001to go. It's all right. We're waiting for our YouTube feed to connect. And now that I see an excellent connection, we are streaming on YouTube. Mrs. Ramage, meeting is yours. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Gilbert. Um, so good evening and welcome to our February facilities and operations committee. Um, we will start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we'll go ahead and get started um with the approval of our minutes from our January 27th FNO meeting. Do I have a motion and a second? Motion >> second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. Okay. I'll turn it
002over to you, Mr. Slaughter, for items recommended for work session or action. >> Thank you, Director Ramage, and uh welcome to everyone and our student representatives to the February facilities and operations meeting as well as uh our public who's joining us. The first item that we have recommended for uh work session and action meeting is a change order number five in bid pack one to the GC. Uh this is for a new scoreboard in the natiatorum uh in the amount of $89,543.35. This cost will be split between multiple entities uh that will be using the pool area. So, uh, while this cost goes directly to the school district, it will be a shared cost with, uh, other outside groups. Um, any questions on bid pack one change order five for the general contractor. >> I
003just want to thank everyone involved for their partnership and collaboration on this. So, it truly has been a community effort. Um, any comments or questions from the committee? Okay, seeing none, do I have a motion to move forward? >> Second that. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. The next item we have is also for bid pack one for the electrical contractor. This is change order number four. Uh this involves two uh proposed change orders. The first is for the electrical portion of the natiatorum scoreboard. That includes power uh conduits and wiring as well as uh communication feeds to the scoreboard. That is in the amount of $12,4645. The second item is PCO10. It is for the replacement of existing to remain floor outlets that were not
004shown on the contract documents. These were classroom of the future outlets that were installed. They were not documented on any drawings. Uh that therefore that was missed on the asbuilts. Uh the district did review this internally. uh we did solicit pricing on our own and figure out the manpower that it would take to do this and it was extremely close to the general con or to the electrical contractor's proposal. So we're therefore recommending that we move forward with that uh through the electrical contractor. Both of these items are in the amount of $60,55345. This will be taken out of the allowance uh to the electrical contractor which leaves a balance of $15,288.17. >> Any comments or questions? >> Um Mr. Slaughter, you already hit it for me. I think I appreciate you looking uh at
005the viability of bringing this internal and using the team, but also being judicious with their time when they can tackle other things. So, this makes sense to me. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Slutter. I there's a little bit of a pattern of some of the change orders from phase one, you know, in that there are items that might have been missing from a drawing or or something. Given that this is a phase project, are you taking this as lessons learned to then help support phase two, phase three, and beyond? >> Yes. Uh while there was walkthroughs done by the design uh team, we are uh expressing our concerns about this and making sure that they continue to do their due diligence and and move forward in bid packs two and three. >> Okay,
006great. Do I have a motion and a second for this item? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> The next item we have on the agenda is approval to advertise for bid for the new radio tower to replace the existing tower. The existing tower is a non-self-supported tower uh which has guide wires which will interfere with the future parking lot areas as well as the playing fields that ultimately go in the old radio station site at the end of the project. So this new tower will be a self-supporting tower. There will be no guide wires. So it will be larger at the base uh than the existing tower is now. Uh also for this will be a uh shed that contains all of
007the equipment necessary to broadcast which is currently housed at the radio station which at the end of the project will be torn down. So uh all the antennas that we have on the current tower will be moved to the new tower as well as the uh capacity to add additional uh antennas if required. Uh that this will allow us to then take down the tower and the guide wires and proceed with the remainder of construction. >> Do I have a motion and a second? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Any comments or questions? One quick question in terms of process. Uh will the internal team be managing the uh advertising and evaluation or will that be handled by uh the PMS? >> Uh as far as what goes out on the towers >> uh
008just the the the sequencing and process of actually getting this advertised and evaluated. >> Okay. So yeah, the advertisement would be for bids. We've uh worked with the design drawings with uh our team, the team from CHA and Mr. Gilmer. Uh CHA is putting the front end together for the bidding requirements and and how this process works and then that will go out the bid. This will just be the approval to advertise for this project. >> Great. I I just had a question about what's on the tower now. You mentioned the radio station. Are there any other entities using the tower? >> Right now, it is just our AM transmitter and I believe an FM transmitter. Mr. Gilmer, if you want to correct me if I'm wrong there, we're also moving the two-way radio antenna
009that's currently on the existing transportation building over to this tower as well. >> Yeah, we we do have another uh we work with Ford Rivers Communications. uh they've been uh our partners in helping design the specification for this as well as all of our FCC components and all the filings that we need to do for that as well. So on that tower, we would not only have WMPV, but we'd also have an antenna uh with four rivers. We're working through what that long-term agreement looks like. Uh the the other part that Mr. Slaughter just talked about was uh since we're demolishing the transportation department, that's where our two-way radio tower currently exists. Uh we were able to in the work we did this summer when we demolished the other four radio towers. We did put
