001Now we have the MacArthur Project. I was waiting for the little drum roll. Because I know that's the moment everybody's been waiting for. The next step, but not the last step by any means. That's right. Dr. Hutchings. And I wanted to reiterate that, you know, this is the next step but not the last step. And it's so important for us. I mean, this is definitely a milestone for the work that we're doing with Douglas MacArthur, but it is not by far the last thing that we are going to talk about. And there's a lot more that happens in regards to the schematic design that occurs after this process. Today, I have asked for our COO, Ms. Mignon-Anthony. join us we also have our consultants who are here with us and we are hoping that we
002can spend this time to really talk through any questions that board members may have about these options i know you all had an opportunity to hear from our neighborhood associations today but the goal is to try to really focus on any clarifying questions that board members may have regarding the two different concepts and because we have our consultants and our COO and project manager here with us, we're going to be able to respond to those questions so that we can get a vote on the concept. So I'm going to turn things over to Ms. Anthony at this point. Good evening, Board. So we're here tonight to ask for your vote on the concepts for the Douglas MacArthur project I wanted to first commend and really strongly commend Our project team miss Erica Gulick who's leading
003the effort with mr. Paul um B and our architect staff with DLR and of course scans to our scans good construction who has joined the team Be and and I can't forget finance and mr. David Bank because since you all approved the swing space last April they have moved extremely quickly to accelerate this project and bring it to a point in design where we're hoping to go to the city with a permit DSUP request first in March with a final concept citing and then in September in preparation actually to be in construction this time next year and uh... during the summer coming up uh... we would be starting to demolish the building after the school and the children are physically moved over to douglas mcarthur uh... at taney avenue so that's a really big feat
004we've had continuous meetings with the city to make sure that we're in concert with them. They're working extremely closely with us to help us accelerate the process that they have to go through in considering all the different planning. The concept designs for Douglas MacArthur are concepts. They will actually identify, as you know from the Y in the forest. concepts where on the site and the type of square footage and the amount of estimates that we think that we're at with the project at this time but there will be as our as the board memo reminds us are that the concept designs while they are formative they are preliminary that there will be adjustments to you know the positioning on the site to the material that will be proposed in the schematic during the schematic design
005to exactly where the classes and how many classes there are to how much outdoor space is on the outside and where it is pretty much follows our ed specs, but there are some fine-tuning adjustments that will take place after you decide which concept we want to go with. We've made a lot of discussion. We've had a lot of discussion, as you know, about the various elements of the co-location issues and all of the elements of what's going to be on the site. And we've engaged the community, the PTAs, the advisory group. our school-based team, all of whom seem to very much prefer the forest concept, and they want us to do some revisiting of the positioning of the fields and the play area. I mean, that really sums up what we've heard from all of
006those stakeholders. Our request, I think you all have this proposal, is to answer your questions tonight and see if there's anything you want to zero in on so that we can discuss the next steps. Anyone have questions? Ms. Lorber? Sure. First, I... Want to thank you and the team and everybody that it has been an incredibly rigorous Community involvement process and I've had the pleasure of being the board liaison to the advisory committee So that's been a special I've been really delighted to be able to do that and because I was on the committee But a liaison from the board and because I knew we would be voting I was very careful I was trying not to be too outspoken about what my preferences were But yes, I've also received now lots of lots of
007many many emails I'm sure we all have that indicate more of a preference for the forest concept and though I was pleased to hear that that there people feel so comfortable with all the work that's been done they feel either could work but I have to say I am hearing a strong preference for the forest and my I have two questions The first one is I've gotten a number of inquiries about the green building, what do we call it? Okay, green building policy, 2019 green building policy, and that people want us to be sure that we're keeping that in mind. So could you respond to that? Talk about that a little bit. What do we tell them? Certainly. What we tell them is that about six months ago, the city of Alexandria adopted an Environmental
008Policy Act, and we are moving. So one of the interesting things is that the school system has always had to, I'd say for these last modernization projects, perform or design the schools in compliance with LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. at a silver level. There's bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Net zero, which for those who don't know, means that the school produces as much, I mean it generates as much energy as it produces and uses, is like three steps beyond that level. The work that DLR has done does make the school net zero ready. Net zero ready means that the school will be designed in order for us to implement a net zero program which takes about five years to actually implement. One of the things we have to do if we become net
009zero and add solar panels and add those things, both of the concept designs have been designed so there's as much Roof space as possible to get the sun's energy in order to collect what it needs to be ready to generate this policy So the answer to your question is the school will be designed in compliance with the Environmental Policy Act that when we decide to implement a net zero program, it will take some time because maintenance and operations is a significant part of being able to support a net zero program. But we'll be ready. We'll be positioned to do that with this new school and every other modernization project that we go into. We started design in October. which some of the comments I saw sort of suggested that because we were going to be
