom. And then for the next steps, like I said, we're in this value engineering workshop right now. So, we'll have some more information very soon. Those two cost estimates we just got and we're just just being reconciled. The two estimates are within about 6% of each other, which is good. Um but again, both of those estimates were high. So, we'll work to bring those numbers down. Uh for community engagement, we have a DAC meeting on the 25th, community design workshop in October,

095and information table events that are ongoing including a back to school night tonight at I.B. Wells. Any questions? Great. So, for the for the value engineering, so the two costs that you said you mentioned came in a little bit higher. Are those reflected in the budget summary or They are not. The budget summary that you see here is at the end of the cost reduction study. We were looking That has the target of 345. That's the hard cost. The hard costs that we're coming in right now where we sit, it's about 25 to 28 million higher than that 345. Yeah. But we did It does reflect where we think those soft costs have have made changes and where we think we're at for the grand total. >> I appreciate you that calling that out now.

096So, thank you for the transparency. Any questions from friends? Comments? That looks like Patty's got it. Patty's got the Yeah. I just had a a question about the health providers. Do both Cleveland and Wells already have a health provider that will stay? Cleveland has a health provider that will stay and they do have that letter of agreement. Wells does not have a provider and so this the district is working hard to find that partner. Oh, actually I meant Jefferson. Do they have one? Jefferson does, yes. And it would stay. Okay, great. Thank you. Just to be just for the board, I just want to make sure. So, um knowing that we're still working for a provider looking for a provider, I think we're moving forward hoping that we'll be able to secure that, but we

097don't have that yet. But just also wanting to call out the extra costs and knowing that we're not yet at a cost savings for I.B. Wells. Is that Is that Is that any concerns on that? Sounds like they're in the middle of it. So, we're not quite finished with the process. So, I appreciate the acknowledgement. Yeah. And I would add that we were the lowest budget of the three schools. Well, should be. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So, we're going to I'm going to call up Heidi and Marshall to talk about athletics. Oh, I'm sorry. Can I just ask a question? I know you're the lowest prices represent. You all aren't There isn't a a plan to move the field though, right? Just replace >> moving the track and field. We're staying at that site.

098the athletic field like Cleveland and Jefferson. with the whole There's still work that a lot of work that needs to be done there. >> I'm just saying that those are those are those can't be compared. >> It's not being moved. I mean, I just want to I want to acknowledge that, too. I don't want to be misleading in the fact >> Yeah, but I I can also say though that there is enough cost associated even with keeping it where it was that it didn't create the savings that we thought initially. But we found other savings across the site when we went back to the drawing board and redid the site and the building. So, >> No, I I think I just wanted to say there's danger in comparing the sites as if it's apples to

099apples. >> Right, there's yeah. So, I just want to make sure that even though there might be some fluctuations between the sites, they're also uniquely different. Yes. That I just I don't want community to grab onto that and say, well, like what I.B. Wells Right. We don't want to think that you know, that our property is getting any less than the other schools or they're getting more, anything like that. Everyone is very different and um and we do have the largest property, but then we all have different things, right? Like we will not have the teen parent center. So, there's just lots of differences. You can't really compare all three schools. Well, we look forward to the the cost savings that will eventually come. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Yes. Any

100questions from Kirsten or just split? Um text or email? Well, she said she assumed someone would ask about the farmers market. It's a great question. Why don't I ask about the farmers market? Sorry, it's I'm like, psych, we're not quite done yet. So, we're going to the farmers market. So, come back up. We've been getting bombarded uh with back in the community about keeping the farmers market open. I I personally actually really familiar with that site. I understand where it is. I understand why it's important. Um Is there where we are Is this Is this a possibility? Has that been a hard no? Like what Just Give us Um the farmers market has been told for a very long time that they will not get a contract during our construction. So, they are able to

101stay through next summer until through October of next year. Um After and and then we've also told them that they're very welcome to come back after construction. But during construction, we've really felt that the safety and risk concerns um it would really be best for them to not be on the site on Sundays during construction. There's There's just It's a construction site and we don't normally have those community partners at any of our sites during a con- So, I I'd like to follow up with the question because I received I want to acknowledge the fact that I receive multiple emails a day on the farmers market. And one of the trends that I'm noticing in the communication is that what what I'm hearing reported is that the um contractors construction group has said that they

102are not recommending for the farmers market to move that we're recommending it and so they feel like there's a conflict in um the communications. So, whether it's PPS recommending for safety or contract or the CMGC or group or whoever that body uh folks would be are recommending. I think it's creating a lot of confusion and generating a lot of emails. So, I wonder if we can have clarity on that. And and are we I thought it was still in exploration stage or we at a place of saying that it's a a done deal and there's no No, Dr. Ranson, we are still entertaining some other ideas. I met with Lacy and I met with some of our park um partners as well about trying to find some other solutions as opposed to them completely removing.

