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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993 08 30 City Commission Workshop Minutes . . . ~,- JO I N'T WORKSHOP CITY COMMISSION AND SEMINOLE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD AUGUST 30, 1993 The meeting was called to order by Deputy Mayor John V. Torcaso at 7:05 P.M. Mayor Philip A. Kulbes, Absent City Manager John Govoruhk Deputy Mayor John V. Torcaso, Present Commissioner Don Jonas, Present Commissioner John Langel lotti, Present Commissioner Terri Donnelly, Present Commissioner Cindy Kaehler, Present SEMINOLE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD Superintendent Paul Haggerty Vice-Chairperson Sandy Robinson Board Member Barbara Kuhn Board Member Larry Strickler Diane Kramer, Executive Director of Facilities Planning Deputy Mayor Torcaso stated that he would chair the meeting tonight as Mayor Kulbes is recuperating from heart surgery. Deputy Mayor Torcaso stated that Mayor Kulbes originally called this workshop to find out what the School Board needed and wanted in connection with Central Winds Park. We are here to listen to your proposal and let you know your feelings. Commissioner Jonas said that before the meeting gets underway he would like to take the opportunity to mention the naming of the High School. He stated that he was at a School Board Meeting in the past and mentioned naming the High School Winter Springs High School. He mentioned that he was disappointed when he read in the newspaper that the School Board was considering naming the High School either Central Winds High School or Lake Jesup High School with winter Springs High School being the third choice. He said that this Commission feels strongly and to emphasize to the School Board how we feel as the Commission of winter Springs in naming the High School because it will be in Winter Springs. We have worked with you in the past and everything worked out which showed good faith on this Commission and the City's part on working with the School Board. We are very strong with making a point about naming this High School Winter Springs High School, we understand that you have policies and procedures like we have; but it is hard for us to understand why we can't get the High School named Winter Springs High School. We know that the boundary lines that was indicated to us at that meeting are definitely going to overlap. We would like for you to explain and make this Commission understand why we can't get the High School named Winter Springs High School. Deputy Mayor Torcaso stated that to go back farther on what Commissioner Jonas said, it was at an open meeting here one night a resident spoke about the Commission vote on naming the High School Winter Springs High School, and the Commission voted unanimously to name it Winter Springs High School. It has been our feelings since then, we would just like to make sure that . Joint Workshop City Commission and Seminole County School Board August 30, 1993 Page 2 you consider us and take into consideration that we did vote unanimously for it. Commissioner Kaehler said for clarification, that the Commission voted to recommend to the School Board to name it Winter Springs High School, we felt so strongly about it that we voted to recommend to you since it is your decision to name the High School. Sandy Robinson, Vice-Chairperson, stated that she doesn't presume to speak for the rest of the Board, but her recollection of the meeting that was held that night regarding the naming of the school, we had quite a discussion, as we get closer and closer to the ground breaking, and detenmining zone lines it will probably be an impossibility to incorporate all of Winter Springs into that school. She also stated that she is very open minded and if the Board changed their mind, she would have no problem with revisiting the option. She did mention that there has been strong support in naming the school Winter Springs High School. . Board member Barbars Kuhn stated that because of past problems she would never vote to name a school after a location or a city because of past problems. However when she looked at the other two suggestions, since we already have schools with the beginning name of Lake, she is not in favor of having another schools named Lake anything. The second choice did not seem very appropriate for a high school and that she is in favor of naming the High School Winter Springs High School. Board member Larry Strickler mentioned the problems involved with naming a school after a City because of the City's boundary. He stated that if this Commission is unanimous in their belief that that would serve this City better, then he does not have a problem with it, there is nothing magic about naming this high school other than there be good working relationship between this Board and the School Board. He stated that he does not have a problem with naming the school Winter Springs High School at all. The work session that we had, a decision was not made we narrowed it down to, at that time, to Lake Jesup or Central Winds, but if this group and subsequent groups who might serve in your stead, will work with this Board and future School Boards for any type of misunderstandings or clarification that would be needed because of naming it Winter Springs High School, I would support it 100% . Superintendent Paul Haggerty said that he couldn't recall if the Commission actually passed a resolution of support; the answer was yes the Commission did pass a resolution. Haggerty then said what he thinks might be helpful for future problem reduction would be to take another look at the resolution . Joint Workshop City Commission and Seminole County School Board August 30, 1993 Page 3 and incorporate a portion of it where the Commission would go on record recognizing that it is most likely if it were named Winter Springs High School that portions of Winter Springs City, would possibly and most likely not attend Winter Springs High School and with that understanding and possible source of confusion you would still so recommend. That way it would be in your official record and we would have something to go back to and say that the Winter Springs Commission knew fully well fram day one that not all Winter Springs would attend that High School, he said that that would be very helpful. Discussion. . Sandy Robinson stated that the School Board had postponed any formal action until this workshop tonight, so what we will do then for our next meeting which is September 14, 1993, at 3:30 p.m., we will have on the agenda then the official naming of the High School and if we can also have the addition to the resolution at that time, I'm sure that can be incorporated and the Superintendent could probably make a recommendation