Good evening. Good evening. The Board will now convene an open meeting. Today is 15 June 2015 and the time is 819.
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, June 15, 2015
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The Board met earlier this evening in closed meeting. Any action arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting.
Mr. Fraley, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Law in regard to the notice of this meeting?
Mr. President, we're on compliance.
First item is the personnel report.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve the personnel report as recommended by the
Superintendent in closed meeting.
I have a motion by Rebecca Fox seconded by Joe Adams that the Board of Trustees approve
the personnel report as recommended by the Superintendent in closed meeting.
Any discussion?
Hearing no discussion, I got ready for a vote.
all in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye all those no all right
motion passes 5 to 0 we have two board members that aren't present today when
I'm moving to the consent agenda I'm sorry item 4.1 consider future board
approval of an easement to Centerpoint energy associated with the future 32
32-acre park on the Katy Independent School District Cinco Ranch High School site to be constructed and funded by the Willow Fork Drainage District.
Hello, Mrs. McDonald.
Good evening President Griffin, members of the board, and Superintendent Frehley. Tonight
I have just one agenda item to bring forward to you and it is to consider future board approval of an easement for Centerpoint Energy
associated with a 32-acre park on
on the Katy Independent School District Cinco Ranch High School site
to be constructed and funded by the Willow Fork Drainage District.
Center Point Energy has requested a power line easement as depicted on the
attached
easement documents. Currently the power line runs diagonally
through the middle of the site. Center Point is going to relocate
this line to the perimeter of the site in an easement that was abandoned by the
Fort Bend County Drainage District.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards to the CenterPoint Energy a power line
easement as depicted in the attached easement documents associated with the Katy ISD owned
property located on Cinco Ranch High School.
Approval of this recommendation will help ensure that the power line be relocated to
an appropriate location and not run overhead through the center of the park.
This easement has been reviewed and approved by the District's legal counsel.
Thank you. Do we have any questions? Thank you Ms. McDonald. Thank you. And item 4.2,
consider future board approval of an electrical easement to Centerpoint Energy associated with
the construction of the new junior high school number 14 within the Hawks Landing subdivision.
No, Mr. McElwain. Good evening President Griffin, board members, Superintendent Fraley. This item
is associated with the new junior high that's being built currently within the
Hawkes Landing subdivision. This is a an item that you've seen before with
respect to and the timing of it such as is appropriate to this particular
project insofar as work is commencing or has commenced amidst the the weather
events that we've had recently over there at that particular piece of
property. This easement to Centrepoint Energy will enable electrical service be
brought to the site in a timely manner to to enable construction to continue
thank you do we have any questions mr adams
mr mcconnell says over and under that's correct
that over the overhead the overhead easement is coming off of hawks prairie parkway and then it's
an underground uh electrical duct that runs back to the transformer all right thanks
any other questions thank you mr. McElwain all right we'll move on to the item number five
discussion action number five point one discuss and consider future board approval of the design
of the comprehensive renovation to Memorial Parkway junior high school I think we have a
presentation yes once again I'm extremely pleased to present the tonight the design for Memorial
Parkway Junior High. I'd like to introduce the the team that's here this
evening to take part in this presentation. Actually Laura, Laura
Sockleben will be from Stantec. You remember Laura has done a tremendous
amount of successful work for the district, namely most recently the Robert
Shaw Center as well as the in the previous bond May Creek Junior High
High renovation and West Memorial Junior High renovation. Also we have Emily Craig
here the principal for Memorial Parkway Junior High is here this evening and
they will assist in the presentation. I wanted to recognize the members of the
team that are here this evening. We have Nathan Fuchs from my office who's the
construction project manager. We have Rusty Klaus from Dramala. As you know we
brought Stantec on in November to start the design. We brought Dramala on in
March and they've been invaluable as we work through this but the details on
this particular complex project and we have Jennifer Hendrickson from
Stantec and Mark Jackson from from Stantec as well. So once again we're
excited. I know we're short on time this evening. The the trustees have had this
had the drawings this weekend and at this particular point I'd like to turn
it over to Emily because Emily Craig honestly she's been invaluable during
during this project and at the end of this project we hope that you view this
design as transformational design that the same the same nature is what we did
and how we addressed those other two projects that I mentioned so I'll turn
it over to Emily to say a few words good evening I am thrilled to be here tonight
the the start of a journey that we've been on for for a couple of months going
through and we have had several meetings both with Arcadia I see people with
Stantec and Dremala walk in the building they have really listened to what my
team and staff and our individual teachers in different areas have needed
and wanted as part of their instructional spaces and looking to
transform those and some of the different design challenges that Laura
will go over they really listen to the things that we needed as far as a campus
to really bring our campus forward into something that will be a great learning
space for students and great teaching space for teachers to to be able to work
well so I don't want to take up too much of your time but I am absolutely
thrilled with the way they have listened to what we have needed and excited to be
able to show you tonight and in our mpgh community what we have to look forward
to because it's really going to transform not just our campus but I
really think our MPJH community as well
all right good evening president Griffin members of the board and superintendent
Fraley we are thrilled to be a part of this design team to bring this design to
you this evening I'm gonna put a timer on here to make sure I don't go too long
because I know we have a lot of information to cover so I'm gonna move
at a pretty fast pace feel free to stop me at any time if there's a question
that you'd like me to stop on as you all know Memorial Parkway junior high is
listed as a comprehensive renovation that's something that you've seen before
with West Memorial made Creek junior high as well the things that are
included in this project or classroom addition mechanical electrical plumbing
upgrades or replacement renovation of spaces to meet current programmatic
needs which includes science CTE locker rooms fine arts library administration
clinic kitchen and Commons replacement of finishes throughout the building and
site improvements this building was opened in 1982 there hasn't been any
