Facilities and Construction Committee - Regular Meeting

That's very rare for us before lunch. To the Facilities and Construction Committee meeting for Wednesday, August 5th. May I have a motion on the minutes, please?

Move it. Second.

All in favor? Aye. May I have a motion on bringing the F items to the floor, please?

Move it.

Aye, sir. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Ms. Perez, F1.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and board members. I feel like a fish out of water. It's late in the day when I start, but I'm good. F1 is authorization to finalize negotiations and execute a lease agreement with Happy Family of West Kendall, Inc. for the operation of an early childhood education program at Dr. Gilbert L. Porter Elementary School.

Colleagues, comments, questions? Seeing none, F2, please.

F2 is approval to Miami-Dade County of a request from 5215 Flagler Street, LLC, for an exemption from educational facilities impact fees in connection with a housing project for the elderly.

F3.

F3 is approval to Miami-Dade County of a request from Liberty Square Elderly LLC for an exemption from educational facilities impact fees in connection with a housing project for the elderly. F4. F4 is authorization to finalize negotiations and execute a lease agreement between Mount Zion Evangelical Baptist Church, Inc. and the school board for the use of a parking lot located at 6720 Northeast Fifth Avenue for Morningside K-8 Academy. F5. F5 is approval of master development agreement and ground lease and authorization to execute a phase-related assignments or bifurcations with Atlantic Pacific Communities, LLC, for the redevelopment of a portion of the Arthur and Polly Mays site at 11700 Southwest 216th Street. F26. F26 is authorization to amend the following agreements to include Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, funding compliance requirements. F80? F80 is authorization to approve the prequalification of contractors for educational facilities construction.

Colleagues, any final comments? Entertain a motion to approve the F items.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

May I have a motion to bring each item to the floor? Excuse me.

Move it. Second.

All in favor?

Aye. H7, Board Member Alonzo. Thank you so much, Board Member Espino, for the opportunity to present this item today. As we know, this has been a topic that all of us have been discussing quite a bit, so I wanted to bring it forward and really have a discussion around it because I think we can fine-tune it still a little bit. But the goal here is on the management and the use of revenue generated from district-owned property. and developing a policy. As we know, Miami-Dade County Public Schools is entrusted with one of the largest portfolios of educational facilities and real property in the state of Florida. These are public assets that belong to the taxpayers and ultimately exist to serve our students. As we continue evaluating a lot of our underutilized properties, and opportunities for leases, partnerships, and shared use agreements when appropriate, property sales as well. It is important that we also establish a clear expectation as a board for how any revenues that are generated from these are used and how we manage these assets. Today, every transaction that we know has come to us and we've had approval process on them, but we do not have a comprehensive board policy that establishes guiding principles for how these revenues should be managed, how they should be reported back to us, and more importantly to the public and the taxpayers, and how it's reinvested over a long term with our schools and our community. This item is about governance and it's about transparency. It's about accountability, consistency, and responsible stewardship of all of our taxpayer dollars and resources. The goal here always, and I think this board has shared, is to always make it about our students, with the primary focus being always around educational opportunities for our students, and any revenues generated from these public assets should ultimately be reinvested in ways that improve our student achievement, modernize our schools, and strengthen campus safety, and expand our educational opportunities in an effort to preserve the long-term value of our facilities and of our institution to our community. This proposal helps to ensure that these assets continue to serve students long after the transactions have occurred. As we know, many of these leases go up to 60, 70, 80, 90 years from now when many of us will not even be around here to see. So there are also opportunities where we're gonna see sometimes one-time revenue opportunities from sales of properties. that should not become a solution for reoccurring expenses or operating expenses in our district. Instead, every time we do this, we should evaluate whether these funds are better used for one-time capital investments, modernization projects, deferred maintenance issues, future land acquisitions if needed in areas of our county where we don't own properties, or long-term educational priorities. Likewise, when we talk about those long-term reoccurring leases, we may have the opportunity to look at different ways in which those dollars can be evaluated and a thoughtful policy framework that looks at how they're invested over the years to come. Transparency is a key to everything that we do here. So this policy that we start developing as a board together with our superintendent should really focus on some of the main priorities that we've all discussed already. that the properties that we have are being leased or sold, and that that's being reported in an annual report, that all revenues received are also part of an annual report, and how those revenues are being spent, how the balances are being maintained, and what the future plan uses of those dollars are, and that it's very transparent, not just to this board, but to the public. Taxpayers deserve to know how public assets are generating value, and how those dollars are being reinvested in the benefit of our students and our community. This proposal also ensures that future investments are evaluated based on the contribution to the district strategic plan. Every dollar generated from these assets should advance priorities such as student achievement, safe and modern learning environments, operational excellence, and fiscal stewardship. It's also important that these dollars support the local community that they're impacting. So this item asks the staff to evaluate whether, when practical and consistent with district-wide priorities, revenues generated from a property should first be considered for capital improvement projects within the surrounding community or that feeder pattern. This recognizes the importance of ensuring that neighborhoods benefiting from the redevelopment also see meaningful educational investments in their communities. It's also a very timely and important item to review because many of these items are coming to the board at a very quick pace, and I don't see any slowdown happening anytime soon. So the district needs to actively explore this and see how, together with our Enterprise Asset Management Office, we can work to develop this policy in a rather quickly process. So the goal of this item is to begin that conversation that many of us have been having. One of the pending things that I wanted to discuss here, because I cannot call for meetings and I wanted to have everybody discuss it, was the opportunity in recommend number four to schedule a workshop after staff has had the opportunity to put some recommendations together so that together as a board, we can discuss it before a policy comes before us. That, of course, will be something that our board chair would have to call for. So I just wanted to bring that up as one of the topics to discuss as a board today on how we want to move forward on recommend number four and any other comments or feedback that the board would like to provide to me. But that is my item, and I thank everybody for the opportunity to present it.

