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all right so per purple spending um in instructions so this is on the mountain I just gathered data for Show Low and Snowflake and state average you can see that we're at the highest spending per pupil for spending and instruction at six thousand one hundred and thirteen dollars so we're above our peers up here on the mountain on how much money we invest in the classroom so you can see here on this graph our admitted students per Administration we have 85 students per administrative position the only people that so snowflake has a much higher ratio so we'll have to look in to see what's going on in Snowflake they do have a higher student population than us which does uh there's economies of scale so the bigger that you get the less things that you need to buy and or have administrative positions so if you compare us to like a school district like Alpine it would be a very different number because they're so small all right average teacher salary you can see here on this graph that our average teacher salary is 58 6 58 673 much higher than her peers up here on the mountain and higher than the state average that's awesome for us we're doing a great job paying our teachers you can see here over the over the years we've increased our teacher salary um since 2017 from 50 026 to 58 673 that's an awesome increase over the years of for teacher's salary all right so this table just shows our teacher experience index so it's just showing um what our average average years of teach average teacher experience and um experience in the um first three years as you can see we are keeping teachers and so our teacher experience is going up and our new teacher experience is going down because people are coming here and they're staying here that's what this is showing us so that means people like Blue Ridge all right students per teacher you can see here that we have um 17 1 17.1 students per teacher we are the lowest up here on the mountain if you compare us to Show Low and Snowflake and below the state average so we have small class sizes here in Blue Ridge [Music] our teacher experience you can see our teacher experience is much higher than our peers up here on the Mountain at 17.8 years compared to um solo and snowflake that's quite a bit higher than them and quite a bit higher than the state average again it's just showing that teachers like it here and they're staying here all right so here's some of the so in the classroom spending report they don't all only talk about classroom spending they also talk about um test scores so you can see here this is just a graph um and this is our peer group in that peer groups that I showed you that had Mingus and Tuba City and Round Valley and this is how we compare to them so our district is the orange and the light blue is our peer group and the blue is the state and you can see that we're doing much better than um our peer groups and we're almost with the state average and here you is a graph compare here's a graph comparing us to Show Low and Snowflake and the state average and how we've done compared to those school districts all right are there any questions oh thank you yeah uh not really a question more of a comment you were talking about the difference in the districts and and thinking of those peers and when it comes to utilities we're spending a lot more money on Utilities in the wintertime than districts in the valley or at a lower elevation and also on transportation since we're so far away from the Phoenix area I think we transport students more miles than most other districts and we also have to push a lot of snow that they don't have to push and the Valley schools have to have it hot in the summer but they don't have school in the summer so I think basically we have kind of a couple of strikes against us as far as this goes that aren't reflected in these numbers correct yeah and that's the a little bit of the problem with our peer group that the auditor General's office Compares us to because we have a wide range like I said Tuba City is an outlier because of their of where they're located and how much money they receive compared to a again a district in the valley is completely different yeah yeah I've said that all the rural schools are in a similar situation that Mr Waldo pointed out where we don't have the scale and we have these embedded costs for facilities our facilities wear out faster our buses wear out faster we travel more miles and so to be able to keep costs low takes an intentional effort I'm proud of these results I'm proud of the team for what they're doing well the way they uh come up with this I think we probably equate better with Round Valley because we're about the same altitude we're in a very rural area in about the same size and so forth any other questions I would just say and I think I can speak for the board congratulations thank you you've done a great job Kimberly and the full Administration Dr Wright your team appreciate what the principles what everybody has done and and we appreciate what you've done I think it reflects in the the Pride that our school has the pride that our teachers have in our school and the pride that our parents have in their children attending this school so thank you very much okay next item on the agenda is the consent agenda and board as you've looked over the consent agenda are there any items that you would like to take out and vote on individually or we have a recommendation to accept the consent agenda as it is presented I'd like to pull item 2.6 you know I was looking at that one too that I would like to take 2.6 out so we can discuss that a little bit and see what our options are because they are there aren't any options okay so uh so can we have a motion to accept the consent agenda with the exception of item 2.6 which will pull and vote on separately I have a motion a second from Diane all in favor that would be unanimous with those that are here okay item 2.6 a recommendation to approve the sole source provider Arizona interstellastic Association the AIA Dr Wright do you want to talk to us about what this is and why we have to do this Yes actually this is something we should have been doing all along Kimberly brought it to our attention this is actually a sole source provider I think most districts Overlook the fact that there really isn't a competitive person another another system to provide what they do but to do it properly you have to put forward for a sole source provider they're the only game in town no pun intended they don't want to administer all the Athletics so they have a corner on the market and so but we're going to do it right in in Kimberly's recommendation is we have it approved as a sole source provider I agree with the recommendation questions Chuck is do you turn your mic on check and there you go my question is I'm just curious as to how much we're paying AIA it's increasing um the last time I looked at is about 30 000 a year that might be greater than that because that's with the officials and everything and most of that cost is at the high school so if you think of all the sports we have girls and boys throughout all the seasons and it's tough getting officials so that that's that's my Kimberly might have a different figure but that's about we can look it up we can tell you but yes sir it's it's not cheap yeah I've never heard a dollar figure yeah because my understanding we used to pay officials directly from the district but now we pay the AIA and AIA sends them a check so we can't pay officials off anymore and I didn't mean it to come out that way but yeah we can't do that I guess that keeps everybody honest right what I'll do is I'll I'll come back to the board with that with that information curiosity all right so can we have an item I mean can we have a motion to accept items six 2.6 for the AIA Soul Searcher I have a motion from check a second from Diana all in favor that again is unanimous okay the business portion of the meeting item 3.1 um in compliance with ARs statute 15-351 the superintendent recommends the formation of school council committees I read through these committees we used to do this in the past and I'm glad we're coming back to it now I think it's great yes sir it is also a statutory requirement and this is the last part of the statute we have the parent handbook that's required already posted on our website prominently and now the next thing is to formulate these committees these essentially site committees and so we need to introduce these folks we'll start with Mr Grace if that is permissible and then Mr Grace we would uh excuse you after you were done sir I have a question in regard to this are we voting on the committee or the individuals of the committee this is all we need to do is there's no voting quality just has to be presented before a public committee so we chose to use this median as the public forum so we don't actually vote on it no sir okay um what exactly is the mission of this these committees I thought the people might like that an exact example will be when the board is considering to go out for any type of a of an override or a bond you'd form this committee and invite others to attend as well so if we're considering to changing the four-day schedule that would be another good use for both of these all three of these committees to to convene along with any other community members in an open Forum those are examples Mr Waldo good Mr Grace so at the elementary school our committee will be chaired by me and then in my absence it would be chaired by our dean of students Daniel Robinson there were some requirements on who could be on the committee such as they could be a staff member but they couldn't have a student on the campus that their staff member on um and so the rest of our committee as far as staff members go we have Beth Schimmel Justin resop Kathy palensar Janelle Henderson they're our staff members and then our parent Representatives we have Tony Reed and Michael Snodgrass Camilla kellywood and Stephanie morago and then our community representative is Jane Estes thank you Mr Grace how often will we be meeting there's not a set there's no requirement to meet there's not a frequency requirement it's just the requirement is to form the committee and so Our intention is to use them for when we're making School altering decisions that are going to impact everybody we would involved the committee to get feedback before we went to the board with a recommendation thank you Mrs Hoffmeyer good evening I do have a uh here and I say your name if you could please stand up so the board can see who you are we'll have and mine is a little bit out of order from what's on the what's on the agenda but teachers charity bermejo Angie granillo David Butterfield Jenny best and Chris Fawcett Amber fredland our classified staff members parents Ally Brandon Heather pahe candy Perez and community members Stacy Heath and Jeremiah Navarro thank you thank you Mr Webb alrighty for the high school myself and it's been right around there and then our start with our students we actually have one of our students here in attendance Orlando it was our student representative their student representative is Lexi artanola staff members we have Diana May Brittany and then forever community members we have Brittany Hamblin Abe Martinez Ryan Reinhold and then other staff members at the high school left in East London Jesse Garrett Daniel Rivera Natasha yo thank you Mr Webb you noted at the high school level there's a student requirement there's not a student requirement at the lower levels because of maturity and I almost feel like we need to collab for the first time thank you for your service you know I had to that's uh kind of like the first line when somebody wants to complain they can complain to the committee Members First right yeah oh yeah oh for whatever so okay next item on the agenda is item 3.2 recommendation to approve out of state travel request for our stem team I see we have a stem Mastermind here Mr Woolrich you want to talk to us about that yeah so with the master Rover team I have uh request for out-of-state travel um for NASA human or exploration Rover channels the kids have been working incredibly hard coming and after school weekends there were over NASA received over hundreds of proposals from over 30 different countries from 30 different countries they chose 50 some odd universities and only 16 high schools up to 16 High Schools they chose only eight of them were from the United States and I went through the list and we were the only public high school in the United States chosen to participate that that deserves something accomplishment for the kids and they've been working incredibly hard on this we're we're getting real close we've had to dodge a lot of snowstorms and you know internet welding and you know okay it's raining come back in no blame for electricity in the water so they've been doing great it's really been a good year for blue route standing and we're looking forward to going on competing and hopefully coming back with another trophy we've we've won two awards for NASA in this competition and hopefully this year we will up the game and take a little higher though so I'll let them die I think this is a really cool opportunity um I'm definitely not the most like smartest person when it comes to this kind of stuff but I feel like it's definitely something that I'm very interested in learning and I feel like I grew a lot this year being part of NASA I'm very excited to go into the competition and I'll be one of the Peddlers and smile will be really exciting as a freshman and this being my first year at Blue Ridge I'm really excited to be able to participate in a program like this I've learned a lot of things from Mr Woolridge and I hope I can keep learning more congratulations guys it's an engineering club with the NASA in the in the four years that we've been running the club we now have kids that have graduated went through the program at every in engineering programs at every single state university um all the way across the country Cyrus was accepted to Georgia Tech College right scholarship we've had kids over except for BYU College of Engineering so it's really the kids are doing great it's really good okay thank you I wouldn't want to add Mr President if I may five years ago Mr Woolridge and Steve galker came to me with the idea we want to have this Fab Lab and it's X almost six years ago and we went down to the U of A and secured 125 000 in a donation and after Mr gowker retired Megan Penrod took the program over from the U of A side and now Kevin runs that site and manages the lab this is the only Fab Lab for a public school in the entire State and one of a handful in the country so this is not a small deal and since then Mr Woolridge has been Vigilant in securing donations he just submitted a 750 000 Grant and has done an outstanding job in organizing these materials and students and it is our objective to try to continue to maintain this Advantage because it is a competitive Advantage there's nothing like it on the mountain or in the state nice job Mr Woodridge we appreciate you thank you very very very much one of the things that things that NASA considered before allowing teams to before accepting teams of the competition was their facilities and the one thing that we had over and above all these hundreds and hundreds of schools around the country is in addition to the Makerspace digital fabrication lab the the metal fabrication stuff that we've been building over time that those were key things in allowing us to be accepted in as far as this competition is that we have the facilities where most high schools in the country thank you it's this like Jennifer said this is a big deal thank you uh something we can be very very proud of let's give another round of applause for these kids all right we need a vote then to see if we can send these kids to Huntsville Alabama and I need to recuse myself from the vote since my daughter's the one that's going right hopefully going if you we probably ought to let you recuse yourself okay since she spoke so well of herself and she's been working out so she pedals really fast so they will be a winning team for sure great all right so can we have a now that is Huntsville Alabama April 18th through the 22nd uh of this year 2023 so I have a motion from Diana and I have a second from check all in favor noted that Jennifer Brimhall recused herself because her daughter's part of the team okay I'm 3.3 recommendation to approve out of state travel for the chess team which is do we have somebody here yes Mr Van Etten and I want to add Mr President before we present we're going to recognize the entire team next month as well but Mr van and if anybody's here and you want to bring him up Phil's free suit you're free to do so please High School team I'm also here with Mr Adams and Mr lafran Mr Adams has been running the chess team brilliantly until uh you know he's going to be leaving at the end of the year unfortunately so we're going to be stepping up to take over um we have Orlando kise who's also on the Blue Ridge High School the uh what we just talked about earlier so we're planning on going to the Washington Nationals uh chess championships in DC uh starting next week um so we're trying to get approval to have that happen we ranked fifth in the state at the state championships although we are the first or number one public school there is a public school that's ahead of us but they're really bigger so we're really the number two public school in the state for chess um we've been working really really hard the students are doing excellent to bring their scores up I think that this is an excellent opportunity for many of our students who haven't even been out of the state to go to DC and play chess against some of the top schools in the nation but let's move on to the next page so you can see this is uh one of their our shadow chess picture um so we have Drake lavender Orlando kisse Derek Sanchez Trevor Klein Marshall Bennett and my son and Luke Brewer we also have Chris Velasquez who's our alternate who are all going to be traveling with us congratulations this is exciting thank you it should be a really exciting trip we get to do any sightseeing when you're in Washington DC we're going to hopefully take a day to go to the emergency good good experience great thank you thank you any questions sport if not then we have a motion to improve this out-of-state travel for the chess team have a motion from Chuck second from Diane all in favor and against past all right the next item really fast I think these two things are huge the chess and the NASA rover and our stem so is there any way that we can really you know do an amazing video or something so our community recognizes that sheer intellect you know we do great in sports but intellect is another huge win and I think that they need to know our spelling bee Champions and all of that so we can really start you know letting people know that their social media great okay um next item on the agenda is item 3.4 recommendation to approve the principal's teachers counselors and student support contracts for the 2000 23-24 Dr Wright yes sir Kimberly either one of you would like to address that I'll add um Kimberly can if you have questions she could answer my will add though we just sent out a survey and we said are you coming back or not if they said unsure we're not issuing a contract yet and they have time to do that they have two weeks from the time we issue them from the end of this month of the first and next about 15 days to complete it so if there are complaints that I need to get a contract because they said I'm not sure if I'm coming back okay so we're only issuing the people that say yes I'm coming back okay and then we'll have another round in April for those that decided they are coming back maybe forgot to do it like probably my wife [Laughter] and the mic off before you said that okay so can we have a motion then for item 3.4 a motion from Chuck and I'll second that all in favor that again is unanimous okay item 3.6 just an update Dr Reitman turn time to you yes sir I'd be glad to do before I forget there's going to be a chilly night event April 4th Tuesday from 4 30 to 6 30.
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so we will be targeting students who need additional support based on our end of the year NWA Maps assessment prior to allowing other students to enroll but we will have an enrichment track as well for students who would like to participate in the enrichment courses special events and celebrations love of reading week it was a great fun week I tried to get into all the classrooms to read um in the room so I enjoyed that time there's me with preschool we also had a lot of their rotarians come and read with our classes we had about seven or eight rotarians we read in two to three classes also our grade level musicals if you haven't attended one we have some up and coming that are on our website but thank you to miss the lady we had a third grade Musical that was presented prior to spring break which was phenomenal so we're very proud of all of our students and of our Miss boleti and our teachers great news our preschool dual language class are starstep champions they participated in the Southern Arizona regional science and engineering Fair they received they received first place grand prize on the category was food and they did how to make the perfect pizza and they won the creativity award so we want to thank Megan our preschool prayer prayer Pro and teacher or her work with the students so here's something that they said in their research we tasted three different Pizza sauces and other toppings one child stated that it smelled like soup another child said my mom says I can't eat that so we're very proud of our preschool preschool walkathon call Color Run fun you can see pictures there we appreciated our PTC and also help keep our annual events and traditions going so I stayed at the eg-13 table so I wouldn't get plastered with paint but usually our kids there our preschool kids we're ready to go to the Fun Run we have our third grade team there um and Miss Laura the fever thank you for she was born in at the county level at her first assignment coming in as a board member was serving PG so thank you Miss Laura and welcome thank you thank you our weatherization update so we are um still waiting for the school facilities board um to give the final approval on the on-dark project but just know that it is on the radar we're hoping that if it doesn't get approved by the end of this year it'll move to the next fiscal year but we will be getting new paint and windows for our school preschool shade update also the installation date has been set for the preschool shade so we should be you should be seeing shade structures around campus completed by the end of April foreign professional development with generation schools Network I spoke to our board a little bit about this today but today we had admin and leadership team participated in walkthroughs and discussions on professional learning communities on plc's and next steps in our school Improvement Endeavors Thursday we're going to focus on structured Ela and math data analysis with Middle School teachers and we I can emphasize enough how excited and proud We Are of all the teaching and learning that was occurring today in our walkthroughs we went through 20 classrooms and it was so amazing to see all of our students engage participating asking questions teachers using poor curriculum so we are just super proud of our teachers and our students and that concludes my presentation number today so thank you very very much thank you so with that we will move to our principles of employment students practice [Music] good evening everybody thank you for being here for tonight and for your support this is a report that has to do with our winter data and where our students are at they tested uh at the start of the school year and this is our winter data so we can see where their growth was at so in mathematics if you look here the Rick sport is his Mac NWA math testing and these uh Country-Wide across our country the rate scores based off of the averages of where students should be at so if you can see kindergarten is almost meeting their race course growth scores meaning where they were in the winter a sense of growth Works where they shouldn't be cut the next one so Kinder is there first grade that little yellow diamond is if they're repeating the diamond we're pretty much where we need to be or where as you can see just a little off so third grade is a good example of that for mathematics fourth grade we can see that there's some working in more working interventions in mathematics fifth grade is above where they should be right now at this point sixth grade is almost there the seventh grade in each grade R where they should be at this point in the school year based off of their growth outcomes so if you look at preschool we won't have they don't take Maps testing but Kindergarten 74 students have tested the number of students who met growth projection was 28 10 percentage of students who met um percentage of them 38 no growth could mean that we might have students in any of these grade levels that may already be at grade level or above and sometimes it's a little more challenging for them to continue on or to show further growth but we're still working on that so this is just those who met a growthful outcome so that's for mathematics and then this is just a bigger snapshot out of um if you love theater the number of students suggested for each grade level the number of students at or above the grade level we were at for the winter time so if you look at our percentages we want to our as we keep going through our years we want to get into the 60s and then the 70s so we have goals for ourselves as a district and as a psych uh when I first started here we were a lot in the 30s and um some were in the 20s and we're really proud of the work that we've done given how the past four years have been so to be at winter point my point of the year to be already in the 50s with levels with percentages and growth is pretty huge for us and fourth sixth and seventh grade when we look at our data analysis we look at those indicators of grades when we meet we're going to talk a little bit more about what are the supports and the interventions of playing meanings but if you look overall out of all our kindergarten and eighth grade students 610 students we have 49 of students at the winter who are at where they should be at grade level or above so about 50 of our students language arts and reading again if you look at the diamonds there we're not super far off you can see a lot of them are meeting where exceeding or are right on the cusp of being where they need to be for winter you also have to keep in mind that we also have students who are English language Learners students who are in the process of being referred that we have deficiencies and some challenges in language mathematics and writing and comprehension so that all factors in to growth in our progression but we're pretty happy with where this is going from that point of the Year data as well if you look look at kindergarten percentages of students who met their growth projections 58 that's pretty huge and as we continue on with everything that our board has provided for us and you as our parents this is the curriculum that we hold out we're starting to see these shifts in growth and with our teachers with Fidelity to that curriculum we're seeing a big progression in jobs with growth oh and as you can see here we have 309 students out of our 610 Kinder all the way through eight 51 are at or above grade level mean right and then this thing with the same with language usage this is writing conventions writing and conventions so when they're getting when they're getting tested on this this is them looking at sentences for the younger children it's them looking at letters uh symbols in that nature but as you can see we don't have language usage all the way until second grade so it's test language uses is second and up but again when we first started Maps three years ago diamonds were above and we were well below them so this was really exciting for us to look at site leadership and we have our discussions with our teachers to see well where are we going to be at this point next school here because our goal is to continue to far exceed it's pretty good could you go back to that like just looking at the numbers of students who met their growth projection so our students have asked them about the finders you're going to get back to our finder checks where we get to our friends they show us the goals they're setting and its portfolios that they're they've created so we get to walk around they share with their peers their teachers they share with us what goals they've met and they celebrate their work so it's a celebration of where they started and how far they've come and we're really excited with all of their hard work and it's a testament to you as well and the help that you give them and as you can see here for a number of students at or above grade level neighborhood second grade 56 47 you jump to fifth grade 67 61 so we're we're pretty good for everything points 269 out of 470 students were at or above grade level mean ripped for where they should be for winter which is 57 of our students and science was the first time that we were able to give the science test so we're super excited about it because 52 of our students tested in third through eighth grade are also above are at Great leveler book and starting his Thursday we have State Testing for fifth grade science so our fifth graders are going to be tested Thursday and Friday and then next week for middle schoolers it's 8th grade and fifth grade you'll get tested on on science so as you can see here um we have when we look at data we can see like we go back and we say okay what what's the learning that needs to continue in these areas what supports can we continue to give these great levels and we're continuing to look this is with teachers um utilizing me on textbooks uh planning together and collaborating and I know we're going to continue talking next year about adopting a curriculum for science Special Education data so this is all about growth because we really want to make sure that our students are growing throughout the year academically so kindergarten six students we're testing six mini growth and reading five food growth in America first grade 10 were tested instant reading eight we've broken Math so as you keep seeing it was growth all across the board and this is something to be celebrated because our special education resource teachers are programmatic assistants who are working one-on-one with our students our special education director in collaboration with general education teachers and parents this is a testament to all of that hard work you just see drove third grade 10 students tested nine-day growth in Reading eight in in writing seven in math and then when you see those little stars one student's fault all 22 Baseline Sports not available they started um this was the first time they took the test so we don't have their growth reporting it but we will be able to see that growth in me so we're really excited about our special education students and the growth that they're making next steps we're continuing to have our grade level day-to-day meetings we will continue to have those with site leadership and our teachers and departments and they will use that data to employ those one-on-one interventions enrichment and re-teach and they're also working right now on preparing for State Testing throughout the month of April familiarizing students with testing strategies and the sample tests and becoming familiar with what the the dashboard looks like at the students and just so you know from fall to winter we had challenged the students and told them when they took the winter test that those of them that showed growth were going to be we had bikes community members had donated a lot of prizes so we had them displayed up in the cafeteria on the stage for quite a few weeks about three weeks and it's amazing just to see the shift in in the culture of our students here excited about what they're learning and wanting to share and knowing that they've set goals for themselves and when they did their quarterly Benchmark it's not just you know this test it's they're seeing how far they've grown they're challenging themselves and they get excited about it and so I was very pleased we were very pleased we had ordered EG's for 300 students and as we were going through the data over 600 students there was 19 students out of our whole students population tested k through eight who struggled in showing growth in any of the tested areas just 19 out of all of our students so we were making cups of EG's half because we told the kiddos we were like you know we had ordered this these species ahead of time and you guys just blew it out of the water they were so proud of themselves and excited everybody got awarded and celebrated for their hard work and their dedication and then we did Raffles so we're going to continue to do that because we want to be able to make sure that we can celebrate our students they're doing great things and then we have our state testing schedule which is also on our website we sent out a Colts family news so that's also listed there I know sometimes families will ask us if they're happy to head out of town or there's doctor's appointments when are we testing testing third through eighth grade and we have our testing dates that we've sent out we'll send them out again but testing starts this week officially and it goes into all the way through April 20th we don't do all the tests in one week so we break it up so the kiddos aren't overwhelmed