major monitors modernizations since then so there's just a lot of things are at
the end of their lifecycle that need to be addressed we will start with this
site as most of you probably know if you've gone to this campus before you
probably will have had a little bit of a challenge finding the front door if
you've never been there before a lot of people assume that the front door is on
Highland Knowles there is a drive and parking there however that is not where
the front door is and half of our design team figured that out the hard way the
actual entrance is on West Green but the entry which is shown with that circle
there is kind of tucked back it's not really identified and that's been a
challenge for the campus so that's one of the things we definitely wanted to
address and then also additional parking was needed as well and looking at the
site that you can see here where the existing entrance is this causes some
issues with traffic you can see there's not a lot of stack space on the site for
parent drop-off and pickup and so that backs up into the street into that
intersection when you look at the new site plan you'll see where the new
entrance is which is further south which creates more stacking space on the site
so we'll have less traffic issues out on the street and that also gave us the
opportunity to add some additional parking on that side as well that works
to our benefit because the most logical place to put the addition on this site
is on the north side which is Highland Knolls in doing that we're going to take
out that drive in that parking which is going to help eliminate that mistaken entry identity that
they have there and then we are going to highlight where the actual entrance is by adding a canopy
and some other things which i'll show later in the presentation we're also adding additional parking
over inside that existing loop on the west side and of course we've got some detention work that
we've got to do associated with the addition and with the new parking as well you want us to ask
questions as we go if you'd like to just back up there one question you did have
parking previously on the north side of the Highland those sides and now you
don't have the parking but you're saying you have additional parking but do we
really have additional parking there or is that just to it looks like it's an
offset it's just we've just shifted it I I was just asking you to look very
carefully at that because parking there is at a premium and we really really
need to look at this to make sure that we get the maximum amount of parking
spaces we can I've often wondered why we don't go closer to West Green with
parking space you are absolutely correct parking is something was addressed as a
need and we actually are adding additional parking spaces so not only
are we replacing what we're losing on the north side but we're adding I think
we're at 40 additional spaces there so a net 40. now let's go into the building there's a lot of
pieces and parts this building is a very unique floor plan and with it there's some unique angles
and uniquely shaped rooms and so in order to get the most out of the floor plan we had to shift a
lot of things around so I'm going to take this piece by piece and at the end
we'll see the whole big picture and how it all fits together so one of the first
things that we looked at is the circulation in the building what you'll
notice is there's a whole lot of corridors that just end that you know
they take you to outside but there's no connection between corridors so students
are having to go back to a hallway back down to the main and there's a whole lot
of backtracking there the other thing you'll notice is the doors open into the
corridors which makes congestion a little bit worse there and then there's
locker areas in the building that have lockers out in the middle and there's
kind of some sight line issues behind those as well so when you look at the
new plan one of the benefits to adding that addition on the north is that it
enabled us to put a corridor up on that north side which now connects all those
corridors that are already there so there's a lot better more effective
circulation there we've also extended that primary circulation that you see
coming from the front entry all the way back to the other corridor so moving
around is going to be a lot easier the other thing we've done is where you see
those stars we've carved out some collaborative learning spaces some flex
areas is what we're calling those throughout the building to just give
more opportunity for collaborative learning within the building this is
just a before and after of what the corridor looks like now and then you can see those flex spaces
yes ma'am excuse me for interrupting but going a little fast on this for me a lot of so the bond
committee talked about this property a lot okay and the odd shaped rooms did you modify a lot of
those odd shaped rooms and make them i see some of them are more rectangular and less diamond shaped
or baseball shaped. Yes. Were you able to address most of that? We did and I'll show you when we go through each of these pieces near the end I've got a diagram that shows you where the most amount of work is happening and where the least amount. There's some where we didn't have to do much except for paint and do some stuff above the ceiling because they had rectangular spaces. Those that were oddly shaped we either moved some of those out to the addition and rearranged them into something that was more functional. But that was the number one priority was making sure
that we did a layout in this plan that gave the campus effective use of the space that
they had.
And there's some pictures throughout here that show you some of the challenges they
have with some of those oddly shaped rooms.
Thank you.
And I bet you're going to get to that without me interrupting you too much.
But I love the flow, that big flow at the back and through there.
That's really good.
And I've been there many times since Mr. Adams.
I grew up there.
And Mrs. Vann went to school there.
there but I just am picturing like where the lockers and what color is it gonna
be I can't wait to see if we just told our questions just you can do our
presentation and then hopefully this can go quicker I know she said that way we
can direct the questions and get a little bit quicker thank you all right
so then one of the major things that's happening at this campus are the
mechanical electrical plumbing upgrades and the finish replacements a lot of
the work that we're doing is around that again you know this is a 1982 building
and a lot of these systems are expiring so mechanical systems are at the end of
their life plumbing is in poor condition and then the wall and floor finishes and
a lot of areas need replacement the yellow dots that you see on the existing
floor plan there represent the mechanical spaces that are on the ground
and you'll notice there's not very many of them there is a mechanical mizzen
mezzanine over the kitchen but a lot of the equipment is actually suspended from
the structure above the ceiling with no platform so it's very hard to access and it's very hard
for the maintenance personnel to get to so when you look at the new proposed plan you'll see a
lot more yellow dots showing up there that is where we're putting some mechanical space on
the ground floor so number one we're able to distribute the mechanical equipment more
evenly throughout the building and it's a lot more accessible to the staff that's working on it all
All new mechanical units and ductwork, new chillers, new lighting, new communication systems, fire sprinklers, and floor finishes throughout the building.