010an antenna for the two-way radio on our current tower. So we're in a position where we could demolish the old tower and and not lose our two-way radio. So you've got three different things going on that tower with a little bit of an expansion or growth available in the future. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Gilmer. >> Great questions. Thank you all so much. And I believe we have a motion and a second. Um all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Thank you. Uh the next item we have 3D is for recommendation to seek board approval for the proposal from Bowman Consulting Group for the roadway and flashing warning device designs for the pedestrian crossing uh at Sunnytown Pike and Bridal Path. This was a requirement by Talmanson
011Township as we were seeking land development approval. The decision to go with Bowman was to in order to streamline the process. Bowman is currently the uh engineer of record for Talmenson Township. We asked and uh got confirmation that there would this would not be a conflict of interest. So we are recommending that we go forward with them. This is in the amount of $95,200. I do want to point out to this committee that this is not an all-inclusive fixed bid contract. There is some hourly work in this $95,200 scope. This also does not get us to bidding. So, there will be additional costs once this design is approved and we move forward to bidding. Uh, so this is not an all-inclusive number, just for everyone's information. >> And I see we have a hand up,
012but I'm going to start with a motion and a second and then Mr. Bell onto your question. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay, Mr. Bell. >> So first, uh, thank you for bringing this and the clarity around the process, uh, with the township to get here. Um, and having worked with Bowman in a past experience, they do do solid work. So that's uh not opposed to it at all. I was a little surprised by the cost though. And so I had two quick questions. One was, how does this compare to other design work that we've gone through in this process uh in in terms of price point? And then two, you mentioned that there's some hourly and other additives on here that could creep up past the 95 200.
013uh is is there an an ability to put a not to exceed uh piece to this or is there it just sort of is open-ended at this stage. >> So unfortunately we do not know how many meetings the township is going to require. So there that is the open-ended part of this. We hope that this would streamline the process and kind of avoid that scenario. uh as you if you were following uh when we were seeking land development approval, we were back and forth multiple times with the township. Sometimes things were uh would not be voted on and pushed to the next meeting. We hoped that by moving from our previous uh engineer her and Caner to Bowman, we would stop the back and forth and that this would be streamlined and processed through. So
014that's why some of this is open-ended. Uh if you look at the detail in there, a lot of the items are fixed fee, but some of the meeting items are open-ended uh to accommodate for the back and forth. The other unknown in this is going to be Montgomery County Township or Montgomery County Roads and Bridges who have the overview rights to Somnitown Pike. That is their roadway. It is not PennDOT. So, we're not exactly sure how much back and forth it's going to take with them. We have had meetings with them prior to this and they have indicated their uh their um agreement to uh kind of fasttrack this. So we don't think it it's going to be a big issue but again unforeseen issues could arise. >> Looking at sorry Ken if you don't
015mind me follow having one followup. Uh looking at it, it looks like there's only specific target items where they're saying that there is uh an expectation that they'll come back to you for authorization prior to additional billing there. Is that something that we'll be have visibility on or uh that management will be making discretionary choices on? >> No, we would bring all that to your attention in an FNO meeting before proceeding with that. >> Perfect. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Kaiser. >> Yes. I I I know I don't wanted to go to a bigger picture here. So this is just the design um agreement, but are we also responsible for the construction as well or is that going to be shared with Tommenson? >> We are. No, we're we're responsible for the construction of
016this. The uh some of the other things that are available or that are going to be part of this agreement is there's going to be right ofway requests from some of the neighbors, excuse me, on the opposite side of some town road. there will be some clearing of vegetation that uh in order to keep maintain a line of sight uh and we will be required to maintain that area in the neighbors right of way. So there's some additional work here. It's not just a straight through with the township. It it's kind of a combination of townson township, Montgomery County roads and bridges and some of the neighbors where these right ofways will be required. There's also the potential of moving the flashing signal for the uh North Monco uh VOTE that they're asking us to
017slide that signal further towards Valley Forge Road from its current position on Sunny Town. >> Okay. Thanks. >> It's my understanding correct that this is part of a larger effort that Tolmanson is undertaking to make the township more walkable. Would there be an opportunity for uh for the board to receive more information from Tommenson? It's so hard. It is so hard to visualize where this is going to go. Um it is hard to visualize the purpose and everything without having the broader plan in place. Um it very much feels like we're sticking a flashing light in the ground and saying walk here. But there's really, you know, with the site work that we're still doing, um, the renovation that we're doing, and then without this plan, it it's a little hard to conceptualize, um, you
