Since Superintendent Danny Trujillo was hired as Española School District superintendent this July, he has spoken of school consolidation and reorganization under the name “size-right philosophy.”
“The size-right philosophy is basically to expand the parameter of the facilities master plan,” Trujillo said at the Nov. 6 regular Española School Board meeting.
An update on Awarding the Facilities Master Plan was the only action item on the agenda. The five-year Plan was completed by Architectural Research Consultants last year and approved by the Board Dec. 19, 2012.
The Plan was designed to last from 2013-2017. Each school District is required by the state Public Education Department to create a facilities master plan, “to guide capital planning decisions to support the District’s educational mission and meet state adequacy standards for the next five years,” the District’s Plan states.
However, the District has not made it a full year without updating the plan, at a price-tag of $21,248.
The purpose for the Plan update is two-fold, Trujillo said. The first reason was the lack of community involvement when creating the approved Plan, he said.
“The second reason is to touch every school and every facility. Every facility needs to be looked at, the importance is to not just look at two schools, but to look at every school,” Trujillo said.
He said each school would be analyzed in light of two possibilities: consolidation and reorganization. Trujillo said he knew this wasn’t a popular topic, but it was one which needed to be discussed and this time, with community involvement.
“The intention is to get community input,” Trujillo said.
Three firms submitted proposals for the update project: G.S. Planning, Architectural Research Planners and Visions in Planning. Inc. G.S. Planning submitted the lowest price at $55,915. Architectural Research Planners came in at $57,946. Vision In Planning, Inc. was the highest bid at $71,746.
But the District is not required to pay the full $55,914 to G.S. Planning.
The Public Schools Capital Outlay Committee will offset the cost by paying 62 percent of the cost, or $34,668, leaving the District only having to pay $21,248.
“This is ideally what we should have done,” Board Member Andrew Chavez said. “This is the route we should have taken the first time.”
The Board voted four to one to award the contract to G.S. Planning, with Board member Pablo Lujan voting against it.
“The reason I didn’t vote for the Facilities Master Plan update is because I don’t like the verbiage of it,” Lujan said in a follow-up interview.
He said when the topics of consolidation and reorganization were first brought before the Board by Trujillo, the recommendation was to hire an educational specialist for the year. Lujan said if the District had gone out to bid for an educational specialist, he would have approved the motion.
“I’m not going to spend tax dollars on something the District has already spent money on,” Lujan said.
The Facilities Master Plan update was referred to as an educational specialist in previous board meetings, however, Trujillo changed the name to help offset the cost with money from the Public Schools Capital Outlay Council.
In the eyes of the Public School Facilities Authority, an educational specialist is hired to review only one school, Trujillo said in a follow-up interview. If the specialist was hired to look at all facilities in an entire District, the Council would not offset the cost.
By changing the title to Facilities Master Plan Update, the Council will pay the majority, he said.
Lujan said he thought the wording was deceptive. Calling something a Facilities Master Plan update sounds like the District is merely updating a plan, he said.
“But the reality is we’re looking at potential consolidation,” Lujan said.
The Board will hold a special meeting Nov. 25 to discuss the first steps in the update.
Trujillo said he is hoping by December, there will be town hall meetings set and strategic planning committees formed. He said it is key the committees have at least one representative from every school.
The goal is to have the update, with recommendations of either consolidation or reorganization, presented to the Board by May, Trujillo said.