001December regular business meeting. Please rise for 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. >> Well, welcome. I just want to note that Miss Janie Laauo has an excused absence today. Um the board met in executive session on Tuesday, December 16th to discuss an update on the assistant superintendent process and two potential legal matters, one involving a student and one involving contracting work. This point um per policy um 006, we have public comment. Is there any in the audience? And and before we jump into public comment, just a reminder to our community too that we have um that we're going to have this quick board meeting and
002then we have a hearing starting for a charter after this at 7 o'clock. >> Yes. Thank you. Next on the agenda is reports from board committees. 401 the curriculum committee. We met on December 9th at 5:00 pm. Um we discussed um the approval of a new mock trial team school club and a student um overnight trip over the holidays for the girls basketball team. We also had presentations of Rner Middle School and Rner High School's 2026 27 program of studies. The next meeting will be on 120 um January 20th at 5:00 pm. Next is the facilities committee. We met on December 9th at 6:30 p.m. We had a presentation by the administration's recommend recommendation for architect for the ad building. It's the Shrader Group architecture. They're actually here tonight for um an introduction and a
003presentation. So, welcome. Um, in add in addition, we talked about the Rner and Wayne Elementary School door access upgrade and um, good news is fully funded by a grant. And we also did a ratification of a donation of plants by the Ethan Valley Land Bank. And this was um, spearheaded by freshman coach Philip Gil Gilbert. And a big thanks to him. he actually um got the um RNER boys [clears throat] soccer team to get involved in the donation and they actually did the planting. So, it was really nice to see student involvement. Our next meeting is January 13th at 6 p.m. Next on the agenda is our priority action item, the selection of an architecture firm. We'll turn it over to the administration, Mr. Ken Morris. All right. Good evening everyone. Um at the uh
004November 9th facilities committee meeting, the administration uh presented a recommendation to engage with the Shraider group um to develop a solution uh for the aging administration building in the form of a renovation and upgrades. Uh the intent of tonight is not to duplicate that presentation, but to introduce David Schrader um and the Shrader group and to answer some of the questions from the committee. Um before we do that, I do want to remind everyone that the presentation from Tuesday's night um has been uploaded online and is available for review. Um the presentation that's included in your board packet um includes um some updated slides um with the information that we're going to share tonight as well. So um at this time I'd like to introduce uh David Schrader. You can use that just have to
005figure out to the >> welcome. >> Yeah. Good. >> Okay. Well, thank you. What a pleasure to meet everybody. Thanks for the opportunity tonight. Um, so we've just come out of what I consider to be a very thoughtful and thorough process. uh we came up with a number of ideas but recognize that any ideas that you saw in those presentations were done without the benefit of the folks on the wings here who will finally enhance the project when we get to it. So what we wanted to do is introduce to you the team. So we are a 50 person architecture firm and we have offices in Kahaken, Lancaster, Pittsburgh and State College. The majority of folks are in Kahaken and that's where I'm from. So, uh, the people that we've been bringing to the interview
006are the folks that you see up here. The two leaders that you will see most often will be Jennifer Grafton and Seth Hammonds. Uh, we had the benefit of some work that was done by Patrick and M, landscape architects as well. And then going to talk just briefly about Gina Dowy as well on the bottom of the screen here. So, we're super excited about bringing a team that we can partner with you on. And this is how our internal team will be structured. And just so you know, the internal team includes architects, it includes landscape architects, interior designers, and strangely probably for an architecture firm, we have structural engineering as well. So, those are all in-house. And those are the folks that you'll see up on this uh screen as well. The consultants that we
007bring include a mechanical, electrical, plumbing firm, Snyder Hoffman Associates, and that firm will have quite a bit of work to do on that project. As you know, the infrastructure is probably what triggered most of the project. And so, the balance of the things that we'll be doing for the building will be the enhancements architecturally and how we bring folks into the building uh to try to get all of the ADA uh work that we need to do. But important to this though is the person in the center and that is Gina Dowy. She is a historic preservation consultant. She's actually worked for the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission. So, she has a very good knowledge of how you take an exterior shell and do the things inside to enhance the operational capabilities of the building,
008but really continue to maintain that beautiful look that you saw in the first photo that Ken had up that was taken Sunday morning, which was a beautiful day to look at a building like that. and the firm that you've been working with on the Ethan Elementary School for the construction management and for the cost estimating will continue on as part of that service for this project. So they'll be doing our cost estimating as well. So that's the team I wanted to bring to you and the only other thing that I would I would speak to are some of the local projects that we have done uh to give you a good sense of the districts that we've worked on around you. Certainly, you'll see uh Upper Marian's new high school. Uh many projects in the