018might have enough information that you've received, but it might be helpful. >> So, yeah. So, while this would be at the at the very end of the project, we will have our walking path that's required along Sumtown Pike that also uh there are adjacent paths that go from the walking path that's parallel with Sumntown Pike into our property in and around the sports fields. Uh we I know that Tomson Township has indicated that they want to be a very walkable township and that that's why some of this is required. So this would be for uh the walkability from the bridal path development, a flashing signal and and a pedestrian walkway across Sunny Town Pike into our property, which would eventually connect to other properties. So it does seem like it's kind of ahead of being
019completely walkable, but the goal is for the township to have the the entire township a walkable area. >> Thank you. I understand that this is a requirement and you know that that this is part of the process of working with Tolmanson. It it is hard because we are doing this now for planning for um the end of our renovation. So I understand but um and then and it it is it is costs that the district is assuming to then be part of of this effort. So um I do understand and I value that. Um, and I also appreciate the time that you've spent in working with Tommenson on this. >> Okay, certainly. Um, I believe we have a motion and a second and I believe we've um answered really great questions. So, thank you to
020the committee for that. Um Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. And the last item that we have under 3E, we did receive bids and conducted interviews for the district-wide facilities assessment RFP. It is our recommendation that we go to CMTA who was uh one of was the leading candidate in the interview process. They were also the lowest fee um engineer or architect of record. uh and they are also going to work with our current architect shrader group for some of the capacity study and the architectural features. So we feel like we've got the best of both worlds here by contracting with CMTA. >> So we'll start with a motion and a second. >> Motion second. >> Okay. And open it up for any comments or questions. I'll just
021start by um saying Mr. Slaughter, I just want to thank you and your team for the work that you put into the RFP process. Um it was a privilege to be able to sit in on the interviews um in a listenonly capacity. Um I do want to thank all of those who did apply um very much looking forward to this process. Um once the award is made, Mr. Slaughter, can you remind um the committee what the turnaround is and when we should expect to be able to see some of the work product from this effort? >> Certainly. So, um, the the way it was worded in the RFP is that we expect results by the end of August and we would make a presentation uh to FNO again at the August meeting as well as
022look to go to the board for a full presentation in September. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> So, we're we're still holding to that timeline. >> Sounds great. Any additional comments, Mr. Bell? Quick curiosity. The the bid price points were highly varied, way more than I was expecting to see uh on a pretty straightforward bid. What were the biggest drivers between uh the much more affordable CMTA proposal versus some of the uh six figure plus proposals? Were >> were they apples to oranges or what was happening there? So, there was an applesto apples uh line by line request in the RFP. Uh, however, I did forewarn everyone that the numbers were going to be all over the place because this is what's called in the industry a lost leader. So, uh, everyone goes into this putting
023their numbers out knowing that they're going to lose money, uh, on this process in in the hopes that they are going to be, uh, part of more work that takes place out of this assessment. It's not guaranteed uh, for sure, but uh, in loss leaders, it's who's willing to sacrifice the most amount of money to get get the position. >> Incredible. So that's why you saw numbers all over the place. The actual value of this we felt was somewhere between$1 120 and $175,000. Um but obviously you saw some stuff was uh north of 700,000 in in the results. >> No, it makes total sense and uh I appreciate your insights uh into the biz. So thank you. >> Okay. Um we have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >>
024Okay. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. We'll move on to umformational items. >> Great. The next thing that we have is the video update from Mr. Gilmer. Mr. Gilmer, if you don't mind. >> If you drive past North Penn High School right now, you might think we've launched a geology or archaeology class into overdrive. Earth is being sculpted into new shapes. The ground is not just sitting there anymore. It's on the move. This week's crews continued storm and sewer installation. Along the way, they ran into a little bit of hard rock. Not the radio kind, the actual stubborn century olds kind. Engineers are now adjusting storm run configurations to raise sections above rock and avoid extra cost. Sanitary line replacement in the AEF courtyard is complete, including removal of old transite piping properly handled and disposed
025of. Beneath your feet, infrastructure is quietly getting an upgrade. Subgrading and backfill began for the A-pod building edition pad. What that means, the soil is being shaped and strengthened so future walls can rise with confidence. The same preparation is beginning for the new transportation building pad. Excavation and slope prep continue at the water retention basins at the WNVB property and adjacent to SNTtown Pike. And while dirt moves outside, transformation continues inside Cape Pod and Bid Pack 1. Ceiling grids are complete on the second floor with tile installation ready to begin after inspections. BCT flooring and window shades are up next in the classrooms. Ceramic tile work and staff restrooms and corridors are nearly finished. Countertops are going in. Paint is dry. Second floor kpod is starting to feel like classrooms again, not just construction zones.