Thank you, Board Member Alonso. Listen, for my part, I think you did a great job capturing the conversation we've been having. and we're going to take it to the next level because it's, you know, the piecemeal approach always will result in questions. If there's a guiding policy for it, then the public knows and the consuming public, the people that are going to approach us with an ask, they kind of have a framework for it. So I'm supportive of the item as amended. I'd love to cosponsor. Any other comments, colleagues? Yes, Madam Chair.

Yes, thank you, Board Member Alonso. Again, absolutely, very timely. And I, too, support the item. Even though I've said many times, we gotta proceed with tremendous caution as well. And we do need policy, because transparency and accountability and public notice is critically important so they know what is happening. But I say proceed, with caution because, as I've said many times in the past, the pendulum moves back and forth in Miami-Dade County public schools. I've been able to witness that throughout the years and with reference to selling properties, which is not anything related to the way you presented this. But I, for one, can say for the record that I would not be in favor of that. selling properties I would not be in favor of selling properties again leasing properties that's another story selling our properties that's right now as I stand today is something that I would not favor but I absolutely feel that this item is again very timely very appropriate and I would have no problem board member Alonso with scheduling a workshop where we would have the opportunity to really address this more extensively in a more timely type of fashion. So I'm good with that recommendation on number four as well. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Thank you so much. And just for the record, for clarification, The policy should still have it in. I'm also like you in favor of not selling properties. I think it's very important that we maintain control of these assets, especially 100 years from now when we won't be around and they might be needed for other reasons. But if there was ever going to be something there, I think it's important that we include it in our policy because it might come one day. And if we're going to go through this effort and this exercise, I think it's important that we include language there on if a property is sold, how those dollars are invested because there may be some properties that do come up for sale. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. And this is just food for thought. I know that we've talked about not selling assets and leasing. My question is, a lot of these leases are 99 years. So we're developing on these pieces of land. At the end of that, what happens and maybe somebody could answer, you know, or what if there's a problem at some point. So that's just something food for thought that we can discuss at another time that I think we need to, you know, think about as a board because, I mean, And if we were to, for example, sell a piece of property that we really don't foresee developing on to someone, what are we allowed by statute to do with those funds through the chair?