009school district of Springfield Township, Montgomery County. Uh we also in the lower lefthand corner did Springfield's new high school, Delaware County. We've just finished a really magnificent building for Hatboro Horscham School District, their new Keith Valley Middle School. Number of projects for Phoenixville and so on. Um and you'll see council rocks and a variety of others. The Great Valley School District project is a building where we've just added to what used to be the 1930 um elementary school. It was actually the township school for that for West Whitland, East Whitland Township, pardon me. And we maintained that building, completely revamped the interior, and then wrapped the new building around that. So, it does have some similarity to what we'll be looking at when we look at your facility. So, that's a little introduction to the
010firm. We're excited about what we may accomplish together as a team and uh some of our local work. So, we'd certainly I know there were some questions that were asked in facilities, so we're ready to address those as well. >> All right. Thank you, David. Um so to pro provide a little bit more information um and to answer some of the questions that that came from Tuesday night's meeting. Um this first slide that you're going to look at uh was in response to the question about how much or to try to quantify the efforts or repairs and maintenance of the district office. So we leveraged the uh data that we had in our work order system which is is um electronic work order system that helps us um manage prioritize um our work orders. So
011this is uh a result of internal efforts. This does not um account for contracted services or contractors that we bring in or anything like that. It does also does not account for any preventative maintenance. This is simply emergency repairs, work orders, um temperatures not right, lights out, elevator not working, things of that nature. Um so we tried to compare the district office to um a couple of our other buildings, RER and Wayne being um the most closest in in square footage. However, they they are a little bit larger. Um so in order to do apples for apples we had to normalize everything and we broke it down by u work orders per 10,000 square feet. All right so this gives you a good idea that you know a lot of our resources and time are
012spent at the administration building. [snorts] Um we're about 29 12% um we spend about 29 1.5% more time um at the administration building than we do Radner and about 46.1% than we do at Wayne Elementary School. So a lot of maintenance resources put into district office um at this time because of its aging. Um you know when you look at the and this is a three-year average. If you looked at the actual trend, um you will see over the last 5 years, um you will see an increase in the amount of work orders that just naturally take place at district office and and you know industry standard is you know we try to get somewhere between 70% reactive or proactive and 30% reactive, right? But on an aging building, you start to see the switch,
013right? You start to now become reactive rather than proactive. And that's where we're at um with the administration building. So over time, you'll start to see a little bit of increase. Ironically, when I went back and looked at it and analyzed some of the data, um from 24 to 25, we had a slight decrease. Um and so I had to stop and think, wow, why did we have a little bit of a decrease there in in work orders? And that was uh the efforts of our HVAC um department or crew. Um they spent a lot of time on the third floor in the teaching and learning suite. um weeks and uh after hours uh replacing some valves and and some other stuff just to try to get that those temperatures and everything under control. So
014that that satisfied some some needs there. Um but all in all um from here you can see that we are you know we're spend a lot more time in district office than we are um out you know improving the buildings. So all right and I'll stop us at any time. and we'd be happy to answer questions. So, you want to take this one. >> Okay. So, this is a this is a repeat from from Tuesday's but um it goes into um answering some questions on on the next slide. And and these are the decision points throughout the process for the administration building. This process should look very familiar. It is um almost to exactly the same as what we experienced with with Ethan Elementary School. Um so we'll get into pre-esign um again as David
015mentioned with the team uh schematic design. Um before we come to the board with uh the results of that and and some budgetary numbers. Um that would be your decision point number one. Um we would ask for approval to go to the design development where we start to lay out some more programming of the spaces. Again developing a more robust budget and costing. Um again uh decision point two approval from the board would then go into construction documents and this is where we start to design all the drawings and everything that would eventually be used for for bidding. Um and then prior to bidding um we would again ask for the board's approval and decision point number four which is kind of uh between three and four which is where we're at currently with the