010submitting in early March, it would mean that we wouldn't have to comply. No, we were going to make sure that the school was designed to net zero ready regardless of that. And we will at this point, because of the, we've not been delayed per se, but because of the time we've spent on the issues over the last month or so, we're really several weeks out. From where from that March 2nd date will really be Into later in March when we're able to actually submit our first design concept to to the city for evaluation So the answer to the question is yes, you know, we're designing to that high level standard We're studying other school districts that you know, Arlington has to Some of the other city schools have started to implement the designs and bring
011up their schools to that level but it will take a requirement on our side to develop policies and procedures and operating practices that can actually maintain those systems when we do put them into place thank you my second is just another little yes this won't take long at all we've had I mean that was more substantive this is simply I want to clarify what we're selecting now is we're choosing these one concept or the other. We've had a number of, they mentioned today as they spoke to us, of ideas like could we put two rows of classrooms instead of one in the wing that's looking at the forest? Or could we rearrange the play areas? And my response, I think, is things like that. can that the community can have a voice that when what
012we are deciding right now really is the general overall placement the model we want but is it correct to say that there is still time to ask for things like that changes in configuration say instead of having a row of one row of classrooms looking at the forest there could be It was what mr. Pfister mentioned to yeah double loaded on three Right or things like that can there be adjustments like it seemed to me like those were things that We can be working into the model, but I guess I need to ask that's what I wanted to ask Yeah, I mean what we're gonna have to submit to the city is going to be the site plan That's got to go in. And the site plan is going to be based upon the shape
013of the building and what is going to be designed on those spaces. I think the interior of the building will evolve as we decide all of the adjacencies of the classrooms and where the corridors are and those types of things. But what we're really going to be focusing on is the siting of the building. and how the uses around the building, where the parking comes in, where the buses come in, what the access is around the building. Those types of things will be in the site plan, and we've got to do some engineering studies to ensure that we're clear about some fine-tuning of that. So that's going to have to go into the city in March. Work that's going to be done in the building quite frankly we're going to try to pinpoint those things
014by in the next month so you know what we have in place will Will review and and and offer a more concise I guess advisory to each of the committee's about what it is we have and if they have anything really significant to to change as material the design team will take that into consideration. But there won't be any really huge, massive changes. DLR, you want to speak to any of that? That's it. Yeah, I guess I'll just close by closing I won't say another word by requesting that we consider that we've had a number of requests from civics associations PTAs that we think about Extending the the width I guess having classrooms on both sides of the wing and also Having the playgrounds the two little playgrounds Now the playgrounds, because it's outdoor use,
015those will probably be able to have some more movement once we get the building sited in terms of the way that the classes are distributed inside the space. We have all of those comments, and over the next two weeks, that's what DLR is going to be studying. And we're hoping that when we get all that together, we will have taken those things into consideration, and we'll have an answer for why we did or didn't do. you know, whatever it is they were asking for, but it'll definitely be in response to what we think is the best, you know, academically adequate environment and what's going to work most efficiently on each of the floors. There was a suggestion about the height of the building and what's on each of the floors, and we're really looking to
016try to preserve the standards that ACPS wants to have to keep cohorts of. third fourth and fifth grades together and those types of things so uh... you know and we do i will say by the way that the outdoor space has not been maximized uh... has not been completely maximized on the out at this point on the concept. So you will see some more changes in terms of the outdoor play area and outdoor learning areas because the educational specs were not maximized on these two sites. And so that is something else that DLR is going to be working on over the next couple of weeks. Ms. Nolan? Well first off I just want to thank so much DLR and miss Anthony presentation I mean I think it speaks very highly to your work that while
017we did have a slight preference for the forest that so many people even what those Wanting the forest were said I'd be pleased with either one and that they really felt either one would have been exciting option So that that's a great starting point to be at, I appreciate it. And I also just huge thanks to board member Lorber for all your hard work being, taking that short straw and being the liaison this year because that was a real undertaking to be a part of this advisory group and be the board liaison. So thank you so much for doing that. And with that, you actually took. Pretty much all my questions, this is fantastic. So I had here green building policy check. And I just think given the outpour of community questions about that, that
018might be a good thing to include in our communications, that when we share with whatever choice was chosen, that that is going to be, because that is just something that was a lot of interest in. And then that's exactly what my feedback was. The other two questions I had was, again, we've heard a lot of number of people asking about the double loading of classrooms on both sides, on the halls, the floors. two and three and then the other thing to note is that the majority of people that chose why it was because of the play area not so much that they were choosing a building one over the other but it was the continuous play area that was especially parents with multiple children and just the opportunity that they could see and have an
