So ask that you support HB55. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you, Jennifer. We also have three written comments in support. Members, any questions of the testifiers? It's not I will call a short recess. Okay. Um the chair's recommendation for House Bill 260 uh to develop safety training for all cafeteria student helpers. The recommendation of the chair is to defer to another date. I would like to see um that the uh the training program is being updated and something in writing from the DOE for House Bill 388. We are going to this uh recommendation of the chair will be to pass with amendments. I want to adopt the testimony of um James Gashelle and um of the DOE also for their section 2 and subsection C2 and adding sub section C3 and I think that will um bring us all up to the federal standards.
That correct James? Thank you. Okay. So um recommendation is to pass House Bill 388 House draft 1 with amendments. Chair votes eye. Chair votes I. Vice chair votes I. Senator Koha I. Senator Richards excuse. Senator Favlla I. Four members voting in the affirmative. One excused. Recommendations adopted. Thank you for House Bill 1046 HD2 relating to educational health services. Recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments and we're going to defect the date to July 1, 2050 to give ways and means a chance to look at any uh financial issues. Pass with amendments. Chair vai. Okay. For house bill 1046 with amendments. Any member voting in opposition? Any members voting with reservation?
Hearing none. Four members voting I. Recommendations adopted. Thank you for house bill 1329 and this is rel relating to uh the department of education and to develop and implement an active shooter training program in all public schools. Recommendation is to pass with amendments and we'll we'll adopt the testimony of the Hawaii State Public Charter Schools Commission to include the public charter schools. Chair votes eye. Okay. House bill 1329 pass with amendments. Any member present voting in opposition. Any members voting with reservations?
Hearing none for members all voting I. Recommendations adopted. Thank you. For House Bill 55 HD1 uh Department of Education to establish grant programs um to provide funds for planning and implementation of community schools. I'm going to defer this as the DOE is currently in in in the implementing this program. So to defer this measure members, we also have a couple of deferred measures from our last meeting that I'd like to vote on. Double sheet for that. Yes. Okay. This is from our um previous agenda. So, House Bill 960, this is relating to the school facilities authority transferring the $200 million of general funds previously appropriated to the school facilities authority. Um, the recommendation are we going to defer this again? We don't have the information we need. Okay, sorry. We're going to defer that again to March 22nd at 3:00 in this room. House Bill 961 relating to early learning.
We're also we have not received the necessary amendments from um DHS. So, we're going to have to defer decision making on this one also to Wednesday, March 22nd, 3:00 in this room. The final one uh was H bill 503HD2 relating to computer science education. Um requires a board of education to work with the department of education to conduct an analysis on the need impact and feasibility of making computer science and graduation requirement. Recommendation is to pass with amendments and we will defect the date to July 1, 2050. Chair both side recommendation is to pass HP503 with amendments. Any member voting with resations? Any opposition?
for you that the premiums are not working towards the city's goals and so so what's it going to take is it going to be another year before we actually get to a solution um I you know I I think it it's it makes sense for you all to continue with this in a in a deliberate Manner and try to think through what the right premiums are for our city but it seems clear to me that the premiums pre-2019 were working better than the premiums now so why not just come forward with a straight rollback ordinance you could do this you know immediately yeah it would take a couple meetings to get through all the process but this wouldn't take a year to figure out and then after we've reverted the premiums to the ones that actually worked they were not perfect then you could continue the process of thinking about what the right approach actually is that's all for the moment thank you thank you anybody else present that would like to address the Planning Commission Trudeau 526 North Main Street I wasn't planning to speak at this point but just to piggyback on Mr Goodman's comments um I'll make the observation that we've seen a number of planned unit development proposals near downtown for high density projects and we've also seen University begin to gobble up a whole bunch of land adjacent to downtown the university clearly sees a need for significantly more housing as do Developers for the student market and if you talk to any students you know how difficult it is for them to secure any kind of housing of any quality anywhere near campus downtown is a great place to put that housing and we're not getting it so I think the evidence is pretty clear that the problem is urgent it's significant the demand is still there and I will also urge you to please consider the problem in Urgent one and act accordingly thank you thank you anybody else present that would like to address the Planning Commission thank you very good Randall my name is Ken Garber I live at 28 Haverhill Court I agree with the previous two speakers on the urgent need for new housing in Ann Arbor but I'd like to talk a little bit about something else what happened to the gas ban ordinance you last discussed it on December 6th with upper review at year February 14th working session with the March March 6 vote those dates and two other working sessions have come and gone nothing as the Platte Road Town Homes remind us gas burning developments aren't exactly pausing while we sit on this meanwhile the following groups have come out against the gas ban DTE Energy the Home Builders Association of Michigan or hbam the national Federation of Independent Business two utility worker trade unions and nine local Builders whose letter is in your packet they all want to keep doing things the same way they've always done them but that is insane you may have read or heard about the ipcc report that came out yesterday if you haven't had time to read it I brought a visual aid suppose not the only guys should get to show pictures so um we have a remaining carbon budget of 380 gigatons of CO2 they have a 50 chance of stopping Global heating at 1.5 degrees Celsius we're at 1.1 to 1.2 degrees now 1.5 degrees will mean millions of deaths and wide ecosystem collapse goodbye coral reefs but it will avoid the worst effects of climate change given that the world emitted a 38 gigaton CO2 last year a record we only have 10 years left even if emissions level off and they're not they're still Rising this pie slide shows our remaining carbon budget in the context of historical emissions from the report quote without rapid deep and sustained mitigation and accelerated adaptation actions losses and damages will continue to increase including projected adverse impacts in Africa ldcs that's less developed countries SIDS that small island developing States Central and South America Asia and the Arctic and will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations end quote the current famine in the Horn of Africa and the flooding in Pakistan are nothing compared to what's coming this graph taken from the global carbon project the treatment Global carbon budget project shows the task we face emissions have risen steeply since 2000 they Rose one percent last year 1.3 percent in the U.S uh now the graph tells us we must get to 2-0 not Net Zero by 2040.
folks who like to call this meeting to order I've asked principal Ryan Grace if he lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome everybody here we appreciate you coming out this evening this this weather for ducks today and geese and ducks and geese is best for them we'd like to excuse Margaret God is he has to be excused this evening I'm going to turn time over to Dr right now for some recognition Awards thank you I'll turn the time over if we could have the first Mr Grace come up and make a presentation for your March BR student of the month so our BR student of the month is month easy decision is Luciano Luciano [Applause] things about it okay well I told me down to introduce himself for seconds [Music] um here I'm grateful to have this uh opportunity just to be here with all of you guys um that's it was more than enough good job so Luciano's got his whole family here tonight is Grandma and Grandpa his aunt and uncle his sister his cousins thank you so I I first met Luciano when he entered Blue Ridge he was in second grade and he came up to stay here with family and he didn't know any English at all and as as kind of years have progressed I would start seeing him in the hallway and high distance Canyon and just more and more and then when I saw he was going to be on my fifth grade class list I was absolutely delighted so he he is a remarkable kid he is sacrificed a lot to be here some of his other loved ones back home right and I I think the thing to know about Luciano is that like he is very caring he is very polite and um I just I love having around he's still he's just full of joy and sometimes when I send him places to another teacher to the office it's because I want to spread a little bit of that joy and apparently the ladies in the front office when I send you up there they really like you and they actually nominated you but I 100 percent of agree you're a remarkable kid and you deserve this okay [Applause] outstanding congratulations young man Mrs Hoffmeyer can you please come up and present the Junior High student of the month I'd like to help Zane gives Zane is our recipient this month [Applause] I'm going to read something that one of his teachers sent me I had lots of great things from his teachers but there's one in particular that I wanted to make sure I read to everybody um Zane is quiet but fiercely smart and uncommonly gentle and kind-natured he is at once a leader but also a collaborator his friends love to snag him for any group work plus I can always count on him to have an insightful response to classroom dialogue and high level answers on written word go Zane that was from Mrs bromke but was was definitely the recommended by all of his other teachers they were so excited to have Zane as our student of the month in addition to him being the student of the month Zane also was the winner of the Navajo County Spelling Bee so that is huge and he he also went on to represent Blue Ridge in the state spelling bee and did a great job so we're very proud of him and it was definitely a worthwhile award [Applause] congratulations Sam nice job Mr Webb thank you if I could have Bethany Thompson come on up Bethany is the high school student one so yeah and handle your next little award here and I'm going to read what was written about Bethany Bethany was nominated for the high school student of the month for several reasons she maintains a high jpa currently her weight at GPA is 4.6207 pretty good she has taken a heavy load of dual enrollment classes also this semester she has also stepped up in her role as senior class Treasurer in student council she's a big part of getting the Blue Ridge Pride back in our student body she's super helpful and friendly to all of her classmates and to the staff as well so thank you for all of your efforts Bethany [Applause] foreign good job we have wonderful kids and we're proud of them thank you for recognizing them for the recognition for the March be our Star Award Mr Grace will you please come up and introduce Ms demita temper so our March be our star is missed Demeter temper she's a sixth grade English teacher it's hard to find the words to say great things about Miss Temple because there's so many things that you could say about her she keeps her her grade level she keeps her class she keeps her kids everything is always front and center she is far more organized than I am and I can't think of anybody that is is as deserving of this as Miss temper we're very very blessed to have her in our school district and on our campus and our kids are blessed to have her in their lives foreign Mr Webb will you please come up make your presentation for Mr Rex all right please so thanks Mr Rex is he he is the master teacher out at the Yellow Jacket Learning Center so he oversees anywhere from 30 to 60 kids in the building and primarily the students that are in the Yellow Jacket Learning Centers here for credit recovery there to get ahead so they can take some other classes whether it's college classes or other things that would fit into their schedule so I want to and hand this to just relax and read the comments that were submitted before Mr X says he has transformed The Learning Center into a place where students know they must work and get caught up his consistent tough and fair with all students over 400 classes have been completed just in the first semester of school and this is a huge number of students who are now back on track to graduate he's a great asset to the school so thank you Mr EDS for dealing with [Applause] congratulations Rex thank you 488 courses completed now so wow that's awesome any other Dr Wright no sir all right thank you I do believe we have the best of the best here and we appreciate you and all your efforts our next item on the agenda is a presentation of the district spending report by Ms Kimberly Doug Dale good evening everyone president governing board members so this is a yearly report that's done by the auditor General's office they've been doing this since 2001.
