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I was able to find success and happiness in Chico as a direct result of my identity and privacy being honored and respected by my teachers and peers with that in mind I'm strongly calling for no action on Chico board policy 5145.3 I believe in every child's right to privacy and validation from their school system a child questioning their identity is significantly more likely to survive with a strong support system in place outing them without their consent canned and will put young questioning Kids In Harm's Way unfortunately for many transgender individuals the support we need and thrive on doesn't exist within our own homes speaking personally that pain is something I will never be able to overcome as the trans child of a parent who is here tonight speaking loudly in favor of the opposing stance I knew exactly why I needed to keep my identity private while growing up that parents present here tonight is proof that I was right to conceal my identity and protect myself I am alive and thriving today not due to parental support but because my friends became my family and out of necessity some of my family became strangers I am alive today because I was given the opportunity to figure out my identity on my own terms and come out when I was no longer dependent on unsupportive family and parents to parents who don't believe in their child's right to privacy on this matter I challenge you to look within if your child is hiding who they are from you it is a reflection of you not them it is certainly not a fault of the school but rather a fracture in your own home I encourage you to sincerely ask yourself why your child might not feel safe with you queer individuals often leave us too soon and in tragically predictable ways due to a lack of familial support unconditional love and validation and make no mistake someone you love is trans or queer the last thing we need is to put more queer or questioning kids in unsafe environments where they'll be harmed by others or will harm themselves a trans kid is better than a dead kid it is not too late it is not too late for you to learn how to love your child the way they deserve to be loved I implore you to learn before it's too late please Chico Unified School District vote no action and let your love and dedication for the students be louder than the bigots thank you [Applause] James Bishop [Applause] I wanted to bring up something um that I'd like I think we could all work together toward and that is stopping misdiagnosis um to start I'd like to talk about Tavis the dog so Tavistock is a sensory old psych Hospital in the United Kingdom around 2020 they set up jid's services which is to treat gender dysphoria and they began recommending puberty blockers and hormones this was set up it originally as a what they called an experimental service Marcus Evans was a Tavistock director and his wife joined jids and worked um in that service they became concerned about the changing diagnostic culture what they said was that it used to be a very discussion and debate oriented culture whether it be a lot of pushback and in order to get the best diagnosis for children and Dr Evans said that this changed to quote shutting down any dissent or wish to examine what was going on beneath the surface of a child's diagnosis why would they do that well Dr Evans goes on to say there was a politicization of the whole area an unusually close relationship with stakeholders like mermaids and gender intelligence and a breakdown of the traditional boundary between donors and the clinical practice It produced what he described as not a clinical environment that I would want to work in meanwhile Michael Brit Biggs an Oxford's sociologist who was a well-known Ally of the gay and lesbian community at Harvard heard that Tavistock had done research including effects on puberty blockers so he requested copies of these reports and these studies and he didn't get a response so he became a little suspicious and he fired filed a foia and he received these documents and he found that the results of their studies had been that they found that actually some of the girls were worse off and the boys did not were not better off and so they never published them now he said you know this is not really unusual to not publish studies that don't support what you're doing but what he did think was scandalous was the continuation of the clinical practices that were leading to misdiagnosis and the effort to make it national policy so meanwhile while all this is going on over the past two decades there were a thousand lawsuits against have a stock out of 6 000 patients that's quite a high ratio and that they were not properly assessed and it led to grave harm to them was their claim and so these facts among many others were presented to the high court in UK and to quote Marcus Evans again quote when you read the evidence against Tavistock there's no comparison we're talking about people with very high profiles in the profession giving their considered opinion backed up by a wealth of research against on the other side basically political belief the court shut down Tavistock you could read in the times London which is a left-wing publication this entire ordeal and so the question I have is is Stonewall playing a similar or analogous role to what the stakeholders did there if they're not then I'd ask them to join us in trying to stop this misdiagnosis because it's greatly confusing this issue I think we could all agree that's your time thank you [Applause] Kirsten's Adam I might have said your name wrong sorry hi um hello board Administration my name is Kirsten Schultz southam I was born in Chico four generations of Schultz kids have graduated from Chico schools I worked during college as a yard duty at Chico Junior where my mom worked I was an aide at Loma Vista finally begin I began teaching Elementary School in 1992 for Chico Unified and I retired last June when I dropped my first son off to kindergarten on his first day of school I had a knot in my stomach worrying about if he'd love school but also wondering if his teacher would care for him like I did it also made me realize just how much parents entrusted me when I taught their children each day that feeling of being an extension of their family and making sure to protect their child like they were my own while teaching them it changed me that day I was always conscientious but it made me even more aware during my teaching day I would often pause and remind kids to be kids to release the stress they may be feeling from Friends home whatever to let learning be fun let the grown-ups handle the hard stuff there was nothing for them to worry about life is hard enough but being a kid should be easy or we should at least help make it easier during the school day children's world are like the legs on a chair one leg is them one is their family one is their friends one is school that's it that's all they worry about if you pull away one leg with worry or fear their seat will be unsteady two legs and they will fall we need we need to carry the big loads for them schools should always be a steady leg one that provides knowledge and nurturing helps them make friends to play with at recess and lunch when life is hard sometimes at home we reach out to the parents to be a team to study all four legs on the chair I know many of you up front Jay and Jim you coached my boys when they were young and I know you all began your careers teaching and caring for caring for little people I challenge you to please remember to let kids be kids keep the grown-up stuff for them to decide when they graduate from Chico schools be an advocate for the kids and the parents let the teachers teach the fundamental subjects by making learning fun without outside distractions and make sure to teach PE every day because I always did therefore I'm asking that we do not keep secrets about minor children from their parents and I thank you all for your time Kathy Dahlstrom [Applause] hi my name is Kathy Dahlstrom I am a therapist who specializes in working with transgender kids I have a unique experience I think here because I have seen hundreds of transgender kids and their families and if you know a trans youth or a young adult from the area that has gone to therapy there's a good chance they saw me now I'm not going to speak tonight to safety because I feel like that's been fairly well covered I'm going to speak to something that no one has brought up and how much this hurts supportive families too I have heard hundreds of coming out stories where a child went to their parent and their imperfect parent responded lovingly but imperfectly and that experience has been a bond between the two of them for the rest of their life and being trans is hard as you can see you know there's the emotion here is because it's a hard life it's not hard because there's something hard about being trans but because the society we live in so when you force a kid to come out to their family and you take away that feeling of control you have robbed every family of the opportunity to have this beautiful experience that they could have that will be powerful for their children for the rest of their lives I'm not up here because I think I'm not tucked up here because parents aren't important I'm not up here because families aren't important I'm up here precisely because families are important and parents are important speaking to you as someone who's speaking to who've spoken to hundreds of them and that is not an exaggeration they are so important that you need to not interrupt this precious moment and let the children come out to their parents about something very personal about them and who they are when they are ready for it instead of the robbing the opportunity for everyone and that's all they want to say except you guys I really feel for you and I'm really sorry you're hearing some of this really hard stuff [Applause] thank you Dr Christine leisner [Applause] I love you okay greetings on the human sexuality research and educator you know that I'm also a parent I want to speak tonight about the anti-discrimination policy about transgender kids first I would like to communicate that all major professional entities that work with children's physical and mental health support gender affirming services in medical care schools homes in the community including the rights of privacy this includes the American Medical Association the American Psychological Association the American Academy of Pediatrics according to the recent publication from the American Academy of Pediatrics prominent pediatricians state that quote children who are pre-puberty and assert an identity as transgender or gender diverse know their gender as clearly and as consistently as their developmentally equivalent peers who identify as cisgender and benefit from the same level of social acceptance this means that children as young as three who understand themselves to be transgender are the same as those who are cisgender and recognize themselves to be a boy or a girl a recent study published by the Journal of Pediatrics in 2022 followed over 317 transgender youth over time with an average age of eight at the beginning of the study they found that 94 still identified as transgender five years later this longitudinal research unique in its design demonstrates that transgender youth who socially transitioned to early ages continue to identify that way years later this is important because a news said a new report from the Trevor Project that was just put out in March highlights that 11 percent of transgender and gender expansive youth come out before the age of 13.
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only one in three transgender and gender expansive youth have gender affirming home environments this means that 66 percent do not have gender affirming home environments not having a gender affirming home environment is damaging for youth mentally emotionally and physically research shows that families reject their children because of their gender identities and these kids are much higher likelihood of becoming homeless and committing suicide due to this rejection the American Academy of Pediatrics States research increasingly quote suggests that familial acceptance or rejection ultimately has little influence on the gender identity of Youth however it may profoundly affect young people's ability to openly discuss or disclose concerns about their identity this is why all students no matter their age deserve the right to privacy this need for autonomy to decide when and how to communicate information about themselves to their parents is for their own safety this is also why the ACLU the department the California Department of Education the U.S Department of Education and the White House have all put statements out about the importance of transgender Youth and individuals right to privacy keep the policy in act the way it is don't mess with the age this policy is supported by the most updated science on transgender youth the best way to move forward thank you Lyle Hayden Lyle yeah Lyle Hayden [Applause] I wasn't sure if I got onto the ticket so thank you um I just want to talk about uh sort of if I could adjust that uh since this is a school meeting let's do a little history lesson uh is anyone familiar with a moral panic maybe the satanic Panic of the 80s um there's a pretty direct line between that and these folks in the back over here they're they a moral Panic relies on exaggerated and lurid stories of members of a social Fringe um corrupting or harming Youth and members of the in-group punishing them and making their lives worse and persecuting them this has happened throughout history a bunch of times there's been witch hunts there's been red scares and now there's these people Alicia trider foreign as an educator and parent here in Chico I am really disappointed in the actions of Matt tennis and Rebecca konkin for creating such divisiveness in our community in regards to our students right to privacy and safety if a student has sought out a safe adult at school to talk to about their gender identity that's usually because they can't find a safe adult at home to do so with in Butte County we have the 6th Street Center for Youth that provides services to homeless and runaway youths apparently we have so many youth homeless youth in Butte County that we need a service organization to support them that's the first horrifying fact second according to the Sixth Street website California has the highest number of homeless use youth in the country forty percent of all homeless and runaway youth identify as lesbian bisexual gay transgender or queer with family rejection being a contributing factor to their homelessness this means that we have children coming out to their parents as gay or transgender and then those parents are throwing their own children out onto the streets what kind of a monster does that to their own flesh and blood what kind of indoctrination are these parents going through to learn to hate and reject their own children policy 5145.3 protects children from these parents who put their conservative religious idealities and political agendas before their own children's safety and well-being it is these parents who were the Catalyst for the creation of this policy if you want this policy to go away then you need to address those problematic parents and not be those problematic parents [Applause] if you want your children to talk to you about their gender identity then start the conversation with them and create a safe space where they know they can trust you and be honest with you claiming that you don't believe in gender identity and refusing to think beyond the gender binary will push your children away from you because they're smart and they're curious and they know how to find information if they need it so they will turn to their teachers and their friends or strangers on the internet for the information they can't get from you again I want to reiterate that our children's privacy and safety are not up for debate I don't support any changes to the current policy as it stands and I would also like to point out a problem with 5145.4 the increased parental rights you didn't talk about what would happen if required parental disclosure leads to child abuse at home or to suicidal children whose parents won't accept them when they find out about their gender identity or their questioning or force them into conversion therapy or whatever that's not addressed in the new policy and that's another reason why I don't support it thank you thank you Carrie Krueger [Music] this is simple individuals that manipulate the conversation regarding schools secretly transitioning children by diverting attention to trans ideology and trans rights do so for political gain and personal validation this is simple this conversation is about whether this school district will recognize and honor constitutionally protected and god-given parental rights and Authority can I call Port of order I I can't even talk because there's so much walking this conversation is about whether the school district will recognize and honor constitutionally protected and god-given parental rights and Authority or continue to disrupt the parent-child relationship causing irreparable harm this is simple you are gambling with losing Federal funding and as a community we will not stand by and allow you to undermine parents there is a counter movement taking place in this city the state and all over this country schools are being created as we speak to give parents options we will do what is necessary to support these families who will pull their children and seek alternative education because that's what community looks like it takes a village and we are ready we aren't backing down this is simple you won't come between us and our children [Applause] Morgan Dietz you said it right um I have been Morgan Deets for the last 20 years but when I was a Chico Unified student from K-12 I was known as Morgan verzie in I believe it was 1990 I was eight years old I started dressing like a boy I was pretty cute um plaid collared shirts neckties had my hair cut so I fit in with all the other little boys um I had a less than idyllic childhood and had a lot of things going on and when I was in third grade it was obvious by the way I was expressing myself and Chico Unified cared a lot and I really appreciated it what they did was contact my parents and say that they noticed something was different about me confirmed with them that things were going on at home and I offered counseling the counseling I received was basically space to um share what I wanted to share there were no suggestions offered um it was just