001[Music] Okay. So we are in convenient for workshop. Okay, cool. Let her roll. All right. Well, we're gonna start with the uh last item listed there first, our referendum uh construction plan update. Want to introduce uh Clint Sy and Nathan Dirks from Bray Architects who have been leading us through this process. All right. Well, uh thank you, Erin, and uh thank you everybody for having us here tonight. Uh we've we've done a lot of work uh internally with our engineers, with the school district, the admin team, teachers, staff, the community meetings. Uh so a lot of work has gone into the design for the new elementary school that's going to be on this site and then also the addition that's going on to the current state road building. So, a little background about Bray and
002the overall design process, uh, different stages. Bray has been working with the school district for many years. Um, Clint has been a a face that you've probably seen before. Um, I'm the project architect on these specific projects, so I'm I'm new to working with the school district, but I'm not new to the area. I actually grew up in Winona, right up the river. So, it's it's really nice to come back to this area of the state. We're currently over in the Milwaukee office. Um, so we make the trip over bi-weekly basis for meetings, design process, schematic design, design development, and then construction documents. And we're heading into the documentation standpoint. So, wanted to give this time to give a design update. Um, overall projects. Brief overview of the projects that are currently going on within
003the school district. This was part of the November 2024 referendum that was passed. The two larger projects, uh, State Road Elementary School addition and then the new elementary school and a brief look at the overall project timeline for the current projects that are going on. So using those designed um standpoints looking at where we are just highlighting how long these projects actually take and the work that goes into it. We are not only just coordinating the design efforts with the school district, but we are also housing engineer meetings to talk about the mechanical, the electrical, the plumbing, the site, the solar panels that are going to be going on this project, the geothermal that's going to be going into the new elementary school. So, there's a lot of pieces that go into it. So, while
004the design is very important, the actual coordination to make sure that these projects can happen on time and under budget is also um very important to us. and then to the school district as well. Can I just ask I'm sorry if I I missed this from an email. Do we do we have this deck available to us? I'm just I can't was not emailed in advance, but we'll get it to you here after. A lot of details on those slides. Yes. Yes, there are uh there is information to those fun graphics. So yes, uh we can get that to you after the meeting. some of the goal settings that was set by the school district ahead of the referendum. Some of these topics should look familiar and these are pieces that are going into the
005design itself. The biggest piece is looking at how education is changing within Wisconsin, within Lacrosse, and overall in the nation. So instead of having your traditional corridor look with classrooms, kids moving between really utilizing the entire building as a learning space itself. We are no longer just moving kids to and from single rooms, activating that whole space. So with this new elementary school design and even within the addition at state road, this is one of the pieces that um the school district has highlighted as an important piece uh to the design. and obvious and uh sustainable and green strategies go into this design. It goes from anywhere into the carpet that's happening into the exterior materials. This is important piece to the school district and also the community especially here um where the new elementary
006school is going to be happening. The introduction of a a garden into these spaces. Um, you'll see in the site design really trying to maximum maximize the amount of green space that's going to be on the site. It's a very tight site and making sure that kids still have access to that green space even though this is one of the more urban schools where some of the other schools are along the the bluff border. So the design process a lot of different stages go into this. I started to highlight some some of the meetings and the groups that we've been um having. So engaging we've done openhouse community meetings both with the state road community. We also went to a community center towards Hinchinen to for some of those families who might not be able
007to travel um outside of their immediate neighborhood. We've done building tours with the elementary staff. Um that was an invitation to uh different members of the schools to tour recent designs to see how um education buildings are moving forward in the future. We've looked at the overall design with multiple calls with the elementary school principles. We've done um specific meetings for special education. That one is a lot of moving different pieces, a lot of different teachers involved. So for us, we can only be the expert so much where we really do rely on the staff and the teachers of a specific school district to help us identify their needs and then design a building for that. And then just overall coordination. So bi-weekly engineer meetings, a lot of those are internal on our team, but
008then also including the district's um building services teams to to make sure that these buildings work for the users of these spaces. We are not just um designing a school that could be somewhere else in the state. These buildings are for lacrosse. They're for the community. They're for the staff members. And most importantly, they're for the kids. So plan progression from what we've seen on day one is not what we're currently looking at and what we're currently looking at is not what's going to be built. When you have duct work and plumbing, uh, a lot of efficiencies go into that and that's one piece we want to make sure that these buildings are as efficient as possible. making sure that we're building a new school for a reason and that reason is to help um
009from a budget standpoint and make sure that these buildings um produce energy themselves with the solar panels and then also using geothermal to help reduce the cost of heating and cooling. As a mother of an architectural engineer who works with uh um HVAC and plumbing, I appreciate you recognizing because she always ends up on the short end of the stick and she's the one going to school saying uh bad news folks. So, appreciate that. And we we don't want it to be a surprise during construction or design. So, um we have a very trusted engineer group that we use and they've also done work here on the district as well. So that really helps for our team to understand your community needs um and what's working for you guys and what's not. So we'll look
010at um floor plans, site plans, and then overall uh 3D views. These are we're still in the design phases. I'll actually be here on Wednesday and Thursday to talk with staff from Emerson and Spence um meeting with everybody through 4K through um the PE teacher. So they'll they'll be seeing this uh presentation like this later on this week. So looking at the overall massing on the site, as we previously talked about, it is a very tight urban site and so wanting to maximize the green space for that. So we've positioned our building on the um on the north half of the site and that is to provide sunlight for the southern half of the site for kids during the play. We've also heard during our community meetings that there is um sensitive to a larger
011building being in this neighborhood. So we've done sun studies and looking at how that shadow is going to be cast on the the neighbors and the surrounding area yeah I just have a quick question just so I know where the map is that parking space the same parking space we have currently over here just about. Okay. So we're okay ground. I can visualize that left of our screen is market. That is also naturally the more busier site. Um so keeping children off of the busier of the street here and keeping them more towards the neighborhood. I'm just trying to think back to the um the the earlier round of concept drawings and you mentioned how this is not what was sort of originally drawn up. It does to me look relatively similar though. So I'm