foreign I will support the Constitution of the United States Constitution and laws of the State of Arizona and the Constitution and laws of the State of Arizona that I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same so there are two states and emotions and defend them and install enemies foreign sir discharge discharge the duties of the office the duties of the office of the district governing board of the District of report of Continental Elementary School District according to the best of my abilities [Music] so we'll have call to order here May 21st 501.
to order a regular meeting of the Board of Education March 21st 2023 at seven o'clock P.M Cindy could you please call the roll here hello president here Meadows presentler would mean please lead us in the pledge I pledge allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right Dr Hitchens are there any items to be removed from or added to the agenda tonight there are not all right favorite thing for all of us is we're going to start with some celebrations I would like to invite um Scott Bayer and Ryan Farwell to tell us about wrestling this year that's where that stays okay you guys hear me okay well I thank you for the opportunity to come here to acknowledge some of the accomplishments of our kids this year uh Ryan speak about the our Mr Farrell coach Farrell speak about the uh the boys side uh but I would like to say before I get going how proud I am to see him uh do a great job with those guys this year and their team so I haven't done that for 10 years it's a it's a a labor of love and uh he's doing a phenomenal job with it but I'm here to talk about our girls team uh it's my first year doing that and so uh it's been uh a very fun year for me it's been a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways I'm super proud of these girls that we have in attendance we have some of their teammates here as well I guess what I'm most proud of is the uh you know the process that they've committed to it they're doing something very hard and uh it's not popular yet uh it's going to be it's curls wrestling is the fastest growing sport uh in the country uh for uh in in all you know areas College uh high school and uh also youth so uh these guys are groundbreakers as have been the girls that um in our district that came before them but um we uh we've got a lot of really young kids on our team a lot of freshmen and sophomores uh and um you know most of them are pretty inexperienced we do have a couple girls here who've been wrestling through our club their homegrown Talent uh and been wrestling since they were real little and and Lily's still a little real little but um they they uh they they've represented TV for a long time and so um super proud of of these three girls accomplishments I want to say that uh one of the things I feel best about uh is being able to offer this sport to uh the 51 of our population that I think you know uh will benefit for as much as we have on on our 49 side so I did end the season survey and uh like to uh to a person they talked about the resilience they built the confidence they built the ability to you know sort of overcome obstacles and over you know conquer doubt and things like that um and really derive a deep sense of accomplishment for what they're doing so uh and I think the biggest thing that they've developed is kind of a Sisterhood uh with each other and uh that's been real special for me because the the two girls that I'm gonna talk about tonight um that have been part of our club they've been doing this kind of on their own in a lot of ways and so they've got teammates now and I'm super proud of that but the girls that I have here I'd like you guys to come stand over here if you guys would Lily and Sydney and Susu come on over you have to be seen so because they're the ones that uh end of the season are really high note I just want to give them uh the credit they deserve and so I'd like to talk about Susu first she's a senior for us um she was in my uh class during hybrid and so I couldn't put my recruiter hat on as well as I would have liked to have I had her and Brad's daughter Lily in my class and they both came out this year as seniors both had great years and and uh Susu um I knew was going to have a really great season we went we I should talk about our schedule if we went to Iowa uh and uh I you know I had to find a schedule that would accommodate our experienced girls and also our novice girls too and girls wrestling is a very similar Place throughout the Midwest and and so I knew I kind of picked out the right tournaments like you know the girls could find their way uh to have have some more experienced girls to wrestle those that had some experience uh and so I knew that Susu was going to be uh in the hunt for um you know a strong State finish when she wrestled the uh returning state champ from Iowa into overtime and this was very early in the season she's got great balance and she's really strong and uh she you know throughout the season she won uh tournament she placed in most of the tournaments she wrestled in she was a sexual champ this year and uh finished with 28 wins and and uh really could not have had a better season and we're super proud of her and so that's that's Susu paw so foreign like I said she's a product of our wrestling club her parents have you know coached and helped out a really active uh here in the community and uh I'm going to talk about City next but you know Lily grew up through the club having Sydney kind of as a role model uh and uh when Lily came into to school we talked a little bit and she didn't think we could find teammates for her you know she's she's been you know wrestling for a long time and I know she's talked to friends about wrestling but we found some teammates for her uh and she was the one reason I think a lot of them stayed out she really has a great attitude and um is a good young leader on our team and she finished with the third highest uh win total that we've ever had in the program she finished with 44 wins this year uh and um she was a champion at uh Pontiac a really big tournament uh down there she was she placed at our tournament in Wisconsin uh she placed in our term in Ohio and she was third at sectionals and she had to beat some top ranked wrestlers to to qualify for state and when she was there she uh placed fifth medal down there so really great season for her let's give her a hand too and uh the last wrestler is kind of been our poster drill for the season she hates that I'm bragging on her right now I'm about to brag on her she's one of the most humble people I know uh but uh she wrestled uh obviously at our club through the middle school she started on the varsity at the middle school and probably would be good enough on most teams to start on the boys team um she uh his she came into the year already having one two state championships uh one with the iwcoa well I should say last year and here's what she's done since last spring if I could lay it out and she's going to start turning red I know that but uh you know since last spring she won a Fargo National Championship uh which is in the freestyle the Olympic style so she's a national champion she got a chance to compete with Team USA at uh Buenos Aires Argentina and silver medal there this last early summer and then later in the Summer she had the opportunity when the opponent ahead of her went down or her um the girl that made uh the world team um went down she got to sub in for and she placed fifth in the world in Rome this summer and uh later on beat that uh same girl in a flow wrestling who's number one competition so she has the number one ranking in the country right now um and she won every tournament we took her to not not shocking uh and she won another state championship this year beating a girl who called her out on social media uh and was the number one girl uh at 138 she went hunting for Sydney and Cindy Sydney uh took her out so it was pretty pretty uh pretty exciting uh so it was the best uh finals match in in the I should say finals uh she came away Victorious and maybe the most impressive thing is she was in helping with the kids club the next day she came in and um was working with her little brother who's in our in our kids club there's a great picture of her out there on the internet helping a little girl in our club that same day on her knees kind of talking her building her up she came to RMS with me in October and had a line of you know 50 kids out in the atrium when I told him that you better get your autograph from Sydney Perry because he's going to be the Olympic ladder here coming up so um you know they flocked over to her and she's just kind of you know been everything we've asked her to to be for us and so super proud of her uh these girls and every girl on our team so um yeah just happy to be here foreign [Applause] hi I'm Ryan Farwell um again I'm really appreciative of you guys uh brought us down here and thankful that I get to acknowledge our season that we had and uh some of the guys that had uh run there at the state tournament we have one of them here tonight and I'll talk about him here in a little bit we had some scheduling conflicts with practice and stuff like that as they moved on to another season but overall uh this year we had a great year we uh we finished uh in top three in almost every single tournament that we've been in uh and then we had uh some individuals make a run down the state nine sectional qualifiers and then four uh that moved on to the state tournament um all four of them are the ones that I'm going to be talking about here tonight and all four of them were team captains for us um they've they have been there in a pivotal role of creating the culture in our room they lead by example they've committed themselves to this sport uh and and they do a lot of right things and of course that's that's why they're captains um they they are true leaders of our team uh they they've done some special things and it shows in the results that they get at the end of the year um we have two captains that are going to be moving on they're not here today um but those two are going to go down as probably some of the top Pro the top two most successful wrestlers in Batavia wrestling history uh Kaden federoff ended his career with 152 wins the highest that any uh Batavia wrestlers had he had the highest single season record at 49 and he's a four-time state qualifier three-time State Placer was in the state finals and a four-time conference champ again he couldn't make it here tonight uh then we had another senior moving on that was kill Andrews again uh guy who came through the club and wrestled from his freshman to senior year he ended with 140 wins overall he will be second I believe overall in wins was a three-time state qualifier finished in the top eight is junior year and then finished with a state medal at sixth place um another one we have is returning uh that will be Aiden Huck he's uh he's of course a junior so he's going to be a senior next year he'll be a two-year Captain um he's now a two-time state qualifier and uh his junior year finished in the top eight uh the one that was able to come today you know I'm gonna have you come up uh this is eno Garcia again Junior captain of our program uh Eno here had a little bit late start coming back from an injury had some adversity at the start of a season um but he handled it like a true professional would again he led as an example in our room and he never made an excuse he he came out he competed with the top kids in the state immediately stepping on to the mat even after not being able to be there with us for the start of the Season he was in the finals of almost every single tournament except really the state tournament where he ended up placing sixth uh Eno also just joined a pretty elite club in Batavia wrestling where he recorded at the state tournament technically his 101st win but he is now a centurion where he's recorded a hundred wins as a Batavia wrestler so we're we're very lucky to have two Representatives that have been captains for us and that are returning next year and can return and can continue to build on that culture and we're really excited about our season this year and what these guys returning can do so thank you for having us and Eno Garcia [Applause] so I think I might have made a comment last time the wrestlers were here but um I grew up in Iowa and so um Iowa it's like if you hear like Indiana everyone grows up with the basketball in Iowa wrestles and I wrestled for a couple years wasn't tough enough so I had to move to an easier sport football but uh I just want to say that yeah wrestling is the toughest sport that I've seen in the mental toughness it's competing the discipline you have to have I still remember going out to that mat and looking the person the eye and if you don't have a good day you're going to end up on your back there's no one you can blame but yourself so I want to say that I'm sure your parents are very proud of you your coaches are proud of you our community is proud of you and I do want to speak to the women I've been following you very close and you know your legacy of what you're achieving is fantastic and you're I'm sure you're we're all proud of your accomplishments but I think your greatest Legacy As you move on will be that next Generation I can speak to my neighbor I have a neighbor's daughter who's 10 years old she's in the kids club she's been looking for an outlet and I know she's worked with some of the girls in the front