with all of these tests and and um it's about two tests a week um we're excited to see veterans and they're very proud that their hard work moved our school from looking to mini school and they're really excited to keep it that way are there any questions well thank you it's great to see progress that's really exciting well now the real reason why I get all the problem here was it for the pizza or the entertainment so far so here we're going to do our special recognition which would be the first part is the cult of the month and the second part if you could stay around this really cool look um it's me too carrots please don't forget it's time to come up and take pictures and we were recordings and then they'll get t-shirts over there so if you want to meet them at that table to pick their size shirt Okay so then pointers first grade [Music] so Bennett was nominated by Mrs Lake in our school librarian and she writes Benny is always wonderful to have in library he always comes in and follows directions he's quick to let me know if I needed to update my calendar and is ready to help me then it will gladly help me at any point with any project I have I feel develop smile on YouTube Great Library friend congratulations Mrs Linda [Applause] everybody um for kindergartners we kindergarteners have to be thankful for our teachers to your teacher because they may use standards we were so proud of yes Santiago is a happy little cult he's kind to all of us in class he's safe and always follows the rules in class and on the playground he completes his assignments with a smile I really enjoy teaching him every day congratulations so my bird um is Kinder and my name's um and you gotta be thankful for your teachers and don't feel don't make them angry um and these teacher writes Sebastian has shown so much improvement academically this year he completes all of his assignments and really concentrates and does his very best every time I look at him he's working hard and is focused on his work he raises his hand to speak and cooperates to help his peers he follows all the rules and stays safe on the playground and in the classroom he's truly a responsible quote congratulations foreign Eden is always ready for a challenge with a smile on her face she's willing to help her peers while studying the great example to others Eden will definitely have a bright future congratulations thank you these flowers right for the month of February I let my students vote under they felt was the best example reports of the month Evangeline this is what your classmate said about you imagine always has a smile on her face when I first met her she was really kind to me we've been friends ever since I see Evangeline always being kind to others in the classroom at recess Amazon I did Evangeline because she always listens to the teacher and she's made a lot of growth I chose Evangeline because she's always hanging out with your buddies she takes care of her stuff and uses appropriate language and for Mrs Clowers Evangeline I'm so proud of you you've come so far from the beginning of the school year and the growth that you're showing has obviously not gone unnoticed by your peers I love your kind heart and how you randomly give me stickers and pictures that you know I'm going to love you have a great big heart and see good in others always keep being you because I love you congratulations [Applause] thank you all right Mrs off Wright's Lillian has shown a lot of growth in caring for his classmates and being responsible with his choices in the classroom as well he's safe and reaches and reaches and puts those that need help around him very proud of you Dylan congratulations [Applause] so bead ends teacher Mrs Cruz writes Eden is a great student outstanding in all activities she's always kind to her classmates and very responsible with all of her work she's a very smart student who always try and confess I'm proud and happy to have her in my fifth grade class congratulations [Music] thank you great so her Middle School teachers write Erica is a great student an incredible young lady she's kind to all very supportive of others her peers and her teachers with the smile that can warm your heart Erica works hard in academics while also participating in sports her assignments are in on time and completed well Erica has mostly A's with 100 PE in music The Challenge of moving from elementary school to Middle School seemed seamless Erica's patient funny hard-working and looks at things with a positive lens it's a pleasure it's our pleasure to nominate Erica for culture well deserved congratulations my name is Chloe and I'm in seventh grade Chloe's Middle School teachers write Chloe is a perfect candidate for this award her prime dedication and aspiration shows through in everything she does on a daily basis Chloe demonstrates safety and responsibility to her peers and teachers and therefore as well liked and well respected by everyone she encounters she's a wonderful model for other students as to what we expect from our students here at Continental it has been an honor and privilege to work with Chloe this year and we look forward to working with her again next year great job Chloe keep up keep up the Stellar Workshop foreign [Music] parents if you want to come up closer yeah so our Golden Horseshoe awards are given to our classified and certified staff members and we want you to stay up here so you can celebrate our staff member that was able to make it tonight um they are very special because they are nominated by their colleagues and this is done monthly and what they write about them come straight from the people that love care and work with them every single day and for our assertive for our classified we have this is nisi Venegas who works in preschool she wasn't able to be here tonight she says she's very honored to receive this award and maybe we can save it and present it to her next one and then for our certified staff member Mrs Lacy Salisbury thank you [Music] so her colleagues right Mrs Salisbury stepped up to taking the position of kindergarten teacher after school had started and an additional class was added Not only was it hard to start at that point in the school year but this is also her first year of teaching she always has a smile on her face no matter how her day is going she's she shows such loving kindness to her students she's always willing to step up and help her teammates and other staff members anytime they may need it she just radiates positivity everywhere she goes Mrs Salisbury stepped in and began teaching kindergarten with finesse and Grace she's a team player and welcome addition to the staff Mrs Salisbury is a welcome addition to our staff at Continental she's kind of her students at doorford she jumped into a position and has given it her all her Joy compassion and knowledge I've given her students a wonderful kindergarten experience we could have never done it without her she's a true gem thank you Mr small series thank you [Music] I'm sure [Music] why aren't you excited to me yay okay they're a little bit tired we like when the kids are more tired than the staff so good job boys and girls means you worked hard today good job so with that we'll take a couple minute recess foreign thank you so we'll move into the consent agenda so there's a bunch of items probably all at once problems um sorry I've seen this evening she's been here since 2005. and we will celebrate her at a board meeting not years ago okay cool um so with that and I would like to comment on two other things um one of them is I guess we broke down and renewed your contract for another little while so I'm just very happy to have you thank you where's Mr Ferguson and it's true in item I Joseph ferson as director of Technology services so we just wanted to say congratulations if you want to take a bow at the crowd or anything more than happy I moved to approve the district financial report second okay this is my favorite yes this is Mr mcgibbon yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Ulster yes and item 12b the school district spending report so every year the state's auditor general releases a school district spending report and what this does is it gives you a outline of where the district has spent their money over the course of the year so what this report is doing is it's showing you in each each category of how we spend our money over the course of the previous fiscal year um oh I wish this report would have laid out but I look better on my email or something um so yeah this is really hard for to read so I'll just go ahead and give the the high level overview with without being able to actually see the report it's not presented correctly um we spent pretty close to exactly what we had spent the previous year in each operational category um our administrative costs actually I believe actually went down this past year um in the classroom spending was roughly the same the points where you've seen that we did spend more money in is we spent more money in facilities and we also spend more money within transportation um our food costs are slightly higher than peer districts so overall and all we spent pretty much what we did the previous year in those those formative areas you still see that we spent I'm trying to remember because it's been almost a month since I was actually look at the report it's right around 78 of our money was spent within classroom funding so so if you take that that m o budget 78 of it was actually spent towards kids and in classrooms so you're looking at 22 for administration of Transportation um for um clerical some Clerical Service Services uh food service is a different fund so yeah pretty close to to what we had done I I feel really bad about giving this report right now because I don't have it in front of me that actually presented very well but I will be more than happy to discuss this report from the auditor General's office with any member of the community or any board member as you would like can you email that to me at a later time Yes actually the one in the agenda is kind of walking too yeah okay so whatever I have a question regarding their transportation yeah yeah no we are doing um help with other districts that we're being compensated for so it's that kind of so this is this isn't for this year this is for the previous year we weren't doing it then okay um what you're seeing within transportation is um is our number of students writing our per pupil cost is higher than most most functional areas if I remember remembering her to court correctly so our our transportation costs are down or below at below everyone else's average it's just our cost to transfer on a per-pupil basis far higher and that's just you know we've got some really rural areas that we have to go to so to go to um elephant head to pick up you know five six kids it's the cost for doing that is just pretty expensive to do yes okay well give us a second we may actually be able to get through this [Music] as well Statewide yeah we can just send them yeah it also will be on our website yes we'll post it onto our website as well and it was just discussion information there's no voting so we can continue the discussion other questions for Greg so with that we have a couple guests with us tonight that are going to talk about the cable Road Extension if I could reduce this Kevin Kenyan who is president of the Green Valley Council and Tom bresney a long time friend of Continental School who in Green Valley areas representative to Pima County District Four supervisor Steve Christ some info as to what's going on grandfather [Music] okay next slide please the Campbell Road Extension um I have the dubious honor of saying that I've seen Continental School District appear on my tax bill for 15 years and I'm proud to say this is my first time in the building and we should be very proud of it it is a beautiful beautiful facility and congratulations on all of your accomplishments so couple of years Campbell Road I came into knowing about Campbell Road because my husband serves on the sheriff's Club silver and volunteers as the commander and every time they have a new commander-in-chief at the substation here in Green Valley they get to go on a tour and that's affectionately known as The Road to Nowhere you know they come and they look and so I've traveled it I traveled with the chief going around all the barriers and looking access and it's it's always been a site that has been within art purview at the council but it was deemed um safety issue you know we looked at it as what is the feasibility of extending this and because it was a safety issue there is virtually no funding in the county they didn't want anything to do with it and our Good Neighbors in saharita saw no need from their end to extend it so in June of 2021 um Pima County Department of Transportation Department the supervisor's office the staff that there were 4.7 million dollars of impact these collected in this area of Pima County so how those impact fees come about and the president may know how this works uh they're assessed when homes are built and so if a if a developer wishes to have the streets that they developed put into the public maintenance program and there's an impact to be discussed to uh the new homeowner so there was 4.7 million dollars worth over a period of time that were made available for projects in this area and so what supervisor Chrissy told us to do or told me to do was you know all the president came in the Green Valley Council start working through on what you want to use they have 4.7 million dollars for it impact fees have some very stringent qualifications though they can't be utilized for safety purposes one of the what precipitated after the supervisor told me I had money was a call to our local First Responders and I wanted to have a dialogue with the people who are on the roads every day all over Green Valley our jurisdictional area so I brought them in I had the lieutenant I had the commander of the sav and I had and I actually wondered I said if you had had 4.7 million dollars to spend I said where I identify a couple of the sites for me and the first thing they all said was the Campbell Road Extension the second thing they said was how are you going to get to the capacity issue and that's when I called Tom and I said how's the building going on in saharita and he said I think we've made the capacity issue now so we set up a series of meetings with the town of saharita we talked with the mayor and their their Town planner and engineer and said that you know this wouldn't be something that really hits uh hits the marker on two fronts one IT addresses the capacity issue but from a safety issue it gives our fire district all of our First Responders access to this area that they don't have um it came to it came to light after a couple of situations where we had some Hazmat spills one we had very recently but um I deal with worst case scenarios in my job and one of the worst case scenarios I look at this area and go Wildfire we had a Wildfire by the grace of God it went over the mountain rather than coming this way and as we all know that it's a simple shift in airflow so my concern always is how in the world do we get children out of here we have subdivision back there that's one of our members and how do we keep everybody safe so um fortunately with this new capacity ruling we were able to put this through as a project right and then how we looked at the capacity as she was with the build out of Quail Creek and Madeira Highlands you had a lot more traffic on Old mcgow's Highway which our school buses Traverse on the way back and forth to the school of the Thomas Arena took over the intersection of White House Fan in Old Nogales and Continental Road they put in the traffic signal so the area has been combating with that because that's the issue we looked at the other roads in the Green Valley area we knew their Continental La Canada Rego esperanzo Camino Del Sol would probably not be the requirement to increase Lanes or anything like that so this was really the only viable option that they had that we had so once we were able to get the Department of Transportation to Pima County to say okay well Campbell Avenue Extension is a go then we had to start talking or they had to start talking with the Thomas Rita um how are they going to fund it because it will show on the next slide where the demarcations are at so it's gone over uh when over a number of every number of months actually for 13 months Department transportation Town Sarita coordinated with the planning area went through the attorneys with Thomas Sarita and Pima County to uh finish up an intergovernmental agreement the Board of Supervisors on March 7th approved the intergovernmental agreement with the Thomas County the Thomas Eureka Council will vote on that IGA next Monday at their Town council meeting so I encourage anybody here to to go to the town I mean Town council meeting and say thumbs up on on item 5C on your agenda next week so I want to thank the Green Valley news for giving us this uh letting us use their photo that they had their article from about 10 days ago on newspaper and uh you want to point out real quick I added a couple of things the line or the the line Campbell Road Extension between the two yellow circles that's the total length I added in there a red line and that shows the demarcation between the Thomas Cerrito or the South End of Madeira Highlands is just south of Sawmill Canyon wash and then it comes into unincorporated Pima County so the town of Sarita has 500 about 515 feet that they haven't paid yet they can't Campbell Avenue extension and the county will have the rest um how do you how the intergovernmental agreement will work is Pima County will have project management and the Thomas Cerrito will reimburse the county for their portion of the Campbell Road Extension or Campbell Avenue Extension because we cannot use impact fees inside of a jurisdiction so we couldn't use it in Sarita or Tucson or anything like that it has to be used in unincorporated Pima County and you'll see up there where the blue dot is I'm sure all of you are realized that that is property that the Continental Elementary School District owns I don't know how many acres is it about four or something like that I mean it's how much 20 20.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Greg I was not at the board meeting last month so David do you have anything about the construction the capital projects committee last time you know what I wasn't there either [Laughter] so I'll give a quick one this was a while ago because we only meet quarterly as a part of the capital projects committee a quick update um there's one coming up I think next month uh just kind of getting prepped for summer work double checking lead times which is the architecting construction manager we're on top of because that's the banging of everyone's existence and construction right now at the time we were looking at the revamped referendum website a little bit more to kind of understand that and how that did but other than that it was a quick and kind of efficient meeting so anything to add Tony I thought I can recall yeah it's been a while yeah thanks uh CAC met last week and actually had a really great presentation um they talked in depth about what their needs were what was uh what was working what they thought that they would want to focus on for summer work and I believe that conversation is going to continue this week um but yeah it was a very robust discussion and it was it was really um really gratifying to see those teams come in and talk about the vertical articulation that we're trying to do within the district and ensuring that our curriculum is as up to Snuff as possible so um plaque met last week which is nice because usually they meet right after our meeting so I actually have something to report um they're actually starting to make some progress um they talked about um they've been working on this master list of all professional development that's needed by the faculty and staff training and they're trying to make it accessible for everyone I believe that'll be through the Intranet um and some good progress so trying to make sure everybody knows what they need when they need it how to get it that type of that type of doing good oh and beefy we'll meet Thursday a scholarship committee met Monday I've chosen scholarship recipients and they will be notified after Thursday when the whole committee votes to officially officially award officially accept it so yes it's nice and thank you Todd for attending that was a great meeting quick yep to the point in and out in under an hour great I think we've refined it over the years you know we've gotten down we've gotten that nerve system set so awesome thank you great seniors yep Aaron uh the insurance committee met on March 9th I was able to attend virtually and the conversation focused on just our transition to healthgram and providing supports to our employees and their families so they can access the benefits that they deserve I do have an exciting announcement to share with the board though um as a refresher uh you everyone probably at this with this body remembers on January January 24th this body approved a one-year contract with Modern Health which is an online Health Services platform that's going to be accessible and I'm excited to say that on March 13th that officially rolled out and so those in the audience in the community watching online what modern health is it's an online platform uh where employees of the district and their families can receive one-on-one counseling um I have it actually print out here unlimited group support sessions uh a library of guided meditation just a wealth of resources we know mental health is on everybody's mind we're very proud of this program and so we're just hoping that everybody that could use services like this takes advantage of it and then the last thing I'll just say is I want to give a quick shout out to Kathy enger for her service to the district she was the district's benefits coordinator she's now moved on to a new opportunity I'd get a chance to know her a little bit on this committee and I can say that she served the district with this distinction and we're sorry to see a relieved but we're happy that she's found another opportunity and we just want to wish her well and thank her Erin yes how soon as I think you'll be able to get us any sort of data in terms of how much this new health gram is being utilized uh Tony I don't know I'm sorry I do know that they're reporting statistics are robust but I haven't seen that end of things I mean it's still early yet but that's something I think that would be in the last week yeah one of the advantages of people can you come back like in three months right maybe summer time summertime yeah well I can't say one of the reasons why and I want to speak for the committee but um one of the reasons we decided to implement this program is that the current health services provide being provided were not being utilized very much and so we're hope and we know there's a need out there so we're hoping that this platform is something that people this is like an online this is online sit at home and yeah kind of a la carte and you know I think everyone thinks of mental health is like sitting on a psychiatrist couch and this is not this and this is actually when we did the research most people don't like that environment they want something a little more Anonymous so we're thinking the buffet of options here is going to be more something that more people will want to access and utilize so yeah the time will tell though and I I certainly wouldn't expect and it's on our mind I think it's important to bring that back up sometime maybe summer or fall to see how it's being utilized because if we could grow the scope at a cost effective right model I I think it would be very well utilized with students you know Todd talked a lot about our test scores and I mean I've said it many times our test scores are great but if our students are hurting they're not going to do well on tests so thank you so much for bringing that up how is this rolled out to the staff well there I can tell you there was a Google meet at 3 45 on Monday the day so there was a chance for everyone to get in there and ask questions I mean okay again I don't know how many people don't know how to answer that but there was also videos explaining it to him so there was a lot of resources to explain to them how to access it yeah they received emails and they received um so more than one or two actual mail yeah so and so it these are the kinds of things that take a while to upgrade okay they don't really know what it is but right we've got actually there's cards that we put out there's one actually out on the counter on here that just paper pop-up tent informs people so like in the staff lunchroom whatever we're working on making sure that everybody knows about it okay thank you okay all right anything else all right Chris uh wreck did not meet so I got nothing huh uh next item on our agenda is our consent agenda was which is our opportunity to um approve a number of routine business items all of which are detailed within the consent agenda so I'm going to ask Mr Pierce to walk us through that tonight sounds great 5.1 and 5.2 are the approval of the February 21st uh 2023 meeting and closed session minutes 5.3 is our monthly Personnel report 5.4 is the payroll and bills 5.5 is the destruction of the closed session recording from September 21st 2021 5.6 is our donations we had a sizable donation from the city of Batavia for the post prom fund as well as a very large donation from the Batavia wrestling club for wrestling match Batavia High School so we thank both of those organizations for that 5.7 is the approval of the special education contract with um Nia and just just to give a little more context to that um you know I think that you could look at something like this and say well are we doing all this because we're you know we're short staff and I think there there's some truth in that we've we've definitely had challenges um hiring occupational therapists but it should be known too by the board that um we've contracted services with NAA for a long long time I've been here a decade and we were doing it then so this isn't anything new it's really providing the supports and the services for some of our most challenged and needy students and they have Specialists that we may not have access to and so that's uh the the driver for um for this contract and so you can see the size the most sizable costs in here are for OT and PT services and utilize those Services a lot of days for our students because they need them and so it's a very necessary function um and we believe that the uh the cost while expensive is very much worth it for our students to support them um with that 5.8 is our curriculum contracts 5.9 is our annual ihsa membership renewal from BHS 5.10 is the Fox Valley Career Center intergovernmental agreement and then we finish up with 5.11 which is the approval of the the entire consent agenda any items on that agenda for removal or clarification all right then I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented move by myself or second by lock all in favor aye aye any opposed all right next item on our agenda are reports I'm going to pass it over to Dr Hutton's to start us up great there are five reports tonight and this section of the agenda doesn't require none of these reports require a vote that would be the next items so for the reports the first two you see every month and normally you don't have questions because um they are recurring and if you do have questions I'd be happy to entertain those now in the third report is Administrative procedures and Exhibits and I'm going to turn that one over to Brad sure these are just some administrative procedures and Exhibits related to our bullying and harassment policy out of section 7 of your policy manual and these are just support systems for our bullying and prevention program that we run really we ask that any student who is experiencing bullying report it to any adult that's the reporting system that we use there's a number of different ways they can do that but we want them to reach out to any adult within our system to report bullying and it triggers a series of responses from the school to make sure that student is supported and can work through those issues so and that doesn't happen again so these are just some support systems we look at this data pretty closely and monitor it especially at the 612 level we take a look at this on a monthly basis and track this data to see our progress in being proactive and present in preventing these issues this looks like it just came from press these are pressed okay any questions on that right I have some thoughts that I'd like to share um obviously bullying is a topic that I don't know about the rest of the board but I hear about relatively frequently in the community from people who have their kids who are suffering from it and it's one of those things where as a board member I know that we track the data but I know that I don't believe that we've actually seen the data ourselves and I'm wondering if it's such a hot button issue and because literally it can mean life or death for some students I'm wondering if we want to prioritize this enough so that we get a report and then start establishing some parameters that we to know that we're making progress um so I want to throw that out there to wonder whether or not we as a board would like to receive that some of that information and find out um whether or not we're tracking the data in a way that we feel is best Chris mentioned that to me earlier today so we talked about ways that we could do that in a couple of ways that we already do that the board has its annual calendar of monitoring reports annually and then the public also there is a law that the public sees our bullying report and we we review policy 7 180 and we're required to put that on the website so in August we'll put annually we put up a report on the um on the website that tracks or that talks about all the number of incidences so last year I think it was 85 for the District 65 students and about 45 of those 65 students were middle schoolers so this like Brad said this year the secondary discipline or student Behavior team we'll call it meets regularly meets monthly at least to sit down and look at this data but it is available to the public on our um the publicly facing there's a section of our website in the bottom left-hand corner I think it's called like required postings uh public records for you it's on that page so it is we have a lot of monitoring there's um probably close to 100 things that our policy requires us now and some of them are also required to be put on that foia page so we'll we'll make sure that we do a better job of communicating that when that's made public and and if you guys have any changes that you want to make to are monitoring calendar for the year feel free to let me know is that what you were thinking Chris well I mean I haven't looked at that report to know what information is there so I don't know if it's useful I guess I only thought that was for like right you guys have an internal one and then we are required to on that page you can see there's a couple dozen reports that were required yeah make easily available oh that's weird we have a lot of great opportunity for us to look at that yeah you know or the next board we got one more chance Chris true so for this um the procedures and Exhibits boards the board doesn't vote on them these are the ways that we Implement your policy so but we do want to make sure that we're transparent and show everybody how we do that work all right so everyone's going to look at that we can talk about it next one yeah uh we don't need to bring it back because it doesn't require a vote but no no we're talking about oh the miners looking at this yeah just looking at the um whether or not the monitoring will answer the questions or whether we would like to got you talk about new ways for us to see if we're making progress to reduce billing thank you welcome the next topic is the referendum update we've been happy it feels like the last uh year but I'm here to talk about our most recent referendum and um I'll we'll recreate the conversations that you had in December and in January when you made the decision to put this question back on the ballot um the reason why you put this back on the ballot is because when it didn't pass there were 24 votes that separated the yes from the no you asked us to do surveys and focus groups and bring you back more information about what the voters were saying and what we heard loud and clear is that our communication no offense Sally or communication people weren't aware of the referendum we felt like there wasn't we didn't leave any Stones unturned but that is not the case because people 245 people showed up and didn't even answer the question on the ballot and there might be a variety of reasons for that but over and over in our focus groups and on the survey we heard people didn't understand what we were asking they didn't feel like people were talking about it and so you said to me I think that we need to do um to ask this question again but double down on our efforts and try something different when it comes to communication because people want to understand what it means to them individually and for example one of the things that you asked us to change was that people were confused about their taxes so there's a tax calculator on on the referendum page of the website and all of our Communications talk about um why you would vote Yes and why you would vote no these are in our mailers and all through it and you would vote no because your taxes would go down because we did hear that people didn't understand the implications so if you vote