103So, the deal is not done yet. We are still looking at solutions for the farmers market. So, when you say other solutions, are you talking about helping secure a different site? >> Either staying on site or finding a local one that's comparable. So, it isn't So, it isn't a hard no. For me, no, it's not a hard no and our real estate team. We're still working on it. >> Okay. And for the contractor saying it could be on site. PPS is saying we'd rather not. And we're exploring solutions. The contractors have some logistics planning that they've been doing and some of those plans do not allow for that parking lot to be used for that. And so, that that is still um I'm just hoping that I appreciate that. I'm just hoping that we can

104get clarity so that when we communicate out whatever the final decision is, that we there's some ownership on who said what. And that community is clear because as they've mentioned in multiple emails, it's a significant part of that community and um um they're they're in a prize work. Absolutely. We will discuss that with our CMGC consult that's on board for with Wells and we'll make sure that we're all on the same clarification of what that what that messaging is. Absolutely. And Tom, I'm glad you brought up the possibility of helping them relocate cuz I was actually going to ask about that cuz there are there is are parts right there right about the JCC parking lot, you know. It it spaces that are right there that So it felt first >> also focused on helping

105our trials partners as well. Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Athletics update. I'll Heidi and Marshall. You guys want to introduce So I'm Marshall Haskins, senior director of athletics. I'm Heidi Bertman, senior program manager for planning and design. So we're here to share with you the preliminary implementation strategy for the 2025 bond athletics program. Um there are six sites that we're improving. And this first page, since the biggest question we get is what's happening when, this first page is just a super clean narrative breakdown showing you when construction planning and permitting will be happening on each one of these sites. Um on this first page, you'll see that some of those have a little asterisk next to them. Those are sites where the work is coordinated with or associated with a modernization. That

106does not mean that it's under the umbrella of the modernization budget. Um and you'll see on the next page kind of what I'm talking about. Yes, ma'am. All right, here we go. This is the meat of it. So getting to that idea right away of what's happening when. 2025, uh we see a dark blue and we see some gray and we see some light blue. The different colors, there's a key down there on the lower right-hand part of the page. So each one of these projects has a planning that's a super broad statement to address the early planning, the scoping, and the land use processes that need to happen for these projects. We have permitting when you actually have a design and you go in there and you apply for your site development building permit.

107And then the dark blue is the construction that you'll actually see on the site. So this first look, you'll notice uh the first question I got back when I shared this was what are those diagonal lines next to Jackson Hub? I'll explain those in just a split sec. Um starting at the top, the Grant Lights, which we've discussed um I've heard discussed in this setting before. I haven't been here with you doing that. Um it's been the team working on it. We have uh Grant seating. Roosevelt, we've broken it up into two different projects because they have different intensity and permitting requirements. We have West Sylvan Middle School field improvements, Marshall Hub, Jackson, Franklin upper field, the Jefferson Early Fields and Powell Park are shown on here even though they're not part of the athletic

108package. Obviously, this all relates to what that experience is for our community. So we've included them here for context. So a couple things to note, I'll explain the diagonal lines. Um so the light blue, there's a very short light blue portion there associated with Jackson. That's because we saw this coming and we were able to carve out some capacity and work on the uh conditional use master plan approvals with the city of Portland. So that early land use approval is already complete and Jackson Hub can move straight into implementation. Um they need to work on um the permitting and that diagonal hashed line that you see on the medium blue with a little bit of dark blue, that indicates that the team um project manager who's looking at this with us anticipates some early construction

109packages to get that hub in place. And that's also why we see some kind of white and dark blue hatch there at the end. Um if all things go well and we know that until you're in in it, you don't know. Um but hopefully that stuff can be ready for uh spring of '27. We'll see. Um we don't know what parts and pieces are going to be easier to get constructed first yet. I'm all set. Any questions? I have a shot. I have a couple. Um for uh the Grant Lights, are we still tracking for I know that December 1st was a really aggressive >> I'm still working on I was I was a little worried when you said that. I was like, I don't know if he knows what he just said. No, so