016Ethan Elementary School. Um number four is where we really pull the trigger and you know commit the the funds and and develop the project and and award contracts. So and then this slide here is to kind of um summarize those decision points um and then how that how it runs concurrent with uh the Ethan project as it stands today as well as some of the cost factors that are associated with those decision points. So >> yeah, we created this infographic to show the concurrent timeline between the two projects and then also to quantify at the bottom um you know where we've been calling those offramps and where they are. And so with the estimate based on the proposals that we received back from the from the RFP process of a range of 15 to$20 million
017for the project. It's based on the architectural fees are based on a 7 and a half% costing of that estimate. So those are the ranges in the uh numbers at the bottom at um first 7 and a half% of the total uh and then the uh percentages at each phase. So for example, the schematic design completion phase in April of 2026 would be 15%, design development would be 25%, the construction documents 35, uh the bidding uh portion 5% and then the completed construction at 20%. So those are the estimates based on those um uh current numbers that we have. Um and again based on the questions that we received last week and then uh the the conversation about what this looks like uh going uh alongside the Ian project where those those timelines and those
018milestones meet up with each other. So what what we're asking for the board tonight to do is to have the administration engage with the Shrader group for us to go to the next step. We've done as much internal analysis as we can on the building, identifying that there is a need um for renovations in the building. Um and so this would take us to that next step to do further design and development work with the project with with the Shrader Group. >> And I'd just like to add to and I know uh David you had mentioned it. It was a very thorough RFP process u you know thorough process. I want to thank board members who participated that administrative team uh who participated that and brought us to the point where we are um so
019that we can move forward. So are there any other questions from board members? >> Can I open it? I'm going to read the recommended recommend the recommended action and then open it up for a motion so that we can discuss that the board approve retaining the Shrader Group architecture selected through the recent RFP process to prepare design options for the administrative building renovation project and authorize the administration to develop and initiate the AIA contract. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Mr. Stern, do I have a second? >> Second. Miss Dun second. Now questions. Anyone have any questions? Miss Stern. >> Well, first of all, thank you and um thank you for that really high level overview [clears throat] of the um what the building has been costing us right now because there
020is there's a cost associated when you have [clears throat and cough] our maintenance team in the building doing that kind of work. There's a cost in terms of your resources. a cost in terms of how it delays or disrupts our administrator's work. So, that was a really helpful graphic. I appreciate that. Um, my question actually has to do with is there any is any part of this project impacted by Act 34 or [clears throat] is it not because it's a renovation, not a u not a construction, not a new construction project? And I'm sure you you're thinking about that because you just went through that the uh because this is renovation only and you're not adding 20% or more to the project, you're not subject to act 34. >> Okay. Thank you. And then the
021other question is really just a very I just can't figure out the word. Um pardon me on page uh 24 of the presentation. It refers to the Rner Township DAO property district administration >> office. Yes. Thank you. Property. Um I do [clears throat] want to point out that while it's not in the South Wayne Historical Review Board project, it is in the Wayne business overlay district. And just side note, in the midst of this process, the district, the township's looking at some uh changes to their comprehensive plan, which may ultimately impact our uh business overlay district. Just for your own edification and information. But thank you for answering that question. Those were the only questions I had. I watched the meet. I was here and listened to the meeting and thought it was a really
022robust and thorough uh presentation. So, I appreciate it. Thank you, >> Miss Solomon. >> I don't have any questions. I want to explain my vote. So, I first want to say to the architect, I think that your work is beautiful. And no disrespect to you and the team you've assembled it. They look excellent, top-notch professionals. I am I'm sure that you would do beautiful work. And I also want to say no disrespect to our administration. Um, and I I want to say that I know that the administration has been humble and they've put the students first and they've put the students construction projects for the schools before their own needs. And I want to recognize that. Um, I just will be voting no on starting this project. Now, my ask would be that we delay
023it a year. And my reason is because we haven't even launched Eyan. And I want our administrators to have the grace. You're going to be pulled into issues at Ethan. I want you to then be able to focus on education and our students and not a second construction project. And even more so, I don't want you burdened with moving your offices around. And it's disruptive. And I speak from, and I say this every meeting, somebody who's living through a construction project, it is extremely disruptive. and students um in my opinion are um you know the the focus is not on them. There's a whole department moving you know their offices then so they're packing boxes. They're not you know dealing with um regular business. So I'm going to be voting no because I think that