space offered for me to talk about anything I wanted to and to process however I wanted and that was very freeing for me freeing so I could process and grow and develop to what I am today um a fiercely independent and critically thinking woman and and as such I'm here and I'm seeing science back here there are signs that say let kids be kids trust kids mind your own business one of the other ones they're all pretty good protect kids um that kids are truthful I agree with them all and but but the debate that I'm hearing is that it's either one side or the other can only be correct and it even seems like what is being debated is not even what is on the agenda it seems like the debate is either we respect parents or we respect trans kids and again as a as a fiercely critical thinker I encourage you to to to think that through to think that to know um to maybe I would like to challenge you to know that there's more than just either or um options I think these all can be right and all people can be respected and loved because of how I was raised in the Chico Unified School District um I call myself the world is a rainbow generation and that is a song by Greg and Steve that I hope many of you know the Greg and Steve guys um they're still my faves but this song that guided me um and still does and has inspired a deep love of all people of all kinds I'm sorry that's your time okay listen to it Nicole Nava so I just walk up here and I'm sorry it's going to be hard for me to get through this so I hope you can bear with me apologies um as you can probably tell I apparently am I bigot um that is how my child um feels I've always um respected my child's uh desire to keep things private and if I truly was who my child thought I would have capitalized on things um over time I'm sorry again um this bigot loves or child dearly and this child was raised in a home that felt great love um I'm sorry this bigot recognize their child's marriage a very dear special grandchild we were not invited to the wedding because there was an elopement and I understand they really wanted the privacy and due to the sensitive things I'm sure there was a lot considered and apparently maybe the feeling that I'm a bigot and so I shouldn't have been there and I'll never see my child child be married I'm trying to speak about how bigoted this household was we were very accepting and I want to say to all the children that I love hello for you and I do not want you to feel afraid of parents it breaks my heart that we are here in this type of space where we are assumed to be horrible people my place oh my God oh my God please please come to order please come to order you all can address whatever you want outside those doors please come to order right now when I walked in these doors I hadn't even spoken to anyone yet and tried to take my seat in a gentleman verbally attacked me and I'm sorry and then he proceeded to do it to somebody else just sitting there and this is what happens and I wouldn't understand we're so nice and we just sit here and take it and yeah um I I don't even know what to say I I'm crushed and I have to go home to my husband spend the Mexican bigot and describe that this is I'm sorry that's your time yeah I would have liked to have had my other opportunity too you'll have an opportunity when it comes back up on the promise that I would ask if my friend Pollock could really is this Paula hair I'm sorry is this Paula hair I have Paula on the list to speak yes yes thank you um up next is Lindsey Briggs thank you [Applause] my name is Riggs I'm a local educator a mom of children you love me hold on I'm sorry is is your microphone working it doesn't sound like it to me hi thank you hi okay uh my name is Dr Lindsey Briggs I'm a local educator a mom of children who love me uh a queer woman and I am exhausted to the Bone activists I am sick and tired of waking up every morning awaiting to see what fresh hell awaits me and my community I brace myself to read the latest ridiculous lie uh that some ignorant group is spreading about the people that I love I look at my calendar and see what stinking meeting I have to show up to in order to make sure that some hysterical group of paranoid citizens doesn't legislate my rights away y'all I am tired as a college human sexuality Professor I have the joy of receiving The Battered and bruised young adults who make it through a school system that's been warped by well-meaning but completely out of touch citizens who have butchered our education system because they're afraid of a changing Society I listen compassionately as students tell me the horrifying things that they've lived through by being bullied from close-minded children to the realization that their parents are low-key bigots they've grown up in homes with toxic messages about the people who are different from them who the stories they tell me about y'all yikes is all I can say lastly I'm here to make a couple of plain very straightforward statements trans people exist get over it no one can make somebody trans it's ludicrous I even have to say that uh contrary to our absolutely Bonkers Congressman some people are not born male or female that's a biological fact [Applause] I'm sorry many of you including our Congressman did not learn that in school that's embarrassing uh everyone deserves the right to privacy yes even children they are not an extension of their parents bodies they are whole human beings all on their own no one is telling your children to keep secrets from you if you are your children is keeping a secret from you there is definitely a reason school should be a place of unconditional love support and safety for all kids if you don't like what publication public education teaches absolutely you're invited to go elsewhere uh find a private school that aligns with your values the United States was founded on the basis of separation of church and state you have every right to believe whatever you want according to your religious beliefs however your religious beliefs have no place in dictating policy any arguments based on your personally held beliefs have no place in our Public Schools again refer to my previous point about moving your child to a private place finally I urge you to keep the policy as it is which is in accordance with State Assembly Bill ab1266 thank you thank you up next is Andrea Mox good evening uh my name is Andrea Mox and I am the executive director for Stonewall Alliance of Chico I'm here today in reference to agenda item 7.3.1 for more than 30 years Stonewall has provided lgbtq focused Services advocacy training and support to North State schools Youth and Families the following statistics from a 2022's Trevor Project survey of California lgbtq youth youth demonstrates why stonewalls is sadly busier than ever 70 percent of lgbtq Youth experience discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity only 30 percent of lgbtq Youth identified home as an lgbtq affirming place for them fortunately 50 percent of lgbtq Youth identified school as an lgbtq affirming space for them and 54 of California transgender and non-binary Youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year lgbtq youth are not inherently prone to Suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather they are placed at risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society social stigma is real and sometimes it feeds into family Dynamics some kids aren't ready to face their parents or Guardians with their deeply personal information just yet knowing that they could risk their life support system in doing so all right I came out when I was 35.
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and you know I was a successful I.T manager at Chica State I owned a home I had two kids and I was still terrified to come out to my parents who were actually open and very liberal as open as they were after I came out it still took them a month before they could speak to me I experienced fear guilt and self-questioning during that long month and it was gut-wrenching to think I might lose my parents and their love and their support imagine trying to navigate this situation as a school-aged child whose parents are not supportive the truth is that some kids aren't sure that their families will be ready and willing to support them and forced outing to parents could be devastating stonewallen schools are there to fill gaps for kids who may not have a safe family or while they build their personal skills to advocate for themselves to their families Stonewall finds that neither of the proposed policy changes are acceptable the school district should strive to be a place that affirms the safety and confidentiality of transgender and gender non-conforming students knowingly changing this board policy which could be a life or death decision for a Chico Unified student and their family is reprehensible we recommend no change to board policy 5145.3 thank you Aaron Whitney [Applause] hello good evening and thank you for allowing us all to speak our minds my name is Aaron Whitney I'm a Community member parent and professor of education at Chico State and I am in support of retaining the current policy 5143-514-5.3 and in protection of student privacy and I want to speak a little bit about um the perspective of teachers as a teacher educator this is really important to me I co-facilitated a workshop just last week with teachers in conjunction with Stonewall on supporting transgender Youth and a comment that came up on behalf of teachers was I'm trying to support all of my students but I'm so afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing and these are committed Educators who've been tasked by their school districts to establish maintain and monitor inclusive learning environments that are healthy and safe to enable all students to learn and that comes directly from the California teaching performance expectations that beginning teachers are required to demonstrate Mastery of now my concern if if a parental inclusion policy is enacted aside from the risks to students I believe it could create more fear for teachers as they're placed in positions of having to police gender in the classroom for example if a kindergartner named Michael chooses to wear princess dresses in the play area does the teacher have to call the parent or can they encourage all children to explore gender through play and Imagination this is an example of typical behavior that teachers know does not necessarily indicate a child is transgender but is experimenting with gender expression and roles as they should be so what if Michael the student then asked to be called Michelle but says please don't tell my mom she'll be mad at me if the parental inclusion policy is in place the teacher would then be required to disregard the Privacy request of the child which could result in negative consequences for the child at home as well as shutting down any further conversation between teacher and student it also puts the teacher in a position of having to choose whether to follow the parents rules or state law on gender-based harassment ultimately the teacher must follow the law but to avoid conflict they may just put the dress-up clothes away which thereby has a negative impact on the whole classroom community I had a little more here but I'm gonna I heard the bell and I know people are tired I just want to say I support student uh privacy student privacy policy it protects trans kids allows teachers to create and support inclusive learning environments and it enables staff to communicate with families as children are ready thank you Sierra Hall [Applause] y'all gotta do jumping jacks to keep the lights on well it's past time they're shutting us down there we go that's usually true sorry if it didn't work all right hi my name is Sierra Hall thanks for letting us speak a little longer today um first of all um I just wanted to say I'm a concerned Community member I'm a protective big sibling and I just wanted to say that all students in the Chico Unified School District deserve dignity and privacy students should have the freedom to express themselves without fear of being spied on most importantly lgbtq plus students have the right to come out on their own terms parents have a conversation with your child at home get to know them one-on-one if you have to get information about your own child through the school you should consider whether you've created a safe space for your child to be their authentic self at home I'm requesting no action be made on Chico board policy 51453 protect trans kids trans rights are human rights thank you very much [Applause] Dr Tom mount well I think it's clear that there are two highly motivated constituencies represented in the audience tonight both of whom have legitimate concerns on the one hand are those who want to ensure that trans and gender non-conforming students are not harassed or bullied in any way and treated with the same dignity and honor as other students I would hope that no one in this audience would disagree with that goal understandably this group is happy with the way the policy currently reads and see no need to alter it in any material way in fact they're afraid that changing the policy might expose these vulnerable students to her harassment and harm and again I think their fears are legitimate on the other hand our parents and others who are deeply concerned about the district's current policy which effectively usurps a parent's right to be involved in this area which is so Central to their child's well-being they take their parental responsibilities very seriously and can't help but feel disenfranchised by the district whose policy essentially drives a wedge between parent and child at the very moment when the child is most in need of loving nurture and wise guidance understandably this group is unhappy with the current policy and is asking that the board revise it in a way that continues to safeguard students but also encourages parental involvement I think there's a way around this impasse and it was suggested by Paul Gantt the district's legal counsel at the board's February 15th meeting Mr Gantt proposed four possible courses of action that the board might take in moving ahead the third of these was to revise the current policy making it the normative practice for district Personnel to inform students excuse me to inform parents of their child's gender-related struggles unless there are compelling reasons not to do so as in the case where a history of child abuse in the home for example might put the child at risk I respectfully ask that the board discuss and adopt this approach which would continue to afford protections for vulnerable students but with the added benefit of re-enfranchising the parents of the district you don't want to be in an adversarial role with the parents and up to this point that is pretty much the position you have taken in a in a recent court filing the district argued that parents have no legally recognized right to be informed of their their child's gender issues guys this can be fixed that's your time thank you thank you Eric Nelson good evening Eric Nelson uh my wife Julie who spoke earlier and I have three children all who attended cusd schools I'm also a retired principal of inspire School of Arts and Sciences and was an administrator and teacher in at cusd as an ally and advocate for the lgbtq community I urge cusd board to leave the current policy in place current policy in concert with California law ab1266 provides protection to lgbtq students protection from discrimination harassment and bullying ab1266 was not written to deprive parents of their rights it was written to provide a necessary layer of protection when kids don't feel safe it has been law for a decade now and has worked well in cases where a young person who is transgender and or gender non-conforming is trying to find their way in an often hostile environment where they feel threatened simply for being themselves efforts to deny them this protective layer are based in large part in fear of the unknown but that fear pales in comparison to the fear of being criticized dismissed rejected and hurt emotionally and physically simply because of who you are I am a straight cisgender white male born and raised in the Midwest I understand this fear of the unknown when my daughter who is transgender transgender began her transition at the age of three I might add I was scared for her and for myself what did this mean what would it look like how is she going to be treated when she went shopping in a dress how would that reflect on me following my daughter's lead my wife and I began to educate ourselves to understand our daughter's experience to be there for what in what many don't understand is a sometimes Indescribable challenge to be your authentic self in the face of a harsh and judgmental world that education came from compassionate organizations like Stonewall Chico the UCSF gender Clinic gender spectrum and local members of the lgbtq community I am deeply deeply grateful to everyone who supported our daughter and our family the courage and integrity of the lgbtq community is a beacon for us all for justice and kindness truth and love all antidotes to that fear of the unknown unknown that I experienced when what we need is continued and deliberate education Stonewall Chico along with the Chico State pride student organization and the queer Resource Center at Butte College are leading the work in our community building compassion and deepening understanding this is the direction we we need not divisive litigation as parents our most critical job is to provide an environment at home where our children feel that they can be who they are without fear of judgment or reprisal or rejection our job is to understand them and support them in their identity our job is to confront our own fear and move to empathy and support in some homes this doesn't happen in fact there is rejection and retro reprisal and judgment thank you and this this and that's your turn thank you Canyon Williams [Applause] hi my name is Canyon I've been living in Chico for coming up on 10 years here my parents are both Educators my mom is a special education teacher and my dad was a Elementary School principal and then later an assistant superintendent so there's a lot of nights growing up when I was waiting for my dad to get home from really late board meetings I relate to what you guys are going through and I appreciate the work that you're putting in to make the right choice for our kids I know that uh we're all here all of us because we care a lot about children and we want the best for them going forward um I know that's what we're working together to accomplish and I appreciate it thank you as a trans adult