So every inch of this building is being touched in some shape or fashion.
Now, science is one of the first areas we'll talk about, those creatively shaped rooms.
rooms and you can see from the picture when you've got rectangular tables that
you're working at and you've got a room that's a little bit more triangular it's
very hard to work within so we knew that there that was something we were going
to have to deal with the existing also has six classrooms and we wanted to
bring that up to seven so when you look at the new plan what we wanted to do is
pull those science rooms into the addition that enable us to get more
square footage to bring it in line with what your current junior high plans are
also gave us rectangular rooms the other benefit you see that green dot there
that's a exterior courtyard so you've got access to a courtyard from your
science which is also something that we see in your other junior high plans as
well this is just a close-up so you can see that the rectangular nature of those
rooms administration is another area that we looked at again there was an
inefficient layout there oddly shaped rooms you can see the conference room
with a column right through the center of it which means really you've got
about 50% of the use of the space in there so those kinds of things we need
to look at there were also some people that were disconnected from the main
office area and so we wanted to bring them back in and then make sure that we
had assistant principals in the correct location on the campus and the new plan
you can see that administration has shifted so that it's more at the front
of the building with the exception of an assistant principal suite that is out in
the classroom spaces which is where they want that to be and when you take a
zoomed in look at that you'll see that we've got much more regularly shaped
rooms and they're all together and it's just got a nicer flow to it when we look
at fine arts and CTE you'll notice again you've got these nice sized rooms but
they're oddly shaped and so again you have the same challenge that science did
so we needed to address that when you look at CTE this picture that you're
seeing is actually of the computer lab that's been cut into the center of that
lab space and so it creates an L shaped shop and there's some sight line issues
with teachers that can't see the students that are working on the
equipment there so we wanted to address that as well these functions the art the
sewing lab and drama have been pulled into that new addition as well so again
we can get them the square footage they need they get lots of natural daylighting accessibility to
a courtyard and then the cte lab that computer lab has actually been pulled out of there so
they get an open lab space and that computer lab adjacent the library is another room that
we looked at the library itself what is in line size-wise with what you have elsewhere in the
the district however it didn't have the auxiliary spaces that you have at your
other campuses which is resource conference room and storage the computer
labs as well and then of course the shelving needed upgrading in the space
as well so we've pulled that library actually closer to the front it's more
centrally located on those two primary corridors so it's got more exposure and
visibility to the building so it's more in the heart of the campus and it's got
all those auxiliary spaces that your other campuses have as well the
cafeteria stage and LGI this one is very unique what you have now the three of
those are put together which you can see on that floor plan there's multiple
levels in the cafeteria which again reduces your usable space the stage is
actually at the same level of the cafeteria and not up like a typical
stage would be and there's some accessibility issues with the step down
that you have in front of that stage the LG I is a tiered space it's behind the
stage so it limits their flexibility they'd rather see a flat space there and
all three of those have some issues with regards to sound transmission they can't
have something simultaneously going on in the LG I the cafeteria or the gym
because sound transmission just goes through all three of those spaces so you
can see what we've done we've relocated the lgi out into the classroom area it's now a flat space
more flexible we actually moved the stage to the opposite side of that so you can see the purple
has moved down closer to the gym what that does is it creates a vestibule between the gym and the
cafeteria and so it's kind of a sound lock to help that sound transmission the stage will be elevated
elevated, just like your other stages would. And the other thing on this campus, they needed
a complete upgrade on that stage anyway, so moving it, we did a test on the cost and there
wasn't a big difference there because of that. You can also see that you actually get some
more usable space by shifting that stage to the south side. You can see that blown up.
This is a view of the existing looking back towards the front door and that blue wall
you see is the LGI now that all gets opened up and you can see the library on
the left you can see the cafeteria on the right and the stage so it's a much
more open and connected environment
then when you're looking at athletics again that sound transmission not only
between the cafeteria and the gym but within the gym they have issues because
the only separation they have between those two gyms is the bleachers the
bleachers are in need of replacement the lighting and there is in need of
replacement so all the systems in that area needed to be addressed as well when
you go to the back of house stuff on athletics the locker rooms in those
areas again we saw an efficient layout of the plan there the weight room wasn't
large enough so they're using the hallways for weight rooms there's some
sight line issues in the locker rooms and some things of that nature that need
to be addressed a DA is something that needs to be addressed as well so what
What we've done here, we've actually put a wall in between those two gym spaces and moved
all the bleachers off to one side with new bleachers.
The weight room has been consolidated into one larger space so it's a more efficient
layout.
The locker rooms have been reorganized so that they have better supervision of the kids.
And actually, it works out with the new layout.
They actually have more usable space than they had before within the same footprint.
print moving on to the kitchen and serving this is a picture of what's
there now just a couple of windows this is very different from what you have at
your other schools so you can see what we've done here we've reconfigured this
area so that you have full serving lines just like what you have at your other
campuses and I should also mention that the all the equipment in this area was
in need of replacement anyway so it was a good time to reconfigure those spaces
And this is just a before and after picture so you can see the difference of those three
kind of almost ticket window looking spaces and then the much more open serving lines
which you have now.
So this is the complete floor plan now that we've moved all the pieces and parts.
