Heat. Heat. And good evening everyone. Welcome to the Dearborn Board of Education, School District of the City of Dearbornne. Today we do have board study session. It's Monday, May 5th, 2025, and it is 6:06 p.m. I call this
meeting to order. Roll call, please. Trust Ali here. Trusty Barry here. Trusty Droio here. Trusty Petoff here. Vice Chair Watts here. Trusty Zar here. Chair Mos here. Next is the pres uh sorry the pledge of
allegiance to the flag and president Mosep will lead the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you. Next item. Next item is citizen participation. Citizens wishing to address the board on agenda and non-aggenda ite non-aggenda items for action who are signed in by 6:10 p.m. by submitting a blue card to the board secretary may speak at this time. The
board may not be in a position, excuse me, to respond to non-aggenda items. Therefore, speakers should not anticipate an immediate response to their comments and questions. For the benefit of all concern, do not mention the names of students or school district employees. Please keep your comments as brief as possible. There is a threeminut
time limit on comments made to the board. Just one. We just have one card. Ian Thomasik. Did I say that right? Did I say that right? Yeah. Okay. Ian Thomasic here to speak to
preservation and reuse of historic school meetings. Thank you. Yes, you may. Uh, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak again. My name is Thomasic. I'm a lifelong
Dearborn resident, born and raised in Dearborn schools. Hey, Bryant. So, I know firsthand that our schools need upgrades for technology as well as very least. Um, however, one of the things
that I learned in Dearborn schools was to take pride in the school that you go to and I feel it would be big mistake to not look at adaptively reusing some of your older public schools rather than
tearing down and replacing them as these really happy to see you guys having a presentation here by Quinn Evans I'm actually a historic preservationist with the city of Detroit as well as currently running preservation board a nonprofit aimed at
promoting understanding of historic buildings in and around. Some of our oldest schools, particularly our 1920 schools, um you know, contain stonework that can never be reproduced. Some of them including Whitmore and the
old designed by architects. is that oh um so I you know I as as a preservationist but also as a Dearborn resident I appreciate the stewardship with which our historic residents you
know updated and and worked on our school so that they continue be continue being beautiful beacons of our neighborhood um as well as places where parents can send their kids and grandparents can send their grandkids and say wow I went to the same school.
Look at, you know, our enduring presence here in the city of Dearborn. I don't think there's anything better than a legacy of sending your kids and grandkids to the same place, living in the same neighborhood where you grew up, uh, and where you've lived your entire life. I know I certainly plan to send my
kids to Dearborn Public Schools, um, as soon as I have them. And uh I am would be very excited about them, you know, attending the same schools that me and my friends did as children, as well as um having these beautiful schools not
only be updated so that they continue serving our students in the best way possible, but also to preserve some of their beautiful qualities, their architectural qualities that um can never be regained once they are gone. So
again, uh, I commend the board's, uh, uh, interest in hearing Quinn Evans give a presentation about adaptively reusing Dearborn's older schools, whether that be as a continue to be used as a school or to have this building, you know, uh,
uh, to welcome all, you know, alternative uses to these buildings such as apartments, which, you know, Dearbornne has a shortage of housing, um, would be great. I also would like to point out, as I'm sure they will, um, that historic buildings, reusing
historic buildings is the most environmentally sustainable option of any kind of construction. It was actually one of their own, Carl Elephante, who said, "The greenest building is the one that's already built." Um, historic buildings have embodied carbon that we can never regain
once they are torn down and brought back. and I know it aligns with not only the mayor's goals but also the country's goals to become a more sustainable society. So again, I thank the board for their consideration and thank you for
addressing us. We truly appreciate your comments. Yes. Have a good night. Thank you. Uh Dr. Malo, we do have a presentation by our firm if you want to give an introduction. Yeah. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Wall and Mr. Mustin who are taking the lead for the district. and they will introduce my
guest as after they frame the conversation for tonight. You want me to do it? You can. All right. We're going to kind of follow what we presented to the board in January. Um, we had like five or six slides talking about where we're at in
the infrastructure back in January. Do you want me to go through all that or do you want me to I think it might be good just to kind of reset the schedule or the table. So after our bond issue in 2019, we had a post-election debrief. Uh we interviewed outside consultants and a
professional survey of the community was done based upon the 2019 results. In November, December of 21, citizens committee was finalized and cens began to meet with our our representatives and look at the future bond. In March of
2022, the citiz committee presented to the board that a bond issue was needed, but a lot of questions on what should be included in that bond. In April of 2022, the board discussion of city's needs and the district requests more community input. So, that's where the idea of a
long-term BL plan on the bond was kind of formed. uh the district uh looked at hiring outside companies to to present or and conduct a 30-year longitudinal study of facility needs that support instructional needs. Also, in May of
nine May 9th of 2022, the board discussed that um in fall of 22, Fielding International was hired to do the long the 30-year longitude study. In May of 15, 2023, they presented that master plan final recommendation to the board.
