Facilities and Construction Committee - Regular Meeting

All right. All right. Good afternoon, almost evening, everyone. I'll call this meeting to order. I'm your host. Our vice chair is not here, Dr. Bendos-Bindigal. Our members are Borno Santos, Geller, alternate members Gallin Alonso, ex-officio Rojas Colucci, and non-voting Blanco. I entertain a motion to approve the minutes of September 3rd.

Moved. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you so much. Can I have a motion to bring the F items to the floor, please? Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Mr. Perez.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, board members. F26 is authorization for a one-year extension of the job order contracting JOC system consultant service agreement with the Gordian Group under the same terms and condition and fees as original agreement as amended.

Colleagues, any questions, comments, concerns? No. Excellent.

F27, please. F27 is authorization to amend the special project consultant's mechanical and electrical engineering agreement with Procon Engineering by adding Rodriguez, Peterson, and Porras Architects, Inc. as an architect some consulted for the remaining term of their agreement.

Any comments? Seeing none, F80, please.

F80 is authorization to approve the prequalification of contractors for educational facilities construction.

Any comments on those? Excellent. Thank you so much. Can I have a motion on the F items, please? Second. All in favor?

Okay.

Excellent. Thank you. On to new business. We'll start off with anything from the board. Yes, board chair.

Do you have some follow-ups, though, first?

Yeah, you want me to do those first? Yes, please. Okay, that's fine. First off, monthly update on board-authorized assessment October 2025. Okay.

The, Mr. Chair, in lieu of the update, the presentation was provided in the fiscal committee for the downtown assemblage.

Right. Moving on, staff follow-up on H11, explore partnership with South Florida Autism Charter School.

Mr. Chair, memo was provided September 26 on follow-up H11, item H11. If there are any questions, me and other staff member are here to assist in answering them.

Member Alonzo, please. Thank you so much. And thank you to staff. I really appreciate the effort that was put into this. This is an exciting partnership that we can explore. We know that the state was extremely supportive of expanding services for autism students that are on the spectrum and This school has really been a partner of our district and I think this really complements on how we can repurpose some of our spaces working together with partnerships where we can have a training center as well as a charter school providing specialized services to students with autism. And it also creates some revenue generation for us because now we'll actually have somebody occupying the space that can bring in capital dollars that I see our maintenance department nodding their head as excitement that somebody else is gonna be paying for the maintenance bill there, but it's exciting to see these partnerships coming together, and I just wanted to thank staff for it. Do we have a timeline on what the next steps are after this review through the chair? Yes, folks. Yeah, Mr.

Chair, through the chair, Board Member Alonso, we are currently starting the conversations and the negotiations We're also going to see what the facility's needs are that they're going to be requiring and establish estimates from that on proceeding. And if they want to use, are they going to use their architect, their contractors, or are we going to, you know, we can handle it on the capital side. So those conversations are ongoing.

Just a follow-up. Of course. If it's our buildings, I think we should somewhat kind of manage that. that especially if we're gonna be housing some of our district employees in there too for training. So I'm sure you guys will figure it out. They're a good group, so I'm sure everybody can work it out. But thank you so much and thank you for taking the time to review it and working together with them. I think this is a great win for our community.

Thank you, Board Member Alonso. Any follow-up on the follow-up of H11? No. Okay. We have facilities and maintenance comprehensive update.

Wait, are you doing the follow-up now? to the new business.

Okay, that's fine. We can do that.

Thank you, sir. And the reason why I wanted to do it now, because it's actually, it goes right in sync with what was just addressed with Board Member Alonso's item, which I thought was great. But I do have a concern. On July 7th of 2025, I submitted a follow-up which was dated, I received a follow-up which is dated June 16th, 2025, to agenda item H-9, which was unanimously co-sponsored by my colleagues on the board. It had to deal with the issue of autism as well. And... I have not received a response still to this date and it's imperative that I do get that. It was a request to a follow up to the initial follow up. A follow up because it did not address the initial follow up which I received did not address what was on the item in that recommend. And so therefore, I am going to follow up with this. I really hope that I receive that. Follow up to the follow up. I've been waiting patiently, but I'll meet later on with whomever to address that issue. No, I have not received that. So anyways, that was the one area that I wanted to address because sometimes You know, if the follow-up that we receive, and they're usually very extensive, very comprehensive, and very well done, but if you receive one that is not addressing the issue in the recommend, then I'm going to respond back and resend to administration my request for a follow-up to the follow-up, which addresses what was on that recommend, which is what counts. And so basically that's all that I have. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Between you and me, I think we've exhausted the quota of the word follow-up. Yeah, I think so. We can't use that word anymore in this meeting.