You can see when you start to look at the learning spaces you've got rectangular rooms,
spaces that are not rectangular are used for flex and things of that nature so we're using
the space for what it's best you know the best use within that configuration entry identity so
one of the challenges is if you look at this picture is to find the front door even when
you go to the to the front entry you're tempted to go to the the doors that are on the left but
really the entrance is over into the right so we knew we needed to address that there's very little
natural light that comes into that front entry and there's really no defined shape to it either
so our solution to this is a three-part solution we've got this new tower piece we call it a tower
but it's really just a pop-up and that's getting a little bit of natural light into that front entry
and also to help identify the front energy the challenge is because this is all set back
you can't see that tower from on the street or somewhere off-site so we need
to do something that kind of came out from the building to help identify the
front door from anywhere on the on the street and so this canopy piece is what
came into play to really highlight that front entrance we also bring it in a
canopy along the parent Drive so when you've had inclement weather like we've
had the past however many days here those kids are a little more protected
there and then we're doing improved safety and security throughout the front
entry and in the entire building this is a view of the front from across and when
you're walking it from the parking lot and then as you're coming up the drive
you can see that as you approach the building you can see that that canopy
piece coming out the north facade this is the existing and again because that
drive was there a lot of people tried to come here but there's not really
anything there's no windows on this facade with the new and we bring that
addition on the front it's a totally different look for this building so a
different face to the community you've got those science and art rooms in the
courtyards and you know it just looks like a much livelier space here and this
is the diagram that I mentioned earlier that shows the amount of work that's
happening in each area of the building you can see every we're touching every
inch of this building the darkest gray almost black areas are the new addition
so that's where the most amount of work is going that medium gray space is where
there's major renovation which means walls are moving that's where we're
reconfiguring some of those spaces to make them more usable and then the gray
is where you know the configuration was pretty good and so we just needed to do
some above ceiling finishes and things of that nature when you look at the
phasing I won't go into detail on this but this is just to kind of show you
that this is a very complex phasing plan and the first things we'll start with
are the additions so we can get those online move the kids into those areas
and then start to move around the building to do the different areas of
work and dremala is already working on how they're going to keep the kids
separate from the construction and make sure we keep everybody safe through the
entire thing with the plan is to be able to do this without bringing any
additional portables onto the site and phase the kids within the campus itself
and where we are in the project development phase of course DD is where
we are design development today hoping to move into construction documents we
We will be looking at alternates because the construction market is a little bit unpredictable
at this point.
And so we'll be looking for those things as we go through construction documents.
And then also, you know, things may change a little bit, but the design intent should
stay the same throughout the rest of the process.
Of course, you know, tonight we're presenting to you the DD.
We would go straight into construction documents through September, and our hope would be to
come back to you in October with a GMP for construction to start construction
in November and then work through that phasing until fall of 2017 which is when
all the major phases would be complete there may be a couple of small things
that would happen the summer of 18 after that but you know it would be things
like landscaping some small small items and I appreciate your time and I will
take any questions you guys have mr. Adams thank you very much miss Lachlan
for this it's good you know being in the renovation business myself and a
residential point of view it's it's it's when you tear into things that's it's it
can be a very big surprise to you and I remember years ago mr. Fraley when we
were your time even is that we tore into Katy high school and and the more we
tore into it the more that we scratched our heads and wondered did we do the
right thing should we have just torn it down and started over again I know
we're we're halfway across the creek right here right now it's kind of hard
to turn around but I just well I'm a little concerned about it because of the
fact of having to do all this construction and having kids in place
and things of that nature I just I guess from you I just need some assurances
that that we can do this and and feel comfortable about it so renovate versus
rebuild and and I know that calls the hair on mr. McElwain's neck stand up but
but I mean at wolf elementary we did that we we built another facility and
and but I don't think there's enough space here to do that here but the other thing I
would say is it is it I just like for you look at this this parking in and I
we are going to be giving up some natural light here looks like some of
our areas that at least from what I saw some of the pictures that you showed us
that we do have some areas that we have natural light coming in and look like
that some of that was going to be cut away is that right we actually are
adding natural lights a lot of places there's actually I don't think there's
any place where we're cutting off natural lights when we're adding on to the north a lot of that
you can see there's those breaks in the courtyard so there's going to be natural light that's coming
in before all you had were just doors at the end it went to outside so this is actually going to
bring in a lot more natural light and then of course that front entry piece we're going to
try to get some light in in there as well well i know that you know we we did a massive renovation
at Taylor and then we've got one at make Creek going on and I'm confident that we
can do this it's just it's always just a little bit concerning to me but I know
Stan tank could do us a good job and from all of them will do a great job
well and and I'll say you know when we first started when we first started the
project and we knew it looked at all the things that we needed to accomplish you
know the first thing you do is kind of scratch your head and say okay how are
we going to do this however when we started to work through okay what can we
do let's move these things up to the north addition let's move this around
and that's why we did this diagram here that shows the different the amount of
work that you're doing in the different areas of the building there's actually
quite a lot of square footage in here that we're only doing the stuff that we
have to do because of the life of the systems right and and I really think
that at the end of the day we've accomplished all the things that the
campus called out as an issue with working with this existing building and
and even with as much as we're doing to it it's a lot less expensive than it
would be to do a new facility and you're right you mentioned the site constraints
makes it a lot tougher if you were going to do this with this building here and
try to build a new one I don't think you'd have the same freedom with your
plan as you would like you could end up with something that you yeah if I if I
could just add add mr. Adams you know I did with respect to and I don't want to
embarrass Laura but like the the make that may Creek junior high in the West
Memorial June I were really good testing grounds for us for this project we knew
this project was coming down the road Lord did an excellent job with respect
to both of those projects. Not only has she been involved closely on the design
of the project but one thing I've noticed about Laura is that even when
we're into the actual construction phase, oftentimes with some architectural firms
you'll have the designers and then you'll have the field people. Well in
this particular case Laura is actually heavily involved in the field
aspects, the phasing of the project and we know Dremala as well, Rusty and the
Dremala folks, we know the quality of their work as well. So we feel like we're
up to the challenge. We, as I mentioned, this is not dissimilar to the May Creek
and the West Memorial projects insofar as when they were completed it's really
they've gone through a renaissance those particular buildings. When they walk in,
when someone walks into that building they're going to notice that it's not
just an above-ceiling project. We've been able to address a number of things and
the whole feel of the building and maybe Emily can add to it but the whole
feeling of that building is going to change right from the moment that you
step into the front door. You know are there going to be some challenges
working on existing campuses? I've always I've always been the first one to say
that these renovation projects are far more complex and far more difficult for
us and as a team than the Greenfield projects. You know but at the end of the
day as Laura said we can create swing space in there with the additions like
we did it at West Memorial and at May Creek where we built the addition first,
swung the kids into the addition or the campus into the addition and then moved
around into the balance of the building. So you know I think
speaking for the team I'm really quite excited about the project. Obviously
we're dealing in a market right now that's quite challenging. We'll come back
to the board in October with funding strategy for this particular
project. I don't know Emily did you want to add anything else about the spaces?