no your taxes will go down and you can visit our website to look at our tax cap calculator to um to verify your specific situation we also asked every school to put together a referendum information team among their staff because staff also they are a source of information from a lot of our community members and some of our staff also felt that they didn't have the information and Tony and I think that we're great at presenting but people I think so yeah we think we're pretty good um but in all seriousness people want to hear information from a trusted source and for many people that's their neighbor or their teacher and so we wanted to make sure the teachers had the correct information not telling people how to vote just making sure you understand the question because the question does read it is quite complicated it is long and people say it's a bad question but that's the way that we need to ask it because we are borrowing up to 140 million dollars and we are guaranteeing that the bond and interest payment will remain level it will not increase that payment it that we make to pay off our bonds will remain steady at 9.1 million and so we revamped our Communications if you go to that website there are we've been getting a lot of really positive feedback about from a lot of people supporters and people that aren't supporters but they are saying that they're able to find the information that they're looking for there's a one-page document for every school about the implications for that school um there are one page stories we wrote right now I think there's about nine stories on the website that are one pagers of the frequently discussed topics in the community and people have found those helpful um so helpful that in the past when we presented to you as part of as part of our debrief of the November referendum we talked about how 200 people visited our website and we guessed that Holly and Tony were about a hundred of those people and now we're up to 2 000 Clicks in the last uh two weeks so we have people's attention we've had information booths which we didn't do last time so just to make sure our parents have a place where they can easily ask questions um Dominic has a information poster that's been in the lobby of dfac the past couple weeks we've been at bingo nights we have posters in the lobby here just making sure people know where they can ask questions and we do have a lot of people reaching out asking questions and finally we had that Forum last week and that was really well attended and I appreciate the League of Women Voters um helping to inform our public and give multiple perspectives about what's on the agenda and finally our my part of that I'll turn it over to Tony but our next set of communications you're going to hear are about voting and that um no matter what your opinion is that we want everyone to get out and answer that question on the ballot so right now you could do that at the Batavia city council there's lots of construction but I'm sure you'll find a way once you get there it's a little hard these days but they are open nine to three I believe every day this week and then Monday through Thursday next week and then you can also go to King County they even have some weekend hours that you can go and vote and then your normal polling places on April 4th are just a few of the options available to you um Tony I know you've gotten a couple questions from board members that you were going to work into this presentation as well yeah to do our best we'd be happy to answer questions that anybody has it doesn't matter what your perspectives are we just want to make sure that people have an understanding of the facts so that they can make an informed decision some questions that we get I've got three of them here that I'll run through and do my best to answer and if you have others certainly that you come across so we can discuss them here tonight too if bonds are going to be issued over a period of up to five years as they are how can the board know that rates what the rates would be at the time of issuance and so to restate that in another way a lot of people hear that you know we would issue up to 140 million dollars in bonds and people assume that and we wouldn't do that there's a number of reasons why one is the primary one is that you know you have to basically spend the money when you issue those bonds within 18 months and that wouldn't be possible for us to do so as we're you know these are major construction projects and so we expect to issue them probably in um what we call what are called tranches or or batches and we are tempted to plan is that there would be four of these tranches that we would issue Bonds in over a period of five years and after the five years the authority to issue those bonds expire now those bonds would be subject to the market rates at the time of issuance and so right now Market rates are roughly around you could expect like four percent which is a heck of a lot higher than what we were talking about a year ago unfortunately but if you look back to 2007 when we issued bonds to do the renovations primarily at the high school but there was a number of Renovations that occurred district-wide the average interest rate was about five and a quarter so if Market if we were to issue these bonds today we'd actually be paying less than um what we paid I guess it was like 18 years ago when we issued these bonds prior not not quite so 8 16 years ago um and as you know and as I know Sue knows when Market rates came down we were able to call some of those bonds and refund them with rates that were much lower than when they were originally issued and so by spreading this out over time ultimately we don't know what the rates are going to be but on average we kind of hedge our our risk over time and so if rates are too high we might issue fewer bonds if rates are low we might issue more bonds depending on how all these pieces fit together so we don't know but we have some tools in our toolbox to address the issues as best we can the next question is how would you come up with estimates of cost if you can't tell us exactly what will be done at each School and the reason why we can't tell folks exactly what will be done at each school is because of the way to set this up on the front end when we looked at we did the community engagement sessions we looked at and what was option a option b and option C option A was you know let the taxes go down and we wouldn't issue new bonds we'd have to come up with money out our operating funds to to make this work happen and as we all know we know the pressures on our operating funds and all the other things that we attempt to do option b was fill in the expiring bonds and carry those taxes forward and option C was increase taxes and we heard resoundingly from the folks that participated in those sessions go with option b but what option b meant was that we were going to hold that Levy for bonded interest level at 9.1 million and we're going to back in the projects to that amount it's like walking into a car dealership and saying I'm gonna buy a car I don't know which one but I'm only going to pay 500 a month and so depending on what the interest rate is on the loan that you get what your credit rating is and in this case what construction inflation is really determines the scope of work that is going to happen that's the challenge and we don't know until we design it and we bid it and so in some cases we might have some choices in terms of what we bid and what we do we might say all right well to do the restroom Renovations at JB Nelson school is going to cost a lot of expected and so we're going to put our efforts into Ada door access maybe we do we can't do all the Ada door access but maybe we do more of it in light of what the referee or the restroom improvements would cost those are the kinds of decisions that I expect that we would otherwise face um when we when we get there so we're talking about the needs in general and the budgets and there's going to have to be some room in there once we get to the other end because again there's a lot of unknowns between here and there but that is by Design the way we set up this referendum we're telling taxpayers we're locking in the payment and we're leaving the variable to be the scope of the projects within reason lastly related to what areas will be cut from the plan if we can't get it all done and those that's a hard question to answer because of the nature of what I just so um hopefully all goes well and interest rates go down and some of the inflation pressures that we're facing maybe in over the period of five years where we're issuing those bonds which is more likely the case things are going to kind of wobble as we go through and we're going to have to make decisions as best we can but what we can say to the taxpayers is this plan this master plan that we've developed is designed to save taxpayer dollars to the extent practical and directing as much money as possible toward our educational programs and minimizing those construction costs so that we can get the best bang for our buck and that's what we've tried to accomplish so I'm that's that's the plan why does it stands at the end of the day the bonded interest tax levy if the referendum passes will remain at 9.1 million dollars of course taxes would go down otherwise what other questions might I answer questions I just want to say I appreciate the challenge that people are having understanding the concept because a lot of times you go and I want a house and how much does that house cost right you know what you're buying you can go look for a house that matches you know your ability to understand what you can get but the reality is and we see it even I'm an architect and I work in this market the challenges of the variables that are out there right now make it difficult to understand how much you can buy and what you can buy and so the ability to say I have this amount of money I wish sometimes my clients would tell me I've got this amount of money help me understand what the best I can do with that money is we spent significant amount of time effort into a certain extent money on trying to understand an educational master plan for the people that we worked with on and I believe they did a good job um the the thing that does is that creates a series of priorities and things that we need to focus on first which is the big thing because you couldn't do the way that we're working now without having an understanding of the priorities of what we have to accomplish because there's not a we know since we're not doing everything we are at the have to accomplish not the want to accomplish and that have to accomplish is going to take some ways of that team and that group and the staff and everybody else to be creative and trying to figure out how to be flexible with the dollars and flexible with this face system we can accomplish two goals with one dollar so that's well said Thank you and to add on to that analogy is some people are asking us I'm going to buy a house in five years tell me what the mortgage rate is going to be it's like I don't you know that's that's the real challenge that we face or how much is my money going to be worth in five years at the same time yeah and then it just right now things are I mean six months two years ago or a year ago wood was through the roof it's not So Much Anymore steel was through roof not so much anymore but you're dealing with weird lead times on electrical equipment that you I mean you just can't understand them first so that's why they have this plan because they actually need to look at those things understand what kind of projects we can accomplish in the five years because the lead time on stupid things like um card swipes on doors are 40 weeks right now 40 weeks almost a year good man yeah I said almost all right any other questions under my friend I do want to say just I want to compliment Holly um on the redesign of our website and the reorganization the Simplicity of it I can say personally speaking from my experience in the last two months I've had much higher engagement with people in the community asking me where they can access the information and the feedback I've gotten is it's in a for a complex amount of information it's easy to understand and easy to much easier to find than we had before so I just want to thank you for that Holly I think the website gets people talking no matter which side you're on that was pretty prevalent I think at the big meeting this weekend some of the conversations around the the website and where you can find information and specifically the videos came up so thank you yeah I was going to say the thing I like about the videos a lot is it starts to take the what am I getting for it out of the equation which is where Things Fall Apart for people to be able to decide to spend the money if it's if I'm not getting something out of it then it is well I don't pay taxes so that my kid necessarily goes to school I pay taxes so all the kids get a chance to go to school and so it while you may appreciate the way taxes get spent and not that's a different part of the equation but people can then understand the breadth of the the dollars will be spent that we can to affect the most good okay all right next item is us um having discussion coming to a consensus about how we're going to address our next Board of Education meeting April 4th election did I mention that already so there's also a school board election on April 4th and our your board policy says during March you decide what date you're going to seat the new board so it's not a let's wait and see who wins it's let's pick the date now and that's the way your policy is written and so we've done it different ways in the past since I've been here we've done we've picked a date after the April meeting we do have to wait um we have up until 40 days after the election to see the new board that is a change it used to be 25 days and so we need to pick a date that is no later than 40 days after the April 4th election to seat the new board um I put down so um one option that I I wrote down you could have both on the same night that's how Aaron we were over at Grace McWane and Aaron sat off to the side while we had our meeting and then she was called up and then this last time I think you guys did the same thing right now yeah but times before we we separated those so I thought I put an option on here where we would take advantage of that 40 days give the new board members a little extra time to onboard but this decision is yours we just need to make it tonight and there's four of you that it will directly impact so I think your voices are probably the most important to be heard so our next meeting is April 25th Year I'll come in April 25th no matter what no matter what question of whether or not are we also having that second meeting that night to bring on the new people or are we going to put that on a different evening I am previously engaged for May 9th so I vote to have it all done in one evening there I'm fine with that yeah I think I'd rather have it at the end of the board meeting too okay you go to that I don't have an opinion one way or the other so okay that was easy and then the other at that organizational meeting um you will the those of you who are on the board will approve your dates your regular meeting dates for the following year that's something you do every year and this is has to happen at this organizational meeting and so I just have the draft here um Cindy put these together she just rolled over this year's dates and did the corresponding dates last year November is always a challenge because that we always have our meetings on or after the 19th of the month so that our business office has time to prepare their monthly reports and the payroll and uh November is a little tight squeeze for them but they did verify that they can make that happen for that month we could but um that would be really close to the next one yeah we would I would have I would just have to talk to the um business office about how that would impact payroll and their approval of their bills that they have to one way or another we can make it work their preference was for November 14th but you're picking one that's too close to the next in either case true yeah so you um you guys can have that discussion at that organizational meeting we're flexible either way on that November date sounds like okay the next item on our agenda is our items for Action tonight uh the first item is a recommendation for cameras I'm going to invite Dominic Gutierrez come and talk to us about those good evening thank you for your time tonight if uh if I'm too brief by all means ask me more detailed questions but I want to respect your time at the same time I'll jump into the next slide right away for us here this is the what uh it is five uh Panasonic Panasonic pan tilt Zoom cameras with robotic arms three of those would be installed in video production and two would be installed at the Fine Arts Center two Panasonic PTZ camera controllers would be installed at video productions as well those could control either independently the studio cameras or they could control the b-fac cameras at the same time and then students could do live remotes from the stage into the live world that we exist in now head on to the next slide for me here so why we've been tracking this for two years time and the cameras that we originally purchased we purchased as the pandemic was happening and we purchased them to get us through the pandemic so that our students could be able to perform be seen share their art in doing so we did the most cost effective that we could at that time with less regard for quality and under the expectation that it would all be over and next slide please it's not um so you'll see here the amount of people that view performances by bfac in person is the blue and the red and the yellow is the amount of people who are viewing performances whether live at home or on demand at home this is just data from December 1st through March 22nd next slide please in the last 30 days 12 175 minutes have been watched at home in the last 24 hours 300.
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Dr. Vaughn is genuinely here for the students and staff of Mon Elementary. He has been working to improve the morale and unity of our staff, which has suffered for many years, even before his time as our assistant principal. He developed a principal's advisory committee and that committee was doing the work to make change happen. Recently during an early early release day, our staff engaged in peace circles which were led by various members of the central office staff. Two of these two of these three circles were very positive and many of us truly felt like we were moving in a positive direction towards becoming a more cohesive staff. To say that we were blindsided last Wednesday is an understatement. We have seen the work that he has put in over the past three years serving as our principal and we have seen his growth. Does everyone on our staff feel this way?
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there were no changes to the calendar that we had in information was Cooper and just in terms of shifts some of the biggest shifts were so right now we have Good Friday and then it's the following week next year it's just one week it just doesn't fall naturally when we have a Friday and the subsequent week off what's the other thing and it's one additional half of what half day that we have recommended 23 24 calendar and we also want to take this out to let the board know that we plan to have a two-year calendar for the awards of consideration so we'll have 20 through 24 plus a two year look out for consideration a couple of weeks ago man goes back to the calendar students this year we had about two days for assorted together and with the parents were saying they really like that because I think in the previous year candy schools we were all of you came back to school they were off the day then you had to come I can't pronounce them I don't remember what holiday it was but I heard a lot of people uh me understand that they really appreciate the school to do an accountant that we had two straight days together thank you Ms Cooper in one of those days after days after also some interrupted days in the in our calendar s last year no and just the you know that February break coming that second day it just seemed to come at the right time for everybody because there was a lot of complaints about that either so all right [Music] so first I'd like to talk about the upcoming budget process and important dates for the board to be aware of in our community to be aware of we just got confirmation on our city partners and Broadway members I believe is already also in your packet and so Monday April 17th which is when the system comes back from spring break people meet and present to the education budget ad hoc committee so some of our board members may recall last year Mr Spain and I made that presentation along with our previous board chair on Rachel gilleski presentation there was a considerable discussion and questions then subsequently we had the city council public hearing that later on at that moment so no different in this conditions calendar August 17th we'll have the education budget ad hoc committee meeting on the Wednesday April 19th city council will have their public hearing and on Tuesday May 2nd there will be a little bit of a gap the city council will adopt the budget basically address what our landscending will be for next school year and then on projected anyway on Wednesday May 24th we will be after the board to adopt the revised budget for acceptance recommended budget that will be made to the city foreign [Music] meeting or a special board meeting to talk about any adjustments that may have may have made or a city council may have a group so in between May 2nd and May 24th it might be a need to discuss any adjustment that we might have to make but right now as of right now might prefer to have a special board meeting to discuss any adjustments that might have to be made but if the board desires we can also just talk about those adjustments and financially so that's foreign Part B I'm more excited to talk about although that was what that was very important but voice for Change and you've heard me now talk about voice would change a couple of times now I'm sure many in our communities they're trying to understand what that's about I'm going to try to provide a little bit more clarity this evening but also talk about how the exciting opportunity our kids and one of our teachers just had on Washington DC with the commission of education and Connecticut so voice for change is an initiative led by our by commissioner Russell Tucker in very exciting times posts during the pandemic the initiative was launched it provides voice for our kids here in the state of Connecticut I'm more specifically concerned about our kids here at Danbury public schools it provided an opportunity for our kids to have voice and provide and submit an application to the State Education Department on how they would like to use these relief Monies to better benefit the Danbury public school community number one and I I've not said this before but I like bragging about it our kids submitted more applications to the state of Connecticut than any school district in the entire entire state of Connecticut and so commissioner Russell Tucker came down to Dan very soon they were after the last spring I believe last winter or spring last year it was just I mean I was proud because we had a commissioner here and we use that opportunity to tell us about tell her about the academies and we really showed off that day but we walked around Danbury High School she walked around the building hand in hand with Dan Donovan it was a really great day for us and she really just came in to applaud us and thank us for our participation in this initiative because this was her baby and we made her look we really do the story gets better and so um our our kids who submitted the application one um a couple of Grants and awards like like most districts across the state everyone they had a certain amount of monies um two of our applications were winners one of the applications was and one of the reasons why the commissioner said she chose it because of all the submissions across the state of Connecticut only one submission focused on supporting teachers to support kids and she was particularly drawn to that one for that reason so that was one of the ones that was awarded that was available around I believe improving um water fountains into school and access to water and they built this thing is and so both of those were awarded I believe it was 20 or 30 000 we outfitted our teacher work group with new furniture and it was a great way to support our staff at the school LED all led by our kids and so fast forward to this school year the commissioner along with Commissioners from every state in the United States went to our nation's capital on this past Monday and at that Convention of Commissioners around the country they talked about this very important initiative that took place here in Connecticut but you might recall because we here a couple of meetings ago along with Dan Donovan to talk about that they extended this invitation to Heather Lorenz and two of our students well two of our students have graduated but will also represented their very public schools and in the entire state of Connecticut so I was under the impression there were other kids and other teachers there no no no no no it was only one teacher our teacher from Danbury High School and two of our former students sitting on the stage with the commission of Education no one else representing the entire state of Connecticut as ambassadors of Danbury community and a state of Connecticut and they were absolutely amazing I felt like I was watching CNN uh and so I I'm saying this because our Lord should be proud our staff should be proud our kids should be proud and our community should be proud of our state of Connecticut we should be proud um it was an amazing representation of what we produce here in the Denver community and by the way the parents should be proud to because they were amazing I I'm saying all of this to say once we get the link because we had a live link um I was not able to watch the entire thing but I sure watched what our kids were up on the stage but the taped version of the link will be available on State's website once we get it will be available on our website kids were amazing I had to provide that update to brag about that we looked amazing on Monday so I'm looking forward to and I'll make sure we provide an update to you when it's up on the website we'll send that to the entire School Community as well I think I saw some did a background smile Awards yeah [Applause] I will speak with Miss Lorenz and see if we can coordinate those schedules thank you wheelchair and so the next update and so once again I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the curriculum committee and participating um several meetings with Dr Kessler and her team trying to get a better understanding about our reading program and what this could mean possibly for our kids here in Danbury talk extensively about the science of reading legislation and what that means for our students and we have an update so I know we had shared two programs with the committee recently I think it was a couple of board meetings ago in their workshop and have to be careful consideration I think we have a recommendation sure thank you Mr Boston um so um I think the last time I met as a curriculum committee I think there was no secret that we were leading in the art core Direction um the two programs that we had reviewed uh were the amplify ckla and the art core programs and we discussed uh the merits of both the cost of both and sort of the general feedback on both of those and I think we were in sort of a 75 bucket in the arc board um happy to report we're kind of in the 95 bucket uh with making the final decision in that direction and so we've been meeting a little with in more detail with the Folks At Art core to dig in to some key areas around the different texts and selections and options to make sure that you know that we're well aware of all the details that Encompass the program and then going through some of the pieces around their ability to support us through a rollout which would be important to us to make sure that there's enough professional technical support for district size and so we're kind of in the final conversations around those we met with principals today we're excited about the update you know some conversations with them we're going to be circling back on Monday with the original group of stakeholders that got together um initially to see all the programs and kind of go through all the different vendors which included teachers instructional coaches supervisors curriculum administrators and principal Representatives so we'll meet with them on Monday to give them the update and kind of let them know where we are in the process um and then we're going to have a host a an after-school meeting with the teachers and then put that information together to make sure that they're they're well priced as well and most likely in an upcoming PD we'll be discussing potential rollout scenarios with them to make sure that they're well knowled I know they're a little anxious to find out um you know the final the final selection and so we'll be working through the details with art core on that before we hit a final Go Button um but again we want to make sure that we reach all of our stakeholders and circle back with the feedback loops that we put into place to make sure that we're that we're Rock Solid in our decision making in addition to that we already had first rounds with our literacy supervisor interviews which went very well we have some great questions that were bringing back our second round um through those discussions and conversations uh of course literacy programming and the state initiative all came up and so we feel confident that these two pieces regardless of who we go with in the second round of interviews will align nicely with some of the outcomes of the of the literacy program selection so we feel like we're we've got some streams coming together moving forward and we're really ready to to make uh with the final kind of nail in this very soon one of the stipulations that we had with the different groups that we would have gone with is that their ability to deliver um to us the goods within a certain amount of time so that we can get these new materials in the hands of our teachers before the end of the school year teachers always like to peruse things during the summer or have some information so they're not walking in cold with some things so we may even be able to get some professional development in by the end of the end of this year to make sure that folks feel good about what's what's coming and any rollout that goes with that so that is where we are at and hopefully by the next time that we meet we'll give you an update that we have sealed the deal and that things are being ordered and that we're well underway we'll also roll out a comprehensive professional development plan that goes with that which I'm happy to share and probably get that conversation started in the curriculum committee that's coming up can you give us what it costs so the range um I did present the range of numbers I can pull up what was presented from the original numbers we are working through some of the parts that we're working through now with the vendor um are around the number of materials in the different packaging and so I think the range on that one was 3.4 3.7 that we talked about with part four it's probably it's upwards of four with adding the appropriate text in for the number of teachers that we have as well as the professional development package the other thing that we're working through right now which kind of tips the the number up is the fact that we're likely going to do a two-year rollout instead of a one year rollout we're going to purchase all the materials up front but then roll out and Stage k345 that's what we're talking about right now which will mean a little extra professional development over two years instead of doing everything over in the first in the first year um it's about some professional development for our administrators as well to offset that though we did have an opportunity to meet with some of our state leaders we had talked about the curriculum folks that there was this grant money that we're trying to nail down as to how to access it that has been made available so I did follow up on that other than I did have a meeting with our state reps and they mentioned that that will be open in our grant system within a couple of weeks and so there'll be an opportunity I'm hoping to offset some of that through this application which is competitive of course but with the professional development package I think that the the nature of the Grant and the intended purpose and the professional development package that we want to roll out over the two years that may be a really good fit for the for the purpose of the Grant and I'm hoping that will be successful with that okay okay you can just briefly also explain because some of our families and perhaps even some of our staff and board members we heard that evening two different presentations and the numbers associated with each presentation right and it was a significant gap between what we heard the costs were going to be but I also learned I've been speaking with you in several other books that there was some hidden cause that were not necessarily part of the presentation but one was like 3.7 in the other one was one point something but it also sounds like there were significant needs that were not part