It's like a salad, right? There is one more area. Go ahead, Madam Chair. Also, Mr. Superintendent, sir, if you could please address the issue.

Southside was the first school.

At the time, I was the board member who represented the new... development that was going to take place in downtown Miami before redistricting, where I then gave up that area, but I was involved with that every step of the way, together with the president of the school's PTA, PTSA, and we're looking forward to getting information as to the event that is going to be planned and the invitation to the board members and for everyone to be apprised of where we are on this. Could you please elaborate on that, sir?

Please, of course.

Thank you.

Thank you, yes, Mr. Chair. Ms. Rojas, I met with the team two days ago, three days ago. I lose track of the days. So between communications, communications is going to be leading the gathering of inviting the board members. to the actual school, and also we're gonna get the county to open up the units, because we have to have that as well. And then, of course, we're gonna invite the PTA, and we'll do something with the principal. I do not, Jackie, do we have a date for that yet? But we are working on it. We had a team meeting, and so all we have to do is coordinate a date, and we'll invite all board members.

Thank you very much through the chair because this is the first one we've ever done. It took us some time, but we got there. It was only 10 units, but it would be great for my colleagues to be able to witness, you know, the first one in the nation, in the nation, just not here is my understanding. If I'm wrong, then please someone correct me, but it is my understanding that it's the first one in the nation to ever go up. again, with housing for teachers that we had never done before in the county. Definitely, we had never done it in the county, and I'm pretty sure that it was also nationwide. So thank you so much for following up. I appreciate it. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Any other new business from colleagues? Facilities and Maintenance Comprehensive Update.

Mr. Chair, the Facilities and Maintenance Update and the GOB Update were provided with the committee packet. If there are any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Not a question, but I do have a comment. Go ahead. I might mess up your record right now. No, we're safe. But I do have to make the comment, and that deals with Mr. Perez. Mr. Perez has been absolutely just such a professional, very patient. and very understanding. And I want to say publicly that I do appreciate all of the time, the energy, and the effort that you put in, not only from Monday through Friday, but I call you on Saturdays and Sundays, pretty much on an ongoing basis lately. So thank you very much to you. And to Carl Niccolo, he's also 24-7 on my phone.

So I'm sure when they see my name, they want to run.

But I do want to say thank you to you, Mr. Niccolo, as well, because we've had a lot of still air conditioning issues at schools that I represent, which have created, sadly, some parents to get concerned and agitated would be a good word to describe. And so it's still very hot, very hot. And some of the schools that I've had issues with are pod schools. as well, so lack of even any ventilation via a window being opened or anything like that. So I know that there's a lot to be done and there's limited number of people to do the job, but the air conditioning truly has got to remain a number one priority. And so I do want to thank you because I know when I call you, you do go out to the schools and you try to do the best you can. Do you have the personnel through the chair? Last time we spoke, I think you felt you needed more personnel to assist you with all the maintenance requests because there are many for all the 400 plus schools that we have.

That's a softball question, Nicola.

Through the chair, thank you, Ms. Rojas. We have the team necessary to take care of what we need. We have to prioritize accordingly, but the superintendent has worked with us, Mr. Bueno, and I've been given the support that we need. Of course, the volume of work is always challenging, and we'll continue to make HVAC our top priority, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you.

Madam Chair, these guys are on 24-7. 24-7. 24-7. They've aged in their roles like the President of the United States. Those guys are both 32 years old right now. Absolutely. That's what my staff tells me every day. Thank you guys for all you do.