026Sprinkler flex heads, exhaust fans, lighting, speakers, and data cabling continue progressing overhead. Above the ceiling, it's a carefully choreographed network of pipes, wires, and systems coming together. The new outdoor emergency generator is fully installed and operational. And during spring break, crews will open second floor kod and begin the final phase of bid pack 1 and first floor kod. The ground is moving and the future of North Penn is rising right along with it. That is your construction update for February 2026. >> Thank you, Mr. Gilmer. That was incredibly creative, Mr. Gilmer. Thank you so much. So good. >> Okay, the next item we have onformational is our monthly update from CHA. Our representatives, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Hamley are here. Mr. Lynch, I will turn it over to you. >> Great. Thank you very much,
027Mr. Slaughter. Calling uh in from the mobile unit this evening uh to provide you with this update. Still chuckling over the hard rock that Mr. Gilmer reported on. He's always got a good one for the uh the updates. Uh just to run through our update for you this evening, we'll see the full board at the March uh third meeting where we'll give an overview of the entire project in uh in much more detail. Um but this evening will be our regular monthly update. Um our project approval slide has gotten a lot smaller in uh recent months. Uh I'm sure that you're familiar with the NPDS permits that were provided. We're working under a erosion and sediment control permit for bid package one. We got our permit for bid package two and three uh in the
028fall and we're working under it. And just a reminder that when we get towards the end of the project, there will be a modification of that NPDS permit that the civil engineers apply for for bid packages three and four. Uh you spoke a little bit earlier about the uh process for final approval and the work to put the design together for Snyder Road, South Valley Forge and the work that's out at Sumntown. That work is ongoing. Resubmittles were made by the civil engineers to both PennDOT and to Montgomery County Roads and Bridges for those permitting processes. So they are well underway. And then we've done work in the field to resequence our storm water installation around areas that we can't touch yet. So it hasn't held us up from installing work and that storm water
029line that you see in the images that's going in next to Crawford Stadium. So that's where we are on approvals. Onto the next other ongoing work. Uh you heard this evening about the bid readiness for the radio tower design. uh a designer's been identified. We've got the bid package ready and ready to put that on the street for an advertisement. The work for constructing the new tower will be coordinated with the ongoing work that's happening out there in the field. If you've driven by, you see the existing tower that has guywires. The new tower will be freestanding and be approximately in the same location as that tower that's out there now. So, we're ready to roll there. Transportation building. You saw the image of the site being cleared, that work commences. If at some point
030in time we don't have any of this white frozen stuff on the ground anymore. Um, but the building pad, which is constructed by bid package 2 contractor, is set to go in. We install stone for that pad so that the building contractor can start. But we're ready to roll there with that. As far as bid package one, a lot of work is completed now on the second floor without the science case work and all of the detail that was on the third floor. The second floor moves a lot faster than the third floor. We're going to be uh well prepared for a turnover over spring break. You saw a lot of the tile already in place and we're getting ready for flooring to go in. Uh Mr. Slaughter has the furniture delivery set up and
031so we think it's going to be a much uh easier turnover for the second floor. Then we'll go down to the first floor and do the classroom spaces um before finishing up with the nurses suite and the office and then all of the large curtain wall replacements, the windows over the uh summer. Far as bid package two, yes. Uh, a lot of earth has been moved. We've successfully excavated for the two larger sediment basins on the job site and one small storm water pit out at Sumntown. Shop drawings continue. Um, the staging area is constructed. Demo for APOD is really complete. At this point, the courtyard, as mentioned, uh, all of the demo's been done. The storm water uh, work is about to begin. We've got a new communications duck bank that's already been installed
032and uh, put in place. Our sanitary line, the transite, as you saw, has been removed and we're moving ahead with storm water work in order to get all of the earth work really out of the way associated with the stadium so that we're ready for spring sports and even more importantly ready for graduation. So that includes our upcoming storm water pipe installation. Um getting the the building pad for Apod uh up to grade and for uh the surrounding area to be covered with stone. So we have emergency access to the stadium and we've got a lot of electrical work yet to do as far as getting duct work from SNET town out to the building. So a lot of things happening here in bid package 2. Bid package three, we know that that bidding is
033a ways off. We've got 90% documents. Budgeting continues there and we seem to be in good shape at this point with what's there. We are scrutinizing the documents more um so that we identify any lingering issues that are in those documents and getting them clean uh for bidding. You see the dates that we identified last month as far as when we'd be bidding that project. So, right now, most of our focus is on bid package 2, getting the next changeover for bid package one, and also getting our transportation building up and out of the ground. Not a lot to report on uh a safety, which is a good thing. Uh this month, uh our contracting safety officers have really been focused upon winter work um when a lot of the usual injuries occur. their slip