024we should wait a year to undertake another construction project. >> Miss Dunn. So, I I'm I sat on the committee to interview the architects as part of the review and I took a couple of vacation days from my office to do that because it means enough to me. Um the administrators in this community do a lot of work and they have done it for a long time in a building that is has windows that have almost fallen on people have heat and cooling that are unreliable at best dangerous and extremely uncomfortable is is much more accurate that the building has had flooding issues. We'd think we've resolved them but maybe we haven't. we and and frankly as somebody who really cares about old buildings I recognize that there's only so long that you can defer
025the maintenance before they're no longer reparable and if you see genuinely stand outside that building and look at all the parts where the wood is peel I know it's paint but it's been peeling and the mortar needs to be repointed and it it's [snorts and clears throat] also you know you've accounted for the work orders the inefficiency and the cost to us as taxpayers to heat and cool a building that is this inefficient is also a real number and it's a real number that we're paying every year and we can't quite account for it because we don't necessarily know it all but but genuinely I think we need to care I see these buildings and caring for these buildings the same way I see caring for my home we've done a lot of work orders
026we've done a lot of regular maintenance but at some point we have to undertake the effort to improve the building to a state that it's actually useful to the people who are working in it. Lydia, I hear you about doing two projects concurrently and I have had my concerns about that, but to be fair, Ethan's just really far behind and no one will be happier than me if you meet every date on this slide, but I am very, very practical and we've done enough of these projects and I'm going to be sitting on the facilities committee, so we're going to see each other. I don't believe any of these dates because it just doesn't happen that way. And not because I don't genuinely believe everyone will put in all the effort, but it just doesn't
027seem to work that way, unfortunately. So, the longer we wait, the further in the future this goes, and the next time it's going to be, well, we can't do this because we have projects we have to do at Wayne Elementary. We know, you know, that that whole feasibility study, there's a lot of work to be done in this district. and the more we delay it, the further the more it's going to cost us, frankly. So, I I'm in favor of getting started on this as soon as we can. Thank you. And um I really appreciate both those comments. Um I do for those of you who I hope you had the chance to look at the presentation, we did have one slide that was the feasibility um study slide. And if you looked at that,
028five years ago, this building was red and orange. Five years ago, there was one red was red mean hot. We need to address it immediately. And that was the ADA accessibility piece. But all the other components I think you could argue have moved into the red, you know. So to me, and if I if I'm reading this right, so I'm I guess I'm looking for a point of clarification because I think the question um we had a good discussion about off-ramps, like what are we approving? And right now what we're really approving is getting us to the next phase so that we know what we need to do to this building, right? So that we and I believe that commitment right now is really somewhere, if I'm reading this right, between 163,000 and 217,000. So
029that's really the approval. So, so in terms of timing, and I do agree with everything Miss Dunn said about timing, but this is really the the milestone we're at right now, right? >> Yeah. The the the goal the goal is always to get to one of the decision points, right? And and once we get to that decision point, I mean, we the onus is on us to evaluate where we're at, right? What where are we at with Ethan? Where are we at with other project? where are we at with the needs of the students and and the other buildings and so that we can make an informed decision. And if we're comfortable, we move on to try to achieve decision point number two. And and we just keep moving down the the process in in
030that type of mentality. um you know to hopefully you know we're at a comfortable spot before we go out for public bidding that we're 100% sure that we have the resources not only time but money um to to do this project um and I I I thoroughly um appreciate the the concern um for the administration with regards to workload um and I I think that's part a key part of these decision points um But with Ethan being delayed, I actually, you know, I actually like where we're at with this district office uh timeline. And um you know, as you know, things don't always work out the way, right? Um but, you know, when I look at when uh district office is is moving back into a finished building with regards to Ethan, um uh the
031the 2829 school year, now we are moving into Ethan a little bit early. We have a little trial run there at the end of the of the school year um to get our feet wet with the new building. But honestly, the work for Ethan really comes on that 2829 school year when we're utilizing that building for an entire school year. Um all of the students are in there and and that's the time where we need to kind of to focus on um you know just getting all of the the programming um to where it needs to be. I always say a new project, a new building such as Ethan Elementary School, it it's really three years of work after you cut the ribbon, right? Because we're we're going to have systems that we need to
