001e e e where's Mike we go okay uh it's 4:31 I'll call our meeting to order um we do have a forum of board members present with five of the seven of us here um and I don't have an agenda in front of me okay we will need an approval of the agenda before we can move forward I make the motion that we approve U today's agenda I second thank you all in favor of approving the agenda please say I I the agenda passes and Candace I will back up and confirm we did notify the media we did thank you than you thank you Dr pen all right and I will oh here we go and I will go ahead and turn it over to Mr Ben Thompson with our facility study slash update well
002good afternoon everybody good afternoon good to be with you uh again um this is an exciting uh time for this process specifically uh we're going to get down into some questions uh and some some Det details uh today for both the shortterm um planning that we've been doing as far as improving District facilities and really more specifically to talk about the long-term uh planning goals that you guys have for uh for for the district overall go through some options uh and really start to think about what are what is the purpose what are we trying to accomplish and and hopefully putting uh a vision to what you guys uh see as as the future for for lawen County School District 55 um there are wonderful things going on uh in this County um I I
003often get updates about uh some of the growth that you're experiencing from a from a rooftop uh standpoint some of the good developments that are going on um we are excited about the the new Lawrence County Career Center that's a joint venture between you and District 56 uh as well you may have seen this uh photograph uh in um in the in the news I believe it uh I believe it made one of those one of those news articles recently but very proud of the collaboration that's happening in lawren county for a truly uh first class facility uh overall and this is the style of uh building and Improvement that we want to see kind of continue uh on in whatever form and fashion uh you guys as Leaders uh deem uh is is actionable
004uh for for the school district uh overall um so what I wanted to do um is be a little bit more interactive today um so you'll see a couple of things posted notes and and and some boards up here I'm going to be doing a little bit of uh back and forth with with you guys and hopefully um and hopefully getting a vision statement written on your behalf to really guide uh how we might look at long-term facility uh planning um and with that uh guiding um those guiding principles really look at our options those are the two main uh goals today um vision and and options are what we call sometimes scenarios uh for for improvement and I'm not talking about just the maintenance projects that are continuing to to go on uh with
005the district you've made a lot of progress there um I'm talking more about your future vision for what is in the 5 10 and 15 year um Horizon um overall uh so we certainly want to want to go through that I thought the best way to start uh and I'm happy uh to have dialogue as we go along so don't feel like we we need to uh we can't stop at any given time because we can um so if there's a question please feel free to just just let me know but what I thought we would start with is just a very very brief synopsis of the things that the school district has done over the past year really in analyzing their facilities um and and making progress in the in the Improvement of those
006facilities uh as well that seem okay with everybody sounds good thank you great well if you'll remember we started with kind of understanding where you are from a school district in terms of Maintenance uh we went through every single facility I won't spend a lot of time on on these but just to say we understand a little uh a little bit more um about how those facilities are operating where the where the items are that you can really improve day one uh and the building department and Facilities Department here at the school district has actually been using that plan to go through each one of those those facilities systematically uh and getting those uh those high priority uh improvements um complete you can see just overall um this is all the schools in the in
007the school district of course by value uh noting that both Lawrence High School is is highest value but also it's largest the largest school you have uh in in the school district uh so understanding you know where those uh where those facilities are in terms of uh operation and maintenance is is really really important from a starting block you know that's your Baseline um how how do we improve those facilities uh overall so we went through that process shared a lot of information uh with you guys uh overall and I think have a a really clear understanding of of what we need to accomplish School district-wise in the near future and uh this will kind of lead into our discussion about the long term uh as well I'm going to go pretty fast so feel
008free to stop me uh at any time these are just highlights uh but we also looked at uh both population change and growth uh and we looked at enrollment change and growth both of those factors uh really are important to understand from a from a school district building um standpoint um as I've mentioned uh previously in in past in the past uh Lawrence County overall and the district specifically has been seen seeing a decline in and not only um uh in in population but also enrollment however uh as we found you're starting to see a rebound of that countywide and a stabilization really of of that um overall in fact um if you look at population uh over the last 20 years there's a big dip um through the early 2000s through 2010 but then
009a ramp up of population uh again to bring it back to those 1990s and early 2000s uh levels so you're starting to see that uh in terms of just uh raw population numbers um but also uh rooftop that are happening development of neighborhoods um uh additional uh commercial properties um some industrial uh projects coming on uh within within the bounds of the school district and certainly uh in in the county what we wanted to make sure that we understood from a population standpoint is how does that translate into your school faciliity so we did a demographic study just to analyze not only what's going on overall within the district from a population uh an enrollment standpoint but also Al what's happening at each individual um School uh taking in all of those factors and what
010we found again is it's not I would never say it's declining or increasing in a big way but what I would say and this is very favorable is that there's a stabilization that's happened uh in enrollment um overall that forecast was a 10-year um enrollment forecast and I know the the district tracks that um tracks the actuals versus what the forecasts are and we seem to be uh in line with what we projected uh two or two or more years ago um at this point from uh from a data um uh standpoint um so what we see overall is that again enrollment dips slightly uh and then it it stabilizes again um as the as the years in the in the study um show so a net um a net wash essentially in enrollment uh
011over that um over that fiveyear window and that 10e um window overall we did go into the granular level and I can I can certainly describe all of that that information should should be in those previous pre presentations as well where we're really talking about how do we address change uh in the schools um as they're as they're constructed now or how we how do we address change and the improvements that we want to make um overall just some key takeaways um there is with uh with the stabilization uh stabilization and enrollment you want to really look at um speculative development so when you see things out there um being developed that's a key indicator that that you need to you know pay attention from an enrollment um standpoint I know some of your communities
012are starting to to see uh a fair amount of of development we've been uh I know you've been hearing about that coming for several years uh couple years uh as well but now you're now you and citizens are really starting to see those things uh take to take shapee so that's an important factor in how we kind of look at schools uh in in in this uh long range plan uh overall so one thing um that we that we shared with you last time is kind of what do we do with all of that uh information you know I know that I've shared a lot of uh information with you guys over uh again over the course of of a year U but how do we use that information and and think about options you