012wondering what have some of particularly in the alignment of like the cafeteria with the green space. I think one of the changes is there was like a not a pass through but like more of a hardscape section for for outdoor space um before like the playing field and everything. This will look more or less the same. It'll be the subsequent like um floor plans and some of those sorts of things. What the third floor looks like and trying to minimize shadows that are cast, being efficient with space. Um when you first start designing something, you're very excited about what it's going to be and then they calculate the square footage and they say, "Hey, we got to cut about, you know, right 13,000 square feet." So then you shrink her up a little bit. So
013I mean, I specifically asked for flying buttresses like Exactly. So this this looks relatively the same and has been pretty consistent. It'll be subsequent floor plan slides that start to look a little bit different than they had historically. Great. So what I was uh thank you. Uh what I what I was kind of wondering then is what have been some of the more significant changes that you've run into either from specific pieces of feedback from the community or from the teachers who've been you know talk talking with you and and walking the sites and everything. um or from those like technical realities of air movement. Yeah. No, that that's a great question. And um so we worked with the school district back in 2014 for North Side Elementary School. And so that was our starting
014point for the design. And so even going back then with the user this users of those space, we learned um some pieces the dual courtyards. They're beautiful. They don't get used that often. So, and then this design was going with a larger courtyard. So, it could actually be used as a playground space for the younger kids and then also could be used as a learning environment on nice days like today um to be able to just easily send a class out there instead of having to truck all the way through the school. So, keeping that um keeping a separate community and education spaces. So knowing that these schools are going to be used by a multitude of users, not just the ones that are immediately in the building. So being able to from a safety
015and security standpoint, having that separation line is really really important to us. Um and then like based on our recent meetings, the the height of the building was a really big piece that we heard from the community members. And so actually after that meeting we did reook at that whole market street elevation just to see how it would impact the the height um the shadows across the street. So even though the building is three stories, that's still to maximize the green space for the students who are actually going to be using the space. That threetory is not just on the market street side and setting that building back as far as possible um to help eliminate those concerns. I'd also say teachers have had huge input in where classrooms are grouped. Um the nature of
016collaboration spaces, where they're located, how they're oriented, lockers, locker orientations, especially at State Road. I think there's been more, you know, general changes in design and like tweaking things, where's the music room going to be? You know, how do how do each of these things uh facilitate the the day-to-day uh education of kids? And a lot of the feedback was actually received on our school tours. And so this is basically a field trip for educators is being able to see somebody else's building and actually talk to the users and what's working for them. What did they think they loved during the design process? In actuality, it just didn't work out. Um so that was a extremely helpful um device that we could use. and and it wasn't just our projects, it was other firms projects,
017other districts um mainly within the Madison area, but just seeing these new builds and how they work was so beneficial for the the staff. I would also assume that being that we the North Side Elementary School, um I can't believe it's been that long ago. It seems like it's been just a few years ago, but um there there obviously there It's beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. But there's obviously some tweaks that could have been done to that that they wish probably would they would have had or something would have been switched. So there's got to be some major synergies from going talking to that group and knowing what worked and what could be worked better. You know, something changed and added to this one. Is that fair to say? Yes. And so even just looking at the
018site um knowing that was a difficult site you know with the the building still being on the corner there some challenges going into that one. So um great that we have an open site but there's actually an easement with utilities that runs through the middle of our site. So again um looking at those ways of how do we just upfront reduce cost of this building. you know, moving utilities is costly and if we can design a building where we don't have to do that, we're saving everybody money. So, one of the pieces from North Side was the separated playgrounds on either side of that turf and thinking about how that doesn't it it works, but it one large playground is better with some more natural dividers. And so, also keeping that playground and hardscape closer
019to the building, especially for the littlest kids. um if they one of the nurses said, you know, if a a student gets injured out on the playground, we're not going to have to truck them across the entire site. You know, the little kids can play close to the school and be safe if if something does happen. So, is this more along the lines what the current design is at? Yep. How many elevation changes do you have in your roof line right now? We have quite a few. And so a lot of that is dealing with um just the residential feel. So instead of just throwing up a large box building right against those residential trying to fit in with the neighborhood, um a lot of roofs and peaks in there. So that that goes into
020the exterior design of the building. Comes with costs though. Yeah, that was asking. Yeah, it does definitely would cost more. One one more quick question about roofs then. Um, with with the changes in in elevation in those different places, has that significantly impacted the amount of solar that we're able to put on to the degree where it's there's a balance of of our cost savings actually. So, we um recently engaged with our solar panel engineer and so starting to talk about that with the the district's facility team and understanding the restrictions that are within the area. We're still able we're if we need to change the design to to make sure we maximize it, we will. Um we we do want to make sure that we're putting enough solar panels on there, but there's a
021certain amount that we can and cannot put on. Currently, we're slotting to fill the entire gymnasium. Um currently a twocourt gym, whereas a lot of the elementary schools only have a one court gym and then putting it along that whole cafeteria face on that south side. And Jeff would be the expert on this for us in the the district, Jeff Elson there. But I think we've traditionally put on 100 kilowatt systems and that's about the max that makes financial sense. This might be a little bit bigger. Yeah. Yeah. We'll be allowed XL probably allow us to do a little bigger but only building. So we've been working with them. So we'll have no trouble hitting that with the footage that we have available to us. It'll be when we think about a place like Central
022or Longfellow where we could go bigger, but it won't make sense with our current local legisl or like regulations that are in place. It would be nice if they would change them locally so that we could add more solar and it made more sense. Unfortunately, the power companies have a pretty strong grip on on what's allowed here. So, could I ask this one? Um, not to beat a dead horse, but talking about the uh elevation difference, isn't that uh a problem, especially for, you know, the chance of leaks and for their group having to to work up there and anyone doing roofing, I would think anytime that you're doing so many different elevations that um it just it would seems like it would cause some issues long run or you know, and 10 years down
023the road or whatever being and and even to replace those would be even more expensive. But maybe I'm wrong. I'm just curious. It just concerns me that while it might be beautiful, I would assume that that does come at a cost and and it scares me that maybe we're limiting something elsewhere to have that. You know, I could see some, but that that seems like there's a lot. So, there's a lot um that's a great question. Lots of Thank you. lots of lots of pros and cons. Um there could be maintenance issues down the road, but also looking at it when you have multiple different roofs, you can then identify where the problem is. And if a a roof does age faster than others, just being able to replace that one roof without having to