I am happy to say that being trans is legitimately one of my favorite things about life I am so privileged to be a part of a community made up of some of the most kind supportive perseverant resourceful creative and inspiring human beings that I've ever known being trans doesn't make my life difficult or scary in fact I think my day today would look really familiar to everyone here I go to work I pay my bills I chat with my neighbors I love spending time with my friends and my dog you know I have to mention my dog uh I'm just like you and so are the lgbtq plus kids whose rights we're discussing today there is nothing wrong with these young people wanting to explore who they are and who they could be the thing that makes trans life dangerous is people who are afraid of us because we're different and who dedicate their time and energy to trying to stop us from existing we're not going to stop existing can't stop kids from being trans by putting obstacles in their way by choosing to not support your children you can make their lives harder you can cause them a lot of pain you can alienate and destroy your own relationships with them and the adults that they will become but you cannot change who someone is California state law protects miners rights to privacy it is so important to make sure that lgbtq plus youth have control over their own Journey with identity and disclosure forcing them to come out before they're ready can put them in incredibly unsafe situations I think we've seen plenty of evidence that there are adults who have no problem causing harm to kids they don't properly understand it's our job to make sure that all the children in our community trans gay straight are safe and supported protecting their privacy is a huge part of that to the lgbtq people here today we see you we love you we want you here I am so so sorry you have to deal with this struggle and I'm here to tell you that your community has your back stay strong there's a whole world of beauty and freedom waiting for you on the other side of all this trans rights forever thank you for your time Mona Kazemi good evening and thank you for allowing us all the chance to speak my name is Mona I am the board secretary for Stonewall Alliance of Chico I wanted to start by sharing some of the most recent data that I found on kidsdata.org which is Butte County specific 20 percent of children have two or more Aces which is adverse childhood experiences which um is a problem children with reports of abuse or neglect are 50 percent higher than the Statewide average in Butte County which unfortunately illustrates that not all parents in Butte County are responsible parents meanwhile sixty percent of lgbtq plus students reported being bullied at school and then specifically within Chico Unified School District 52.3 percent of lgbtq plus students seriously considered suicide and instead of using this time to figure out better ways to further support and help children we have to be here at 11 something just to demand a most basic right for them the right to express themselves in a confidential Manner and their right to safety I encourage you to think about the potential consequences if action were taken to reverse this right lgbtq plus children might be forcefully outed to their families when they may not be in a safe environment those serious thoughts that I referenced earlier may become serious actions um those safe adults in schools whom they might consider speaking with at such a critical point in their life may get taken away from them and they may choose not to seek support at all when they need it the most it's time we do more to support lgbtq plus children instead of taking away the very very bare minimum in addition and in closing I encourage this governing body to look at federal and state law and adhere to statues and guidances set forth by California Ed code Title IX the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution and specifically California Assembly Bill 1266 which as referenced on the California Department of education's website establishes that and this is a quote from their website the right of transgender students to keep their transgender status private is grounded in California's anti-discrimination laws as well as federal and state laws I urge you all to do the right thing this evening and protect the lives of children within the Chico Unified School District by maintaining students privacy thank you so much squeaky Saint Francis [Applause] I will speak loud for those who cannot speak I am a proud he she they them whatever I am a boyfriend to a beautiful woman I am a girlfriend to a handsome trans man and I am also a girlfriend to an incredibly beautiful woman um growing up in this town my mother always told me to love myself for who I am not what I am not all as can be as lucky and have a supporter like that in fact I knew friends in school who would bring an entire change of clothes with them so they could dress the way that they felt inside and be free of persecution that they would feel at home or the sideways glances one of the first things we learn in a healthy family is trust and unfortunately some parents don't trust their children when they say this is me and they make that decision for them that may make the child fearful for from the people that claim to be trying to protect them these children may see the hate and Prejudice at home for people just like them and feel the only place they can truly be themselves is at school every child needs to control when they out themselves I never had to out myself everyone always knew that I was just different I was just Joey but if you take away this ability this control from these children to out themselves you are forcefully putting them into a possibly violent household where their parents could kick them out force them into conversion camps or relinquish their their parental rights and put them into the system and God forbid they might consider suicide changing this policy would create a very slippery slope and Texas just recently passed bills that require every citizen apparently to um report that um if if a child is getting any kind of trans affirming care those parents and or doctors can be arrested and it's creating political refugees already and we cannot stand by and let this happen in Chico that's your time thank you thank you Connor Wenzel [Music] [Applause] thank you for the time to speak my name is Connor Wenzel I've been here before and I've come here as a trans Community member in regards to agenda item 737.3.1 the non-discrimination harassment policy you should all all of you should have already read the written comment I submitted it like the 27 other when I counted this afternoon um comments submitted stated um the um request for no action concerning transfer gender non-conforming students rights to privacy I don't want to share more facts or figures with you because if you can't see all the supporting information as to why this should be a no action then you're never going to choose to do so I instead would like to ask you to imagine imagine what it would feel like to have this experience go through your brain as somebody that that has not even come out to anybody may not have even said it verbally that strands are gender non-conforming identity I worry everyone will know my secret have everyone using a nickname that I hate no matter how much I tell them the importance uh the important people in my life that that I don't like it all the time I worry everyone will know my secret I wish you could tell me I wish I could tell someone what my name is but I worry everyone will know my secret what if the only clothes I get to wear are the colors that I don't like in the style that make me uncomfortable to wear which happens every day and I worry everyone will know my secret I want to wear what your class my classmates are wearing but I worry everyone will know my secret I want to understand why my classmates want me to act just like them and and why I'm constantly afraid of them teasing and harassing me because I don't which happens all the time I worry everyone will know my secret I want to be able to play with a group of kids that I like to be around but I worry everyone will know my secret all of the presents I get I get them because people say that that's the type of toy I'm supposed to have even if it's not on my list no matter how often I say every time I would like to have the right to actually use my name on classwork I worry everyone will know my secret I worry not I won't be able to share all my likes and and interests with anybody which happens all the time and I worry everyone will know my secret I want to be able to tell my favorite teacher what my name my name is and everyone will know my secret thank you that's your time Paula hair my name is Paula hair I'm a combat veteran my brother died for this country I am transgender I am the real thing I had my sex change at McGee Women's Hospital play a few years back I fought Michelle Bachmann in the state of Minnesota for glbt rights transgender rights but I could be who I am but what I hear here today isn't about really transgender rights it's about a teacher giving another child a binder which is wrong David parents bring their children to school to learn now for a teacher to play doctor now if a child wants to you know says they're transgender or whatever to a teacher announce to ask questions about it that's a good thing but for the teacher to come in between the child and the parent that's a bad thing because then you don't have the parent-child relationship anymore what you have as a teacher tearing a family apart and destroying it so then you might as well take and have the people not get married just have a kid bring it to school say here change its diaper and we'll pay the bills and you raise it but you're not raising the child you're teaching the child stick to teaching myself I fought for transgender rights I fought to you blue and white cab company I won and transgenders gays lesbians and arrests drunks people bring their bottles on the airplane could ride in a taxi but all I've heard here today isn't what this has been about like I said it's been about a teacher giving a child 11 year old a binder playing doctor teachers need to stop playing doctor teach when a secret is kept from a parent my parents were drunks I mean drunks I went to my parents told them that I was a girl I was beaten so I understand what's going on here I finally left my home and went in the military because they said they'd make a man out of me but they didn't do that so that's your time thank you that's your time thank you thank you for listening to me um the next person on our list is Arwen Funk but I think I saw Arwen leave the room of um that's the end of our speaker list um with that and everybody's sigh of relief I apologize but I really do need to take a break um and so I'm asking for a point of privilege and to take a really brief five can we do it in five minutes break well let's do it as quick as we can ideally five minutes thank you so much take a break we will return to order thank you for the break um all right so I also ate during the break this time instead of while I'm trying to run this meeting so you're welcome um Okay so we've heard our public comment I'm in our Rules of Order I would uh bring us to the point where um I will ask if there's any emotions associated with this item I have a question of clarification for staff okay um the board policy didn't say anything about over 12 and older is that right but I'm digging deeper and confirming on the administrative regulation it does go into pretty significant detail on that I mean it says that uh it has an entire section of it devoted to students 12 years of age and older so what's the relationship if if we approve one of the board policies is this necessarily the administrative regulation that follows no at this point we would take input from the board and actually go back and develop a board policy these are drafts my guess would be that there would be recommendations for changes to the drafts would bring them back to the board for a second reading and for adoption okay that's the will of the board and then after the board adopts a policy we would adopt administrative regulations okay so in that vein then I I would move the proposed draft 5145.4 the one that emphasizes what is the what is the phrase use parents rights parent inclusion but I would change it so that it does not exclude 12 and older I would write it so that it includes 12 and older would be treated the same as as 11 and younger so I move that I second okay will you emotion in a second we can open the floor for discussion among board members yeah um first actually I think the desktop request question of clarification um from Mr Gantt would such a wood compelling counselor specifically uh be in direct violation of California law that's Mr Gantt thanks well I I hesitate to give legal advice in in on general terms normally we give legal advice on specific cases so first of all I I'll make that comment what I can say is that there are legal protections for students that are 12 and older who seek counseling School counseling that allows them to express and claim a right to privacy and refuse consent for the topic of the subjects in the counseling from being disclosed so arguably depending on the circumstances in other words if there weren't overwhelming factors due to health or safety that require disclosure for example that could violate that student's rights under that Education Code section if the topics of for example Mental Health care were at issue if topics related to reproductive Health advice was also in the mix for a student that is 12 or older that such disclosure could conceivably also raise serious legal concerns and that's under those existing statutes I would also says being a law excuse me statutes being law yes thank you yes um the uh the reason that the well I'll leave it at that and see if there's any further questions thank you I guess I would just reconnoiter that we're just talking about informing parents about what is transpiring with their child in class that's it so no one's no one's forcing a child to come out to their parents they're already coming out in class and in school so it is only fair in the relationship that we the school district want to have with parents that parents would be at least informed of what is happening foreign so what I understand is you respect information that's shared in Council and privacy um however once a child makes the decision to take action publicly at school that's when the information should be available also to the parents and I think the child would have open eyes at that point too they would they would they would be told that you know it's just not our policy to keep secrets from parents and so if we're all gonna in your classes you know start using your preferred pronoun your preferred name that's just not something that we can keep from parents you know I mean who's ever called your child's teacher and had them strategically you know kind of keeping details from you about what happened in class you know um that's not cool that is the school Community keeping a secret from a otherwise totally responsible parent so basically intolerable so where do we draw the line if um is it does it become a responsibility to decide if a student wears too much pink that's worth reporting to parents if a student I mean at what point does behavior that you deem abnormal become something that we have to force people to contact the kids where's the line for exacting things onto me that I never said no I'm perfectly happy to draw the line and names and pronouns perfectly happy so so no problem well no I mean we're a school district we're a government agency we have to make decisions so yeah it is my line to draw you know I do not have to keep secrets from parents when I was a teacher in this District every year at the beginning of the year the way I got to know my students was to um first of all you all have experienced how much anxiety I have over saying names wrong um and uh so my first my first day was to ask students if they had a name that was often mispronounced and to share with me how to say it phonetically before I said it wrong so that I could take notes the second question was always if there were students who went by a different name than what was probably on my roster very benign question and I just would write that down and I would I would call them that name it wasn't my business why that student chose to be called that name sometimes it was a very simple um you know nickname I Matthew being called Matt or whatever it might be um and I can think of circumstances where that student might have been questioning their gender and that wasn't my business that wasn't my business until the student decided to make it my business if they did and usually that didn't even happen until I taught comprehensive Sexual Health at the end of their seventh grade year as required by law I would add that if this suggestion were to come to play um where a school is required to to share with the household of a student that the student has expressed a need or a desire to explore alternative identity then as a teacher does that mean that I would have to make it my business to find out why a student wants to be called a different name or to uh stay away from the conversation of pronouns in fear that I will have to report a student's pronouns to their household rather than being an inclusive classroom it creates a system where we are forced as Educators to execute a very restrictive environment and I think that we heard a lot of input tonight and in our public comments and in previous public comments that this isn't a US versus them a this or that issue this really is getting to the heart of doing what it is that we are here to do which is support students growth [Applause] and that is our responsibility here and to ensure that we're following the law [Applause] thank you um for anyone who has been um either because of a role in school I I was spent almost 30 years as a school supporter person for students and um I was a person who occasionally a student shared um something that was you know hard for them eating at them either they were gay or trans or they they thought they they had been in a situation where they had been identified and they were about to be outed at school and they were you know in a state of suicidal ideation and then as I um moved along in years um I had a family member who after two and a half years of not being able to say I'm she not he did disclose to me who she was she had been two and a half years struggling with that um knowledge and when she finally disclosed to me her first request