No and I was just going to say we're obviously very concerned as well about
making sure the kids are safe while we're while we're in the middle of
construction and we've actually been talking Nathan and I've been talking
about relocating kind of where we have bikes coming in already before
construction starts in the middle of the first semester so that we can have kids
rerouted before construction even goes out so that there's not any temptation
to go to places that they would normally go once construction things go and get
put into place so we've kind of been talking about how do we need to start
addressing that before the school year even starts so that while there's not
construction right now they're already changing their pattern of how they're
coming in and those kinds of things so that once those construction pieces go
in kids aren't tempted to walk across that Highland Knoll side or into the
front side so that they're walking into where there'd be heavy construction and
kind of working on reorienting them on that before there's an issue so that
that we're stationing people at the right places
to get them to go.
And Dermal has done a good job when we've talked about
that phasing process of how are we going to move kids
throughout the building and looking at
where are we going to place teachers
from the start of that construction that second year
so that people aren't having to move multiple times
during a school year either.
So that it's not a hardship on teachers either
during that instructional time.
So we've really kind of looked at that as well
to try to make sure that it's feasible for us to be able to do all of that and be ready
to go then in that fall of 2017 without any portables and brand new.
So we're very excited about it.
MS.
Mr. President.
MR.
Yes, Ms. Fox.
MS.
Ms. Sopperman, thank you for the presentation.
And I was going to ask the question that Mr. McIlwain addressed about West Memorial Junior
High and Main Creek Junior High.
You worked on those.
How is this similar and what challenges do you have here that you didn't have there because?
I'm like the same layout to start with right yes, so the layouts are very different
I think in in West Memorial and May Creek both
I think it was a little bit easier to
Just from a plans perspective say okay
We're going to add on over here, and we're going to renovate this area in isolation this floor plan
it's a lot of moving parts which you could see as we went through the
progression of how things moved it's very similar in the fact that in both of
those campuses we touched every inch of those buildings we replaced every system
that was in those buildings and there was a lot of major major renovation that
happened in the summer that we did those projects I think the good thing here
because of the the construction market at the time we did those we felt good
about compressing a two summer renovation into one because of the
construction market we have now you don't have the labor forces to be able
to do that so we actually have given ourselves a little bit more of a
comfortable comfortable timing with this one to be methodical and get each of
those done so I think that's an advantage that we have here the other
thing that's similar with both of those projects we did a lot of investigations
prior to the documents going out which is happening right now
Jamal is actually going out to the campus tomorrow with some of our team
they're camera some of the the lines the plumbing lines underground they're going
to be looking above ceilings you know those things have been happening and
that's an attempt to try to catch those unknowns before you get into the field
The other way that it's similar from a construction standpoint is because you start with those additions early, it gives us the chance to have a couple additional months before we get into the renovation.
It's in the heart of the building to flush out all the shop drawings, the questions from the contractors, all those things so that when the summer lets out and the kids move out of the building, we can hit the ground running.
and hopefully we've kind of overturned any of the stones that there might be
something hiding under we know there's always going to be some surprises but
with the way that we have been able to phase this one as well as those former
projects it's set up in a way to help us succeed to help us try to find all those
things before we get into the crunch time that answer okay
Okay.
Yes, ma'am.
So it looks like the first thing you're doing are additions, and that starts middle of the
semester after kids get there, and it looks like all of that covers all the doors.
How do the children get in?
Right?
It looks like that's right across the front door and all the doors on the back.
Correct.
There are, there's additional doors.
I'm going to use a fancy pen.
So there's additional doors right here that go into that area.
And we're still working out the logistics with Dramala, but they're already working out, okay, how do we fence this area off, bring everybody in to that point right there and move them into the building.