we're all here and the impact it's had on her mental Outlook her physical Outlook her parents changing her demeanor her confidence so someday you'll be able to come back very soon and women's wrestling will just be like any other Sport and you're the Trailblazers that are going to establish that for the next Generation so I just want to thank you for all you're doing for those next Generations that are going to come behind you so congratulations on that thanks Aaron next item on our agenda is public comments did we have uh public comment sign up we do have one okay so uh welcome to everybody tonight um anybody else that wishes to address the board please let Cindy know right now because we're doing public comments uh just a reminder that in general we don't answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comments it doesn't mean we don't take your concerns or comments seriously we really value active Community participation in District Endeavors and we encourage people to engage with the district we have a number of channels designed specifically for that we're not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district so we don't engage in District business individually but if you have specific questions or you'd like a follow-up please let us know there's a way on the website or you can let us know tonight so I'm going to pass it over to Holly dieterman who's going to explain the procedures for public comments thank you President we have one public speaker Bob McQuillen Bob would you please come to the podium we have a three-minute timer that will certainly be displayed up on the front board we asked you to speak to the group with Civility and respect as we will address you thank you thank you again my name is Bob McQuillen and I live in Batavia the district's position on the April 4th referendum if approved would be that it is not an increase in school taxes it has promised that debt payment will remain at 9.1 million dollars per year if the referendum fails Property Owners will receive about a 10 percent decrease in the school taxes in my case that would be about 630 dollars per year quite a savings the tax savings would take place at the same time the current bonds are retired my question is why is the district saying that a yes vote is not a tax increase if a no vote leads directly to a 10 percent School tax decrease doesn't it make sense that a yes vote is a hidden tax increase I have always been taught that a higher number is an increase over a lower number six six thousand and three hundred dollars versus five thousand and six six hundred and seventy dollars is an increase it seems people it seems some people don't agree with that concept bottom line I would like to know if each board member thinks a yes vote is a tax increase or not your reasoning would be also appreciated I realized that school board members don't normally respond to public comment during their meeting but I believe the community is very confused over this issue and and because we vote for each board member individually it is important that each board member's reasoning is heard secondly during the league of women's voters last week it was revealed that from reports filed with the state of Illinois for the previous and current election three companies have contributed twenty one thousand dollars of twenty one thousand three hundred dollars that the I'm just going to call them the yes group has raised all three companies currently or will possibly have large contracts with the school district if the referendum passes while legal do you believe it is ethical for an organization with a direct benefit from a referendum passing should be able to con contribute such a large percentage of a campaign committee's funding I have other questions but I believe Mr Mathias plans to address those later in this meeting thank you and again I would appreciate comments from each board member um but I know it's not normal uh next item on our agenda is our BPS Partners I'm going to invite our student ambassador thank you ladies yeah thank you so much [Music] um so we just have a little quick presentation today um first I want to say good job to all of our winter sports for having really successful seasons and for representing Batavia so well all right so first of all girls soccer boys tennis baseball and softball and the boys lacrosse season has started and they've already had a few games and hopefully they'll continue to do well and also a big congrats to girls track and field and voice track and field for winning decane conference both varsity and jv1 Decay conference and there were some new records set and some amazing accomplishments Rock The Runway recently put an amazing show out so I'd recommend anyone who hasn't seen it yet to go see it next year because they had some truly Innovative designs and it was such an amazing show to watch um black student union and Equity Justice Community organized an incredible event commemorating black history last month we had amazing speakers and the students loved it International open circle celebrated Persian years today and we'll be talking more about it on Wednesday for cultural education um the picture below is a decoration we did on the lrc today thank you next item I would like to invite Todd Swanson president of the Pea to the podium good evening members of the board last month I came before you with a message of Celebration this month I am focusing my comments on the topic of gratefulness especially to you as members of the board these last few years have seen our world in education turned upside down from a global pandemic to an ever-increasing threat of a catastrophic teacher shortage in the near future we are still here educating our students and shaping their lives this reality has many contributing factors our amazing staff of certified Educators and our dedicated support Personnel throughout the district are on the job each day no matter what challenges they may be facing outside of their classroom walls connecting with their students pushing their limits of thinking and striving to provide a place of safety for varying thoughts ideas and emotions another contributing factor that has kept us moving forward is you as a board there's no secret that there have been bumps in the road that in full disclosure could have divided us and impaired our working relationship month after month you have heard from me and other Educators speaking on a vast array of topics from where I started as ba president five years ago to where we are now I feel that this board has made strides to move from hearing to listening and instead of automatically accepting to questioning have outcomes always been agreeable absolutely not but I do get the sense that in most situations we have not only been heard but listened to as well and that can be substantiated in the comments that you make as board members and the ensuing actions that you take case in point will be when Lisa and I both talk about our follow-up from the June 21st meeting we had together last summer we will be providing you with a requested update that came from being able to have difficult conversations with you as a board with smt and with ba leadership around trust collaboration and communication that again will come up a little later in our meeting what I'd like to address now in relation to gratitude is your willingness to use what for some of us has been a completely new different or underutilized lens and that is the lens of Dei as a board you've begun to ask the questions of whose voice is not being heard in your decisions in what areas of our district are we falling short in regards to supporting all of our subgroups what do we need to prioritize and going forward with this focus in mind this work has been messy unstructured and at times seemingly unproductive but we are at least having the conversations that show your willingness to look at all of our students and staff and if we are falling short asking why it is and how we plan to fix it there's still a very long road ahead of us as a district but at least we're on the road together as a board you have made that commitment to educational equity and for that as a Bea we are grateful there are some in our community that feel that this focus is distracting or leading us in a way that we shouldn't be going as a district this leads me to another example being grateful to you as a board and that is that you recognize that the Educators and support Personnel in this District are the experts in what it takes to educate the students of Batavia you know that even if we had the best textbooks on the market our students would get little benefit from them if they were not in a place of social emotional stability that would enable them to begin to not only take in the information but begin to synthesize it in a useful manner establishing relationships building trust guiding supporting diagnosing and educating takes time skill and professional judgments that our staff makes over and over each day day in and day out you realize that teaching is so much more than divulging information to a class that in itself is made up of a diversity and skills diversity and Readiness to learn diversity and traumatic experiences and diversity in everyone's state of social emotional health in fact what we don't see that which exists on the inside of our students is as diverse as the individual faces we see looking at lettuce each day in our classrooms there are also some in our community that say we need to stop worrying about how kids feel or protecting their feelings to get back to the basics because our test scores are drip are slipping you'd be hard-pressed to find an educator anywhere that would disagree with the statement that our kids are more than a test score picked from one moment in time but there is truth in the fact that scores are dropping when you look at year-to-year Trends in fact based on the data for the Illinois school report card this trend could be verified however I think that when it looks at data all the data needs to be looked at to help make a complete picture yes scores in Batavia have dropped on iar and sat over the past few years but so have they in the districts that we seem to always be comparing ourselves to like Geneva and St Charles in all three District average scores have been going down from even before when the pandemic hit in regards to sat in both English and math all three of these districts had scores decrease at this exact same amount from 2017 to 2022 English scores saw a four percent drop in all three districts and mass scores dropped five percent in Batavia and Geneva and six percent in St Charles for iar the drops in all three districts from previous to from prior to the pandemic until now range from nine percent for Batavia 16 drop in Geneva and 18 drop in St Charles for ELA similarly drops were seen in math as well on iar Batavia with a 13 drop Geneva 9 and St Charles 7.
hi I'm Brady Johnson I'm a junior at West Chicago High School I got first at state in the hunter backstroke I've been swimming for roughly 10 years now I started in this pool actually when I was like six or seven years old then I took it out competitively and I've been doing it ever since I've always wanted to be at the top competitively I've always been wanting to race the best people be at the top starting from a pretty young age about nine or ten is when I got my first state record and when I achieved that my coaches and everything told me that I could be one of the best here post covet it was just really hard for everybody to stay in the zone and get back into the swing of things and what helped me was thinking about my end goal and what I wanted to achieve I started making goals for myself throughout the season and practices and pushing myself every day and winning state was definitely a goal for me if you're struggling with motivation set a goal it's going to take sacrifices and effort to get there but in the end the satisfaction relief you're going to get out of that will be worth it touching the wall and seeing my name first on the board was an amazing feeling for me especially after the hard training we had during the season looking up into the crowd and seeing my parents and even other teammates screaming I had a little smile on my face towards the end even after my race I got out of the pool I walked over my coaches they gave me a big hug I looked up at the screen and I kind of gave myself a laugh and it was kind of just like that feeling of relief being able to be state champion being first in the swimming program to win state for guys was definitely a really good feeling especially looking up as I was little looking up at this record boards over there seeing all these names and my name being up there is just life-changing I still haven't really gotten over it laughs [Music]
President Albert here. Please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Miss R, would you please recite our mission statement? Sure. Our mission is to empower each student to positively impact the world for a bright new future. Thank you. Um, next up is public comment and we have one tonight. Uh, the topic is Dr. Vaughn's resignation and uh, description is a a description of Mooney Elementary's reaction to this uh, with Gretchen Cork. So, Gretchen Good evening. Uh my name is Gretchen Quirk and I am a kindergarten teacher at Mon Elementary. I am here tonight to express the sadness that the vast majority of our staff is feeling at the news that we received last Wednesday morning that our principal Dr.
