001Mhm. >> Chop chop. She's on She's on. >> Ready to rock? >> You're ready to rock. We're ready to rock. >> Can I ask who the board chair is? >> That's me. I'm the >> Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate that. >> That's why she said, "Are you ready?" >> I thought I wondered and I kind of put two and TWO TOGETHER, BUT >> [laughter] >> WELL, [laughter] GOOD. WELL, MADAM CHAIR THROUGH and and board members, my name is Steve McDonald and with the school facilities division with state construction department. Uh our purpose here this evening is to present and answer questions for you um on the results of the most cost effective remedy study uh also called a Mercer that the Fremont County School District 25 put into effect for the Fremont or excuse
002me for the Frontier Academy Alternative High School. Uh one of the many duties of the school facilities division through the uh on behalf of the School Facilities Commission is to perform these self-perform or contract these most cost-effective remedy studies uh for facilities that have inadequate uh capacity or condition situations. Uh the purpose of the Mercer study is to consider potential remedies uh identified to resolve [clears throat] the identified needs while delivering the qualified and quality educational services. Uh the Mercer is deemed to be the remedy that provides the greatest benefit at the least cost. Uh with that in mind, Fremont County School District 25 completed a state-funded Mercer study. It was a facility utilization study in April of 2019. The district has been working since that time to uh reduce district excess square footage uh
003and incorporate recommendations from that 2019 Mercer study. One of the recommendations that came out of that study was to relocate programs and services that were located in the TAC building, the Tonkin Athletic Athletic Center, into other district old buildings to facilitate the demolition of the TAC, which we all know is taking place and and complete. Uh the alternative high school was located in the TAC building and as part of that 2019 study it was relocated to the Alt Services building or the Sped building that's located near Riverton Middle School. Since that time, the uh alternative high school's outgrown that facility. So, uh capacity need has been identified to to address that situation. The uh the alternative high school study objectives, there were five of them, uh there was to address the uh and identify the
004capacity need for the school, to address current and future enrollments of the school, to provide a safe sustainable long-term solution for the uh Alt High School, to balance benefits, cost, efficiency, and educational outcomes, and to ensure the facility remedy that we come up with can deliver the quality educational services. So, that was our mission, that was our task. Um we hired Stasis Design, they're now called Arc Forma, they had a name change earlier this year. They were engaged to guide and facilitate the process, ensuring a thorough and collaborative working environment between the district, the consultant, and the state, and to perform the evaluation to determine the best solution for the capacity need at the alternative high school. So, with that said, I'd like to introduce Will Wedemeyer with Arc Forma, and he will present the
005Mercer presentation for you. >> All right, thanks, Steve. And uh thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. Um pleasure to be here. Um and uh yeah, as Steve said, my name is Will Wedemeyer, I'm an principal architect uh with Arc Forma. Uh we were Stasis Design, we merged with another small firm in Cheyenne. Um and so now we're Arc Forma. So, that was the change there. So. Um let's see here. Let's try this again. Okay. So, um back in, I think, 2024, um we were um brought on um to um work on the Mercer study. And we actually worked on the the um facility uh study back in 2019 as well. Um and then we came back in 2024 and worked on the Mercer study, um which originally um was not only the
006alternative high school, which is what we're um going to talk about today, but also um Rendezvous Elementary School as well. So, we worked on both of those studies. Um originally, it was one study, and then about halfway through, um everybody decided it was best that we split those two into two. So, we finished up the uh um the elementary school, Rendezvous Elementary School study, which you guys are aware of, and is now moving forward. So, congratulations on that. Um and then we uh kind of focused on this one after that, so. Like I said, this is for Frontier Academy Alternative High School. Um, and so the planning team on this, um, included, of course, Jody Ibach and her staff, um, Justin Taylor, um, with the Academy. Um, at McPherson, we worked with quite a bit
007on this one. And then, of course, with WSD School Facilities Division, Stephen McDonald, John Rexis, Amber Leach, Shelby Carlson, and then our staff that worked on it was myself, along with Joshua Schmidt. So, um, I think Steve kind of talked about this a little bit, but, um, really the main driver, um, of the Mercer study for the Alternative High School was the capacity. Um, obviously, um, we found that you guys were outgrowing the facility that you were in. Um, and so that was kind of the the driver there. Um, also, you know, even though, um, district-wide, you know, the numbers, um, enrollment are, are, you know, kind of trending down a little bit, um, it seems like the at-risk population was actually on the increase. And so that was another reason why we wanted to
008look hard at, um, what the future looked like for the Academy. And of course, as, you know, as the same thing that came out of the 2019 facility, uh, study, uh, the excess square footage, trying to keep that in mind as we move forward as well. So, the process, um, really was a collaborative effort between us, the district, um, and State School Facilities Division. Um, and really, you know, to start out with, we had to define the need. You know, what is the need? What are we looking at? Um, is the need for the facility, the students? Um, define the district goals. Uh, define the space program, which is where we kind of look at, okay, what are they going to be doing, uh, in the facility, and what we need, what kind of spaces
009we're going to need. Um, and then evaluate existing facilities that we can potentially utilize as scenarios, and then also new facilities as well. Um, and we came up with four and I mean we we looked at a lot of different um you know, scenarios or ideas. In the end, we chose four to move forward with and I'll kind of go over those with you. Um, and each of those we kind of scored on the basis of you know, site impacts, community impacts, operations impacts, and education impacts. And then at the end of that, then we also did a cost analysis of each one of those and then did a cost benefit analysis where we kind of looked at uh those two together and which one kind of came forward as the the chosen remedy, so.