No, we certainly do. I'm not part of that comment. But the last thing I do want to ask, and that, again, is critically important to me, and that's, again, the structural integrity of many aging schools that I have to deal with. in my district, because I have, I think probably the majority of the old schools fall in District 6, and I have had several with the structural integrity-related concerns. I did proffer that board item, which was unanimously approved, I believe, if I recall, at that time. But if you could give us a status on the process that's being followed. I believe you're doing five years with some schools, even though 10 years at that time was what was being recommended. But if you could address that, I think it'll bring a lot of tranquility to teachers and to administrators and families that have children in schools that we have had to shut down wings because of that scenario so through the chair through the chair madam chair you're absolutely correct um your your district has the gems of the

of the school district, because Miami was where it first started. So you have a lot of historical schools that were built in the 1920s. And we've been going and fixing and upgrading them little by little. But at the same time, we have our five-year ed plant survey that we do. We hire a team of architects and engineers that visit each school, half of the schools, every five years. And so that takes place. We also, a few years ago after the Surfside matter, we convened a sort of a think tank of industry experts, our building department, our building chiefs from different trades. And they came up with a list of recommendations, not only the five-year look at facilities every five years, but there are a series of schools just by age and by where they're located geographically that we shouldn't skip the next five years. So those schools are listed, and they get reviewed every five years. On top of that, like three months ago, we came up with a list of all the schools that are over 40 years old, and we are doing a structural integrity inspection and report for each one of those schools. We have three teams of structural engineers. They have already started the process. We're trying to align the reporting so that all three teams provide us with the same type of information that we're requiring. And so I think they've done the first set of schools. The team has met with them on aligning those reports. And so they're now going to be going out to visit all our schools that are over 40 years and provide us with a structural integrity report. And from that, of course, there are going to be items that will need to be addressed. And we've actually added a bucket or a funding category in our capital five-year plan for structural repairs.

Thank you, through the chair. That really, I am so pleased to hear that response from you because I think, again, a lot of people, after what happened here, sadly, at Surfside, really worry about that. And so my last question, and this is the last one, sir. You're stretching this. I'm paying you back right now. No, I'm joking. This building, the structural integrity of this building, How often are we checking on that here through the chair?

So this is what's, it's termed an ancillary facility in DOE lingo, and it falls within our ed plan survey, so it gets looked at every 10 years. We do have a structural, already we do have a structural integrity report on this particular building. And as we discussed at the last committee, those are critical items. And that's why we did allocate some funds for SBAB in the five-year capital plan. And guidance that we got from the board last month, we'll be addressing safety to life critical items going forward. And then there's some other more cosmetic-type items that will probably not be looked at or analyzed very deeply or repaired due to the fact that we're – you saw the presentation today. We're trying to redevelop this entire area. But once we get a better timing of that, if we have to bring something back to you, we will. That's not critical just because of the current timeline that we've – kind of develop as we go on on this process of redeveloping the assemblage here in SBAB.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And just through the chair, I'm happy to hear that you're looking at a lot of these. The most important thing for this building, it's, you know, obviously we've got nine floors, many people here, and the one across as well. The structural integrity must be, must be. There is no option. There's no way we can turn... the other way. We've got to address any structural issue in this facility and the one across has to be addressed because it's again the safety, the security, and the well-being of all those that we represent. And even though we're in the process of looking at so many other options as we have discussed earlier this morning, if we have to put dollars into the endeavor of repairing areas that could create a problem, So be it.