Um, at that point, uh, the board felt that there were still some things missing, especially the historical aspect of that. So, we went back out and looked at additional vendors to come in and look at the historical study and eventually take that information and go out to the board. In January of 25, the
s approval of our friends here that actually did the the long study and kind of updated our numbers to make sure everything was present because during that time we had about $90 million that we did for the ESSER funds and wraparound projects where we put some
air conditioning and HVAC improvements and also at that time we did $1.3 million bond issue on energy improvements in the district which is wrapping up this here. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over. Well, let me ask if there's any questions. All right. With that, I'll
turn it over to Quinn Evans to kind of summarize what the work that they've done over the last four months. Good evening. I'm just looking to see if our slides and our agenda are going to appear um up there.
Um there they go. So uh we'll have some quick introductions and then we want to uh talk about the infrastructure update valuation, talk about the goals and about where we are um in our process today. We're going to show an example of
the report from us having looked at um all of the buildings here in the district and we picked Duval as an example. So you can sort of see our process and what we've gone through on all of the buildings. We're going to give a discussion over what we consider
new, major, or moderate options, descriptions, and explaining that to you so you have a baseline and an understanding of what that would mean. um overall, not specifically to each school, but that's the piece of where we'll be looking at each school to
understand is it best to be a new have major renovations or moderate renovations. And then we'll talk through some of the top priorities that we've seen and heard from being in the buildings, from our conversations with some of you, conversations with principles,
um looking at where we're going forward. Before you move on, can you please introduce your team and yourself as well? Thank you. I I will How do I move this forth? All right. I'm Ann Delture uh
with Quinn Evans. And this is Denise Close with Quinn Evans as well. And we have Stephanie Corona and Amro Amra who are here from uh Gilbane with us. Uh Quinn Evans is uh a national firm. We have in Michigan, we have offices in Ann
Arbor and in Detroit. And we focus on a lot of areas that really are public building types. Uh schools and heritage projects are two of the main um areas that we focus on in our work. We also do
a lot of uh museum work and then some housing work as well. Um in Michigan Central Station, people have probably seen that in the news for the past year. very proud of that project, but we're also proud of the space within that project where we did the fit out for
Google Code Next Detroit, which is free computer science education space for kids. So, looking not only at the historic, but looking at what are the new educational type spaces that you can put within a building. Um, here in the community, we may be known more for our
heritage practice. uh projects that I've worked on such as the glass gallery at um Greenfield Village, which is very much a new and an old uh together project. And then uh Stan 44, which is a
new uh food venue that also has a culinary e education classroom uh component to it, which is across from the Detroit farmers market we did, which is uh very much a historic project,
rebuilding that market from Detroit. On our K12 practice, we also have offices in Baltimore, Washington DC, and Richmond, Virginia. And so we've done a whole bunch of work with new and a lot of existing building renovation
work um across the mid-Atlantic. Uh this is just one example here that I give you from Arlington, Virginia. Uh which was the first school integrated in Virginia and had a very historic, you know, importance that way, but is an addition.