of the presentation sure so some of the biggest difference um is the number of texts that one program includes which is our core so um it comes with everything you need to implement a program whereas one of the other programs that we were considering you would have to go and match texts and find texts and buy those texts separately so it's a little bit more of an owl carp option which so initially when you're you know we're learning about the prices um you know we're like whoa that's a big difference there and we were heading down One Direction but once we started to really dig in um with what is included in that it became very apparent that that was something that would be important and also save us a lot of time and effort to have to match texts to units to align and then to kind of roll that out piecemeal independently over the course of you know a couple of years so resources in general over the last several years have been a bit of an issue we've always we've talked at length at different times about bolstering our libraries and our text Collections and our Tech sets one of the greatest features of this program is the number of non-fiction Tech sets and collections particularly around science topics that are aligned to the ngss which helped to dovetail The Learning in that content area as well and really build a lot of background knowledge and schema for kids chock full of vocabulary engaging photos and pictures real photos and pictures not cartoonish photos so we really love that about the program that that really is going to come with every that the teachers and students need to be successful so I I had one more update it's not including included on the board agenda that I do know that I sent my office sent to the board today email from the State Department of Education and I just want to clarify to ask you know I didn't cause any confusion I apologize so I my office received the hard copy letter from the State Department of Education regarding our daily Prospect Charter School so when that application was initially submitted it was called they are very Prospect charter school and apparently there are a main application itself and it's a multi-page report I'm sorry it's a two-bage paper with Independence and it's multiple pages but they ask is the State Department of Education received requests from dpcs Danbury Charter School to to amend its initials certificate of approval or state Charter which asks the State Department of Education to consider the following amendments two simple things change the school's name from Danbury Prospect Charter School to Danbury charter school it's one and engage elevating Charter Schools as its Charter management organization replacing Prospect schools and then based on a based on this the State Department of Education is asking to solicit and review comments on a request from the local and Regional and so if there are any comments concerns or requests based on these two changes then I'm asked to reach out to my local board of education for any comments and comments or concerns into and to make that information available for our State Board of Education and so I tried to call the office today to understand if there was any other thing anything else and I did not get anyone before this meeting tonight again I received a letter yesterday and then of course we need a response back tomorrow and so that's why I sent it quickly just so you can have an opportunity to see the letter so it's dated to 15 but again it's a hard copy I didn't get it into so that's why the sense of urgency and that's why I push it out quickly but I understand it also may have caused some confusion of course um the ask is a pretty simple it's really about the name change and the charter group that now they're going to they've actually had an amendment if they're in the comments or questions you can email Carol we will put them together um and we will put all those comments and concerns and then pushing back out to the State Department of Education yes is this a new company taking a doctor or is just a need change all around all right it's both the charter was working one or one organization now they're working with a different group it's always different a name change yeah I just when I asked Kevin to clarify because I didn't like I didn't like the email for the request person and I didn't like the time frame I'm not commenting on it you guys do what you want to do but I I didn't like it all the way around so I'm just not I'm not commenting or anything to take our comments and use it just in general so that's why I asked me to clarify if anybody else had any questions but like I said I'm not commenting so thank you Kevin so it's a new program right it's a new group new company that we're talking about not just the name change but the new yes for them to come in and present and we get the opportunity to know anything about this group because we're we're not the government for this group they are just asking that our local board if they have any comments or concerns just share them with the state but on Facebook it's really not in our wheelhouse in terms of that request Michelle students I just yeah yeah um [Music] if they did it would have been agreement they're only being asked now because there are changes to the terms of application even though that is important correct exactly yes again so this is the charter that was approved in 2018 they're just looking to change the name but the city had already approved it everybody's approved it we're just they're looking to fund it and in order to do that these amendments are required is that correct those are amendments apparently that they they have requested as part of their application submission and I guess there's a obligation on behalf of the State Department of Education to solicit feedback if they were there and I think this is part of that process right and now there's an amendment so now it's to respond again overnight so you know I thought they should have had enough courtesy to at least give us two days so yeah I I assessed the film is you do what you want to do if you want to respond that's up to you you don't want to because I do yes I understand and I do think if I recalls 2016 I think back then um you probably remember also because they didn't send something like this out when they first the application I don't remember Mr chairman I don't remember because I can go back I can go back to uh when they had the overall State came down here and he was over at habitat for about for about two hours so I don't know if that was 218. it was before coated City so right look at Dr Sal respond with that matters yes I always ask you because we're the only two who were around for for that yeah so just just for clarification they're not asking for advantages of a very very specific line language foreign [Music] state department of education is required to solicit every comments on the requests from the local and Regional Board of Education of a town in which the proposed Charter School intensity is located so collectively so I don't know what that means one response can happen before several responses from Jake Bridget Lauren Ralph I'm not sure or if we collectively put on response together semester [Music] it's very confusing because I wish that you had been able to be a whole synthesis commentary this timeline is not a service to artwork I'm really a disservice [Music] response without a lot of theory have yourself more comfortable hopefully that you need to call back tomorrow perhaps offer them I'll try again thank you thank you is that everything that concludes our superintendent update all right so more chair versus report that I didn't say already and anyone else board Communications and committees anybody out and about everybody want to say anything before we wrap this up I'm not doing [Music] you are covered at dscdc um their annual breakfast is coming up and they have a couple fundraisers coming up as well there's a fundraiser and a couple other things that I can send to care of and chicken sometimes what is it the csabc the Danbury student in business connections the mentoring program yeah oh yeah thank you thank you does it change from the other day no I don't think it's a lot of sprouts didn't give me enough time while he was talking to look for it so you know I wasn't prepared yeah exactly but it's the breakfast is in June and then there's a golf outing in May all right all right well I'm done okay look for a motion to adjourn second second by Michelle all in favor um thank you
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we have submitted a letter to you stating some specific reasons why we oppose this project hopefully you have all been able to read that letter but I'm just going to highlight a few of them the neighborhood in which our house sits is primarily made up of houses and small apartment buildings is very much a typical Midwest neighborhood has typical Midwest neighborhood feel most of the Lots in the area have grass Trees and Landscaping caddy corner from us is a small apartment building with a beautiful grassy lawn and a circular Drive the addition of 11 or 12 story building directly across from us will negatively affect the neighborhood feel of the area the increase in traffic particularly with the limited parking spaces for this building will negatively impact all residents of the area we are also concerned about the potential environmental effects on our house this building May negatively impact our landscaping or Green Space either due to the lack of sunlight or due to the glare from the building we are also concerned about the effects from the wind we are particularly concerned about any wind tunnel effect particularly if another proposed project is built directly behind us for these reasons that I have mentioned today plus those in our letter and those stated by Jennifer who came before me we urge you to reject the plans for this high-rise or any other high-rise in that neighborhood thank you for your time thank you would anybody else like to speak on this project who's present hello Adam Goodman 400 Virginia Avenue again I think this is a great project I think that it contributes greatly to many of the city's goals that I mentioned earlier it would provide a lot of badly needed housing directly and we need housing at all income levels including both market rate and affordable so it'll provide market rate housing directly and provide as Mr Kowalski said 4.7 million dollars into the affordable housing fund I haven't looked at the numbers in a bit so this might be off but if I remember correctly that's about two-thirds of what our affordable housing millage raises from the entire city in an entire year that's huge and councilmember Dish heard me say this last night um costs are cost of construction are increasing rapidly so the millage is not enough to achieve to to successfully build off the affordable housing developments that the city is planning we need more and this this would go a long way and you know this commission we were talking about this as well has been seeking to get fully electric developments and this is one and it has other sustainability elements on top of that so seems great right but we have this denial recommendation and frankly I found this disappointing and concerning again where is our sense of urgency in trying to address the problems facing our city and our region so I sort of took two specific things away from that one was you know the building is too big or Too Tall I took a walk down South Forest yesterday and I don't really notice a huge difference in character or context in a couple hundred feet between this site and the area zoned downtown zoning it's kind of an odd mismatch of things there's some attractive buildings including some of the ones that other commenters uh have talked about but there's a lot that's not there's a lot of surface parking lots I don't really consider the area taken as a whole that attractive and especially not the building currently on 721.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
did I forget one oh no oh no well oh I didn't I forgot the work study okay sorry sorry I'll take your time away from you good okay I'm just 3.5 item 3.5 we this is to announce the dates and we have to vote on these dates since we're gonna pull together so uh April 17th 18th 26th and May 1st these are for work study sessions to consider a bond election for 2023 Dr Wright you want to fill in the gaps that I left out yes what I was what we wanted to do and the board asked to do is give us a variety of dates and so we gave we're presenting these four dates that the administration is available any of these four dates work equally well for us but if the board could identify one of the four and then if the board wishes to have another one after that we'll identify a date it would have to be probably in May or June because we have to call the election by by June 1st so if we had a follow-up one we'd have to do that in the month of May if we have one in addition to the 17th or those are those listed my my opinion is earlier the better so I'm saying April 17th that's a Monday night we chose that those dates because of lack of conflict there's not complete lack of conflict fewer conflicts on the 17th of all those days so I'm saying that that way if we wanted to and if we found it necessary we would have time to put another one on the calendar April 17th Jennifer April says 17th works my calendar says that's tax day miserable [Laughter] come to the open meeting and vent your frustrations right Diana Chuck good all right let's do that and I'll just uh we'll choose April 17th probably five o'clock or should we do a little later let's do five o'clock in this meeting April 17th we have a motion for that date a motion from check I'll second all in favor okay that that's the date we will do that okay now I'll turn a remainder of the meeting over to you Dr Wright back to my chilly night ad Tuesday April 4th from 4 30 to 6 30 at the cafeteria at the elementary school there's a chilly night that's cooked chili not clearly come without a coat time chili this is this is cooked chili cooked chili chili beans with meat and uh five dollars a person or four more group of twenty dollars for a family and the treats are only and the drinks are only a dollar all proceeds go to the elementary student council there's one on the 30th of this month at six o'clock until 7 30 in this room we'll have a seminar on fentanyl this is a growing crisis in our area and across the country and there's not a lot of awareness we're encouraging community members parents kids anyone interested to come that will be again six o'clock here at this in this facility on the 30th of this month we encourage you to bring your spread the word Dr Wright could we invite other school districts and churches perhaps religious organizations anybody that would like to attend anybody I'd like to attend is welcome and we're trying to get the word out to religious leaders the town and City councils and just community-wide district-wide so please please plan on attending that event [Music] they may have Narcan available we don't want to advertise that if they don't but they try to do that at the events I'm hopeful they will we have it throughout our district it's fairly ubiquitous I mean on our buses every front desk many of the classrooms we have I think we've distributed about 300 of those district-wide they normally do they try to bring in they said they will try to bring it but I don't want to advertise something they can't make good on we're hopeful they will but that is at the center of it it's interesting how many people know very little about this fentanyl crisis and it's evolving into other drugs as well as that families must know about us within the last two years we've lost two one current student and one former student to this uh this pandemic and it is uh it is that the next thing uh I would like to talk about we have through the efforts of our facilities team and and others the sfb has contributed to 2.2 million dollars since 2021 to our projects we have probably twice that amount amount needed that we've identified that we're still working to secure a couple examples are we know we've worked for six years to get the elementary school weatherproofed which means painting among other things and that has been approved and it's been funded and now we're scheduling that and that's about a 250 000 project we're working now on the floors we've got a sixty six thousand dollar design bid approved we're going to need some more money in addition to that for core samples as we talked about before Mr Waldo you're intimately aware of this water has been undermining that foundation for years we know that and so the floors are moving in some places much as an inch and a half and so we know it's going to take quite a bit quite a bit of work to get that done we're staying after that the roof is also in need of replacement at that location it's about what a 15 year old facility had a flat roof in this climate not ideal and that's what you have to do in 15 years we also have some other issues district-wide that we're working with there's a cooling tower at the high school we need to get addressed it's it's barely operable now we're working to finish up the roof at the gym and the locker room area where the joining Stadium wall and the girls and boys locker rooms are still water and trees in there we're working to get that addressed and the gymnasium that had been recently resurfaced we've had some leaks since it's been a very wet winter we're getting those repaired the rains or scuppers put back on that we've talked about and we're working with our team to get the audium auditorium floor replaced we're working on that the woods there now we've landed on the type of of covering we're going to use and how it's going to be installed we just have to be patient because we want it done right we're not going to just push it through but we are making progress on that the lighting is also in the works to get the lighting redone and that we've recognized the curtains were damaged with the water main break not a water main but a water line break and so we're going to have to eventually get those curtains replaced as well we're working on those things so there's a list we're working on that uh it's somewhere along the process between submission being designed or bid out and approved and I think the last time I counted we had 17 projects in the hopper and we have at least twice that much more we're pushing to get done for those of you that I've received complaints on the driveway at the high school that will be replaced in the summer we're using adjacent way funds to do that we'll we'll submit that for the state for approval we'll get it because it's Ingress egress emergency there's some we're putting in we Roger and his crew are putting in either gravel or dirt daily to keep from having huge holes like you see on 260 and so we're doing the best of what we can we recognize that needs to get done there's a larger project there that we've been working with for about five years with the river that runs through it during the monsoon season and that whole thing that we've walked through in the parking lot that's a large it was a 3.2 million dollar project six years ago so you can imagine it's twice that now so I would think that I would hope to get that done before I'm done so it could be years uh and then we have some smaller things that are important but less costly any questions in the fsfb projects on uh the lift that we have had installed we've been trying to install at the bus barn so we can provide a safe working environment for mechanics and they can get under those buses we purchased that about a year ago it's about a hundred thousand dollar purchase it's an expensive piece of equipment and then we had the install we've done this right it's being installed even as we speak and that's going to be a great tool for especially our diesel mechanics working on those buses lifting one of those off the ground's not an easy feat and it's dangerous of course if it's not done right so we're glad to have that done thank you Denise to you and your team for seeing that through we're also on the transportation side working to make a transition to Zonar cards ID cards for the kids so we can tell where the kids are we know which kids get on the bus we know when they get off the bus in this environment you have to account for your students especially the younger students well all ages sometimes we have kids that get off at the wrong stop intentionally or otherwise and this owner will allow us to track that it also allows us to gather other information on location for stops and and to get more efficient in how we're doing things we're looking to reduce stops this year versus next year not routes but stops by about 20 percent to reduce Fuel and travel time if uh if we can tighten our belt further we will I think we can do that with minimal disruption I've followed buses multiple times and some of the stops are fairly close to one another Denise is working to identify which stops we can eliminate without much frustration but we can become more effective and efficient our standardized testing for the grades that test elementary junior high and high school begins almost immediately and it'll go through the end of April that's why we have the desk up here we said no use in having these taken out and putting up for this meeting so saved Roger and his group lecture time the uh we're working on the first pass of our budget we as we've mentioned we have about a deficit of about 1.4 million current spending versus their funding we have an average daily attendance or ADM average daily members of about 1638 our total population is 1734 as of today we're funded on the 1638 kids and those all bring a varying amount of money depending on what group they're in but there's a standard amount that we use we hope to right size most of the budget through General natural attrition we have people that retire and move every year and that'll be our first line of defense we're running an analysis to see what those numbers look like before we tighten our belt further if the board has any questions I'm pleased to answer those Diana do you have one Mr Waldo thank you Dr wrang next item on the agenda is a call to the public we would invite the public at this time to come to the podium here and address the board we'd like you to keep your comments on a non-personal basis we'd like you to introduce yourself tell us who you are and where you live and we'd like to limit your time to about three minutes and uh please don't seed your time to anybody else so if anybody would like to step forward and and address the board we'd appreciate your comments now going going once until I gone all right thank you the next regularly scheduled board meeting will be April 11th at five o'clock at this location so can we have a motion if there's nothing further the board a motion to uh to uh adjourn we have a second all in favor all right thank you thank you very much
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
tomorrow oh it's 20 acres so what's your plans are for that I know you were given that property when they started building up here are Highlands because when a developer comes in they have to give up space for open spaces and schools if they see an expansion in the school so um you'll have much easier access to that property with this extension instead of going all the way around any questions on this slide okay thank you okay so it's safety wise for the school anyways you won't have to contend with your computer Pacific Railroad anymore on your transportation new school buses you know I know for my granddaughter she has to go over those tracks twice on the way to school place on their way home the school buses on one route across the tracks four times four times in the morning four times in the afternoon and so just not having to deal with the Union Pacific Railroad I've heard uh reports in the past that sometimes the roads are blocked trains stop and uh this is just a much better route for getting to the school like I pointed out before this will give you direct access to your property I'm in Madeira Highlands you know we've seen a lower Transportation costs you know fuel bus maintenance shorter routes and Lincoln time five or ten minutes for a first grader like my granddaughter would probably mean a lot and uh with with less money going into transportation that goes the more money into the classroom are there any questions for us yes ma'am when White House Kenyan promote if you have a wheat will it be a money or some form of directory we have already talked with Pima Department of Transportation and said that that intersection needs to be looked at and addressed at the same time that's going to open up traffic and we need to make sure that it flows properly and that's a rough left turn it is it's a very rough Lan turn and Department of Transportation has already been out and they're looking at different ways to reconfigure and we'll agree I'll reiterate that with the Department of Transportation tomorrow we have a meeting with them and the supervisors office tomorrow morning so it's one of those points I'm going to make with them to be verify and bring that home that we need to do something with that intersection and I would assume that the discussions are going to happen when they fix the road where the road at the stop sign where the watch is where it dips will that be addressed and fixed and raised because when we get rain that's that's a spot of washout as well it's just past the railroad track so just want to make sure we're just looking at that whole area it's been a while and coming but they know that shall we increase traffic that is certainly interesting do you guys have a assuming everything sounds like it's moving right along the timeline very very quickly and I went not in my world so so the engineering study will begin as soon as the town of cereal yeah in a governmental agreement so we're hoping that engineering I think that's probably reasonable and we'll just keep surprised of what's happened you're very welcome it's just a matter of record the school did write a letter um supporting the attention as well thank you um thank you any other questions thank you very much for advocating for us for us well you're welcome very much and thank you for having us tonight [Music] well the rest of stuff isn't as fun but our uh we had to approve the Supreme insurance um superintendent goals as discussed in the executive session action item I'll move to improve the superintendent goals as a specifications for what three years thank you and with that uh we'll move on to approving the resolution for section 125 the cafeteria so the IRS has raised his ugly head again and we do not have a resolution for a section of 125 cafeteria plan what that is is it gives the district the authority to take money out of an employee's paycheck for their health care and benefits like that so this resolution is what was presented to us for you to approve and we will just make sure that this stays on file and we will keep this for eternity and we will not have no important issues with taking money out of employees paycheck for for any of the healthcare leads my question tell them to approve the resolution for section attorney for a second any discussions on the plan is there a reason it's called a cafeteria plan that is a part of it no I have no idea yeah is there jello okay Mrs left Weaver yes this is Ellen yes and with that that takes us to the first reading of the amended the word policy which is this one does um address the professional support staff we've asked about this is uh an action item it's a first read so it's not an action item so it will bring it to the board for next board meeting for customer so when you get a chance to read it is yes so please try to read that before we can vote on the next one or next month um with that one that will take us to the governing board conflict of interest I believe this is here because uh our new member will review that and sign it from technology and then we also have a memo of understanding between the children and family services and continental and as mentioned before I have reached out to emilito to see if they could come service some of our students at one of the students of us parents or Gardens and um they returned with an option for us to be trained with their curriculum and we would in staff provide the services to the students whether it be during the school day obviously with their permission um but with the mou being approved they will come and do a two and a half hour training with our team and we are looking at also on getting somebody that malt also mail is currently in using the model that the medigo has and they train all of their counselors and they're providing the curriculum um absolutely question the approval and the uh and when you did go to our legal counseling so we're just waiting for approval so we can schedule the training only to approve the mlbu between two people and best I guess okay Mr and the mno override raises its head again so the attorneys that helped us out with our our last override were reaching out looking to see what our level of interest is in going out early um normally we would be going out next year for our renewal and that would give us two opportunities to have it done before it starts to decrease um currently they're expecting that with the next presidential election as well as they're also affecting the legislature to move the aggregate expenditure limit to out to voters that the next the year that we wouldn't normally go out would probably not be in our best interests they are looking at a lot of bond issues and they're expecting a lot of failures in bonds and and overrides for the 2024 election so right now it's basically a discussion of do we want to go out this year to renew our override do we want to wait until 2024 and and try it in the midst of the presidential election Lord we want to wait until that 2025 here which would be the last year before it will start to go down um just because of time so I leave that in your most capable hands of telling me what you'd like me to do so this department or on this of somebody reach out to you about this yes this office of people who went to school for analyzing and assessing these they spend all day as their full-time job doing this and specifically these made this recommendation these are the attorneys that go over all the bonds these are the attorneys that work with the bond and the overrides to make sure everything is done correctly so it's the attorneys that we're looking at this but it would shift the time frame of the overhead correct and shift it yes it is a set point in time so a renewal would just start to clock over again until we start earlier yes instead of waiting until ours expires correct could you ask them if we could we voted off this year if it would take effect and the other one started some thistle out that would have put this it doesn't work like that I'm sorry can you can you explain like how so next year so if that's just safe and we wait till 2024 and it doesn't get approved how the money so if it doesn't get approved in 2024 we're still okay we still have one more year so the election for November 2025 would take place for fiscal year for the upcoming fiscal year so fiscal year 27.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