110our our Bora partners, our amazing Bora partners finished the design ahead of schedule. Uh these next 2 weeks are going to be very critical. They're going out and doing sites and we're really going to be leaning hard on our our friends at Portland Power. So by this probably about Wednesday or Thursday of next week is when if if that that schedule isn't going to be able to meet our December goal, uh that's what I'm going to be asking to help. Okay, great. Um let's see. Already covered Powell Park um and what we need to do to try to compress that timeline and move it up. And uh so I've got two other things. Let's see. So I know, you know, just uh with this spreadsheet, like I know when I look at some of these,

111you know, Grant High School seating or Marshall Hub field and lights, do they actually include more than that? Um those are kind of the big pieces, but there are things like, you know, scoreboards or PA or, you know, I don't think that Marshall Hub, do they actually have bleachers? Like or is it just I don't know if they have a I know that there's some of these have a little bit more than what we're seeing. Can we get a little more granular next month and break it down to like what what they include? what they all really include? Like what what are you including in the land use application? Absolutely. Yeah, we've got um we have a lot of detail and the bond planning backup that we can pull up for review. And um every

112time you see field, that actually means a few things, right? There's there's some finer print under every one of these topics. Um so yeah, we can certainly flesh out what this means in a little bit more detail. Absolutely. Great. And then um on the slide before this, uh you noted um middle schools planning uh pending funding. Um I know that you have some ideas in terms of like what you would like to see from middle schools. Um I'd love to see that as a committee. Um I think that is um you know, a really um interesting spend, low cost, high reward um for spaces like that. I would if if you have time between now and the next meeting, maybe the calendar for next meeting, perhaps November, I'd love to see what your your dream

113plan would be. Like there were five middle schools that you wanted to what that would look like and what, you know, you know, rough budget would be associated with that. Is it 10 million? Is it 15 million? Like what is it? Um Well, I think um in our long-term facility plan, we that's all listed out, planned out, prioritized. Uh but we can't bring the uh specifics. We went over that today in terms of the specifics what they are and we also what Powell Park would be prices might be. Our intent would be if there's money left over that then we would go to the prioritized middle school list and then just walk through that list making sure that we provide um equitable access across the city. Um we have some projects that were done on

114the west side based on the fact that we completed high schools and they were part of the high school plan. So we would need to go to the east side if we have additional dollars to make sure that we have some middle school things. I I do think there's one other piece I guess I'd like to add is uh I think we have a Heidi and I have done a good job. Heidi's done When I say we, Heidi, but Heidi and I have done a good job of putting this together, but part of this still is going to be predicated on our ability to staff the it to get done. So if we have project managers available, it'll be able to expedite. If we don't, then it won't. So this is the timeline that we

115we we think is feasible. Still the devil be kind of in the details of staffing. So are you anticipating challenges as far as staffing goes to meet these timelines or is that something Well, I don't want to put I don't want to put my colleagues on the spot, but I'll say that uh the staffing doesn't come out of our department. That's John's question. I think I mean, we're we're presenting this timeline for a reason. Is that I mean, it is a priority as with all of our projects and so it's it's a goal and so within any of our projects, we have to staff, right? So that means as we cycle off, you know, certain projects, we staff. So that's what we plan to do and so we have to generate a staffing plan. And

116some of these like I mean, I will say I'm reading some of like just looking at the Roosevelt grandstand, that's, you know, over 2 years away from project completion. That's a long time. It is. Um Is there any opportunity to not have it take so long. Well, we are trying. We're looking to find every opportunity, for sure. I just I bring those up because these are those projects that, you know, kids see when they're in high school and they you know, they move in and they move out through the system before they ever even have a chance to have the experience. So, um again, like some of our lower cost stuff that we're only talking about small stuff. So, I like to just add that from an athletic perspective, even if it takes a little

117longer, we're just so ecstatic that it got done. I mean, Roosevelt started, I think was completed in the first bond, and their field was just now getting done, right? So, we did prioritize some of that in in our in our thinking. Um but, we are we are recognizing that there is a process, and we figured out with our principals that even though you're on the list, you know, you might be first up, but if the permitting or the planning or whatever happens, uh it could be altered based on on that. Well, I know I know that you have a sense of urgency around it, so uh anything, you know, we can do, send it. I understand that, and uh you know, we'd like to see those smaller projects get done as quickly as we can.