And just to sort of show you the difference between what the media center looked like and in the end that went somewhere else and what is this flexible um projectbased classroom. This is a middle school that was created into that
space to give you a look of what can happen and how new and fresh a renovation can be. And we're here with our partners from Gil Bane. We'll let them introduce
themselves. See, thank you. Sorry, I'm technologically challenged today. Stephanie Crona. I'm uh with Gilbane Building Company. I'm with Amro Amro here. And uh we both specialize in K through 12. Um I've been actually in the industry for well over
I'm going to say over 25 years. I'm not going to give an exact date. Um but uh for for a while. Gilbane Building Company is the number one K through2 builder in the country. We are a national firm with an office located in Detroit. We are currently working in Michigan on several school district
projects. Um we're here to assist in um reviewing the drawings, the existing conditions of the drawings along with Quinn Evans, but also to provide um some cost modeling. So since we do do too so much K through2 work in the country, we
we have cost models that are are very accurate depending on what you're trying to do at the building. I think it was important for Amro and I to walk the buildings to have an understanding of what a a renovation looks like or a major renovation um and at what point
does it make sense to potentially look at a new building that's we have started looking at that with uh Quinn Evans and uh will be reflective in a future report. So, thank you. And I'd like to add in is some of those I think that
last project I showed, we have worked with Gilbane on the Mid-Atlantic and we are also working with them closely as their project managers for the Ann Arbor public schools work of which we're working there and we're working with them as well at Detroit public schools
on projects there. Um, we want to see this work clearly as adding to um we're not a brand new here. We know that there's the 30-year master plan that you've put the work and time into. Um we are
working closely in Ann Arbor public schools with Fielding International and so partnering on some schools. So we're very familiar with their model and the pedagogy and what that 21st century school is that they're bringing. And so we really bring that idea and that
mindset as we look at the existing buildings for what is possible or what might not be possible in these schools and then updating and using the uh demographic study in in our report and those updated
numbers. So Denise is going to talk a little bit more about the goals in the report that we've prepared. Yes. So, as we were um looking at all of the buildings, things that we really wanted to focus on and things that we researched um the historic context, so
how it fits on the site, the importance, why it was built in the first place, talking about influx of populations, we we learned some interesting things. Um and then the the various styles and building waves that happened within the city. So, we detailed that out. Um the
building conditions, we looked at the buildings. We had a team um go to every all of the 34 district buildings which includes transportation operations and the building we're in now including all the schools um to understand how they're
being used today by the staff and students and then Gil Bane team went out and and looked at them from the perspective of you know can the conditions mostly and um are they ripe for renovation or are they are they
maybe not um from a constructibility or structural standpoint. Um also how those buildings may or may not be easily adaptable to 21st century learning which is the fielding model and then you know the as Ann was saying kind of variations on on that theme and um what level you
might take that uh philosophy too within an existing building. Um also we studied the site plan. So in the report we have um existing site plans for all of the properties which also detail the year of the existing school was built the the
original say and then um a lot of them have multiple additions. And so we've outlined all of that so it's very clear to see how the building was maybe added on to over time and the site constraints that that exist today um for each of those schools.
Um, and then, you know, we're also looking at then costs and costs that it would take to bring the buildings up to just a standard level of care. Um, things that maybe are lacking today and then those those levels of renovation and what that cost might
entail. Um, so where we are now, you know, we have we have a draft report um of all the buildings. We detail, like I said, the historic context and those building conditions um and the adaptability for this new learning 21st century school learning
model. Um we're working through, you know, through this workshop and others with um understanding how those site constraints and opportunities exist within all of the properties to to really understand what's the best approach for each of the buildings. And so we're looking at that with all these
other layers of information so that we can help strategize what is the right fit for each of the schools. We're looking at projected enrollment numbers that you've seen in addition to all the other data that um was provided to us that you've already done the work for.
