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District staff reviews tentative five-year work plan; classroom additions, revenue and maintenance lists outlined
Summary
District staff reviewed the tentative five-year capital work plan, describing revenue assumptions (1.5 mills, PECO, half-cent sales tax, ESSER), a long project list of roughly 270 items, planned classroom-capacity additions and a schedule for bringing individual project contracts back to the board.
Jim Lipsey, district staff member, reviewed the Hernando County School District's tentative five-year work plan, describing it as the district's capital financial planning tool and explaining how projects and revenue are entered into the DOE EIFS system for state reporting.
Lipsey said the plan groups projects into major categories and includes projected capital outlay revenue from the district's 1.5 mill levy, with a table that also shows a theoretical increase to the allowable 1.75 mills. He described additional revenue sources the plan lists, including half-cent sales tax proceeds, federal grants such as ESSER, PECO funds (noting a $240,000 pass-through for charter schools), impact fees and possible new certificates of participation or loans. He told the board that the fund-balance projections shown are estimates and that the budget and finance department recommends retaining about $4 million as a balance.
On expenditures, Lipsey said the plan lists major maintenance and repair projects (DOE predefined categories and locally defined categories) and that the work plan balance at the top-level compares available revenue with total projected project costs. He explained DOE's feasibility definitions: a zero balance is considered balanced and feasible; a negative balance is infeasible; a positive balance shows available revenue that could be spent.
Lipsey summarized capacity projects and said classroom additions in phase 1 and phase 2 of the previously presented expansion plan appear in the first three years of the work plan. He noted a planning requirement that capacity added in the first three years must be identified for concurrency reviews for development under state statute and local ordinance. Lipsey described specific projects listed in the plan, including a co-located 30-classroom building serving Weeki Wachee Senior High and Winding Waters K-8, and a later-year addition exclusively for Winding Waters; the two items appear as separate line items ($20 million and $25 million in the presentation) because one is the shared flex building and the other is the subsequent exclusive addition.
Lipsey said the non-capacity list includes roughly 270 projects of $50,000 or greater, grouped by school for the presentation. He noted the maintenance department is evaluating a facilities-condition-assessment program to get more accurate prioritization of future needs.
Board members asked for clarity about HVAC and roofing budget lines versus later large-chiller or HVAC projects; Lipsey said allocations may reflect a balancing of funding sources and recommended follow-up with finance and maintenance for detailed line-item questions. The board also questioned a listed $800,000 duct-cleaning estimate for Winding Waters; Lipsey said maintenance obtained vendor pricing that showed high costs because of the volume and scale of ductwork and that some duct cleaning is performed when interior HVAC renovations occur.
Board members also asked about a $3,000,000 softball-complex line item for Hernando High and a previously planned $500,000 records-storage building for the district office; Lipsey said the softball item had been included from an earlier capital-assessment list and that the records building plan was drawn before COVID and costs had since risen. Lipsey emphasized that individual contracts for projects will be brought to the board for separate formal approval and that the work plan presentation is intended to inform the board, state and local governments of planned priorities and projected revenues.
The workshop concluded with staff saying formal approval of the work plan will be scheduled in the coming weeks; no formal vote on the work plan was recorded during the workshop.