010So, first of all, um we looked at enrollment trends and that's how we kind of look at to decide, okay, where what what what are the trending numbers for enrollment for the facility? And from as you can see here, from about 2020 on, you know, there's a gradual increase in enrollment at the academy. Um, up until 2025, you know, it dropped one student, you know, that's kind of probably an anomaly, but in the end, you know, from about the last five, six years, it is trending upwards, so. So, with that, um we take those numbers and we put those into um a enrollment projection model that we use. Um, then in this case it was the average percent increase model. Um, and that kind of gives us you know, five years ahead, like what is
011the what could the numbers look like in the future. Um with that being said, um you know, it looks like you know, it's going to continue to trend upwards, um but with the academy, the nature of the academy, we did work with the district and looked at potentially capping that at 75. Um, and it looks like that's kind of about the middle about 2028, so that's what I think you've been working with the Wyoming Department of Education on uh, applying for that 78, or 75, cap. So. So, then we Okay, so we know how many students we're going to need, um, and then we kind of utilizes utilize the, um, school facilities model and guidelines on alternative high schools. Um, and you know, with their graph that, um, they use, you know, 75 students, um,
012you get about 211 square feet per student. And so, that can we come up with a need of about 15,000 825. So, that would be the allowable square footage that we can have for facility for 75 students. Currently, the current facility is around 8,500. Um, and with and so, that would carry a capacity of about 39. And with that, then we look at we work with, you know, Justin and, um, and Jody, and we start looking at what kind of spaces we're going to need for the facility. Um, we start, you know, compiling in sizes, quantities of space, you know, general classrooms, five classrooms, horticultural lab, you know, drone lab, things like that. Um, and then we, um, do a grossing factor with that, which is all your mechanical spaces, IT, restrooms, circulation space. And
013then we come up with a number that's close to that, you know, 15,000 825. Um, and that's so, that's our our program that we developed with the district for the facility. And then we'll take this and we'll utilize that when we start developing ideas within those different floor plans and things. So, the three facilities that we looked at as part of the and involved in the scenarios that we chose are Rendezvous Elementary, um, which was, you know, originally, uh, designed as a middle school, um, junior high, middle middle school. Right? Junior high, sorry. Yeah. Um, and then Jackson Elementary School, and then the, uh, current, uh, Frontier Academy. And we are And we are aware that the academy did temporarily move over to Jackson. It just this study back started back in '24. Um and
014so it's still Yeah. We're still looking at it as if it was still in the current facility. All right. So, option one that we looked at, um Jackson Elementary School, um we did a lot of, you know, test fitting of the program uh into the facility. And also knowing that we could We're only going to be able to renovate, you know, 15,825 sq ft. That's all we'll be allowed to renovate of that building. But there's a lot more space there. It's around 30 almost 32,000, I believe. Um that could still be utilized um for other things, other programs that weren't part of the study. Um some of those programs have a real synergy with the Frontier Academy. So, seemed to make sense. Um the use of a gym um and a lot of uh site
015elements as well. Um one thing we did have to do with this, we're not doing a lot of work to the outside. Most of the site would stay the same other than we would have to add some additional parking. So, we added additional 24 new parking stalls to bring it up to meet uh Riverton standards for parking. I'm not showing a detailed floor plan. We did go through a detailed floor plan, but for security reasons, we don't show those in these studies. Um just so somebody can't get a hold of those. So, um but that's how we did kind of test fit and make sure everything was going to work. Um but in this floor plan here, you can tell that So, everything in blue is what we're looking at renovating. That that wing on
