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Poudre School District lays out multi‑year plan and financing options to air‑condition 30 schools
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Summary
CFO Dave Montoya outlined a phased, design‑build approach for air‑conditioning 30 schools lacking mechanical cooling and described four financing 'levers'—capital reallocation, bond reserves, inflation freezes, and certificates of participation—estimating a program-scale example around $110 million (assumptions vary); the board directed staff to pursue GMPs and return contracts as design matures.
The Poudre School District on Oct. 21 presented a multi‑year, phased plan to install mechanical cooling at roughly 30 district sites that currently lack it, along with a menu of financing strategies intended to accelerate work.
CFO Dave Montoya told the board the district has identified 22 elementary schools, five middle schools and three non‑traditional sites (Polaris, PCA and Centennial) that lack mechanical cooling. He said the district’s November 2024 "debt free mill levy" override—originally described as $49 million and adjusted in the presentation for inflation to roughly $50 million—freed budget capacity that enabled planning for deferred maintenance including HVAC projects.
Montoya described four funding "levers" that can be used alone or in combination: reallocating a portion of the capital/large‑projects budget toward AC; using available 2016 bond reserves and budget closeouts; temporarily deferring some inflationary increases to non‑pay categories; and issuing certificates of participation (COPs) or other debt. In example modeling he showed, different combinations of those levers produced an illustrative program total of about $110 million over a long time horizon; Montoya cautioned the estimate depends on inflation assumptions, timing and scope and various slides modeled outcomes over different durations.
"If the debt free mill levy did not pass, we would be in a much dire situation," Montoya said, arguing that voter approval of the levy was instrumental to the district’s ability to plan. He described $22.9 million as a first‑year deferred‑maintenance pool in the levy and said roughly $21.1 million of existing staffing/operating dollars were moved into the mill levy to free general fund capacity.
Design‑build procurement and near‑term project selection: staff said they ran RFP 2670004 and interviewed four design‑build teams; the selection committee recommended Weber (Franzen & Pittman + PEC + DA Modeling) for Weber Middle School and Saunders Construction (with PEC/DA Modeling) for Lesher Middle School as initial, phased pilot projects. Contractors described a multiyear phased approach that focuses first on critical classroom wings, closes on schematic design and permit milestones during winter and seeks to bring guaranteed maximum price (GMP) amendments to the board once scopes and subcontract bids are established.
Contractors warned of long lead times for some mechanical and electrical equipment—"some electrical equipment even almost a year," Saunders’ Gabe Dunbar said—so staff said they may purchase long‑lead items once design specifies them and fold those purchases into a GMP when appropriate.
Board members pressed administrators on cost‑estimate reliability, scope‑creep risk and how much could be done in a given summer window. Montoya said the district will rely on McKinstry’s prior site studies to set preliminary equipment types and that the design‑build teams and district trade experts will refine costs during the detailed design phase. He said GMPs will be brought to the board for approval and that the timing of COPs or other debt issuances can be adjusted to match the district’s capacity to do work.
Next steps: staff will proceed with detailed design and bring GMP amendment requests and contracts to the board as scopes and subcontract pricing mature. Montoya said the final schedule depends on contractor capacity and equipment lead times but emphasized the goal of focusing first on denser, higher‑occupancy sites (priority given to middle schools) and then moving through a rank‑ordered list for elementary and nontraditional sites.
