Good evening. I call to order this December 1st, 2025, Loudoun School Board FY 20 27 20 32. Capital budget work session. At this time, I'll start with disclosure. Um, as a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I'm eligible to receive health insurance
and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees while in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the Rofer School Board for five years. Ms. Chandler? Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits,
and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. The these benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I'm included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. Mrs. Griffis.
Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board to make the following disclosure to the school board and the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits in any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees willing to excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected.
If, which I am included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public's interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths. Mr. Raffe. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits, and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee.
These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees will in excess of the statutory three employees, whose interests may also be affected, of which I'm included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the school board, of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Mr. Stree. Ms. LaBelle. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Lain County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits, and any other discussion that may include
or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. In addition, as a former LCPS employee, I as well as my spouse receive Medicare Advantage Insurance benefits through LCPS. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which my spouse and I are included. I can and will participate fairly objectively
and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. Um, LaBelle. Ms. Shernoff? Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits, and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in the excess
of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records and the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. Shernoff. All right. We'll move on to item three, staff briefing, uh, 3.01. Superintendents recommended FFY 2027 FY 2032, capital badge budget, presented by Kevin Lewis, our Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Lewis. Thank you, chair Mansfield. So tonight I have a very short presentation, not a lot
of information, and looking forward to conversations with the board. I will start with a quick, um, housekeeping thing as soon as I get this up turned on for information that you have in your folders. Um, so we have the, uh, the presentation, copy of the presentation, a copy of the q and a from the November 10th, uh, document. And then there's a white paper on artificial turf. And then we have the funding sheets, and there are two of the 11 by 17 funding sheets. One is yellow and one is pink.
And I will explain those in a little bit more detail, um, in a few minutes. So I don't have a lot of, uh, information. I won't, I won't go through all the q and a in particular, but I think we've, we've provided hopefully enough information for each of the board members on those. We do still have one question that's in progress. Um, and so if board members have any particular questions about any of those, we'll be happy to address those. As always, I have my trustee staff with all the content, uh, uh, technology with me tonight, so if something comes up that I can handle, they're here to help us with that. Um, as far as the capital budget update,
what's on the screen right now, which is too small to read, but it is what you have in your document or in your folder as the yellow 11 by 17 document. It was provided at the November 11th update, sorry, November 10th update. Um, and it shared things that changed. You see the blue arrows and the blue squares, those are things that had changed since the original superintendent's recommended. CIP. What is also with you tonight is we're very pleased to, to let you know that, um,
in conversations over the holidays with county staff and they were continuing to work as they do every year on their, um, funding capabilities have allowed, uh, alerted us that they have more capacity in years 20 30, 20 31 and 2032, a significant amount. And so you'll see that reflected in the, on the pink sheet. Um, you'll see there in years 20 30, 20 31 and 2032, the top three um, rows are highlighted in blue, and those are lines line items that have been changed.
You know, as an example, in 2030, uh, you see now there's $10 million in line one, and it was two before. And so we've taken the information they've given us and spread it out over those areas. And because of the short notice, and literally some of this was happening as late this, this afternoon, uh, we've put that all in the school renovation and replacement program. 'cause we can essentially have all that in that modernization category and use that for the other projects that you see listed there. However, it turns out we'll have a little bit of time over the, um, for next year, CIP since this is in year, um, three, four, and five,
or four, five and six. There's, there's time to adjust those for the, uh, particular projects. I also call attention to line 48, where we've put in, um, an updated Loudoun County funding projection as of December 1st, 2025. And that's just allowed us to make our math work at the bottom to show that we've reconciled every year. Now, if you remember on the November 10 update, we had 2030 was still out of balance with the county's projections by, um, I think it was $40 million. Yes. And so now we've been able
to reconcile all those years. So much good news, um, it's always good to have more funding. And so we've put, provided that for you tonight for your consideration. And, um, that's really all I wanted to share about those documents at this point. Um, you'll see now that in, um, the next time we meet about the capital budget, it was December 16th, the day we plan for adoption of the, of the budget. And at this point in time, I am happy to take any questions, comments, suggestions you may have, Board members, do you have any questions, comments, concerns? Okay, go ahead Mr. Shernoff. Thank
You, Madam Chair. Um, and thank you Mr. Lewis for your work on this. I appreciate it. Um, I also just wanted to thank you for answering the question. So specifically with the chart about the, uh, signage and the marquees for schools. And that was something that the Leesburg schools had specifically felt like they were left behind on in particular. But seeing that 61 schools, which is more than half don't have that I think is really helpful. And I see that, you know, in the next five years, there's sort of begins a slow rollout plan. Um, so I'm, I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for the context. Uh, I think people understand that
that might not be the highest need right now after, after talking to them, but I do appreciate you doing the research and, and consolidating that information for us. Um, and, you know, we'll, we'll stay tuned on that. Anyone else? Anyone have the questions? Well, I would like to say how much I appreciate you guys doing the white paper on the PFAS, um, and artificial turf. Um, because I do think it's a conversation that we need to continue to have whether or not the board decides to continue to fund, uh, the, uh, artificial turf for the secondary, for the,
you know, I my understanding is that every school site has a, an artificial turf field. It's just this would be for, uh, a second one for everything, for everyone. That's correct. Um, and so, and I appreciate the, um, I guess Woodgrove High School, we have not, it has not been tested yet, and we don't know when that is gonna happen. That's correct. We have given the town of person we permission to do so, and they have not yet taken the test. My understanding is that perhaps we're going to be talking to an expert in another day or so.