yes all right let's call the meeting order at 701 um applies for the Pledge of Allegiance allegiance of the United States under God indivisible with liberty and suggestions [Music] Teresa president Michelle here okay here Gladys here Lauren here Jesse here bridgen here Julie here Ralph Rosen Elle and Luisa here okay the recognitions public participation the board welcomes public participation and ask our Commons be limited to three Mills the public may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the war will not permit any expression of personal complaints of inflammatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students ignore against any person connected with the damn Area Public School Systems so we have um thank you very much thank you for the opportunity and thank you for your service comment I would like to ask a question to any for the record to any of our board members that you guys believe and not to answer the proposed new Charter School would that be under the jurisdiction noticeable we just we don't answer in public episodes um you know people many other constituents and citizens and Improvement myself with people worry disappointed because I think we feel that we have it put the foxes in charge of the in-house okay and what do I mean by that that's what I mean by that is that we elected you guys or some of you guys are commented to defend and to protect our safety net but some of you guys are cheerleading to open up HR School endeavor something that you guys will not have an oversight um why you guys are doing that that's like the service to our children into our community that you guys are cheerleading for something that you guys not have not going to have no direct oversight of and we wonder why people don't believe in the politicians because they all have an agenda and you guys don't have the guts to stand up as good soldiers just to get the water report the God is in power that's really sad and I'm sad because um anyway it's coaching Korean and I can offer my country that so Neo liberalism economy that everything is privatized it is said that we that are teams are helping to destroy this country 30 seconds thanks so much and that it makes me sad so I don't call a day that he is my brothers I go there lettings the name only that's very sad and uh you guys would be done Sunday but remember the dishonesty [Music] will remain thanks so much it was only one name on the list anybody else in the audience that wants to speak oh boy once twice thank you all right just quotient of the Board of Education through the items on the consent calendar exhibits 23-51 through 23-55 as recommended seconds sorry it was about the minutes the special board meeting the regular board meeting curriculum committee sites and Facilities commitments what should I mean by Bridget yes second second by King and discussion all those in favor all right goes interceptions educational representative student Representatives any student representative here I don't care come on up Kayla all right this looks like I'm the only one [Music] hello good evening news thank you for allowing us to speak on behalf of the Alternative Center for us on Thursday March 23rd it should be administering that 11th grade sat the SAT is coordinated and aged by Kyle tripola thank you Kyle for organizing the ace students and staff to be able to participate in practice this important test on the same day coffee occurred karagos Beauty Greg pie Santini Haley are strong and Ashley Montclair will take the 9th and 10th graders for White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield Connecticut the East 12th graders will take a trip to um Naugatuck Valley Community College Waterbury and Danbury campuses Diana Denardo and Anthony Hopkins before the campuses with the eight seniors a screen chemistry students will visit the Norwalk Aquarium on Tuesday March 28th this trip will introduce them to the Aquatic natural world and was biodiversity in addition to regular admission to Exodus throughout the aquarium students will experience a 4D theater showing BBC's Earth aren't close Blue Planet 2 April is the starting National poetry month and on Monday April 3rd 25 artists and Poets from a specific trip to Washington Connecticut to hike at the Hidden Valley Reserve inspired by the beautiful Woods the Chicago River and the transcendental groups that span the railing on the thorough Bridge so you're close by the day hiking and creating each person takes an annual poetry pack since 2017 and this is the first year that our students will join them to sketch nature in the beautiful meeting with the countryside it is my pleasure to recognize our two February students of the month for their outstanding efforts both in the classroom and in our Ace Community this month's winners are I can't pronounce his middle name I'm sorry um Jason Ordonez and Haley Sanchez Ace would like to recognize our February Ace of cards winner Justin Palma for his caring nature and willingness to help others February 8th of Spades winner for hard work is Genesis anovar a staff recognized two capable Award winners for willingness to take on challenges concerned for others ability to work with others and willingness to commit to a project this year's recipients are co-ferrantino and Ciana Rodriguez lastly the eighth Ace staff also selected two students for the superintendent school Genesis and duhar and Tyler's chairs are selected due to their completion of community service academic success and Leadership service to the school Community congratulations to all of our winners thank you for thank you all for allowing us to share what is going on with our Ace family and have a nice evening stay healthy and remain a strong thank you have a nice day everyone see you happy birthday is there any representative representatives from Hamburg High School um uh I likely to take a motion to table action negative a until our next meeting we have a further clarification one since the meeting was just last night it would be beneficials until our next meeting to present report okay so motion by all to the table action item a is there a second [Music] pretty much everyone yeah Teresa all those in favor [Music] um impose interceptions okay one extension so we will table that item until that's Cooper he read uh motion B m w three Academy I believe that the Board of Education approved 2023 2024 school calendar in accordance with exhibit 23-57 page 22.
um that means rich countries must zero out by 2035 at the latest to give poor countries more time to catch up in development and again this is just for a 50 chance of 1.5 degrees for a higher chance it's Net Zero by 2030 the a20 target we're not going to get there if we listen to the dtes and the hbams of the world if we do the line will go like this or this not this thank you thank you is there anybody else present that would like to address the Planning Commission do we have anybody in line virtually there are currently two hands raised the first hand raise is Shane Thomas Salvatore Gunther um Shane you have permission to speak thank you I would just like to speak about the Pud um on uh sorry I forget the street name of the crush me Squad and I just like to say that I represent a student organization on campus and we are incredibly Pro the Pud to increase the number of Apartments because as we all know in operation housing crisis countries and housing crisis we need as many apartments as possible there will be a dedicated public hearing for the 721 South Forest this is a time to address well I'm so sorry yes Church oh wait is he talking about church or Forest sorry you can continue on they are right they are very close to each other our club yes um I guess I can just talk about both then so I just we very much support the addition of apartment buildings because of course we're in housing crisis we're in a climate crisis and solution to both is dense housing which this would very much be um and so I just would like to say they're very much urge you guys to approve this um yeah that's all thank you still a second hand raised yeah our next Cambridge excuse me our next hand raised is Alex Lowe Alex lo you have permission to speak hi this is Alex Lowe calling in uh from ward 3 to enter the statements of several previous speakings first we desperately need more more housing in and here downtown we desperately need to uh to reduce our CO2 up fortunately these these goals will work in Canada more downtown housing will mean shorter commutes for people less needs to drive long distances Etc unfortunately and fairly counter-intuitively Banning new natural gas hookups within the city limits may have the opposite of the intended fat I would absolutely love to uh to bad new natural gas hookups and indeed and indeed eliminate natural gas altogether and we need to do that at the state level at what's going to happen if we do it at the city level is is that it will be more expensive to build in the city which as Mr Goodman's discussion uh on premiums already pointed out it uh is causing a reduction in a new construction and so people uh people will end up building new housing out in the townships where they have the natural gas uh over that and where people are forced to thrive into the city I would love to uh to see National I guess banned all together but we have to do that at the federal level and at the state level doing it with it within the city will harm our planet our planet goals thank you thank you anybody else and I'm sure there are no other hands at this time okay thank you all right we'll we'll move on to um our regular business section and begin with 8A which is the Platte Road townhome site plan for City Planning Commission approval Wetland use permit and Landscape modification this is for 3680-369-63746 and 3788 Platte road while the petitioner is coming up to start their presentation we do have uh item seven which is public hearings for the next meeting oh I'm sorry I skipped right over that thank you for correcting me at the next regular session of this body on April 4th at 7 pm there will be a proposed project at 2929 Plymouth Road University of Michigan Credit Union is presenting a site plan and special exception used for City Planning Commission approval it is a proposal to build a 4740 square foot building with three drive-through Lanes 22 parking spaces on a one acre site it is currently zoned office a special exception use is requested for the three drive through teller Lanes okay thanks alrighty now we will move on to 8A on to the Platte Road Townhomes so first we will have a petitioner presentation for 10 minutes on the project good evening Commissioners my name is Andy milia I'm a development consultant here on behalf of Trowbridge Holdings the petitioner also with me tonight is Mr Anthony Randazzo who's the principal of Trowbridge Holdings John Curry who's our civil engineer and Bill Jarrett who's our Architects over here happy to answer any questions I've got a very quick five-minute PowerPoint which I think will answer some of your questions we've enjoyed working with your staff over the last several years on this project have made significant process progress and a pleased that they're recommending approval tonight what we're designing is 78 78 townhome unit development on Platte Road quickly the the profile developer Mr Randazzo has over 40 years of experience in residential and commercial buildings high quality single-family homes apartments shopping centers as well as office and industrial building on the the photos on the right are three photos of recent and current projects the Hazelton and Royal Oak Town Homes of Caswell and Troy and the Dakota and Birmingham all very high quality in communities that are similar to Ann Arbor that have both an urban downtown and a Suburban Arts outskirt so very familiar with developing in these types of communities and Mr Randazzo has also built several projects at Ann Arbor as well in the last few years the development team is uh Mr Randazzo's company Bill Jarrett Jared Architects civil engineers here as well tonight John Curry from PA and landscape architect Verdi Architecture Firm a summary of events as I've indicated this project started actually almost close to four years ago in 2019 we worked through the Wetland issues on the site conducted a market study looked at different concepts again all working in conjunction with with your fine staff we originally had a project that was 43 units that was submitted um recommended and then we've gone back and added some density to it still all fitting within the same footprint as the original just made the units a little bit uh smaller but all fitting in the same footprint so what's before you tonight is the site plan approval Wetland and Landscape plan for 78 unit townhome development the project is where the red arrow is is on the west side of Platte Road north of I-94 freeway did a little bit of a older area of town and we think that this will help Revitalize the areas well with building a quality townhome project in this area here is again the site west side of Platte Road heavily treated on the south side we'll be preserving those trees on the south side we are removing a few Landmark trees and then replacing those and we're also contributing just under fifty thousand dollars into the preservation area so you'll see on the Landscaping plan it'll be enhanced and we're taking uh nice use of the site and incorporating it protecting the Wetland areas on the site as well uh here is the plan overlaid on the aerial again you can see the protection on the South Side the protection of the Wetland and on the property a nice continuation of buffer around the West End of the property and Landscape treat area on the east side as well um landscape plan these are additional enhancements to the site in addition to a lot of the vegetation that will remain on site architecture is modern high quality design these are what's called stack Town Homes which are three stories with parking on the grade level and then two stories of living space above they're what's considered a two-car Rod tandem garage rear and side elevations again the use of high quality materials and aesthetically a very nice looking product that will fit in well in harmony with the site uh we have two concepts one's a 39 foot concept and one's a 42 foot concept multiple uh three bedroom two bath units you can see the first floor again on the right is uh is parking in the garage second floor and third floor would be living spaces uh with uh bedrooms on the third floor and accommodation of bedrooms and living area on the second floor 42 cotton foot concept is just slightly larger and similar configuration uh unit sizes are 1250 square feet 1350 square feet so we we're we're bringing a product into the market we think that is is badly needed in this market it's not a luxury high-rise apartment um it's not a 700 foot apartment it's it's a very marketable unit that will track families that could attract graduate students but it provides a housing need currently needed in this market in this location sustainability is very important to us we reviewed the letter from the sustainability office and they provided several recommendations we're pleased to incorporate many of those recommendations into this plan specifically all the garages would have the conduit outlets for future EV charging stations in in each unit high efficiency appliances in the units LED lighting and all public lighting areas uh we would encourage use of public transportation although we're providing garages and cars and and feel that many people will still need that we're encouraging uh the bus route and would offer discounted passes to those people that choose not