On July 3^rd the following questions were received from Board Member Monroe Benaim regarding 6-27-07 Draft FY 2008-2012 5-Year Capital Plan - Non-Agenda Item:

 

Question:  Did CORC vote and ISSOC vote on the changes and if so what were the votes and discussion? 

 

Response:  The Construction Oversight & Review Committee (CORC) and the Independent Sales Surtax Oversight Committee (ISSOC) did not vote on the changes.  Both committees heard staff’s presentation, received comments from the public and discussed the proposed changes.  In general both committees agreed with the logic that was used to determine the priorities and balance the budget. 

 

No suggestions came out of the CORC meeting other than the suggestion that rather than members of the public advocating for one project over the other, if they have concerns about the proposed changes they should present additional objective criteria that can analyzed by staff to determine if any changes to the current draft plan should be made.  This will avoid the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” syndrome, and avoid being unfair to those schools that do not have parents that have the time or resources to make their arguments to the School Board.

 

In response to comments received from the public representing Manatee Elementary School, a few ISSOC Members asked that we look at options to keep the addition at Manatee Elementary on its current schedule as opposed to moving the project back one year.  Manatee Elementary, like a few other schools where enrollment has not been declining, is facing space problems primarily due to class size reduction.  A suggestion was made to look at switching the Manatee addition with the Transportation Compound (West Central).  Staff noted that this project was one of the justifications which lead to the judge’s decision to rule in the District’s favor on a recent eminent domain case, therefore postponing the project may cause some legal problems.

 

Question:  If they voted, was each item discussed or was a presentation done and the entire agenda of changes voted on and accepted?

 

Response:  They did not vote and they did not discuss each item.  A presentation was done.  A summary of the discussions is included above, however, if any Board Member would like to listen to the tapes of the meetings staff can make those available.

 

Question:  I would like a list enumerating each project that was NOT postponed, delayed, changed, or removed from the five year plan.

 

Response:  By this we assume that you are referring to changes in the opening dates or had scope reduced.   Just about all of the projects that have not started yet have been updated to reflect current thinking on the projected inflation rates.  Based on this definition the attached list reflects the projects that were not changed between last year’s 5-Year Capital Plan and the draft plan for FY 2008-2012.

 

Joseph M. Moore

Chief Operating Officer

561-434-8510