November 15, 2018 minutes

REDWOOD CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Measure T Committee

November 15, 2018

 

Minutes of the Meeting

Location:     District Office Board Room

750 Bradford Street

Redwood City, CA 94063

Present: Michael Bolander, Lori Bluvas, Elizabeth Flegel, Felix Gonzalez, Jeanne Panos and Rebecca Weekly

Rebecca Weekly arrived at 6:15 pm.

Others present: Olivia Acosta, John Baker, Don Dias, Dennis McBride, Hilary Paulson and Will Robertson, Erika Szallos

Absent: Richard Delfs and Carolina Webster

1.0    Call to Order

Meeting was called to order at 6:07 p.m.; quorum established

2.0    Approval of November 15, 2018 Agenda

 (Jeanne Panos/Felix Gonzalez; 5-0)

3.0    Public Comment

At this time members of the public may address the CBOC on any items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the CBOC. Speakers are requested to limit their remarks to three minutes. No Committee action can be taken.

4.0    Information/Discussion

4.1    Overview of District’s planning progress to date

Will Robertson shared a handout on the bond program update.

Mr. Robertson stated that consultants for Orion, McKinley, North Star, Kennedy Admin and Parking projects are under contract and ready to support construction. Additional on-site soil testing at John Gill, Taft and Garfield is complete and working on draft Soil Mitigation Plan (SMP) for these three sites. 

Mr. Bolander asked if soil mitigation was the removal of contaminated soil. Mr. Robertson answered yes. Ms. Paulson added that John Gill’s site has a naturally occurring asbestos in the soil so it is mainly to keep the dust down.

Mr. Robertson said that applications for plan approval have been submitted to California Department of Education for Orion, McKinley, North Star, Kennedy, Adelante, and Hoover and in progress for the remaining sites.

Ms. Weekly asked if construction is to proceed even with the recommendations of the school closures.

Dr. Baker explained that when the bond was passed, the bond was passed for certain items, such as security locks that needed to be placed at each school site in addition to other security measures.  Orion and Adelante, for example, will need to have the safety locks placed. If the sites are leased to another entity and they do not require safety locks, those will be removed and used somewhere else.

Mr. Dias added that the cameras that are at the sites are there to protect the property.  

Ms. Panos asked if the District has a moral and ethical guidance to provide safety for children if rented by a charter school. Ms. Paulson responded that if the District provides safety for the District students, District must provide the same safety at the charter schools. Dr. Baker added that the safety locks would be kept wherever the charter schools go. However, the location of the charters has not been decided.

Mr. Gonzalez asked if it’s valid to use bond money to make improvements on the District properties if rented to other entities that are not schools. Dr. Baker responded that the closed school sites will only receive the bond funds to be used for the safety locks and the security cameras if a charter leases the property out. Dr. Baker added that if another entity leases the property and they would like to make any improvements to the property it must be in the scope of what the District wants done and District must agree., but no bond money will be used for these improvements due to it is not a school site being used by the District.

Mr. Bolander commented that if and when the empty school sites that do not receive improvements are occupied with District students, in the future, then those sites would potentially be behind in improvements that were in the original Phase I.  Dr. Baker said that perhaps another bond, in the future, would cover the costs to improve the school sites.

Mr. Robertson continued saying that the first project bids at Orion, McKinley, North Star and Kennedy Admin and Parking all came in within budget and construction agreements have been approved by the board for these four projects.

Mr. Robertson said that the security camera evaluation is in progress at Orion and have only received positive feedback for the Avigilon system.  The Bond Program Team is working to complete the evaluation and a recommendation to the Board to place security cameras across the District.

Mr. Robertson stated that the PG&E grant for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and a portion of the cost for the chargers will cover 10 to 25 chargers at each site for Selby, Hoover, Kennedy, Clifford, Taft and Garfield. This District is currently working with PG&E to finalize revisions on the conceptual designs and grant approval. If approved, construction would begin in 2019.

Ms. Bluvas asked how those six schools were chosen for EV charging.  Mr. Robertson responded that those were the six schools that are able take ten or more EV chargers based on their available parking. Mr. Robertson said that they are running another program, under a different grant, to install under ten EV charging at the remaining school sites.

Mr. Robertson shared the Architectural Design Progress Tracking Matrix and stated that almost every project is in the final construction document phase.  Four sites (Kennedy New/Admin Parking Lot, McKinley, North Star and Orion) have been completed via the Division of State Architect (DSA) process and bid them, and two sites (Adelante and Hoover) are currently in DSA. The remaining sites are planned for DSA submission within next couple months.

Mr. Dias added that if a scope of work changes, due to District placing the work on hold, then District is required to inform the State of California via a change order stating the scope did not go forward.

Mr. Robertson added that if a scope of work is placed on hold, there is a two-year hold period and if a building code changes, it would be necessary to update the plan to update the code.

Ms. Bluvas asked who makes the decisions of which plans get submitted. Ms. Paulson responded that it begins with the Bond Team and works its way up.  Mr. Dias added that the Bond Team makes the recommendation for approval by the Board.    

4.2    Update on bond expenditure to date

Dr. Baker introduced the new Bond Accountant, Erika Szallos, to the committee.

Ms. Szallos shared Measure T Bond Fund Income and Expense Summary handout. Ms. Szallos explained that in fiscal year 2017-18 there was total expenditures of $10.7 million in Measure T Fund 21 and total expenditures of $94.8K in Proposition 39, for a total of $10,798,658.20 for fiscal year 2017-18.

Ms. Szallos shared the Account-Ability handout and explained that for current fiscal year 2018-19, there is a total of $41 million in estimate expenditures.  There are a total $2.76 million actual expenditures in Measure T Fund 21 and $8,800 actual expenditures in Proposition 39 as of November 14, 2018.  These expenses will be part of the First Interim Budget Report that will be presented to the Board on December 12, 2018.     

4.3    Discuss future meeting dates

                  Next meeting dates:

                              Thursday, March 21, 2019

                              Thursday, May 30, 2019

5.0    Action Items (Action Required)

5.1          Approval of September 20, 2018 Committee Minutes

               (Lori Bluvas/Jeane Panos; 6-0)

6.0    Adjournment of Meeting

             Meeting adjourned at 6:42 p.m.

            (Rebecca Weekly/Jeanne Panos; 6-0)