So yes, we have a, a scheduled call with one of the folks that provided that chair. Mansfield. You provided some information from a couple of reports. And so we've reached out to two of them to have conversations. One of 'em has responded, and we're talking to them tomorrow. Yes, Dr. Deans Concerning artificial turfs, it seems that we are in compliance with a standard that's from California. Do we have any, any standards from a state closer than California that we might compare ourselves to? So if I understand it, this might be one of those places
where I get help from my trustee team. But so the, the California has, has made, um, some provisions on some standards for that. Um, and essentially what that is, is the cons, the chemicals that we're concerned about these PFAS chemicals, the forever chemicals are, um, now being able to be tested for, well, I'm, I'm sorry, the new manu, the manufacturers are now making turf fuels that are, um, do not have detectable levels of that. I don't think we're, I don't think we're to the point of being able to say they're free of those things. And so what they have done is established that
as a standard in California, and all we were doing is saying that we're, we're complying with that so that the field turf, the turf fields that we are purchasing now from manufacturers are in that category where they are saying that they are non-detectable at levels of, of the PFAS chemicals. So we're just making alignments with that. That's the only standard that I'm familiar with. And just to be fair, um, I am wondering, you know, we have a very large school district and we have a lot of needs for sports. Um, does anybody want to talk about the, the hours
that we are on a field and how that affects the use? I'm happy to share. The information that was in the white paper that we did is essentially that anything where the, the study that was done, and I'm not sure who who did that, but the, the wear and tear on a natural grass field, um, can typ typically take about 1100 hours of use. And it's estimated Mr. Ferry's here with us from the athletics department, that our fields will, will be susceptible to over 2,500 hours of use. And essentially what that does is, is it makes, and that's one of the reasons we ended up having turf fields
years ago, I was here for that implementation, is our fields were in disrepair. And we, we were, we were wearing them out in the fall sports and we're not able to get them, uh, back into usable shape until late in the spring, early in the summer. And by the end, the seasons were almost over. So we did not have, um, good fields to play on for the spring sports that, uh, offered opportunities for twisted ankles and knees and all kinds of things. So we had some injury concerns about the condition of those fields. And so, um, at this point, we believe that the usage
that LCPS needs on our, on our fields exceed that which the natural grass is capable of handling. And that's the reason for the, for the expert to talk about it. Right. Okay. Yes, Dr. Deans And I did want to share an observation. Um, we have a kid on our traveling soccer team that has an, a severe allergic reaction every time they play on real grass because of the chemicals that are ha
that have to be applied to keep the grass green and smooth. So I just, that was something that I have observed over the past 18 months. I think there are different kinds of, um, fertilizers and there's different kinds of thoughts and technology out there for turf that I think can be explored. And I don't, I I think that we have to keep the conversation going because if we don't keep the conversation going, innovation doesn't happen. And so the only reason innovation is happening now is because people had that conversation before. So I think you still have to have the conversation.