to have a car on site although this might not be as popular in 2023 it'll become increasingly popular and we're happy to write that into a lot of the lease offerings designated area for compost will be designated on site and there'll also be minimized gas use the best that we can that's practical in today's environment so we would mandate electric cooktops electric stoves and electric dryers would be mandated for all the units were available for any questions both of myself or Mr Randazzo or the architect or the engineer thank you deaf presentation Mr Chang uh yeah I think the developer did an excellent job of making the presentation not hear me um I would just add just a couple of items that just to touch on that there is a landscape modification as part of this application they are planting the trees that are required they just can't fit in the public right-of-way so they're going to plant them behind the sidewalks they're also asking for a wetland use permit that's really just pouring under one of the wetlands to make connection to the sanitary sewer in both cases the staff Reviewer is supported these modifications to the site plan I'm here for any questions you may have thank you okay we will open the public hearing for this project this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes we'll first call on people who are here and then people who are remote um for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-663-41226 City staff will select colors that are raised their hands um and uh you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak please move to a quiet area for either method please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anybody present that would like to speak on this project you can come up to the top you get three minutes and just state your name and address um my name is Phil Hoon I live at 315 for Williamsburg which is across from this proposed building um I was actually here August 16th uh last year for this and at that time I did I mentioned a couple of things at that time and one of the major issues that we see within our town homes that we have there are 426 Townhomes across the street from this development beyond that there's two there's a middle school in an elementary school and so there's a major traffic issue that I perceive especially when I'm trying to leave the our Williamsburg entrance that um I feel that you need to address I'm currently as I said there's 200 427 Town Homes at Colonial squares is um currently there's actually two subdivisions that have just been built along Platte Road near Michigan Avenue and there are four more subdivisions going down Platte road that are in that are in design at this point so traffic coming in and out of Platte road is going to be horrendous as far as I'm concerned it's going to be increasing throughout the years as as these developments happen and this also affects the people who are going to be living in these townhouses is they have to get out and I believe that the way it's been architected is that they're going to be basically mirroring our exit from Colonial squares and it will be you know across the street from that so I don't know what your intentions are in terms of traffic if you're going to be putting a light in or whatever is going to happen but I would like to find what your your intentions are for dealing with traffic um also at the time I mentioned um that there are 90 Acres of woods that are scarlet Mitchell Woods and there's current traffic of animals actually going from the wooded area from um Scarlet Mitchell Woods all the way over to um Mary Beth Doyle Park and so um there's going to be some issues along the animals too which I also mentioned that thank you thank you is there bunny anybody anyone else present who would like to speak on this project thank you turkey Randall I know what you're thinking of course um but um last year I suggested that planning staff calculate the greenhouse gas emission impact of each new development as part of the review process that didn't happen but that's okay I took it on as a personal responsibility I also said developers should have to model and disclose their building's energy use intensity and hasn't happened either but it's still possible to make a reasonable emissions estimate so Pratt Road this is morning nerd alert here this is going to be extremely boring um as you just heard there are two floor plans one 1250 square feet 11350 let's assume half of each that's 101 400 square feet Consumers Energy sites a 52.9 kilo BTU per square foot annual energy use from gas consumption for new Mid Michigan low-rise multi-family buildings multiplied by this Project's Total Building square footage you get 5.4 million kilo BTUs or 58 000 therms now multiply this by a greenhouse convert greenhouse gas conversion factor of 13 kilograms per therm which takes into account Upstream methane and CO2 emissions that gives 702 metric tons CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions a year just from gas combustion in these 78 Townhomes now this will be partially offset because some current commuters will move here semcog reports that the average Ann Arbor commute is 19.3 Miles let's assume a net of one person a day commuting an average round trip distance of 38.6 miles to and from Ann Arbor for half of these 78 units that's 1505 miles a day or 31 300 miles a year excluding weekends and 30 miles per gallon it's just over 13 000 gallons of gasoline they emit 11.3 kilogram CO2 per gallon higher than the EPA estimate of 8.9 kilograms taking into account Upstream emissions that gives you 147 metric tons CO2 emissions that you're saving by converting commuters to residents that's 150 emissions from burning gas in these furnaces total net emissions impact from Plant Road Townhomes just from these gas furnaces 555 metric tons CO2 equivalent emissions a year uh that of course does not include emissions embedded in building materials or indirect emissions from Dirty power generation from DTE just from gas we are putting almost 600 net metric tons extra emissions into the atmosphere each year for decades to come um so I have 30 seconds um so I've got to use it of course um Alex Lowe called in and said we can't have a gas ban because developers will flee Ann Arbor on Moss there's no evidence that this has happened in any of the 50 odd communities that have adopted gas ban ordinances Ann Arbor is a very desirable place to live developers know this I don't think we're going to see a surge of Township projects and as far as cost goes basically for new construction they're at parity or close thank you thank you is there anybody else present that would like to speak on the Platte Road Project hello Scott Trudeau again 526 North Main Street um so to also follow on the previous commenter who brought a lot of math to the table one of the things I think to keep in mind is yes the emissions from a commuter in the township is not as much as the emissions from a gas heated home however those people who are going to move to the townships and outside of the city limits will also live in gas heated homes because our neighbors have not and they're not considering an electrification ordinance and the economics of the electric coupons and other things are tricky I think if we were talking single-family homes the evidence is pretty clear that over the lifetime of the building the economics are pretty good and like we would probably see just as many single-family homes if we required electrification or not right now I think when we talk higher density construction and I think if any of you have talked to people trying to build larger more substantial projects that are electrified in the city the economics are very different and so um there's a very significant risk especially over the next decade or so that if we mandate full electrification for any new construction we will be driving people to live in other townships because we're not going to just make people decide not to exist they're going to want to live somewhere and if we're not building homes within the city limits that allow for shorter commutes they're going to live somewhere and if they're going to live somewhere it's going to be heated in a gas heated home or a large single-family house which we don't have a lot of room to build in the city or even near the city at this point so I encourage you to really weigh that seriously because we are responsible for the effects of our decisions whether the effects happen outside of the city limits thank you thank you best present who would like to speak on this project anybody in line virtually at this time we have one person with their hand raised Alex Lowe you have permission to speak this is Alex Lowe again calling three just don't just throw away from the uh actually glad to see the positive improvements that have been made on the planet since it's previously came plan information and especially happy to see the increase in in your account although I do wish there could have been more I would I would have liked to have seen some further improvements though most notably a plan for pedestrian connection to the green space behind the development and the reduction in the impervious surface on this property the former would reduce it would improve Park's access not only for residents on this new property but also for others in the areas such as those on the Colonial Square Cooperative right across plant since it could connect this property to both Pilgrim Park and Marybeth Doyle Park without the noisy few phone walk alongside the latter of course could be achieved by reducing wood to the main driveway within this development and getting rid of the unnecessary setbacks from the main driveway to each individual garage this would also provide some more uh Green Space within within the development while I believe they could and should be more units here and less space dedicated solely to Motor Vehicles if this is the compromise you ever can get I believe it's better than betting the space continue to walk I also want to thank the Developers for listening to my previous comment about gas stoves and mandating electric cooktops well I would love to see ground sources a previous speaker showed just how much this will be reducing us uh CO2 emissions especially since Townhomes are widely known to be a more energy efficient type of building than they likely single-family hose that would go up in the in the township to replace them so building a more energy efficient type uh type of building and reducing uh commutes seems like a huge win to me on the uh on that thank you so much thank you anybody else waiting to speak we have two more hands raised the first is phone number ending in 360.
you can see there's a revised Statute up there for Arizona just saying that um that they're going to do it uh so what the auditor General's office does is they take all of the data from all of the school districts that submit their annual Financial reports and they crunch all of that data and they come up with the classroom spending report in addition to a report called the cedar report which is submitted by the schools districts for their Staffing and as you can see um there's about 11.6 billion dollars at the State of Arizona spends um on education which 9.3 billion dollars of that is the day-to-day operations of the school districts so what they do is they first calculate the state results um so that you can so that people that are looking at this can see how the state compares to whatever District um they want to compare it to so you can see that on the state average of classroom spending is 69.5 and non-classroom spending is 30.5 so just remember that this is an average and so averages can be skewed depending on the size of the district and the numbers so it's just a just remember it's an average so um kind of keep that in the back of your mind so what the school what the auditor General's office does is it picks peer groups to compare our School District Two and you can see in this list this is the group of school districts that the auditor General's office has picked as our peer groups in um that are in our group so whenever I talk about a peer group if I don't explicitly say up here on the mountain this is the group of school districts that they're comparing us to you can see Miami's in there Thatcher's in there cam Verdi round values in their holbrooks in there um to the cities in there so there's a wide variety of districts in this peer group so just kind of again keep that in the back your mind that they're not necessarily the peer group that we think of up here on the mountain all right so our district results so our classroom spending was 65.3 percent um and our non-classroom spending was 34.7 so we're very close to the state average I'm very proud of that um we're doing a great job of putting our dollars in the classroom and directly to students so you can see here that we did have some changes from last year our classroom spending has gone up 0.4 and our non-classroom spending has gone down point four percent that just means that we're putting more money in the classroom and going directly to students [Music] so here's just the demographic information for our school district it's just telling us things like what county we're in um and uh what group we're in see where it says that operational peer group that's that list I talked about previously that had Mingus in there in Round Valley and Holbrook and Tuba City um it just tells us our legislation District um what our percent of English language Learners are what our poverty rate is what our grad graduation rate is this is again all data that the auditor General's office gets from various places including our AFR and from Arizona Department of Education all right so you can see here it's just a table of our spending um compared to our peer group and again I just want to reiterate that our peer group is that list that the auditor General's office has put together um not the districts here on the mountain so you can see that um our district is above the state average but a little bit below our peer average in um student spending per student and I just want to talk a little bit about how even though some of the districts are in our peer group they're very different demographics so let me just talk about Tuba City for a minute so Tuba City is on the Navajo Nation and they're primarily funded by impact Aid so they are able to spend quite a bit more in the classroom than a peer group some of the other school districts in that peer group because their impact Aid is an addition to their state aid so that's extra money that a reservation school gets that we do not get that sort of funding so again these are averages and it kind of skews the data a little bit when you have a school district in the data like Tuba City for instance you can also see um that we um for our student our students per administrative position we have a great ratio compared to the state and compared to our peers so that's one of the reasons why our classroom spending is so high you can see we're very low on spending per square foot on our plant operations and we're very low for spending on um uh per meal as well so that just means that more dollars are going into the classroom so this table just talks about Transportation same table again we're very low on our spending per mile um for our peer groups again that just means that we have more dollars going into the classroom all right and here is just a table that shows spending by area and you can see um how we're different from our peer and the only place that we're a little bit above our peer our blow up here is um and administration and you can see that at a negative 31.