not quite 24 hours because I pulled that earlier today so people probably have watched since then uh next slide for me please so we uh the more of the why uh we've gotten feedback basically that feedback from the people who have been paying for this system and we've been selling DVDs and renters rented out when they rent our system and uh we've had people pay to watch some things online um the feedback is that there should be a better quality for that which we are charging so in an effort to retain that Revenue into the future uh we would like to improve the cameras this would allow future rentals and future Blu-ray purchases to in essence fund the purchase of these cameras for the future so next slide please we did engage in testing the testing was threefold I skipped ahead too soon but that's okay we tested uh based on the quality we tested based on the ease of use and we tested based on the cost and we tested three different cameras in the month of December we did that for two dis two rentals and one District event we had both staff and students operating the equipment to see the varying levels of ease of use based on whether they were students or had some training to make sure both could do that uh now we can go to the next slide and we'll talk about teaching uh and go just go to the next one too while you're at it uh industry equipment is what's important for our students to learn on and uh this is the type of equipment they're going to engage with when they are entering college or when they're going into the world to do this type of work in these fields the next one I like to talk about is the family access because for those online performances for students who are in elementary whatever grade they're in all the way through high school when they have family that is watching their educational process and they are seeing these performances online you have more engaged total families that are celebrating the students who are singing in a music concert and they're talking about that with them when they're at holidays together and we're seeing a wider net of how families are engaging with those students from Mexico to US to Canada and in Germany is where people are watching these students from whether you're a parent who is traveling or you're a grandparent who lives somewhere else you're able to be part of those students education and that is highly crucial um and then the increased student access currently our location that we can do this from is the b-fac booth if you've ever been in there it's really small we'll just say it's it's small it's not intended to have a classroom worth of people you know human beings in it and so our goal is for more and more of these events to be live streamed by the students who are taking these classes two problems with that currently are one they don't have this same kind of equipment over at video productions to learn on and the second one is the space you can put the 20 students in the control room over over there but uh but not within our studio so this would allow these two systems to operate either independently or in unison as one system next slide there so this is for the students and it would be help to coordinate our equipment across the building since uniform go to the next slide for me and the renters this would address their feedback from those clients who are actually funding this um and we have more than paid for our initial investment in the original purchase and it's now time to say okay you've been paying for it and you say that you want a better quality let's give you a better quality and then our students can also have that benefit next slide Holly so questions is it anticipated yes every year bfac identifies one of our production elements that needs to remain viable uh both to our students and to our community and we pick that as a project that we want to work on uh this year's video next slide so does that mean it's in the budget yes it does all the funds for this are in our current allocated budget for the year it just reaches that dollar amount where we need you guys to do the final step that's all I have I hope I was brief enough but detailed enough so I'm I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have or none at all I love presentations from the beef Act based on past Revenue how long will it take to pay for these cameras based on the last bit of Revenue not counting any kind of potential price increases Etc we'd be between two and three years and they will last longer than that they could last longer than that yes I mean it I mean everything's a computer nowadays I don't want to say yes it's going to last longer and then in four and a half years that I'm right back here but everything's a computer nowadays so I I would I would be very comfortable to say that they will last to be paid for Dominic how long um uh 12 years now um in that time you have come to us with a number of things and in my history of 12 Years on the board never once have you let us astray your um your creativity is matched by your ability to actually do a budget which is really impressive for a man in your position um which is why I have a great deal of comfort believing that these numbers that you've brought us are well researched um I think you've done a really great job I would say the most valuable thing that you've done for us is you have balanced these great opportunities for the community while also maximizing opportunities for student learning and I think that is the most valuable thing that the b-fac brings to us thank you I love the opportunity for the student s when Aaron called me today with some questions I'm like Dominic's not going to steer us wrong he's got this great opportunity any other questions I really appreciate the fact it's already in the budget yeah thank you for thinking anytime everything uh Tony our CFO everything makes sense to you financially I'm assuming Tony you would not have put this on our agenda it's just a Tony Danza moment it is yeah right I do appreciate Dominic's ability yeah it's gonna have to come down I'll say that I'll I'll be honest when I first saw this I was um I had a lot of questions which have all been answered so again like whenever I see anything like this the three questions the first two questions I ask is this anticipated it's in budget which down when I had so nicely put in his presentation and then the third thing is anything that's going to increase access for our community and I can say personally like professionally I give presentations and it's assumed now that there will be a online component where people that are off site will be able to view what's going on so it is a reality that's never going to go away and and so now they have a better understanding um yeah I'm in support of this and I just want to thank you for that presentation thank you Greg had something um two things as a person who has paid for a couple of days and whatever else I appreciate the attempt at increasing the quality because it is a little lacking but that's fine because I knew what I was buying and I knew what I was getting so I appreciate that we're kind of bringing up the level of that I also wanted to say that I do appreciate because there's some sort of story about bfac out in the world that I read every once in a while about how it you know is is not educationally impacting kids how many kids ever get to use it blah blah blah because they see all these other things that are happening there but at its core it's for the students and I appreciate your presentation bringing that back to the educational impact of the students which you alluded to you know and it's not just that but also I don't want to under State as a person whose parents live in Colorado that use this as a mechanism of staying involved in my kids life call them up the next day and talk to him on the weekend about what he saw and what they did and how well they sounded and everything else that's impactful not only because they're away but impactful to my son who plays So currently there and it's one thing I will probably miss when he goes off to college because I'm not sure I'll have that same advantage that my grandparents and my parents have here so thank you all right any other questions right then I would entertain a motion to purchase five cameras and two robotic camera control stations from b h Inc for a total sum of 51 491.43 second by kilburg all in favor any approach any post all right thank you so much Dominic I would just add one thing he's been in the district a lot longer than yeah um we'll hold on one second for Chris who had to step out for a second yeah okay um next item will be uh laptop excuse me laptops and desktops oh I'm assuming Chris read the book so we'll let Dave do his presentation and then of course has questions he can catch up when he comes back in it's hard to follow that right all right that's pretty scary I'm actually here I might piggyback off of you actually because I've had an idea um so basically I'm here for our three-year plan cycle that we have for every computer for our staff and student devices for the computer lab areas the high school this round um basically I have a three-year cycle for every I'll call it groups of buildings so the elementaries go the RMS building goes and then the high school goes and then I start all over again three-year cycle seems to be the best just due to Hardware age requirements that we've seen for classrooms increasing and other various types of dynamic changes we've seen one being stuff like you just talked about we have a lot of cool stuff so the hardware requirements have never gone down we've always gone up I'm at the point where at the high school we're at 200 laptops and about 150 desktops so you've got computer labs such as the photo lab the graphics lab the video lab we're doing video processing with the classrooms as well we are actually increasing that footprint because that class has actually seen increase we used to have 15 in that lab we're bumping it up to 30.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Of course not. Does he have faults? We all do. But were there faults that warrant this? Not that the majority of our staff is aware of. When Dr. Cara came to talk with us last Thursday afternoon, we shared many feelings with her and asked many questions. Because of the confidentiality of evaluations, there wasn't much that she could share. She wanted to talk about helping us move forward and being there for us next year. Someone was brave enough to say, "We feel that's too little too late." If there were such concerns about his principalship abilities, we think we would have seen a much greater central office presence in our building before Thursday. I want you all to know that I joined the Cremon family in 1984 as a first grader at Creek Elementary. I graduated in the dome in 1995 with Mr. Brown son. I completed my student teaching in this very room in 2001 and very immediately after joined Mon Elementary.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
um I think it would be improved by a new building now I realize this is just a personal aesthetic opinion but I think so is saying the building is too big or too tall cities often have different sized buildings close proximity to one other and you know I also don't understand this distinction between density and mass these are rather related Concepts I think and then also that it's not sustainable enough you know I love the folks in OSI but this seems like a big exercise in goal post moving and technically yes this is a PUD you do have the the power to ask for whatever you want but you know I think this is already above and beyond what you were asking for for most other developments and so moving the goal post at this point just seems you know counterproductive at best so I think it's the right project in the right place I think the petitioner is exactly right that the current zoning isn't serving us well and so I hope I we will see a strong support from the commission tonight thank you anybody else present who would like to address the commission Scott Trudeau 526 North Main um we are reading the same script that we've been reading for 100 years or thereabouts um the parcel immediately next door to this one of forest Plaza was originally proposed to be a nine-story luxury apartment building and the immediate neighborhood reacted negatively to such a large structure being built eventually forced to the developer to cut four stories off the top and push it to the back of the lot so nobody could see it I think that's a handsome building and I think the Builder building has originally proposed would have been handsome in a lovely asset to the street if it had been built as proposed in the 1930s it would be a nine-story building being proposed next to like 12-story building being proposed next to a nine-story building and it wouldn't be so far out of context um we've gone through waves of this kind of back and forth allowing for a little bit more to be built and then reacting against it in in constraining growth for most of the last 100 years we've used the tools available to us to limit the ability to develop housing and and meet the needs this has been 100 years a desirable place for a lot of people who want to live close to campus and will continue to be um the alternative uh if we decide this level of density is not appropriate is that people will move further out and to disagree with the previous commenter who suggested that that's not how the market works it of course is how the market works not only does having students giving students more options to live closer to campus free up other housing that those students would otherwise choose to live in as close as possible to campus we've already seen developers build housing targeted to the student Market far from campus requiring them to travel in car or in shuttles with the the very the the the the Trinitas project on the North side and I I fully expect that if we continue with our current momentum of limiting the ability of any kind of project for student housing to pencil downtown and now limiting the ability of developers who want to build housing near campus using other Strat strategies because we have basically cut off the ability to do it anywhere else we'll see more of the ones and we'll have students shuttling into campus on buses because that's the best option they can have available or driving in and and causing all those problems so I think you know we have to live with the situation we're in we've created some of these problems ourselves so so we have to make the decision like are we willing to accept this close to campus or are we not and if we're not we're gonna like that's my prediction of exactly what we'll see thank you thank you pump the panic button sorry that was I didn't mean to call the police on you sorry please my name is John Markowitz I'm the alumni president of built up some opportunity 1331 Hill Street uh our house was built in 1903 Albert Khan built the house it's historic and we have a couple of Apartments just adjacent to where our house is located but they're a reasonable size so they fit well within the environment that we have I feel that this project is just too immense compared to the footprint of what we have in that particular area on the street like I said we're not opposed to Apartments we have one we share a driveway with one that's right next door to our property and that allows our guys to drive out and turn off onto Forest Street and and be right in that area so I would recommend that you oppose this project based on the size of the project thank you for your time thank you anybody else present who would like to speak you have people in line Madam chair there are six people with their hands raised this evening the first callers Adam yeskovich hi this is Adam jaskiewicz 1430 Las Vegas Drive looking at this proposal I'm confused why staff is recommending denial it is appropriate for the surrounding area and has a number of benefits for our city this building would be within a couple blocks of several other buildings of comparable height and density and an area dominated by student housing we are in a housing crisis with high demand for housing and not enough Supply this would add a significant number of units to our local housing Supply that in itself is a benefit to our city we are also in a climate crisis and again this development picks a number of boxes there have been a number of discussions around encouraging electrification or even Banning natural gas well this development is fully electric they are installing solar panels so that some of the energy needs will be generated on site they are increasing the efficiency of the envelope with extra insulation to eliminate thermal bridging all of these are great and seem to be above and beyond what we require another benefit the location is easily walkable to campus and to local businesses that are frequented by students it's right in the thick of things in terms of student living so residents will likely not need to drive much this is great because we're trying to cut vehicle miles traveled in half this benefits our vision zero goals as well as our 820 rules furthermore this building would pay 4.7 million dollars into our affordable housing fund which Jennifer Hall and the Housing Commission can leverage into more wonderful developments like 121 Catherine the old white lot at 5th and William and other projects coming down the pike these benefits to the city seem substantial to me hence my confusion this seems to check all the boxes please approve this project tonight thank you thank you our next hand raise is caller with phone number ending in 599 you have permission to speak you can pla press star 6 to unmute all right hello my name is Josh Lurkey I live at 521 Snyder Avenue I don't have a super detailed comment on this but I think this is a great project and should absolutely pass it may not fit all of the immediate surrounding land uses but it does fit the land uses of the neighborhood given its proximity to campus and South University I'd like to point out that there is literally a parking garage a similar height approximately 500 or 100 feet away it's not 500.
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I gotta get my numbers right is when the actual decreases begin and we start losing a third of that until it's completely gone unless we get an override passed and ballpark how much is in the other right here five hundred and seventy thousand dollars so we lose 150 160 it it doesn't start until yeah so if we went out this year and the voters don't pass it then we have next year to try to we would still have two years to go to get it done I know before the last the last one we the voters did it pass it and then they we had to believe [Music] so yeah I came in in July of 20 right in the middle of our last override so I had a lot of catching up to do so that's why we're just kind of looking for some guidance from you guys from now so what so if we went early to be in November of 23 it would be November this this November would be the election so we'd really be cutting it short or we decide to go out against the recommendation and do it during the presidential election which we did minutes but we end the past we put more voters during the presidential election also yes so we did we did remember how we went for our override during the non-recommended year and and it passed whereas last year a lot of districts they just went for their overrides to get up they may have many mentioned about the economy no there was no discussion on the economy or anything else it was just a lot of districts are currently looking at not going up against the presidential election so that is that is the reason why Gus Roosevelt sent reached out to anybody who hadn't talked about the election saying this is what we're hearing where are you at what do you want to do so hypothetically if we were to wait until the year after the election yeah yeah I mean 25 November of 25.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so this stuff's taking off massively which as a hobby I love this stuff too as well so if you guys have questions this is basically refreshing them for the next three year cycle I have also added accidental damage to the laptops we've had some weird stuff happen over these past years I've been here between laptops falling on the floor someone dumping a cup of water on the laptop staff or student doesn't matter but a lot of times when that happens our previous setup you could not fix it it was more you got to buy a new one just with how HP does their warranty so what I've done is actually move these devices into the same exact plans we have for our Chromebooks and the price point of it the prices of course have gone up and I was doing kind of like some math with what we've done previously but I find we're about we actually got a better deal adding the warranty than we'd had without it so for me it worked out very well and now when someone breaks it you're not waiting for a brand new one you just send it in you'll get a loaner until it comes back so turn around it's gonna be a lot better as well awesome you guys have any questions or all right then I would entertain a motion to the purchase of 200 laptops and 150 desktops from its Savvy in the total amount of 435 875 dollars any opposed all right next item on our agenda is a resolution for the honorable dismissal of teachers I'm going to hand that over I'm assuming to Steve but it doesn't say yes okay um this is something that we bring to you every March um across the state of Illinois uh Illinois school code requires uh honorable dismissals to happen 45 days before the end of the school year so across the state of Illinois March board meetings uh these resolutions are usually happening um it's a sad day because every name on that list is appreciated when we hired them uh what you see in front of you those people who were hired were covering like a leave of absence for a year a part-time position maybe a mid-year higher there's multiple mid-year hires in there of people who have stepped into classrooms when we really need them needed them and have done a great job and so all these people are really really appreciated because they've known they're coming in for like a year or a half a year here and and doing the job and they've done it well and we we appreciate every person and name on that list having said that um there's a lot of people on that list too that and by the way the reason that we let go of the people who are covering your leave of absences or a temporary contract or part-time people is so that we can um make sure that we make the right decisions for our staffing plan and don't overstaff and and can kind of assess what the needs are and then make the right decisions um and so having said that again um some of these people will be hiring back because they've done a great job for us and we will have openings for them um for the people who have covered part-time positions if we have part-time positions for them which will determine probably in the next few months we'd love to have them back and so um that's why it's termed honorable dismissal they've done a great job for us and we appreciate them and for many of them we're hopeful that we will have a position we can bring them back because they've done a great job so you'll probably see some of these names in our board report next month as new hires and uh I'm hopeful that um those folks get the opportunity to solidify themselves and remain with our staff for years to come so that's the report on that if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them any questions on that it's pretty straightforward all right then I would entertain a motion to approve the resolution as presented so much all right oppose all right last item for Action is our district collaboration hand that over to Dr Hitchens and Swanson wow I don't think you've ever been to the podium at least they're collaborating [Laughter] okay all right so Lisa and I are both here to kind of give you as a board an update uh about um some things that we started last summer so our first question that we are answering for you is why are we doing this presentation um and just a little background knowledge just so everybody is familiar with what how we got here um the ba leadership met with smt in the board last July or June 21st at a workshop to engage in problem solving around systems of collaboration and climate in the district this constitutes the update that you as a board asked for about our ongoing process and how to you so number two why are we presenting this update um as you know we're gonna have a leadership turnover as in our superintendent on July 1st and so this was a priority that we review our collaborative systems so everybody kind of is on the same understanding of what the mission is for each of our collaborative structures when timecam takes over in July uh the third reason why we're presenting this update to you is just to ensure our systems are focused on results and we've had previous committees come to you and give you updates about what their work has been throughout the year so far and those results are we want the results to be driving where we're going in the future so that's the third reason why and then the fourth one fourth reason why we're presenting this update to you is that it's like our priority for this whole overarching umbrella that we were talking about um we're beginning to build that trust we want to ensure that true collaboration is happening in the district and improve communication because those are the three things that really came out of that last June meeting that we really needed to work on as a team together and that is trust communication and collaboration so that's why we're making a presentation to you today and I'll turn over to Lisa sure um the next question is why why do we even care so what are the benefits of collaboration and why did we care so much that it is core in our strategic plan it's one of our Three core strategies um because I could tell you it's probably um some people when I I know when I was hired here in 1994 we weren't talking about teams of teachers sitting down weekly looking at data and making lives better for all of our students it was I was hired I'm in this classroom and and I'm going to go about and shut the door and do what I want to do and times have changed I'll tell you that right now um the benefits of collaboration the reason that we we really value this is because if I shut my door and come up with a decision on my own it's not the best decision we know that the best decisions are made when there's diversity of thought in the room and that we actually build on each other's ideas and we come up with the best most creative innovative solutions when we work together nobody likes to be left in the dark and so I know that when we collaborate we are committed to communicating out what we're talking about and just having people in the room be part of that decision making helps to improve communication and information throughout the organization hopefully that leads to improved morale and improved motivation when you feel like you're part of something big and it's we're more productive and efficient with our time when we're able to divvy up tasks and and do these things together and then just in case we forgot in our strategic plan we commit to collaboration and we commit to sharing decision making we practice interest-based problem solving we engage in professional learning communities we commit to developing Partnerships that increase opportunities for students and increase Community Pride and we commit to engaging in active open communication within an environment where it's safe to express differences share successes and learn from our mistakes so that's part of your strategic plan I'm going to come back to the Strategic plan in a little bit here but the next question that I want to answer is what does it look like at BPS 101 what does collaboration look like so like Todd said when the new superintendent shows up and new board members we want to be able to say here's all of our collaborative teams that exist here's their purpose and we wanted we made it a goal to make sure that all of the Committees knew what their role was what their purpose was so when the new people walked in they'd be able to say tell me what you do and it goes back to that man on the moon everybody should know that what their job is and how it impacts students and so um I did put together like this is a work in progress but I do have just the list of all of our building-based collaborative teams and district-wide teams and these aren't even all of the teams that function in an organ in our organization and I didn't hand this out to you on purpose because like any good teacher I know if I hand it out you'd be reading it and not listening to our stellar our presentation right now Sue is looking at it she grabbed it off but it is a um there is a lot to say this is this little two-pager is just the tip of the iceberg these are very complex structures and um with multiple functions and um ways that they go about their business but this is just the starting point to show that it all starts with that collaborative team that I just briefly mentioned about when our our students learn when our teachers sit down and look at the data and figure out how we can get better so we set aside time for our teachers to do that and that's called the collaborative team a lot of us call it the PLC team um and those me weekly or at least a few times a month throughout the district where these teams are sitting down looking at student data and that's way different than when I started here in 1994 as a matter of fact um I'm not going to name names but one of the teachers that I worked with this was just different in 1994 didn't let any of us look at the tests that she gave the students and we were teaching the same class because it was proprietary information but think about what was missing like that collaboration where we could have made it better we could have shared in the workload and we could have had consistent um data to look at our students so we can have common understanding of how our students are performing and help them get better so that is just a brief overview of collaboration in our district and then my turn again so just like Lisa was saying with her chart with the different groups um all of this is still a work in progress and I don't want any of you to think that we have reached the Finish Line because we haven't we have a lot of ways to go together but at least like I said when I made my comments earlier we're on the right Road together so I just wanted to make that clear but one of the questions that I know you as a board has that we should be answering for you is like what have we been doing to work on those three targeted areas for building back trust and collaboration and communication so there's five things that I'd like to highlight with you and the first thing is really that June 21st meeting that was the first step in this whole process it was actually a starting point to actually identify what the problems are to have real conversations those tough conversations about where are we at together as a district what do we need to work on what do we need to focus on that initial like owning and awareness of that of the things that we needed to work on that was step one in what we've been doing um step two uh as you guys know and you've directed us to we've been having ongoing meetings with uh Bea leadership and smt uh every four to six weeks we've been processing through we've been talking about things uh one of the things we've been working on most recently is the climate survey that we're going to be talking about a little bit in the future so that would be like the second thing that we've been working on this year to um getting back under the umbrella of the three things for trust climate collaboration and communication the third thing is like our committee work and Lisa said in our document you know it's identifying purposes identifying goals so everybody's clear on their roles um this is the one that's really still our biggest work in process we have a lot of committees that function at varying different levels and we want to make sure that we are providing the supports for all those committees to do the best job that they can do so so our committee structure our committee works are still really big goals as Works in progress but at least we have a vision of where we want to go with them so some of the things under committees that Lisa and I kind of brainstorm together is that we want to build trust amongst the team members that are on those committees by establishing Norms by talking about what our goals and expectations are and the roles and responsibilities on those committees those are things that each committee is tackling piece by piece little by little but eventually we're going to get to a point where that becomes a way of business on those committees something else that we talked about too that's really important on the Committees that wasn't really happening at the same level in all committees is just open and effective communication on those teams which gets back to that communication piece of the umbrella that we were talking about earlier transparency and shared messaging from those teams and most importantly equal voice on those teams between Administration and the teachers that are on those committees in the past some teachers will be like afraid to speak up because they're like well this is my boss or this is an administrative in the district and we've made it very clear this year through you know the work that we've done together through Bea when we've had our own meetings you have an equal voice to every other person on that committee whether an administrator or a fellow teacher everybody's voice should be heard everybody's voice should be valued and you're working as a team together so I think that is really one of the ones we made a lot of growth on this year is just to make sure everybody's voice has an equal footing on the committee and then as Lisa does to just fostering that culture of collaboration and teamwork through shared leadership and our PLC but also this year we had a co-chair that was a Bea member on CAC along with an administrative chair and I believe there's also a co-chair for plaque as well this year so those are two things that we're trying to establish a role of shared leadership and shared decision making on those committees so as far as committees um you know like I said we're not at the finish line yet but at least we're in heading in a better Direction than where we were before we had that June 21st meeting so that was the third thing we've been working on this year the fourth thing is our negotiations and even though we're still actively negotiating and can't really divulge a lot of concrete information about what's happening uh with collaboration during negotiations but I can just kind of say that the topic is certainly something that's on the discussion table for negotiations um and that's about all I can say about that but right now until we actually have a finalized contract but we're taking some of the conversations that we've been having all year together and as a team both Administration and Bea through our contract negotiations trying to see how we can get some some teeth into our contract for that as well and then the fifth way that we've been kind of monitoring this year is just with this climate survey and we've been talking about the climate survey for a while and I know some of the board members had questions about you know why this climate survey what's the process been so I kind of jotted some things down about the process for this climate survey um uh it's been a hundred percent collaborative between smt and Bea leadership so I just want to make sure that that's clearly known it hasn't been smt has said oh here's a survey that we used before so we're going to use this one this has been completely 100 percent a joint venture between both of us as teams we've met together as a joint team Bea and smt um four different or with four different survey vendors so we actually you know kind of brainstorm and we leaned on Administration for this as teachers we don't know too many survey vendors but um ones that they had used other and other districts that have used and we actually had