was to help with school it was between junior high and high school it was summer break she wanted to start school as she as who she was knew that all of the kids that she had just gone to Junior High School with were going to be at the senior high school it didn't matter it was so important to her to be her that that was all she could think of and it was fortunately a Chico Unified School District school so when she went to the school and said call me she X you know and they said oh okay um you know and it went in not as an official record but as the student's request so that when she got to class the teachers identified her by her chosen identity I still remember watching the transition of this person within weeks just Blossom and become this you know I I had no idea what was going to happen and I reached I reached out to Stonewall because you know I'm I'm grandma and I don't know what I'm dealing with here um and I found family support groups as you mentioned other parents well I wasn't the parent this is this was not my child who were going through similar things and shared experiences and shared you know the the family dynamics that fell apart or you know it it was a lot of information that I had no idea I needed until I needed it um in this subject coming before the board I heard heard a lot of communication came to me as a board member and I heard from people who were still not able to disclose their authentic self um I also had another role in this community as a board member for the Torres shelter and as a board member there I dealt with the number of lgbtq Youth and adults who were homeless because of the reasons that people have indicated um I know the pain I've also seen the joy and I also want to reiterate what one of the speakers said here tonight I am not anti-parent that's why I you know before had the resolution that we uh table come up at any other point in this school district's history it would not have been questioned it would I mean that's been our philosophy is the kids that are successful are the ones that have the successful strong parent support I believe that I also know because of what my role was with the school district that everybody doesn't have that kind of parent household waiting for them and I also understand if we're going to prevent the suicides the drug addiction the you know we have to empower our youth now having said that I also am not in favor of taking parental rights away I I think parents need to know number one that an automatic disclosure isn't gonna happen so if they are truly interested in knowing their child knowing what's going on establish a relationship in your home not only with your child but with your environment don't make a comment about a news article that you know what Texas just did or what another you know make your home A Home of acceptance I believe that my role as a board member is to protect our kiddos that may not yet have a way of protecting themselves and and to inform our parents that if they feel they need help where to reach out to my God I needed help when when my family member disclosed it was like oh okay now what do I do we have a lot of parents believe me you've been in the same spot this is this is not something that we've come up through our society knowing how to um deal with we also have been sent so many negative messages about people that we don't understand that we don't um you know we are not an inclusive Society I'm sorry but we're not we've discriminated against people because of color because of sexual identity because of disability because of you know any number of things we just aren't an open loving Society we have a lot a very open loving people who are speaking out and saying enough is enough we are not going to perpetuate hate hate speech hate activity so when this comes to a vote I I will do there are several things I'm concerned about one is I don't think we have the policy on student privacy rights written quite where it should be I'm also concerned because we are being sued and that there are some legal parameters that we need to be aware of so that we are not financially um risking hundreds of thousands of time we've already spent the hundred thousand that was covered by our insurance we're there now every penny that goes out the door now it comes out of some classroom so I want to be absolutely certain that whatever we do with 5145.4 we do it so we're not jeopardizing not only the health and safety of our kids but the financial health of the school district and also doing a big job of educating our parents and families to let them know these are issues folks if you don't feel comfortable that you know enough to have established the kind of relationship where you feel comfortable that your child will come to you and that maybe they don't and it's not your fault but here's a way to work through finding a way to to get that support with your child that I would vote for I'm not ready to vote yet on this Mr Lindo thanks um first of all really a huge thank you to everybody uh who came out to speak today a lot of people took some Really Brave steps to come out and tell us about their personal experience and that was awesome and I'm sure to those watching at home or who were here we're not sure about whether it was safe to do so seeing this community come out like this has been really reassuring and it's powerful it's awesome um thank you um so I've been this issue we've all been thinking about it for you know months now um I keep thinking there's got to be some kind of a common ground there could be some kind of a way where we can stop because one group is talking about one thing and one group is talking about something different and then they yell at each other um I heard a couple people mention today about um like these false neighbors going around and I'm curious about that because I hear this repeated claim that we are as a school district engaged in some kind of Act of coercion that by acknowledging the truth that non-binary trans lgbtq people live among us we are somehow encouraging students to partake in that lifestyle and just like choose right they're going to go oh you have to try to try this for a little bit yeah um and I wish we could figure out where why that is such a persistent idea um and of course first of all um it's clearly not true right let's just get that out there no one is in a classroom telling anybody student who they ought to be right that and it's such a ridiculous idea that it took me a while to wrap my head around having to need to say that out loud um I can't believe I um okay so that's what you said we do need to do something about education um because 95.99 most most of the people who spoke here today really truly are doing their best by their kids and their community and they want they want to love their kids well so I think later we'll talk about it as some other options about how we can maybe um build that partnership in a way that helps educate parents who might not know how to have those conversations well I think that's something that we can do to strengthen that that partnership in a real way um but the other thing I noticed as we had speakers um the speakers who asked for no change to be made were of a group who feared that they or people like them could be harmed the people who spoke on the other side um by and large were not going to be harmed if they got their way and um so you guys know I'm a history teacher or I have been in the past any time I think it's a really safe statement to make any time people with no skin in the game legislate something that affects other people it turns out badly like that is just so uh continuing to say things that don't need to be said but apparently do um we do not believe parents are bad um there are parents on both sides of this issue it turns out there's not like one group of parents who get to claim the mantle of all parents okay um we don't hate parents we don't try to keep secrets from parents we want parents involved in every possible safe way four of us up here are or have been mandated reporters we understand that there are times rare times but very real times when informing a parent about something going on in a child's life at school is dangerous we are legally responsible to have that knowledge to act not appropriately and this just seems to fly in the face of that um then I'm gonna keep coming back to us uh seven percent I'm not seven percent sorry um if I was doing some digging um seven out of every one thousand students in California have at some point a substantiated claim of neglect or abuse that has to be reported under camera I mean that's seven seven space you know it's small but it's real those are people who are being harmed and I just don't understand how anybody can hear all this testimony that if you do this people will be harmed and not be moved by that um we had an interesting well let me see sorry let me collect my thoughts for a second um if we were to adopt a policy which required School staff to out students under any circumstances and a student was harmed because of that we would both likely be liable and we would carry that with us forever and that is not a thing that Isis that I'm willing to live with Rebecca did you want to land [Applause] yes we're all speaking tonight is that okay okay um I went ahead and wrote down some of my thoughts because I'm not as eloquent as all they experience board members so bear with me here as I read them um first of all I'd like to express my appreciation for the outpouring of emails and messages that we have all received over the past couple of weeks I read all of them and I had the opportunity to personally respond to some of them and one thing that is evident regardless of what your position is on the matter appear it appears that we all have the physical physical and emotional well-being of our students as our primary goal I know that's my priority I absolutely support a non-discrimination environment for all students and in no way am I suggesting anything otherwise in my profession I clearly understand the purpose and the importance of confidentiality um and as many have already pointed out this evening highly involved loving and supportive parents will likely already be in the loop and aware of feelings that are shared with counselors or teachers at school but the scenario that I always just keep coming back to and I've spent so many moments and nights awake thinking about this is the scenario where a child of any age determines that they are going to take action at school and um come out as a transgender individual and they're and they are choosing to keep that a secret from their family I much more fear the potentially harmful scenario once this unsupportive parent discovers what everyone may already know and I saw I say once because I I think it's not a matter um of if but it's a matter of once this happens if teachers staff administrators and friends on campus all know of the child's gender transition it's um seems naive to assume that the child will be able to keep this secret from parents for very long and I can only imagine the magnitude and frustrations of a less supportive potentially abusive parent once they discover what everybody else already knows I just think that there's um possibly a strategy or a better practice where we could collaborate and the school could facilitate the communication with the parents and allow for a safe place where the child can share this information perhaps for the first time with their parent a place where both the child and parent can access Support Services to help with the transition I know this already goes on at Chico Unified with children who agree to it but I believe that this should be our standard in our policy for all students um like all of us I think my greatest concern is for the vulnerable child who has the less supportive family environment and the potentially harmful situation we are placing the child in when their secrets are discovered foreign broad input at the moment um the motion on the floor is to adopt a new board policy that follows the parental inclusion um model that we were presented with earlier uh with the the change that it would include students that are I'm assuming you meant 17 years and younger minor students yes um I would throw out maybe um you know they're they're not Wards of the state and also that wasn't your original emotion so I don't know if you want them I mean Award of the state doesn't doesn't have any you know oh sure I see what you're saying caveats um to that if they are not if they're basically if they're emancipated I don't think we need an amendment for that though um I'm going to move to the vote uh we don't need to do that because then we'll have to vote on that oh yep okay I thought you asked me nope nope nope I'm just I'm just I'm just walking through the process making sure that making sure that everybody's being heard um and I'll just go ahead and um we'll do Voice vote individually starting with Mr tennis since he made the motion tennis I am Dolby nay Robinson no konk and I Lando no [Applause] three two three three two um let's see if we have any additional options for emotions is there another motion for the member Robinson yes um I would like to move that the um board prepare a slightly modified new um not not the administrative regulation but the policy uh five one four five three or is that the one that we've just voted on five one four five point three is the current to clarify any Mr Robinson would you like us to put up the we had one slide it had the three different um choices that might be helpful yeah this the VP and AR 5145-4 they're both four point four they're both 0.4 so that's the original at the top that's what we currently have in place and then another option is the 5145.4 student privacy rights or five one four five point four increased parental inclusion yeah no it's the one on the left uh board policy um 5145.4 and um I don't I I don't see that we need to make any significant changes but there are some wording things that I believe because they flow into an AR that the district might bring back to us um in the board policy I don't want I'm not suggesting major change I just want to make sure that whatever we do flows easily into the development of the AR that's going to implement it and right now I don't think that language does does that make sense no so your your emotion is sorry I just want to clarify it simply so your motion is to approve on the board policy 5145.4 student privacy rights yes with with direction to staff to make changes to make minor changes to make it easier to develop the AR that goes with it you know the board approves the policy I don't think we have a second no no we don't I'm going to make a motion unless Mr Orlando wanted to make a motion um I move that we retain the current policy board policy 5145.3 um unless or until so we will retain the current policy as it's written unless or until we are provided with further direction from case law or legislative action a second member Robinson seconded my motion I'm going to make a substitute motion okay that's fine and that is that we approve the some very close version of the draft five one four five point four the increase parental inclusion but leave it as it has been drafted for us without what I said before which was to um make it apply to 12 and older as well this would just apply to 11 and under okay my second this is permissible um but it is not a friendly it's not a friendly it's a substitute motion so he's putting a second motion on the table a second okay according to what I was just reading do mine real quick told you I'm super prepped for this meeting should I make a big speech about this we're here is there discussion on on the second motion that's on the table two adopt 5145.4 parental inclusion at this time it was like a yes by member konk and I was wondering if there's discussion before we go to the vote are we ready to vote okay um I'll start with you again since you made the motion thank you tennis I had Dolby no Robinson no no Kunk and I Lando no foreign to our original motion on the table which is to retain the current policy 5145.3 as it's currently written I'm unless or until case law or legislative act sorry legislative action provides further Direction for changes any other discussion okay well I made the motion I'm going to start so Dolby I Robinson I can't do I tennis nay [Applause] [Music] thank you all so much for being here and staying through that your input needs to be heard over and over and it is exhausting and I am so sorry that you have to face that on a daily basis and to our parents who are also parents that are trans or non-binary or CIS or anything in between um we're all we're all parents right and it is important that students are safe and feel that they are in an environment that is conducive for their learning and their growth in a positive way and so I feel like this this direction is is right for us for right now and we will continue to share our stories and to educate each other and to reach out and to connect and to emphasize the importance of a healthy home environment and developing those relationships with our kids to make sure they feel safe to talk to us about hard things all right um with that we're gonna move to item number eight which is board member request to agenda as an item yes I would like to agenda is a discussion about what sort of offerings we might be able to create to help parents learn how to have those conversations on I'm Stonewall is an amazing organization and I'm thank you so much for being here by the way um but there are a bunch out there but I know some people would really like to see something at the school specifically we have in the past run like the All-Star parent program which taught parenting skills and helped parents who maybe weren't sure what to do to navigate some of those things it'll be interesting to see if anybody would be willing to attend so I'd just like to hear a proposed of something like that what it might look like or at least agenda is a discussion about whether we want to do that step one I'll second that question is to agenda is a discussion centered on the idea of parent education and how to be better parents with the partners partners with parents I'm so tired how the district can be can improve our partnership with parents how's that okay all right um we'll start with Mr land oh wait sorry discussion there's a second I'm sorry discussion sounds like a great idea I would agree okay I support that we'll start with Mr Lando land away Tennessee that's unanimous thank you are there additional items to request to agendaize I have one okay I will was contacted this past week by a parent who's concerned because their child was in a class an AP class actually where um they're aware that their fellow students are using artificial intelligence to write papers and and so forth and the parent actually reached out to staff and had a good conversation a productive conversation with a principal where it seems that people are already working on it so I move that we put that on a future agenda for discussion you just kind of be uh updates you know an update second dude so to clarify we're um the the action to take is to request um information on an update on how artificial intelligence may be impacting our classrooms I'm sorry if I changed the words okay okay yeah just want to make sure we're clear specifically with regards to possibility of cheating okay thank you um and it's been seconded by Mr Lando I'll start with any further discussion sounds fascinating I'm into it um all right uh there are some it is creepy by the way like the artwork especially can be really weird um AR okay yep getting really into the weeds here uh uh we'll start Mr tennis MSI it's all b i Robinson I How can I Lando eye all right um any further items I moved to adjourn somebody stuck at me thank you land a second in where adjourned
