Reynoldsburg City Schools

Attack Failing School Facilities… AND WIN
OSBA Conference – Nov. 13, 2018

Reynoldsburg Board of Education:

(L-R Back Row: Robert Barga, Superintendent Melvin J. Brown, Joe Begeny L-R Front Row: Debbie Dunlap, Jeni Quesenberry, Neal Whitman)

Breakout Session Presenters:

Joe Begeny

Tammy Miller

Debbie Dunlap

Chris Reed

Melvin Brown

Todd Mace

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Board President – Joe Begeny:

School Board Leadership –

• Board Member since 2014

• Board President since 2016

• Teacher-Columbus City Schools,

• Two time Teacher of the Year

• Two kids in the district, 7th and 10th grade	Joe Begeny

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Melvin Brown – Introduction

• My first official day as Superintendent was August 1, 2017.

• Our first day together as a complete administrative team was August 7, 2017.

• Teachers returned on August 14, 2017.

• Students began to return on August 16, 2017.

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Melvin Brown – Mission

• Mission—Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

• Vision—Four Focus Areas: • Student Learning
• Student Experience • Communications
• Finance

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Melvin Brown – District Demographics

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Melvin Brown – Student Demographics

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Melvin Brown –
Student Demographics (as of 11/7/2018)

• Gender	Race • Females—3,671
• Males—4,097

• Race

• American Indian—9 • Asian—737
• Black—2,978 • Hispanic—593
• Multi-Racial—824 • Pacific Islander—4 • White—2,622

American Indian Hispanic
White

Asian
Multi-Racial

Black
Pacific Islander

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Melvin Brown – Student Demographics

• English Learner Students

• 803 students enrolled (as of March 2018) • Another 800 students who are bilingual.

• 59 different

900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100
0

languages spoken EL Enrollment

2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18

Students

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Melvin Brown – THANK YOU!

Together…we can accomplish anything!

Melvin J. Brown Superintendent 614.501.1020 melvin.brown@reyn.org
Twitter: @REYNSupt

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

HVAC Crisis:

How did we get here and what did we do to solve it.

•	Reynoldsburg’s challenges were years in the making

•	Band aides vs long-term solutions (Snow Cones are not the answer)

•	Tackling the problem began in committee

•	Every expert on board to give us the full picture

•	Vetting the issue before taking to the full board for support

•	Communication is key!

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Advocating for answers –

• Resident of Reynoldsburg since 1996 • Children in the District since 2003
• Education writer for 15 years

• Web writer for IFMA for 12 years • Elected to the BOE in 2016
• Member of the Buildings and Grounds
Committee since 2017	Debbie Dunlap

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Reynoldsburg’s challenges were years in the making –

• OSFC Project brought lots of new construction/renovations to district buildings

• Follow-up and Follow-through, important in my view as a reporter

• Meanwhile, HVAC systems continued to age

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Band Aids vs long–term solutions –

• HVAC issues began to become very apparent in 2016 • Systems were beginning to fail
• Numerous complaints to BOE from teachers and parents

• Snow cones were not the answer…

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Tackling the problem began in committee –

• A Comprehensive 10-year Capital Projects was presented to the B&G Committee in April of 2017 • Completion date in 2021
• Did not address all buildings

• Began addressing the Livingston Campus and one elementary school only

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Brought experts on board to deliver the Full Picture –

• By August of 2017, the B&G Committee was made aware of the totality of the
situation

• Chris Reed brought in a panel from Dynamix to give us a comprehensive
overview of where we stood • The need was dire!
• Dynamix provided considerable evidence/data to the committee, along
with photos, charts, recommendations

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Vetting the issue before taking to Full Board for support

• Monthly B&G Committee meetings with Chris Reed and Dynamix -- full team • Knew we could not last another harsh winter without a disaster
• Energy costs were costly and unnecessary

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Making the commitment

• B&G Committee agrees to both comprehensive HVAC replacement AND LED switch as well • Time is of the essence
• Full board receives recommendation from B&G Committee and agrees to a long term fix IMMEDIATELY

• Treasurer works with BOE to pay for the multi-million dollar project • Reynoldsburg enters into contract with Dynamix in Sept. of 2017
• BOE gives full financial support in October of 2017

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Tammy Miller – Treasurer’s Perspective

Financing

There are several financing options – the 2 most viable for us were: • Unvoted GO Energy Notes
• Requires OFCC approval

• Is a longer and more difficult process

• Is generally the best interest rate, but the lengthierprocess could affect the rate due to market timing

• Lease Purchase

• Relatively quick process (started in October 2017, closed January 2018)

• District required to pledge the buildings where improvements are located as collateral

1) Bid Debt

2) Direct Bank Placement

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Tammy Miller – Treasurer’s Perspective

Financing

• Recommend using bond counsel and municipal advisor • Bricker & Eckler - bond counsel
• Bradley Payne Advisors LLC –financial/municipal advisor

• Utilized the lease-purchase option with a direct bank placement • Borrowed $13.5M for 15 years at a rate of 3.285%
• Used $2M of general fund monies • Annual Payment of $1.2M
• Payment partially offset by energy and maintenance savings

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Communication is the KEY!