Um and then we're we're we're bringing in the cost factor so that you have a realistic budget and a realistic ask as we're working with um the group that's helping put together the bond package. Uh this is an example of from our
report. So this is Duval Elementary. Um so we start out with some data facts, you know, when the school was originally built. Um the site area, things like that. Um the enrollment and the projected enrollment. Um, and I would say it's that projected
enrollment number that's key as we look at the 21st century school um, idea where we have a good sense of say a student number per square foot that we that we use in calculating say a new
21st century elementary school. We we know that takes about 150 square ft a student to achieve that in a new school. So we can start to understand the schools that today may be undersized or oversized and and what's the appropriate
approach. Um each school or each building has a historical context section. So this is where again we we look at um maybe why the building was built in the first place. We know there was some of the early buildings here um were built
because of you know all of the the workers at the Ford plant coming in and so then Henry Ford was building schools for those families. And so that is part of this historic context um and also just the um architectural features themselves. So we just want to list that out equally across the board for the
buildings from the 20s, the 50s and as well as the 90s schools so that it's all it's all there to understand. This is an example of the site plan in Duval obviously has had multiple additions over time. So the original building in white there and
then you know added on in the front and the sides and filled in in the middle. Um and it really shows that this is you know obviously a landlocked property. um not a lot of room for expansion, not a lot of room for parking and playgrounds. Um but I think it's a clear, again, we
have this across the board for all of the buildings and I think it's a clear indication of kind of what's happening on each of the sites. Um and then within each of the buildings, there is um a breakdown of exterior features and interior features
that we looked at and and wrote about just our observations of what's happening. Um so things like is there a secure entry? Some of the schools yes many of them no. Um just the building conditions themselves. How is how is it
being used? Is there circulation issues? Um you know what are the playgrounds like? Do the schools need more playgrounds? Are there extras? Um parking things like that. And then on the interior, you know, we have a section talking about, you know, a lot
of those similar similar items has the how's they apply to the inside of the school, but also like support spaces and are the classrooms rightsized for the use um how they're being used today. Cafeteria and kitchen was another one. And then gymnas, gymnasiums and pools was another piece that we specifically
looked to. So that's an overview of uh the report structure that we've done for all of the buildings uh in some detail with photographs just to understand where they are and and benchmark them compared to uh things we would expect in a school
today. And so the next step as we go through this is putting price and and recommendations on each talking about is this best for a new building on the site, major renovation or expansion or just what we are calling a renovation.
That renovation might include some expansion. Some of these major renovation and expansions might include taking something off and putting something back on as we look at how it best fits uh the site and works on that. So I just wanted to introduce these
three topics with a little bit of information on them. So some examples that we've been working on. This is uh a lot elementary school in Ann Arbor. And what you see in the green is the
existing building that was built in the uh 60s on there. And this is a site where they're looking to put a new school on and then demolish the existing school. When we're looking at new, it's
always a question of where is their property. We really want at least seven acres. This site doesn't have that, but to be able to do that swap, keeping students on site and safely constructing a new school so that those students, we
don't have to find a staging location for students to go off and stage somewhere else. And Arbor's doing a combination of both of these, building some on and then moving the kids over and demolishing and staging students some places as they look at which
buildings are new. And then they're doing several major modification projects as well. So this goes back to the Fielding International model of a 21st century school. These are showing you um what
what they look at and what we talk about in terms of if you're doing a new school, what does that learning environment look like? And here what we're looking at is a pod or a flexible yearing unit. For example, on the right
side for the second grade, there's four classrooms that are combined around one commons area and mudroom area. and the classroom and a couple of small group rooms with that. So, there's connections
between the classrooms if they want to open and teach that way. There's connections between some of the classrooms and that open commons area. that open comments area is thought that if you're having a whole class presentation for all the fifth graders, this is a a bigger school with, you
know, four sections of each grade, but it starts to give you that that sense and that idea of how a new school might get laid out. This is an example when we start talking about major renovation. are the
ways that we take that major renovation and make it work within an existing school. And these are floor plans from uh Slawson Middle School that we're working on in Ann Arbor as well. And so at the top it's showing what the layout
is today. Very typical in these buildings. This wing is from the 50s. The original part of the school is from the 20s. But a double loaded corridor, classrooms on each side. um windows if they haven't been infilled. In this major renovation, it's
taking that idea of the classrooms and the commons for a grade level. And so we are getting um the red line shows where the corridor is now and the red line on the bottom is showing where the corridor was historically. So you can
see we're pushing classrooms out and we're taking away that double loaded corridor and um making classrooms deeper so that we have space for a commons and four new bathrooms and for the lockers. So this really shows how we can take an
