Thank You Oak Creek-Franklin

By: Tim Culver

On November 6, the Oak Creek-Franklin community chose to shape the future of our community’s schools by voting to approve the 2018 referendum.  We are sincerely grateful for the generous support from our community. Whether you participated all year long on the various public forums and surveys or just voted to voice your views, we sincerely appreciate your involvement in making this critical decision.  With the passing of the 2018 referendum, we will be able to deliver to our learners, and the community improved safety, security and accessibility at our schools, expanded educational opportunity for all our students, more equitable learning spaces across schools, including finally being able to separate the cafeteria from the physical education space in five schools, and address necessary maintenance throughout the district.  These will be delivered on time and at or under the budget you have approved.

What’s Next?

Work on the detailed design will take place over the next six to eight months.  Once the designs are complete and the specifications are written, the work will go out for competitive bids. Construction visible to our employees and the public will most likely start in summer or early fall 2019 with most of the work taking place across 2020. The district will coordinate construction phases and timing to cause the least disruption to our programs, including summer school.  This careful phasing will push finishing all projects into the summer of 2021. We will be sure to provide updates on the work being done on the district website.  All community members are encouraged to join our email list to receive updates directly to their email inbox. 

More Information

For a detailed look into what this referendum will fund, visit the referendum section of the district website www.ocfsd.org/referendum. 

Where we’ve been, where we could go...

​Oak Creek has a history of proactive planning to meet the facility needs of the community which includes a strong commitment to providing facilities for our children to learn successfully.  After ten years of “PLAN” and two years of “DO” this school district opened Forest Ridge Elementary and the Ninth Grade Center at OCHS.  We know from our commitment to Continuous Improvement that next, we must “STUDY” our current facility situation and then “ACT” on what we need to do next to get better.  

To achieve our overarching vision of “building successful futures together” we must provide clean, orderly, safe, cost-effective, and instructionally supportive school environments contributing to our mission of educating every child, every day to meet the intellectual, physical, and emotional demands of the 21st century.

The 10 Year Facility Study completed in May 2018 provides the School Board and community with a comprehensive analysis taking into consideration enrollments, capacities, the educational framework, vision, and cost.  The goals have been to:

1. Assure we have plans in place to address projected growth in the district.
2. Provide schools greater choices in learning opportunities to meet the needs of our students.
3. Modernize schools’ physical environments to bring all schools to equitable standards - with each other and our key competitors.

In June 2017, after a competitive bidding process, the School Board selected Nexus Solutions to help lead this study.  Since that time Nexus staff and Plunkett Raysich Architects (PRA) have assessed the following areas:

• Educational Adequacy and Equity
• Mechanical / Electrical / Technology / Heating / Cooling Systems
• Deferred Maintenance Needs
• Energy & Water Conservation / Operations Savings Opportunities
• Safety / Security
• Arts and Athletic Facilities including fields and other outdoor spaces

This 10 Year Facility Study has been done with a great deal of input from many stakeholders across the community.  There were initial community-wide listening sessions on November 4, November 14 and November 16, 2017.  Then throughout the winter, there were additional surveys and focus groups to gain clarity from the employee groups and other stakeholders on what we want for the future of our schools.  These multiple opportunities and the dialogue (and even debate) ensured an effective way of infusing fresh ideas and new perspectives into the future of our schools and the futures of our students.

As we began to formulate specifics in the spring, we attempted to gather information on perspectives from as many of our stakeholders as possible so your School Board could make decisions about approving a 10-year facility plan that meets the needs of the community.   All community members have been encouraged to join our email list to receive updates directly to their email inbox. Hundreds more have done so.   May 30 and June 5 we scheduled face to face opportunities for community engagement sessions to discern what the community may want for the future of their public schools. Several hundred community members participated and several hundred more voiced their opinions in another online survey.

A firm was contracted to survey, in a statistically valid manner, a random sample of the Oak Creek and Franklin communities.  These results were reported to the community and School Board on June 26, 2018, Board Special Board meeting & Work Study.  The School Board held additional meetings to share with the community and process all the project options provided by the Nexus and Plunkett Raysich on July 16, 2018, Board Work Study and July 30, 2018, Board Work Study.  

The list of needs started at over $100 Million, but after much community input and tough discussions with school principals and the School Board, the total of recommended projects was whittled down to $60.9 Million, which equals an estimated annual tax increase of $118 per year (or $9.81 per month) on a $225,000 home. It meets the needs of students and addresses many long-term facility needs:  

• Providing students with greater learning opportunities
• Modernizing schools’ physical environments to bring all schools to equitable standards - with each other and our key competitors.
• Significantly catching up on the backlog of deferred maintenance projects
• Improving the safety and security of our schools
• Assuring property values by maintaining a high-quality school system

On August 13, 2018, the Board of Education moved to approve a Referendum Election on the approval of bonds in an amount not to exceed $60,935,000.  This referendum to the community will be on the November 6, 2018 ballot. If approved by the community this would equal an estimated annual tax increase of $118 per year (or $9.81 per month) on a $225,000 home. The plan presented to voters in November reflects a thoughtful balance of fiscal responsibility for taxpayers while meeting the needs of students and addressing many long-term facility needs.  Does our community agree?

