Follow up letter to April 10, 2010, meeting with Mr. barrera, Mrs. Tarafa, School District staff and KB K-8 Center staff
Key Biscayne, April 17, 2008
Mr. Agustin Barrera
Chair, Miami-Dade School Board
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
1450 NE Second Avenue
Miami, Florida 33132
Ref.: Key Biscayne K-8 Center meeting on April 10 with parents’ representatives, School administration and Village of Key Biscayne officials to discuss deficiencies at Key Biscayne K-8 Center.
Dear Mr. Barrera,
Thank you for the opportunity of meeting with you last April 10 to address issues of concern to the majority of parents with children attending school at our Key Biscayne K-8 Center. What follows is a summary of items discussed and agreed action items:
1. Safety-to-Life Issues identified by EESAC in early 2007.
- Flooding & Drainage problem between building 1 & 4 in the walkway by the stairs - Covered access to the PE shelter from the walk
ramp.
- Fencing and Flooding problems at the Big Toy Playground area.
Action item: The Office of School Facilities will review these items and resolve them prior to the start of the 2008 – 2009 school year. The covered access issue will be reviewed to determine if a wall opening can be made to provide the necessary covered access.
2. Status of the planned $1.2M 2007-2008 Capital Project 00365700 Hood/AFSS/Kit. A/C; Window Units.
- Details of the Scope of Work for the Project, Funding Status & Project Start Date:
$1,204,794 was identified in the 2006-2007 5-Year Capital Plan and the 2005-2010 Capital Project Status Report to be completed in
the 2007-2008 school year. The current 2007-2008 Five Year Capital Plan now identifies $1,204,794 as an unfunded project for the
2008-2009 school year. The last details in the 2005-2010 Capital Project Status Report indicates that this project is assigned to
Advanced Planning with design commissioning projected to start 12/19/07. The current status and scope of this project was not
known at the time of our meeting.
Action item: The Office of School Facilities will provide a status update, including details of the Scope of Work for the Project, Funding Status & Project Start Date.
3. Additional priority elementary school deficiencies.
- Cafeteria, Building & Plumbing Replacements:
In general, there is not a clear understanding about the deficiencies that have been found at the school that are in need of resolution.
An August 2006 Deficiency Building System Summary report identified $5,038,205 in total priority 1-5 deficiencies, including
$3,759,914 in priority 2 deficiencies. However, the latest 2008 Detailed School Deficiency Report only identifies $2,943,822 in total
priority 1-5 deficiencies. This 2008 report identifies items included in project 00365700 as well as cafeteria, building exterior painting
and major plumbing deficiencies. Clearly, there are many significant deficiencies in building 1-3 which have been identified for a
number of year as high priority items. The lighting and atmosphere in the cafeteria, old windows and A/C units, inadequate plumbing
fixtures in classrooms and building interior and exterior painting are a summary of these significant deficiencies which have a direct
impact on elementary school children and teachers at the school. In addition, the 2006 report identified $837,553 in priority 2
electrical deficiencies, which are no longer included in the 2008 report. However, as far as we know, no significant electrical repairs
have taken place at the school. In general, there is a need to understand the deficiencies as identified in the 2008 report as compared
to the 2006 report, and to obtain a clear understanding on how and when these deficiencies are going to be funded and addressed.
Action item: The Office of School Facilities will review the past and present School Deficiency Reports and provide a clarification as well as their project plan that addresses how all School Deficiencies are being planned to be completed.
4. School Capacity Projections as included in the Facilities Work Program.
While our population has been growing at an estimated compounded rate of 1.9% since 1990, our demographics have shifted significantly towards a much younger age. Key Biscayne 2000 census calculated 2,517 children under the age of 17, and our conservative estimations as of the end of 2007 are of 2,886 children in the same age range. Meanwhile, our KB K-8 Center has been operating at overcapacity with an average of 1,044 students since school year 2001 – 2002, with a 2007 – 2008 enrollment of up to 1,098 students.