Mr. Chair.

Yeah. Who could possibly do the hypothetical for us?

Through the chair, I'll start with the last question. So if the board would... at some point sell property, those dollars would go back to be used for facilities in the capital program. They can't be used in the general fund. To your second question, Ms. Colucci, 99-year leases at the end of the 99th year, unless there's an extension 100 years from now with the entity, And the board, the property and the improvements revert back to the school district. So we would end up receiving the land back with the improvements that were made on that land. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Board Member Alonzo, follow-up? Not to throw off your time, Board Member Spino, I know we want to stay on record. Listen, man, I'm good. But it brings up a good question. I think for clarity for all of us as board members, right, and I think Board Member Colucci mentioned it, but it wasn't, technically answered, and I don't know if you were, is what happens if 20 years into the 99-year lease, something occurs and they default, or I assume it would come back, but through the chair?

I mean, the challenge is going to be that it's a hypothetical question on a myriad of possible scenarios that could come before us. Each one may have a different governing or contractual document that establishes it. So, I mean, that's Walter Harvey enforcement mechanism time. So some general comments, Mr. Board Attorney?

No, thank you, Mr. Chair. No, thank you. Pass. You can't say pass. You know, I'll let the meeting go along pretty quickly. But yeah, I think it was covered. I mean, the contract would govern what happens when there's a default and perhaps a breach. So we would, you know, basically contractually make sure that we protect ourselves. But I think the question is a great question. 99-year lease is almost tantamount to a conveyance. So I think there's a way to value those 99-year leases. So I think that's a great conversation, I think, moving forward. I think it is.

And before I will just say that, While we may not have a big base of work precedent on this, Miami-Dade County does, whether it's one of their development loans with conditions and covenants that travel with it or the development on their own properties, which they've sponsored quite a bit, even the city of Miami. So we can potentially take a look at that and see how they've structured some of these things and some of the teeth that they've put in the agreement. Madam Vice Chair.

And thank you for that because I think we're entering into an arena that's new to us and I think that we really have to establish like Board Member Alonso and you've brought up so many times, Board Member Espino, especially when we're discussing our strategic plan, to be transparent, to have a policy that the community understands, that our stakeholders understand. That's something that as we move into this new territory, and of course I know we did do a survey for our workforce to see what the interest is, and we have to look at that interest and see, you know, I know the AMI is a determining factor if our teachers... qualify what that rate is. So there's a lot of factors that we, and I think that that workshop will be important because it'll help us answer a lot of questions as a board, as staff develops the policy and we come up with policy. Thank you.

Agreed. Yes, Mr. Superintendent. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So you know, when we talk about these developments, we always think private, but there's also something that we have to consider, right? We have our municipal partners that may be interested in coming into an agreement with us, and those probably will look differently, because at the end of the day, it's from government to government. So to Mr. Alonso's point, the idea is never to sell land, but if there is something that can be accomplished with a municipality where at both ends it's of community value, it's something that can be considered. So I guess in the policy, there could be somewhat of a, of some type of discussion regarding the municipal link of government to government. I just wanted to mention that. Mr. Chair, thank you, sir. Thank you, Superintendent.

Board Member Blanco.

I know, and thank you for the item, Board Member Alonso, extremely timely, right? And I know last month I was asking a lot of questions and was having some of the F items amended. And from what I'm understanding, we'll meet and we'll get some direction, right? We'll have some kind of like a draft and then lead the discussion from there. I think one thing that that at least I didn't hear, but I know we've talked about is we want to maintain, although we have a policy, we want that policy to give us flexibility. At least I speak for myself. Within each project, there could be some flexibility, although we need to have some guidelines. And as we moved in this direction, I felt I needed to understand better. So I am blessed to know a real estate attorney. And so I had some conversations and he was telling me that the 99 year lease is a very standard thing in the industry. I know at some point we've had consultants come in, we've had a new position that was created for this, but I just wanted to know, do we still have a consultant that's active, that's helping in this department? Because I feel like this is so outside of what we have done. I just want to know what guidance we have, and I think in developing this policy, it'll be extremely important to have someone with expertise in that real estate arena, and maybe we have that, I don't know, through the Chair, so that's kind of like my questions, and can we get some of that in building this policy?