019advantage point all the children that the use of space the space receives on weekends so just to note that that was really what tour people between Y and Force, which I thought was very interesting that it wasn't so much the building itself that they were fighting for. They seemed pleased with either building, but it was really the play area. So I think that's something we want to pay attention to. The more we can get the play area right. And so I guess my, honestly, those were my three questions. So my fourth and only question really is... given the amount of thoughtfulness, and we just had, I just think it was Douglas MacArthur has really shown itself to be a very thoughtful community in this process, and they had some really invaluable feedback. What will the
020next steps be after this to continue getting and soliciting that feedback from the community to get this as best as we can for those students? Because again, I was just, I was just. impressed by how many experts we have. It wasn't just people having a preference, but we just have a lot of expertise in this community and it was just very thoughtful. So if you look at the schedule, the schematic design process will happen starting tomorrow after your vote. And so the fine tuning of the site area and those things, I think that during the schematic design process, you're going to get more we're going to be giving more informational information to both the community groups, the advisory groups, and the school teams because we've got to actually just incorporate everything that we've heard thus
021far, and we've got to get... this work to the city for all the and we've got to have some preliminary engineering work done of the site so we can prepare for demolition and we can prepare to make sure that we've cited everything just right and get it to the city because they've got several months to prepare to get to the permitting process i think that more of the back and forth in uh in-depth influence with the teams is going to come during design development because we'll really be inside, we'll really be talking about materials on the outside, we'll really be being able to have, it says, one meeting, community meeting, two meetings, advisory committee meeting, and three with school team because the school team is going to get very involved at that point with the
022placement, making sure that the placement of... classrooms next to each other their adjacencies their way of using the building will be getting will have a lot of involvement again with the city because there's a large recreation component and making sure that our accesses and everything is our right so I think that the schematic design portion we will be taking it for informational purposes to those teams and unless anybody says something that's like hugely material problematic We're pretty much giving them information and taking, you know, taking, like I said, unless there's something really huge, we're trying to get into the city process. during design development again there will be a little more back and forth and you know more of this the input that will probably be you know used as part of the process. So
023it sounds like the next stage then is not only with the design is also the communications of getting the word out there to this community and working with the advisory committee just to make sure that the date is well in advance because it sounds like while we're inviting feedback it's a short window I just I think it's great that it still exists but it just it sounds like we really want to get the word out there to just like benefit from this community and make sure that. Again, we're making it the best school possible for the students. So thank you so much. Appreciate that. Thank you so much for your time. Now I have Ms. Green. Thank You chair Anderson and Thank You miss Anthony and staff and DLR We're very appreciative of all the
024work that's gone into this and at every step I get more and more excited for the Douglas MacArthur community because they've been waiting a long time for this My question and I did ask it last time and I don't know where we are with it particularly with the forest design is their capability to do any type of classroom outdoor classroom space on the roof and you know I just think it's so very important as much as we can get our kids outside breathe in that fresh air helps with the learning process and I was just wondering I know it's you were it was said that it's more possible in why but it could it be possible in for us as well We'll have to they'll have to do calculations the calculations for the roofs were
025really to maximize the ability to have the net zero Collection we don't show as much outdoor learning on the actual scheme that you're seeing here You'll see that in the next game outdoor learning and probably at ground grade level maybe not at roof level But we'll have DLR or they'll calculate it and see if there's something that can be accessible So we hear you and we'll take that into consideration Ms. Thornton? Thank you, and thank you again to everyone for all your hard work and the amount of engagement that has gone on in this process It was needed and much appreciated and two I just wanted to echo miss Laura's point about the concern that's been placed on making sure that we follow the city of Alexandria's green building policy I'm actually really glad that
026there's a lot of attention on that because in our strategic plan We put in there that we want to make sure we're making sustainable facilities And we want to be good stewards of the environment and one of the things I really like about the forest concept is that the area and roof configuration makes it so that we can have possibilities for solar energy use and things like that. But it did make me curious about the potential in the future for if we wanted to do something else on the roof, like expand and go up, is that something that's feasible in the future? I know we're maximizing capacity right now, but we all know that In the future, who knows how much space we will need. Is there a possibility to go up with this current