them come and we did some virtual meets with them we met online with uh three uh of the survey vendors and we found out that those three really weren't quite meeting all the needs that we were looking for in a survey on basically where their results were focused on were more at building level and we were able to get building data uh to some extent from our five essential survey and the surveys from these first three vendors that we looked at were only going to kind of and it's okay to have cross-referencing of data but it wasn't going to give us what our biggest function was it was more of a macro level of a district sort of survey results and data at a survey level from a from a district level and so that's why we came to a fourth different vendor and that vendor was called Hanover and um when we interviewed with them they said that they would have some building level things but as well we would be able to look at some more district-wide survey questions that might get to some of the things that we were talking about with those issues of trust collaboration and communication that we were targeting as our areas of improvement and so for that main reason along with the fact that Tom Kim in his current District in Niles right now they use Hanover as their survey tool and so that information he's going to be able to see that information know what the required follow-up is going to be and over how they take that excuse me take that information and then create targets for us to work on together it's going to be something that's very familiar for him plus it's going to give him the most recent up-to-date information about the district that he's going to be stepping into on July 1st so I know one of the questions that someone on the board had is like why why are we doing this now is this the best time to do this right now and we really feel together with both sides from Bea and smt this is the best time to do this right now because we're going to be able to provide Tom with the most up-to-date information as far as what the climate in the survey looks like as he's coming into the district so those are some of the things that you know we were trying to anticipate about why we were looking at Hanover um let me check back my notes Here uh uh oh somebody asked about why aren't we um doing like our own survey right and so the biggest answer to come back to that one is that knowing that trust is one of the key issues that we targeted back in our June 21st meeting it was very apparent we needed some third-party outside source to come in and not only administer the survey gather the survey data disseminate the survey data and kind of help us come up with a plan moving forward that was totally not a Bea survey it wasn't a BPS survey this is a total outside third party very objective group that would come in and provide that information so that's why we were really looking at outside sources instead of coming up with our own sort of survey so that answers that question hopefully and as far as a timeline for the survey what we're looking at now of course depending on approval for Hanover is that there would be representatives from Hanover that would meet with Bea and smt we would go over sort of like what their set survey questions are but the great thing is is that we can curtail that survey if we want to get more specific information or if we want to not ask this question but ask this one or change this so it's reworded this way and that was again one of the biggest points that we were really really excited about especially when it came to that District piece of gathering that information is we can kind of curtail some of those questions to hopefully make light of what is what it is we're trying to solve as far as trust and collaboration and communication so that adaptability of their survey um was happening in the first part of April where we'd meet together and kind of craft the survey the survey would hopefully roll out by the end of April that way the data would come in right before the end of the year where we would be able to kind of hand that information off to Tom and then from there take that information and look at it for next steps once Tom takes over in July and then roll that out to the district um you know however Tom and the new smt feels it's going to be best to to roll forward when we continue to meet with them with so hopefully that answers a lot of your questions and I know Lisa's got one more part um the last um just the conclusion I would say is that with the leadership changes definitely a strategic plan would be the next step that any District would embark on at this at this juncture I think that the we haven't we've done reboots of our strategic plan but the time is probably right to redo the whole thing make sure that we have Clarity in the plan because it should be the thing that we're pointing back to that says this is what we value as a district these are our priorities and this these are the measures that we're going to use to determine if we're successful or not and um you know that there's often competing interests or you know we're looking at different sets of data and I think the strategic planning process is pretty comprehensive it's not just one survey but the survey would definitely feed into this strategic plan um comprehensive review that you would do and they would look at they would do a very thorough needs assessment they would look at all of our systems and all of the data that exists and um you would be embarking on this and um so you would be able to use this survey as a part of that process because this survey is um community-wide or it's for parent students and all staff and so there's different things that would be measured not just staff climate it is called a climate survey but it also looks at the student learning environment and so it is one piece of the the review of our strategic priorities that you would engage in so I do feel like it would be helpful for that and I would add too one of the other things that kind of sold us on Hanover is there's a component of it of mental health assessment for the people that are taking the survey so if students were taking it app could be taking it as well and so there would be some information that we would get back and probably the the best thing that I heard from them is that whatever the information is targeted then we will be able to as a district to figure out okay here's this piece of information that says we need to look at our curriculum in this area so let's hand that off to CAC or we need some more professional development when it comes to this topic let's hand that off to plaque so this is a multi-functional multi-layer assessment that is hopefully going to be able to be parceled out to our collaborative structures that are throughout the district so that's another one of the reasons that we really liked the Hanover product so we try to incorporate the questions that you gave us ahead of time into the presentation but I would open up now for other questions or comments I wrote down a list of things that I needed to hear in order for me to want to back this and the big one that I am not 100 on is and first I want to say that you guys are the experts and obviously I don't know anything about climate surveys so I trust that you've done your due diligence um I also trust that you guys are working collaboratively and nobody's being co hurt coerced so I'm very comfortable knowing that the Bea the admin and our future superintendent agree um but I like to hear reassurance that there's shared expectation on how the data will be used um because obviously data can be used in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes um and unless we have shared expectations along with that collaboration I worry that this may cause further harm if we don't if we're not on the same page right like tied into that how do we get buy-in what if we don't like the results of the survey I think part of that role comes with a rollout of the survey and then the rollout of the data that comes from it and it's a communication piece so that kind of ties back into our overall communication is something that we really need to work on so we need to be specific in saying that this is what this survey is telling us at this point and if you agree with it or if you don't agree with it we can still have conversations about that about why you feel that way so I I think if we just say this is something that we're entering in a joint venture together with Bea and administration and this survey data is going to be like our like our driving force about how we're going to move forward as a district together and so making that expectation known up front and making that expectation known in communication when the survey results come out it's I can't you know wave a magic blind and make everybody believe that but that's going to be the message that we give out and we're also going to create an Avenue that if people have other things to say about that they don't believe it they want to see you know more in-depth information about it we can provide that for them and have those conversations but there should probably be some sort of accountability piece we get survey information that says students aren't engaged that's going to require us to then look at our pedagogy um processes and potentially change them I'm a teacher I don't want to hear that but the bottom line is if that's what the survey date is saying then I have to be willing to commit that I'm going to make changes I also have experience of seeing these results come out in a different District where there is no accountability and there is no buy-in and so nothing's done with them so my concern is like do we have like a plan of yes we're going to sell it yes we're going to roll it out but regardless no matter what the survey says no matter what we find out we have expectations that the entire purpose of the survey is to impact student learning and we're going to be holding people accountable for implementing whatever we find needs to happen like how do we have assurances of that one thing that um Ty talked about in the future planning he talked about us being partners and figuring out like the the survey questions specifically the ones that could be added is to have it be the board partnership as well so I have a board representative or two join us for those meetings to make sure that we're headed in the right direction and have that voice to make sure that there's that accountability place and the accountability in place but also that we are going to use the data and we all have that shared expectation of how it's going to be used because I think that it is possible that things would be cherry-picked because sometimes that's your go-to you use a survey to confirm your own biases and so I believe X so I'm going to find the survey questions that show that that's true and we need to make sure that doesn't happen and I think one of the things about having this third party is they'll come back and say these are your top things and there's a lot of competing interests in our organization of people needing resources and people having ideas and we you you do need to be on the same page which is um this this could help like I said before feed into the Strategic plan but also to say we do understand that that might be a concern of yours but these are the three that we picked related to staff climate for this year we can't do everything we can't be everything to everyone at the same time and so it would I think help us to say your your feelings are valid and here's the but they're not the top three that we've decided whatever Hanover comes back these are the three things that we say would make the biggest impact for this year because we can't just keep adding we have to streamline what we do and I think the other thing Kathy too is that with Hanover it's it's a multi-year process so it's not just a one-time assessment and they say here's your goals now go goal right um they're going to come back in and they're going to reassess in the second year and they'll reassess in the third year to make sure that accountability for reaching those goals or if you're falling short in those goals how can they help provide more Direction and more support I think that was one of the things that really sold us on Hanover is that they're in for the Long Haul and it's not just a one and done but more of a continual check-in with this third party that's helping us facilitate that exact thing out to our staff and to the members in Batavia one question real quick if you don't mind is that did you coordinate and kind of work with Tom a little bit on his opinions or thoughts associated with this yet or not yet we did not so he is um currently employed in another District that's why it's awkward time is valuable we did um ask him if he had a lead after the first three vendors that we met with we were not sold on any of them so um we were trying to reach out and somebody said we should ask our new Super Future superintendent and this is the one that his district uses and he does endorse it and so they did a similar survey at that school that is ongoing right now or they have wrapped that process up dude I don't know that specifically I think they give it every year but I couldn't tell you that for certain okay I think there's I mean there's some it alleviates some concern I have that shares with yours that if he's aware of this process and he's aware of how it rolls out there's not only expectations on what Hanover will do but on what we need to do to make it actionable data and then also effective data for us to be moving forward and so I think part of it is maybe at our if we just say as a group go forward with this as a part of our kind of first set of goal setting and meetings with him is that we bring that to him and say this is an expectation of the board that this is how this is our expectation with this data and and put that as to a quasi-charge to him about that product I want you are asking us as a board to spend forty eight thousand five hundred dollars per year and you're talking about multi-years it's a three-year contract three years and if I'm hearing everything correctly both the Bea and the admin are committed to this three-year program and regardless of what the data tells you to go with the recommendations of this firm and try to adjust the data so that we Target those goals not adjust the data adjuster plans well I mean well I mean adjust the data as in long term we want the data to change so that it looks better yeah that's what I meant by adjust the data obviously right you don't want to change the numbers we want to change the numbers through action right and those are I think those are my concerns is that it's very easy to do these and it's all great but one of the things that we've talked a lot about is that we're not always connecting things back to learning and there's been a lot of other um forces at work but bottom line is we're a learning institution and so that's my concern is is um this is important so healthy teachers impact learning but I want to directly related to like you know that's all great if they're all happy but if they're not focus on learning that's not the direction we want to go in so that's just the the philosophy and the direction is every single thing in this should connect back to learning for students I really appreciate the fact that Tom has experience with the Hanover group I think that that's very helpful however my concern is especially at this price point having him commit to something that's three years long when he just got here although I will argue too Tom when he interviewed if we remember one of the things that he did say that he had experience with and was going to be a focus was digging into Data to see where we were falling shorter than we wanted to be and then creating plans to move forward so that is in line with what he'd already said and I'm sure he's flexible enough to be okay with the tool that he's already familiar with if that's the best tool that and he was big on collaboration so if that's the best collaborative tool that we can find with the data how quickly you know I'm been very vocal about low hanging fruit how quickly could this survey maybe produce some low-hanging fruit for us to make some movement to show that we're acting on this investment I think we'll get the initial data back before the end of the school year so depending on what that data shows we would be able to meet with smt and Bea and just kind of say is there something that that sticks out as something that we can do that's actionable and instantaneous to get us going to move that needle so until we actually see the exact data we're not quite sure but yeah I would hope that would be something that we would see right away if something is evident that we can at least latch on to and begin working with Tom on right away so what's the I'm I'm it's probably in here and I just didn't see it what is the proposed timeline um so I see the payment schedule but so the timeline that we were told from Hanover is that they would be meeting with us in the first couple weeks of April to just finalize the questions the survey tool itself the survey would roll out at the end of April and then they would get the data from that and disseminate it back out with recommendations and and jumping off points to go forward uh before the end of the school year what's their typical participation generate with the survey Philly tough time of year right yeah well that's the one thing I was thinking is after a free break yeah oh man oh man yeah it is like we do a survey in another place that is nearby and even like early in the school year we put aside time we have students do it and you walk around just saying hey can you log into the survey and do it and I still had less than 80 participation so just to be clear for most surveys do not require 100 participation to be statistically valid right no but our concerns but our concern continues to be what voices are we not hearing and why are we hearing right and so that that is again the lens that we've said and agreed that we need to look at it through Rippling I think what is going to because I agree it's a turning point to that question Aaron is that whole idea of a third party outside that's running the survey um we have a current survey that we use in the district called five Essentials it's a state provided survey um for a variety of reasons there's not a lot of buy-in to that with the staff in the district for you know like I said for a myriad of reasons giving staff an opportunity to have a new Fresh survey that's not a survey we've currently used or seen how the data from that survey has been used in any sort of different way in the past and again in that communication piece when that survey rolls out this is your chance right this is this is a new opportunity that we have I can't guarantee numbers to you I mean I really can't I don't I can't answer that for you yeah but it will be a priority in our communication that we have gone to these lengths of meeting for an entire year starting with you as the board and working together through ba and smt to provide you with the opportunity that you're telling us you want your voice to be heard this is your chance so you mentioned communication I'm glad you brought that up so would the communication come from the Hanover or where the communication come from you too or you and or all of the above I would imagine it would probably be both to some capacity but I know speaking for me as president I would have additional Communications that I would you know put out through Bea channels through our executive board and through ba Communications with that exact same message you asked for your voice to be heard here's your chance okay so I guess you know um I'm tired of this I appreciate the work you've done trying to collaborate and I know it's been important work but you are asking us as a board to spend 145 000 500 145 500 over the span of three years to essentially come up with work that you can't guarantee the staff is going to buy into I as a board member my fiduciary responsibility is to the taxpayers and I know people are going to laugh at that because we just sit here and we just approved 400 000 for computers and stuff like that but if this is truly going to be collaborative I'm not even going to think about passing this unless you and the teachers are going to buy in and pay for half of it does that make sense makes sense we don't have a budget for that well then so I think that that's how it's going to be I think we um it's clear that we have some reasons to not vote on this tonight but there are reasons to vote on it so I'll I'm gonna talk about what I'm here I'm hearing we have unanswered questions financially um it might be more than you're willing to spend the process needs to be more defined about like timeline and process and who's going to communicate we don't have that level of detail for you tonight and I'm hearing also that you think that Tom needs to be more involved in this conversation so those be those would be reasons to postpone this vote I hope that you wouldn't outright reject it because we really do both believe that this is something that could be helpful but we might not have the right timeline or the right process together so reasons to vote for it tonight would be we I I'm not sure of the timeline if we say if we don't vote on it tonight with um Hanover research whether or not we'd be able to get it and I'm done by the end of the school year um that would be a reason to vote for it and that I really do believe that this would be valuable information to feed into your strategic plan and and um Todd is correct that we do both believe this is the right solution so is it the right solution tonight that's what you have to decide if you need a little more time for us to go back to the drawing board and be a part of that conversation so that's my take on what I'm hearing I got one last question is there an off-ramp I mean if for some reason after getting the first survey results if everybody in the district agrees that it's not what we're looking for are we still obligated for those times it's a three-year contract okay so I'm thinking that we probably need to make sure that there's more information I'll just throw my two cents in here so my thoughts are I'm if we did this I'm not sure I mean I do appreciate the work you've done but I'm not sure what's like what once we get the data like what the action steps are that and then I do appreciate that Tom has experienced it I think it would be foolish uh not to have him be a part of the process if he's actually used the tool and and provide his feedback on what works what doesn't so he could help guide this process so I would think I wouldn't really feel comfortable about implementing this unless he had a chance to get his hands around because the way I'm reading this is this could drive a lot of decisions moving forward I want really him to have a big saying that I wouldn't feel comfortable kind of not saddling with it but here you go and you didn't get a chance to develop how we're going to use this tool because but for me to to Sue's point to spend this amount of money I don't have a problem with it if we're going to actually think it's going to improve student lunaring and the student experience at this point it's not clear to me how that would work I just think they need to have some skin in the game I'll add Echo what you said about Tom I'm willing to wait I know that that's not what you want to do but I'm willing to wait to make sure it's done right I don't understand how this fits in the budget I haven't heard that yet and we've got at least two new board members that people are going to vote on so for them to be part of this decision I think would be more than appropriate at this time so I would hold off on voting so what are we asking them to bring back to us a waiting until the new board is seething seated be a conversation with Tom see a specific Act actionable plan as to how we're going to use the data Chris did I miss anything on fear I think that there should be some type of board either observation it's part of the process just so that they could you know we can make sure that we have an unbiased observation of what's going on as far as how we're making these decisions like we always have board members yes yeah but you see you sit guaranteed buy-in or well and the truth is we might not get buy-in but we can solve expectations of what actions happen right so like expectations um consequences conversations all of that right so whether it's so that can look a lot of different ways but if we're partnering that I feel like we can address but I would just I feel like we want a little bit more of a specific plan to assure us that there really is buy-in there really is going to be a plan instead we're using this data regardless of what it says and we're going to focus on student learning yeah but probably the biggest one is that the the new board and new superintendent should have a say in this and I would agree so the next question is do we want to do you guys want to talk about it the next meeting with the reorganization meeting or are we willing to push it back and we might not be able to do the survey this school year but we hit the ground running next school year I would like I think Lisa's and Todd's points are really good that this will help form a strategic plan but that strategic plan isn't going to be the first thing Tom does in the first month he's here right I mean it's going to be a process as he gets to know us gets to know our community okay so can you address those things and then yeah I just don't see you're going to have much buy-in anyways in April and May no no right I would write with the survey concern with that that's a concern so a timeline so which um so board participation in The Next Step also so Kathy as the president you decide who sits on what teams so if you can let me know who um will be working with us to put that plan together and to be the voice of what we just heard tonight not that we weren't listening but make sure no yes absolutely you're that voice at the table absolutely and I think she's wonderful what did we decide we're going to get a timeline we're going to get some more actional items we're going to put it not make a decision on this until the new board is seated in the meantime as they continue trying to beat out that plan one of the four of you that it's going to for sure still be on the board should be the person sitting in on that committee that makes sense so we can talk about that if you have a volunteer or whatever all right you good with that well yeah either do you have questions for us that you feel like we didn't answer um uh I don't think I have any questions I think that like it's okay I just want to leave you with I do feel like this is the right solution and we will come back with they will come back with a better plan with the I feel like it's not a no it was more like a not yet that make sense kinda except for sale except all right I think it's good I do I like it but I'm not I don't like the money I need to beat it out of them all right so that was that last item on our action and we um set that aside for the moment so we're not going to take action on the survey activity tonight so we'll turn it over to administrative comments um I just have one today is World Down syndrome day and if you've if you're on social media you'll probably see some of our um staff tweeting about that and I'll just read you the quote from the world's Down syndrome organization their theme for the year is with us not for us people with disabilities have the right to be treated fairly and have the same opportunities ever as everyone else working with others to improve their lives so we need to work with them not for them awesome thanks Lisa Chris we'll have you go first for coming okay I have some prepared statements today you only have to listen to this two more times so um hello Community if you're like me it Feels Like Everything is happening everywhere all at once from local elections to Spring Sports and activities there is a lot going on in our small City as a soon to be former member of the vivitavia school board I wanted to use one of my last opportunities from behind this desk to highlight an organization that is near and dear to my heart I appreciate you taking the time to listen to me and to learn more about the Batavia Community diversity initiative or bcdi first let me tell you a little bit about our work with care the Community Alliance for regional Equity a partnership created by the Chicago metropolitan Agency for planning for those that don't know last year we were one of 12 organizations selected to help create a more Equitable and inclusive communities by giving a voice to those who are traditionally excluded from the planning process a minister representing a partner organization provided a great quote as we got started we may not have it all together but together we have it all it has been amazing what we discover with diverse voices at the table last week we had our third meeting and our first meeting hosted by one of our partner organizations we were honored to be guests of access living an organization that has been in the front lines of protecting the civil rights of those with disabilities since the passing of the American Inn with Disabilities Act it was great to see spaces designed to provide maximum accessibility at our meeting we discovered the four projects we're going to work on this year we'll be focusing on the first project over the next few months before moving on to the next what we were only introduced to the project and have yet to dig into the real work I was very uplifted by the work we were able to do one thing I found to be enriching and impactful was when someone suggested that we need to tell stories over data while collecting and analyzing data is a necessary tool for most Endeavors we need to remember that there are real people behind those numbers whose lives are affected by our decisions it is those lives that are most important not the numbers the data should be used to improve those lives not to Simply alter the data while it is wonderful we were able to do work for our region there are also benefits for our community cmap is committed to providing resources to help us identify and solve problems here this ranges from data analysis to identify high priority problems to helping us find funding to do the work additionally bcdi has received an honorarium to participate in this work which allows us to fund our own efforts in the community since our Inception we have made a conscious effort to learn as much as we can to do our work as honestly and as efficiently as possible we have learned to move at the speed of trust it is important to be deliberate and intentional when doing this work and always be willing to learn and grow if you're interested in learning more about what we're doing and want to support our work you can reach us at board bataviacdi.org or find us on the web at www.butaviacdi.org we can also be found on Facebook Instagram and YouTube finally if it wasn't obvious I want to let you know I have no intention of stop serving our community I am committed to building I am committed to building coalitions to make our community more a more welcoming space for everyone where everyone has the best opportunity to thrive if there is any anything additional I can do to make our community stronger please do not hesitate to reach out to me thank you for your time your trust and years of support go Bulldogs and go vote thanks Chris good it's so I want to start by thanking everybody who attended tonight who everyone who emails the board everyone who reaches out with questions it's really exciting to see our community engaged right now we have a big election coming up so I just want to thank everyone who's participating in the process and getting informed about all the issues and getting interested in what's going on with their schools um I wanna wish the best of luck to all the candidates on April 4th it takes a lot of courage to put your name on a ballot um so and it's vital to our democracy that people are willing to step up to serve so I want to thank them for that and wish them luck um I want to encourage people to vote you can go vote right now April 4th is the day but um I like to vote early because it's a very quick and painless process so there's lots of opportunities so please get out there and make your voice heard it's again very important to our community and the future of our community forward and um I just want to thank again all the volunteers in our community that support us I had a chance to participate in a fundraiser at my daughter's school and you know I think people still have short memories that it wasn't that long ago that we were separated during covid and I still every time I'm in a group setting kind of have to pinch myself to say hey we're back we survived and now we're moving forward so I just want to thank everybody for that and I just want to wish everyone a safe spring break if you're traveling be careful I know when we get back it's going to move fast before you know it we're going to be talking about commencement so uh everybody get some rest and we'll see when we get back from spring break thank you I just wanted to congratulate the girl women's wrestlers girls wrestling team again and just I hope they really understand Aaron made the comment about your neighbor girl that's wrestling and how it's changed her life and they really are making an impact they're changing lives that's so wonderful and I hope they really heard that and understand that that's awesome um I I don't know what more I can say about the referendum um that hasn't been said I really thought about making a big long speech and stuff like that but just don't believe everything you read on social media oh my Lord