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Title : BEX V List Getting Closer (Along with a Huge Price Tag)
link : BEX V List Getting Closer (Along with a Huge Price Tag)
BEX V List Getting Closer (Along with a Huge Price Tag)
I attended last week's BEX V Work Session. Here's the presentation. The work on BEX continues next week with another work session on Wednesday, Oct 10th at JSCEE from 4:30-5:30 pm. Given the short time for the latest work session, I suspect this will be the final list as they want to introduce the list at the Board meeting on October 17th.It appears that between 8-12 schools will be done under BEX V at a cost of about $890M. There will also be what they are calling "Repairs/replacements, One-Off Projects and Athletic Fields." This includes seismic work, fire alarm systems, roofs, exterior cladding (and I'm pretty surprised to see South Shore, Garfield and Roosevelt on this list as they are all relatively new schools), security equipment and many playgrounds at about $70M. Technology projects will run between $128-$145M.
A number of the members of the hard-working Facilities Master Plan Task Force were in attendance including Meg Diaz and Kellie LaRue who are major braintrust between them. The FMP Task Force report starts on page 54. There is a section, starting on page 57, called Task Force Survey Results. I was told by members that this was done by email with no discussion among members.
Facilities Master Plan Task Force Broad Consensus:
1. Scoring and relative ranking methodology is a beneficial process. Help guide board decision making, especially relative to equity.
2. Rebuilding of Rainier Beach High School will resolve not only equity issues, but also capacity challenges, based on past evidence of enrollment increases at new/modernized high schools.
3. Scoring process works for existing facilities, but there is a gap in giving the board input on the need for new facilities. As the city continues to grow rapidly, this will be an increasingly important factor.
4. Invest in data that shows a “before” and “after” picture of how new and existing projects add benefits across the school system to provide a more comprehensive picture of the return on investment.
5. Conduct a stand-alone conversation on the merits of downtown schools.
On number 5, I think the downtown high school idea is dead for now. I absolutely agree there needs to be discussion about downtown schools but the district needs to get a grip on where enrollment is going before that happens.
On number 2, rebuilding RBHS, I think beyond the school community itself, renovating RBHS will be a tremendous boost to the entire community which tends to see RBHS as their core for community engagement.
I love number 4 about ROI because schools exist within a system and it's important to keep that idea as part of the big picture.
Want to know how many project BEX has done since 1995? See page 26.
Want to know regionally how many projects have been done? See page 44. (And I want to note that for the first 10+ year of BEX, there were more projects in the southend than the northend. The district has been absolutely fair in that. However, it does mean that there could be a number of old buildings in one region that should be replaced but a couple will have to wait in order to make the list regionally fair.)
Want to know how much was asked for in each BEX/BTA? Page 43. See the number for BEX IV - $694.9M? Directors are saying the need is so great that some of them are willing to bump that number up to over $1B. More on this to come but for me, it's a mistake.
Page 39 - Transition Plan for BEX V Capacity/Condition Projects or, in other words, where will students go while schools are being renovated? Oddly, despite Northgate being at the top of the elementary list, they are not mentioned here. The district has made the wise choice to keep RBHS students in the building and do it in sections (just like at Hale). It's cheaper that way.
Guiding Principles (I note what one reader here asked - what's the 5-year forecast for enrollment?)
BEX V Guiding Principles Adopted May 9, 2018
With the overarching framework of Ensuring Educational and Racial Equity (Board Policy No. 0030)
With the overarching framework of Ensuring Educational and Racial Equity (Board Policy No. 0030)
- Building Safety and Security
- Right-Size Capacity
- Building Conditions and Educational Alignment
- Environmental and Financial Sustainability
- Updating Technology
Staff went over feedback from the many community meetings on BEX V.
