DRAFT

(Contact the town clerk's office at 919-469-4011 for official minutes)

Joint Meeting Between the Wake County Board Of Education

And Apex, Cary , Fuquay-Varina, And Holly Springs Town Councils

Webster Center , Crossroads II – Room 1320

September 24, 2007 ( 5:30 p.m. )

Board of Education Members Present:  Chair Rosa Gill, Vice Chair Beverley Clark, Board Members Eleanor Goettee, Patti Head, Ron Margiotta, Lori Millberg, Carol Parker, Susan Parry, Horace Tart

Apex Members Present:  Mayor Keith Weatherly, Council Members Bryan Gossage, Mike Jones, Town Manager Bruce Radford, Planning Director Dianne Khin

Cary Members Present:  Mayor Ernie McAlister, Mayor Pro Tem Jack Smith, Council Members Ervin Portman, Jennifer Robinson, Nels Roseland, Town Manager Bill Coleman, Planning Director Jeff Ulma, Public Information Officer Susan Moran, Budget Director Scott Fogleman

Fuquay-Varina Members Present:  Mayor John Byrne, Commissioners William Harris, Commissioner Jeff Wells, Town Manager Andy Hedrick

Holly Springs Members Present:  Mayor Dick Sears, Mayor Pro Tem Hank Dickson

Council Members Vinnie DeBenedetto, Parrish Womble

The joint meeting of the Wake County Board of Education and the Town Councils for Apex, Cary , Fuquay-Varina, and Holly Springs was called to order at 5:43 p.m. by Board of Education Chair Rosa Gill.  Mrs. Gill welcomed everyone and asked Superintendent Del Burns to introduce Wake County Public School System staff.  Chair Gill then asked the town mayors to introduce themselves and their town council members and staff.  Mrs. Gill thanked the staff for the room set-up and briefly discussed the agenda for the evening. (The PowerPoint presentation is attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit A.)

Chuck Dulaney, Assistant Superintendent for Growth and Planning, reviewed information related to the assumptions and criteria used to determine school sites and assign students.  Town planners from each town have been consulted on where crowding will occur rapidly in their areas in order to plan long-range.  His presentation reviewed the following areas:

• WCPSS enrollment from 1985-2025,
• Rate of growth (in 20 years our student population has doubled and will double again),
• Yearly enrollment increases,
• Confidence intervals for total enrollment projections, 2006-2015,
• Mobile/modular classrooms (currently about 20% of capacity is in mobile/modular classrooms),
• Nodes-sets of street addresses in small geographic areas (WCPSS has 1,200 nodes),
• Municipal planning, and
• Projected number of schools by elementary, middle, and high (based on all elementary and middle schools being year-round).

Clarifying questions were asked regarding various subjects related to this presentation such as, the real financial impact of mobile/modular classrooms, growth projections by grade level, and individual concerns regarding overcrowding and construction of new schools in the different districts/municipalities.

Don Haydon, Chief Facilities and Operations Officer, reviewed power-point presentations regarding status reports on construction and renovation projects in the school building program, and the Citizens’ Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC).  The following areas were reviewed:

• Capital Improvement Plan 2006 Building Program (CIP),

Ø $1.056 billion program

Ø $970 million in bonds approved by voters in November 2006

Ø Program will provide 17 new schools, 13 major renovation projects, land for new schools & 

    13 future schools, life-cycle repair projects, and technology

• Status of new school projects (17 total, 7 in this area),
• Status of renovation projects (13 total, 1 in this area),
• Status of land acquisition (30 total, 11 in this area).

Mr. Haydon discussed the CFAC and their school facilities report, which was released this month and included 46 recommendations.  The committee was:

• Created jointly by the Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners in the Spring of 2006.
• Charged with evaluating the Wake County capital improvement program and evaluating school design criteria, construction management, and delivery methods.
• A follow-up to the Blue Ribbon Committee recommendation.
• To initially review WCPSS’ facility program, however, the work of the committee is long-term and also includes reviewing Wake County capital projects.
• Composed of 13 business and community leaders from varied backgrounds. 

Mr. Haydon reviewed the following recommendations that were community related: 

• To continue multi-story prototypes,
• Continue use of Multi-Purpose Rooms,
• Continue use of fully equipped Media Centers,
• Method of calculating school capacities is realistic,
• Continue evaluation of public-private partnerships,
• To further study shared use of facilities, including stadiums,
• Review planning process for site selection,
• Increase land banking,
• Plan urban designs,
• Investigate use of bus transit centers,
• Review land acquisition process; form committee with CFAC members, County Commissioners , & Board of Education members,
• Maximize number of seats at existing and new sites,
• Reduce number of parking spaces,
• Sustainable designs and energy efficiency,
• Municipalities should adopt standard development ordinances for construction & renovation of schools(WCPSS would partner with),
• Reduce or modify requirements for on-site queuing; involve municipality and NCDOT early in the process,
• Review and reconsider athletic activities (specifically, eliminating weightlifting, tennis, & wrestling),
• Use cafetoriums in middle schools,
• Look at increasing core areas to reduce over utilization and time constraints; continue to use mobile/modular units (WCPSS has 1200 mobile/modular classrooms, 19–20 percent of classrooms),
• Support initial public/private partnership contractual document on trial basis,
• Try to increase bidders by staggering bid days to allow general contractors and subcontractors to bid more projects; include surrounding counties, state government, and area universities, and
• Develop an efficient streamline common review and permitting process; Wake County Government should be the single inspection authority for building itself; municipalities would handle zoning and site issues.

Clarifying questions were asked regarding the acreage criteria for schools.  The following information was shared.

• Elementary schools are built on 19-20 acres of land,
• Middle schools are built on 30 acres of land,
• High schools are built on 65-70 acres of land, and
• Some economy can be realized on campuses where more than one school can be sited ( Holly Springs , for example, has 3 schools on 90 acres).

Mrs. Patti Head commended the Wake County and WCPSS staffs for their openness and transparency when it came to the sharing of information.  Both staffs were very forthcoming with the required information in order to obtain good, concrete recommendations from this committee on how to look at, and improve, the process.

Members at each table discussed issues and reported back to the entire group.  Issues discussed were:

• Stability and sense of community in our schools, as related to feeder patterns,
• Nodes system,
• Grouping students by ability,
• Private-Public Partnerships,
• Using bond money would only yield the 17 schools already planned for, but no additional schools,
• The need to obtain funds from other sources to realize more new schools,
• How to increase enrollment at year round schools,
• Importance of land banking,
• Cooperation of County and Municipal staffs,
• Communication between and along all the various entities,
• Getting processes approved,
• Initiating partnerships,
• Follow-up on plans to be carried out in a timely manner when considerable concessions have been made by one party,
• Benefits and misconceptions of Private-Public Partnerships,
• Importance of educating the public about what Private-Public Partnerships involve, and
• Community impact of CFAC recommendations.

Mayor John Byrne thanked Chair Gill for the meeting.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:06 p.m.