Absolutely, through the chair. Structural is one of the top on the list for this particular complex. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Board Member Alonso, you had a comment? I had another comment, but I think today's option one can get us there quicker. And I know that board members have said that we might not be around here to see it, but if the building can go up as fast as the one I'm watching outside my window, these developers are moving up fast. So maybe in our final years here, we can kind of cut the ribbon into one of those new offices there. But just to echo the sentiments of Board Chair Maritere Rojas, I want to thank our facilities team as well as all of our principals and administrators. Just the other night, we were at Hialeah High up until 8 p.m. talking to families about the future of Hialeah High. And just a couple weekends ago on a Saturday, Mr. Bueno together with Mr. Niccolo were over with me on a Saturday morning, washing a school down with a pressure cleaner and seeing new technologies that can help us keep our buildings looking crisp and pristine and ready for our students. And it's just amazing at how everybody is truly doing what's best for our students and coming out. So I really appreciate that. And then finally, on the HVAC, we've had a lot of board items come before here, a lot of conversations. And I know from a capital perspective, it's a lot to take on, but yet there's been companies that continuously talk to us and we've explored and there was even contracts in the past of energy as a service where there is no upfront cost. Where are we with all that? Because there's been a lot of board items that have come through. I had a board item that I brought up and re-exploring options because some of those options were older five years ago and there were some new financing options available. Where are we at with that? Because if we keep on doing this one by one, all we're ever doing is patching things and really chasing the fire, right? Wherever it's hot is where we're going and repairing the AC, where if we can get a little bit more proactive and start replacing these units so that we take off some of that weight from maintenance, I think will be helpful. And from what I've heard, you guys are the experts and we have teams of experts. There's companies out there that can do this with no upfront cost to us, leveraging some of those energy savings over the next couple of years on them.

Yes, through the chair. Board member Alonzo, you're correct. HVAC is one of the largest energy consumers for our buildings. And there have been many discussions regarding HVAC. How to address that? We did initiate a guaranteed energy performance contract a few years ago. We awarded four projects, the four largest high schools, the four largest offenders, let's say, the four gas guzzlers of the district. And those projects, for the most part, are almost completed at this point. And in fact, I got data They provided me data the other day that the energy consumption is down at minimum 30% at each one of these facilities. So that's been one initiative. We've started an initiative also with solar. We're providing solar at some of our new facilities that are undergoing construction. We've awarded recently the first net zero school that's gonna be built in the north end of the north part of the county. And along with that, we also, Mr. Luis Diaz and his new energy office, they, I believe, have awarded an RFP for EMS installations or upgrades. So that's going to be starting as well. So that is where the focus really needs to start to go to. Energy as a service is another concept that's, you know, Similar to guaranteed energy performance contract, but it's something that is more large scale and I think could benefit the district if we move into that direction. And I think Louis and his team are starting that process.

From Santos?

Thank you. Since it was brought up, can you confirm, Mr. Perez, that starting this year there's an allocation in the five-year capital plan for EMS that is not just the service calls that are part of maintenance and ongoing upkeep, but is actually the investment we need to start making in moving our systems to an appropriate central EMS that works?

Sure. Through the Chair, Board Member Santos, you're absolutely correct. EMS's normal allocation was roughly around $600,000, and that was just for service calls throughout the year and servicing of existing EMS. This year we added an additional $2 million to that capital funding structure, and $2 million going out for the remaining five years. So we're starting to implement an actual funding stream for them to not only maintain EMS, but also upgrade and start to replace EMS systems.

Thank you. Through the chair, I just heard you say they're combined. It is maintenance and investment.

Yes.

Okay, that's different from the understanding I had when we discussed it last month. It was always...

When I looked at it, there was always a, I found it strange that it was 2.6 million, so I went back to check why 6.6, because it would have been around their number, and the 600 is the actual allocation for service. So there's a service component, and then there's the $2 million that were allocated for the actual upgrades and renovations.

Thank you, and through the chair, it was 2.6 this year, but 3.6 every year after that.

Yes, through the chair, yes. Okay. There's 3.6 in the outer years.

And to be clear, that's nowhere near the investment that we need to actually get a hold on this, but it certainly, as we were talking about earlier, starts to take action so we can actually get closer to seeing that vision that we all want to see of highly efficient buildings that are all connected and are... smart buildings, really, in the sense that we can save a lot of energy, and we all know over $100 million spent every year in this district on utilities, it is a place where we can continue to make great strides and shift dollars to our classrooms.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much. Any further comments? Final item on the agenda, Office of Education and Economic Access, Dr. Abigail Roberts.

Mr. Chair, if there's any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. The report was transmitted to the board.

Seeing none, entertain a motion to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right, that's what I want to hear.