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
here uh Chris this is your first meeting so congratulations and condolences well welcome to your new uh at uh at city of Ann Arbor we appreciate your um your efforts this evening uh we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order the goal is to be done by nine o'clock uh or earlier tonight um and we'll go ahead and do a roll call uh Chris we do need your help with the Roll Call um and so we all have to acknowledge our name and municipality that we're located in um can you help us yes not a problem uh I'm sorry with commissioner Zemke uh Adam Zemke here in Ann Arbor commissioner Ralph Alice Ralph here in Ann Arbor commissioner Cornell I'm Jen Cornell and here in Ann Arbor commissioner she is no longer on the commission eventually officially my apologies uh commissioner Wilhelm uh here in Ann Arbor and commissioner Albert I believe Bieber Avery yes I'm here in Ann Arbor commissioner heading okay commissioner um Borg okay yeah Borg store from present in Ann Arbor commissioner hammersh mint yeah here in Ann Arbor uh commissioner Mitchell you're in Ann Arbor okay and with that I believe we are in the Forum oh um oh I apologize commissioner Briggs yep you're in Ann Arbor here we go do we have anybody else we miss uh Alice we get you yes we do okay excellent all right as Milt Milton is not here is it he actually a member of this group yes you could call his name he is absent okay commissioner Milton is absent sorry Mr honey is Lisa part of this group Lisa dish she is not yeah no I've replaced her as the council the other Council liaison foreign and go into the approval of the agenda we do have an agenda that Chris posted and uh did some updates too uh you can see that on legendstar any questions regarding tonight's agenda yes uh I think if generally we have had an item on the agenda called members time that seemed to disappear how come and you would like also that in pardon me I was going to answer your question okay go ahead and I can answer both at once okay then we had had correspondence particularly from Dan uh Rubenstein they're very interesting and it seems that we should have a way to acknowledge and and undertake the response to correspondence so correspondence comes it seems like that should be an item on the agenda and I want to have a moment in the time in number seven about their current activities for their Earth Day so uh Alan just uh for your reference uh in terms of the member time we did restructure the agenda I think around December of last year and uh in that restructuring Alice and I uh indicated that our goal was to try and reduce the um amount of time individually for these meetings and so we we focused on the work groups eliminated the member time and uh and streamline the agenda and so that member timepiece has been has been out of there for a little while um you know you are certainly and I think you have indicated a couple of attachments for the work stream updates and so you're welcome to comment on that but we we've not had that member time for a little bit here um regarding the uh Public Communication you can see certainly in the agenda Dan's comments have been included uh they are under uh the public comment written Communications we've had written Communications from other members of the public as well and um you know the uh I think it's important that we keep those consistent that regardless of who writes in they end up in the written comments uh and are attached uh encryst did a nice job incorporating that in tonight so those are Dan's comments are written in and and you can take a look at them obviously but I don't know that we want to give them uh any more public comment other than other members of the public I think it's important we keep consistent there I don't know it seems that there are some good ideas in there that we should address I certainly will be exactly thanks Alice all right any other questions on tonight's agenda okay could we have a motion to prove motion to approve the agenda is presented all right Alice thank you and seconded by Rita all in favor say aye all right any opposed all right motion carries agenda as presented uh approval of the minutes from the last meeting March 2023 those are attached thank you for doing that Chris any questions at all about March's meetings meeting minutes sorry I reviewed them they looked fine to me I would move their approval I don't know if there's other discussion about it thanks Steve well I would ask that we have in there the uh report from the activation committee that is simply received but it has not been discussed or approved so it is in there but we still have not recognized in what state it is in there but maybe we will do tonight yeah Steve's motion to approve since that's what starts our discussion if any oh sorry for sure support uh Alan just so you know uh I mean the media that document is attached we didn't take action on it yet we're working on um working with the parks department in a collaborative approach um but uh but it was it I think we had very good discussion last time and I don't think we called for action on it at the particular time in part because it was distributed uh very uh shortly before the meeting that's pretty hefty document so I I agree that we had a very robust discussion but um I don't think we intended to take action on in the median minutes reflect that all right so we have a motion on the floor and a second uh all in favor of approving the meeting minutes from last time say aye I write any opposed excellent motion carries uh so we're going to go ahead and move into uh the next agenda item which is um public comment uh Chris Tui members of the public of raise their hands ask him to speak uh yes we do all right now they Advance them in yes uh before I start all public speakers will be given three minutes to speak and I'll give you 30 seconds Head Start before your time is up thank you Chris okay now I'm promoting the number ending in three two six you may now speak hello this is uh Jeff Crockett can you all hear me we can just thank you great well I'm just very pumped up and excited I I think that the job that was done um uh by you and I'm a Rita along with others uh the draft scope for RFP the center of the city design and design process was exceedingly well done thorough uh based on um experience from other communities uh looked at the past the present and the future I'm particularly excited about you know the activation suggestions and I understand that it's simply a template that's going to be handed over to the parks department and those who have other comments to make and certainly will certainly have a number of opportunities to do that um I do want to report that we've got some exciting developments um uh we have basically our near toward the installation of murals uh on uh near the Community Gardens I've been work we've been working the library green conservancy's been working with Derek Deli Court to come up with a contract that will happen soon we have uh working on a contract with the artists treetown murals Mary defaults it's going to be beautiful and it's going to change the perception perception of how that space is is going to be viewed I am just hoping that after this installation that sometime under a future meeting there'll be serious consideration to at least removing the parking from that one area next to the gardens and the murals and consideration of putting in seating uh which we think is the only true way to sort of provide shirts or reactivation um I do want to thank though there are numerous people that I think need to be thanked uh and I'm hoping at some point Jen and Erica will take some time to list the people at a city council meeting I mean not just Adam and Rita but we have Frank Wilhelm Alice Roth uh odile Haber has been working uh and Allen has been spending a ton of time planning for the April 22nd Earth Day event uh Megan Sims has been involved she's got Earth radio a fantastic uh future soul band out of Grand Rapids who will just knock your socks off we have uh Ralph McKee a blues band will be there uh but we've also hit input from people around the country I mean there's any Row from North Carolina all the time to basically um I'll I'll just wrap up what I'm hoping there are a lot of people to think I'm just hoping that these people get proper recognition sometime soon thank you very much thanks Jeff yeah is my time up I assume yes okay thank you thank you Chris any other members of the public just stay okay yes I'm sorry to interrupt um Jeff Henny is in the panelist area right now he needs to be promoted to the commission heads up I'm sorry I'm not seeing his name on my screen Jeffrey honey yes um there you go excellent all right thank you for doing that Chris yeah sorry sorry for being late I I got derailed with family stuff that's okay Jeff Jeff you want to just uh real quick before we continue with members of the public probably would be a good idea Jeff if you could just indicate where you're calling it from uh Ann Arbor Jeff Henny and Arbor excellent thank you all right well let's let's keep going now the next one the next public speaker will now be Robert black you are allowed to speak can you hear me Chris yes I can thank you uh welcome Chris welcome aboard this is a great group I'm glad you're here and congratulations Jen for your move to the Art Association that's powerful and beautiful we need more art in the world anyway um I'm happy to see you guys again after all these meetings I've been with you and uh I want to Echo Jeff's comment about the RFP progress it's fantastic it's very thorough and Adam led the job very well the inputs from others Rita's input and collating different parts of it and all of that have made it a very powerful document and so I encourage you to continue that and build the alliances with it that you need with parks and city council um also being a colleague with Jeff Crockett on the initiating committee has been a real joy for me in working alongside Amy Rowe in North Carolina on graphics and other things uh we've been contributing a lot from the initiating committee to this group and the efforts here uh largely to work on activating activation events and that kind of thing so my my thought to you is to encourage you to look at the role of the initiating committee as some kind of an entity that will serve the Council of Commons and that you acknowledge that and use it to your advantage either to absorb it into the group in some way as a subcommittee not unlike the Green Team and that you also find its relationship not only with the council the commons but with Library green Conservancy to the extent you can put this together as an online group as I've spoken with at every meeting you will be much more effective at raising money in building the Coalition of public support that you need the other things that are really important and Powerful is the the activating events in the the park the library Liberty Lane excuse me Liberty Plaza project has been really powerful with Jessica black involved but we could connect more to that the next big event is Earth Day on April 22nd there's an event at Leslie Science Center on the 23rd but this one that's coming up as Mr Crockett mentioned is really powerful and a chance to really engage the community on many levels for Earth Day so I'd encourage you to look at that and how you could support that and have it literally become a part of this group and not just done only by the activating committee 30 seconds same thing with the murals I've talked to um Mary tiefos a couple years ago on this too and Her Image will be something that will be really powerful as a community outreach so I'd encourage you again to try to participate with that and make it part of an integrated Coalition of support from these three entities Library green initiating committee and counsel the comments I wish you good luck tonight and have a powerful meeting thank you thank you very much Robert all right Chris any more uh public speakers this evening yes we have Danielle Adams okay okay Daniel I will now promote you you have three minutes to speak good evening uh Daniel Adams 1016 Daniel Street um I called in tonight because I was informed that during the meeting tonight there would be a Folsom response my email from earlier this year pointing out uh among other things the startling fact that the city's putative partner in this so-called public-private partnership had committed only a tiny fraction of its resources to the issuance of the badly overdue RFP I think it's telling um and that's putting it mildly that Library green has failed to commit the full strength of its resources to the success of the very project that was created to to effectuate and and to complete before the city's Bicentennial um that of course was true until I emailed the council pointing out this inconvenient fact and I think it's telling that Mr Haber tonight would rather discuss public comments other than mine rather than address the merits of some of the uh the troubling facts that I pointed out in that communication and I'm hoping that the council tonight and particularly the members of Library green who are responsible for the financial condition of that of that entity again the city's putative partner in this project will speak to that organization's financial situation why the the organization failed to commit its resources to the project earlier than it did which by the way has cost the project unknown number of months of time and delay to the extent that Library green could have committed that money earlier than it did earlier than this year that's that's just more time that's been wasted we are now a year away from the bicentennial we are now many years away from the passage of proposal a and at this point the reluctance of that organization to come forward with both resources money and also be transparent in in how it's raised money to date how it plans to raise much more money in the future than seventy thousand dollars we're talking many millions of dollars tens of millions of dollars perhaps we don't know because we still don't have designs I'm hoping that these issues will be addressed tonight um that's all I have to say for now thank you very much thanks for calling in Dan thank you any other members of the public um no okay very good we'll go ahead and close public comment then um and we don't have any guest speakers tonight we are going to move into the working groups um we have two working groups as everyone knows one is on future space design which covers uh the RFP fundraising planning we have three agenda items that fall into that category actually I guess there's of Chris I think we may have had a agenda uh um issue here but um but one of the items is related to and you saw this pop up about a week ago on the agenda this is related to the working group recommendation around the RFP that's one item and then uh console number uh Haber also sent out uh and we included in the agenda today a couple of items for discussion that uh that council member Haber can um can bring about so and those those are related to the CPA Parks infrastructure case study uh and uh and also an item related to some ideas so if it's okay with folks we will go ahead and look at the RFP scope proposal that's an item that the working group has been working on for quite some time and um Chris are you able to pull that up for us just so it's uh easy rather than one of us try to do it let's do it I'd like to say Adam that that other information about uh parks and uh and reimagining the commons was only for information very interesting websites I hope people would look at at their Leisure it wasn't particularly for conversation right now because we got enough to do so that was just forwarding for information maybe there should be a way to designate what's for information and what's for conversation excellent thank you for that Alan Alice did you have your hand up for those items or for something else I think I did but I just in the Interruption okay Chris did you want to pull up the RFP scope worker I I can always do it as well can you just give me one second as a if you can pull it up yeah wow that's fine I can pull it up here thank you very good can everyone see my screen yes excellent so this is a um so the you know we had a working group we've had a working group on this subject for quite some time and um uh the members of the working group uh per a lot of the uh a lot of the discussions we've had have included um in this particular case myself and Alice Alan uh Frank Rita and then we've also included um as we did with the activation we've pulled in folks from the outside as well uh those individuals did include uh Robert black and they also included um uh Jeff Crockett they were willing and eager volunteers to participate in this process um and uh we took a couple of documents that Heather safirth uh put forward uh and gave us uh previously one was the city's standard RFP template uh and there are a lot of elements of that RFP template that are uh that are form based and they're really not for intended for alteration we stayed away from all of those but we did focus in on uh on an element that is uh entitled the scope this is something that um many folks worked on uh at uh as part of an RFI process and so um we Revisited that RFI process and uh and worked on creating a scope and so we went through a process by which um uh and I'll outline this and spin certainly any of the other working group members should feel free to comment on on uh how we how we went through this and and