027configuration for the forest? The city has opened up our height requirement where we you know We could go to four stories if we wanted to do that Whether or not that's complementary to the neighborhood or not might be something that is going to be controversial We have had quite a few neighbors also who are extremely concerned about the fact that it was a one-story building and now it's a three-story building and Whether or not it's complementary for the neighborhood to have anything taller than this So I'll say I'll answer your question by saying that the city is making it possible for us to go up whether we just because we can we should I think it would be the question at that time we would want to know though if we need it to structurally
028reinforce the building such that it could take another floor earlier in the concept and if we decided that that was something that we wanted to seriously consider the the architects and and our construction engineers would have to give us some dollars associated with that and of course you know what other impacts it has but um that's that's really the answer to that question but we don't plan to add a fourth floor and come back to the board with a concept i want to just put that out there because i do not want to get the phone calls tomorrow so we're not doing that dr reed um well i just agree with my colleagues i want to thank you uh minion with for in your team and dlr group and all the um Community members parents
029the MacArthur staff who participated in this process I think it's really been great and I have two questions and I'll just ask both of them and then you can answer them The the first one is about the k-8. I noticed in the the concepts booklet that a number of people said that one of their hopes was that it would be a k-8 school and again on Tuesday at the at the community meeting someone asked me how the decision was made for it not to be a k-8 school so if you could speak to that and then the other thing is I know that we are looking at some some type of co-location with parks and rec or whatnot so if you could just speak about the timeline for that is that going to be decided
030you know in advance of the site plan going to the city and just you know when can we expect to hear more about that okay so um the the k through eight the not to do the k through eight decision um the the team really talked about from a matter of volume capacity educational enrollment projections a k-8 school would you know quite a bit more children to the occupancy for this school and it seemed to take it to a level already on a tight site that was going to be a bigger challenge than we already were going to have I mean we're growing it by you know quite a percentage so it was really the first part of it was really a Concern that the staff had to dr. Hutchings that it's really a constrained
031situation as it is and we've got another set of portfolio Opportunities that we might want to look at in the future for that So that's that was really the driving factors that the staff had with regard to the co-location We met with the city today the co-location that's going to happen on the site is primarily on the recreation side and we're also O D L R has been instructed to calculate a square footage of a community center space in the front of the school that is accessible from the outside for the community to use. And we don't know how big that's going to be, but because that's an undefined thing, I mean. We've checked with all of the agencies. None of them have a definitive program that should be co-located here. But in the absence
032of saying there isn't one and the fact that there may need to be some opportunity for seniors to meet or the civic associates to meet or that there's this significant shortage as the city has for small meeting space, we proposed a potential footprint at the front of the building that's accessible. and that we can figure out later if there's a couple of offices and a multi-purpose meeting space and a pantry, that that type of thing would be very worthwhile. And all of the city members were saying, yeah, that sounds good. So DLR is going to figure it out so that it doesn't take away from the educational space. But we had already been asked to provide a family resource center, someplace where families could go and that the principal could collect requirements for children who
033need it. at certain things like food pantry stuff so we figure that that would be a really good use of a community accessible space and that's where we're going to as of today because tomorrow they're gonna take that information and they've got to about a week and a half of really hard work to do to get us to the place where we can go back to the advisory group on the 17th the 18th community meeting and the 24th school team before we um send you all the updates from that and go back to the city okay um that prompted another question from miss lorber i think talking about that yes Yeah, first I think that's a wonderful idea I can speak from experience that finding small meeting rooms the libraries for example are always super
034booked and when you try to Get a library room for any kind of a small meeting and even for after-school tutoring you could That would be there be a lot of use I just wanted to mention that a parent mentioned to me what she thought would be a good use and it seemed like wow she said why can't the schools provide employee childcare on site. And I thought, as an incentive to get teachers to come, I thought, whoa, that's a pretty cool idea. So I just wanted to mention that as another possibility as we co-locate and think about it. I mean, T.C. Williams already has a head start, early head start program. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. But I'm glad the Family Resource Center sounds terrific. Anyone else? Any other comments? Okay, who
035would would someone like to make a motion? I have a little this thing if you want to just insert your thing I you know I moved to approve the blank concept for the replacement building for Douglas MacArthur Elementary School It's not written it's one of those things that makes this complicated a little bit because you don't have it already Loaded but. You just confused me but. Madam chair I'd like to move that we approve the forest concept for the new Douglas MacArthur school. Second. So I have a motion from Ms. Lorber to approve the forest concept for the new Douglas MacArthur elementary school. I would just need to get that to set it active. So Ms. Alderton seconded? Okay, Ms. Alderton, she beat Ms. Green because I thought I heard something coming from that direction
036too. All right, so Ms. Alderton seconded Ms. Lorber's motion and I'm going to call for the vote. Okey dokey. Yay, we're gonna build a school. All right, thank you, thank you very much. All right, I have I have no report My report is is no report. Thank you all for everybody. Oh, okay. Okay