Campus Upgrade Engagement Workshop Five and Six

On November 5 and 6, we held the fifth and six public campus upgrade advisory group meetings. We had over 180 parents, teachers, and students participate across both days. The content and discussion activities for both sessions was the same and both the slide deck and video recordings can be found below. On Wednesday evening an interpreter was provided to offer Mandarin interpretation for parents interested in that service.

Scroll down to find the topics that sparked the most discussion at our tables during the advisory group sessions. Below are verbatim quotes from advisory group participants ordered by the most frequent themes.

 



Gallery Walk Table Discussion

Participants were invited to spend 45 minutes visiting a variety of learning stations that contained information about different elements involved in the possible upgrade project. After 45 minutes they returned to their tables to discuss the following question, “What did you learn from the learning stations you visited?”

Disruption

  • A structured and well thought-of plan in terms of minimizing disruption and ensuring safety
     
  • Last time, concern was that there was going to be a lot of dust, but it was good to see today that they addressed how they would minimise that
     
  • Minimizing disruptions--new play space ideas
     
  • Transition plan
     
  • Site plan - very well laid out, current state & plan with avoiding lots of disruption.
     
  • The plan minimizes disruption; Singaporean ways to block the construction site
     
  • Does not want the noise to impact the high school kids
     
  • Distraction for the high school because the location of high school is in the middle of new construction of middle school and elementary school, how can help the high schooler have the best performance of college admission?
     
  • from high school area - they will try to have a transition area
     
  • temporary fields are being sourced to ensure continuity
     
  • Less disruption for high school students than we imagined
     
  • No data shown about possible harmful chemicals left in new buildings
     
  • Elementary school's design is acceptable because it is far away from current elementary school and interrupting any current site

Phasing

  • Learned about the timeline and how it will affect my children
  • Phasing sequence
     
  • Construction timeline
     
  • Timing: Much of the high school renovation could begin separately from the rest
     
  • Scope: Long time frame, massive project, disruptive and aspirational
     
  • Not enough clarity on the phasing options
     
  • Overly optimistic estimation of construction time
     
  • That there is actually an option of the elementary school being the only brand new building
     
  • That the high school is only looking at renovations and not a full rebuild.That the high school renovations are not necessarily time sensitive
     
  • There are a group of students that are missed with this process.. How can we ensure that ALL kids can benefit from this project
     
  • There are really three options; rebuild, rennovation, or a mix
  • is there a plan B not reconstruction, but renovation only?
     
  • If we rebuild now can it last for another 60 years till the end of the lease? Does it more more sense to wait another 10 years when it is close to the middle of the lease form?

Finance

  • There is no intention to increase tuition fee percentage increases as a result of this project.
  • Robust finances here at SAS; money has been saved since 2000 for the next upgrade; thoughtful planning; steady enrollment
  • Pay $200million in 15 years if we DO NOT renovate
     
  • Below average tuition increase
     
  • Financial details
     
  • Aging facilities - normal upgrade costs to maintain is so high, why not just invest in the new facility if money will be spent regardless and you will not have anything new to show for it. High costs of maintenance is a significant consideration, so is sustainability. Appreciated the consideration of more green spaces.
     
  • From Matt Rogers talk, SAS has maintained tuition increases, so there will not be any significant tuition hikes and the school has been prudent in its spending and saving in preparation for something like this renovation.
  • The finance side and the large sum that has been saved as well as the cost going forward.
     
  • We can afford to do it to a certain amount. Afraid to take so much loan, to the extent it becomes risky.
     
  • Finances are in good shape
     
  • How much the tuition fee and facility fee will be increased in the next five years?
     
  • Learning about the specifics of the financing helped a lot
     
  • No further increase in tuition beyond typical inflation increases
  • It's very costly and extravagant.
     
  • Destruction of the current assets will cost us 120M, which will wipe out the next 10 year's profit of the school. It is not clear to everyone that is making the decision.

Questions

Participants were invited to respond to the question “What remaining questions do you have related to the potential campus upgrade project?”

Business as Usual

  • What are the other options available? Sounds like the plans are;
    • Fix the $210M in deferred projects
    • Everything else is a hybrid of the full build
       
  • Have we seriously considered renovations?
     
  • What would happen after 20 years with no upgrade and we will have spent 200 million on renos?
     
  • When do we make a decision to fix something that is old or wearing out vs starting new/replacing?
     
  • Why can't we upgrade instead of rebuild?
     
  • Why can't we phase it? Why phase it this way? Why can't we reverse it so that kids that are disrupted get a benefit?
     
  • What is the net gains of all of the things added to the plans.
     
  • What can be done to sustain/upgrade the current Infrastructure?
     
  • Have we seriously considered renovations instead of rebuild?
     
  • What is the expected upkeep costs if new construction takes place vs. cost of upkeep(repairs and maintenance) if nothing done
     
  • Why has there been a plan A and no other plan or option?
     
  • It feels like a waste that we don't try to utilise our current facility more efficiently with additional facility to improve the learning environment.
     
  • No need to replace an already good facility, but incremental improvement is better.

Student Experience

  • Great to have more compacted campuses where students would take less time between classes
     
  • How do we keep this construction going AND keep learning through this process, so that we remain innovative?
     
  • How will we make sure that this is good for learning?
     
  • Larger classrooms and glass walls are distracting; not all kids learn the same way and the open concept could be distracting; some prefer walls to increase focus (like in Math)
     
  • Increased robotics and STEM spaces in the high school that can be flexible
     
  • How do we envision the traffic patterns for the movement of students during the day, after school, etc...
     
  • Why are there 6-floors for younger kids
     
  • Why can't we get win-win-win? Win for most families, not just the younger families.
     
  • Are we doing enough to prepare students to be innovators in new fields of study
     
  • Why there are less input on education programs (IXL English) and Test (MAP)

Finance

  • Concerns about the debt service ratio being too ambitious. That it seems more prudent to commit to this project in stages instead of all of it at once.
     
  • We need to spend the $200million...how much more do we need to spend to truly gain an advantage vs. waiting?
     
  • What special fundraising opportunities - like universities typically do - for new building fundraising? (understand idea of taking on debt and 3.5% usual increase)
     
  • Maintenance savings from new buildings
     
  • Breakdown of the maintenance and capex costs for the business as usual
     
  • Money should be spent more on increasing the quality of teachers and enhancing the curriculum.
     
  • How much is the budget for different scenarios? What financial risks are we taking?
     
  • What is the detailed sensitivity analysis of each of the assumptions that are billed into the financial plan?

Temperature Check

140 participants responded to the question, "what is your current feeling about the possibility of a campus upgrade?" by placing an "x" on a cool to warm continuum.

The results were coded using the following designations:

  • extreme cool
  • cool
  • neutral
  • warm
  • extreme warm

Here is the breakdown of the data collected according by designation:

  • extreme cool (21.4%)
  • cool (14.3%)
  • neutral (10.7%)
  • warm (32.9%)
  • extreme warm (20.7%)

Session Five and Six


 

Sessions Pin Up Materials

Materials during sessions

You can view drawings, diagrams, and charts we pinned up for the campus upgrade community engagement sessions

Click Here

Snapshots from Session Five/Six