You still have to, and maybe, you know, do the research and, and everything else and talk to the experts and continue it to have that. Yes, Ms. Shernoff. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I do appreciate the conversation. I mean, it really hadn't even crossed my radar. I'm not really in tune with, I guess PFAS and all the things going on with it. But I, um, I was more intrigued by the stats about what we would lose, because sometimes it's not so much about how much time you're spending on the field, but I thought what was really interesting about the white papers is eliminating turf would require 60% reduction in
field usage and no winter play, which to me, puts us at a complete disadvantage competitively in terms of our neighboring districts or I, I mean, and I just don't think that that would ever fly in Loudoun County. Um, and I, I'm wondering too if it, if the innovation needs to come in terms of, you know, assessing drainage options and looking at other ways to, you know, help eliminate the different toxins that are in this that, you know, can be minimized or hopefully eliminated. But I'll be anxious to see what the experts say.
I'm supportive of moving forward with turf fields. I think that that's what we have to do with the information that's in front of us in terms of what we require with athletics. Um, and I don't necessarily think that's even unique to Loudoun County. I think that, you know, high school athletics is a big part of the high school experience. And, and for now that information is enough to keep my support for turf fields going forward. I guess the, when you know better, you do better. If you know that you're contaminating well water, I think that you have a, a, um, responsibility to do something about it.
So, well, but drainage not only that, it's also what are you gonna do after it? I mean, we're already, it's the contaminated is already there, so, yes. Um, Ms. LaBelle, Thank you, Madam Chair. I was wondering, when we're talking about artificial turf, are we also referring to the materials that are used to lay the track around the turf? Are they contamination also or are they not of a concern? Just the turf part. I'm not aware of any concerns about the track materials. I mean, the base of that is made of asphalt, and then there's a, um, a, a topping that's applied to that,
and I've not heard that there's any concerns about those, those materials. Is that the same type of material we're using in our new playgrounds, our adaptive playgrounds? No, ma'am. That's a different, different type of surface. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm, I'm shifting gears just a bit here, um, for modulars. Um, where do you think, and this might be in an email, uh, modular classrooms might go because we're going through rezoning redistricting,
and the modulars are to, uh, for overcrowded schools where students can, uh, still be in a classroom at their zoned school. So if you know off the top of your head, um, where, uh, we're spending this 2.2 million, uh, in 2027, uh, where they might be going, is this per a projection of, uh, overcrowded schools in enrollment? Um, and I did have, uh, another question after that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Griffith. I'll point the rest of the board members to line 16, uh,
for the modular classrooms, if you look the section of the, of this paper right in the center where you see the orange header for a capital budget year one, and you'll see in that left column that FY 27 adopted calendar, uh, CIP with the date of December 10th, 2024, which was last year. And so what that was is LA in last year's FY 26 adopted, CIP, we had the 2.2 in for FY 27, and now that we're doing FY 27, if you look to the columns to the left or to the right of that,
you'll see that we've removed that. So at this point, there's no money in the capital budget for modulars. Thank you for that. I was in the wrong column. I appreciate that. Um, and also for elementary school additions, I guess you don't have money, um, for 2027 there, um, because again, we, we have the redistricting, so I was just curious, I know you're doing Eagle Ridge Middle School, um, and I see you don't have money for Roby and they're in Dominion, so is that why there's no costs for them?
I'm just, I'm just curious. I mean, I, this is stuff I could probably just email you. No problem. So, um, the first question on the, the elementary school additions, you're correct. We don't have any money in that until we have design money in FY 29 and then construction money and FY 30. And that's to be determined. And we, we are still working through that, as you pointed out, through the, uh, boundary process. And so, um, those schools may end up having an addition based on, um, the assessment through the facility condition assessment next year. And so, we'll, we'll continue to follow that up.
If you recall, I think maybe at one of the work sessions I mentioned that as we get the year before, we'll start doing a deeper dive on where the, where additions may be needed. Um, and as for robi, there is money, there's $5 million in FY 28. Um, and that is in, in anticipation of finding a new location for Robi. Um, and so we're still looking for that location, but have not secured that at this point. So we would move them out of dominion basically at some point. Um, At some point, that's the goal. Okay. Right. To free up that space for FY 28 or school year 28 when we have the secondary
boundaries take effect. Um, and so we are working closely with the County of Loudoun staff to try to find a different location for them, but as I mentioned at this point, we haven't identified it. Thank you. And I, I could just email you just little questions here and there. Thank you so much. Okay. Anybody else? No. Okay. Are you sure? Sure. Okay. All right. Um, then I guess we are done with our, I mean, our staff briefing and our work session kind of altogether. Um, then we'll move on to adjournment,
seeing there's no more business Loudon. Uh, the December 1st, 2025 Loudoun County School Board FY 20 27, 20 32, capital budget work session is now adjourned and please drive safely home.