existing building and make the inside of it very new to fit that model. Places this is appropriate, places the new school is appropriate. Here's some uh just some photos. This building project's going
into construction. So the on the left are the photos of the conditions today. And um on the right are the renderings of what we're going to look at. This is a middle school that actually has more square footage than you would need. And
so we are removing uh additions that were made in the 50s to the uh 1920s facade of this. So that's sort of the change that that you would see on the front of the school coming back to what it was. This is an example is a was Kramer
Junior High, Kramer Middle School in Washington DC. Some of this was more major renovations. Some of it's more modern. I like the photos on the bottom too as a before and after to show that how you can really change the character
and the feel of a school. um with uh looking at the ceilings and the finishes and the lighting to make a big difference, a big impact without building a new school. And then a third example here,
it starts to get into that discussion of major versus moderate renovation. This is an elementary school where there was an addition put on the top is the ex was the exist the original school on the bottom shows there was an addition not a
not a huge addition but an addition really to address entry entry and security is something we see and we do a lot of work to address that and the photo on the left is showing the case of um a more moderate we kept the double
loaded corridor model of this uh not as much cost, but we could open up a classroom. So, what you're seeing to the left is where we've opened up a what was a classroom to become one of those commons areas and meeting areas and bringing in the light. So, just another
example of how to start to think about these existing schools and what they can they can be. And that's one I noted we were we worked on with Gil Bane in Washington DC. Here are two floor plans. um that
are looking back at that same school and sort of identifying some of those nodes of space. So, it's keeping that double loaded corridor, but it's looking at where are you making subtle changes between those to open up to give the small group rooms to give a little more
of that collaboration space um and to give a really a refresh on that interior uh to make it feel like a a new school as well. And these are all three models that are appropriate in different levels to the school buildings that you have.
And that's the piece where we are sorting that out right now. We did talk to a lot of people and these are the key priorities that we heard coming um as we went through the schools that I'll let Denise. Yes. So in conversations with um
the administration team that we were working with Tom, David and Mark um in addition we met with a quite a few principles. Um they were given the opportunity to sign up and talk with us and we had multiple meetings um with
principles. We had a meeting with the operations staff. Um every time our team went out to the buildings, they met with the building engineers. So we got some feedback from them. Um we did meet with three people on on the board here tonight from the facilities committee
and then we've also met with um superintendent. So combination of those conversations the key priorities that came out there were a lot of themes that were similar um safety and security, restrooms, student support spaces, infrastructure meaning you know
lighting, air conditioning um heating and cooling and then um the site. So, places to play, enough parking, and safe circulation. Those were themes that kind of carried throughout all of our conversations. Um, so this is another
example just wanted to share um of adding on a secure vestibule. So, existing building at the top, the school was lacking any sort of, you know, that that locked vestibule um situation. And so this was an addition that was put on
um that really made the entry welcoming and safe. Um this is a view from the inside. So you have the the series of locked doors and glass viewing area. Um so that that's one way to handle it with an addition um for buildings. And
then we have an example. This is against Lawson Middle School where we're not putting an addition on the historic entry. Um, but we were able to reconfigure the inside on the left as the existing where you just walk in a series of doors and then you're just open into the corridor. And we've added,
you know, that back vestibial wall and locked that off and moved the administration just next to the vestibial now. Um, and so now you have we have created that secure vestibial with the locked areas, the pass through for, you know, IDs and whatnot. Um, and
so it's possible to do that in multiple ways to get that same result. Okay. Next, um, another one of the main things we heard about was restrooms and, you know, the the privacy component of that. And so, one thing that we're putting in all of our schools
now are um, floor to ceiling stalls. So, there is, you know, sound privacy. There's um single user restroom options for anyone that wants to use them. Staff is very appreciative to have that everywhere. Um students are appreciating
appreciating that and um it is required for the lower grades to have restrooms in their classrooms and we want to make sure that they're accessible and so that they're they you know they're large enough. Often the younger schools or the older schools do have restrooms um but they're not large enough and so you know
needing to create more space to make them um usable for all. This is another example of just some restrooms and you know maybe they're individual stalls um and then there's a shared sink area and and we're seeing that model um more
often. Another area that we heard a lot about was support spaces. So when a lot of the schools, unless your school is fairly new, even the '9s schools really um weren't considering all of these extra support spaces that we need today. So things like counseling and social
work, psychology, speech, all of those um private meetings that that want to be had. There's really no space dedicated for them or it wasn't considered when the building was constructed. We saw a lot of creative hacks. I mean your people are working hard to to make it
work and serve the students really well uh with what they have today. So yeah, these are some examples from your schools. Um but we know that there are ways that we can we can either design new or we can modify um existing spaces