• Continued monthly B&G Committee meetings to address project

• Updates at BOE meetings as well

• Community very receptive; transparency and quick response to need helped buy-in

• Continued complaints from teachers and parents BUT responsive to long term fix

• BOE continues to be the eyes and ears of project

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Debbie Dunlap – Board’s Perspective

Keys to SUCCESS

• BOE/District Partnership

• Education

• Transparency

• Realizing effect on students in the classroom

• And above all --COMMUNICATION

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Chris Reed –
No time to bid…

… but didn’t need to:

META Solutions Program – Self Funded Energy Projects • Group of Treasurers & Business Managers
• Interviewed • Evaluated
• Unanimous Decision

=

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Chris Reed –
Prior knowledge of district…

• Knowledge of RCSD before job was started

• Worked with Tony Van Gundy, META Energy Auditor

• Visited buildings, saw issues with my own eyes

• Asked to see the building automation system; very little information available with little control

• We were blind to our HVAC system, couldn’t see anything online/only at the device

• Called Scott McKenzie

• Dynamix did a full district evaluation

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Chris Reed –
Got started with no time to waste…

Dynamix came in with plan:

• They took over project

• Renovation

• Keeping the doors open (maintaining)

Have repaired or fixed over 700 maintenance requests to date through FMx

• I was the internal project manager

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Chris Reed –
Positive changes have occurred…

Current state of the district:

•	See everything online down to the specific room and can make changes

• Constant progress

• Lower energy bills

• Automatic integration with district scheduling tool

• Automatic capacity management

• Integrate into curriculum

Next 3 slides shows what I can now see and fine-tune:

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Chris Reed –
Positive changes have occurred…

Building Model:

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Chris Reed –
Positive changes have occurred…

Room layout and temperature in real-time:

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Chris Reed –
Positive changes have occurred…

Can view and control down to a granular level:

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Todd Mace –
Dynamix Energy Services

Problem:
Reynoldsburg City Schools consists of 14 different Facilities totaling 1.4 Million Square Feet

The HVAC systems were suffering from several years of deferred maintenance. The failure rate of the HVAC system components had reached an exponential rate, and the list of break-fix repair items had become overwhelming for the district. Preventative Maintenance (PM) on functioning HVAC equipment had gone to the back burner, leading to more equipment failures in the queue. The situation had resulted in an uncomfortable temperature environment for the students and the staff, high energy cost, and created a large unknown variable cost in the annual operational budget.

The district was heading into the winter of 2017 and needed to come up with a solution before the situation severely interrupted the educational process.

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Todd Mace –
Dynamix Energy Services

Dynamix Solution :
Dynamix proposed an Overall Plan with key objectives. The Overall Plan was divided into two subcomponents with their own key objectives.

OVERALL PLAN
A. Immediate – Tactical B. Long Term - Strategic

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Todd Mace –
Dynamix Energy Services

OVERALL PLAN OBJECTIVES

1.	Stabilize and improve the temperature environment for all Students and Staff

2.	Fix the variable operational cost resulting from the increasing break-fix items

3.	Eliminate the source of the increasing break-fix items by implementing a PM plan 4.	Provide a collaborative means for staff to report HVAC issues and track resolution. 5.	Openly communicate to the district staff the progress of the Plan
6.	Improve the student learning environment and safety by improving light levels 7.	Provide a fixed capital cost to implement the plan
8.	Guarantee the Energy Savings from implementing the Plan.

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Todd Mace –
Dynamix Energy Services

TACTICAL PLAN OBJECTIVES

1.	Prioritize and immediately repair all the critical break-fix items in each facility

2.	Immediately implement the PM plan on all functioning equipment

3.	Roll out FMX as the means to communicate HVAC issues and after school activities 4.	Prioritize and implement the plan for equipment replacement in each facility.
5.	Coordinate the parallel plans of break-fix repair and equipment replacement 6.	Install the IT platform to remotely monitor and control the HVAC system
7.	Replace the outside lighting that poses a safety risk to students and staff

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Todd Mace –
Dynamix Energy Services

STRATIGIC PLAN OBJECTIVES

1.	Provide the long term PM plan to protect the district capital investment

2.      Provide the long term plan to sustain the accomplished Energy Savings 3.      Provide a plan of support and training for the district facilities personal
4.	Fully implement a web based control system to allow for predictive maintenance. 5.	Provide a plan to fixed the operational cost for PM and break-fix repair items
6.	Provide the long term plan to collaborative communication with the staff

7.	Provide a long term plan to monthly inform the district Board and Administration

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Todd Mace –
Dynamix Energy Services

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Todd Mace –
Dynamix Energy Services

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Dynamix Energy Services – Todd Mace:

Empowering leaders who impact the NOW and innovate the FUTURE

Thank you for attending!

What questions do you have?