the process and feel free to raise your hands uh as well so um you know what we did was we started off by pulling up the two documents we looked at the old RFI we looked at all the inputs that uh uh center of the city council of Commons members provided we looked at the RFP template and then we asked a series of questions around what was missing um what a little more you know to try and gain some organic feedback and uh after that we asked every member to submit their own organic response what they would write if given a blank template for the scope we asked everyone to stay out of the standardized portions of the RFP because that is intended to be written by a city staff and per our previous discussions with the parks department that is what their intent is and and we want to honor those discussions but but in the areas that are customizable and still focused there is an agreement that those would have some input and so you know that is the area that we focused on um we asked for this sort of organic approach and uh then uh Rita did really uh um an amazing uh job with trying to identify uh areas of consistency in areas uh where there were gaps and created a spreadsheet that that really tried to build those out and I took that spreadsheet and uh tried to consolidate based on uh the uh the uh version that I had put forth and so and I I really tried to to look at areas of difference and areas of similarity and wherever possible try and and weave things together we then went got back together after we uh created a straw man document based on that and uh and went through and amended that straw man document a document uh as a whole and and uh there were some changes that were made there were not a a large amount of changes but also not a small number of changes either and uh and I think that the easiest way to describe this and certainly Frank Alice or Rita described you know if you think I'm misrepresenting this please uh chime in but you know we really sort of took a majority vote look at each of the uh each of the areas of the um the changes and decided on if if we were on or if we were off well we delete what we add Etc and I sort of took an up or down majority rules approach uh following that um I rewrote the draft that you see before you and sent it back onto that working group and um asked that folks take a final look at it and decide if they're gonna support if this is a majority opinion of the working group or if not we did receive a number of affirmative votes way more than a majority in favor and then Advanced it to this group to take a look at here I don't know Frank Rita Alice Ellen if you would like to comment um you know please feel free Ellen you do have your hand up uh if there are others please feel free and then we'll go ahead and run through it all right just on the process please uh at this point in time then we'll get into the substance in a minute yes well on the uh process I'm not so enthusiastic about this process because the effect was might call it majority rule or whatever a great deal of the content of what has been in this endeavor since its beginning has been line by line word by word canceled out and I do have as I think people know some amendments to make sure that that is an intentional cancellation or simply an Omission that the commons as a concept can be reintroduced into this document because it is essentially been removed and why that is why the Civic Center building was crossed out even though in our last consultation it was back in and why the center of the city Commons was removed even though at the beginning of our conversation I thought that was back in so I don't feel that the process really reflected our own conversations or that in summation that it adequately reflects the vision of what is possible there and is not far too limited and so I have amendments to alter that when the time comes to actually look at this line by line beginning with line two okay thanks Helen uh council member Briggs okay uh all right well let's go ahead and take a look at this then uh and uh Ellen if you could take your hand down just so we've got it down sorry I sorry I was thinking I was talking about it just raised my hand unraised my hand can I um yeah please feel free yeah yeah so um thank you so much for um explaining that process I guess one piece that I was surprised about um it sounds like this was kind of done by the the working Committee of the Council of the commons um has can you discuss what input City staff and park staff has had into this document at the point none yet um other than we started with the uh the RFI that Heather had really Consolidated so the the goal of uh tonight's discussion really what we wanted to do in the working group was to advance this to this body and do a check-in before we have a discussion with uh City Park staff we're working on getting one of those set up we've been trading emails around some dates but have not solidified that yet uh at least one that worked with schedules so tonight we sort of wanted to advance this and get some feedback from this body before we uh went and talked with Park staff it's by no means done but but uh we didn't want to uh simply go there before checking in here I guess um that's good to know I mean I would say this is very atypical in terms of how an RFP might be developed in the city um don't know how close this you know having not had staff feedback into this process um or the the content here um I mean not that I haven't you know overall I think it's it looks great um I'm impressed with that what everybody's put together but I guess I uh my point is just that um we shouldn't get to [Music] um yeah I would really want to see what their input is on putting out the RFP I would think that the parks department would have a quite a few comments on this yeah I I totally I I don't disagree at all council member Briggs and uh you know I think our our thought was we didn't want to get um we didn't want to get too far down the road given that we don't have the uh really as a working group we don't really have the authority uh over the council the commons and so um we wanted to uh we wanted to advance something to this group for discussion make sure there was at least an idea that this was the right direction before we went to the park staff we agree that Park staff is probably going to have um pretty substantial input and uh we have I think I think we've had pretty good discussions pretty constructive discussions with them around that process so I I don't disagree with you at all we just didn't want to get ahead of this group uh Alice you have your hand on yes um I um wanna and this I believe that the work we did in the working group which is the appropriate place to just kind of hash things out um was as a result of that first presentation that Adam made to the parks advisory commitment Council or committee um and it was sort of informally um agreed that we could kind of take a stab at it and then that would help um Advance the parks's the parks um engagement with the RFP and the request for in the scope of the work that would give them some information from us and while they were working on other projects that couldn't be put aside just for this so the timing was was an important issue too so that we could give them a jump start on what we we're thinking about and that they could look to as an input for what they will do thank you Alice any other thoughts or comments questions on the process we'll go ahead and uh and just start by going through the document then if that's okay and I don't want to ask for a formal vote on this tonight I I really just want to I want to get a feel for where folks are thinking you know have a a little more inclusive discussion see if there are things that that um folks find glaring or off and then we do want to take it to the city staff because that really is the the step that is going to integrate it into the formal process and so uh Alan I'm going to Grant you just a little bit of leeway here if you want to have another comment around that around the process before we get into the discussion around the document if it's around the discuss the document I'd like you to just hold off hey you said we were going to the document so when we get there all right very good so I'm going to go ahead and try and take this um section by section uh so that uh that we have some chunks to bite off here you know this first item uh like I said we started with uh the the RFI document that was created by this body uh back in and there are uh there were as a lot of really good work by uh Heather Seifert at the at the time to try and write this and put it forward in a way that uh that the city staff would normally issue a request for proposal or information from Adam could I just mention so that everybody understands that this is attached to our agenda so anybody can see it and get it um get to it if they like if they need to look at it more closely it is yes it's on the agenda I pulled this document up from that agenda in fact so this first area you know is really just a request outlines the uh the areas the geographic areas of the city they're in question here it does include a link to a Google based map and uh and tried we really tried to be very clear around what it was what we were looking for there are some standard language that Heather had Incorporated in regarding the RFP and and the um the lack of guarantee for any Ward or contract uh there was a background here in the background originally of the RFI was a little bit shifted a little bit differently we had some thoughts that that were incorporated into this regarding um both some some language around how this particular site the center of the city came to be with regard to proposal a in the city Charter Amendment um you know and and really the land that is bound as part of that City Charter Amendment uh between Fifth Avenue William Division and Liberty streets including the the public uh publicly owned spots of Liberty Plaza the surface of Library Lane and uh library and parking structure and Library Lane itself as well as the uh the areas of Kemp house and so this is all part of the center of the city um and uh and we really tried to identify that that was a lot of carryover from the RFI we did incorporate a couple of uh historical elements that go beyond this which we thought were important um related to Downtown Commons and and sort of the history behind why or what Ann Arbor had had historically around downtown Commons both in front of the original courthouse and the corner of Huron and Main Street with a second Washington County Courthouse is really the one that most folks reference um and then also the jailhouse Square which is in front of the current uh downtown post office on bordered by 4th and Liberty and uh Fifth and so uh you know we really referenced their some elements around the Downtown Commons that were important historically in the city um we then went went and sort of brought back into this idea around the future of the particular site we're dealing with focused more in on that element uh passage of the resolution by city council to establish the center of the city task force in 2019 and the charge including some links and also the appendices of that center of the city report it's a lot of really great information in there as I know many of us have really gotten into and uh so we wanted to call that out as a point of reference for any prospective vendors we then highlighted the fact that the city council one of the recommendations of the center of the city task force was to create our body here the Council of Commons and highlighted that aspect uh for for reference um so uh with that we went into a section that we entitled Community Values and this was really uh an intent to show that uh that uh there is a um that a long historical support around neighborhood parks in the Ann Arbor always does very well when presented to the voters but an emerging concern around taxation requests which I think is an actual accurate reflection of what we have seen both related to this site and related to spending in this site and also related to spending around Park areas around the city in the neighborhoods Etc and so we wanted to reference that we also wanted to reference the fact that we had spent considerable time looking at other communities different governance models Etc uh that uh that in heaven for formed our thinking and our thought process and sort of indicate to prospective vendors that um that this may be not in the same traditional governance sense that Ann Arbor has utilized for neighborhood parks provide some context there um we went into a third section that we uh looked at the site details uh included a picture from Google Maps there and a link same link as before uh to the uh area that we're talking about here bounded by Liberty fourth uh William and division streets including the sites particular um Heather had done a really nice job in this area including in some of the elements related to protected bike Lanes Etc and also including even the parcel numbers so we've got the parcel numbers factored in here and and there is a clickable link to a map of Liberty Plaza this is really for um activation purposes but probably is helpful to a vendor um and so we included that as well there's also an element around chem files which is uh you know obviously part of the center of the city but also a very unique parcel from historical perspective from a use perspective and so we incorp incorporated some um distinct elements that were related to that we basically overall in that first and second section intended to be very clear with any particular vendors as to what it is that we were looking uh to explain to them around the site the third section is focused on what we're asking of them and so you know we specifically asked for a final design and design process that is transformative adaptable and inclusive one that physically uh Bridges the gap between today's configuration of multi-parcel spots obviously we've talked about that throughout the first section first and second section of the documents but also metaphorically Bridges the gap between the history and what could be trying to look to the Future especially as we do approach the bicentennial um we really tried to indicate that we are not wedded to a particular fixed use in our feature and that there is a lot of adaptability that was really important to us those were things that came about you know and a lot of that research that that Rita spearheaded around comparable communities and activation and uh and that you know we really favor that this space needs to be inclusive to all members of the community you know they shouldn't have to buy a coffee in order to go sit outside uh in in downtown Ann Arbor that there should be an opportunity to um you know for for anyone of any income to participate and enjoy open space um we deliberate we were deliberate in our words uh in the second paragraph uh in second section related to thinking outside of the standard quote-unquote box as a way to engage the community um we used could and should in underlined and deliberate Fashions to indicate differences um and uh in this first area at the bottom page three we indicate considerations that could meaning they don't have to but were were high points as to uh potential considerations uh multiple multimodal Transportation adaptable spaces relaxing Green Space water features active play areas permanent semi-permanent shading electrical electrical connectivity reconfigurable seating and tables potential public restrooms displays of public art and is seen as a natural Gathering community space supports economic and environmental sustainability etc those are the coulds we we were deliberate in that term in particular because we did not want to limit any designers from thinking outside the box um and uh and there was also a lot of enthusiasm to guide the conversation as well so we then indicated that there are certain things that should be delivered as part of this process one is cost estimates we're on the proposed design design process elements that was important to us obviously we have to have a product to guide this work so we need to understand what the cost is going to be there engineering considerations run existing structural elements including a necessary assessing of uh pre-existing problems don't anticipate that to be the case because one would assume that the parking structure um that is under the library service lot and the areas around Liberty Plaza in particular are in good shape they appear to be but we don't have any idea so we wanted to address that um methods to use uh publicly owned spaces to enhance the vibrancy of the entire block including any necessary easements that really speaks to the fact that these Parcels are not really aligned with one another yet and so we need to figure out a design firm a design proposal needs to indicate how we're going to create easements how that could work in partnership with other block Partners we also spoke to and this was then a continued conversation with this group The identification of public and private funds to be plated braided and Blended to support the construction ongoing maintenance costs it's an important thing obviously we indicated uh a reference to the governance and active planning draft document that we brought up last Council the commons meeting and then certainly the ability for the site to be accessible all year round Ada accessible in particular as to speak to our inclusive approach and you know this was this last item is a carryover from the the RFI related to the bicentennial as being a focus for this project um we were very um deliberate in our language regarding Community engagement um because it was really important to everyone here and I think this is I carried through from the RFI as well that this process be very open in the community and that it not be limited to only those who are really taking the opportunity to participate we really want to reach out to the community and gather input from individuals who may not necessarily be regularly participating in uh in the local political process and so we were very intentional with our language uh that uh that highlights this in both paragraph one and the bullet points around paragraph two um we did then get into in this last paragraph and section here on bottom page four a number of organizations and groups that were active in the space giving the designer or designers some ideas of organizations to look to in addition to the community and so we wanted to both incorp incorporate and be deliberate in our intent with indicating that community members who are not as engaged should be part of the process we expect that any respondent will