024patch because the patching is where the a lot of the issues um come into. Um but still limiting our amount of penetrations through the roof itself. Um if we are thinking of putting any skylights in, skylight engineering has come a long way. You're no longer just plopping them right on the roof and hoping they don't leak. You're building them up just like you would a wall and building a curb for that skylight up above. Um we're we're, you know, making sure our details are correct. But yeah, that is a a valid concern there. Yes. My question is, this is perhaps maybe minute compared to the other ones too, but I'm kind of thinking about a line where you have a classroom has natural lighting. Is this elevation going to impact which kind of class rooms
025do you have, you know, from windows that lights are showing off and brightening the kids day? So, there is um, you know, a variation of lighting throughout the building. One of the main goals is creating spaces for kids to go outside of the classroom. Um, in no matter what building you have, there's always going to be a disparity of who gets more light, who doesn't get light, everyone has light. That right, let's let me just state that right away. So then there are other locations in that building where if someone is having a hard time or something like that needs to go somewhere else in the building where that can happen because there's also plenty of students who don't like that much light and need a darker space. So creating a variety of spaces where
026people are not saying this is mine, this is mine, this is ours, this is our building here. It did look like most most of the classrooms even on the third story didn't have a ton of that long southern exposure. Uh correct. So yeah, that that level of sunlight all day, you know, streaming right is a lot. Yeah, probably wouldn't have been as big a problem with the way it's currently designed. They they still do, you can kind of see the bar here. Um, looking at that southern southern exposure, but still having the availability to go out into that common space to get some of that less harsh light. In my experience, teachers like northern exposures more than anything else. It's more regulated temperature- wise. You get indirect light. You don't have to pull up your
027shades up and down. It's odd to think about, but it's the direct light on the AMS and PMs that drive people nuts because it's really low angle and disrupts your technology. On the south side, you're in an oven for half the day and in a freezer the rest. You know, that's the north exposures that actually uh folks prefer because it's more consistent and even and regular. That's where the blinds are open all day. Up on the screens are a couple views of what this exterior of the building is starting to shape up. So, still having some of those natural materials, the the bricks, the stone look, but then reminding ourselves that this is an elementary school. This is for for children. And so bringing in subtle pops of color here and there and also using
028that color as a piece of wayfinding. So as people are approaching the building, where are you at? I'm at the blue door. Go to the blue door. We're, you know, let not relying on numbers and remembering what's north, what's south. Um, so using the simple color uh wayfinding pieces there, but downplaying it so that as people are approaching the school for the first time, they're not confused on where the main entrance is, as that does happen to a lot of buildings, no matter how well-designed they are. Sometimes the the main entrance is a hard to find. I supervise students in like four local districts, and having a color way finding is an excellent idea. I hadn't thought about that, but like just this morning I was having the conversation with my wife for the millionth
029time of is it door H or door G that we pick Emmy up from? Like so I'm excited about that actually. Yeah, we as we've gone through the process, we're trying to think about the neighborhood, what fits into the aesthetic of lacrosse, what's kind of timeless but also, you know, starts to be a little bit more modern as well. you know, thinking about the Mayo buildings and Gunderson buildings, what's downtown, that red brick is classic, you know, north side uh and uh Logan High School, you know, so trying to think about what fits in, but also keeping it updated. Um, you know, there are elementary designs that we saw that could be very contemporary and kind of out there. There are others that could be very um blocky and uh feel like a prison. And
030so this is trying to bridge the gap between like traditional and classic and also some modern elements that make it feel new and interesting and exciting for kids and families. I like this visualization. So not only are the roofs stepped, they are peaked actually. They're not all flat. And some of that is to hide um mechanical units up there. So just as you're looking at the building, it's visually pleasing to see. It's also um interesting the the idea is how would a kid picture a building? It's a very simple shapes. It's big shapes. It's colors. It's but still being mindful that um you know this is a neighborhood setting. We don't want a big flashy red piece of um you know building right next to a house. We want it to be um easy on
031the eyes. And then this is starting to see about where we are in the design process. So starting to add bits of color, but not quite there yet. Starting to look at the interior um architecture and how that relates to the exterior of the building. So those meetings having later this week, that's part of what we're going to be talking about with the staff. Um so we'll you know kind of um suggest different ideas and how it helps but it really comes from them and how do you envision using this space? What what makes your dayto-day easier? What what can you find is a a real problem and how can we help that with with the architecture? Adam, I see the railings and right away my mind goes to this is elementary school. You have
032a lot of curious kids who like to climb onto things. So, can you discuss maybe any safety features you have, especially more than how tall the railings, any other things about make sure kids don't fall? So, great question. Um, railings are a tricky subject. Um, some some years are better than other years. um we we tend to make sure they're not climbable. And so a lot of that is not having um especially with like large um leaps like this, not having horizontal rails for ladders, not placing furniture close by where a kid could climb up onto it. And you know, this is that that feedback that we're looking for throughout our design. You know, at the end of the day, this might not be a solid railing across the whole thing. It may be pieces
033of a wall. It may be other elements. It may be glass walls, like writable surfaces. So, that that's where we're at in this design process is the the concerns from the users. And how do we adapt to that? And in this case, those rails come from a a twotory library design. Because the building's three stories, we wanted to get as much library as close to kids as possible. And so the second floor of the library would be for older students. The lower part would be for younger elementary students. And so it' be a way to um kind of keep two collections uh and keep kids in kind of spaces, be able to use almost twice as much as we would be otherwise with with two different groups. Uh and also creating a neat feature where
034kids want to read and learn and would also be open to our community from time to time for meetings. uh it would open up onto the um the atrium in the middle of the building. And so there's an opportunity to create connection to our students in a very uh logical and versatile way. And then looking at the state road edition. So, using some similar colors to what we just saw before to help diagram where things are going in the building. Uh, in general, this is a fairly straightforward addition onto the building. Not a lot is happening to the existing, but that doesn't mean it can't happen in the future. So, our goal and working with the admin team and the staff is to create an overall arching theme for this building to make it feel