034and fall type injuries. Fortunately, knock on wood, we haven't had anything to report this month. A lot of warnings to contractors about how to how to place equipment and materials on site so that they don't create tripping hazards, how to remove snow and ice from the construction site. We're also harping on them on making sure gates are closed on the site and also removing soil from the asphalt because many of our areas we've got earthwork trucks running over uh asphalt areas that school employees run on and so we're trying to do our best in the midst of winter and a lot of snow in order to keep roads clean and safe. two dashboards here for um bid package one and bid package two that identify where we are with uh schedule. Be happy to answer
035any questions here. We keep moving along with bid package one and bid package two. Contingencies and allowances are are intact for both of those uh contracts. I'll speak to that a little bit more to the entire board on March 3 when we look at the entire budget, but the entire team is working on identifying any issues that need resolution, processing requests for information, getting submittals turned around, and really working together. Both bid package one and bid package 2 teams uh are working very well together. So there's a lot of really daily, if not hourly, communication and a really good spirit of working with the district and trying to resolve issues as they're identified. Next slide is simply bid package 2. I update this from month to month. I identify approximately where we are as far
036as percent complete in each of the areas. In bid package two, of course, we've been delayed somewhat by the uh delayed permitting and the start date. I'll give you a full update on how that can be recovered or addressed as we get to the end of the APOD edition and how it affects the rest of the project on March 3. But we did build some contingency into the schedule. So I think with a good deal of diligence, we're still going to be able to work this project out so that we're hitting our schedule dates for milestones. I've got the repeat slide for sustainability that's uh here as well. Nothing's changed on this slide. It's just a reminder that the design team and the district have worked together in order to make sure that sustainability is
037a priority in the project in lots of different areas within the building and we'll continue to pursue this each step of the way. Of course, a reminder that's out there that there was a thought of of uh including solar and so we have work on that front to continue as well as pursuing uh the grant for that. Speaking of grants, I might also identify up in the front of the presentation this evening, we talked about the crossings of Sumntown and Snyder Road and working with Bowman. They're also very adept at pursuing grants for that type of work. um we're working with them in two other areas and there are a number of grants that are available specifically for these types of road crossings and so I think that is one thing that together we're going
038to want to pursue especially since we have the time to do it before that construction actually occurs. Uh finally is the summary slide on uh total project budget and I've updated this and we'll share this with uh the board and the community on March 3rd. we seem to be tracking uh pretty well and I'll highlight some items of additional cost like the Sumntown crossings that we've been um given as a result of the approval process and where that lines up with the whole uh budget. What I what I'd like to simply point out as a precursor to that presentation is across the project in 260 million or so, we have roughly $13 million in contingency and $5 million in material allowances that are included in the contracts. So, I'm going to break that down for
039you and for the entire board in a little bit more detail on March 3rd, just as we did at the beginning of the project, so that any questions can be raised at that at that point in time. But, uh, I'd like to say, you know, for where where we are so far, so good. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Thank you for that update, Mr. Lynch. Um, do I have any comments or questions from the committee? >> No. >> Mr. Lynch, can you We brought up the transportation center a little bit and and we got to see a visual of the the foundation kind of land being cleared there for that in Mr. Go's video. Can you remind us what the timeline is for that? Where does that
040fit within the phase? But right now based on that schedule, we're going to get out of the ground and as soon as Frost is out of the ground, foundations would start in April of this year. And the contractor has given us a schedule that says he would finish late in the year. Um meaning end of 2026, early 2027. That's great because we're scheduled for our move from old transportation to new next summer. So what we want to make sure of is we have to abate the old transportation building. We want to give the transportation team plenty of time to move in, get acclimated, have the entire area, which is that paved area and parking also deal with fueling and have plenty of time in order to make a reasonable transition so that we're not interrupting
041the transportation operation. So, that's the schedule that's in hand right now from SJ Thomas, who's our contractor. >> Wonderful. Thank you. And Mr. Bell, I think I I cut you off there. >> Please always do that. Um, so my only curiosity thinking about the sequencing and thinking about some of the holdups that uh slowed us down in approvals for bid pack 2. We're looking at starting bidding uh for bid pack 3 in early 27. Is there any action that we could take now proactively to try to avoid some of those potential slowdowns? Are there any risks that might come up similarly to what happened in Bidac 2? >> Well, that's a great question. The, you know, first in bid package 3, we we would expect that we're not going to be held up by a
042approval process. So, that's one good thing. The next thing is that as we go through pod A, B, C, and D, we hope that there's a bit of a learning curve so that we could potentially pick up some time. Now, with respect to bid package three, we're bidding that awfully early with respect to a start date. And so the other thing that that offers us is the ability at the time of bidding to base that bid package start date on our progress. So it's just another um uh area where we're afforded some flexibility because we have these multiple bid packages in order to build in flexibility. um had we had one big contract, everything would have somehow been affected possibly. So, you know, here we can see how we stand on bid package 2 before