and if you guys would join us for the Pledge of Allegiance about our newest memories [Music] thank you so foreign whatever here Mr mcgibbon Mrs Allen here and with that we will take a recess till about six o'clock for executive sessions instead so you gave an explanation of course but this is good how are you doing so fiscal year today yeah this is what he's amazing year to date today okay so the underwriters [Music] friends yeah okay everybody welcome we are actually on item number five we had an executive session between five and six so now it is the agenda which is a notion I remember we've got like a challenge any discussion um Mr mcgiven yes is this album yes Mr Austin all right can you ride along so we will approve the minutes from February 7th last month any discussion on the news this is a Mrs November yes Mr mcgibbon yes this is Alan yes yes and Item B which would be these super short meeting we had on the 13th to approve those months Cooper is the meeting at the meeting minutes on February good yes this is yes yes and that is our call to the public community okay please enter the conference clear number you are currently the only person in this country and with that we move right to these superintendent's presentation good evening uh president Austin members of the board members of the community and our students thank you for being with us today short board report for this month so as a reminder our vision and our mission is posted it's posted in your classrooms and it's posted in our hallways it's up here in our Core Group because we make all of our decisions based on our mission and our vision state enrollment update in summer school just letting everybody know that we currently have 654 students including preschool preschool which has been our steady number most of the year we currently have 22 kindergartners registered for next school year from our preschool we're expecting 25 and we only have 10 of the 25 registered so please remind your friends neighbors that hinder enrollment is open our students are currently re-registering for next school year and we have open enrollment and as well that I will be reviewing pretty soon but we really this year we have four kindergarten teachers so the either it depends on the number of incoming tinders that we get or we might have to roll over one of our Kindred teachers to teach first grade if we don't have that enrollment in Kinder I need to have four teachers okay so let's just spread the word summer school will will run for three weeks Monday through Friday June 5th through June 23rd it will be from 8 to 12 30.
so to say that Batavia scores are dropped is inaccurate but an incomplete statement when scores are dropping at relatively the same rate in the districts We compare ourselves to this leads itself to a more systemic conversation that impacts education as a whole but one that certainly needs to be had if one wants to dig even further into the whys of these drops you don't have to look much further into the data than to the exact reasons why Dei becomes so critically important you want our test scores to rise then we need to look at why our most marginalized subgroups are underperforming on the English portion of the iaar test last year 43 percent of our white students in Batavia met or exceeded expectations while at the same time only 16 percent of our black students did and 22 percent of our Hispanic students did our El population had a meet or exceed rate of five percent and our IEP students 12 percent in order for our test stores scores to rise overall we need to make sure that all students have the same opportunities to instruction and resources that meet their needs that is educational equity and why it is so critical sat data mirrors iar data on the English test 53 percent of white students in Batavia met or exceeded goals while only eight percent of our black students did and 19 of our Hispanic students did in math on the SAT the trends are similar 56 percent of white students met or exceeded while eight percent of black students did and 16 percent of Hispanic students did again if we want overall changes and averages to rise as a district the data shows plainly where our most critical needs are and your commitment to educational Equity will hopefully leave our collaborative structures to putting supports in place for those that need them while providing opportunities to continue to enhance the instruction for those already meeting and exceeding is a district that we have plenty of opportunities for growth and much work still needs to be done however that should never take away from the great things that we are already doing in our district that doesn't mean that we don't become complacent either after tonight there's only one more board meeting with this exact board intact I want to make sure that you all know that the Bea is grateful for your time that you dedicate to being a board member we are grateful for you asking questions and we are equally grateful for thinking about how these decisions you make will impact not only those that you hear from but from those that you don't you respect all the voices in our community and my and resp and represent all the voices in our community in my mind that is almost an impossible job but I've seen you listen contemplate and evaluate your decisions in ways that ensure Maximum Impact for students Educators and community we may not always agree or see eye to eye but that doesn't take away from recognizing the work that you do for the community of Batavia and for that we are all grateful and with that I'd like to thank you all for your time and have a great rest of your evening start with you missed the recent Equity meeting but Bick met last Saturday it was the last meeting of the year of course it's a meeting of the minds between all the booster groups in Batavia always great idea sharing and a delightful time as always and that's all I have thanks Karen good day I'm gonna ask Mr Pierce if he could uh provide an update on the sniping committee because unfortunately I was not able to make it today yeah we had a good uh actually we had a great meeting it's the longest we've met we got a lot a lot accomplished um were um kind of coming together it was funny uh Josh bulac from the business office attended and he used to be on the stipend committee he walked in to me and he goes wow this is like all new people and it's really true it's really turned over um in this last year with new members which I think is great we still have some of the old guard the OG is still in effect and are are still doing some good work but what we did today is we um we looked at some of the submissions that staff members have made for our um for stipends we talked about ways to navigate that because as you probably know we don't have like an injection of new funds into our stipends at this time um and so there's some opportunities there we also are hopeful that we'll have some new money um and so with that we prioritize some of the stipends that have been um uh applied for um a real asset to our team has been a couple of Staff members at the high school and the middle school who are involved highly with our different programs and they have great insight and so overall um as uh uh Keith osvastated he said I feel like we're we really took a step forward tonight and so we did a lot of good work and we're kind of setting the stage um we're going to meet again uh in uh end of April our jail be sent out an invite for that probably tomorrow and we're going to keep doing the work I did notify all of the members of that committee that it's probably gonna to get us teed up properly for next school year we'll probably need to meet probably during the month of June just to be ready for the fall so that we can kind of use all of our resources to provide the best experiences and best opportunities for our kids to be a part of something so overall thumbs up it was a really good meeting 16.
Amas Vaughn was resigning. I wish you could have been in our building to see the tears, frustration, and confusion. Dr. Von is a trusted administrator and the one that the majority of our staff goes to with any variety of issues or concerns. He is present with the students on a daily basis and they know that his favorite thing is to see their bright smiles. He has had he has our backs and supports us. I personally had a very challenging student in my class this year and he was abruptly removed. Dr. Vaugh came down to check on me after this. I know this sounds like a very simple and easy thing to do, but after 20 years in education, this was the first time that an administrator had ever come to check on me like that, and I will always be grateful to him for this incredible act of kindness.
question made by Miss Cooper the second second by June any discussion [Music] just a quick question um didn't have a chance to go in and come and build what we are currently doing and and I guess the superintendent I don't think there were any changes in in the capital of 24.
you can press star six to unmute yourself take yes good evening or this is I also live in Williamsburg Road um and um just to reiterate to what the first Speaker said um we have two entrances on the Williamsburg or Colonial Square and both of them uh exit from Flat Road so we're very worried about the construction that will be there because it will become it's already a nightmare in the mornings to leave when we go to work or drop kids to school to even find the moments or a place a space to exit the cars come they are passed they don't leave the space for that entrance so I don't even think that even a light will be helpful to that extent I think the best would be to maybe do a two lines when you you design uh for for construction to think about increasing the size of that road it's a very narrow road with a lot of traffic so in being in Colonial Square it's becoming a problem for us thank you the last hands raised is James damore James demore you have permission to speak Madam you can hear me hello you can be heard great um thanks for uh taking me in at the last minute um I'm certainly been interested in this project I was on the playing commission when iteration came uh before us so it's interesting to see the progress that has happened um just some quick comments uh just in general um I would hope in terms of uh development that we do go to all electric format as much as we can um simply because uh um we simply uh when we have the equation of guests fired uh homes of the Townships versus the city uh we have no control over that happening so we have to clean make our own houses as best as we could um regarding uh density in general um if we build it here it doesn't prevent why not order from them building it elsewhere within the township these are the considerations in terms of the development of the of the project um that being said um I hope a decision she'll make tonight will be reasonable and you'll take an account uh neighborhood concerns um certainly I'm interested in the impacts in terms of budding uh Murray Beth Doyle Park but nice connectivity there um but this is where we are right now that being said thanks for considering my remarks thank you all right I will read the three motions and I'd recommend that we just take them all as as as one so the first one is the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission approves the Platte Road Townhomes site plan and recommends approval of the development agreement as the site plan comprised with all the applicable requirements to unified development code and other applicable laws ordinances standards and regulations and based on the following conditions all Parcels must be combined before the issuance of any building permits and final approval from the Washington County resource commissioner the second one is the Planning Commission approves the Wetland use permit for the Platte Road Townhomes project site plan and the third is the anniversary Planning Commission hereby approves the proposed landscape modifications or according to chapter 55 unified development code section 5.20.10b to require one tree for right-of-way screening every 45 feet moved by commissioner white seconded by commissioner dish we are in discussion on Platte Road commissioner dish uh thanks to the petitioner and staff for the really informative presentations um it is great to see that the petitioner offers because we are not in a petition to come in a position to compel so it is great to see that the petitioner offers high efficiency appliances and lighting discounted bus rate bus passes and electric cooktop stoves and dryers however it seems to me that or if I'm under if I'm reading this proposal correctly um you are proposing or the the project proposes EV capable not EV nothing EV ready or rather nothing EV installed and that doesn't seem that perhaps this project started before we had the ordinance but we've had many petitioners offer to comply with our current regulations so I wonder why this doesn't OSI had requested that at the very least you do a feasibility study to price out alternatives to gas heating I wonder if you had done that and you just didn't share the results and I'd be curious to hear what they were um they also requested that you price out solar and on-site battery storage and at a minimum provide for solar Readiness so that your the people who buy these homes if they want to install solar it's the facilitated for them and so those three questions are questions I'm putting on the table for debate from colleagues or the petitioner and then I would like to hear staff speak to the concerns that have been raised about traffic what would you like to start with the petitioner or with staff why don't we start with the petitioner thank you for your commentary thank the public for uh their comments and we understand the environment that we're working in and we're working very collaboratively uh with staff with researchers uh and with the market as well um is to address this dishes comments uh specifically uh the the recommendation from the sustainability office was to make the units have the conduits for the EV stations and to have a panel availability within the uh um within the electric panel it wasn't actually put the Chargers in so they will be equipped so that if a charger wanted to go in could put it in on a moment's notice and all the conduit would already be in in place for it so you know if and when electric vehicles take on uh more popularity those units would be upgraded and they're they're equipped for that we are currently studying solar the the we don't want to put solar on the ground because it's not practical we'll take up ground space very small roof line and there's a lot of trees in there so it's not a extremely popular or practical place for solar we are studying it we would potentially make it available for the future we did do a a rudimentary feed feasibility study on electric it would add several thousand dollars to each unit to make furnaces electric and water heaters electric but that's not the concern as much the concern is passing that cost on to the consumer to operate a much more inefficient system in terms of costs from an electric system so what should be noted here is when you look at this product these are not single family homes so they are well insulated the homes back on to another heated