that we reconsider the names and maybe readjust the order. Diane Kramer said that she wanted to go over where they are with the site plan and about issues that they see that is caming up and how they have worked closely with the City Staff. Tam Chanler and Dan Trizinski of Schenkel & Shultz went over the layout and des i gn of the new schoo 1 . Chanler stated that the initial concepts have been approved by the Board. He said that the building will be three hundred and sixty thousand feet and house 2,500 students. The property is a long narrow piece of property and they are looking at two adjacent parcels for retention. He mentioned that this will be the largest structure built in Seminole County outside the Triple "A" complex. . Chanler stated that in terms of access to the site they are looking at two different scenarios, there is the curb cut off the park on S.R. 434, this is a point of contention which needs to be discussed a lot further; there is also the access off of S.R. 434 and Tuskawilla Road which would require Brantley Road to be paved which would essentially be, as we see it now, the vehicular access to a long parking lot for approximately 800 cars. There is also the second street right-of-way, which we would ask you to abandon that r-o-w, we would be giving half the r-o-w back to the property owners and the other half create a boulevard along the southern boundary of the site and that would tie in with a complete entry point off of S.R. 434 and then the access off of Brantley Road. . . . Joint Workshop City Commission and Seminole County School Board August 30, 1993 Page 4 Chanler stated that the building will be set up with the idea in mind that the school will be a community building. It is not designed purely for educational needs, it is being designed with the idea in mind it can work with the community itself, i.e. the gymnasium, the cafeteria, the media center, the auditorium, all of these can be used in an after hours capacity in conjunction with functions that the City might want to carryon or just civic functions in general. Chanler also went over the area where the P.E. facilities will be, a football stadium, a baseball field, practice football field with parking adjacent. The bus drop off will be in the front. Dan Trzincki spoke about the way the school is designed and why. Commissioner Kaehler asked how many feet of r-o-w are they proposing abandoning. Discussion. It was determined that the r-o-w to be abandoned would be about twenty feet and would take away same of the City Hall's retention pond. Chanler mentioned that he has met with the residents from Orange Avenue to hear their concerns. Commissioner Kaehler asked how close the nearest home would be to the school. Chanler said approximately 2 to 3 hundred yards from the nearest home on Orange Avenue. Kramer said that water is at the site, we will use the reuse system for irrigation, we will be extending your sewer, we are improving the lift station that is down in the woods west of S.R. 434, and we understand there are connection fees. The proposed schedule is important because this is a long project, we are hoping to bid it in the spring of 94, it will be almost two years under construction and plan to open it in the fall of 96. When the school opens, it will not be full to capacity, it is anticipated that it will be full by the year 2000. The other things I would like to hit on is the review process, the Statutes do provide that the City and School Board to agree to what a process would be. With this being as complicated a project as it is with dealing with the County on the roads etc., I felt it might be worth discussing whether we would be open to that kind of i nter local where we set down the parameters to try and streamline the process, maybe we could agree on certain parameters there that we could incorporate all the variances to be approved all at one time. These are options that I feel might be beneficial. Discussion. The Commission was in agreement to work with the School Board to help streamline the process but not to bypass the City Code. The School Board was in agreement. . . . Joint Workshop City Commission and Seminole County School Board August 30, 1993 Page 5 There was discussion on the widening of S.R. 434. City Manager Govoruhk said that he met with D.O.T. and if funds were available the road would be widened earlier than anticipated. Manager Govoruhk also said that a light may be put at the S.R. 434 intersection by the park and would only work while school was ln session and not on the weekend and during summer vacation etc. A resident from Orange Avenue asked if their homeowners association could be kept updated on the status of the project. The School Board and City Commission were in agreement. Commissioner Kaehler asked Kraner what is it that she is proposing as a shared use. Kramer said that since the beginning of the project they have said that they would put everything on the site that was necessary to the curriculum and extra curricular activities of the school and we have done that. what we felt what we could offer you and you could offer us was extras, such as if you had a major event that you wanted to spillover into the High School for parking, etc. For us curriculum wise for science, extra space if clubs wanted to meet outdoors over there, one item the school might be interested in is the swimming pool that is planned for your second phase. If you did have a POOl there we might want to work with you as far as the design so that the swim team could practice there like we do in Oviedo. Commissioner Kaehler said that when we get to the point that we put a swimming pool over there we would be happy to work with you. Commissioner Kaehler stated the City is planning to build on the new site some world class soccer fields so this might be something the school might want to incorporate. There was discussion of sharing the landscape maintenance with the City. The School Board was told that the City's Parks and Recreation Department does the maintenance and it is not contracted out. There was also discussion on shared security. Board member Kuhn asked about with the shared use areas, how would the liability be addressed. Discussion. John Horan, resident of Winter Springs, spoke about naming the school Winter Springs High School. George Barcus, spoke about the uniqueness of the new school. . . . Joint Workshop City Commission and Seminole County School Board August 30, 1993 Page 6 Board Member Robinson thanked the Commission for the opportunity to sit and discuss this project, in the spirit of the School Board we certainly encourage cooperation on all levels and this Commission. The meeting was adjourned at 8:19 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Margo Hopkins Deputy City Clerk