043we bid package put bid package three out. And then, of course, we learn on what we've seen in bid package two of what else we can incorporate in bid package three in order to tighten everything up and hopefully avoid cost issues. >> Thanks very much. Mr. Kaiser. >> Yeah. I just had a a technical question. It's on your Gant charts. You have a lot of colors. Are they just for the colors of the project or of each of each task or are they meaning like timing meanings or something? I didn't see. >> Thank you. It's a great question. I I don't mean anything in particular by the colors. I just like to kind of differentiate some of the tasks so there's not it it doesn't correlate to something specific whether it's cost or type of
044work. It's really just to make the graph a little bit more readable. At least in my opinion. >> I I I'm when I do Gant charts a lot, it's usually red is delayed and and blue is on time or something like that. But yeah, that's fine. I just want to know what it was. >> Well, thank you for that. you know on this is not a CPM schedule gant chart and so we don't have the critical path highlighted in in red um and what we try to do is make it really just a dashboard for the purposes of both the board the staff and the community to understand what the timeline is as soon as I turn it into a true Gant chart as you're experienced with I I have all kinds of things I
045could start to show total float bars and things like that and and all of a sudden um it's it's difficult to read But this is the general phasing of each of these bid packages. >> Great. Thanks. >> I'm with Kaiser. That sounds that kind of chart sounds really interesting to me. But that's nerds in this space. So appreciate it. >> Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ledge. >> Thank you. Moving on to the next item, the 10-year capital needs. Uh there were no changes to the uh to the capital needs uh list. Um however, as I indicated last month, we left some of the uh the items that were corrected in place. Uh I did reset the whole list based on the average score. So items that we've completed have now moved to the end.
046Their life expectancy has been restarted and the average score has been reduced. So that's the only change we made from last month to this month. Uh all the items are still the same uh with our capital needs list. Any questions on that? >> No, I don't think so. >> The next item that we have is item D and that is a facilities and operations update from Mr. Ryan. Mr. Ryan, if you would like to take that. >> Thank you, Mr. Slaughter, and good evening everyone. Uh so as we jump into our February 2026 facilities update uh jumping right into the custodial department. So and Mr. Linsky feel free to chime in. Uh so some followup we are in the process of completing midyear reviews. This is the opportunity that we sit down with our head
047custodians, supervisors and leads, talk about how the first part of the school year has gone, provide them feedback, you know, whether it's areas of improvement or, you know, opportunities to talk about glow moments where the staff's doing a great job. Uh, and give them a chance for some, you know, purposeful one-on-one time with Mr. Slaughter, Mr. Linsky, and myself. And so far, they've gone really good. And sometimes some honest you know some honest criticism comes out of it towards us and we we invite that we want that to be an open forum for them to sit down and talk to us and and just share their experiences. Uh we are have modified our HVAC HVAC filter process as far as uh you know every three months or excuse me every four months replacing our HVAC
048filters having that being a recurring order to become more efficient and uh help everybody stay on time. And then Mr. Linsky and myself are going to be doing an equipment equipment inventory at all schools with the custodial team. There is equipment at schools that is maybe not being utilized uh and could be sent to another school so that we're not purchasing needlessly if we have unused equipment. Uh Mr. Linsky, if you want to talk about staffing update. >> Sure. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Good evening, everyone. So, as far as staffing, uh we just had an operations meeting today and we talked about staffing and we are only uh three positions down from being fully staffed. So, we have 104 custodians um currently just um three vacancies that we're working on filling. Uh we do have
049some medical absences, but overall I think we're in a pretty good spot. We're constantly getting applications in. We're reviewing those. You know, we're setting up interviews. We do a two um a two interview process, an initial interview with myself and Mr. Ryan and another facilities team member and then uh when we select a candidate, we have a second round interview with the actual head custodian or supervisor um that was something we came up with um Mr. Ryan and myself and it's been working out really well. So, uh, as far as staffing, I think we're on a good track and we're constantly looking to add, uh, custodial subs also to our staff. >> One of the things too that we're looking to, uh, we're going to start instituting uh, in the next coming months is a
050custodial academy development. So that would be an opportunity to train second shift custodians, dayshift custodians to be a head custodian because what better way to to grow than to promote within have team members that you know we've have people express interest in this. So it's something that we're going to roll out. We're going to have our first go goaround with the the head custodians themselves so that we can run them through the training to get their feedback on it. So we just want to, you know, constantly look to grow and and and uh improve our team any way we can. >> And ju just to add on to that, um so Mr. Rice, so so as far as our head custodians at elementary schools, we have one floater uh to cover absences when a head