035like it's make it part of lacrosse. It's a unique building and and bringing in some of those natural elements into the building and also highlighting the existing portions of the existing building that are working. I have a question not related to the building but um I the timeline spurred this one. One of the big concerns about closing uh Hinchin and having them go into State Road is the public transportation issue. Has that been resolved or where's the process in working on that? I know Jeff Elson's been working very closely with the transportation department. Yeah, I've been working with Adam through MTU Transportation. He is in the works of looking at moving a sign closer over there for State Road to be able to make another route that'll become hopefully next year. So, he can't do
036anything right now, but we are working with him to to move that forward. I look forward to hearing more about that when that gets closer. Thank you. Yep. Our students have done lots of advocacy and the I saw Adam at a meeting at the library last week and uh he was like, "I'm looking forward to getting that bus stop at State Road so I stopped getting so much correspondence." Apparently, it like flooded his uh his uh email his his uh physical inbox. So, I I certainly think it's coming and, uh, Jeff and Joe and Ann have been working with the transportation folks for a long time now to create the best possible routes and we'll get more than a sign there eventually when it comes to fruition. We'll probably try and fight our way into
037a shelter and some other things to make it a desirable place to to wait. Didn't mean to get off track, but just enough question. And so even though this is an an addition onto the existing building, still again playing with that idea of it being an elementary school and bringing in some colors. These may not be the final colors, still working through the design of that, but wanting to dive into the less of the primary colors and more of natural colors, the greens, the blues, especially to fit with where the building is tucked up right against the bluffs. Um, one of the strong pieces of this interior of the building is the natural light into that gymnasium, which is going to be used by the student body and also outside organizations. So, bring that into
038the gym. Really cool opportunity to have windows directly against the bluffs. So, seeing foxes, deer, rabbits, um, kids will be able to experience that while they're inside the building. So, it's a really neat opportunity here. Um, we heard that from the the staff meetings, the community engagement that nature is a huge part of Lacrosse and for State Road specifically. And any following questions? Looks beautiful. Thank you. It's been um really nice meeting with everybody and you know building this the the next era of the the school district and Yes. Sorry. Can can you go back to the floor plans for State Road really quick? It was a little tough to tell from that one from the schematic there. The original plan was talking about eight classrooms in the gym, but I understand there there were
039some necessary changes. um it's tough to tell from that color coding and everything what's what is new and what is what is existing there. So the existing is um the portion on the left side is all the existing right and so then one of the unique things about the addition that was added on in 2012 was the ability to add classrooms above. So, a a unique experience here and there's definitely some challenges that come along with that, but it's a it's a great way to utilize the existing um you know, elevator that's there. And we'll be providing a new staircase on the the other end of the building. So, the the octagonal classrooms that are getting a a second story that those are existing. That's what I'm the square classrooms to the right side of
040that, the darker blues, those are going to be on the existing building. Yeah, good. Trying to think about that. And so throughout our our staff staff meetings, um the original design called for eight classrooms and so now we're currently showing 10 new classrooms. We also looked at originally it was just a single gym and now it's a double gym. So, the ability to run two high school games simultaneously will be a huge benefit to the the whole community. I know the staff had originally been talking about um more like not office space, but like um like utility space, uh workroom space and things too. Is that something that's been able to be maintained or is the addition allowing like refitting of existing space in any way? There's there's going to be some refitting of existing
041spaces. the green elements that are on the screen, those are different types of collaboration and resource rooms. And so some of those can then be when teachers need to meet with the student instead of bringing them all the way back to their office and losing that precious time walking to and from, they're able to then pull them into these separate rooms directly next to the classrooms. But then those rooms also have um visual connections to the classrooms. So if a teacher does need something or change out kids, there's that connection right there instead of it feeling so isolated. Thank you. Um this is a bit of a crystal ball question, but um last meeting that we had, we were taken aback by the 50% increase in the cost of remodeling central from what we'd been
042told only a few months ago and told that it has to do with tariffs and other things going on. What are the chances we're going to be able to stay within budget? How are we going to stay within budget on this building? I'm I'm I'm really concerned about we only have so much money. No, and that that's a great uh question. So, I don't know if you want to answer. Yeah, I'm happy to touch on that. Um, again, we're we're at the the benefit of we do a ton of educational work across the state and and region Iowa, Minnesota as well. So, we continue to track uh costs on projects. Um and and then again continually update our our budgets as we go through. Um one of the things we we've been very fortunate to
043see recently as things are coming in at or under budget. Um so, we're hopeful that, you know, some of the the spikes in the economy have been uh mitigated a bit. I suspect and again I don't confess to be an uh expert in terms of uh uh economics and and and the market of of things but suspect that schoolwork is is a very um advantageous thing to bid on at the moment. Um we know there's funding for these projects. We know you know on maybe some other private projects or developer based projects the the funding mechanism or the proforma suddenly doesn't work and and the project could could change or get shelved um very quickly. So we think um we think biders are are putting a priority on these types of projects because they know
044they have the funding for it and and and know they will will exist. Um and and again um again we so again that's very short shortsighted um in terms of the long-term view of of our budgets. We still have um inflation rates uh placed um on on the projects. Um so knowing again we're not bidding these for um several months out yet. Um we have uh contingencies in place. We still have an estimating contingency um on the project. So again, we we continue to to have some safeguards in place and then again continue to update as as you know again the market tells us kind of where things um sit along the way. Thank you. Any other questions? You asked my question I work around around the construction industry. So I'm I we've got price
045increases from suppliers out through July. So for me, that's why I'm questioning some of the we want the building to be beautiful. We want the community to be very very happy with what we're doing with the money that they they trusted us with. We want to work for our educators, our kids, but at the same time, we want to make sure it's it's in budget and it makes sense for us. So I'm looking at some of the the way that elementary especially is laid out. It's it's beautiful. It'll be architecturally amazing. Uh but also it's the efficiencies of the way it's laid out right now is the steps up, right? Um there's a reason block buildings are the way they've been and it's because they're efficient to put up and they're cheap, right? Um I'm
046not advocating to go to that. I'm just trying to be conscious of that. Totally. Another thing that we're fortunate is, you know, the current economic environment has kept interest rates stable and higher than they have been historically. not as high as they were recently, but um as a result, the money that we invest from this referendum while we're waiting to to pay out uh the costs of construction, we're able to receive interest on those uh on that money. And with the interest rates where they're at, it will be substantial. Uh in great economic times, we would start to think about, oh, we could do a little bit more. We could expand our scope. in uh more uncertain economic times that we'll all be put away into contingency and be ready to spend to mitigate the