um go to the website get your information there bps101.net do your research go vote it's vitally important so thank you have a great spring break thank you I'm going to say ditto to my previous board members who spoke so thank you for being so eloquent on that I'm going to keep it short and sweet I just wanted to kind of talk about um One Thing Really which is some Avenues thing and that unique happened kind of um in my sphere as working with the high school and and kind of being around that um it's amazing how we get opportunities for our kids to participate in things in extracurriculars and they actually get real opportunities as a part of the music program and the Jazz groups they played over at the venue in Aurora which is where I was last week so I appreciate everybody allowing did you so do that it was an amazing event um sat it'll be one of the last times I see my son play there but then also just last weekend a number of families braved the trip into Chicago because the wind Symphony was able to perform with some other high schools that they effectively rented out the CSO and played at the Chicago symphonic orchestra event that's place is where we started my wife and I were talking with control Circle that we saw with our oldest son there my youngest one was like seven at the time when Marsalis go and he had a little bit of a kind of a primer on Jazz for your elementary school kids so they talked about all that right beforehand so um just amazing opportunities that are available and I want to thank the parent volunteers that helped organize all that and that those in the organizations that helped contribute to make that an affordable event for everybody to be able to go to and that other schools who I believe may have invited us to be a part of that I appreciate that it was really kind of unique and kids don't get to stand very often on a real professional stage sorry I'm not gonna I'm not not gonna be fact there over Dominic but to kind of do something like that that they played there so it was an amazing event a number of us kind of got box seats which was a lot of fun to sit in I felt the rarefied air for a moment I called my way back down to the level I deserve to be at so just thank you to everybody who's part of that process so thank you thank Craig RJ um I'll talk about the referendum Sue will you do it it's not a long speech really uh so since the referendum failed and we made the decision to put it back on the ballot I've been a lot more active than I probably should be online definitely more than I want to be but I really appreciate the conversations have been happening out there we found out that we had 2 000 visitors in the past two weeks on the website so congratulations on that because I believe leading up to the voting in November we had a thousand visitors total since the building our future together website was put out probably three years prior to the voting so double the amount of visitors in just the last week is is fantastic and I want to thank everyone who's been going to all the different events I know a lot of you have been going so thank you for going to the different events we've been trying to be out there for the public for one-on-one conversations I've took some questions and you guys handle them so I really appreciate that because those are straight from public comments that I saw online so I appreciate that and I've definitely just in the past week I think that the I think the Forum was a real success at the library getting that set up was really important because I mean a week a week's time on the Internet is a long time and over the past couple days there's been a lot less I should say chatter and definitely a lot less misinformation being out there I definitely Echo what you said about watching for the misinformation um I know that the two groups out there the vote Yes and vote no have been doing I think what they you know feel is best to get the information out there um and I appreciate that to help make sure everyone understands the impact of the referendum but I definitely would love for people just to use the website that we have or reach out to the school board directly would be great uh on a lighter note yesterday I was at the public library for the battle of the books which was the first I've ever been there it was a lot of fun for those who don't know it's it's all the fourth grade and fifth grade classes make teams of four and they read eight books over I think it's just like a two-month period and each of the groups has a they have a quiz that the Librarians put on for them and one winning group from each School each of their our six elementary schools competed at the Battle of the books for the library last night it was crazy intense these little fourth and fifth graders like they're hiding their their boards before they'd hold them up for everyone um I I might be a little biased to say that h.c storm one and my daughter was on the team another name so that was exciting to be part of so I was happy so that's it that's fine thank you thanks RJ Aaron um I just want to encourage everybody to vote no matter which way you vote it's important that you do so um I can tell you from the people that I spoke to after the last vote um if everyone who told me that I meant to vote I should have voted I forgot to vote would have voted we probably wouldn't be in this right now so no matter how you vote just please vote it's really really important be safe on spring break and that's all from me today yes to the good and bad of going last is you guys are incredibly eloquent you cover every single thing um so I'm just going to give you guys a quick little shout out uh tonight's meeting is a perfect example of how we ask questions we listen to each other we discuss and we always focus on what's best for students and that makes me really proud to be part of this board we do have um closed session tonight but there's no action after it so I would entertain a motion to adjourn to closed session for the reason of collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employers or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees [Music] closed session no action actor
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I taught both of Mr. Swallish's daughters. I also taught uh Jennifer Gasparrow's daughter as well. To say that Creep Monife and Mon Elementary is my second family and home is an understatement. Dr. Dr. Cara spoke on Thursday about what families need to do at times like these. I don't know about you, but I fight for my family. I am here tonight to ask you not to approve Dr. Vaughn's resignation. Please take the time to look into this situation. We feel that it is unjust, unfair, and just plain wrong. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Cheryl. Do we have any other public comment tonight? Okay. Uh, next up, board updates. Do any board members have any updates? Oh boy. Yeah, I think I have an update. Okay. I did get the opportunity to meet [clears throat] with our assistant superintendent of curriculum, Dentiel, and our superintendent and the director of ELC the other day as regards to early learning opportunities for the district for three year olds and even beyond.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
uh as a former student of the University of Michigan I have to remind everyone that we are in a housing crisis and homes are desperately needed in this specific area with this proximity to campus there aren't too many places to build near campus and we should take every opportunity perfect or not uh thank you that's all I had thank you the next caller is Daniel Adams you have permission to speak uh good evening Dan Adams uh 1016 Daniel Street um I want to say that I'm surprised by some of the opposition comments to this project um but I've I've engaged in Ann Arbor Housing politics for too long to be surprised um a lot of the comments we've heard tonight are pretty similar to the comments that we hear every time a project like this is in front of planning or Council um I was surprised that I was surprised to see the staff report and I want to address because I think others have addressed aspects of it but I want to talk about the finding that you know this would be out of character with the surrounding district and the adjacent historic neighborhood I was I went to undergrad at U of M and I know this neighborhood really well um anybody inclined to take these comments and these objections to this development objections grounded in neighborhood character or partying or sunlight really needs to go walk this neighborhood on a Friday or Saturday night uh not only is this neighborhood not only is this development smack dad and one of the densest concentrations of student housing in the city not only is it next to or adjacent to or near a number of the most notoriously loud notoriously party motivated Greeks sororities of eternities but this is right next to Rex this is right next to the crown chug Charlie's I I sort of can't help but chuckle at the notion that we can't build a dense building next to Rick's American Cafe right if we reject a project like this on neighborhood character grounds we may not be fully capable of addressing our housing crisis that just isn't going to get it done we've got got to be more aggressive than this I understand where staff is coming from I understand their point of view but I'm asking planning tonight to to reject that recommendation and approve this project we need housing and the neighborhood character concerns here are just ridiculous thank you thank you [Music] the next caller is Ellen ramsburg give permission to speak I will note that a few more people added themselves to the queue there are five hands raised currently Ellen remsburg you can unmute you have permission to speak okay sorry I I just want to say that I really did appreciate the staff report and the office of sustainability report and their suggestion that the this proposal be denied because they took a broad out look at the at the objectives that apply to this site and I'll State them one that to ensure that these projects in areas both contribute to downtown livelines and help buffer established neighborhoods this is an established neighborhood there should be buffering between a building of the size and adjacent properties the other point I want to emphasize is that to review and revise the PD regulations to better achieve development of appropriate scale and character and to prevent the circumvention of zoning ordinances merely for convenience it is really as a citizen it's really discouraging to hear comments from the planning Commissioners after the February 23rd meeting it's as if you're only considering density as a goal and there are other considerations that be that should be taken into into consideration existing zonings the progress the process that was used to plan for those zonings uh the fact that proposals don't meet the qualifications of a qud the impact on Child Care Facilities the impact on existing structures those are all part of making this decision to a citizen and a neighbor the it it seems that density is the only goal and there are just too many other considerations that should be taken um we would like to have confidence in planning commissions to consider the impact on the existing structures around it on what an addition of this scale does to those properties on whether it improves sustainability of surrounding properties as well as its own whether it addresses really the need for affordable housing or just pushes up rental rates for nearby properties taking a hard look at a proposal in view of the comprehensive plan should be required not only to add density but to ensure that the developments don't have a negative impact on the surrounding neighborhood um thank you for sharing my comments thank you our next caller is phone number ending in 955 you have permission to speak can press star six good evening Kirk Westfall 3505 Charter place um I just wanted to share my strong support to this project I think it's really an exciting building and honestly a glimpse of what we're going to be seeing in the future uh my only nitpicks about it if changes do you get made is that you get rid of the strange Suburban kind of front setback and as well as the parking because clearly it's not very needed in this District I think the community benefits are super compelling that has been noted before the sustainability performance might be the highest of any large building that's been built in the city the affordable housing contribution yes it's required but the scale of it is really [Music] um compelling and I would imagine unmatched by any of the projects and I think it's completely appropriate for PUD um because no Zone can really exact these kinds of benefits and contributions um and and sort of the future technology that the city is looking for out of out of buildings um so I you know and again this is if if approved this would go to council I believe to get the actual rezoning uh considered so I think it in that respect it deserves another hearing at Council so you know puds are a judgment call um I would just urge you to consider the climate impacts of not building this building and also the climate benefits of building this building um and what is the actual harms that are being weighed against this building that the neighbors are disgusting I think character is a word that is not going to it will continue not to age well uh when we're talking about discriminating against departments and I would just like you to consider where these units will go and how many smaller projects would have to be built to became like this number of housing units in a badly underserved area of the city thanks a lot for your consideration thank you our next caller is Eric zakar you have permission to speak hi this is Eric zecker I'm at uh 2435 Prairie Street in Ann Arbor can you hear me okay we can great I was just calling in to say that I support this project and I hope that you vote in favor of it I've listened a lot to the callers here for both for and against the project and I think that having walked and biked through this neighborhood a lot I'm not a neighbor but I do use this area quite a bit both when I was a student in the area and as a father and a U of M employee um my general comment is if not here then where I mean the students that are living in student housing are already here and as a previous caller mentioned if we don't build large student developments uh adjacent to campus as this is then we will be building them somewhere within the city we'll be building them on the North side the far Northeast the west side and you'll be starting to get sprawling developments uh in areas where students have to drive to campus and that certainly doesn't need any of our sustainability goals it won't result in the contribution to affordable housing that this development does probably probably won't get all electric like this one does and it won't be walkable I mean a lot of these kids students not kids that are going to be living here will be able to walk to and from their jobs from campus it's very bus amenable it's really lovely that there's folks in this area who feel like they have a sense of place already the folks that live in the small Horse Court area it's lovely the folks that run the sororities it's great that they're able to provide housing for students but it's a drop in the bucket as far as the demand goes in the area there's so much greater demand than what's being currently served and this area is where we want to serve this population we want these students to be close to campus we want them to be safe in an area that already serves them well so I think that this project makes a lot of sense especially given everything that they're willing to put forward whether it's the affordable housing contribution solar electric um it's it's great I think that it should be approved and I hope you do approve it thank you thank you we have three more hens in the queue at this point our next caller is Meredith Khan you have permission to speak my name is Meredith is calling to Express support for the 721 South Forest PUD rezoning and site plan while I respect the city's planning staff and have read their analysis I'm asking the Planning Commission to vote to approve the rezoning and the site plan this proposed development has several important benefits for the city and for its residents and it represents an opportunity for us to plan for the city we want rather than be limited by the constraints of the past if a highly desirable student neighborhood adjacent to campus and the South University commercial Corridor is somehow inappropriate for denser development then that's an indication that the current zoning of the site and the city's 14 year old master plan are insufficient to meet our stated goals of addressing housing affordability and climate change everyone agrees that we need more housing here in Ann Arbor so let's build some in exactly a place where it's needed and wanted close to school jobs and Community amenities as planning Commissioners the choices you make will affect the community for decades to come if we are truly in a climate emergency if we truly want to make Ann Arbor a more inclusive and affordable place to live then you will need to push beyond the status quo to make bold choices for a more Equitable future in the spirit of being bold I ask you to vote in favor of the 721 South Forest PUD rezoning and site plan thank you thank you our next caller is Alex Lowe you have permission to speak hi this is Alex though calling in from Ward three lesson generally in favor of this PUD on South Forest I think we should be asking for more first let's just discuss the front and reass effects reducing these setbacks to better fit the Keratin of the neighborhood as as we see with the landmark Market apartments and the Forest Avenue parking garage which come all the way up to the sidewalk would probably allowed another 24 extra units or so on on the same space I think that would be great second I'd like to discuss parking given that the location is going to have clearly student oriented retail on site is parking for 12 bicycles for retail customers going to be sufficient perhaps we should get some class B parking both for retail customers and of course the employees on site uh maybe we could turn some of those excessive car parking spots in uh into an uh into e-bike Chargers one of those spots could uh could be used to charge a dozen e-links third I want you to uh to discuss height please get some more flaws on this this PD is set to be 12 floors yeah less than 500 feet away Landmark apartments is 14 floors it's less than a mile from uh from Tower Plaza which is 26 floors uh high and it is 0.2 miles a whole four minute walk from University Towers which is 18 foresight if our current zoning doesn't allow us to build a building that's less than half the height of a 50 year old apartment Tower less than a mile from there I would strongly urge to the city council and Planning Commission commission to consider why our City's zoning laws are so updated and back the fact that this development has to be a PUD at all is quite frankly ludicrous this development includes so many of the stated environmental goals set forth by the city of Anna the fact that it's anything but a pyrite development shows that the city's zoning laws and comprehensive plan don't align with our stated goals and desperately need updated as a city we need to do so much better and frankly this is the Batman I would strongly encourage you to approve this PUD and use it as a template for future development goals thank you Madam chair as we have been listening to this caller another person added them to the queue and there are two people in line the next caller is Luis Vasquez you have permission to speak foreign Mission Luis Vasquez our president of upper lower town in the First Ward 909 Martin Drive I I'm going to be very brief I support this project um would like to see uh you all vote in favor of it it meets many of the criteria set forth in Ann Arbor's goals as has been iterated by numerous callers tonight and speakers so I'm going to leave it at that I support this project and I hope you vote in the affirmative thank you thank you the last caller this evening is s e strongman you have permission to speak hi um first of all thank you so much to Planning Commission I know that this is not an easy job and you have to balance uh what the city wants versus local residents versus you know the goals stated goals of the city um I'm calling to support this PUD I'm a specialty struck by what some commenters have said about the need for nearby student housing I had students last year who lived at the one and really struggled to get to campus and some of whom have just decided to drive to campus Because the shuttle was and was unavailable we know that our students need housing they want Housing close to campus this one building is not the only answer but adding more housing means that students aren't going to be paying twelve hundred dollars to live in a basement apartment that has mold in it that is flooded that doesn't have a working smoke alarm or whose Heat goes out in the middle of winter there's a lot that needs to be done this building no one building is is going to solve the problem but not building anything new certainly isn't either I'm sensitive to the desires of nearby sororities and other neighborhoods but I also Echo what others have said which is that Rick's is right there tons of tall buildings I looked at your packet for today a number of large apartment buildings are within several blocks one is even closer to the neighborhood Forestport than the proposed building so I do hope that you suggest that you approve this plan that you send it on to council and that if you have asked that if you know you're going to approve this plan if it's one or two floors shorter so that is the same height as a building two blocks away if that's what it takes then I think that's fine but to say that it doesn't at all fit with the character of the neighborhood as someone who works at the U and walks through this neighborhood just doesn't strike me as accurate again thank you so much for your time thank you okay I will read the motion and then we will go into discussion there are two which I'm going to combine the anniversary Planning Commission recommends the Marin city council approved the 721 South Forest plan unit development zoning district and supplemental regulations and the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission hereby recommends that the Marin city council approves 721 South Forest PUD site plan and development agreement we are in discussion commissioner weich oh sorry to move by commissioner we just I really want to talk about this executive commissioner did did you want to say something I bet you did so first of all I I want to thank everyone who's taken time uh to uh write in to email to show up uh to tweet um about this I also want to thank the folks that I've had some in-person conversations uh with for this development I also want to thank the developer for hearing us in our working session and making some significant improvements as staff has noted uh to this project and I just want to start by stating my strong support for this proposed plan unit development when I read the staff report I was actually surprised I was so surprised I reached out to our policy makers because it's sort of my understanding that staff follow policy and I wanted to check in to find out if something had changed in our policy regarding housing in our city so in my conversations with our policy makers I was told no nothing has changed Ann Arbor is currently in a housing crisis we are in a housing crisis with historically low vacancy rates one to two percent mayor Taylor as recently as uh just a couple meetings ago has said Ann Arbor needs more Ann Arbor rights this PUD is in a student area it's replacing student housing with more student housing I think a net of 633 beds it's within a neighborhood that has comparable dense housing emerging research which just came out yesterday has indicated that removing zoning barriers and increasing housing density has positive effects on rent stabilization and it especially has positive effects on rent stabilization in areas with constrained housing Supply this PUD which staff has already noted has several benefits but the one I want to focus my time on is the 4.7 million dollars that will be contributed to our affordable housing fund when I saw that number I was quite impressed and I know having read our UDC that this is required because the density is ex is exceeding the underlying zoning that it would replace but what I didn't realize until I had visited our domestic violence or excuse me our intimate partner Domestic Violence Shelter last week was that safe house is seeing folks who are fleeing hostile environments come into their shelter and are seeking housing the average that safe house would like to have folks who come in is about 30 days enough time for them to get situated to get their caseworker set up and to begin the process of trying to find transitional and Rapid transitional housing what I learned from the director and the program director is that it is taking now on average between 120 days and 180 days before victims of domestic intimate partner violence in our community are able to transition into emergency housing this PUD brings new housing online which will help in our community the next thing that I learned from our housing and Human Services Advisory Board is that there are currently 900 people that are on our affordable housing waitlist the 4.7 million dollars based on my back of the calculator or back of the napkin math says we might be able to house 737 people at 30 percent of Ami for one year with those funds or over 365 Folks at 60 percent of Ami and I have the numbers as we go down from one person to two to three to four so I'm grateful to see this I'm going to say what I said when you came to the working session why didn't you build it higher I'd like to see as other callers had noted higher density in this site so I'll be supporting this and I hope that you my fellow Commissioners will join me in this support tonight commissioner dish thank you commissioner watch and thank you everyone who's here whether you're here to speak about this project or another one it's great to see you I am torn because I have the utmost respect for our staff and for the governing principles that we respect as planning Commissioners and yet it is simply a fact that our land use plans are old and not aligned with the principles affirmed by Ann Arbor rights who have voted for affordable housing and sustainability millages and for candidates who have campaigned on the message that we have a housing crisis and a climate crisis so there is much that is attractive to me about this project not least of which that it would provide a demonstration project that you can go all electric in a building that is not a single-family home not even a town home and is higher than four to six stories we hear from a lot of people who tell us that's not possible so I would love to see it done I recognize that all electric and Net Zero with respect to carbon and energy are not the same but is it not the case that as Ann Arbor finds Energy Partners who are willing to provide clean healthy options for power that in all electric building gets closer to Net Zero with respect to carbon and we are on the road to negotiating such an agreement just now um I read the staff report carefully more than once and I perceived two arguments in it one is that the concern here is without of scale construction meaning that this height is too much in this context particularly in the context of the zoning regulations so that argument suggests that there's nothing that could make this project acceptable there seems to be another argument or I perceived a second argument which is that there aren't enough public benefits to justify such a such a height so this project does exceed the height limits on the books though I would note that it is just 16 feet taller than the height limit for D1 as the staff report noted um I have walked this area and driven this area and the project does not strike me as out of context with the University Towers project and Landmark apartments projects which at 18 and 15 stories respectively are taller than this proposed project and located roughly two blocks away at the intersection of forest and Washtenaw so uh perhaps so if we see it that way it is it exceeds our regulations but it may or may not be out of context depending on what you experience as you move through this neighborhood we look at the other objection which is that there are not enough public benefits and there's a clear and strong statement we want Net Zero with respect to carbon energy water and waste how might we get closer to any of these I'd love to hear that I'd like to direct to the petitioner a note that we had some written Communications from current student tenants who mentioned that the new owner had extended their leases through the 2324 Academic Year and they fear that they will be displaced and so I wanted to hear about that I will leave it to my colleagues to speak if they wish to uh the issues that were raised about danger to trees and the urban desert effect which are things that I don't know enough about and you do would you like to have the developer come and respond to your questions alrighty commissioner Mills commissioner Edition commissioner rich I appreciate your comments I also appreciate everyone who's come out I'm going to offer a different kind of view or the things that I often think of when weighing kind of PUD which are some of what I think was laid out in the staff member but I actually I don't know kind of did my own analysis too right so the first thing is is there no another zoning District that where this could be achieved and I think that what's been talked about a lot here is D1 and as noted it's just up the street but where this project wouldn't be viable in D1 is it does exceed the height limit just a little bit and there was comments to the to the point that we could well we could change D1 or we could change what is allowed in this PUD but I think the idea that this is extending that area to me sits better that there is consistency with kind of how it is zoned if it is if it is intended to read then that's one of the things that I would think of if it were D1 that were under discussion I'm thinking about what are the what are the um stipulations that would allow it to be built to the far that it's developed because the D1 base floor area ratio far is 400 percent so to get up to the 650 that's being called for here you neither either need to provide affordable housing or you need to do sustainability those are kind of the the paths right now um in order to you can get up to the 650 650 far by doing sustainability alone but you have to go lead platinum and what is being proposed here is lead silver so it's not the same argument that OSI is giving in terms of meeting that bar but it's not needing the bar that would get it if it were proposed in D1 it wouldn't be it wouldn't be the bar that we have currently there for that in terms of affordable housing you can get another 300 so you could get to the 65 percent with the 20 affordable units do we have any sense of like how many units the the 4.7 million dollars what that translates to I don't I'm sorry it's 15 percent well that's how the numbers calculated okay okay so so I think that that's I mean now I see like you you can I think that's a combination of those two things but I'm still would just say that it's a different bar if it were if it were D1 so the other thing that I think about but in my mind this is trying to achieve D1 without being in D1 which I don't totally love because I do think that that district and how we're thinking about expanding this as what's happening in that in the South View area is um of that District so then I think about like what are the benefits that are actually put on the table and are they commensurate with what is being asked of exceeding kind of of this rezoning and so again on the affordable housing side you can count it either way you can count at the you can count at the 4.7 plus the um million plus the 500 that or the 50 000 or you can count it like effectively say the 4.6 is required so what is above and beyond and so that's 148 000 that's 3.2 percent over the requirement so that's one thing on sustainability again you can kind of say like what are the benefits and OSI makes very clear with their bar is and again it seems to me that at least being commensurate with kind of what is in D1 I think is reasonable I um one of the things that just strikes me I think that the Pud is particularly helpful and a lot of the flexibility that we have in our code is are when we have unique sites where there's something that's really important to protect and I am not the tree person but when we discuss this I think the the and I'll defer to other tree people um it is thinking about the northern property boundary and the lovely Grove of trees that are there what strikes me is that the proposed zoning actually encroaches in front crouches on them more than what is allowed in an r4c District so the north property setback is 10 feet where what would be required is 12.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so then we would have one chance that would be our chance a plan with what we've been ordering how we're going to reduce it and that's the advantage of going earlier because then teachers aren't worried about it we're not happy to really it's kind of like how we with the advocate expenditure limit and that stress of not knowing with the stress of not knowing that they can also go to the voters or like again we just vote that's what I was going to say yeah yeah we just did this three years ago and that's my only concern that we have so soon pleasantly economy of this kind of thing marginal demand I don't know I mean but this is discussion only at this point yeah this is just a discussion with you guys providing some sort of a guidance as to where it is you're standing as far as what you think we should do yeah either way it's a gamble like me personally I I my my thought is to go up against the president that is my opinion and it's simple because you're going to get a larger voter turnout and you're going to see folks that are really pro-education show up whereas if you're up against a non-election cycle you know you're really at the will of who shows if I were to remind everybody here that uh is here knows a lot about this process I did I did the the override to have saved money if we do it during the general election or if we for a presidential representation we go on and off here I can't remember um I I think that our it would be best if we go 2024 if it doesn't get approved or pass it doesn't pass that we trial in and our voters have come through have faith in our voters my other concern is just seems like it was happening yeah right and they will remember for sure I guess we can nail that down like next meeting or what is that the best things you need to get on it if you're done um June is the the when we have to submit our paperwork and then we have between June and November this year so for every um if we're gonna do an override for this year 2023 we are just sitting here so we're stated we wait to 2024 it would be June uh okay let's all think about that and maybe would that be something to code on or just discuss again and it's it's really just guidance is all we're looking for because if you want us to go out and start that process we can go ahead and begin the process with the attorneys and then we can bring you all the stuff that you need to approve in order for it to move forward so we can if if you'd say to us to look into it now we can start that and then they'd send us everything for you guys to approve the movement forward that's part of it but the biggest part is the public people like Ruth's that the t-shirts and signs and campaigning and that's it's recent yeah that's where you know I don't know how receptive the same people so you can reduce the stuff just change yeah we're hearing it's over with I'm gathering is I think we're all that agreement and looking more towards 2024 during the presidential election not going sooner 25 of the yard back up and that would normally be our process anyway you know I said hey guys yeah okay all right so the next one is uh discussion of uh the dates for our next fiscal year which pretty much the last year we had him on Mondays for first semester and then on Tuesday s were still in the draft calendar has them all on Tuesdays and um I mean typically that was most boards meet on Tuesdays and it gave our team recommendation was Tuesdays because it gives us more time to get the board package ready get it to you on Friday and plus have an additional school day on Monday for questions on Monday Tuesday prior to Tuesday board meeting so it's in draft so we'd like for you to just check your calendars and see um if those dates will work for you and we can put them onto the export agenda for approval or if there's a conflict within one of them then we can make that change as needy as well okay I thought it was because uh not really but for some of you yes all right now we have the uh this is actually an action item the second reading of the word policies would pretty much addresses uh foster care that there's a bunch of policies as we um as you notice that we looked at for a first read which are now for approval and I can reassure you that we're in compliance with all these policies that we have our systems and searches in place to ensure that we are following asbased thanks okay I moved to approve the second reading of the new board policies is recommended by asba a second okay this is life Weaver yes this is Mr mcgiven yes Mrs Allen yes right and you will say the um School event between now and pretty much the end of the year um I don't see the may even here again you'll see that next which is basically the kindergarten graduations the 23rd and 21.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