to create the the privacy and the security that's needed for these conversations. And so this is an example where we've taken a classroom and and put four offices in a waiting room in there. Um and so there is a space where you can parents can wait before their their meeting is called. Um they can
shut the door and go in and have a have a private session. And so again, there are multiple ways to to resolve this in a new building or an existing. So, that's an overview of what we've heard and what we've been up to and what we're processing. Really, where we are
uh in the process is coming to you as our draft report is being put together so that we can hear and answer questions from you all and hear more in terms of priorities. And we figured the questions you have are questions someone looking
at our report will have. So we want to integrate that into our discussion and work then coordinating those recommendations again with the research project that's uh going forward with Byron Bisque and with your
leadership. I'll open the floor to any questions to the team first. Uh thank you so much for the report and the presentation. We truly appreciate it. Thank you for meeting with all of um representatives from staff and the administration and us board members. So questions, trusty pets. Yeah, you know,
I'm going to be first. Um, since I'm the one who asked for this, um, we know that last time we had difficulty in fully communicating our visions and our plans when we went out for a bond previously and people didn't
quite understand um, what we were planning on doing or it was misinterpreted. uh with all this information while we are comfortable with digesting it, it's very hard to get out to the community
and be able to have them understand what their options are. Usually, we find that the majority of people just want to get down to the nuts and bolts. What are you going to do and how much is it going to cost me? I want to make sure that we have the
most successful opportunity to um get the information out there in a way that people can understand it and understand what their choices are. I want to make sure that they understand the degree in depth. Um as
you talked about Ann Arbor, they passed a billion dollar bond in 2019. They are just now putting shovels in the ground apparently. uh for the most part to start their um school projects. Many of them their children will never see the
inside of that building. So I want to make sure that we understand the scope and can communicate it well. whatever the community um wants to um fund so that they know what the
difference will be between a major renovation versus a new building versus and what that's going to entail and how it's going to impact each neighborhood. Because every time you disrupt a neighborhood school building, you're disrupting the students where they go to
school for how long and when they're going to um revisit that neighborhood, what kind of disruption it will cost. All of those kinds of questions that people don't think about in the moment because all they want to know is what are you going to do and how much is it
going to cost me? So, how do you think that you could help present this story to people so that they would understand? And I know we've hired somebody to um do that actual conversation, but your information is going to have to be put
in a format that can be communicated um to the general population as well. And as we working through that, one way that we're doing that, for example, Denise showed the site plan that's of
the existing site plan that starts to communicate. There's a faster way to get starts to communicate the buildings, the buildings on the site, the dates that things happen to that. One way to communicate that is for us to be looking
at these site plans to to be giving a sense not in architectural detail but but what we see in terms of recommendations in terms of happening on the site. Is there a new building that fits on the site? Is there an
addition of about a certain size? Is there something that's coming off the the site? But to give a general idea for each project, we do know it's not until we get really into that building to to understand the
specifics of of what's needed in in terms of more analysis, but to understand in general what's happening and then to have the overall dollars so that we understand overall the scope can be covered at all the buildings for that
single dollar sum which is similar to you could speak It it is for for Ann Arbor they're m they had all the same almost every district has the same priorities there um almost every building did not have any air conditioning so they were
battling many of their historic buildings reaching 90° at times you know in the middle of the school year. Um, so the priority there for the first four years was to make sure some type of air conditioning got into every one of the buildings while they're planning and getting ready for their major
renovations and additions. So actually um 98% of the buildings right now h now have air conditioning which they never had before. So that was the first four years. That's what they decided to do in order for every student to feel the
impact of it immediately um and and get the advantage and not have to wait. Then there's a phase two which is now addressing the um programming needs and the major renovations that need to occur. So um it was a two-phase process
there. That may be the case here in some of some cases. Um I think that's why we're going through this. We have to see where where you've been, where you're currently at, and then from there some educated decisions can be made of how to move forward. And what we're going to
look to provide is what are your options and and so you're going to have options. It's not going to be a one-sizefits-all. Um, every school is built at a different time. Every school has different needs. And what we see on the outside, we once we get on the
inside and we really start looking at it. Um, and that's what that's what Amar and I did is we got into the belly of the school to see is it even feasible? Is this it doesn't make sense. Um, there were
some additions put on during the years of the 60s and 70s that aren't the same quality and craftsmanship that happened in the 20s and 30s and even 40s. And I think we all know that and our newer
buildings are fortunate to have air conditioning and a lot of amenities that the older buildings don't have. And that's where this team is coming in to see how do we how do we bring them all to the same level?