047effects of inflation or other things. So I think between the the contingency that um uh Bray has naturally um accounted for as well as this additional opportunity um no crystal balls, right? But like feel pretty comfortable that we've taken a conservative approach in getting to the finish line here. And and Tim, to your point about efficiencies, we are looking at that. Um making sure classrooms are stacked on top of each other so we can have our walls aligned, um plumbing chases aligned, keeping all that efficient. Um looking at our floor to ceiling heights and not going too extravagant with that. So just overall the the little things um our team is constantly doing. Um, which is why it helps that we've worked with this team of engineers for a while and the team of engineers
048also understand the the school district to help reduce some of those um, efficiencies or increase efficiencies. Yes. I just have to ask because it was brought up humorously a number of times. Is one of the lessons we learned from the North Side Elementary not to have flat top lockers? Yes. Good. Cuz they climb up on them. Yeah, we're looking at those as opportunities either for storage in some places or just angled so that things fall. All right. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Safe travels. Well, they're switching. Where um when administration moves to central, where are the board meetings going to be held? Um is it room 232? 232. There's a um I don't even know how to describe where things are in Central, but there's a room on the
049second floor called 232. It's um kind of above the the the entrance where the people come in uh to school. There's a stairwell that goes right up to the second floor. It'll be right there. Um right by the Is it accessible to for us older people? Yep. Absolutely. There'll be, you know, zero entry access through the district office as well as an elevator that goes up over there as well. So, multiple routes to get there without having to use stairs or other things that it's accessible for anybody in our community. What's the size of it to if we have a large crowd of from the public? Uh, it's probably twothirds the size of this. So, more than capable of holding the crowds, the crowds that we have typically had even at our largest three or
050four years ago. Well, a personal dream of mine will be fulfilled because from the day I started on the board, I hate that speakers are at our feet. Joe's heard me complain about that. So to know that we're going to be on the same level is just going to be delightful. The goal, so it's only going to be used by the board twice a month, right, for hopefully two hours total, probably more like six, right? But uh the the idea say two hours the the idea will be that um the the room has flexible seating to be used for professional development for kids testing for anything that it could possibly use. A super flexible room. So we're not going to have like this arrangement. We'll have tables that move around and it can be moved
051to something else. We'll have chairs that can move around. It'll be a very like what 209. It'll be very similar to that. It'll be a feel like that. We'll arrange it for a board meeting and an audience and then we'll rearrange it for instruction uh for the next day. And so uh it'll have a little less pomp and circumstance but it'll be a little more accessible. Uh uh to your point, Miss Sla, you're going to miss the trappings of power when they're gone. I I won't. If I could before I get started, just a couple comments. Um, number one, um, how exciting is that to see what we're doing at State Road, what we're doing here, and and I want to thank the board, number one, for having the courage to take that to referendum.
052And then I want to thank the community for supporting us in doing that because we're really changing the trajectory of our district for the next 50 years. And it's exciting to see. I know as my career winds down, I have grandkids that go here. And so what's happening for kids in our district is really exciting. And so thank you for that and thank you for the community for supporting that. Also, as it relates to that is just so you know, you may be hearing some things going on at the city council level. So in the month of June, we've we've done a certified map of this area of this school uh this site. And so uh we have to go in front of the council to rechange the zoning because it's uh the way we're
053doing the building. We need to reszone that. Um we're looking at um vacating that Wnebago Street even though it's been done, making that official and then we've had certain number of parcels and some of them go into the rightway. So we're straightening all that out. So you'll hear about that going in front of the council in the June cycle. Don't anticipate any issues with that, but just know that you'll see that happening. And so I want to talk a little bit about capital improvements, share with you um what we're projecting or what we're recommending for this next year as we go through here. Um we do have a process and I know most of you have heard this before, but I just want to reiterate that when I come together with projects, it's not just
054Joe Lena's projects. We've sat down, we've sat down with building engineers, we've sat down with uh principles in some cases, we've sat down with teachers, and I and I'll share some of that as we go through that. And so we do that and we have that process and we look at what projects have been identified. We look at new projects, we evaluate them. And so it's a process that we do. And we do that every year. We go through that. And so just know that as I bring some of these things forward. decision-making criteria. We're always looking at safety, security, regulatory compliance, board initiatives if there are any. Um, and we did that, I use the example several years ago. Um, we wanted to upgrade our safety and security. And so, uh, it's probably been
055eight, nine years ago now, but we invested over millions of dollar, several million dollars in our safety and security because the board said we want to do that. So, we put everything on hold and and move forward with that. And so all those things are happening as we look at and we always want to recommend things that have level of community support. Um board initiatives OE12 you'll see that at the next board meeting. We'll bring forth a lot of data with you and we'll go through that at the next meeting. We want to make sure that we look at the long range plan. We're equitable. We look at the policies that we have and we want to be accountable to the public and we want to be good stewards as well. And so what are
056the things we're recommending? Um remodel the space for Hogan. And I want to talk about a little bit about that because we've been talking about the cost and maybe we didn't do a great job of of demonstrating to you why we did that. We changed the scope of that project and that's where most of the additional cost came. And if I can see if you can see right right here, if you look in this area right here, this is where they put a air handling unit. So don't ask me why. 1996 they put this air handling unit in the middle of all these classrooms. Okay. So when we looked at that uh the air handling unit is uh 29 years old. And so when we looked at the investment that we're putting into the rest
057of it, it made sense for us to increase the scope, replace this air handling unit, put it up on the roof. And so we could have identified that as a separate project. We included in this because we put it out for bid. That's about $400,000 of of the increase that we saw. And so, uh, we didn't do a very good job of explaining that, but I wanted you to know that upfront. And so, when we looked at this project, does it make sense to replace it now? And it did. And so, that's why we did that. Um, remodeled the sped space. That's the space down here. That's special education space. Uh, picture of the current room. Now, one of the things that we did, we talked about those visitations for schools with elementary students. Well,