118Um any questions from you guys on this? Yeah, I had a question. Um is the the West Sylvan Middle School uh field improvements are also important to Lincoln, right? They use those or planning to. Yeah, so both um Lincoln and Jackson are being used for the high school. So, Lincoln uh West Sylvan is the only other field over there in the community that we can use as like three for high school cuz they only have one field. And most of our other high school sites have multiple fields. And then Jackson serves both as a swing site for Wells while they're building, and then it's a it's a hub for every for really for the whole district, but it looked like it's for for the west side, but it's really district cuz everyone can go there.

119Okay, thank you. Okay, um let's see. Where's my Let's scratch. Okay, so Good. Thanks. Yes. So, last item would be um the 2025 bond and um OSM planning uh since we've got a lot of new news last week. Uh you know, we were at the board meeting last week and um Dr. Armstrong stated that staff will bring forward a new OSM staffing plan um that will name CDO as the lead for 2025 bond implementation. And I just want to start by recognizing uh that you've stepped into this leadership at a time when the PPS is facing very urgent and very complex challenges, and I really appreciate um your commitment to moving quickly on these projects. Um so, my comments are not about questioning leadership or intent um at all, but more about the process and

120oversight. Um Presidio received their initial contract for 149, five, which was just under the board approval threshold. And um soon after last week, um we approved another contract for nearly half a million dollars um before we had the opportunity to see results from the first contract. So, I know we you know, we all felt the tension at that meeting. Um it was a lot of pressure, it was confusing, and uh community members and even staff were concerned um that PPS didn't conduct its own competitive RFP process. So, and just for context, so I'm not putting you on the spot or anything like that. So, that's not personal or anything like that, but um when Presidio bid on Fort Worth's their 750 million dollar bond, and um there were eight firms that competed for that business,

121and Presidio received a 50 million dollar piece of business. Um we were just in California, we visited um New Canton High School, it was amazing, and I asked their board chair about um the RFP process uh for the schools and the project management, and they are legally required uh to have that RFP process in the state of California. It's a big deal. And so, my concern is that here in Portland, uh we're weeks away from potentially making, you know, multi-million dollar commitment based on the same percentages Fort Worth, that would be 70 million dollars, without even testing the market. So, um I just want to say to be clearly, the district needs significant help to manage the 2025 bond effectively, and I really support your recognition of that need. Um but, I do have concerns

122about handing out a sole source contract of this magnitude um without real due diligence. Um Presidio may be the right partner, I'm not saying they're not, but right now, we can't demonstrate that to the public. Um and I want to push back on the idea that our board oversight causes harmful delays. I've heard that a few times, and uh oversight is not it's not second-guessing our leadership, it's ensuring transparency and protecting public trust. And I don't believe that our reputation will be rebuilt with speed alone. Um we'll be rebuilt with competition, openness, and uh responsible stewardship of our taxpayer dollars. And you know, to that end, um I would really love to see um what steps and a timeline would look like for an open competitive PPS-driven um RFP process for OSM leadership and staffing.

123What would that look like? Um we don't know. At the board meeting, we heard that there are six open positions, we don't know what they are. Um we'd like to know what they are. Um anticipated board vote dates for any staffing contracts. Um I know we discussed this, too, but just want to reiterate the deliverables tied to um the initial Presidio contract and also the one that we just approved. And um and then, you know, we just passed uh a lobbying registration policy. So, I think for transparency, it's going to be important for us to have the dates and participants uh and meetings between Presidio and PPS staff since the first contract was signed. And I think it's important um I'm raising these questions not out of mistrust um at all, but out of respect

124for uh the superintendent's leadership and just the scale of what lies ahead. And I think by addressing these issues now, we can stand alongside you building a bond program that our community can trust and support. I think these things are not personal comments, and uh I really hope you'll consider uh I just have a couple questions, just a couple responses, because I think some things you mentioned are um actions that we've already taken. So, I just want to be clear in what you're asking. And I appreciate, I mean, I I am I always uh respond to to calls to action, whether I agree or disagree with it, and I want to be clear. So, last week, the proposal, the contract that we had before the board, was taking uh moving the contract from being a