Mr. Perez? Yes, through the Chair, Ms. Blanco, absolutely, so we did put out a solicitation, I want to say maybe a year or two ago, and we have those consultants on, let's say, we access them when we need to, and we have, The workshop that they presented was one of those, but they do look at some of these deals. And through our general counsel's office, we also have a legal counsel that is involved in some of these, putting some of these agreements together as well. Follow-up?

Yeah. But, I mean, there's so many issues, right? There's so many specialties. So within our legal department... and legal counsel, do we have someone that is an expert in real estate law? Just because I feel like if we don't, that's fine. We maybe didn't need one, but it just seems like now if we don't, that we might need some expertise within that area through the chair.

Yes, through the chair. So we have two attorneys that practice only real estate, basically, and they are there to support staff. We also have outside counsel which we use both Neighbors and Gibling as well as Holland and Knight to support. So depending on what the deal is, some deals are obviously much more complicated, like the Parcel 7 deal, and others are more straightforward. Well, I don't want to mention those deals, but there's quite a few that are straightforward. So it depends on the deal in terms of... But most deals have... Quite a few attorneys and some consultants, I think. At least maybe most have like at least five or six attorneys and some consultants. Thank you, Mr. Herman.

I was just going to say thank you. That's good to hear, right? That gives me some assurance. Thank you.

Thank you, Board Member Spino. And I've had this conversation as well with Mr. Perez. I think it's imperative that when we are, since each contract is unique, each agreement is unique, that there is, you know, legal representation there because there's a lot of logistics that have to be thought through and gone through. So I'm glad you brought that up, Board Member Blanco. Thank you so much.

May I have a motion for co-sponsorship on H-7? Move it. All in favor?

Aye.

Motion to move the item as amended? Moved. Do we have a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. I think that's everybody. H-12, well, Vormer Geller's not here. He asked to just advance it along. I wonder whether the board had an appetite to support it. I mean, essentially it is saying to look at comprehensively the review of synthetic turf as a result of not only its prevalent use, but also the public health and environmental concerns that are being expressed in it. The item's pretty straightforward. Do you want to transmit it with a recommendation or do you want to vote it up? What's the will of the board?

We just transmit it to speak at the board and have him present it. I'd have some questions on it, but with him not being here.

I entertain a motion to transmit without a recommendation. Move it. Second. All in favor? Aye. That exhausts all formal business facilities and maintenance comprehensive update.

Mr. Chair, the facilities and comprehensive maintenance update was provided in the committee packet. If you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Seeing no comments. Office of Community Partnerships, Education, and Business Access, Dr. Amica Roberts.

Good afternoon, everyone. The report was transmitted to the board, and if there's questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Colleagues, anything?

Any new business from the board itself? Yes, please. just on the new business as we get ready for back to school I know that everybody's working really hard with our schools but I can tell you as I drive around there's still a lot of concerns when it comes to our roofs as well as the HVAC systems and it's creating problems beyond just the roof and the HVAC where there's being damage done inside of our classrooms and walls and just want to make sure that we all understand as a board the importance that we continue to advance some of these some of these discussions around the HVACs and the way in which we're treating our roofs because what ends up happening is there's a long-term effect of all these leaks happening in our buildings and the cooling systems not cooling in the right temperatures. I don't know if any of you have experienced it, but as I walk some of these schools, you know, the mold concerns, and we always send remediation teams immediately out there and address it, and thank you to our facilities team and to our capital team that are working out there, but We have some issues, and I think when we talk about these capital dollars that we might be able to invest with the leasing of these properties, we have to take these initiatives very seriously. But I want to thank staff for the hard work that they're doing, but I also say we have a lot of work to do. So with that, we asked about our teachers being ready. We asked about school psychologists and counselors. How are we doing from a facility standpoint with back to school and some of our open projects that are still there? I have some principals that their offices aren't ready yet. some cafeterias that are still being finalized before back to school. Are we feeling confident through the chair? Of course, Mr. Superintendent.