And you feel confident that you can put together a message that would would be simplified enough that it it can be communicated across the district for everybody who's at a different level of
want of information that they want to digest. So, so our plan is yeah to have the options for the district and for Byron and Fisk and for the workshopping, but the options would not go out to the public. um they would be have been
decided and so that so there would be a plan at that point and so that they be presented right for discussion to so you know we are looking forward to working with Byron Memphis too to share our information so that they have that as they're kind of so that they can test
those options and talk to the community about those options they're not decided before they go forward but we're creating options for discussion so the community can have that input on the options they feel fit their community the best. And
then it's coming back with the communications package and what we've prepared really is for those people who want to dig in and understand on top of the the basic the base look. Yeah. Because one of our priorities was we
didn't want them to come forward with a recommendation. Right. That wasn't the goal. The goal was to make sure they had all the data what could happen, the cost entailed, right? That way they've been already been working with Byron and Fisk to be able to gather information so they can now test and go out and do surveys,
focus groups to see how people feel about where our buildings at and where they want to go. So what's the same for one building might not be for another based on that community responses. So the goal was not to come up with a recommendation because we don't want the public to feel that we've already made a decision directed them. This is just all
right. If they look at Deval, well, obviously, well, we want another if they want a new building. Deval is not the site to do it with the kids there. So, that's not an option that they could do. If they just want an addition, you know, like a bigger auditorium or gym, that's something we would have looked at to see
if it fit. So, they've kind of answered some of those questions and now it's for Bman and Fist to take that data, go out to the public and say, "All right, are you looking at just several different layers?" and Dave can go into the more layers at a broad level. Do you like new or renovations? That'd be a broad
question at this point to start the community input and then kind of fine detail more as options come through and they'll say that for example if renovations is you know 80% they do renovations only 20 new then they can start defining some of those things for recommendation to come back to the
board. Yeah. The last thing we want to do is predesign this whole process and go out to the board. We're not at that level yet because we want to make sure what we're going to offer, you know, for to the community is something the community wants. And that then entails that if they want this project, then how
much is that going to cost? And so then we can start talking about once you say, "This is the feedback we're getting back to this kind of a project," then we can say, "Well, on this project, we worked with our financial consultants and say this is going to be this much of a cost to an average homeowner." So, we're not there yet. we're still at the broad
level and we got to take this data and then start digging down to see where the committee wants to go with it. Okay. So, and Barist are experts at that. You know, none of us here at the table are and they're the ones that'll be working with, you know, them Quinn Evans and administration and and kind of start
developing where that's going to go without a quick process. No, I know. Trusty Z. Um, can you go back to the slide that had the key priorities or can you try to find that slide? So, thank you for everything that you guys are doing. Um, I know when I sat down, one
of the key priorities that I talked about, which I don't seem like it's up here, I spent most of the my meeting talking about it was um what makes Dearborn Schools special, I think, and unique from a lot of other cities is our neighborhood schools and maintaining our
neighborhood schools. Um, you know, that means not finding a big empty field somewhere in Dearborn and saying, "Hey, let's go put our school over there." Um, keeping our schools in our neighborhoods. I know it's a challenge. I know that the space might be scarce, but to me, that's what
makes our community sort of special is these schools in the neighborhoods where maybe in an elementary school, half, you know, a lot of the students are walking with their parents to school on a nice day or whatever it might be. Um, it's what keeps people interested in living in our city. It's what keeps some of the