One of the things we did at West Memorial is we actually built a temporary entry point with a temporary check-in and reception and all those things.
and that's probably something that we may have to do here as well so the
number one priority and all of this and that's something when we sat down with
them the very first time we showed them our initial plan they were already
talking about okay this is where we might put the fencing so we can move
parents and kids in through this way staff will come in this way and we've
been working with Emily very closely to make sure that by the time we get to
construction everybody knows exactly where everything's going to be and like
she mentioned she's going to make the changes you know we're not starting
until November but the kids when they come back from the summer they're going
to be setting up the habits that they're going to be doing in November okay I I
just want you to know that May Creek junior high and West Memorial junior
high renovations are amazing gorgeous and I watching how that happened was
was great so I'm confident in that. Are we, I know that through the bond committee process
you were given a finite budget on this is my understanding Mr. Fraley and were we able
to address the needs of this campus? I'm just wondering are we going to look back and go
if only we'd been able to do one more thing or we didn't get to do that or I mean from
this it looks like you've touched everything but are we good on?
Mayor Redekopal I guess I guess maybe I'll answer that question. Our goal our goal always is to address the needs of the campus
with the intent being that once we leave the campus we've addressed all of their needs.
Does that mean that maybe some surprises came up while we went through the details? Yes.
I think Mr. Adams brought it up at an earlier board meeting where he said would you come forward with alternates even though there might if
we can come with a funding solution if there's available but we've done that before on these
renovations and we appreciate the support of the board.
We'll know more when we bring the GMP in.
But I will say that our goal is, our goal is on all of these renovations is to address
the needs of the campus.
Because it's so much more expensive to go back in a few years and say, well, we didn't
have the budget, and to go back is much more expensive than to do the alternates like he's
talked about.
So I just want to make sure that our campus has...
We'll do the alternates.
We'll bring the alternates forward.
And as I said, we've always appreciated the support of the board on these projects.
Looks great.
Thank you. Awesome job. If I could just make one quick comment. The last time when the Shaw Center
was done and we looked at the pictures, the first time I went into the building, I'm like, oh my
gosh, I've been here before. Those pictures do a great job of showing what you're going to do and
what you follow through. And thank you for your great communications that you're doing it in among
the team and listening to the bond committee that says, hey, this is what we want in the community,
backing us all up. All right board members any... Mr. President I did just want to say
I appreciate very much you already addressing why we're not doing it in the
summer and people are gonna say why didn't you use the summer but not enough
forces you say workforces to get that done and kind of the timing so I
appreciate you addressing that because I was wondering why it was going to be
different too. I might just add just to reiterate that when we did the bond
program at that time we did say that that this project would complete in 2018
18 so it's not like you know you know it's on the schedule we said we still
are trying to get a lot done in the summer of 16 and 17 with 18 being
reserved for just any smaller aspects of the project to complete so we still are
completing at the during that duration that we had identified at the time of
the bond program but the parents who show up in October gonna say well the
kids weren't here all summer you know why don't you do it then and it's
because it's a little bit intensive project and the workers are are not as
plentiful as they were back then so thank you for that explanation project
this project suffice comprehensive number of complex projects in this bond
program this one is probably the most complex it'll be so worth it so worth it
mrs. Craig you're ready for a great year okay any objection to moving this item
them to consent I plan to see this through its its building for sure it's
it's exciting and our staffs really excited about it you get that okay you
say that into the mic so we can have it
record really has different plans but
no right thank you very much
item 5.2 discussing consider future
board approval of additional department
staffing needs as to address growth for
the 2015-2016 school year is ever I mean
Edmonds Griffin members of the board
superintendent fraley i am here to
present for your approval 25 additional
additional department staffing units that are needed to address growth for the 2015-16
school year. And just as a side note about, I would say approximately 64% of these units
would be used to provide direct support to our campuses.
MS. President?
MR. Yes, your Mr. Dubrow.
MS. Ms. Edmonds, we're growing. We're growing very rapid. So is this enough?
Do we need more based upon the current projection?
I will say to you we always need more, but we've got to pay for it.
Well, I know it's better to ask for it in one block than to piecemeal it throughout
the year.
We went through a very intense dialogue about these positions and I'm confident that right
Right now, we're in a good place.
Plus, we also, again, keep our eyes on the budget as well.
When you hire folks, you have them.
You have them.
And teams have agreed that this is what we can work with,
and we do this every year.
We'll come back next year with maybe some more folks we may need to have.
Mrs. Fox.
Mr. President, Ms. Edmund, I guess, just correct me if I'm wrong,
But we had a staffing plan just a couple of months ago
And so are all of these for one campus or throughout and I'm just a little surprised to see so many
No, so soon after we just approved a staff and the campus the staffing plan
We approved a couple of months ago was strictly the campus staffing
The ones that we're asking for tonight are department staffing that support the campuses such as LSS peas
They're not actually assigned to a campus, but they did right they have that direct support to our campuses
I knew you would know. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Board members, any problem moving this item to consent? No moved.
Thank you. Thank you. Item 5.3, discuss and consider future board approval of the
teacher data portal of the Texas Assessment Management System waiver for
for the 2015, 2016, 2016, 2017, and 2017, 2018.
Thank you very much.
Absolutely.
Good evening, President Griffin.
Mr. Fahle, members of the board,
I am here to ask for your consideration
to approve a routine waiver of the teacher data portal
of the Texas Assessment Management System.
We are required through Texas Education Code
to provide data to our teachers
through the Texas assessment system, but we are allowed to apply for a waiver to
use our own system as long as it meets all the criteria. And again this is a
very routine waiver. We have seen it many years in the past and we use Eduphoria
Aware as our data system. Teachers are very familiar with it. It actually
provides what I would consider much more user-friendly data and interface than
what the state provides us. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you very much. Board members,
any objection to moving this one to consent? So moved. Thank you. I have another one for you.
5.4. Again, I'm bringing to you an additional waiver for the next three years for a modified
schedule on assessment days. Again, this is a routine waiver that allows districts to modify
the attendance taking time on days where we are assessing some students at a campus and not others.
