Board Brief

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Erin Garcia, and Executive Director of Facilities, Tova Corman, provided an overview to the Board and community of the comprehensive Facilities Master Plan (FMP).

The FMP is an essential element of a district’s planning process, outlining current and future needs for additional classrooms, quality of the existing facilities, and facilities renovation and expansion requirements to support the district’s educational and programmatic goals. An FMP also assists a district in identifying funding needs for capital improvement and developing financing options, and will be submitted to the California Department of Education.

The FMP is a living document that will be updated on a regular basis. It is the first step in identifying the priorities and a schedule of projects to follow for the next 15-20 years, and contains the following:

Through analyzing historical enrollment data from 2017-2022, it is clear that enrollment has declined during this timeframe. In working with a demographer Davis Demographics, the projected enrollment for the next five years also illustrates a continued decline in enrollment. Because school districts are funded on enrollment and attendance, when enrollment declines, districts receive less funding. San Marcos Unified is not alone in this trend. School districts across San Diego county and the state of California are facing declining enrollment.

The FMP also included analyzing planned development projects and housing units that have been confirmed, which produces a student yield factor. The student yield factor projects how many students the developments could potentially bring to SMUSD schools.

Corman explained how the capacity analysis is conducted in the FMP, which takes place annually. The capacity analysis determines where there are available classrooms at each school, which helps make facility-related decisions on school campuses.

Corman then explained the Facilities Needs Assessment process, which includes taking an extensive inventory of District facilities and infrastructure, an overview of the existing conditions of each site, an identification and prioritization of improvements of each site, and an estimated cost to implement, including both hard and soft costs. The Facilities Needs Assessment also included an assessment of all portables within the District.

Cost estimates were also provided to address school sites and portables and provides the following options:

• Option 1: Modernization of permanent buildings only

• Option 2: Replacement of existing portables with new portables

• Option 3: Replacement of portables with new permanent construction

• Option 4: Full Reconstruction

Corman provided a highly-detailed overview of all schools, with the exception of the newest six schools: San Marcos Elementary, San Marcos High School, Double Peak School, La Costa Meadows Elementary, La Mirada Academy, and Richland Elementary.

The Facilities Needs Assessment begins on Slide 12.

The Facilities Needs Assessment Summary begins on Slide 35.

Corman shared an overview of various funding and financing options, including State grant programs, however Corman explained that the State has run out of the money for these programs and is waiting to replenish these funds through revenue they anticipate through future voter-approved State bonds.

Corman also explained other potential funding sources including developer fees, community facilities district (CFDs), redevelopment areas (RDAs), Career Technical Education grants, and general obligation funds (voter-approved local bond measure).

“The funds we currently have available for construction projects won’t cover us for even one of these needed facilities projects at one school,” said Garcia.

As a result of the findings in the FMP, an Implementation Plan has been created that includes three phases of all school needs in order of school age with the highest need projects included in Phase 1.

“The key takeaway is that we have big facilities needs and if we want to approach these projects on a more comprehensive level then we need to identify other funding sources,” said Garcia.

“In order to complete any of these large scale projects, we really need a bond,” said Board Member, Stacy Carlson. “We are going to keep recommending that staff review what it would take for us to do a bond.”

For a complete and detailed overview of any of the items above, please see the full Board Meeting Agenda by clicking here.

For a link to the Board Briefs on the SMUSD website, please click here.

To watch a video of the Board meeting, please click here.