To accommodate an increase in student population and class size amendment requirements, certain labs, resource rooms and storage rooms have been turned into classrooms, changing the makeup of the original design to accommodate growth and potentially limiting physical capacity to provide electives or advanced courses.
Student population projections, as estimated in the Facilities Work Program, indicate capacity will be going down from a CO-FTE of 1,016 in school year 2005 – 2006 to a CO-FTE of 771 by the school year 2010 – 2011 (if class size amendment is fully implemented), or 835 CO-FTE (if class size amendment is not fully implemented ????) Based on the 2007 – 2008 enrollment of 973 children residents of Key Biscayne, and without considering any growth, hardship transfers or NCLB, our school would already be at 126% of capacity. A
conservative 2% yearly compounded growth rate will place our enrollment at 1,032 Key Biscayne students or 134% of capacity by the 2010 – 2011 school year.
Although we do not have a CO-FTE number for the 2008 – 2009 school year, we can extrapolate it at 869 based on the 2005 – 2006 and 2010 – 2011 data. If our calculated CO-FTE is correct, the school will be at 124% of capacity in the upcoming 2008 – 2009 school year just by maintaining the same number of students as we have today, while continuing to use labs, resource and storage rooms as classrooms.
Action item: The Office of School Facilities will review and reanalyze their capacity projections in the Facilities Work Program. In addition, they will analyze school capacity and room usage at the school to identify if there is a lack of necessary classrooms, particularly PK-2 classrooms with adequate toilet facilities, to provide for current and future capacity. A plan will be developed to identify how the school will meet current and future capacity requirements.
5. Consideration of investigation to rebuild the Elementary School instead of renovating the facilities due to school capacity issues and building deficiencies.
Our elementary school, built in the early 1950’s, has gone through a number of hurricanes and years of continuous roof and plumbing water leaks. Maintenance has been very poor. The scope of total school deficiencies may most likely be in excess of $5 Million Dollars. Costs of required repairs, added to the immediate need of expanding the availability of classrooms to accommodate the current student population while getting back the labs, resource and storage rooms presently occupied as classrooms to meet growth demand, may justify rebuilding the old elementary buildings 1, 2 and 3.
Action item: The Office of School Facilities will commission a Castaldi study which will be executed and completed within the next 90 days to identity costs of repairs and new capacity requirements versus replacement of the old elementary buildings 1, 2 and 3.
6. Review and reevaluation of the Allocation Plans for K-8 Centers to allow a similar Curriculum and Sports Offering to Traditional Middle Schools.
The curriculum and sports offered at the Key Biscayne K-8 Center do not rival those offered at traditional middle schools, magnet schools or charter schools within Miami-Dade County. It was explained that this is due to those schools having larger student populations, which generate greater numbers of teacher and classroom resources by virtue of the current M-DCPS Allocation Plan. There were some differences of opinion between parents and administration as to the extent of the difference of curriculum offerings, especially as they related to separate advanced and gifted programs which are offered at some public middle schools within the county and also the number and range of electives. Due to educational budget issues within the State of Florida and within Miami-Dade County, it would appear that M-DCPS will not be considering enhancing Allocation Plans in the near future to provide additional resources to K-8 Centers.
Although there is not a clear understanding on our side of potential differences in the per FTE budget allocation between a standard middle school and the middle school grades housed in a K-8 Center, we sense the average allocation per FTE may be larger at a regular middle school than at our K-8 Center. With the understanding that the Key Biscayne K-8 Center is our assigned middle school, and not a school of choice, we feel our middle school should be funded as a regular middle school based on the average per FTE funding being used for regular middle schools in the District. This funding would include any special program funds that are allocated to regular middle schools for curriculum and sports, as triggered by reaching “standard” size middle school status.
Action item: At this time, the only resolution to this issue appears to be one that must be agreed upon and executed at the local level between the administration, parents and the community. There is hope the District will resolve overcapacity deficiencies to relieve labs and resource rooms to be used for their intended purpose and that it will increase per FTE allocation to match the average in the District.
We thank you for the opportunity of meeting with you and look forward to a prompt resolution of issues as outlined in this letter.
Sincerely,
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