013know the the immediate option that is always uh present is is do what you're doing right now that's that's uh pay as you go or do things as things come up uh kind of approach and by default that's what the school district uh is doing it's really looking at uh districtwide additions and Renovations and conversions as either capital is available or priority need uh is available you you now are in a position to know precisely what that Capital need is from a maintenance and Improvement standpoint so from a short-term standpoint uh but from a long-term uh Vision that's where we want to get to is like what what are we actually aiming for uh with any any kind of significant uh Improvement uh for for a school or for the district uh overall some other
014things that we talked about uh previously were um with a stabilization of elementary and middle and high schools across the board how does that make us think about the existing schools that we have is is there any opportunity for additions or there any opportunity for combinations um thereof not to give any preference to either but just knowing what the options are uh that are available to you so in some scenarios or in some options you might look at elementary schools um in some options you might look at consolidating uh middle schools even within each of these uh options there are sub options are additional things that you need to consider uh overall as an example for the for the high school for high schools specifically those are generally the most expensive um project that a
015school district handles uh over over time they are certainly uh likely the largest projects um overall as well uh so there are a number of ways that other clients in your area that we've that we've helped um have have dealt with their High School uh Improvement plan uh from a long range standpoint sometimes that means uh looking at it from a phased approach um making a a plan along long-term plan but then executing on that plan in different phases sometimes that means a complete um down to the bones renovation uh of of a of a of an existing facility and sometimes uh when it's uh viable um being able to uh to build new where you can uh on on a high school campus as well so there are a number of different ways that
016we might uh get there that we might approach uh that kind of long-term plan um but really what we're here today uh to do is is really direct the vision the purpose for uh for what you guys see as uh as the next step um forward I have no preconceived uh conditions about about this this is totally up to to you guys um I I can give you guidance there but it really is about how you guys see the future here uh for Lawrence 55 from an improvement plan um overall so with that I'll stop just a moment for any that's my ,000 foot level kind of overview of the year that we've experienced together um and all of the studies and the analysis uh that we that we've done before we kind of get
017into visioning any questions concerns comments okay I'm not sure where to start yeah well you know I I think that's that's an important point is that it's it can seem very large and and uh something that you can't overcome but I think um the way that I found with other districts is really if you start um at the vision level what are we trying to accomplish then that helps you wean down what the possibilities are because the reason it seems big and and overwhelming is because there are a lot of ways to solve um to solve the problem um but really what is that Vision that would that would help Drive um drive a scenario or Wing down um options um that that exist um out there one thing I'll just add um Tabitha actually
018called me today so she and I got to talk through a couple of things just as clarification points of what we want to accomplish in this work session and it is not to make a final decision on how we want to move forward with something but it is to take the scenarios that um have been laid in front of us and narrow narrow them down um so if you know if there's things listed here that in your mind are just like no I don't even want to consider that then we can start exing things off you know or if you want to focus on hey I really want to do this and let's put that at the top of the list um just so we get off first base because we've been sitting here for
019a while and and I know all of you are relatively new to this um but just want to tr to bring it in so they so then we have another step we can take as far as learning more about potentially a new high school or um you know realigning grade groups things in that that nature so yeah this is not a decision making time it's just if there are a way for us to narrow down that's the that's the real starting point um there uh and that's a good point is this won't be the final interaction whatsoever you know there's a whole string of of things that happen um after this one of those is after getting a little commentary back from you guys is actually putting that back in front of you to make
020sure that I'm I'm hearing what you're saying in the right way and that and that I'm um putting that into a scenario or a plan or an option uh in in the right way that that you envisioned um for for that plan to to kind of come to to fruition so that we can again talk about it go through the details of it and make sure it's aligned with the the vision of of the school district at the end I'll I'll also give you a little bit of information about how I think that might uh happen but I would love to hear a little bit of dialogue too from from you guys about how you want to communicate how you want to continue to engage with with others outside of outside of this group exactly
021the community definitely has to be involved with this great decision yes ma'am yeah no there's that is that is definitely something that uh that I want to put into a plan I want to hear from you guys um first but then also follow that with h with a series of meetings that engage Community engage your teachers continue to engage uh you overall um as a as a board and as a leadership team so that we can get you know a true plan that that everybody has a hand in well you know for me speaking I think we definitely need a new high school okay that's my focus a new High School School great well I'm going to write that down in just a second I mean and I guess the question there is it know
022it it feels like we need a nework high school just because of the age of that building sure and uh so my question I would since you've been around the block a couple times out of the districts I mean is that what you're seeing what typically do you see other districts that's driving them into new facilities is it age of facilities is it capacity U is it the overall cost of Maintenance of some you know some of these building I mean what what are your help me understand you know what should be driving us to either buy you know build a new high school consolidation change grade I mean sure so a lot of those play it's not one thing or over another all of those play a role in it I would say in
023other school districts um thing that really drives drives it is is age uh of the facility and let me let me say why too because I think that matters is generally speaking we don't educate students the same way that we educated them in the 50s 60s and 70s and that's that doesn't mean anything good or bad it just means that teachers do something different operationally every single day in a school today as opposed to 20 30 40 um uh years ago so that function ity of a building is is one way to to kind of kind of think about that factor uh the other one is maintenance at some point uh all uh all buildings have a lifespan uh to them um before you have to really do some significant things to improve them the
024way a building code is is WR written is if at at some point you pass a threshold in which um you are renovating uh to the current standard to the current building code so most of the facilities um are nearing that standard uh for for you guys too if you want to take a significant if you want to change significantly how it look how it uh Reen how it's renovated on the on the inside and that's not just how the space works that's how um that's how the HVAC system needs to be totally replaced or you need to you have some different features as far as um um erass are getting out of the building now that are different than they were not to mention you you know those are just code things not to