Yes, Mr. Chair, Ms. Alonzo, yesterday we had, we always have, the last three years, we've done an opening of schools readiness meeting with cabinet. And one of the things that comes up is every year we have to put one school or two schools on high radar so that we make sure that we push and we help them with whatever they need. So we've gone down the list. We have a couple of schools that we're still working closely with. But overall, we had a report from Raul, had a report from Carl. The region superintendents are there as well because we want to make sure that we know where the schools are and are there any issues. And I feel based on the meeting that we had yesterday, we are in a better place than we were last year because as it relates to HVAC, and Carl can speak to it. He has a backup plan with backup equipment, whereas last year when we had one piece of equipment that could help us, this year he has six units on backup, and that is a very good sign in the event that we have issues with HVAC as we did last year. So I just wanted to report that.

Carl's going to become an air conditioning expert. After NBCPS, the biggest air conditioning company in the state, he's going to have it.

Mr. Chair?

Follow-up? Board Member Alonso, you have a follow-up? You're good? Madam Chair.

Yes, thank you very much. And thank you, Board Member Alonso, for those questions, because I have similar questions. And again, thank you to Mr. Niccolo. I know that I call him the second that issues occur at some of the schools that I've had to deal with in the past, especially on opening day and opening week. So moving forward, especially those schools that we have already identified as having issues on day one, week one or week two of the school year, so that parents are not extremely irate and upset when their children are going into schools where the rooms are extremely hot, especially during the temperatures that we are experiencing right now in the 90s. that we identify those schools as priorities, especially when we know that it's been repeatedly occurring at specific sites. And the issue of the temperature in many of these schools has to do with what happens during the weekend. Then they come in on Monday, And then we are confronted with no air conditioning functioning on Monday. So through the chair, I wanna know what we've done. I know we've addressed this on numerous occasions, but I wanna know what proactively we're doing as some of the possible solutions that have been discussed in the past. What are we doing so that we don't have that repeatedly? And again, it happens in specific schools over and over and over again through the chair.

Okay, Mr. Air Conditioning, you're in the hot seat. Through the chair, yes, sir, I can feel it.

But thank you for the inquiry.

Well, he has air conditioning that he can cool off.

But thank you. It's a very important subject. HVAC is our number one backlog in maintenance. We have response teams ready to go. As the superintendent mentioned yesterday, we had our readiness meeting. We've identified those critical schools, as you mentioned, Ms. Rojas. We also had our data comm session late last week with our ETO schools, and we were able to identify all the needs out there. We're prepared to respond. We've got backup equipment for catastrophic failures on hand. I'm confident that we will open school, of course. We're going to have those issues. The weather has been unsettling and lightning affects our system sometimes, but we're ready to respond. And I know you have me on speed dial, Ms. Rojasen, so I'll be looking forward to those calls. Thank you.

Thank you through the chair. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate everything that you do, but let me ask you a follow-up question. the ones that we've had where a solution would be having that air conditioning scenario taking place during the weekend so when they come in on Monday, a pod school that has zero windows, it's very difficult for those principals and for the students and the stakeholders there. And we talked about this. There's gotta be a solution to that one.

Through the chair. Thank you, Ms. Rojas, for the follow-up. We did have our meeting with our EMS department, and we're turning on all of our EMS systems for the first two weeks of school, and we're also adjusting our schedule so that they start a little earlier on Sunday night so they have the proper time to cool for Monday morning. So we've been working with that department. Mr. Diaz has been adamant about making sure our EMS control schedule coincides with what we need at school sites. So it's work in progress, but that's duly noted, and that's a proactive measure that we've been taking. Thank you.