So for example, a state assessment day or a PSAT day where some of the grade levels are testing,
we allow other grade levels to come in at a modified time. Any questions?
No.
And if I might have forgot to read that one.
5.4, discuss and consider future board approval of the modified schedule waiver for assessment
days for 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2017-2018.
Any objections to moving this to consent?
So moved.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
5.5 is going to be mostly mine.
discuss and consider future board approval of the Texas Association of
School Boards advocacy resolution proposal if you look at your computer
stuff we as a district can propose a new resolution or resolution adopted by a
previous delicate assembly we have the paperwork and the work that we've done
and I believe we passed a resolution and we came up with a proposed resolution
that we need to decide as a board if we would like our TASB delegation to push for us.
And the proposed resolution reads,
TASB supports elimination of state assessments unaffiliated with federal requirements
and requests the legislature requires local assessments funded by the state
in lieu of those state assessments eliminated.
Do we as a board want this advocacy resolution to go forward?
that's what our discussion is tonight
questions
all right can we move this I can we move item 5.5 to consent the objections well
So moved.
All right, 5.6, discuss and consider future board approval of a resolution expressing intent
to defeat certain of the district's outstanding bonds.
And I have a resolution expressing intent to defeat certain of the district's outstanding bonds.
And I believe we have a presentation.
Mr. Smith.
Yes, it'll be brief.
Our debt management plan is being presented at a possible opportunity to defeat certain bonds.
Specifically, we've identified the 2007A, 7D, and 7C, 2008C as potential candidates for defeasance.
The amount we're looking at is about $12 million or approximately $12 million.
This will basically mean that we're going to reduce the principal amount owed on those bonds,
which indeed turns out to save interest expense.
We think that amount, if we defeased it all, would be about $6.5 million in interest savings to the taxpayers.
If you'll recall, over the last two years we've been able to, two fiscal years, we've been able to defease about $19 million saving taxpayers a little over $15 million in interest.
So they're not quite as much interest savings, but interest savings nonetheless, if we're able to do this.
So it would be our recommendation that the Board of Trustees approve a resolution expressing the intent to defeat certain of the district's outstanding bonds
Q
Mr. Adams, so what you're doing you're calling the bonds early. Yes. These bonds are callable and we're just paying them off paying them off
from where
Where's the money coming? It'll come from the debt service fund within the current tax rate of 40 cents
In the end and the principal budget will budget for this
respectively
Mr. Boholsky.
MR.
So I see that you've kind of identified some specific series here.
Can you just give us a little bit of insight on how you evaluate and how these come up
for, you know, get targeted for defeasance in this case?
MR.
They're callable, first and foremost, in this year, and then secondly, the
interest rate.
You know, part of these series would be if we're presented an opportunity to refund bonds
would probably be some other, these series would be involved in that refunding based
based on the interest rates.
Follow up, if I could.
Go ahead.
So tell me a little bit about when bonds are typically
callable and all of that.
Can you just give us a basic understanding of?
It depends on the structure of the, you know,
all bonds are different, but it just depends on when they're
priced, and they may be callable or they may not be.
And these happen to be callable in this next fiscal year.
Well, we certainly appreciate the work you do there,
staying on top of it I mean certainly in the last few years we've say for
defeasance and refundings we've saved a tremendous amount of interest expense to
our our taxpayers so thank you thank you and I think you're going to continue
with item 5.7 discussion consider future board adoption of an order authorizing
the issuance of Katy Independent School District unlimited tax refunding bonds
in one or more series setting certain parameters for the bonds authorizing a
price officer to approve the amount the interest rate price including the terms
therein in certain other procedures and provisions related there too and if I
can just go ahead and read the order you have an order authorizing the issuance
of Katy independent school districts unlimited tax refunding bonds in one or
or more series, setting certain parameters for the bonds,
authorizing a price officer to approve the amount,
the interest rate, price, including the terms thereof,
and certain other procedures and provisions related thereto.
Mr. Smith.
Well, what this is, is during a year,
depending on the market, the interest rate environment
that is happening out there, we are basically
basically with these two next items, we're setting the stage to be able to act on market
conditions that are in our favor to refund these bonds. They're set up with parameters
of basically the unlimited is $250 million and no less than a 4% savings. So if we can't
achieve 4% savings, we're not going to refund the bonds and it's likely that we won't be
be able to refund $250 million worth based on the candidates out there. I think that's
just an amount that if the market really got good, we could take advantage of it before
the market went away, ran away on us. If you'll recall, this last year we had three refundings.
Those totaled about $230 million. About $60 million was limited bonds. The other were
were unlimited and those 230 million refundings saved us about 35.6 million, 35.7 million
dollars in interest savings to the taxpayers.
So it would be the same thing, just an opportunity if it presented itself both with the unlimited
and limited to be able to take advantage of the savings because the windows don't stay
there very long.
And unfortunately, I really do not think that I'll be able to just to to talk about such good numbers
We really were able to refund higher rate interest rated interest rates
bonds with these low advance low rates
This year and we really achieved a really good savings and if we can achieve that again now
Well, we will be very fortunate, but I just don't see that happening
happening. But I do think there is some savings out there this year.
Mr. President? Mrs. Fox?
Mr. Smith, we will take every dime of savings you can get us
and we're thankful for every bit of it. You're right, we had an incredible year last year, but
thanks for watching out for this and getting us all the savings we can.