032tune and and adjust and things like that. So, honestly, if we can get the district office uh renovate it and get us back um back in in August of 2028 so that we can then focus on, you know, that at least that first full year of of students in Ethan, I think it'll be it'll work out well. >> So, >> can I thank you, >> Mr. U I sit on facilities committee, so I wanted to thank you for the updates to the presentation specifically around the current costs. Uh and just had two clarifying questions. How old is this building? >> 1901, right? >> Yeah, the original is 1901. Um, it did go through a series of renovations over the years. Um, there was an addition uh put on the back on on both wings, so
033it was extended at at one point. When you look at the current age of our boilers and our switch gear and and things like that, we haven't done any major system renovations since 1982. >> That was my second question. Thank you. >> Thank you. And just I because I've heard this concern many times. It was along the lines of what you were just talking about in terms of um in terms of doing multiple projects at once. >> Can you just publicly state what you stated at the facility? >> Um you know it it's it's certainly nothing to brag brag about, but it and it is a lot of work. Um but that's why we're here, right? like we've committed um to serve the community and we've committed to to make our our district buildings um
034world class. So it you know I'm not a stranger to running multiple uh large projects um at before I came to Rner um I had five uh going at one time and when I say five I mean five multi-million dollar projects. So you know it's it's a lot of work but um I got a great team. Um, I'm not going to do it all myself. Um, I got a lot of support and again, you know, I I go back to the decision points, right? We if we get to, you know, we get to decision point number three and we just can't handle it. We, you know, we we just got to be we got to step up and say we can't handle it. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Miss Rosen Bloom. >> I
035don't It's not a question. It's just another comment to add on to what you said to getting to decision point one. what we do, what we have at decision point one is ours. So there's in my mind we're not losing anything there. Whatever we're paying for, we're keeping. Um and then we can move on after that. >> If there's no other comments, I'll call the vote. All in favor? I opposed. Passes. What are we seven to one? Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next is the consent agenda. Do we have anyone that wants to pull an item? >> Yeah. Um, which item is it you guys? The >> 104. >> Thank you. 1004, please. Okay. So, with that, um, do I have a motion to approve items 701 to 7, I'm 701 to
03610.03? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Girtton, a second. Okay. Now, um, Miss Solomon, if you'd like to. >> Oh, yes. All All approved. opposed. 80 approved. Okay. Now, Miss Solomon, >> thank you. Um, we didn't have the luxury [clears throat] of having a finance committee meeting this month, so I would just I'm questioning why the workman's comp quote is so much higher this year than last year. It's almost 20% higher. Do we have some explanation for why [clears throat] that has increased so much? >> So workers compensation rates are based on our utilization uh and it's a basically a state formula that's used uh and we are required to carry workers comp. So based on our usage and our our u utilization over the past three years, it's modules that are uh created
037with that and as our uh utilization decreases in the future as we hope it will then our rate should come down as well. >> There's also um an adjusted look back period as part of that formula. So that that look back period has been extended in in the recent formula. So again it's ba it's based on our actual claims. We're assigned a number. what's called an experience mod factor. Um, and when we use CBiz, our broker, to quote this out, that that's the all of those quotes that we receive are based on our uh claims data and our experience mod number. So, what we utilize are uh internal safety committees, information that we give to our staff members, and we educate our staff members as much as possible on on maintaining workplace safety to cut
038down on those claims. But should a slip and fall or another incident occur, this is why we have the policy in place. Um, and it's just unfortunate we've had some, you know, incidents where, um, they're in frequency or in dollar amount that we've paid out over the last several years that are affecting that experience mod. >> Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? >> Do I have a motion to approve item consent item 10.04? >> Yes. So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> 8 Z. >> Okay. Next on the agenda, reports from board leaons and leazison and community announcements. Delaware Community College. >> No report. >> Delaware intermediate unit. >> Yeah, absolutely. The uh search for the new executive director continues. There were interviews last week and there should be second round interviews
039this week. And again, thank you, Mr. Thornton, for taking on this responsibility. I know it's a big commitment, so we appreciate your time. Next on the agenda, um, Delaware County School Board Legislative Council, >> no report. >> And then Pennsylvania School Board Association. Wait, um, Miss Laauo is going to be taking that position from Mr. Thornton moving forward. So, next on the agenda, board announcements. Um, next on the next meeting will will take place on Tuesday, January 13th. We have finance at 5, policy at 5:30, facilities at 6 p.m. And on Tuesday, January 20th at 5:00 p.m. we have curriculum 7 p.m. the second hearing for the Valley Forge Public Service Comm. And then on Tuesday, January 27th, the regular board meeting at 7 p.m. Any public comment? Have a motion to adjurnn. >> So
040moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. Miss Den, meeting adjourned. >> Oh. Oh. Vote. Sorry. >> All in favor? Meeting adjourned.