So, it was a very, very uplifting, favorable, as I see it, meeting. Really appreciate it. It's kind of in the last second. You made it happen. In spite of all the things you had on your plate, Dr. Care, I really appreciate it. I got some very informative data from our assistant superintendent, Miss Perkins. Thank you. And I see this not only being favorable for ALC opportunities [clears throat] for University Park, but for all seven districts, all four five villages. So board members, I'm going to ask you because it's coming your way as well to roll up your sleeves and let's make some things happen as regarding to getting our kids engaged in opportunities and parents engaged and let them know what's going on with ELC. Okay, so more to follow on that. More to follow and that's about it. Okay. I wait for old business and new business.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and so if what if the reason that P if you don't buy everything that I just said and we say that the reason that PUD makes sense is because of of protecting that natural feature right and having some flexibility afforded because of that being closer to that property line then and potentially having the additional shading which again I don't know I really am looking to others to help understand what what effect that might have on that just strikes me as not achieving that goal either so I I appreciate conversation I am open-minded on this those are just the things as I was kind of doing my analysis of laying out how to square this that's that stuck out to me and I'm um I will just say that I am really glad that we're in the comprehensive planning process right now and I'm really glad that there's so many people here because I really think that we need to have a real conversation about how we're going to balance additional housing and sustainability goals because there was the talk before right if there are things that are undoable does it push development outside of the city this is a and where do we see that additional development and what Must ALL developments be Net Zero I don't think so but at one point do if you want to exceed what is allowed in that District what bar do you have to hit and and I think that that's a real conversation that we need to have as part of the comprehensive plan process and so I'm sad that we haven't fully had that yet um thanks commissioner silvey it's all over so just last week we had a working session of a similar project that there was a public comment for um and I actually offered uh different comments which were actually to request that the petitioner consider a lot of what was coming within the comprehensive plan and those discussions since it was not yet at the table now we're up looking at a very similar project up for vote tonight and within this time frame between the discussions I had a lot of things to consider and one of them is that the conversations that have been brought up tonight and thank you everyone for your comments is that as a community as a whole we want to take care of each other and make space available and there's a housing crisis and now the question is where do we make space available um I believe that this is an appropriate space for it and the uniqueness of this PUD is if we end up with up zoning this area we do not get the affordable housing contribution later if we pause this and we tell the petitioner come back when this area is up zoned through Community input in the next two years with a new comprehensive plan then additional two years to actually rezone this property it becomes buy right and we do not get that 4.7 million I remember another time in our recent past where we used terms like neighborhood character too many shadows and we need parks and we lost five million dollars in affordable housing we don't have time to do that again we don't have time for the whistleblowing we like the dog whistling needs to stop and we need to come together as a community and figure out where things happen and it's in somebody's backyard and it can be in my backyard and I absolutely support this project because I actually think that we are in a gap that it fits of public benefit that may not exist in the future as we move towards what I believe to be up zoning through all of the conversations that we've heard tonight um and so with that I think that this as a PUD in a unique condition is at the friction point of Housing Development and high density and historic neighborhood it's not natural features but it is a unique Geographic condition where we have high density next to a protected historic district for its neighborhood character where we are protecting buildings for the sake of making it difficult for people to afford to live here and if it's my decision and you know what we're doing to protect I'd rather protect people than buildings and I'd rather see new construction than protecting historic stones um so I look forward to supporting this as is anybody else go ahead commissioner Abrams um so I think this has been a difficult deliberation on the one hand I think I uh in principle agree with all the people who support this project based on a desire for more housing um and support of its sustainability goals and the sizable contribution to the affordable housing fund those are all incredible things I think if I go through the process maybe akin to commissioner Mills and I think about it from a procedural standpoint and I think about the role of a comprehensive plan um the kind of purpose of a PUD and the way in which it's not supposed to be used to circumvent existing zoning and I think about public benefit I think it becomes a little less clear for to me honestly um and so I have been trying to weigh both of those things uh in my head and I think maybe just to be transparent about the process for all the people who spoke in support and against this project and I also want to express my gratitude for for all the people who are engaging this process I think it's really really important no matter which side of this you're on um but I think it's important maybe to make our thought processes transparent so that you know that we hear you and that we actually take into consideration all of the information we receive and we deliberate quite ferociously when we're thinking about these decisions and I think I'm I'm coming down in a similar place to commissioner sove which is that um I think we are in a we are in a moment where uh we as a body have been asked to use our discretion to make a decision about something which does not have a cut and dry answer that you can kind of look to procedure or look to policy in order to determine so things like uh harm or benefit are actually discretionary terms that we you know things that we have to decide and in this case I think that the need for housing really uh super seeds I would say the fact that we are at the beginning of a comprehensive plan process as opposed to a year from now or 18 months from now when we will be maybe adopting a comprehensive plan which I feel very confident is going to call for greater density in this neighborhood and so similar to the people who've said if not here where I think that that is kind of where we're headed but I want to acknowledge that I don't think that that means there there are no downsides to this project there are always trade-offs and some you know people are going to feel the effects of those trade-offs and some people are going to feel the benefit to those trade-offs and I think that is the thing that all of us up here are trying to weigh um and I but I will say that I appreciate commissioner Mills logic which is to say that it is a little it is a little confusing to me that um that we were not presented with you know if this were one block north in D1 here's what we could have built and so it makes sense to us that we would try to achieve that it seems like that was not part of the consideration I think there are other things in the Pro former that are determining the density but so while the 15 payment in lieu is amazing 20 would actually get you in line with D1 and be even more amazing um but I plan to vote yes thanks commissioner Hammerschmidt decided to write my thought process down because I was very eloquently off the cuff if that was off the cuff okay so I know I know we need housing we need affordable housing I understand the urgency I'm very pro-development I fully appreciate the affordable housing contribution so this was really this is hard for me um this to me is it's not an argument about neighborhood character but I am hearing this argument that you know there are tall buildings just a block or two North it's zoned differently and I worry then that the same argument can be used if a 12-story building is built here in South Forest in 19 story building on Church Street to continue to build sort of random high-rises block by block we have zoning districts that allow taller buildings for a reason in certain places in downtown we just rezoned two Transit corridors with more following behind because we said this is where we want this is where we think taller buildings make sense I use that same if not here then where argument for um one of Mr Moore's higher density projects along a Transit Corridor on South Main and that to me is more of the where this doesn't feel like and if not here than where scenario to me um we can still build more density without building really tall and I think we all know we need to change zoning codes to allow for that and again I understand the urgency of all of this the comp plan will guide us I think towards a community decision on allowing more density like duplexes and quadplexes within single-family zones we just keep seeing all of these proposals for really tall buildings and I think it is possible to be more dense without height high-rises add more housing absolutely but there are also risks of social isolation loneliness things like that I don't think we talk about enough that are starting to concern me the more of these types of projects we see um I don't have a problem with tall buildings next to short buildings per se but putting them what feels to me rather arbitrarily on Parcels of land throughout the city that are not zoned for this does not make sense to me six or seven ish eight-ish maybe stories to me makes a lot more sense in this location maybe there's less parking or no parking the building's pulled up to the street more for more units at that height we can step down Heights from the Z the D zones more transitionally than a 12-story building would on a smaller building solar would probably contribute more than three percent of the energy needs which to me just feels nominal um again I understand the urgency but at this point the proposed sustainability aspects just feel almost too basic to make it worth it to me I think we already talked about Lee Silver versus lead Platinum They Don't Really push the envelope I don't think this would necessarily be a model for sustainable development in this city I think that's kind of a reach of a claim um it just seems like there's a lot of throwing money towards something and not substantially moving the needle um you know there's additional affordable housing money above and beyond what was required which is great but it just I don't know I think we need to balance this pressure of needing housing wanting sustainable buildings and making sure we're allowing taller buildings in areas where they make the most sense and working to increase density in all possible ways not just high-rises I'm struggling with this one I am going to vote no um even though I don't think I've ever voted no on a project um yeah that's all I'll say for now this is hard I agree this is hard for me too um and for a lot of the reasons that you just detailed actually um I I would rather have it be a little bit shorter than D1 it somehow kind of doesn't smell right to me with that I would rather have the parking go away and have there be more density further down um it's hard for me to evaluate the trees without knowing we we didn't get enough we didn't get a sun shade study or anything like that for me to kind of understand that we'll obviously have you all come up to respond to the 52 things that we put out there we're going to respond to at some point um uh so because it's just difficult to know what the Shadows are are going to be it does look to me like there are some Oaks right up against the property line there when I'm when I'm looking at that um uh I uh I think if this weren't a PUD we're not going to get an electric building I think that's just the plain and simple truth of it and so for that reason I like it that it's a PUD and that it's not and I mean given where we are in our evolution of what we're doing with their code that's just the the hard truth of it um and we don't have uh we don't have the new ordinance for electrification or disconnecting from gas and so that's that's that's really important to me and um that that Ben and I would like it more if there you all were pushing the envelope a little bit more in terms of handling you know geothermal doing things like that I it's nice that you're sort of getting towards passive house you're not obviously achieving passive house um I think it's pretty tough to do Net Zero on a building this tall I think that's I think it's a little bit hard to see what OSI is writing in that way that it's kind of like well that's pretty hard to pull that off people so the fact that you all are doing all electric I just think you could do more to actually support your project frankly especially given all the things that are coming out from the federal government I mean why not why not do some geothermal here it takes thinking about your building differently and it takes thinking about it differently early on and moving forward with that so I you knew kind of how we were thinking about this from our from our first meetings and it would have been nice if you all had actually Incorporated some of that more because you have the opportunity you could do Wells here and I'm not saying you'd necessarily achieve Net Zero but you'd get a lot further we just haven't heard anything else with that other than what I've seen in the osi's report which is a little bit nebulous in terms of what's happening with that so um I think I will withhold my my yay or nay until I hear more from the development team and I think we've given you all a pretty robust list of things to respond to so please whomever makes sense to come up to to answer some of the various questions we look forward to your discussion that's fine team members to begin to whittle through them but I would like to address commissioner Mills uh statement about the uniqueness of the site and this clearly goes to the urban Forest fragment that is right next door and we have crafted a resigned to have the least possible impacts on that and that very valuable community of resource we have done shade studies and we've hired the former city Forester Bill Lawrence who's done an extensive multi-month study and research about what the impacts of how we organize the mass of our building and the site would have on those trees so part of what we did is for the vast majority of the length of our site is we put a 15-foot green buffer zone along our Northern property line so that we're not impacting root zones significantly of those larger mature trees and then we also if you recall in our working session we had a uniform height building presented we began to look at those shade and Shadow studies and it was clear that we could allow a little bit more afternoon sun onto those trees by dropping the North West corner of our building to six stories to account for the loss of that density or raise the rest of the mass but by doing that we let so much more sunlight especially the late afternoon silent into those trees so that is one of the biggest unique things about the site outside of its context in the area where there are already other tall buildings is that we have a an urban Forest fragment next door to us and we want to protect it and so we've crafted the building and the organization the site in such a way that we minimize any potential for any loss of any canopy on the trees next door so we have letters to that effect from Mr Lawrence in our submission packets so they're there for everybody to see if there was another item I'm what's the next item list that you'd like to hear about the goodness uh how about geothermal geothermal did you all explore that um I know that the wgg and the owners have been working on the energy package so I'll let wdg and subtext address hi uh I'm Matt uh with wdg um I don't think we actually in directly investigate geothermal in this site uh just yet we actually did a couple more Auto buildings and we did find that the foundation work is actually in this area is quite complex now we did actually study the rooftop area for additional renewable energy on site that has to be balanced out with also what we're doing with what we're surfing the building because we also have to use the building roof for mechanical unit fresh rate intake you know x-ray Aces system as well so we are studying that that they're currently what we're proposing and actually we have already expanded it a little bit more to the amount of solar panel that we can actually put to actually fit on a footprint so that that's where we are and Scott do you have any questions the constraints the the existing setup Scott betzel Midwestern Consulting good to see you all again um I also want to just add that the existing site has no storm water management system and we're putting in underground detention and getting full infiltration but the the rate of infiltration wasn't as great as we liked it so the expanse of the underground Chambers grew which is becomes a little prohibitive for the geothermal Loops as well I'm not an expert at it but I know people have looked at it and said well that's too bad because it doesn't seem to really work out as well as it could have for a building of this size from from our previous outer project not in this particular site we actually know that a lot of each geothermal actually need a lot more footprint compared to the outbuilding footprint on height so that's why we did not so far investigate a whole lot of Investigation of geothermal particle on this site if I could interrupt for one second though I mean I don't think that a loop system would even be considered for building this High you would be doing Wells for something like that so it's really a question of how deep rather than how big the area would be I know you spoke at the very beginning about having John Beeson on your team who I've worked with before in the past I don't know if you have a representative of that group that might be able to speak more clearly to this topic specifically or no we do not have that person here today maybe we can follow up later on I would suggest that you do because I think that those on the commission and those at city council will likely want to know more specifics about that because I think that that again with the federal government out there helping with this it just seems prudent to think through those things as as possibilities because frankly it's free energy it takes something to put it in but this is rental this is part of the power of rental is it the more you invest in the beginning can come back to you later on you know once that system is paid for then you're harvesting what is free to everybody which is the temperature of the ground so I really would encourage you all to explore that in a meaningful way with the people that you've hired on your team to be able to know that because I I know I've worked with John before I know he's going to know that stuff cold I'm sure who whoever he's working with will be able to advise you well with that what he needs is a green light from you all and goal setting from you all that that is what you see as part of what you want to achieve so that's I think that that's an important piece As you move forward to think about if you all pass tonight and that's it commissioner dish you also had some other things to bring up um that you had wanted them to respond to but this was like 45 minutes ago so I don't know if that was one tiny thing and I I am I'm always I really benefit so much by your expertise commissioner gibrandel and um so I I I would say that Council would be very interested in hearing a serious exploration of the possibility of geothermal Wells and it may not cover everything but it could cover a lot I mean so especially if you have an electric electric building it's only going to help you with you know your costs as the building ages and then the the question that I had was from the um it was from the written Communications that we got from a few students who mentioned that they had been offered lease extensions through through the Academic Year 2023 2024 so till about this time next year and they were concerned that they'd be displaced by the construction yeah we and we understand that and we are um right now just focusing on renewals um and just given the early stages of where we're at right now um it's it's difficult for us to not offer those renewals and um all I can say is that we look to be transparent with those tenants we look to work closely with those tenants and uh and help them ultimately if this project is approved and we would be proceeding to Construction in the fall but how you'll help them because as we know leases are places get leased up for the next academic year usually in the fall actually despite our legislative attempts to force that change um so how would you find uh beds for what are they about a hundred and that would be the total uh yeah right now it's just those renewals of the tenants that have shown interest in that um so usually we work with our property management team to work through their connections with other property management groups and they they can usually identify locations preemptively so that those students have to don't have to go out on their own and find it in a very tight market right it would be important that those be comparably priced to to what they are planning on based on the renewal that they made with you um because as you know it's it's very hard the prices are very hard for them to to meet yeah some of them especially grad students but yeah so thank you thank you for the answer anything else were there any other questions or responses that folks wanted from the development team it wasn't asked but it's a follow-on until kind of what we were discussing if you were to further explore and this is um I don't know the answer to this so if you were to further explore geothermal how hard is it to go from lead silver to lead gold um and maybe that's not you maybe that's somebody else on your team well I mean I will acknowledge that we have not done the full in-depth study of geothermal based on our team's experience of our of our full project team um given a site this size and The Limited area that we have due to our storm water detention that we generally feel that that's not going to be cost effective or feasible but I do acknowledge the the need for maybe further study into that and having the numbers to back that up so are we ready for a vote yeah oh one more well if I the other thing so I I'm still trying to make up my mind honestly um and so I just do want to point out one thing that is happening in here in the supplemental regs so I appreciate the Sun study in the supplemental regs the height doesn't I don't see anything in the supplemental reg suggesting that there would be a setback from the northwest corner and if that is if if people care about that which I could only vote for this if that I mean I think that that again I have this oh I I think that where there is a viable current zoning or zoning District I think that that makes a whole lot of sense to you so I'm only comfortable kind of voting for this under the condition you know that this is offering something else and that that can't be achieved and I think that I have been persuaded um but that's missing right now from the supplemental wrecks um so I know that the development agreement calls for the billing to be substantially as it's presented here or it has to come back to uh this body if there's you know major changes Tech you could you could say that the development agreement is covering it but we could certainly make amendments to the supplemental regulations between here and Council as well add that same protection so both documents say the same thing okay the other thing that I thought I would bring up because again in this idea of like how where should the bar be between kind of D1 and and puds again I see two different Pathways that this could be achievable in D1 and one is through higher um uh affordable housing of 20 rather than a 15 and the other is through higher sustainability or there's a combination too and this is why I just asked about gold because the combination of 15 affordable housing and Lead gold also gets you the far that is effectively what is being proposed and so I'm curious from the development team like whether either of those either increasing the affordable housing contribution or increasing the commitment to achieve not lead silver but lead gold is a viable path for your team um as has been acknowledged the Pud allows for certain other balance of costs and benefits and so what we've done is partnered with the ah DC and making this 50 000 donation and that's going to go directly to sustainability upgrades in their buildings throughout the central area so the mathematically I don't know what that would equate to but I feel like that supports both the affordable housing and the sustainability and so we're trying to take a creative View at how how can we best help meet the goals along these different Avenues and again the constraints of this particular site with regards to the natural features and the setbacks of the the neighboring property is set back which is what drove us to provide the setback to kind of be equal with that as well as maintaining the views to that Grove of trees to the north um so these are the things that we were pushing and pulling on throughout this whole process and you know taking bits and pieces of comments from you all here and from others stakeholders who we've talked to and I'm trying to apply them in a creative manner to meet as much as we could commissioner dish thank you I appreciate of course the the fact that you've gone almost a hundred thousand dollars over the 15 threshold for affordable housing contribution I appreciate the fifty thousand dollars I think that that is a a meaningful thing to do but uh given the way that the disc I will be reporting the discussion as it has been framed here at Planning Commission to counsel if this project goes forward to council and it I will present to them the question of how do we answer where the bar should be and I will present to them the options that commissioner Mills has clearly laid out and it is possible that Council would say okay just make it 20.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
right yes I have that right yeah which are the cutest big things of yourself and I know that we have had discussions about whether we want this um do we've got this to do calendar invites for these activities um do you want them all or if you want us to put down the one so we will put the school events that you can attend and we did if you noticed as our invitation for um our 15th board and school events we put possible Quorum because that's when possibly all of you could be in attendance at a school event and we also did add the foundation meeting dates since we have missed the fever and miss somebody yes and Mr ostery's members of the foundation board okay so I'm thinking that maybe we get the calendar invite for the meetings that you would like for us to prepare okay okay and they can't be all of them yeah all right and then the last thing really is any discussion so we should start in if you've got anything in your two cents you want to see something on the future or a jet item or say pass glad to be here and just learn the common care today so welcome aboard thank you thank you okay with that we will take a short resistance on some paperwork foreign thank you okay remember me perfect numbers [Music] all right [Music] okay guys um because foreign [Music] what are some of these innovative some contracts require complete for signatures DVD today is everybody um I'm sorry these were created before we had Laura future since we have a foreign um [Music] please give attention um yeah I think with that we are adjourned thank you all do your homework for next time thank you
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Okay. And Dr. Car said, "Mr. Brown, you're only allowed to speak one time. Either board updates or old business and new business." Okay. Well, so I have to I have to spread the wealth here. Yeah. Your box is checked. [laughter] So, thank you. Okay. Uh, any other board updates? Um, I think I know we normally don't and this may not be the time to speak on uh what happened or Dr. Van's resignation, but I definitely appreciate that people are fighting for him um and that they believe in him. I definitely know that our administration [clears throat] um when I say administration, I mean all from the top to the bottom or if there's a bottom, I I don't like to use that. Um are here to do what's best for students. I really believe that. Um I have not always had the greatest moments in my life with Creep Mon 2011U, but I can say that I've grown from those moments.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above