real estate prices um, respectable and high. So, I would like to see that added as you guys are looking uh, at all the different ideas here is how do we maintain that neighborhood feel uh, of our schools. Um, another thing that's come up since then is
uh, and this might be, you know, lower on the list of things you look at but still is um, pickups and drop offs. you know, we have a lot of parents and houses residents complaining about, you know, it's just a disaster when there's pickups and drops off sometimes. So,
maybe weaving a plan for that into um the new uh the new ideas that you're putting forward. But most importantly, this idea of neighborhood schools, I didn't see that up there. And and to me, that should be like near the top. And I I think um our list is is the priorities
of things that need fixing. So yes, I I I agree that it is a priority and the ones on the list here are more so this is more the things that need okay fine but yes the goal is to keep in the field somewhere it's important on what what
are the important things we often work on a with people to talk about toss keep and create right and this is the this is the what we need to create within our schools and what we need to keep agreed that that that list of what is the
importance to get that reflected and I think the challenge challenges for new schools is um property I mean that's going to be the number one challenge that we saw at a lot of pro pieces of
property that you have you have a a lot that are landlocked um realistically there isn't a lot of property sitting around Dearbornne so um and we've acknow we're looking at that when look at the options that are available. So, there'll be some options
that we're going to say it's not an option. There isn't an option um to put a new school on an existing spa uh spot because there's no place to put it. Um and so when we talk about the options,
it's the feasible options. you could always have an option to try to find property and move the the school out of the neighborhood, but we also heard very plain and clear from every school we went to that that was part of the the culture of that school is that it was a
neighborhood school. And also in light of Oh, sorry. Can I ask question? Go ahead. in light of what our friend Ian um expressed in the beginning, you know, I I think it would be useful for us and maybe this is what you're planning to do anyway to say um look in a in a historic
school, let's say like I don't want to name a school, but just a historic school that might have a lot of issues. Um to say, look, this is what it would cost to like keep the historic uh uh uh feel of the school and do everything we need to do. This is what would cost to
put it in the football field. this is what it would cost to move it out of the neighbor whatever. I mean just so that we see all these different things because you know who knows maybe we might think hey okay it might cost a little bit more but to keep the historic feel of the school you know it all depends on what those numbers are. So, I
think it's important for us to see those different uh options as well. Um because I can see it being a lot easier to sell um a bond to the community that says, "Look, we could have moved all these schools out of the neighborhoods and
spent less money, but we need to spend a little bit more money to keep them keep the feel and keep the neighborhood." You know what I mean? So, I mean, it's important for us to see those different options as well. Thanks, I I'll start off with a question to the board and and the staff. So, we said we
did and and I apologize because I'm new. So, I'm trying to get what Field and did for us in 2022. They did an assessment for us and we did not go with them because they did not include historical. I'm just trying to from my knowledge if
there's two aspects. one, the historical wasn't defined enough for the board to to to look at the historical versus new. And the second item is that we did $90 million in construction. And even when we out in 2019, people were questioning the detail and what was the plan going
forward because that $240 million we did in 2019 was just renovating and not looking forward beyond that. And so they wanted to have a longer term plan to say what would it would really cost long term for us to bring the buildings up to the level that we expected. So it was
also a shorter term bond in 2019. Yes. Okay. So it was 24 uh 244 million. Was it 240? Right. What and I don't mean to put you on the spot. What do we anticipate the the new bond to be?
All depends on Well, all depends on the options. And against like neighborhood schools, are we going to build second levels on some elementaryaries for the upper grades so we keep the same footprint? Those are the things we haven't really decided yet because obviously renovation and new costs are different aspect that they put dollar
values to. And so they're they're looking at a very creative way to be able to take different options and their cost model and they come to see what the total price is. Okay.