016the on the top there, that's kind of the main classroom wing um of the building. Uh the blue down here to the middle left, that's kind of that admin area. And again, you know, the gym and things like that, we're not doing anything with as part of the study. Um but it would still be able to be utilized, you know, for different events and and for the Frontier uh program as well. Uh option number two, um we looked at their current facility and um so this involved renovating the current facility, the 8,500 square feet, also um adding on an addition of around 7,300 square feet. Um and a lot more parking. There's not near enough parking on that site, which actually started to encroach on a lot of the um field where um the middle
017school does utilize the ball lot area. Um so that was kind of a a con on that idea. We did try to stay away from uh facilities and grounds, their storage area there, um kind of in the middle. Um but definitely has an impact on the rest of the site there. Third option we looked at Rendezvous Elementary School. You know, Rendezvous obviously being 80, 000 square feet, is a lot bigger than what is needed for the academy. Um but it does provide a high school size gym, which I think is important to the community, and we noted as such that the community would like to hold onto that gym if possible. So that was why we really kind of felt like we needed to look at this option. Um we did end up with this
018option looking at demoing about 48,000 square feet of the current facility and then utilizing the area that that that's there in blue. So the new entry would be on the south area, which is on that right. Uh and then the area to the um the top part of the sheet there, that's kind of cross-hatched, that would be the the portion that would be demoed. And again, it's a large facility, so even that area that we're leaving still is larger than the 15,825 square feet. So there are areas like the gym, um and things like that that would not be part of the renovation necessarily, but still be available for for programs and and events. And then option number four, of course, um is kind of the the benchmark is what would a new facility look
019like? Um and this one we um looked at obviously can go on a lot of different sites. Um there's a lot of different areas around the district has and or owns um that it could go, but we looked at a site just right over here um just kind of north um northeast of the where we're at right now um as a potential site. Part of that reasoning is kind of close to the admin, close to some of the other uh facilities. Also, we were we didn't have to increase the parking near as much on this option because we have so much parking out here that we thought we could utilize some of that as well. So. So, with that um we went through with the district and the state uh we looked at the different
020options. Um there's some summaries in the actual study itself, there's some more information on some of the summaries on what we looked at. Um but we looked at again on those site impacts, community impacts, operational impacts, and educational and environmental impacts. And under each one of those there's additional criteria um that we developed as a collaborative group. Um we went ahead and scored those and we also gave each one of those an importance factor. So, each one of those kind of has a weighted factor depending on its importance. Um and then the so on the right side there then you would see those final scores. Um and in the final scoring, so this is just kind of a benefit scoring. And so, the renovation of Jackson scored the highest at 281. Um and then options
021three and four were second and third. Option two did not score very well, that was the one where we utilized the existing facility with an addition. So. So, then we also looked at cost. Um so, here at the top you can see um option number one, you know, was the least costly option, the renovation of Jackson. And then two um which was the existing facility with the addition was the second. And then the new new um new facility, sorry, um was the third. And then obviously the renovation and demolition of Rendezvous or partial demolition of Rendezvous was going to be the most expensive at 17 million, so. And then we looked at potential for net square footage reduction, which is also something we wanted to look at was how we're getting that net square footage,
022you know, down um that or excess square footage down. Um and so, you can see options one, two, three, and four um what that net square footage reduction was. Um option three, which was the Rendezvous option, actually had the highest um but again, it just didn't score well in some of the other areas. Uh option one, it's a little misleading here. Um It says zero, but down at the bottom there you'll see that it does not include the demolition of Rendezvous, which is going to happen with that scenario. It was just included in the other study, which is why we didn't include the demo here. But that would be an additional 80,000 square feet that would be demolished and then would um add to that net square footage reduction for the district as a whole.
