I’m excited to chair LAUSD’s Facilities & Procurement Committee, where we will examine District facilities and procurement processes and projects, promote public transparency and awareness, and make recommendations to streamline and improve current policies and practice.

PURPOSE

The Committee’s purpose is to ensure the public and Board are knowledgeable regarding District procurement and facilities processes, give the public and members of the Board opportunities to discuss projects, plans, and best practices, and provide input and make recommendations to the Superintendent regarding facilities projects and procurement processes to drive progress toward the changes we want to see in the District.

MEETING CALENDAR

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS

Following discussion in meetings throughout the 2025-2026 school year, and building on recommendations from prior years, the Facilities & Procurement Committee requests the follow-up actions below, to be provided and/or presented to the Board and/or the Committee prior to the final 2026-2027 Committee meeting:

1. Pilot Pre-Engineered Structures: District staff has identified that the availability of modular structures for construction components is rapidly evolving. The Committee recommends that the District purchase and install pre-engineered structures and share lessons learned. It also recommends annual assessments of whether newly available products would support the needs and/or increase efficiency of construction projects.

2. Increase Number of Qualified Bidders on Facilities and Non-facilities Procurement: Prior recommendations have highlighted the need to increase the number of bidders on construction projects. Actions taken to date have included additional outreach and rethinking bidding requirements. The Committee requests a report with data showing the number of bidders over time and ongoing efforts to increase bidding on facilities projects. The Committee recommends Facilities Division interview leading contractors in the industry to understand why many do not bid for LAUSD projects. Additionally, the Committee would like information demonstrating how non-facilities procurement is ensuring the maximum number of participants in procurement. 

3. Hasten Housing Initiative: The Committee has received multiple presentations demonstrating the need for and viability of District housing projects. Given District delays on this work reflecting a possible disconnect with the market regarding proposal requirements, the Committee expects an update demonstrating that the District is moving forward with deliberate speed and has selected entities to move forward with projects by Fall 2026. 

4. Clarify Changes to the Bench Process: The Committee requests a follow-up presentation to provide more public clarity and transparency on non-facilities procurement, including the distinctions between contract capacity and spend. In particular, the Committee would like to further understand the historical use of “benches” and ongoing changes to bench processes. This should also include information specific to technology contracts, which have been of particular interest to the public. 

5. Expand Shade: The Committee asks the District to explore all opportunities to decrease the cost of shade, including purchasing off the shelf solutions, bundling projects for state review, pushing on state  interpretations of federal ADA requirements to ensure that shade structure over playground projects cost less than $500,000, and also provide information on other strategies for heat mitigation on yards. 

6. Conduct Facilities Construction Time Comparison:  The Committee requests a follow up evaluation to the MGT comparison study, which focused primarily on costs, to understand construction timelines, compare timelines and processes to comparable districts or municipalities, and identify areas for time savings, including changes in procurement, district reviews and approvals, accelerated work during non-instructional hours, parallel processing of approvals, and/or improvements to state law or administrative timelines. 

7. Increase Maintenance & Operations Capacity: The Committee reiterates its prior recommendation and request for an update on the District’s ability to increase capacity to provide maintenance and operations services to the aging infrastructure. The Committee requests a presentation to the board demonstrating how the District ensures custodial and other maintenance services in a declining enrollment environment. 

8. Report on Progress for Athletic Fields: The Committee requests that once the artificial turf and natural grass study has been completed and recommendations adopted by the Board of Education, that the District share next steps for field replacement projects with the Committee, including how backlogged and new projects will move forward with expediency. 

GET INVOLVED

Community engagement will be central to ensuring our committee is effective in achieving its purpose and goals. If you are interested in getting involved, please email Danielle Tenner at danielle.tenner@lausd.net.