025mention things like do you need so many doors on the outside of of a building so all of those things in terms of age in terms of at some point you pass a threshold and where it's just not um good to put continue to put money into an aging facility and still expect the same educational results for safety I mean I just came I mean I didn't go to high school for you know that I mean for safety reason I me kids need to be have open space be able to see look out I mean I think that has a lot to do with uh learning in the environment yes ma'am of the high school it's just that that is that is totally true and it's not just me saying that it's every study about
026high school environment uh that comes along is that the environment does matter in terms of the quality of not only the teacher experience but also the student uh experience as well I hope that answered your question as far as how to look at it it is different in every single School District because every single school district has different styles of building has different ages of building um and usually they have separate uh or distinct programs um to you know here in lawren um for that career center for instance that style of program um would be different than a vocational program or may be different from how how it's uh currently purposed in the in the building at the at the high school so you you think about how it's used um how it's how it
027can be improved in the cost for that uh as well as kind of how you're you how you're teaching today so if you're facing a a a situation where you have it's the age of the building and your assumption there is that you can't even repurpose that building so that you're going to have to either remove it or you know so yeah and I I to to that point is now you're talking about the method um so are there are there things on on a middle school campus or your high school campus that that can be you know reused or re re redone in some way um and and one one example of that would be we're we're working with um Spartanburg a Spartanburg School District right now Burns High School um H is is
028almost a completely new school but we did it in in phases um so they kept their part of their original uh building but we replace their classrooms that's followed by um demolition of their existing um part of their existing campus and then coming back with um the the final uh classroom um wings and the administration and the media center side of it so that's really methodology it's you have to have you know do we want to replace it uh or not or just maintain it um to before you got into you know how do we do that by what method um do we do we do that overall because all those are still on the table all right well let's let's get that uh that that first question there's a couple of uh Post-it notes
029uh in front of you and the first question I you know I I tend to to have uh for for these types of planning uh exercises is you know if you're looking at it you as board members thinking about what are those long-term plans uh overall if you're looking at at the F the not the fiveyear window but what's happening overall in the school district um where do you think uh topically we should focus our our efforts here I know what your answer is but write it down so I can put it uh put it up there and it might not be just one posted note and that's totally fine um I'll I'll I'll put those up there and we'll have a a quick review of it to make sure I'm hearing hearing what you're
030saying right um and then we'll move on wish I had Jeopardy theme music going on in the background I do not but uh give you just a a minute here when you're ready and your we're just answering the first question correct first question that's it for one question I got answers I already have my whole list my whole planers as requested okay is that everybody on my great um well I'm seeing a lot of similarities up here so that's that's a that's a good place to to start um so uh one of the the answers is um pretty pretty easy to understand High School um as a from from a priority standpoint what do we think about from a long range planning standpoint that High School seems to be the priority um with the suggestion
031here of Sam site um um and build and build new also what I'm what I'm also seeing here is new high school and uh the reasoning uh behind that is uh safety from an environment standpoint but also uh just environment overall I think I think what that means um and just correct me if I'm wrong if I'm thinking about the environment I'm also thinking about uh the student experience while they're inside of that and that can mean um air it can mean being able to see light as you as you kind of mentioned uh earlier it also probably uh is worthwhile to really engage teachers on that fact to make sure that we're getting everything that they need resource-wise uh in in the facility so another good another good statement there new state-of-the-art uh facilities
032for all of our students that that's in keeping with kind of the things that uh that we're looking at overall again um what I like what what what's interesting about that um statement is new state-ofthe-art so it's not just let's replace and um and and and go for um something that's that's similar let's let's really think about this is what I'm hearing so you guys tell me if I'm wrong let's think about how we can do how we can be the best um from a high school uh in in other words environment standpoint also got um High School older facilities um uh greatt Owens and Ford update so yes uh GRE Owens specifically um is one of those communities facing a lot of or not or some growth some level of growth um that that's
033affecting their facility but again an older nice looking building that can be repaired uh and has has been uh has been wellmaintained over over time um space I'm interested to hear what that what that section is one of the one of the things that uh was written up here is space is this is this you who wrote space I did you yeah um you just need too many question I'm just thinking of all the growth um and whenever we start looking at the list it's more does everybody need to get something because everybody needs a couple of rooms or six rooms or you know so that's kind of the space issue that I was looking at because you know if we just focus on one that doesn't fix the other issues that we have you
034know so that was kind of addressing space issues as where I was headed great uh so it differs by campus right I mean you've got to you've got to that that's a fine tuning let's fine-tune it by the campus by the by the spaces that are needed uh at at each one of those campuses overall great that Echo what I was saying capacity capacity yeah just make sure each school has the ability to edate the number of kids that are are enrolled in those schools well I like this words to the the ability to educate because that that that will differ by the the type of classroom that you have or the type of program that you have that's a good that's a good point great let me ask you a quick question before you
035move the default scenario okay so in my mind as I'm writing on this list and answer that question it is that we will continue to move forward with the default scenario because I know even some of those things you've already started work on and pick things up and in that default scenario didn't that include say one new room at Ford and two new rooms at greay court so default means just that's how it's going to happen regardless of of kind of what you do from a longterm standpoint but it is totally um no and maybe I'm not using the word uh I'm talking about like that base like just to get us oh up to par just to bring us up yes like the 86 million uh that yes okay terms but 86 million does
036not add any additions 86 million just renovates all the Deferred maintenance okay well that's what I was asking did it include any any extra two rooms three rooms whatever it it doesn't so it we the Baseline is just what it takes to keep keep the doors open right just to keep the the school operating but I think what she's talking about scenario one is down here where basically every site gets something that's right so and and that list I'll show you that list in just a moment um that includes and that's what we'll do is Define what that means a number of classrooms you you're still maintaining your building and that a value but if you're adding classrooms that has a separate value is that does that make more sense so it's two parts yes