058Ammy Sabrowski, who's a head of our special ed, was on those tours, and a part of the tours, we found some sped ed space uh that was in one of the middle schools. And we said, "That's what we need for our district." Because I'd already been talking to our sped teachers um at the high school level, specifically at Logan High School, and they said, "We really need to upgrade this space." And so, I'd been working with them. So, we took the design, and so we'll be re we'll be investing in those spaces at both high schools. And you'll see that the next one and then the next one replacing the track surface. This is on the pole vault side and we've patched this but I just wanted to share with you um we last did
059this uh track in 2016 and so the asphalt underneath the track at state at central uh is got some cracks and some things. So we have to do a full replacement and so there's about $250,000 in the budget for that. Um, but those are the projects we're recommending there. If we go on to Logan High School, this is their sped space that we see up there. Again, it's going to be usable space. We're really looking at vesting bathrooms um that kids can use where we can have lifts and work with students because we're seeing an increase in our spit students at the high school level. And so, we really need to address that. And I'll just add a little more detail there. These special education rooms are for kind of like uh life work to
060like school to work type of opportunities. So it includes functional kitchens, uh bathrooms for students that have higher needs. These are really unique spaces and um as Joe had said, he'd been working with these teachers for a while like how can we improve these? And we saw amazing facilities uh in other places and said that's the design that we need. And talking to those teachers, they said it really worked for them in those schools. And so we're bringing those to our highest need students in our buildings as well. I think of all the projects we're doing, I'm most excited about these two spaces because what we're going to do, learning life lessons for these kids and giving them opportunities. It will look like a real life kitchen. It will be set up that way. And
061so, um, excited about that. Uh, we're replacing the freezer. We're doing a bigger freezer there to accommodate the loss of the freezer here. Uh, we're resurfacing the track. The track at Logan's in a little different space. Uh it's in pretty good shape, but we just need to resurface it. So, it's around $100,000 on the budget for that. We don't have to replace the asphalt. Um there's been a lot of talk about uh doing a nine lane track there. Um the turf is going to need to be replaced in about four to five years and so we won't want to do anything until we decide what's going to happen at that time. And so this is just a resurfacing. We're not really adding anything to it. Yes, sir. uh just because of the way you worded
062it and not to read into it too much. You said we don't need to replace the asphalt. Is is there a compelling reason to consider doing it? If if we're laying new surface over not so great asphalt, are we risking No. Here there's no need to replace asphalt. It's in really good shape. So what what you see at the central site is we're seeing cracks in the asphalt that perminate through the whatever surface you put over it will be ruined within a year. But here that's not the case. And so we're able to do that. Great. Um, so we're working on that. And then replacing an electronic sign at Logan High School. If you know, it's on Gillette Street. We're going to move it to the corner. Uh, so it's more visible from both directions.
063If the truth be known, the sign currently is not on our property. It's actually on the city's property. So, we're moving that. We're going to have to get that in operation. Um, Logan Middle School, we're going to create some classrooms inside locker rooms. This is really one that really came from our our staff as well. ISP is going to be we're creating some space for ISP at Logan Middle, but our our PE teachers came to us and said we have these big locker rooms and they have four locker rooms that are really big at Logan and they said we have to go all the way up to the third floor. We have to go to different areas to teach and they share rooms and so we're creating some classroom space within the locker room. So
064they're working right where they're at and so uh doing that. Um at Longfellow we're replacing roof eight. Um, you can see that that's a ballasted roof. It's about 5,700 square feet. Roughly about planning on about $17 a square foot for replacing that roof. At Northwoods, we're replacing the playground fall surface. And so you see that we're replacing all the rubber. Uh we've told uh people that we're trying to do this one school at a time. This year it's North Woodside. There's more money that's needed there. What we're also doing is their PTO is uh doing some fundraising for some swings and so we'll have some of that money will also be to install the swings that the PTO is uh doing. Yeah, that's an interesting thing. You know, 10, 12, 15 years ago there was
065a big movement to recycle rubber tires and find a new use for it. Uh and so we jumped on board and did the green thing and we put in rubber tire shreds as a good fall material and it's a very good fall material. need less of it to have more uh protection from impact. But the winds have turned, the tide has turned, and uh there's less interest in rubber and more interest in natural. So, while you need more of it, you need to replace it. Uh it doesn't have some of the off-putting of chemicals and other things. And so now uh we're in the process of going back and replacing the rubber with natural materials, but it's $45 to $50,000 depending on the size of the place that you replace it. And then you have
066to dispose of it. And so it's a it's a pretty big cost, but we're on the process and we should be done in a couple of years, three years. What kind of natural materials do you use? Wood chips. Back to wood chips. Wood fiber. Special fiber chips. Yeah. But yeah, designed for just playgrounds. Has Has there been any feedback since Emerson switched back more recently about Are They're not unhappy with it. My kids still love it, but yeah. Yeah. I will say this. Rubber's probably the safest surface, right, from a salt fall perspective, but we haven't seen an increase in injuries either where we've replaced it. So, that's good. And then paving. Um, we have $25,000 in each of these categories. Paving, we do parking lot repairs wherever we can and we kind of prioritize
067that. Same would be A&E consulting. If we need to consult an engineer, architect on a certain project, we have money there. and then safety, security, upgrades, whatever they may be, uh, depending on the school year. And so what that does is that gets us to, if you look at the column to the left, 2,712,500 for our capital improvement budget for this next year. But I wanted to show you this this picture because if you look, I've taken all the schools that we are taking offline eventually and moved all the projects to the no time frame. So, we still address them, but it really shows uh what we've done by right sizing our district. And the next slide will show that a little bit more. By right- sizing our district and doing the additions that we're
068doing, we've eliminated that amount of projects on our capital improvement book. And I will tell you those aren't even today's dollars. Those are dollars that I estimated at the time we put those in. Yes, ma'am. Would there be save uh any capital improvement savings from State Road? because I know there's always dreams of building up or expanding. Yes, there is. And so I didn't even didn't even include those. I probably should have, but I didn't even include those. But a good example at State Road when we designed the addition that we did in 2012, we did two things, right? We we planned for a second edition. We also at that same time knew that we were hoping that we were doing an addition eventually sometime. And so the heating capacity of our four boilers is
069large enough to to uh work with the addition so we don't have to add there. The one thing that we are including right now and we'll see if budget part allows that is replacing the chiller because the chiller is older. It's large enough but it's older and so replacing that in this project. So that takes that whole thing off the board. So I probably should have included state road. So that's a great point. Yeah. I think there's close to $10 million on State Road that will be taking care of in this project as well. Yeah. It really turns it into a new school. Very similar to what happened at Hamilton when we did the addition at Hamilton. Yes, sir. Can I ask a question on the central one? Just so I'm Yeah. not so confused.