125singular focus to a focus on three schools. And we know that we needed to act pretty quickly, and that um we didn't want to lose step, and so that there aren't any delays or any of those things. And so, that which was uh voted on and approved is why we have um interim senior director uh Sarah actively involved with the team and helping to move the work. All the other things that you talked about about uh the next phase of work and what's happening, I've already had a conversation with board leadership. We already plan to have conversations about the RFP, it's a timeline, it's not new. I think from my um role as as superintendent, right? I mean, you hire me to to lead the district, and and that's what I'm doing. And so, I

126know that there's been lots of press and lots of chatter online about like what's happening, and you know, um all the different things, and I, you know, read and and pay attention to those things, too, but um I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, because everything that you mentioned is already planned. So, I just want to be clear. And are we on a past decision, or are we talking about future stuff? >> conversation with board leadership last week, And and you probably wouldn't be, because it's me with board leadership talking about the plans and the next step of things. >> when I had my meeting last week, I asked about whether or not there would be uh an RFP for additional work, and you said no. Has that changed? Well, I don't know if I

127under fully understood what your question was then, if I was at a hard no. I think I had said that we were going to bring some things back for you all um to eventually approve. So, I don't I may have misunderstood. >> work from an outside partner, will there be a PPS-led RFP process? Yes, there will be. There's Yes. That is news to me, that's great news. >> Well, that's because we have to wait for the updates, right? I mean, I'm I'm just I'm being respectful and just saying that like if I'm if I'm charged to lead, then I need to have space to lead and be able to get communication to people, because I think we want to provide the updates and make sure that folks have the information to be able to do

128their board business, and I need information and distance to be able to do the work of the superintendent. I think everybody's giving that space. I think we're in a position where we're making big decisions with little notice and not all the information. So, it sounds like you're preparing an RFP process. Yes, we've already talked about it, legal's already on it. We have some conversations that we need to have. I talked to uh Chair Wong and uh Vice Chair DePass about it already. I mean, it's conversations that are happening and was going to be provided in an update as soon as we were able to come together and have a conversation. It's still I mean, it wasn't just kind of expanding upon that. I mean, there were some direction that was they're still exploring. So, the

129reason there hasn't been much communication about it yet is because they're still trying to figure out, you know, dotting the i's and trying to figure out what what are the best avenues to do it. And once that happens, we're happy to share. Yeah. And had I known this was a topic, I could have prepared some information that would have been a little more detailed, but I didn't know that this was a I added it at the last minute because it's keeping me awake at night and I was working on the what happened at the board meeting when you said no that there wouldn't be a RFP process. So, I'm happy to hear that that's changed. So. I I also, you know, want to add in also push back because there's there's different kinds of oversight.

130And I I want to reiterate that oversight is the job of the board. At the same time, we also have to know what kind of oversight we're talking about. For example, oversight to check, you know, the this is public money. So, the board's job is to oversee the budget to make sure there's no thing no such thing such as corruption or ethics violations going on. That's one kind of oversight. Then there's another kind of oversight where we're talking about a potential dipping into, for example, managerial decisions, whether or not to approve certain contracts. And that that is something that is something that the board really is not well suited to do because we are not in the, you know, we don't see the big pictures. We are volunteers. We have limited time. You know, we

131don't see all the intricacy. So, I guess one of the one of the things I want to kind of just kind of provide context for is that, you know, we've tried a lot of this kind of board meddling in in contracts and approval stuff for the last since 2012. I remember as a teacher that you see, you know, things keep going back and forth and it was very ineffective. And, you know, one thing that we've we've learned from tons of these conferences is that um uh having a board support, you know, the it's a different system. We the board is sorry, the superintendent is an employee of the board. We charge superintendent to do a job. And um you know, what kind of boss are we if we're constantly if if our if employees constantly

132feel like they're being, you know, second-guessed on I'm not I'm sorry, I'm not arguing against what you're saying. >> second-guessing anything and I don't think that this this is what oversight looks like. So, when we see >> But is the oversight so that you can say yes or no to certain directions or is the oversight to check if there's ethics violations going on? >> the word board meeting. We're going to approve a contract that's worth $70 million and potentially we have one bid and one option. Did we do our work? But we're not there yet. I think that's the the the biggest thing. I mean, >> But that was the plan a week ago. Well, no, because we don't have anything on the I mean, I may have said some some things about what we

