Details about FY 22-24 CIP Projects

Student success and well-being guide our work, not only in this CIP but year-round. In June 2021, the School Board will adopt an Interim FY 2022 Four-to-Six-Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) that:

• improves school operations that support teaching and learning,

• maintains existing facilities,

• prepares for middle and high school enrollment growth, and

• expands the pathways students can take towards graduation.

For an overview of the CIP process, objectives, meetings and presentations please visit aps2016.apsva.us/engage/cip

Budget | Projections | Kitchen Upgrades | Security Vestibule Upgrades | Complete the Heights Building | Career Center Proposal | Air Quality & HVAC Upgrades | Synthetic Turf Field Requirements | Major Infrastructure Projects

BUDGET AND PROJECTIONS

BUDGET

1. How is bond funding calculated in FY25, FY26, and FY27 if we only have County revenue estimates thru FY24?
2. Can any of the proposed projects be funded under the under the upcoming Infrastructure stimulus or other federal funding earmarked for ready-to-go projects?
3. Please provide the reserve balance. When is the spring bond sale and might we expect a premium from that sale? Are there any capital projects that are now completed with surpluses that we can transfer to the capital reserve fund?  
4. Can we spend down our reserves before seeking more bond funding?  What are the consequences of spending down the reserves? Should we be asking for bonds in a vote when we have reserves? If we don’t bond in FY22, will we lose some capacity to address enrollment needs?

PROJECTIONS

1. Can any of the proposed projects be funded under the under the upcoming Infrastructure stimulus or other federal funding earmarked for ready-to-go projects?
2.  How is the reduction of enrollment projections by 525 (per the SB’s Adopted Budget on 6 May) impacting the CIP planning? 
3. Several North Arlington elementary schools are below capacity? Why isn’t one of the CIP options to convert an elementary school there to middle school to address the middle school seat deficit? Spending $200M+ on a new Career Center plan that combines meeting enrollment growth needs, PK-8 Montessori desires, and new middle school seats, delays for 6-10 years or longer our ability to address needed facility issues like:·

• • Upgrading or demolishing & rebuilding our oldest schools (ASFS, Campbell, Barcroft, Randolph, Hoffman-Boston, etc.)·
  • Full-scale replacements of roofs and HVAC systems instead of ventilation upgrades where necessary ·
  •      Etc. While a plan to address trailers and expected enrollment growth at the CC is necessary, it must be balanced against available dollars and the opportunity cost of using those dollars on the Career Center vs using them on other facility needs

4. How does uncertainty about our projections affect the CIP? If the projections change in the fall and indicate that we don’t need additional seats anymore, can we change the Career Center plan at that point?

PROPOSED CIP PROJECTS 

KITCHEN UPGRADES

• Ensure that all students have access to high-quality, nutritional meals​
• National school lunch program requirements continue to evolve, including more fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and scratch cooking​
• Add on-site food storage and preparation space​
•  Improve lunch lines – serve more students in less time

1.  Why do kitchen renovations need to be addressed in this CIP?

SECURITY VESTIBULE UPGRADES

• Continue the systematic renovation of main entry vestibules to meet current safety and security standards
• Ensures visitors check-in at the main office.
• Completes upgrades at all schools.
• Satisfies the priority order provided by Safety, Security, Risk and Emergency Management staff.

COMPLETE THE HEIGHTS BUILDING

• Originally planned to open with school in 2019 but delayed due to the county’s need for a temporary Fire Station
• Underground structure with direct access to the school space
  • Provides better, direct access to the building for Shriver Program students
• Lighted turf field for school and community use

1. 1. Why does staff recommend Option A for the Heights?
   2. The Heights… a major goal of this project is to provide a nicer and more functional, accessible drop-off and entrance for the Shriver Program. This should not be a “back entrance.” It’s the 18th St. entrance. Is that a clear priority for this project and will we be in close contact with the Shriver community to ensure their needs are top priority for this project? 
   3. Are we currently paying for leased parking at the Heights and will this project provide any savings in our annual budget? 
   4. The Heights will require some cost regardless of what we do because of stormwater issues?  I.e. I think previously one option was to basically do nothing and that resulted in basically no cost.  But I think the do-nothing option now involves a significant cost no matter what?  Therefore, the thought is that for very little marginal cost, create some parking spaces too?