070Yeah. Um we were looking at 1.5, our latest one for Yeah. that now it's at 1.9. I get there's stuff added, but can you break that down for a little? I know you said like 200,000 for the track. 250,000 for the track. Um I can give you a breakdown for sure. And I think the sped room is 125,000 250,000. Um is where we're at. So I I can give you that exact breakdown. And actually when I come back to the board next time, I'll have the capital improvement book and it'll have it broken down. Yeah, I was just curious. So, because we all were about fainted when we see a 1.967 after we just heard it was 1.5 and it was million. So, yes, I mean I had to catch him. I thought we were
071losing him. Um, but yeah, thank you. And the other question is as as and I know they're all over the place, but I can only go the place I know. Um, when you go to Logan, you go right generally to Murphy's afterwards because you hit those potholes in the parking lot there. Do you have any plans on fixing some of those? Yes. Is that part of the $50,000? That's part of the Yes. The money that we do. And actually, our our grounds crew has that on their list to get that down. You you know, winter's tough on our parking lot. That's for sure. Well, it's tough on our roads and and even if you look out at this parking lot. I wanted to have something done before you got here to this evening, but we
072did some soil sampling. And so, there's a big big one. Be careful when you leave today in our parking lot as well. So, just lost a board member before we move on to the the summary. So, I want to um since we're kind of on the topic again, I want to check my understanding of again what we talked about at the last meeting um and and maybe for the benefit of of the new members as well that the the overall CM andi budget you had already accommodated 1.7 I think was the number you gave us last time. that that's what I put as a placeholder in there and knowing whatever it came in at then I would adjust the capital improvement projects based on that. So are there are there any I don't want to
073call them wish list projects because that's like the no time frame ones but thank you for giving us the decision-m criteria as well. So I know I I'm confident that you didn't like sacrifice safety in one of the schools so that we can you know have the have the office over at central. Um, were were there any projects that that you know you were looking forward to for this round that have had to be bumped as a result of that? As a result of that, because what we did is we took the the Hogan move and so a couple things. Number one, the first thing is we need to replace an air handler at at Longfellow Middle School and so put that in next year. So if we get if we get 2.7 million next
074year, it will be completed at that time. The other one was upgrading our safe our our software or we have a S2 system that runs all of our security stuff. We put that in in 2008. It works fine, but it's it's fast life. So, that would be one. The other thing that I had in there is a large group instruction space at uh Southern Bluffs. It's tiered, if you will. And so what we have in the budget and we'll do that next year as well is that we want to take away that tiered allows them to use the space a little bit differently and then I had some flooring projects at Northwood School. So those are the projects that I had in here that I took out of here and put them into next year.
075Thank you. And just to check my understanding then so like a worst case scenario, we didn't do the air handler like you said. Um the air handler craps out midway and we have to do it. that's accounted for in uh the other parts of the of the budget. I'm blanking on the words. Well, there's there's also a fund. That's what like the emergency fund essentially, right? You're going to use you're going to correct my language because I'm not going to describe it, but like when we have a building project and if it comes in at less, the money goes in that fund or if we ever sell a property, the money goes in that fund. So, we can always use that as well. Is that Did I describe that correctly? We have insurance for major
076equipment breakdowns. True. That's a good point. Yeah. Does that count if So if if we've if we've carried on with the air handler past its past its warranty essentially though I mean our insurance will at least still cover part of those expenses. Yeah. One of the things I will tell you that I don't anticipate that to happen. You know it's a juggling act. I will tell you every year as we go around and we evaluate projects we're we're really juggling between okay what really is the priority here? What air handler needs to go first? What needs? And so in this case, because of the project we are doing, I thought it was more important to replace the air handler that's 29 years old here and other than the one at Longfellow. All right. Thank you.