unit they're three stories so there's you know the heat will rise so there will be less heat generated from these units less furnace use than a typical single-family home so they're very efficient units are very efficient from uh insulation standpoint they're very efficient from a design standpoint all the appliances would be high efficiency furnaces and appliances so we have done a lot to make it a energy efficient albeit partial electric and and partial gas unit and we're currently studying battery storage but not in time for for this plan but I hope I've answered your questions thank you did you want staff to respond to the traffic okay uh just in regards to the EV it is for townhouse dwelling units 100 required for Ev capable so and that's what they've what they've met I'm scrolling through I can tell you that the transportation engineer did approve this I just don't have a very good summary until I go through here and I think and start reviewing the comments but it was approved on you know their initial submittal anybody else commissioner Hammerschmidt thank you I'll piggyback a little bit on um commissioner dishes questions um so to the petitioner again if you want to come back up um I guess my first question and maybe I missed this somewhere are these rentals or are these for sale Townhomes they would be initially rental units but they are built town home quality so they could be for sale in the future okay I agree with you I think this this is needed in the market here I think that rent or sell like these will be very popular with family so thank you for providing that type of housing sure um I think my only my only real I guess my only real thing would be just like to push you as much as we can on the solar and batteries um like the induction you know inflation reduction act has a lot of rebates especially if you're going to be renting them initially the developer would keep I think those rebates um you know heat pump water heaters solar appliances Etc don't let anybody tell you heat pump water heaters don't work in Michigan because they do I just got one and somebody actually told me they would not work um and if the solar does work obviously like then your electric costs would be lower if you're putting in those types of appliances so I just encourage you to keep looking at that as much as possible and look into these rebates because I think that will help make it pencil or perhaps uh we will We would like that not to be a condition but we would continue to uh you know study that and uh Mr Randazzo and his son is here another generation or long-term holders and a very investment in cost savings are very important uh Tony you want to add we are we're working with Dr Anna Tony Randazzo uh we're working with Donna Anna stefanopolo she's the director of engineering and she specifically asked me to work with her regarding the battery I'm very uh Pro environmental I I believe we need to save energy I do believe there's global warming it is a concern to me personally if you recall when we did our project on Main Street we are going to have a electric furnaces there so that was a concession however and they're going to be for sale so they're going to probably boot the cost if there is any I've I've had some mixed reviews they are getting better however we want we believe in affordability and I think it's imperative that we consider that the city that's why these units are kind of snug very efficient um we built a project down the street on Caswell and uh stone school so we're very familiar with what people want I think this is an improvement and the other thing is we do energy seal our all of our units which gives you a higher efficiency and you probably know this but the furnaces of today are much more efficient than the ones of the 90 Plus and the heat bills are really very moderate just something to think about thank you if you if you can get the solar things figured out before I think you go to council I think that would be helpful for there wait did this go to council no because it's not rezoning I always get confused about this okay it stops here all right we we will continue to look at it although we don't want to contingent because it's just a benefit for everybody in common sense right okay thank you anybody else commissioner Mills I concur with what everyone said and um my sense is that this fits within the parameters of the existing zoning like others I encourage you to think more about the sustainability but to some of the calculations that were brought up I agree with what everyone said I had a student dig into some of the calculations and I would just also point out that if this were to be built elsewhere it's not just outside in a Township it's not just the commuting into the city that adds you know that would add emissions it's also in those places you have to commute for or you have to drive for all of your other things so it's not just the commuting um uh emissions but it's also the within Town kind of running errands that are really car dependent and so I think that there's someday this will be all electric it will need to be just to make that very clear um I encourage you to continue to look and in the things that you're developing to always put that on the table um I but I think that this does meet the standards that we've set forth thank you all right Burns I just wanted to return to the question on traffic and maybe just for the public benefit you could describe what it means to say that it was approved like what is the what are the criteria for approval and um our residents concerns about increased traffic in that area being met I wish I were a traffic engineer and I could explain it actually I was kind of looking through the the summary it is in the intergov is the attachments I do know it was approved I was looking just for a brief summary but it really doesn't give a summary that I could I could state but I can tell you that it is uploaded um yeah I don't want to put words in the transportation engineer's mouth so I guess I was just asking like um could anyone describe what are the general conditions for approval that means that the traffic engineer has concluded that there are no concerns about increased traffic above a certain threshold or Traffic Safety is there anyone who can help yeah so generally traffic is looking at a variety of things they're looking at how the proposed development interacts with our road Network so that tends to be a lot of analysis and in consultation with our engineering department about things like radiuses clearances visibility how those intersections actually intersect with with the road Network in addition to that for a project I'm presuming this had a traffic impact study city planner Chang can correct me if I'm wrong that they are also providing data as to how this project will change volumes in the network that model then projects how if if and how it might have impacts to uh delays at intersections I will say though that our traffic analysis has not standards have not changed and evolved with a lot of what I think we would be thinking basically is that it is that the traffic analysis is complete it meets basic safety configuration requirements and it doesn't if if the level of service um dips below d e to d e or F the site plan could be recommended for denial that doesn't mean it is recommended for denial I don't know that this project is um I would be I can't speak to the traffic impact study but based on a volume of the number of units I would be very surprised that this would have a significant change on the level of service some of the factors that Commissioners are already talking about the biggest impact on level of service on Platt or any Road in Earth in our city are job creation the the university um units I think it was mentioned units happening in the city provide the opportunity for alternative modes but I want to be clear from a non-trafficient engineer but a planner perspective the level of service on our roads is going to decrease with time unless the University of Michigan and all of our job centers decide now let's we're cool let's not bring anybody else to the hospital or to the University of Michigan so and I would just add I just opened up the traffic review not sure I don't want to put words in the traffic engineer's mouth but they've done it with under several I I think uh uses one being multi-housing low rise one being multi-family housing low rise mid-rise mid-rise and all of them if I'm just looking at it just in summary it's it's stating it's around you know from four to you know seven to nine a.m it's 0.46 average rate per dwelling unit so a half a trip during peak hours at seven to nine um if I look at it you know at four to six pm again it's point out of half you know 0.56 per dwelling unit so it's less than a trip during you know the morning in afternoon peak hours so they're roughly around 0.56.44 somewhere around there and what they've submitted Madam chair one of the things that the planners look at in the traffic consultants and in your own ordinances your density ordinance is designed uh for a particular area in particular Road structure so your own density ordinance contemplated this many units and as much traffic so it's kind of Incorporated within that what we're finding in this town home product both in your community and many other communities is covet changed the world and it changed the work process we have so many more people working from home or if they're not working from home they have more of a flex time commuting structure so the traffic is is now among all the communities spread out over much of an area so consequently we're not getting as much pushback on traffic in many of the communities and traffic has become much better and this meets within the criteria of that anybody else commissioner Solvay I'm imagining you're going to bring this up but I'm going to maybe the kind of last thing that I heard was concerns about kind of nature migrations on the southern edge of the site and as I understand it there's an additional parcel before the highway and you've got a detention Basin that connects but can you speak to kind of your landscape plan and some of the migrations between the parks that are happening and if you've evaluated those with the situation of the building yeah I'm going to ask John Curry the civil engineer to come up and address your specific question to you rephrase what your concerns was it with Landscaping we heard we heard a bit about migration over to um the Mary Beth Doyle from the forest area behind the schools and so now that there's a large area of natural landscape that's going to be interrupted by new development um as I as I read the plan there's a detention planned on the south side and this additional kind of Green Space for that migration between the two green areas in the neighborhood but was that evaluated at all in terms of kind of natural migration patterns or movement between natural areas of the air like the area beyond your site as far as like Wildlife migration we did not specifically look at that okay um I mean there's there's a lot of buffer around it still I mean if you look at it there's still a lot of agreeing around but the the marsh behind the back and all that protected area I don't know the direct route they're talking about but directly south of us is I know that's a private parcel and we don't know where it'll be but to the South currently between us and the expressway is still green and then certainly the entire east side of or the west side of the property is all natural and preserved so and I as I understand it's like 110 feet to the South Side from the last building structure so you've got a hundred foot ish two yes to the property line right there's a that's that very southwest corner is all left natural okay so so the likelihood of bats that southern residents developing its parcel you'd always have at least 100 foot band between properties yes also the flood plain kind of comes through there so even when that does develop they're going to be limited they can go some of that as well okay I appreciate it I will just kind of echo comments overall from everybody like continue to develop As you move towards the building permit process um I I think there's a lot of innovation and tax capture for incentives and I would just add to that that the housing type that you have seems particularly well suited actually to be able to because all these units thin all next to each other are actually it's not a high rise so it's very different in that way it's really set up well to be able to handle electrification and if you can do the solar then and you're renting that pays for itself over time so that's another piece of the puzzle just think about as you're as you're doing it especially with the 30 rebate that the government is giving so um again we don't have teeth for that right now but um it's something that we really uh would encourage you to look at as an opportunity as well if you there are people out there that can help you with this in terms of How to Think Through It okay are we ready for a vote vote on the Motions as presented commissioner Gib Randall yes commissioner survey yes commissioner Abrams yes commissioner Hammerschmidt yes pressure dish yes commissioner Clark yes Fisher wife yes commissioner Mills yes those motions pass thank you very much and we appreciate your comments and we'll continue to work with staff in the permitting department and incorporate a lot of the ideas thank you great thank you okay we are on to item 8B which is 721 South Forest PUD rezoning and site plan looks like we are getting set up for petitioner presentation for 10 minutes and then we'll have a staff presentation after well good evening everyone I'm Ryan Baum with subtexts where the developers on the project I'd like to thank you all for having us here tonight and we're excited to be back in front of you and share our updates since we were last in front of you during our working session thanks to Brett Matt and staff for all your input and review of our proposal we have a fantastic multi-disciplinary team of local partners that we've brought on this project including Jay Bradley Moore and Associates Brad Strader with mksk planning Consultants John Beeson with Eco Works sustainability Consultants Bill Lawrence with urban forestry Consulting and Scott betzel with Midwestern Consulting we also have our lead design architects wdg who subtext partnered with on our award-winning design for 611 which is just two blocks north of the subject site just tell me when you want to advance slides oh I'm sorry go ahead [Applause] are sites located on South Forest Ave just south of University Ave where just two blocks to the west of the University as well as we've got the residential district there to the South contextually we're in a mixed-use district there's a wide variety of uses including high-rise residential mid-rise single-family residential commercial uses a seven-story parking garage and institutional uses such as University buildings Greek life and religious buildings as well we hired mksk as planning Consultants to help evaluate the proposed project in the context of the site location central area plan and downtown Ann Arbor and what we found through this exercise was that the current master plan is now 14 years old and the existing zoning is not