023Um and then of course comes along with that would be potential utility cost savings and potential annual major maintenance cost savings. And with that, then we do a cost-benefit analysis. And what that looks like is um so, on this uh this graph here we have the rubric for the benefit score, which was that that score that we did previously on the left, and then across the bottom of that cost Uh um in millions. Um and what we're looking for here, you see those dashed lines. So, any scenario that's to the upper left of that is what we're looking for. Um in that kind of white area that's not doesn't have the gray hatch. Um and there's only two scenarios that fell into that, and that was option one, which was the Jackson Elementary School renovation,
024and then the new facility. So, the other two options did not fall in that that area. So, in the end, the further you are to the left and up, the better. And so, again, um option number one, which is the renovation of Jackson, did score the highest, was the least least costly, and scored the best on the the cost-benefit analysis. So. And this is kind of a breakdown um of the uh uh cost estimate for Jackson or the renovation of Jackson Elementary School. Um the bottom right there is a total of 9.2 million. Um almost 9.3, I guess. And this kind of goes through, you know, the construction of the building was around 7.1, which was the the renovation, I should say. Um and then some of the site work was around 388,000. Um I
025obviously we have to go in there and abate um for asbestos. Um and then we have the owner contingency and any design fees and all those things that go with that. So. All the soft costs. And so, this is kind of a list of of things that um kind of I think worked in option one's favor and why it was I think scored the highest. Um you know, it's efficient use of available site and property. Um utilizing existing facility was, you know, obviously a good thing. You don't um necessarily want to see that torn down, even though it is a little bit older facility. It's in reasonable reasonably good shape, and um adequate access to utilities and infrastructure, um minimizes construction impacts to surrounding property, aligns with community expectations, uh, maximizes use of existing district
026facilities and resources, as I mentioned, uh, addresses existing facility deficiencies impacting student learning and safety, uh, supports appropriate capacity and class size for alternative high school program and future enrollment. I'm sorry, I got a little thing in the way here. Um, provides instructional and support spaces responsive to diverse student needs, uh, supports appropriate scale for alternative high school students, provides a safe, healthy, and supportive learning environment, uh, minimizes additional capital investment while meeting program needs, uh, supports long-term stability of the alternative high school program and minimizes future relocation costs. So, in other words, you know, you're not going to have to move again, you know, 5 years down the road and things like that. Um, so. And then, after the demolition of Rendezvous with this option, um, the excess square footage for the district as
027a whole would go from 130,000 to 88,386, which is putting you guys in pretty good pretty good shape there, so. I think my computer just froze. All right, do we have any questions? Yeah. >> So, on number 13, so this is after we're going to tear down Rendezvous, but that's with the building of the new elementary. That's where the footage reduction is. When it's replaced, right? That'll include the new building. >> That does include the new building. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> I had a question on on that. Program one, uh, why did we put the parking lot to the east of the Jackson instead of to the north? Are we going Because that that field is going to be used >> Yeah, the additional parking Madam Chair and The main reason I put it
028on there cuz it's just access to that front entry. So it's on the north you got to come around the building for security reasons you want to make sure people are coming in that main entry. Yeah, yeah that's that's that's the reason we used yeah. Yeah thank you. Absolutely not it's been a pleasure it's been really great working with with the district so. That's up that's a district decision. Yeah I think obviously we've heard a lot of um people that would like to like to see that happen and I think you know working with the state I think that probably be a potential yeah. All right thank you very much. Thank you gentlemen. >> I just just in in closing I I would let you know that the the state's currently looking to get an
029estimate to to Rendezvous demo so when all these things play out this Mercer study plays out to get the new school gets built then we'll we're planning to go to ask legislature for funding to demolish Rendezvous and again we we recognize that the district says there's some community desire to possibly leave that gym so all that will be taken into consideration. Um the last thing I'll let you know is so my understanding this is a work session tonight and and you guys will vote on this in an official capacity later this month just to let you know next steps if you do vote to to concur and approve this our next step is to take it before the commission later this month there's a meeting 24th 25th of June so if you adopt this, we'll
030take it to the commission. If they adopt it, then we move it up the chain there to the legislative body. And the plan would be to go ask for funding the first part of next year to to fund this project. Funding wouldn't be available till July if the legislature does approve it. But, that's kind of the path forward if you decide to approve it. If you decide to not for any reason, then there are steps to where you can reach back out to the department in writing and and say, "Hey, you know, we don't like this, but here's the reasons why. Let's take a different look." And maybe if you think one of the other options is rises to the top or something, that's certainly your prerogative to say, "Let's take another look at it."
031So. Okay, sure. That Well, that You know, that's Okay, good. That that helps us cuz then that It's already on the agenda for the 24th of at the commission this month. So, if if we're good to go, we'll we'll give it our best effort there. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> That's our first item.