037yes I was thinking that our base scenario started with every school got something and then we were adding in from there that's right yeah that's right um that that's that's exactly right and I'm seeing a lot of those things being mirrored here in the commentary because while while most of the um comments have been about the facility there there's also space there's also mention of great Court Owens and older facilities and then update with all all schools so it's not just one project it's let's make this thing holistic and that's that's what I'm hearing or seeing in your commentary is there are things that you can do you may prioritize um one project over the other but you need to address um some significant needs and and in all of the all of the spaces
038or places that you you know that that are that are necessary for kids for that capacity as you as you put it anything else around kind of your vision of that 10year plan this is very informative for me uh for sure in in updating and making more space and things like that will it be taken into account not just to what's projected but maybe go ahead and give a little extra space that's a good point um I haven't said any said that but that's a so let's plan for plan for change uh some degree of change you know you don't want to overbuild but you also don't want to underbuild so let's plan for um plan for change um what that means for me as as kind of a designer is um flexibility in the
039space uh and also um you know really taking a hard look as we as we look at that can other spaces be converted inside of existing facilities for a different use uh and and uh what the enrollment is going to be possibly um in the future and use those both as a way to define what that flexibility what that plan for change is okay are we going under the assumption that in the next 10 years with the developments that are occurring that we could be facing a capacity issue with any of these School schools or are got enough room to breathe to get us to the next 10 years just from a capacity perspective right and I think whenever we did the enrollment study um part of that did show total enrollment dipped a little
040bit um to start off with but once the housing kind of grew we kind of came back but that's as a district as a whole not necessarily greay Court you know Gray Court you know so those areas that have much larger forecasted growth you know they're going to need more additions than another school that may not be in its high of growth zone so part of that was taken in consideration but you know if all of a sudden all that property gets sold and developed you know that's a whole another growth model that Bas based on how you operate at the high school now to you're you're nudging towards capacity um there and that's different than maybe so you have more elementary schools so you can spread those out a little it it's in this
041packet that's there yeah and it's not the pages aren't numbered but on this particular page right I saw that you can see that we're based on the Max Capacity we should be shooting at 80% is that right not 100% and you can see how close we are and over on some of the in some of the schools already okay well I want to be conscious of of your time so I've got uh uh really a couple more uh that I wanted to to talk through uh with you um so um you know there's there's definitely I'm getting I'm getting a Vibe up here for for what we ought to be focusing on um overall you know as you think about all of the challenges that a school district would would face is there a challenge
042is there one big challenge uh in defining that plan and and or gaining support for those improvements that that a facility a long range facility plan needs to address that might I can give you a couple examples if if that's not um if that's not clear but what from your perspective is one big challenge that the school district will face in improving uh their schools overall you want us to talk about this or write it down write it down and then we'll talk about it one more one more time repeat the question one more time sure for long-term facility Improvement plans what's one big CH what one big challenge does the district face in defining a plan or gaining support report for those improvements me swap I'm going write at the correct I don't think
043it really matters I guess you okay well um I'm also seeing a lot of similarities up here so this is this is good um as we kind of consolidate towards a plan um here um so uh first one is is money and Community Support obviously um um if if you focus on school building there's going to be uh some kind of financial impact um for that that's not normal that's not part of your ongoing um Revenue that you that you generate so yes um I wonder um and this might be just a discussion for the group um I I wonder how you how you think about how you think about that is that um money that you would be asking for locally is that something that we something that we should focus on U from
044a communication standpoint uh overall out in the community well I think the everyone's you know is feeling the pain of uh financial crunch these days and for us to turn around and say oh we got to build a new school whatever that school is is they're going to know that it's we we've got to reach into their accounts and get money I mean you can't do these things for free uh and so the community is going to know that there's going to be changes in the tax base however that's going to pan out you I don't claim to know those options but the reality is that if you're building a school in this District those people that live in this District in some form or fashion will be paying for it right I think one
045thing that's important as well with the community involvement and Community Support is being very transparent on what we want to do exactly how the money will be spent um a plan an an an actual plan that can be shared with them through Community Town Halls you know um I think transparency is important being able to say where will it be when will it be here's what's going to we estimate it's going to cost exactly yeah the estimated cost so yeah one thing also on on this one too and I think I think you're you're getting to to that too is the need it it that sounds a little bit more less Financial but also you know telling everybody why you're doing what you're what you're doing uh too so it's a lot about communicating and
046probably educating a lot of your community as as far as what the need uh is so right I might just um if that if that makes sense U I'll write down educate uh as well and that'll that'll fit in to kind of how we might proceed um with with engagement okay yeah and I me I agree with what Kathy said I think that the only way that you're going to get the community on board is that you're going to have to have a specific plan in place to you know let them know hey cost location so keep patching and patching you ain't going find equipment to patch we got patching on top of a patch we've got to run out of Band-Aids well I am an alumni from one of the oldest high schools in
047South Carolina that's still operational I was it right me too okay no I I I think these are most these are very much in keeping with what we're talking about I I think there's also on here is we we mentioned this from a funding standpoint but it what is defining with that higher tax is what is what is that um so and communicating that overall um see the words consolidate uh schools uh on here um I don't mean to say that that's how you would do it but you know that if that is part of the plan then we probably need to talk more about that specifically as a topic that's what I'm getting from that comment um if that's a if that's a thing we really want to explore we need to talk about
048that specifically with the communities um that are yeah going back to the Chart where it talks about the capacity we would have to consolidate them by building a new building right we're not talking about consolidating into the existing but correct yeah so either onsite or offside or somewhere in between yeah okay great all right moving to the next one um and we can just talk about this one um actually that would be um so the the question is are there any student courses programs or activities that are not available that should should be included in any of your schools whether that be Elementary uh middle or or High um one thing uh previously that we've we've talked about um as as pre as this board and previous boards is uh Career and techn Technical education