compatible with the current use for this location or the development Trends in the area as Ann Arbor strives to meet its housing and sustainability goals next slide [Applause] we felt that this location warranted more density given its proximity to the university the commercial uses and the D1 District just one block to the north I think staff notes in their report as well that this location can support more density than the current land use designation mix that here's an overhead view of the connectivity we're just over a 10 minute walk to the downtown core through the diag and close proximity to both the downtown commercial district and the South University and East University commercial District this location is very appealing to students they like the east side of campus but by going through the diag is still just a half mile walk to get to downtown next slide in addition to the walkability this location boasts strong connections to Transit and bike infrastructure the ride bus line is just to the north and Forest Ave serves as a neighborhood connector between dedicated bike Lanes to the North and the South there will be 206 bike stalls with a variety of Class A and Class C stalls as well as e-bike charging stations on level one sustainability features on the project include a passive house inspired envelope with double the code required continuous insulation to reduce thermal bridging we're proposing an all-electric building coupled with 100 renewable energy certificates covering 10 years of energy uses 100 kilowatts building integrated solar power on the roof 26 EV charging stalls on site out of 98 total parking stalls we're designing the project to lead silver design standards which will automatically reduce the energy usage of the project by 15 percent and with 638 new beds added we're expecting just an additional six vehicular trips in the peak hour next slide we went through several design iterations and Incorporated a number of changes in response to stakeholder feedback most importantly the preservation of the local tree canopy on the north side this resulted in a six-story step down in the northeast corner and all this together created a very rich facade we have a fantastic delivery and ride share drop-off Lane in the front of the building to bring these uses off the street and we're planning a first floor Community Coffee Shop that will be open to the public Landscaping enhancements include native plants and pollinators next slide the resulting project is 12 stories 228 units and 733 beds plus we'll have a rooftop social lounge and those building integrated solar panels I think that thank you everyone for your input and we believe this result has turned out wonderfully we're happy to answer any questions you might have thank you any staff Mr Kowalski great good evening everybody um I'm going to read somewhat uh some of my notes from the staff report actually usually I don't do that but I want to make sure that I cover various aspects of it um so we don't have a presentation tonight but I will read the summary aspects um so as you can see from the planning staff report staff does not support the project in its current iteration the density per se is not the issue at the site um I think we all agree this site could use additional density above and beyond the master plan or the existing zoning um but really the issue is the size of the structure the massing and the height of the structure the area as was Illustrated is surrounding by surrounded by a mix mix of uses as far as sorority uses as well as some group housing in addition to that co-ops and a couple of other multi-family structures they are of various Heights and densities however nothing does a approach the scale of this project um so again it's the additional density does appear reasonable over the current uh projections within the comprehensive plan as well as the existing zoning but and they have made significant steps in other areas which I will touch on but I will keep obviously coming back to the mass and the height issue um the proposed height is it stands right now exceeds of even the maximum height in the uh closest D1 zoning District which is 150 feet that don't zoning District's about 275 or sorry about 300 or almost 400 feet away from the property it does also exceed the D2 standard which is the downtown interface that's almost about 300 feet away and one of the overall concerns is as you can see from my report as well as my comments here tonight the massing in the size that really prohibits any kind of transitional or step-down development to the adjacent districts again the site is surrounded by r4c properties which is a 30 foot height limit immediately adjacent and abutting the property on both the east as well as the south side is a historical District the Washington Hill historic district that is a mix of R2 as well as R4 zoning again with the 30 foot height limit there um so having said that I mean the petitioner has really come a long way from the initial submittal I will say in working with staff I think architecturally the the project is uh significantly I think in my mind is improved over the initial submission and really got to the it fits about as well as a building of that size could I think in the ground level is nice as well um they've come a great deal in sustainability features as well you can see from the report I did not summarize all of them within mine but you can see within the supplemental regulations as well as the attachments that they provided there are numerous sustainability elements some of which were introduced initially some of which they've worked with our uh the staff at the OSI on to improve certain aspects of that um and again a very significant noteworthy in the project is the affordable housing contribution now again that is required for a PUD of this size when it's exceeding the residential base density but they are providing uh above and beyond that a contribution as well to basically up to 4.7 million from a little bit above 4.6 as a required they were also proposing a donation it's a 50 000 to the Ann Arbor Housing Development Corporation to assist in in projects in that area uh they are going or sorry there will also be contributing a Parks donation as well to be used with in the adjacent parks there um we did as I mentioned we did run it through the uh the office of sustainability initiatives uh while they didn't support the the project directly they did acknowledge some of the improvements that uh the petitioner has made and they've come a long way with that however again the OSI did not support the project as it was presented and I think uh really that summarizes up kind of the the main comments that I wanted to cover tonight and um obviously I will be available for any questions thank you alrighty we will move on to the public hearing for this it's an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about this project uh we'll first call on people here and then call on people remotely for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-663-41226 uh City staff will select callers that have raised their hands um uh when you're speaking please move to a quiet area for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments there are people here that would like to speak on this petition hi I'm Mark gerstein of 1321 Forest Court where I've lived for over 40 years I am strenuously opposed to the application for a PUD at 721 South Forest I strongly support the analysis of Matt Kowalski and the planning department staff and his memos of October 13th and December 12th I strongly support the planning and development staff report strongly recommending denial the proposed luxury student apartment building is totally inconsistent with the zoning of this site and the land use goals of the city's master plan it significantly exceeds any density and building size permitted for the zoning District the proposed building is totally out of character with the surrounding r4c neighborhood a diverse and Pleasant area of well-maintained residences small apartment buildings fraternity and sorority houses and a child care center it contravenes the central area land use recommendations that seek to encourage appropriate development to protect the existing character of neighborhoods this project clearly does none of this unlike the recently constructed small apartment buildings at 721 727 South Forest and adjacent at 1315 Hill at the corner of Hill and South Forest as well as the Tousley Children's House The Proposal is in complete and total violation of the zoning created by the city in the recent past establishing D1 and D2 zones it seeks to do via a PUD what the established is owning will not allow if this PUD project is permitted to go forward it will make a mockery of and demolish the zoning regulation studied negotiated and voted on by the city council and opened up the whole area south of Willard to barely restricted development ignoring the city master plan and Central Area plans for this PUD is not how City Planning is or should be done nor should Ann Arbor be remade through single site spot zoning like this this is precisely the only purpose of this request for a PUD for this project which is to circumvent the existing zoning of this site in addition construction of this project is certain to degrade and even kill some of the landmark trees to its North at the forest Plaza Apartments through damage to the root systems and blocking the Sun during large portions of the day this is precisely what happened with the building of Foundry Lofts on Huron at division to the old trees to its North I strongly urge you to reject this PUD proposal that is in total violation of the zoning and of the purposes of the pram Union developments approval will only open the way for such PUD proposal excuse me PUD proposals in the r4z zoned area being between Willard and Hill and Beyond and lastly um do we actually really need another ground floor Cafe as a public benefit it really seems absurd thank you thank you good evening my name is Jennifer beers 722 South Forest I'm the vice president of the beta Ada corporation which owns and operates for non-profit organization that owns and operates the sorority house at 722 South Forest Alpha Delta pi um which is directly across the street from the proposed development I'm here to represent the owners of this multi-tenant sorority house as well as our current and future residents which include active members of the sorority as well as a live-in house director that is employed by our organization our organization has owned this home since 1933 and we have continued to provide housing for Collegiate Collegiate members all of these years we are proud of our house and the neighborhoods surrounding our house we strive to maintain the historic architecture and provide a warm and welcoming environment to our residents and their guests we continuously invest in maintaining this older home very old home both structurally as well as aesthetically and are committed to continuing the upkeep to attract future members to our organization I actually lived in this home in the 90s and I'm you know love love the neighborhood and love what it has to offer very safe and welcoming um our board is concerned about this proposed development and we strongly oppose many aspects of The Proposal um and I'd like to share those concerns our main concerns are with regard to the height and the footprint of the building um it's so much bigger than what is there right now and seems overpowering to the neighborhood um we're worried about the shading that it will create on our property um as well as the surrounding area and any kind of urban desert effect it might have as the glass you know reflects the sunshine during the warmer weather and what about the wind tunneling around the area and the effect in the colder months of the year um we're worried about what it will how will impact our Landscaping we actually had plans this summer to update plant additional planting materials plant additional trees and it's all on hold now until we know what's going on with this building um we have concerns also obviously with the impact of construction of this facility um and and what it means to trash removal water and sewer and how long that construction process will be and how it will impact our student residents during the school year um we're very worried about the common space at the top of the building um the rooftop facilities appear to have you know an area a common area for people to hang out in and we're worried about noise implications and parties and things that could happen in the evening hours and again in a residential area thank you for your time thank you anybody else present who would like to address the Planning Commission my name is Eleanor Lynn I live at 1321 Forest Court one block away from the proposed building I'm adamantly opposed to it and I urge all of you to vote against it this project would be five times taller than the current City Zoning allows and would contain more than nine times as many units the scale is not at all appropriate for its surroundings which are almost all two and three-story buildings the City Planning Department staff has twice recommended rejection of this plan although the developers claim that they will construct a green building the proposed solar panels would only provide three percent of the needed energy it would be fueled by dte's coal burning Electric Plant in Monroe the city's office of sustainability and Innovations does not support approval of this project the developers repeatedly refer to the city's outdated master plan this is presumptuous of them and highly offensive to me the city government with input from citizens and elected officials is charged with writing and revising the master plan as we see fit developers must petition us for approval not the other way around the developers say they would pay into the city's affordable housing fund if they want to support affordable housing they should build it themselves neither would this project reduce the price of rent elsewhere in my experience landlords of two-story houses raise their rents to exceed those of the high-rise buildings because they consider their properties more desirable and they get what they ask for the developers also claim that this project would help curtail urban sprawl that is a total fiction the people who want housing in new buildings at the edge of town are a different Market mostly families with children than those who might rent apartments in this project U of M undergraduates what's more the developers claim there would be no impact of this project on older people that is also not true the neighborhood south of the U of M campus has a considerable number of older adults many of whom made their housing decisions when it was still possible to live here on the salary one could earn at a nearby job many hope to age in place in a walkable location to support their good health and not be displaced by new construction the elephant in the room is greed developers brag to investors about their profits this project is not supported by the neighborhood and I urge you to vote against it thank you hello my name is Lindy Jurgens I'm a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority which owns the house at 722 South Forest we've owned the house since 1933.