051custodian is out. So, by doing this to try to get some of the second shift staff members who are interested in moving moving up um by doing this this training that'll give us the ability to, you know, have more options, you know, to cover day shift. So, I think it's a great uh a great thing. >> Thank you, Mr. Linsky. Yep. Uh I know it's tough to think about summer uh when we just had, you know, multiple snowstorms of over six, eight inches, but we are starting that process. Um, one of the things a little differently this year, we're going to use a Gant chart to track our summer cleaning along with the coordinations with any school events with summer programs. I believe there's only two schools that we have that do not have a
052form of summer program in them. So, there's a lot of coordination. You know, ultimately us being able to provide a clean school for the start of the school year. So, uh, working with this the head custodians, uh, meeting with them, going over it with, uh, Donna Norton and the, you know, summer program team. So, stay tuned. Oh, and I do want to take one big step back and put out a huge shout out and a wholehearted thank you to the grounds maintenance custodial team. This winter has been one for the ages. Uh we have had more snow this winter than we've had in the past 8 to 10 combined. Uh our teams are have worked so hard. Uh numerous team members have spent the night, you know, clearing snow up to 2 3 a.m. Uh
053they have really stepped up and honestly I I don't know where we would be without them. So just a big thank you to the entire team. So >> thank you for noting that, Mr. Ryan. I think we share your sentiment. I think in addition to the to the quantity of snow, the timing has been difficult, the conditions, the extreme cold, um it we we are incredibly um indebted to the work of that team. So, we're grateful for their effort and for the coordination and support that you all have provided them. So, thank you. >> It is very much appreciated. Uh and yeah, I mean trying to let's think spring, you know, without the grounds department. So, uh, we're not there yet, but we are going to then, as we get towards the end of winter,
054ramp down the winter equipment, uh, service so that, you know, we like to get it to a place where then come next winter, everything's ready to go. So, we're going to take a step back and look at our snow removal process, if there's ways that we could improved upon for next year, you know, talking with the stakeholders as far as like the head custodians and our grounds team. We're we're always open to improving. So, that's even looking at ourselves. Uh we've already begun meetings with athletic directors. Uh you know, we have a meeting scheduled with Mr. Monero uh to talk baseball. So starting that process now for spring. Unfortunately, we are going to be a little behind the eight-ball with the how saturated our fields are with all the weather that we've had. So it's
055going to be a hard push to get everything ready. Uh which we'll we will get it done. Um but it's it's going to be a little taxing. So and then we're going to jump right into, you know, spring cleaning. Uh we've already started that at the warehouse. Uh just making sure that we have space for everything with the high school renovation project and the constant evolving uh the systems that we have our maintenance uh maintenance department update. So I always think it's kind of fun information. So since uh January 1st, we have completed 744 work orders across all departments. So that's plumbing, electrical, HVAC, uh, grounds work orders. Um, so that the team is really working hard and we've really tried to push the the tracking piece, making sure that we're putting detail in the
056work orders so that we can, you know, see the history of it. Uh, we completed 220 PMs, so PMS for preventative maintenance, which is HVAC, boilers, um, also some of our custodial equipment. We've had some HVAC challenges uh over the course of the last month with temperatures. Uh we went through an incredibly cold spell there where we weren't we did not break 10 degrees for about a week. So uh the team again working really hard just going out and trying to keep these schools warm. Uh they they do get a big hats off for that. One of the items that we just rolled out to the admin team is a district-wide painting plan. So the the purpose of this plan is to make sure that we are equitable across the board, that all schools are
057being touched by our our our one district maintenance painter. So it's a a process of them submitting work orders, us compiling the data, and then having, you know, a purposeful time frame of a week to two where our painter will spend at each individual school. So that eliminates him bouncing back and forth from multiple schools. You lose time in the, you know, the transition. So just trying to get the most uh that we can out of him. And then again, same as the grounds and in all the departments, we're going to be going through cleaning out spaces, getting ready for spring. Um yeah, and that is all I have. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free. one curiosity thinking about just sort of the reflection on the super cold winter and thinking in
058conjunction with the 10-year plan. Uh how did the boilers across the district hold up against that chill? Obviously, it's the team had to hard charge to get it there, but considering that versus some of the boiler replacements at like Penddale and other things that showed up on the pretty high on the 10-year plan, how did we fare through those cold spells? >> So, I I'll tackle that one >> if you if you don't mind. Yeah, the so the boiler the boiler capacity as far as our schools go is good. Um, we really didn't have very many uh issues with the boilers. Some control modules in the burners we had, but that's something we typically carry replacements on our trucks for that. I will say it it probably more of our problem revolved around the portable
059classrooms and the air infiltration underneath of those. Um, you know, you know, we did have some water line issues. We had a pretty severe leak at at Penn Dale Middle School with a frozen pipe that let go. Uh we were having some problems at Pennfield with the actual sewer lines froze. Typically your water lines are are usually the issue. We actually had a frozen sewer line that we had to shut the bathrooms down and thaw that line out to uh get water flowing again. So boiler-wise, I think we did really well. Um, but I think uh, you know, some of our equipment is aged and it's it's on the capital list and we've been hammering away at that. Um, but uh, most of the our issues were revolved around piping itself, not really the boilers.