CAREER CENTER PROPOSAL

• Reimagines a dynamic PreK-12 campus that expands secondary instructional pathways to graduation for current and future generations of Arlington students, addresses enrollment growth, and adds more secondary seats.
• Maximizes the use of the existing site to serve students countywide and meet instructional, enrollment growth and capacity needs.
• Relocates Arlington Community High School to a new location and demolishes the Fenwick building.
• Construct a new Arlington Career Center facility that expands Arlington Tech seats, provides enhanced amenities for school and community
• Relocate MPSA to the existing Career Center building and demolish the MPSA building for a field and green space. Add parking on 9th St.
• For more information about this proposed project see the fact sheet and the  rationale for the development of the Career Center Campus to be included in the FY 2022-24 CIP_

1. 1. Slide 9 – Is the placement of the new CC building in the center of the CC campus, per the schematic, compliant with zoning?  If not, what will the next step be?
   2. How can option seats help us with capacity issues, as opposed to adding seats where needed, like at Gunston and Wakefield Will we continue to need trailers at Wakefield going forward?
   3. Of the $34.4M in already existing design funds for projected seats, how much will be used for the Career Center project? If there is any remainder, what is the plan for these funds? 
   4. When do we need to decide 1300 versus 1800 seats (or something in between)? Can we fit 1800 option seats plus CTE labs in the space available?
   5. The Career Center project appears to have at least three phases: 1. the new building, 2. moving Montessori, and 3. building a new field and green space on the Henry site. For which of these phases will we have ed specs and cost estimates before we finalize our CIP on June 24? 

AIR QUALITY AND HVAC UPGRADES

• Implement staff recommended HVAC enhancements
• Ensure that more schools have increased ventilation and filtration enhancements
• Upgrade filtration to highest level possible for current systems targeting MERV-13
• Replace and/or enhance building automation system (BAS) controls in school division to maximize ventilation
• Upgrade filtration for larger common spaces with portable HEPA units
• For more information about this project please see the fact sheet, the consultant’s Ventilation Reports and Recommendations, and the Update on FY 2022 CIP Design Studies (p.22)

1. 1. Is the proposed plan covered by the $10.5m available from previous funding? Will there be additional expenses going forward or do we expect this to be covered by the Major Infrastructure funds?2-9 HVAC Funding
   2. What kind of analysis did the mechanical contractor do?  Did they physically look at the systems?  Did they review service records/maintenance history?  Does this review account for using higher grade filters in the current systems and therefore reducing the lifespan of the system?  Please explain the difference between the list of targeted interventions vs the upgrade list from the mechanical contractor and clarify what the recommendations are.
   3. Can we fund the new proposed CC project without reducing funding for other priorities such as HVAC replacements?  
   4. The CIP proposal does NOT accelerate HVAC replacement/upgrades from planning previous to the pandemic.  Instead, the focus is on classroom air filtration.  HVACs will be replaced and upgraded according to their lifecycle, as we had been planning anyway. 

SYNTHETIC TURF FIELD REQUIREMENTS

• Replace Synthetic Turf Fields, shared costs with Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation
  • FY 2023 – Wakefield HS, $491,000
  • FY 2024 – Washington-Liberty HS and Williamsburg MS, $1,087,000
  • FY 2025 – Greenbrier Stadium (Yorktown HS), $828,000

Replacement fields cannot be paid for by bonds, must be paid for with current revenue. If included in annual Minor Construction/Major Maintenance (MC/MM) budget, then MC/MM needs to be increased to account for the additional cost of the field replacements.

1. 1. The field renovations are to be funded with MCMM and we are told this will require an increase in MCMM funding in our annual budget. We just decreased MCMM by $1.5M.  Is this request on top of restoring that $1.5M in MCMM funding?

MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

• Major infrastructure projects to upkeep our schools and operations
• Projects maintain existing APS buildings, include–but are not limited to–the following: HVAC, Electrical, Roofing, Windows

1. 1. What year was the Patrick Henry/ MPSA building built? Has it had any major renovations? Which elementary schools are 1) older and/or 2) smaller than this facility?