049as one of those components um to not that we shouldn't talk about that now but um that's also being um um uh implemented in a quite different way or a collaborated uh way with your with your neighboring School District I think you should still should talk about it from an introductory introductory course standpoint but I think you have the facilities to handle that right now that's an example are there any programs like that in any grade level that you want to see or that you want to discuss further um as part of the planning process I I kind of turn to you for that something that you you know I mean there's always you know making sure we have enough space for you know stem activities you know stem science labs especially at the elementary
050schools as we um look at you know expanding you our resources but also expanding our offerings um we've been talking through some different things but you know just to come up with we need x amount of spaces you know I lean back to the high school as in we have a lot of CTE space now a lot of that will have to be retrofitted if we get the um career center and so um that'll you know if we are a kind of a rebuild on site it'll be a retrofit of some of that space or utilizing it for different options that we have on site so um I think the biggest areas of not having the space that meets the needs would be at the high school anybody else yeah I'm not aware of any
051I haven't been you know and I've I've my five kids have gone through there and I've been pretty satisfied with the coar work that they've been offered great anybody else you know if the Kate Center doesn't come to fruition you know you got your culinary arts you've got your you know maybe a better Fine Arts Center you know that type of thing that we have that we're limited to in space but definitely cosmetology nailtech barbering um the Fine Arts Center okay great I think you have a special guest who who might say Athletics after I after I sit down I didn't want to steal is thunder um but no that's that's great anybody any final comments on on that one we we'll move on but that's that's great that's great to know all right really
052the last one to kind of help you know uh figure out how we might look at a vision statement uh and and that's what I'll be bringing to you next time is is that is a draft of that vision statement to to Really align what the principles are here um but the last question on this list we've addressed somewhat but I'll go ahead and ask it which is which uh of the following is or are the most important factors in drafting a long time our long-term School building Improvement plan uh for for the school district um factors factors means what are we really trying to solve um is it the I'll give you one example um age of the building are we trying to solve the age of the building is that the factor um
053what are the other ones in your in your opinion and for this one write it down on the on the piece of paper again it doesn't have to be for a specific school but it can be and it doesn't have to be just one for tell me again what you asking for is there anything that we should really try to solve is the what's the big thing we're trying to solve um in my example age of the building um where where you would you would look at then you know totally renovating or replacing portions of a building see I thought I thought we were choosing from these on this list those are examples you can choose from those on that list totally fine to do that but there's a other down there too so whatever
054you know whatever you see as the the factor un and I took it from something we had not talked about stand I saw yeah for me mine are contradict one another the two that I wrote down so PR oh okay not I mean how to sound like not have but we requ I don't think I did question it's okay luckily there is no right or wrong answer to to this question is just meant to lead to discussion that's all participation only so we are all unsure whether we this correctly that's correct apparently it's Ben's fault he didn't clarify his question question AG it might have been the purpose of the question I'll take the I think you answered it right um actually um I got some interesting answers so I I like kind of like
055that um overall what are we solving for is is kind of how I would how I would say it uh what are the big factors that we should consider um what I see on here is um you know both both things that we've talked about meaning replacement uh and improvements older schools but what I'm also seeing is things like we should really solve the minimizing tax increase to Dev voter two very different things but the plan has to address that side of it uh as well it can't be just what we plan on doing or what it might look like it has to be all right how does this directly affect um the the taxpayer the student the teacher the the the parent uh for for your school district I think I've got that right
056whoever whoever wrote that yes um so that's two sides of the of of the same coin uh here and I think that's an important uh factor I I really like the the um what are we trying to solve is not be dated that means be new be um modern I think is another word that was used uh up here uh not for modern sake but for it to be representative for what you need in the district uh right now if I'm taking that correctly um and uh the appearance meaning welcoming uh looking for uh that open and welcoming uh approach when it gets into the design of the building and we talked about this a little bit in cabinet today you don't want to drive up to a school and say well I don't want
057my kids to go here you know and what what is it that we need to do for not only appearance outside but the feel inside and the opportunities inside right so gotcha no modern day weird looking facilities anymore right right modern being just the way that I'm defining that yeah the way I'm defining that is just the need that you have today in terms of space well what was the high school was built at a time where education shifted on what they want to do I grew up in high school like that this pot approach and um and that high school has since been completely torn down and and yet we have one that's still standing here and and it was just it was a terrible idea and it it that modern day uh old
058modern day is ugly clear and simple you drive up to high school and you go what were they thinking so the appearance does matter oh it absolutely matters it's good no that's those are those are good comments you want to be excited and and I hate to use the word but proud of the school you that you go to right that's a that's a good good way to put it pride in place or pride in school um in addition to you know more uh work or the thing that we're trying to solve is is the dollars that you have to maintain uh your existing stock I think that's an interesting way to kind of put that um two is remember back to those big Donuts that I saw from a maintenance standpoint um we we
059you can't just solve the need from a educational standpoint you have to solve all things comprehensively so looking at those facilities that have high maintenance costs might actually help solve uh that problem by improving them overall to the benefit of the school district outside of just an initial plan fund um overall so that's good I also see here um uh safe spaces and and security I think that's a I think that's a big topic everywhere but here specifically in in in lawren County School District 55 at your high school at your middle school at your ele schools since they're all different ages they all have different approaches uh to that I'm aware of the things that you've done um in in the last uh really 15 20 years to to keep on improving those to
060make them more safe um but doors for as an example um I think that you used earlier is is one of those um princip so yeah saf Safety and Security at the small level and at the large level when you're talking about campus planning anybody else have anything to say about that aspect of it we're trying to solve Safety and Security within those schools okay um the the the last question on this list and I'm going to flip the last two but the last question on this list is is more about did I miss anything you know those are those are kind of the key key elements to really understanding how we think about mission and vision for a long-term uh plan and I'm going to put that into a format and send that back