have a plan to incorporate those members but also we wanted to indicate that there are a number of organizations and groups boards Etc uh you know anywhere from non-profit and um government government-based boards through organizations that represent different constituencies including faith-based groups advocates for those experiencing homelessness advocates for persons with disabilities youth-based groups Etc that should be part of this as well so we wanted to give some direction around at least some ideas for for designers to look at um other than that there this language here in section four and five are standard City language didn't really alter anything there and that is sort part of the end of the document here in terms of where we landed I don't know Frank Rita Alice Allen if you'd like to add anything in in terms of um Allen I before you offer your amendment I know you want to offer your amendments here uh I'd like to just focus first on the existing document and see if any of you four would like to comment on the elements where we arrived the process Etc read I see your hand up so go ahead um thanks for that review I agree with how you presented it and I would say what what is missing now is the context of how it fits into the rest of the RFP you know so which would involve I have forgotten those details now but it's the kind of thing where it calls out to Consultants to respond to these elements that we've outlined and so I think that's that's the thing that that um is from myself is helpful in centering this particular document to know that there's more out there that that has to be coordinated so in order to move this to a next phase yeah and I I think that's going to be a really important discussion I I know there is probably a standard operating window uh for that with the with the city I think that's the message we got from uh from Heather previously and I know that's gonna but you should bring that up during our discussion with the park staff uh as well with Josh and and uh Derek um so I think that's a good good uh question to reference Frank yeah I just want to I guess uh Echo what you presented is what the working group uh felt uh strongly about and uh I I even going through it now I'm picking up some emphasis points that I I either didn't catch or forgot but it was a good review of um the collective effort that we put into this document thanks Frank all right Alan would you like to add anything in before I know you do want to offer your amendment I want to give you time to do that um and um would you like to say anything more about the document as proposed before you offer any Amendment well yes I I'm when this campaign began for the Ann Arbor Community Commons it derived from I'm a historian from beginning to read the history of the commons initially by Peter Linebaugh called the Magna Carta Manifesto that was published in 2008.
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um yes we will go ahead and start with the Pledge of Allegiance and people will stand pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it saves one nation under God and indivisible with liberty and justice all right so we will call the meeting to order and it was officially 6 31. and um are there any modifications to the agenda tonight and um yeah and we do have a period here for recognition of visitors and comments from the audience a little piece of paper in the back if any [Music] think all right see you then we'll move on um we have a presentation tonight from Barb kelp I think and our echs coffee cart and so we're going to go ahead and turn it over to Barbara today I think we will yes so probably um I'm taking the opportunity and as soon as I'd like to tell you about our Student Life business we started our business by receiving the Mac right from McDonald's our teacher applied for this granted the owner of Nashville McDonald's in Nashville like how we were supporting to have a coffees and he is very supportive of the special needs it provides our coffee our filters and cups inlets the United States Representative trade Hollingsworth part about Eagle Burley and asked to come visit we stopped the car each morning um together so thank you for sure about customers we all helped clean up foreign customers can't scan this QR code tell us their feedbacks we paid for the recycling containers strings Equity one for High School we made a donation donation for pet supplies to the animal shelter we made a donation to a family that lost a loved one we made a gift basket for the technology department to celebrate International technology day we gave out three snacks at the homecoming block party in celebration of world kindness day in the in November people could pay for an item by signing up to do one random act of kindness two days of sales were given to the 2023 from committee we provided hot drinks for the hospitality room during the Pop Festival we give gift certificates to the recipients of the governor's work ethics certificate Tonight We Are Tonight We are giving 500 to the school board today for the school lunches for those who don't have the money to pay um as a teacher I'm responsible for Content that's taught to students so I'm wrapping everything around the affordability skills in the state of Indiana in a very meaningful and authentic way that all of our students on staff and students here love it and so we're very fortunate to be able to do that Emily asked us this week what things would look like if we really loved our students and this is it this is our students so um we are happy to contribute I came and visited when you guys first started out and saw what it did like what you say in the morning questions and it was very wonderful to see it then it's even more wonderful to see what you've done since then with this and um and I still like hot chocolate better the other day and gave you enough money and um it was interesting to try to get to understand that I didn't want the money back and you just needed individual and the cashier um I'm real proud of you guys uh as as an old person and say you've come a long way baby and it just shows what you've done with the donations and everything else um and I definitely appreciate the whole lunch thing but I also kind of partial to the ad on their shelter too but anyways um I I just think a great doing a great job and I know your family's a proud of you but I'm certainly proud of you and I'm proud of choir making this happening thank you we started um November 2021 um so we've been going for a little while and one of the things that we learned is you know sales go up in sales so we've been able to track that as well so there are times for to Slumber I think but over months we really saw that much so yeah okay well I had no idea I'm really really proud of you guys thank you okay thank you all for coming today I'd like to fill up our meeting space it's good too so all right next we have another presentation it is from Performance Services and they're going to talk about something I've been waiting for I'm really excited about about our the health clinic and some Renovations we're going to do at the building we currently call the CRC the old CRC we're gonna have to we're gonna have to get a new day yeah thank you nice to see you all again um so yeah so as you mentioned tonight we are two more percent on where we are currently with the relocation of the health clinic and renovating a portion of what was the CRC uh into that new space and uh moving out of the current location so in your packet you should have uh an improvement list along with a small floor plan [Applause] I don't know I don't want to assume that everybody knows what's happening so if you can give a little bit of background yeah background yeah so the um the current health clinic is maxed out um on its size and oh not in the best condition um and there we did some mold tests a series of different mold tests and although there was that evidence of mold to um immediately enforce mandatory evacuation or a cleaning we made the decision as a board to go ahead and move the health clinic in town um a it's a bigger space b it will be beneficial to the community to have it right in the town of Nashville and is space that is not being used right now so with all of those factors we made a decision to go ahead and renovate a portion of that building to to move the health clinic in and if you can introduce yourself oh I'm sorry Neil Fleck but Performance Services [Music] for those of you that aren't familiar with the CRC building right now it's currently split into two sections and so the right in space is going to remain exist existing to remain I believe uh there may be a stem program that uses a portion of that space now from robotics I'm not sure so we're gonna we're trying to maximize the space that you have there and create and it's going to be an adequate amount of space for them so a few of the changes we're going to create that receptionist desk with the laminate casework as you walk in to do the double borders and so and then this will create a seating area here we're going to create a new office for the nurse up front and then so this will be a new wall and we'll add the required outlets New upper and lower in the case work for that office space then these are two existing rooms now we're going to turn into the exam rooms we're going to reuse doors but we are going to black out the existing windows uh we since the exam room there needs to be a sync in each of those rooms so we're going to add upper and lower laminate case work for storage in those exam rooms the the small closet just down the hall will become the medical storage room so we're going to add uh upper and lower cabinets there as well and then the next room down the hall will become the lab again adding a sink and laminate casework and So currently this is one open space so you're gonna we're gonna create an office on the in the back and then we're going to replace the fixtures in the restrooms at this time uh and then in addition we're going to replace the flooring in this highlighted space with new uh vinyl tile something that will hold up better to traffic right now it's uh this carpet it doesn't doesn't do well in that environment so all the this entire space that's renovated with that new luxury vinyl tile a new ceiling grid obviously the new walls the patch and paint new base trim and so it will look it will look great with that would be a great space for the clinic and as Emily eventually Focus on the bathrooms yes so right currently the I'm sorry So currently they are somewhat somewhat accessible now we didn't go to the extent of making them fully ADA Compliant at this time to the uh trying to be uh not just understanding that that we wanted to make the most of the budget and very maximize the space that's there and uh what they need so that's something to do both of them correct yeah one is one is the the I guess I would call it the East but when you're looking at the two doors we want the restroom on the right is Aviation Point currently but the other one and just because of the approach to the department essentially both of those are our large restrooms but [Laughter] that is not a very safe thing for anybody would part back hip and all kinds of other problems and that's not just for aging people with all kinds of people not just an old facility so and that's okay says this people always put it at the lower level is it is also you know this this project is being funded by a current Bond money so um it is important to know this is a new money or affecting our built into that same Bond money which has allowed us because we have the guaranteed Energy savings contract to be able to to add it as an additional scope tell me about the entryway here I don't I don't know is is it going to be a wall or Windows well that is just going to be a counter height so that there's a desk space there okay just correct um so that could serve it could it could honestly it could change depending on how you'd like to use the space so we're planning on creating a window in this existing wall and then we could use this this reference yeah our only concern was that in the wintertime it may be a little a little cold we're not the HVAC system that's in there now is in good condition and so the only as we create these rooms and modify the floor plate a little bit we're only going to modify the depth work we weren't going to address the HVAC at this time because it was a condition it wouldn't be a good use I don't think so I think there is some electric um it's almost like a three Season room yeah and so I don't know that would be a good seating space in the wintertime we also wanted to be able to we don't quite know for sure have made the decision on what to do with the other space of the building so we want to be able to do as minimal work as possible that starts with the clinic um so that whole front entrance you know whatever that space becomes it will have to be a separate entity with a separate insurance um so we just have to keep that in mind that when those decisions are made on what that's going to be it will affect what that entrance is so that's my question is is it I didn't know if you know you need to be able to then have a separate ball and door and lock on a health facility where you have confidentiality and medication and all those types of things so at this time we're trying to limit opportunities to use that space or something else and so whatever that may be we're trying to limit the amount of work that we would have to review we don't want to touch a place yes and so I think so yes um you know we discussed whatever happens there this we could rearrange the reception desk later and where the window is we can create a doorway or there's a couple of different options as that that's the use of that building involves but you're not as I said we're going to limit the amount of report in the area that we're finishing in that's that was my question if you're gonna have two different purposes yeah we want to go far enough but we don't want to go too far at this point absolutely phase and you are using the basement at all correct the only thing we'll do in the basement is we'll run new sanitary and the best supported lines to the new sinks and the exam rooms in the lab so we'll take down put back ceilings I think the intent would be to use the basement as a break room space because there's a kitchenette down there now okay so there's a table I think it was it was used as a classroom at one time potentially but it doesn't make sense it's going to be a great great level space for the staff and this radar area on the right hand side is that stairs downstairs yes that's the stair to the basement I know I'm aware of the front stance [Music] foreign yeah we recommend a few dollars that are just to set aside for those things those those changes would be tracked separately so if you don't use those funds they'll go back to Brown County Schools and what's your timeline um so I spoke with contractors today and they'd be willing to mobilize online so we know that it's a priority at Brown County high school so we could start how long our goal is to be some substantially complete by the beginning of summer so depending on how many times some materials we may go into summer zone is into June but he's certainly one of the complete please partially because contractors are busy get busy busy in the summer and so this is this is a great time to give us work I was hoping that since there's we don't have to worry about students being out of the building um I will often do here so you could get it done by summer they need to move yeah that was our thoughts that was that we could get in there and get this done and be ready as soon as possible um and I guess I would just have Emily address um proactive is our is the medical group that will be here that roads are and we have an agreement then about what we do for facilities and what they do do you just want to address that briefly um well there those are in big contracts are being all right so we're in negotiating what parts that we're responsible for what parts of their responsible well I'm excited so uh both for getting it done uh as soon as possible uh and thanking a I'm really excited to have it on campus um right here I think that's going to make a big difference to our employees particularly the ones here in main campus to just be able to go across the street to get a blood test or to have it and as a teacher who used to have a prep period that was 48 minutes um you know to be able to be able to actually like go do you know some Medical Care in that period of time would just it's really great 100 or 150 of our County employees who are also almost and also to use this it's really a real value to us so thank you thank you so much the gray space is not going to be used for clinic is this time okay right so those are to be determined at a later date and so that's why he hasn't given us an estimate exactly in that space it's not the square footage is necessary for the clinic and so it really it makes sense to incorporate that into clinic now so is this just is this larger than the existing facility yeah I believe so I think we met with them utilize space we met with the folks from the clinic last February or March and went through the space and this is so this was a it was a team effort we didn't create confidence and do we have any ideas [Music] is this just a County government and school or is this open to if anybody can subscribe we had a presentation a month or two ago that was exactly on that topic and they did give us the numbers but it is a subscription service actually you can pay a monthly fee and uh services so it is essentially another medical office here in our community folks without having to have other conventions so and is there and what's going to be happening with the facilities I'm not sure yet it's on the back for brainstorming so it is public yes we get it so that's a little bit more than 10 percent well really I mean it's it's that's a judgment Paul on again that those dollars are tracked separately and so there are items that come up that they would like to the school and confess but as far as the the base did the show that it's not like oh we missed something and that's the school to approve a change order about this every thousand thirty thousand is completely Brown County Schools money that we will track any additional scope that is Mr Patrick Mr Patrick you talk to the board yeah so my question is anything that gets covered under the bed is for example Plumbing that may have been copper but you're planning to use that that 30 000 would be if I came to Performance service system said oh I I want to be able to install this technology or want to be able to add shelving or I want to be able to add some that I didn't put in the original scope it would be me coming to Performance Services and requesting something additional if I don't come and request anything additional then that 30 000 thank you all right any other questions for the board all right very good thank you for your time tonight I appreciate it thank you and that it's it's very tiny but it is very clear All Right Moving On under discussion we have none number six is approval of the public session minutes from March 23rd 2023.