There will be more information to come and several other opportunities for the community to learn more about the referendum before casting their vote on November 6. Please mark your calendar for one of three upcoming community presentations:

• Monday, September 17 6:00 pm at Meadowview Elementary
• Wednesday, October 17  6:00 pm at Edgewood Elementary
• Monday, October 29 6:00 pm at Cedar Hills Elementary

You may also visit our booth at the Oak Creek Farmers market on September 22 and October 13 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at Drexel Town Square.  

The District is also interested in presenting to as many local groups or organizations as possible. If interested, please contact the Superintendent’s office by calling (414) 768-5886.

We believe a community will have the kind of schools they choose to support.  Please share your voice in choosing the future for your public schools by voting November 6.

Please join us to share your views on the future of Oak Creek-Franklin Facilities

We are trying to gather information on perspectives from as many of our stakeholders as possible so your School Board can make decisions about approving a 10-year facility plan that meets the needs of the community.   All community members are encouraged to join our email list to receive updates directly to their email inbox.  Community members can sign up for the email list on our District website under the “Stay Informed” tab. Also, we are scheduling the following additional face-to-face opportunities for community engagement to discern what the community may want for the future of their public schools.

Date	Location	Time
Wednesday, May 30	Oak Creek Community Center	4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (Pre - presentation ‘gallery walk’ will open at 3:30 p.m.)
Wednesday, May 30	Oak Creek Community Center	6:00 7:30 p.m. (Pre - presentation ‘gallery walk’ will open at 5:30 p.m.)
Tuesday, June 5	Oak Creek High School Cafeteria	6:00 7:30 p.m. (Pre - presentation ‘gallery walk’ will open at 5:30 p.m.)
Child Care will be available at all sessions

Our school district is entering the final stages of an 18-month long process of developing a 10-year facility plan.  In doing so, we have held numerous initial listening sessions with various stakeholder groups. (See previous letter: Why is the district engaging in a STUDY of facilities?)  We have held open-ended listening sessions with community members, parents, employees and high school students.   The purpose of these sessions was to listen in an open-ended way to how various stakeholders felt about their public schools.

In addition to gathering as many perspectives as possible over the past 6 months, we also now have 12 months’ worth of comprehensive engineering, technical, and architectural information about the state of your public schools - from top to bottom, border to border.

The School Board took action in December to begin to address some of the most urgent maintenance projects that will result in significant energy savings.  We committed to using these savings to pay down the bonds and lower the tax rate (See previous letter: An opportunity to improve indoor school environments and increase energy efficiency)  and, in the case of improved LED lighting,  borrowing from fund balance (versus public bonds) and repaying this ‘self-loan’. When these are paid off, we can spend more on instruction and less on operations.  In the meantime, our learners and employees will have healthier, brighter, and more comfortable schools as these projects are completed over the next three years.

The School Board will be entering the next phase of looking at many facility projects and options over the next two months.  Our goals of this study remain:

A. Assure we have plans in place to address growth in the district

B.  Provide schools greater choices in learning opportunities to meet the needs of our students

C. Modernize schools’ environments to bring all schools to equitable standards - with each other and our key competitors.

Based on our study this year, we know we have accomplished goal A!  Our existing facilities have the capacity to serve our learners for at least the next ten years.   That is good news.

However, our community has some questions to answer about goals B and C:

1. How can we thoughtfully address some significant deferred and ‘coming due’ maintenance needs over the next 10 years?
2. How can we find ways to continue to improve the safety and security of all schools? 
3. How should we address the challenge that our children's learning opportunities are hindered by the lack of or deficiencies in certain facilities, notably the fine arts and career/technical education, both so vital to their (and our) future? 
4. Does it matter that our children's learning experiences vary significantly based on whether they attend a school built in 2017 or 1967?  

We are currently in the process of analyzing options and solutions to these challenges. There will be numerous public Board and community meetings to gain more feedback on these more specific, potential solutions.  There will also be a survey commissioned to see what people want for the future of their schools. It is possible, though not for certain by any means, that the Board may choose to consider funding some of the options and/or projects via a referendum of the electors.  If they did so, what would be most important to you? What might you be willing to pay for? In the end, the voters of this community will have the kind of schools they choose to support.

If you are an employee or school family, your principal will be sharing specific ideas under consideration for your school site.  To see what is being considered for all 9 schools, please join us at one of the next rounds of community engagement sessions to learn more about what we have learned since last fall’s open-ended listening sessions and most importantly, give us feedback on next steps.  

Date	Location	Time
Wednesday, May 30	Oak Creek Community Center	4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (Pre - presentation ‘gallery walk’ will open at 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 30	Oak Creek Community Center	6:00 7:30 p.m. (Pre - presentation ‘gallery walk’ will open at 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 5	Oak Creek High School Cafeteria	6:00 7:30 p.m. (Pre - presentation ‘gallery walk’ will open at 5:30 p.m.
Child Care will be available at all sessions