061to you for for continued discussion and or addition to it or revision to it um but is there anything else that I missed when we when we think about long-term planning that you guys want to address inside your plan specifically it needs to be better accessibility throughout schools better accessibility I mean I've shared this before coach Compton I've talked about it and the doors at the high school like you know how you pull you pull your car through of a gate and it scans your tag and it the gate opens I mean literally a scanner on his wheelchair so that when he goes by it the doors the double doors that he's headed to open so you shouldn't have to always have somebody with you in order to navigate space no good point so using
062technology or using features to kind of enhance how you move and move inside the facility but also how you access the the facility yeah okay I would like um special needs students to be kept in mind when making plans special need Student focus on improvements okay to put on their uh traffic traffic flow traffic flow it's great it's an important you see a lot of the new facilities a lot of kind of collaborative work areas you know where you can have um kind of sometimes that classes can come out kids can work together versus you know being in their classroom at all times but just kind of a an atmosphere of collaboration is um really that's great collaborative feeding into that modern environment that you're trying to um you know visualize overall great anybody else
063anything else that we're kind of missing on that list in the previous questions all right great thanks for thanks for getting me to this point again I'll I'll I'll take this back and and uh and rework it and and and give it back to you um uh in a form that we can kind of U look through and and draft I guess the the last question that I have in this segment is really you know how how should we be how should we keep uh information flowing about um your plans uh about decisions that are made and and who how do we communicate to to stakeholders there we've talked a little bit about it um and uh it sounds like um that we just need to have a communication plan about that specifically um and
064I don't I I don't want to leave it at that but I think that that's something that we might want to try to put together uh as well to make sure everybody is being heard and and all the communities are being addressed as part of the the long range plan is that fair are there any additions to that no I think that's fair I think that it's important as we move through this that um you know we just send out an update just like you send out your monthly newsletter to parents that we send out a we send out something specifically related to this but that would go to all the community not just parents um because every everyone that lives here would be impacted by it so and do we need I know I
065know that we've I know that you've been able to use this to kind of narrow down some thoughts but as far as the options that you've provided um should we take some of these options and just say Okay nobody's interested in that nobody's interested in that um and yes kind of narrow down this list so um the first that default option that you were mentioning earlier I I went through and kind of tried to make a list of the things that might be addressed um in in kind of the overall view of of all of the all of the district um facilities um overall I don't want to start there but what I want to say is that list still exists and it sounds like based on our conversation that we need to have that
066as part of the plan yes um what what is and I'm not recommending any of these is just these exist so let's talk about them and and eliminate if if we can how can we let community know that you know we're discussing you know I think and it might sound crazy but I we need to put some on the front page of the Lawrence Advertiser to let them know that we are moving forward concerning our schools bold letters let it be the headline page of the advertis take up the whole front page that's right let them know what we're doing and that you know CU they don't listen to wbg I mean we can put it on there I mean we got to let people know everybody don't check the parent thing you know sitting
067out you know but hey that need to be the front page not the S third that this is important very important because everybody knows we got school issues and we need everybody's opinion Y and and I agree with Miss n that more people need to be involved and exposed from the early stages and not get a year or a year and a half down the road when we say oh we want to do a referendum and then all of a sudden people come out of the woodwork like oh when did you start talking about this so I want I mean anybody that I mean anybody is invited to come to these sessions as well to listen in um so right so be be direct be upfront get it out there soon rather than wait do
068it now um okay that's those are great kind of communication strategies and comments on that side um so just to kind of wrap us up on on this side um I know that there are things that we can talk about from a baseline standpoint um you know let me give you just an example on on kind of that districtwide addition renovation and conversion standpoint um at the end of that is Sanders middle school that project for instance is currently you know under underway it was a need um it's part of your existing kind of default plan is to add as you as you go along um but but that one for for instance is still part of the the overall vision of the of the school district overall there are a number of those type
069and style of um additions that we found looking at maintenance and looking at capacity uh that we identified um uh here and overall so let's come back to that um for just a moment because I what I really want to address unless you have something on that let me clear up that radio station you know that's a certain group that listens and they listen to the radio station not that people are not listening but you [Laughter] know cleanit I think what she's saying is we just need to hit multiple sources of media paper digital the whole Ki and by the way I agree 100% yeah all media is what I there you go all media got it we knew exactly what you meant I'm just stating that um in addition to those kind of um
070Baseline uh needs that we identified um looking at the overall District we also had kind of three options that are available that might or may or may not be practical in in your view um you could look at at uh new elementary schools you could look at uh new middle schools uh or you could look at new new high schools I would also say this is my opinion is that those are always going to be there the the the need is for those is always going to be there but if you're looking at a 10-year window what do you want to focus uh what do you want to focus on you may not need a new elementary school now you may not need to consolidate new elementary schools um uh in the in the near
071term or even the 10year U picture um but but you may one day um get to this to the to the spot where you are and again back to my opinion is that it is my the priorities that I am aware of in the um capacity as well as the maintenance uh planning up it would be high schools Middle Schools elementary schools those would simply be my priorities to to kind of hit um in in a 30 to 50 year window not just a 10 year um window based on conditions and based on uh what we know about enrollment uh and population growth today um so I to to this list am I right uh about that do you does everybody kind of not agree with me but does everybody agree that um we you
072know we should look at high schools and middle schools first U should we look at or should we should we look at elementary schools first I I want to hear if if um if anybody has an opinion on on the no I I agree I think the high school is part of biggest certainly the high school and our our older schools before the reality is eventually every student in the in the district is going to be coming through that school since we only have one high school right so um my dream would be to address the entire list that we have regarding each individual School um and then of course leave off the high school for that and build a new high school on the current site I mean that would be my dream to
073but obviously we need the community to do that or we'll never be able to pull that off and the high school right now um that we since we only have one high school every student in the district would ultimately be able to benefit from from a new high school I have a question about the high school just because I don't know no is that Center section is what is the oldest part of the school no all that was built at the same time except for the mini gy and the two buildings in the back um and the L building that kind of connects the podes to the gym okay and I think I'm saying all that correctly is everything else was there on originally in the um 72 the uh there are two classroom buildings