Highlights
- parents wanted to know how the race and equity lens was applied
- SE parents thought there had been a low number of projects in that region (not sure if they meant BEX V list but the number of renovations has been fairly equal throughout the district)
- "Strong turnout in support of replacing some schools; Northgate, Kimball, Alki, Rogers, North Beach"
- technology and access to it
- how projects were selected and scored
Schools that scored at the top of the BEX V list
Elementaries Middle Schools High Schools
1. Northgate Mercer Rainier Beach
2. West Seattle Aki Kurose Ingraham (I note Ingraham continues its place
3. Montlake Salmon Bay K-8 on every single BEX/BTA in a piecemeal fashion.)
4. Viewlands Washington Hale (addition)
5. John Muir Whitman Garfield (addition)
6. Wedgwood
7. Rogers
8. North Beach
9. Alki
10. Sacajawea
From this list it looks like - from staff's Priorities list, page 29) that it could be:
Northgate, West Seattle (with an addition only), Rainier Beach, Mercer, Montlake, Viewlands, Muir (addition only), interim site for Southeast at old Van Asselt (more on this). This is eight projects. If they did four more, they have Alki, Rogers, Wedgwood and North Beach.
The cost ranges - depending on how many projects - from $600M to $865M. But that's just for renovation projects and doesn't include all the other items in BEX like Technology, Athletics, etc.
Starting on page 69, there's a list of possible repairs for every single school in the district.
Board Feedback
Director Harris is pushing back on West Seattle Elementary needing an addition,saying that Lafayette seems in far worse shape with very close numbers on the chart.
Harris also seems worried about transparency in these selections.
She also called $1B, "the magic number" because she, like Director Burke, wanted to know the rate of valuation that would keep the tax level from going up from BEX IV to BEX V.
She said Lafayette is right on California and that they could get creative in leveraging its central location with perhaps building apartments for teachers on top. Richard Best, head of capital projects, said that there could be possible landmark status for Lafayette. Harris retorted, "A landmark for prison design."
She noted that "we are paying for 30 years of no maintenance."
Harris also said that the so-called "open schools" like Sanislo and Kimbell are very hard to learn and work in and that there should be sound baffling for them. (Plus the promise to NEVER build like this again.)
Juneau said she had been in open concept schools and "it's a tough environment." She mentioned partnerships with higher ed but it was unclear to me about the connection.
Harris also said she wanted "a menu" of the projects. I perceive that pages 28-29 are that menu but I'm not sure what she wants.
By my count, Harris, Burke, Pinkham, Geary and Mack are on-board with going to $1B. DeWolf was not there, nor did he send a statement. (Pinkham was not there either, but he did send a message via Director Mack.) Not sure what Patu's thinking is.
Patu said very little except that she felt like maintenance and safety are the biggest issues and is happy RBHS is on the list.
Flip Herndon said "Major preventative maintenance is key but there is also day-to-day maintenance and that's where we fall down. That's comes out of the Operations side and it's a challenge."
Interjecting here, I have been saying this for more than a decade. Over and over. You don't maintain the buildings, they just get worse. You ask taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars and you don't maintain those buildings? This was a choice made in the late '70s and continues today, Board after Board, superintendent after superintendent, all wringing their hands.
Okay, then do something about it.
Geary stated that it is difficult to work within a region on getting support "When you have a whole group of people coming thru the system that doesn't see themselves reflected in requests."
She continued saying that going to $1B would allow many other schools to see needed repairs like HVAC at Eckstein which is a huge issue.
Geary said she appreciated hearing from other directors about their regions. She also said with the flux in enrollment that perhaps there should be some flexibility in grade grouping.
Chairman Mack said that larger projects take many more BEX dollars out of the pot but smaller projects would spread out to more schools. She also called out that Sacajawea needs a renovation because it is a SPed site that isn't ADA accessible. Good point.
She went on to say that capacity issues need close watch and that "we are portablized." She said it is not a great situation but that it is far more expensive to build additions and then kids don't show up. She said it has been two years of enrollment decline. She also said the portables that are oil-based and toxic need to go.
She also noted that it might be better to redo Aki Kurose in terms of equity.
She said a good example of a school that should be done with a lower equity score but with a building in bad condition and maxed out is Lafayette.
Director Burke said they need a clear transition plan and clear direction. He said he is supportive "of the larger amount and strategically investing that." He is worried about Whitman being too low on both condition and capacity. He said there needs to be a 10-year plan for the Skill Center funding. He said he supports updates to the Lincoln auditorium and pushed for B.F. Day Elementary. (Day is the oldest still function school in the district, just celebrating its 125th year.)
I perceived staff to be mostly unhappy by the end of the Work Session. Although the majority of the Board said yes to going over $1B for BEX V, they didn't really clarify the list.
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