060>> Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> No, I think it Thank you, Mr. Ryan. That was a great update. Appreciate it. >> Okay, the next item that we have informational is our student representatives. I see we have Audrey and Casey on line. Do you guys have any >> any comments for us? >> Hi, I don't have too much to update on, but um Casey and I are continuing to work on the student survey, so hopefully we have that to you soon. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you, Audrey. It's good to see you and appreciate you being here. Okay, I think we are moving on to our public comment and I will read the state the statement. So, individuals attending this meeting virtually and intending to speak to the committee should be aware that
061they are being recorded. In order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania sunshine law, it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting. To asssure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the committee raise their hand electronically and state their name and municipality. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the facilities and operations committee. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes. Mr. Gilmer. >> All righty. Up first is Jason Laneir. Jason, I've enabled your microphone, so when you're ready to begin, please state your name and municipality for the record and begin your comments, please. >> Uh
062Jason Laneir, Lansdale. Uh I wanted to first jump off of where I guess was Mr. Ryan was talking about the the snow removal, guys. And my goodness, I could not agree more with with that that and to share a little uh story. I was I actually had to go help a friend whose heat went out on Sunday. It's actually Monday morning, pretty late. Um, and I was driving down Cow Path, not a snow plow to be seen except in the school district parking lot and they were clearing it out. I like I thought that was pretty impressive. Like I I had to take a second look to make sure it was actually a district vehicle clearing snow and this that was that was outstanding to me. So, congratulations on that and uh I guess give
063give your guys that a boy or whatever. that really uh that was unusual to see. I think I mean that's a that's a that's a lot of dedication. Um my only comment on top of that is is more of a question regarding the the radio tower. They So I understand they're taking down the one radio tower, putting a new one without guide wires in the same footprint, but does that mean there's not going to be any radio for the month or two it takes to get all that done? I Clearly, I might have missed something because I I thought there was sort of continual operations even through the construction, but maybe I missed something. If you're taking the tower down, then it seems like you're going to have a limited ability to broadcast. Just looking
064for clarification and I'll leave it there. Thank you. >> Uh I can answer Miss Mr. Laneir's question. Um that we're going to place the new tower immediately adjacent to the existing tower. So our time down will be very minimal. Just whatever it takes to move the antennas from one tower to the other. Uh so they will be immediately adjacent to each other. One will be fully functional till the other one's ready so that we have a quick turnaround. Mr. Gilmer has informed us to the time down and what our allocation is with the FCC and losing our license. And I see he has his hand up. So, I'll let it over to him for that. >> No, Mr. Slaughter, got all the stuff right. And just as a point of reference, um when we demolished
065the other four towers, we had moved the antennas from one antenna to the current one that it's on now. And that was about a day's worth of work to uh fire those back up. So, we we do we will be uh putting the construction permit in through the FCC, all those pieces. We have up to 30 days if we needed to to be off the air. I I don't see that being a uh an issue of how long we'd be off the air. >> Okay. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Okay. Um great response that the responses there. Okay. So, I'm going to summarize the items that will be moving forward um to our next work session or action meeting. That is um the board approval for two change orders, an approval for an
066advertise to bid um board approval um for the Bowman Consulting Group and recommended board approval of district-wide facilities assessment RFP to CMTA. So, our next meeting of the FNO committee will be held on Tuesday, March 24th, immediately following um the safe schools committee that starts at 5:45. Do I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting? >> So, moved. >> Okay, meeting adjourned. And thank you all so much, Mr. Slaughter. Thank you to you and your team um for all the work that they put into this meeting. Um we really appreciate it um and appreciate all the work that you do. Thanks for getting my second group. Thanks everybody.