074in the rear of the the pods so those are those are fairly new uh the gym has been renovated and added on to so it may be a little different than the pods just because it has been renovated and one of the things that has been presented to us in the past or at least we've had the conversation about is just say we did decide to build on site there and tear down and build we wouldn't tear down the buildings that are perfectly like we would leave the newer buildings and we would just tear down um the Pod section from our conversations I think I would have thought that those buildings would have been constructed with the vision of eventually you know with that in mind is that we're going to build these and the
075next big one is we tear down the old stuff and build around what we just buil well I think through Master planning you can that might be one option that we take a look at is is that possible is that viable yeah and is it cost officient because spring B Valley in um Columbia they did the same type of thing they built a wing tore down some pods built the wing tore down more pods built the wing and that type of thing so it was more of a um build than tear down so you still didn't have to displace the kids right and I think ultimately um you know obviously this is a substantial amount of money and I think ultimately in order for us to be able to move forward from here it's really
076putting more to this so we can communicate effectively with the community for them to say Yes um and because I know these things have change like you said Sanders some of these things are already being done um so as that changes is uh we just need to be able to communicate that effectively to get community VI in sure well I so fast forward just a little bit kind of like next steps I don't want to I don't want to um uh derail this conversation because this is really important it sounds like um um new mil new elementary schools uh if um if those those are kind of like the lowest priority overall it's really focused on the on the high school um so let's start there um because those are likely your best facilities uh
077as well so what are the options that we can do on site for that high school let me bring that back to you um with a with an updated value and a more of a detailed list of how that how that might happen Okay um as as kind of the starting block um nothing's been decided but at least part of the starting block right right yeah we've got to at least move to the next step Dr Harris I'm curious what your thoughts are are since you've I mean this is your area your are those are those uh the things that you just are they already included in here okay and so we could use that information since you're you know you're in the weed with it and we're we're just sitting here talking about it
078so that would be helpful to be able to prioritize even this list well I mean you may want to go back and double check to make sure like the center Tower of gr court is redone because I don't know that that included the Renault of that what all parts of Gray Court are considered historical is it just the Center building or does that include the auditorium the potato house yeah yeah the auditori the auditorium as well do we use that for anything be our art build sure right and we're doing two projects that are like that um right now it it takes a little bit added planning uh when that when when it comes to to that you your your design team plus your construction team and your administrative team at the high school at
079the school um needs to to meet quite regularly because of the the things that come up just daily like what is the testing schedule like what are the the outside of school events that are happening on on campus so there's a coordination level that's different than if it was a new build um in in that way from a phasing standpoint you try to your as as best you can limit the number of phases that you that uh that you have to to build um uh that sometimes means two phases sometimes means three phases you you don't really want to go more than four or five um just because then then you're losing some momentum and you're also losing some value uh in terms of your in terms of your Capital um so two to three
080phases is what I would always suggest if at all possible uh in that way if you're thinking about the high school just as an aerial plan um where are the the places that you might want to focus on um from a phasing standpoint well you probably need to build classrooms if you're planning on demolishing the the center uh area you you definitely need to uh think about the cafeteria and the kitchen um um as part of that phase um so that those two main things can eventually open and then you can demolish the um demolish the existing buildings um in some way so those are kind of the things that we that we think about um there and what you what you try to do is is that into a reasonable um plan that keeps
081all students staff um administrators and parents when they are in the school outside of the construction zone um so yes there's something going on yes it's coordinated but it is absolutely separated so you don't you know mix construction traffic with school traffic um or people so it's possible we we've done it many many times is that is it difficult it what I would say is it takes a little bit level a different level of um coordination but that's it can be done it can be done um done well overall it does for a for a high school um to the point about timing it it does take anywhere from two to four years depending on the size of the high school to get uh to get that um built so uh Spring Valley I believe
082um and this is just off my memory I believe it to well we're doing a project on Spring Valley High Schools campus right now so it but that's those are additions those that um take down and and replacement that took um four years they were pods and they were pods there's one pod left on that campus but and it's the gymnasium I hope that's informative and not too technical or down in the weeds but I it's an important point is yeah you got to plan on on uh how you might operate under that condition too thank you so we'll swap over to Tommy yep that's great thanks for your time appreciate appr appreciate it um Mr spes gave you a um packet you know handout so it should be the other folder that's got the
083laen rer symbol inside of it Brett do you mind helping to clean up can can can we move that whole Podium over here I mean we don't have to do it right now but before the like it's just so far in the corner yeah don't you think I mean I feel like you're in the corner all right go ahead coach all right I'm not going to take up a lot of your time first of all thank you for allowing me just a few minutes to come in as you're going through this very important process of trying to figure out what's the best direction for lawen as far as schooling and uh whether it's High School Middle School whatever I know it takes a lot of work uh but as you're doing that I just wanted
084to make sure from the athletic standpoint that uh I give you some type of idea of where we at with athletic facilities as well uh and the report that you have is going to give you some ideas or some improvements that are needs now it's also going to give you big scale ideas of if we decide to build new um but right now I I feel like it's important that we keep our student athletes in the best facilities as possible especially uh it's competition you got schools all around us that have new schools new facilities and our student athletes we want to make sure that we retain the student athletes at our school we'll make sure we retain the best teachers that we retain the best coaches as well as if the time comes to
085be able to ATT trct people to want to come here to coach or to go to work so those facilities is kind of started at the college level it's the same thing at the high school level now where those facilities that kids have as student athletes they matter and I feel like we do a really good job now of you know trying to catch up as much as possible and providing you know safety and things that they need but as we move forward and moving into this new uh progression of a new school I would like to see our facilities come along with that so U you know we got school choice legislation out there uh the athletic transfer rule for athletes across the state is getting ready to change pretty soon probably in March