077Because I the the comment was made during that meeting about, you know, the need for more understanding among us at the board table of why we're voting one way or the other. And that's probably on me that I didn't explain that. I wanted I I thought you did fine. I thought I understood it that night, which is again why I voted the way I did to to approve the project. Um, and I'm I'm happy that I was understanding you correctly and that the budgeting that you do is a regular part of your process accounted for that level of change, which was a sticker shock to us. Yeah. One of the things I appreciate is I love questions, right? I think we have to be accountable and I love being accountable with it's part of what
078we do probably more than any other department, which is okay. That's our system of government and if if we're doing the wrong thing, we need to know about it. You need to know about it, right? So, if I don't have a good answer, then it should change. But I have no problems with that. Yeah. And we also have a designated fund balance line item for capital expenditures. So, if there's an emergency or something happens and um I can't find exactly this last year, but the year prior it was $2 million. So, we're able to cover, you know, any sort of emergency that uh we can imagine occurring. uh between that and insurance, you know, we should be in a really good place in terms of addressing anything that comes up. And we've had some pretty
079significant stuff. We had a fire at um Central. We had a flood at Longfellow and both those buildings I think down for a day maybe Y at Central and then back up and uh we've got great partners in the community that respond. We've had floods here too, but that's normal. It's a standing squeegee out standing water feature here. Yes. Um, so I just want to go over some of the projects that you've already seen that are know they're happening. We just completed the summer uh the summit solar pergola which was a great uh Earth Day celebration if you saw that there. Superintendent's there doing that. Uh it's anticipated that we'll save 17% of our budget of our electrical budget. Dr. Garcia was there to celebrate. Yes, it was lovely. Um the teched building at Central,
080you see see that going up right now. And so it's a band-aid. It's not a that's not doesn't serve all of our needs, but allows them to to store their trailers and everything that they have, do some larger building out there. They're also putting an automotive lift in there, so it's allowing them to do those things. You'll see that happening. You have a question? Yeah. Is that the one that's by the bridge or Yeah, by the bridge. Yep. And then you see um the Logan Bleacher project. We're excited about that. um that came before the board in in in December. Um right now we're starting that construction. We'll go full boore here in the next couple weeks. Our hope is to be done by August 1st. We have to be done by the middle of
081August because we have football games. So So is Olympic doing that? I just saw one of their J&W bleachers and they have a contract with Olympic. Yep. Yep. And then the Logan middle roofs. It's interesting uh as you talked tonight about different roof elevations. This is uh Logan Middle. You approved that in January. We're doing 10 roof sections, but each one of these sections, there's about 28 of them. They're different elevations. So, when you do go up there to do roof inspections, we won't have that many on the new school, but a lot of these old buildings you have that primarily because they did a lot of additions over the years, right? So, uh everything in white is what we'll be doing there. We'll be starting that here in the next couple weeks at Logan
082Middle. Uh the central greenhouse, uh we hope to have that ready by the time school starts. This is not the central greenhouse, but when we designed the central when we designed the central greenhouse, I with the staff, they said sock prairie has the ideal greenhouse. And so what you see here is what they built in sock prairie and ours is based off of that design. Same size or same size everything. Big. Yeah. Yeah. So the they have a indoor football game there. Yeah. Basically that temperature will be maintained at 50° all year round using heat pumps to heat that. So excited. I know they're excited in the egg program about getting that going. Where is that going on the site for that's going to go on this on the end of the tennis courts toward
083the track. Yeah. Okay. Right now there's a small storage building there. That's what I was just trying to figure out. I was like where's green space to put that? Very little. It's tough. It is tough. Yes. They just took out some parking spots. I'm sorry. Park inside the green space. Uh the other thing that's happening is a Southern Bluff Solar Project that you'll see happening. Um we're contributing $50,000 to that, but rest of it is through grants. It's through uh souls. It's through private donations, which is really exciting. That says a 9-year payback, but that's that's with everybody's funding really. If we look at our $50,000 input, it's you cut that, you know, in a third for the payback time. And so that's exciting, but that's what you'll see the array going on the Southern
084Bluff site. And then I'm sorry question. Yeah. Uh I have to ask just because so much of it is grant funded. Um are a lot of those private granting organizations I mean there's been a lot of grant cancellation. Are we secure in that funding? Yeah, we're secure in that. And one of the things Jeff is the one who's gotten that grant and it's I think what's the grant out in California that we've gotten? Yeah, the grant we got in California is solar moonshot grant and they have actually sponsored five of our schools right now. They keep telling us we're not going to do another one. We keep applying and they keep doing it. So, so keep on applying. All right. There's also a very generous private anonymous donor who has contributed thou hund,000 200,000 specifically
085for solar power just for our projects. Yeah. It's interesting when he came to us at first I I thought there's no way he's going to do this and then we were trying to convince him to put it on roofs that were newer, right? Because he had a he had a whole another school he wanted to do and he's and he's been a great partner. and everything goes through the foundation. So, his donations go through there. And and then the sustainability committee, we talked a little bit about that. You know, that we we're still continuing to work. We're looking at action plans for our goals. I just want to give you this update that's so new, but they talked about a little bit tonight. Our CMI projects, solar, geothermal, but sustainable products. One of the things
086that we're looking at for flooring in the new school is kinetics, it's called, and it's made from um recycled water bottles. And so it's a great product. We trled it down in our office a while back. And so um very sustainable. And what they'll do is we build the school. They'll tell us exactly how many water bottles that we recycle based on the square footage that we have. And so we're looking at products like that that where it makes sense to spend money wisely and do that and use those sustainable products. So we're continuing to do that. And then the last thing that I have that I wanted to give you is a update on the Boys and Girls Club. This is none of our funding, but if you remember right, we have a partnership
087with them because they're doing some parking on ours. So we have a shared parking agreement with that. Uh they did brown ground groundbreaking March 7th. Uh they have a building fund of $6.1 million. Um we anticipate it being done uh total completion in October. So we anticipate our students being uh involved in this after school and weekends and the projects there maybe even during the school days. Uh their total campaign was 15 million. So they're purchasing equipment with that operating costs uh van and program funding. So they've really done a really nice job. They've kept us in the loop. Brida uh you know Brida um she's been involved with that the whole process the whole way and I was fortunate enough to be on the design team as they did that and so it's a
088great project. Our kids are going to benefit from that. Not only Logan High School but they'll bring kids from other schools as well. So Central kids will benefit from that as well. And then with that I end it and see if you have any questions. Any more questions? Any more questions? Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think that's it. Right. Go home now. [Music] There it is. Go team need to be done. [Music]