133were planning to do or what we were looking to do. I could have been a little caught up in the moment, but I mean, at this point, we don't have anything in the agenda. We don't have anything on board books. There isn't any um record of of any agreement anywhere. So, I mean, at this point, what we needed was help from a group that, you know, we all believe in can deliver on what we're asking them to do in the interim while we get in place a model that allows us to outsource the work of our three high schools. Um and so, just needing time to do that. I mean, there's some legal pieces. There's a team of folks that are involved in that conversation. I wanted to make sure that I understood um from

134Chair Wang and uh Vice Chair DePass um kind of where they were sitting and debriefing after or what their feelings were after the board uh the board meeting. So, And part of the point of that leadership meeting, you know, I have gone around I've asked separate board members individually, you know, you included. I shared your frustrations. I shared uh Director Chase Miller's um uh sentiments as well as, you know, uh Director Soliday. You know, I I've I've talked to everyone individually and that's what I shared at that. And and from that, you know, there was a decision to explore that look into how to to go about the RFP process. So, there has been it is you know, as the board chair, my job is to be responsive and to uh understand the direction and

135the sentiment of the board and fulfill that. And this is kind of like the best of both worlds that we we try to figure out. At the same time, I also want to respect that there are other board members that also want to keep moving on and have this done as soon as possible and support um this difficult work. So, to kind of respect both at the same time, um this is kind of the the option that we I do want to clarify, too. Thank you for that, Chair Wang. But I do want to clarify that I initiated the conversation on the RFP. Yes. And it wasn't that you brought it to me saying, "Hey, this is what people want to do." I came to you and said, "Here's where we're at. What are your

136thoughts? What are your feelings? What are your reactions?" So, I I just want I want to confirm that. I think you said that, but I just wanted to be clear that it that it wasn't as if, you know, I had to be told this. I mean, I think Yeah, so. Some of the things we need to do today where all on the same page. Yes. And I think that's part of this isn't helping debate. I don't know. I wouldn't say that we're on the same page, but I'll respect for the conclusion of this conversation. And I mean, I'm just excited for us to get moving. I think the the the work, the ramp-up to get to this place of cost savings from the three high schools, figuring out how we could put those funds in

137the seismic projects. I mean, I know that you weren't here on this journey with me when I first started, but and I don't often like say publicly like, "Hey, I initiated this. Hey, I initiated that." It was a conversation that I started when I was first hired and I stayed on, how can we reduce the cost so that we could do more across Portland? How can we go faster on Jefferson? I've said that in every public space that I've been in. I've even said I'm exploring options on how we can accelerate Jefferson. These are things that I've been consistently saying since I've been selected as superintendent. So, like I just want to be clear, right? It's like I I want folks to come on the ride in the journey and be excited that we're moving

138and that there's progress, but I also need to note that, you know, there's teams of people that have been in this with me for over a year or at least since I've been here for 14 months. And I mean, I I think it's important to just recognize and and call that out. And and I'm sorry if I'm a little frustrated, but I think when we think about this work and as a team and the purpose of this facilities committee is our hope is that the team can bring information so the board is informed, but I also want to know if it's going to be a place where there's like some slight redirection or refuting of work that's happening in public meetings so that me and my team can prepare better. Definitely refuting of work. Any

139other questions? Um future agenda topics? I think probably anything that you want to add now or anything else? Um one quick thing about I just want to clarify about the mass timber memo. It seems like that is the direction that it's going forward, right? Because it seems like the costs benefit came out pretty even or close to. And that is direct that's the direction that the DAGs are going and the buildings are going. All all three all three modernization high schools have a um hybrid structural system that will have mass a mass timber components. >> Okay. And so, that is exactly that is where the design is headed and what we're currently working through. Those are all on the table for budgeting and through our VE process, but yes, that's what that memo and we

140weighed all of those items within that memo. It's a very detailed memo provided Um it's it's quite a few pages long and uh the report actually prepared by Bora was quite quite long as well. And so, um but yes, that is the direction currently. >> Okay. Any questions regarding that? Um no, I'm I'm I'm excited for it because mass timber just seems really cool. It is. Okay. So, our next meeting uh the Facilities Improvement and Oversight Committee is October 8th and this meeting is adjourned.