Thank you. Through the chair, I have two more questions. One would be the mold. I want to make sure that all of our schools, when we open up, that the teachers and the administrators and all of the members of the workforce at those sites are not in a situation where they need to worry that there might be in rooms where there is mold. Has that been...

Absolutely. That's a priority for us. We have remediation teams on standby. They respond immediately as soon as we get the notice. We do our air quality tests to make sure we're in range. And so we're going to continue to respond. Mold is unfortunately something that we have to live here in South Florida. But we have teams ready to respond. We have experts on hand that could guide us accordingly. We'll be responding as these issues come up. We work very closely with the region superintendents, Dr. Lewis's office. Mr. Bueno also has me on speed dial. And so as these issues come up, we respond accordingly.

Thank you. Through the chair. So at school sites and also in all of our buildings that we have personnel at. So I hope we're monitoring that everywhere. And then the structural integrity of our schools, as I proffered a board item quite some time ago, there's nothing more important than that. Do we have any schools with any structural integrity issues this year? I know I had to deal with some last year.

At this point, through the chair, we continue to monitor. We have identified schools. We have two engineers on staff to respond effectively and quickly to those issues. Those that have been identified are being remediated as we speak. And as issues come up, we're addressing them. But there's nothing right now that's going to impede the opening of schools structurally. We feel comfortable that we have the mechanisms in place to respond to whatever issues might come up.

Thank you, and that would include, through the chair, buildings like this one where we're at right now, with reference to the structural integrity?

Absolutely.

Okay, and the last question was the elevator. Sorry, but just two days ago, or was it a day ago, We had two of them almost, at first it was a flicker and boom, boom, boom, and then all of a sudden not operational. Absolutely.

Through the chair. Through the chair. I know elevators are near and dear to your heart. Yes. And once again, the vendor continues to respond. We do have issues that come up, but. Our goal is to respond as timely as possible. And the vendor, the new vendor, as you know, we terminated a past vendor that wasn't performing well. This new vendor, I must say, he's been responding to our needs. But we're going to have issues. That's why you have a maintenance department, and that's why we'll continue to respond.

Thank you, Mr. Nicola. Good answer.

Good answer. Solid answer. Yeah. Number one on the board.

Yeah.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. You had a question.

Yes. So I wasn't going to bring up an HVAC question, but now that it seems to be the topic, I've had over the last year three schools that have gotten new HVAC systems, and the new HVAC systems are failing. Have we explored, or I would hope so, something within the contract? Is it the same vendor? Sometimes I know we have contracts with different vendors. Are we seeing a pattern as to why this is taking place. And then I know some of the alternate measures that are being taken are like a backup. We've gotten complaints that they're so noisy the neighborhood can hear them. So just wanted to kind of get an update on that through the chair.

Through the chair, Ms. Blanco, that's the problem. Sometimes when we come in with backup equipment, the surrounding neighborhoods unfortunately complain. And so we have to find the delicate balance. As it relates to the new installations, we work very closely with our warranty department. We have a warranty crew that's currently looking at all of the new installs and holding the contractor responsible where appropriate. So it's a question of communication. That's the key. But we know we have a few new installs out there, and we are working with our warranty department to remedy those situations.

Okay, and I don't need an answer now, but just to put out questions really quick, Mr. Niccolo, if you could send me an update on Robert Morgan and the auditorium.

Oh, absolutely.

And Mr. Perez, I know it was just, it feels like board meeting was last week, I don't know, maybe two weeks ago. If you can just keep me apprised with the item with Sunset Park and what needs were identified at the school, that was where the funds would be going. Just whenever you have that, if you could just transmit that to my office, I'd appreciate it.

Through the chair, yes. We will.

Thank you so much. For my part, just thank you. Thank you so much for all that you've done over the summer, the entire team, to get our schools ready for back-to-school, especially those schools that are undergoing significant transformation. It's welcome. The community is responding, and they like to see the investment. So thank you so much. Seeing no further comments before 1 o'clock, I entertain a motion to adjourn.

Second?

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

I think we can all celebrate this record.