Mr. Hulsky? No questions, just a comment. I'd just say their
track record's pretty good, so I think we should give them the
the option to take advantage of the opportunity if it presents itself thank
you very much and I forgot any objection to moving items 5.6 and 5.7 to consent
so moved 5.8 discuss and consider future board adoption of an order authorizing
the issuance of Katy independent school districts limited tax refunding bonds in
one or more series setting certain parameters for the bonds authorizing a
price officer to approve the amount the interest rate price including the terms
thereof and the certain other procedures and provisions related there to in the
order reads order authorizing the issuance of Katy independent school
districts limited tax refunding bonds in one or more series setting certain
parameters for the bonds authorizing a price officer to approve the amount the
the interest rate, price, including the terms thereof,
and certain other procedures and provisions related thereto.
Mr. Smith?
This item is identical other than the words limited is replacing unlimited.
So it's just that we do have some, not as many, limited tax refunding bonds,
and if those become refundable, we would like to take advantage of those too.
And since they are technically called limited as opposed to unlimited we we get
The item is in there twice. Thank you any questions
Any objections of moving this item to consent?
Will moved thank you very much
and
5.9 discuss and consider future board approval of the interlocal
cooperation agreement for the collection of Katy independent school district property taxes by Fort Bend County
okay, currently our
taxes are collected by Harris County and Fort Bend County. Fort Bend County collects both Fort Bend County
properties as well as Waller County properties. Harris County collects Harris County properties.
We have an agreement that we entered into several years ago with the two counties.
Harris County is a continuous agreement. We don't need to update that. Fort Bend County
counties is a one year with a one year renewal. So basically what that means is every other year
we'll be requesting that we update that with Fort Bend County. As with Harris County,
KDISD very much continues to be satisfied with the job that Fort Bend County does collecting
these taxes and it's our recommendation that the attached center local cooperation agreement
for the collection of taxes be be approved any objection moving this item
consent let's go mr. Mahalsky go ahead yeah I do have a question first um and
just looking at the agreement and the pricing thereof how is the pricing
determined on this and I guess how did you know how do we know it's reasonable
this is the main main thing and what what do we anticipate it will cost
It would cost more if we had it in-house, as an example.
Right now we're paying $0.35 per parcel at Fort Bend County for the parcels in Fort Bend County
and $2.77 for the parcels in Waller County.
A lot less properties in Waller County.
Had Waller County collected them, they couldn't do it as efficiently
because Fort Bend is geared to collect so many taxes from the entities inside of Fort Bend County.
Waller is good.
They're just not as efficient and that's why it's priced a little more different a little more expensive for the
parcels in Waller County
Paul do we have an anticipated Austin for the year per year on this right now? We're spending about
$40,000
For Fort Bend County appraisal district
I mean Fort Bend County tax office to collect our taxes and it's about a hundred and thirty thousand dollars in Harris
That's an approximate when we certainly couldn't do that ourselves for that. I go right sir. Thank you
President yes, sir. Mr. Bell. Mr. Smith. Do you see any change possibly coming with the
Road that Walla County will be experiencing. I mean years
McCain Island that I
Mean there could be in a
more parcels added
Would it make us to review it?
But I don't see any in the near future.
Do you think we're going to continue to be able to handle the loan?
I do.
All right.
Any objections to move N5.9 to consent?
So moved.
5.10, discuss and consider future board approval of a contract renewal and extension for the collection of delinquent taxes.
All right.
All right, our current contract to collect delinquent taxes expires September the 30th of this year.
The administration is requesting your approval on the first of three one-year extensions.
Again, from this point, from September the 30th onward, it's a one-year extension annually.
We have one of the highest collection rates in the area.
We continue to have one of the highest collection rates in the area.
Since I've been with KDISD almost 12 years now, we've not had any problems with our current firm, Lineberger, Gagarin, Blair & Sampson.
To my knowledge, we've had no complaints and we've been very satisfied with their performance.
The same terms are in the contract that was awarded three years ago.
and again we've been been very satisfied and would be our recommendation that the
Board of Trustees approve the renewal and one-year extension of the contract
for collection of delinquent taxes between KTISD and the firm of
Limbarger Guggen Blair and Sampson LLP questions mr. Smith about how long have
they been working for the district since I was in junior high I think over 30
years hey thank you I wasn't around then but it's I believe it was over 30 years
any objection to moving this item consent and one 5.11 discuss and consider
future board approval of the June 2015 budget amendments we have 23 budget
amendments tonight 22 of them for the general operating fund are direct
offsets between existing budgets just different functions routine business
of the school district one amendment is to recognize $12,000 worth of revenue
and $12,000 increase to expenditure budget which makes it a balanced
amendment there's no effect about fund balance and this simply provides for the
accounting of the Cape stem camp that will be offered this summer approval of
these amendments will have no change to the general operating fund fund balance
Any questions?
Any objection to move in this item to consent?
So moved.
And 512, discuss and consider future Board approval of grant ratifications.
Thank you.
We have two grants to ratify tonight, one for the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
This is for Maid Creek Junior High School and one for the James Patterson Pledge to School Libraries.
libraries. This is for Windbourne Elementary. The Maid Creek Junior High School grant from
the Hog Foundation is in the amount of $25,000, and the Windbourne Elementary James Patterson
Library grant is for $9,250.
Mr. President?
Yes, ma'am.
My document says Maid Creek High School, and you're saying Maid Creek Junior High? I just
want to make sure that I'm...
It is Junior High.
Maid Creek Junior High. Okay, thank you.
Any other questions? Any objections to moving this item to consent?
No? So moved. Thank you.
Item 6 is future board meeting is going to be Monday, June 22, 2015.
And barring no other business, this meeting is adjourned at 924. Thank you.
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