086which will go in effect July the 1st so we want to make sure that we have a plan to retain our kids our lawren kids in lawen to get their education and to play sports uh so as you go through this and I'm not going to read it all to you tonight but I would like for you to keep it and just kind of go through it and then if you have questions you know you can always email me call me at the high school or better yet come by and we can walk and look and look at what we have now and what we're hoping to get U but like I said you know this plan that you see in front of you kind of goes along with what you were discussing tonight as
087far as kind of rebuilding renovating where you're at but keeping the facilities where they're at also but they will need to be renovated and brought up uh to I guess you know the level of playing fields that people are seeing now turf fields are real big uh you know there's people for Turf there's against Turf we can go back and forth on that but things like that as we go through to study our facilities is kind of what we need to look at there's advantages to it there's also disadvantages I will say our main gym I think is beautiful Dr Harris has worked very well with with me to be able to maintain that and get the floor redone the last couple years but when you leave the outsides around the hallways of that gym
088there's there things that need to be done there and that's where uh visiting teams come to to go to locker room rooms and our locker rooms are very outdated uh you know some of the colors in those locker rooms are still blue and lime green from Back in 1970 so there's things that need to be done on the outskirts of the gym not necessarily a whole new gym uh and the same thing with uh other areas of our school uh you know our our football stadium I feel like is in a good location but we we we have a hard time managing large groups of people because when the ticket booth restrooms and concession stand was built it's all in one place so you're trying to get people into a game some people are trying
089to leave they're trying to go to restroom they go to concession stand you know right now in this day and time that's not the best way to do it uh you know we need to look at separating restrooms on one side and concessions on home and visitors so just things like that but I just want to make sure that as you plan uh that we keep athletic facilities in mind uh you know I've had people always come up and want to talk about fields and turf fields and things I I truly feel like the education part of that building needs to come first but Athletics needs to be right along with it to match you know what we're looking at I wouldn't want to turf field what where we have now because it would it
090would stand out and not look very good if you had a turf field and your school needs to be renovated so I understand the balance of that and uh I just want to make sure as you move forward if you have questions from me uh from athletic facilities uh please reach out because I want to make sure we do it the right way educationally academically and athletically as we plan to move forward for our kids and lawren and the community and the community that's right I love the football Community you know I always you know our community uh loves our athletic team team they get behind us and we appreciate that 100% And I also think you know the success I go back to last year's baseball you know even during that time our community
091seemed like it came together uh it seemed like uh kids in the school uh the discipline was lower everybody's Pride we talked about Pride earlier you know that's what they take pride in is when your school is excelling in athletics it seems to help everybody so yeah I wonder if we ought a say to the community we're going to we're going to build a brand new stadium and we're going to add to we're going to do something different with the school it's all about stadium and then we build this big nice school so uh but thank you for what you do and you know as you look through those notes if you have any questions or want to come see me uh I'm usually at the high school most of the time all right I
092have just I know I know we're running way over all time but so I just have a question about the Carline traffic Loop um you mentioned it runs straight through the the facilities I know people are crossing over there to go to practice and things like that have we tried a different loop at the high school before um having buses on one side and cars on the other um you cannot mix the two and so that's one of the reasons that we haven't swapped it to the other side you know that may be something that we could um look at but with all your car riders up front your um not your car riders your drivers up front on the right side side and then you've got all your other Loops I mean that's that's
093the hard part so there's really no other there's no other options basically I I just put that in there as we plan yeah yeah that that's something we keep in mind you also on your last page have topics for another time yeah I love come back when would you like to discuss those I'm intrigued the list gets bigger well like I said I appreciate the few minutes tonight but I'm always uh having things I would like to put before the board to talk about the way to move things athletically forward and I know we're uh have you know bigger things ahead of us right now but like Middle School sports uh I think need some attention uh I think a Spring sport for middle schools would be great because right now they really don't have
094anything so just several things that I feel like should be a group discussion and how we can benefit all of our kids is not just at the high school because you think about Recreation ball they play till they're about 12 then there's a gap that you know they don't really play after that unless it is Middle School and right now we don't have anything uh unless they come to the high school for baseball softball or track but think about Middle School soccer and that still even leaves you with sixth graders not able really not able to do anything yeah so so that's just that was just the note in there that well maybe we could have another maybe we could have another work session just for you to come in and talk about your thing
095but we need to make sure Mike and um Anthony can be here for that one too I think that's an excellent idea yeah yeah I know you got still things to get done tonight but I thank you and uh I can be if any help let me know thank you co you all right and so Dr Harris also provided you an update of everything that's a um single page um that's kind of the items that we've already started knocking off the list of our deferred maintenance out of that 86 million so you can just kind of see that um he did provide that update for us too um as we kind of wrap this up just wanted to make sure you had that okay information perfect aort came on 26 A iort from that they
096had 965 W all I think five of those complete I think this kind of shows you day but um appreciate Tommy Tommy's dedicated to the Athletics out there I wish we more we have [Music] prior it together lock built in the 70s decorated in the 70s and had 50 years of wear and tear on themer so clogged up that you have to tear up all of the flooring multiple Locker ring just's you have a lot of a lot of things a lot of money what he's talking about is just one more fix well I think ultimately um I mean ultimately the communi going to have the final say so um but even before we get to that point uh making sure all the right people have a seat at the table so Athletics and the
097other facility needs are all addressed and um are out there so when we do present information to the public that they have a complete transparent picture of what we need and why we're asking for money um at the end of the day so existing bathroom concession stand down there for high school maybe that at some point is ROV into want to do it way that respects ta right right okay thank you for all the time you put into developing and kind of appreciate your vision I mean I think it's clear that if we have better facilities and opportunities for for student athletes there things would be in a different spot so I'm I appreciate you bringing that to our attention and it will definitely be part of this whole process you got anything else not
098this time all right with uh no further business on our agenda I will adjourn our work session thank you for being here