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thank you all right we'll bring the meeting to order roll call Maria Gary president Amanda present Rick here Pledge of Allegiance Rick can you lead us in the pledge you bet uh please join me in the French door flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you have any public comments we have no public comments pertaining to closed session all right all right for closed session this is what we're going to be covering tonight pupil Personnel expulsion case number 1322-23 through expulsion number 17 2223 stipulation number 4223 revoke of expulsion case number 11 22 23 vacate expulsion case stip number 3 2223 an annual review AR number 13 22-23 through AR number 14 22-23 whatever that means to you the government code section 549-56.9 current litigation eight cases civds 1907-172 civds 201183 civds cibds 202-3366 cibsb211303 civsb 220-8019 civsb22203 civsb 2218676 government code section 54954.5 and 549-56.9 and anticipate one anticipated litigation case public employees disciplinary dismissal release reassignment transfer leave title certificated and classified number four public employees appointment resignation retirement reduction title certificated and classified number five conference with the labor negotiator agency negotiator Dustin Conrad employee organization Apple Valley you know I Teachers Association conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator Gustin Conrad employee organization California School Employees Association conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator Renee Nelson employee organization unrepresented conference with real property negotiator government code 549-56.8 negotiation parties Matthew Schulenburg and Apple Valley Unified superintendent evaluation um I'm going to ask for a motion to go into closed session on that Mr Bender if I could uh we have a lot of people here in the audience were they here to speak to us because I hate that uh come have them come back here at seven o'clock Rick several of them are here for a presentation that will take place on the agenda after seven o'clock and the other group has part of them have already left to come back at seven o'clock for the for a public comment that is a group that is coming together okay I just didn't uh we could maybe take something out of order if we had to at seven o'clock it's not for another yeah they said that they because of the presentation they were here to support adult education and that they will come back there they just didn't want to be rude and come into the room and leave so they decided to wait for the start they're a good group of people is is why they sat down okay great as long as they understand them so yeah I make a motion that we go to close all right second all right all in favor all right thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you very much foreign thank you bring the meeting to order and uh we could have a moment of silence we'd like to pause in a moment of silence remember avusd family member Rose Santiago and retired family member Margaret Peggy Williams okay we have a lot of students here tonight I know you were scared and so are your parents Sycamore Rocks Mackenzie Perry and Camellia Chevella you got the main stage up there thank you they're excited arts program we have completed music lessons Dance Art clubs we recently had our school play performance of The Little Mermaid on March 16th and 17th everyone had a great time watching the production our students and staff did a really great job bringing the story to life we also have had lots of family nights at Sycamore Rocks this year these included are Burger books and board games night Halloween event and holiday fun night we have had a great turnout at these events and have enjoyed having the student council help run things this year at Sycamore student council has planned multiple Spirit weeks to increase school spirit and celebrate holidays our most recent one was our spring spirit week which was the week before spring break we love seeing everyone get creative with their outfits intervention is alive and well as Sycamore Rocks these include guided reading groups guided reading OG phonics intervention groups l-l-i-n-e-l support groups we ensure that students are getting the help that they need to be successful in their learning a few weeks ago we had a really great science science assembly presented by the gillettes the students really enjoyed and even got to participate in a stem night at avci we have had the opportunity to participate in various after-school clubs this year to name a few Art Club Spanish club Esports broadcasting crazy AIDS math club and cross country our very own Cricket Club wanted to show you their hard work by making you these cups one last thing we would really like to thank all of our teachers and staff at sycamorex they truly make our school special thank you for allowing us to speak about about exciting how exciting Sycamore Rocks is and have a great night very good next from Vanguard prep Hayley snowberger and Miranda shitik foreign good evening board members and Mrs Nelson I am Brendan chittick the ASP president at Vanguard Preparatory and I'm Haley snowberger the ASB Vice President we are Beyond excited to have the opportunity to speak with you this evening this year has been phenomenal and we can't wait to share all the great things that we've done this year as a leadership class we have worked hard to come up with amazing ideas to share with all the students at Vanguard Preparatory and I think we both can agree that this was a success our goal has been to create opportunities to involve as many students as possible in our activities students who wouldn't normally participate in on-campus activities but involved and chose to participate in events in August we hosted our first dance of the Year back to the 80s with the big turnout of over 300 students Falcons were able to dance play games visit the face paint lounge and Kona Ice Truck everyone had a great time one of the things we like to focus on over at Vanguard is soar store as part of our core Behavior values that we focus on daily soar stands for self-control on task oyster Spectrum responsible it's what makes us Falcons students at Vanguard live the soar expectations we demonstrate soar expectations and everything we do not only by showing positive behavior on campus but also serving within our community we have had so many exciting things happen this year that we can't wait to share with all of you tonight starting with the beginning of the school year we have had so many amazing activities and events that have kept our Vanguard Falcons motivated and excited to come to school starting off with our Red Ribbon Week we graded our Falcons to some great activities to show them why it's important to stay jug free turkey one way we've been making students feel welcome is Friday lunchtime activities our Student Activities commissioner and her team work very hard every week in order to create amazing activities for all of the Middle School to enjoy one way we be sure Falcon pride is having spirit days we have had spirit days like sports Spirit day decades day which got a lot of participation many other great spirit days are in the works we are proud to say that kindness Club has been a great opportunity for students who have a hard time finding a safe place we really feel that students who sign up will have an inclusive and positive experience we have had started our collecting our stock our stock collecting our stocks for our year lease Oktoberfest Where We Gather many pairs to donate to locals women's shelter at the end of October we hosted our first ever Pirates of the Caribbean movie night and fall art contest to finish off the month of October this year we have had our first winter formal in a few years this has been an amazing experience for students to participate in a formal way that has gotten students in the school spirit something that we haven't done in a long time is our 4.0 party that we called glochella so that students could show off their four-point glow this is a Renaissance rally where students participate in a in middle school activities including a talent show it is something that I was personally very happy about because me and Brendan got to participate in a Spice Girls dance these activities make an impact on all of our students and help them push through and do great in school we are hoping to keep this up and we have many more activities in the works we are very much appreciative of your time this evening and can't wait for the next time Vanguard ASB gets a privilege of speaking with you go Falcons thank you next the high desert premiere Angelique [Applause] good evening president Bender board members and cabinet the years coming to an end and graduation is right around the corner before I tell you about what High Desert Premiere Academy has planned for the final months I wanted to give a few shout outs to one Mrs Garcia our vice president for always showing how much compassion she has for the students on campus she constantly reminds students to stay on track always has a warm welcoming smile and she always makes sure that Mr Smith is in check so and to miss Quezada our business math teacher I was always rambling about how hard her class was and how much work she gave but I actually have been using a lot of her skills she taught me outside of school so I guess you get a pass but I don't know and I thank you guys for all that you do and last month High Desert Premier Academy participated in the Constitutional assessment on March 16th five of our hours participated and we are so proud of the students who passed these students will be recognized during their graduation ceremony High Desert Premier Academy will also be hosting a portfolio presentations for the state seal of Civic engagement another amazing event that happened last month was when the dentist from the big smiles program visited our campus and helped over 20 families get free dental care I really appreciated this visit and I thought it was so kind for those people to come out and see our students because everybody know how expensive Insurance be and don't nobody want to pay that this month we had the opportunity to celebrate our librarian para Educators Administrative Professionals the best staff ever they made me say that and our assistant principal for their National appreciation days our high desert Premier Academy family works so hard to help us and they are appreciated this month our MS program and 11th grade students are in the process of taking our state tests so far most of our students have taken the math courses I took mine on Monday and I didn't know Jack's quack on that test but all I can do is try my best and to the parents that have teenagers testing please don't pressure them too much tests are very stressful and maybe you know you could take them out for some ice cream or something to just let them know that you're proud of them for trying and this year has been full of exciting and new opportunities for our nation we have gone on field trips created clubs started Esports and are in the process of planning our own dance and it's the first night graduation and I heard there's gonna be fireworks so don't miss it and this year has been such a success and so fulfilling I'm so glad I was a part of this school to see all the new and great things we've accomplished and we couldn't have done it without you guys thank you all for your time and support and I look forward to seeing you all again next month [Applause] Apple Grand Hills High School Ashley Guzman [Applause] good evening board members superintendent Nelson and attendees as a representative of Granite Hills High School I would like to say that we hope you all had a wonderful spring break with roughly seven weeks to go for the end of this 2022-2023 school year there's so much to do and so little time to do it seniors are equal parts busy excited and I'm definitely stressed with with all of the last remaining two months of school has to offer but first a quick recap on events since we have last met we'd like to thank all of the board members who visit our campus last month Mr RC stopped by for a tour of classrooms and programs and left impressed with our medical pathway and all of the Practical hands-on experience our students are receiving it was a pleasure having him and we hope he comes again as there is always so much to see and So Little Time March was a busy month centered around future cougars we hosted 8th grade field trips from all of our theater schools and gave next year's freshman a glimpse of why it's so great to be at Granite this coincided with a visit from our County Superintendent Mr Ted alejandre who came to tour our amazing AVID program a special thank you to superintendent Nelson and board president Dennis Bender who came to support our school during the county superintendent's visit the Showcase of granite's programs culminated with the school awareness night that gave students and parents the opportunity to see more of our programs and meet some of our staff board member Amanda Buchanan um I'm so sorry um show of support by being in attendance was very appreciated and lastly thank you to board member Maria okafera who helped us as we sprinted towards Spring Break by hosting the third annual avusd field day this is one of our most favorite traditions in our campus as we have a fun day of activities and exercise with students with special needs from across all grade spans in our district we'd like to especially thank Mr Mike sluter for organizing this day and thank the district for all the support and special for this special event as well field day is personally one of my favorites meeting many new people and even taking notice that it's an opportunity for these students to see past teachers or friends from other schools that they may not get to see often I even get a chance to see a couple of our board members there and support such as superintendent Nelson All In All We have had many visitors come onto our campus last month which felt great being able to welcome everyone and have a great time all together a CTE event highlight from this past month happens to be the Heritage Festival this past weekend I require students travel to San Francisco to compete and win some awards chamber singers won Gold and are encore singers won bronze also one of our seniors Joseph Scott received the master award for outstanding soloist we also had two medical students test for their CNA license upcoming events will be that 21 of our students will be competing in the state competition of skillsusa this upcoming week and Granite Hills High School will be hosting the baking competition for High Desert High School commercial baking programs as school comes to a close students are preparing for college and racking up the scholarships Fernando Lopez is the First Student in our school's history to win the Dell scholarship which is a 20 thousand dollar scholarship that comes with a Dell laptop cash for College and Career and networking counseling after college graduation five students were recently awarded the rims Avid scholarships of fifteen hundred dollars and one received the Saint Mary's Medical scholarships for Avid while ziran Pang was one of three students elected for the student essay scholarship for the 36th annual multilingual recognition dinner siren's winning essay was was on the gift of language and learning now for a quick athletic shout out softball won the University Prep tournament cheerleading won the Fontana High School Invitational the annual free football clinic is open to all avusd students and football student athlete Byron Rivas signed scholarship to play at University of Saint Mary Caesar Sainz has been selected to all CIF boys division 2 soccer team and Samantha Grantham has been selected to the all CIF girls Division III soccer team an exciting upcoming event hosting by cougar hosted by cougar theater is Disney's High School Musical they will be performing April 14th 15th 21st and the 22nd Fridays at 7 pm and Saturdays at both 2PM and 7 PM we hope to see you guys there ASB will be hosting a spring Sports rally this upcoming week and a spirit joined by a Spirit Week all week every 15 minutes simulation and assembly will also be upcoming and the special ed transition Fair will be on the 19th thank you so much for your time today the weather is getting warmer summer is getting closer and I'll see you all next meeting so until then always remember maroon and gray lead the way good job Apple Valley High School Cheyenne Valentine [Applause] good evening to the members of the board in attendees my name is Cheyenne Valentine and I'm the ASB line president at avhs now before I begin I just want to give a shout out to the middle schools and elementary schools that spoke tonight and you guys did so amazing per usual uh I'm glad that it's been staying warm even though it was colder earlier this week but hopefully it gets warmer later even though we all had a relaxing and very well needed spring break we're as busy as ever tonight I'll be sharing with you ermerge accomplishments and April goals last month our school had so much support from the community staff and our peers we had our Mr Sandoval event where we had the opportunity to work with the community to get sponsors and have a very successful show it was so much fun to watch there is an amazing turnout and we're so excited that it was just so amazing we also invited current 8th grade students who plan on attending avhs next year onto campus multiple times throughout March there are two days where they got an in-depth tour of not just our campus but also their pathway options High School awareness night was just a few days after and this was where they got the chance to see the pathways that they love again as well as even more booths representing different clubs and Sports on campus the students here at evhs also thoroughly enjoyed representing their clubs and show off all their all that they do we finally had enough good weather to hold our annual Color Run and we had such an amazing group of Runner this year even if we all got excuse me even if we all came out cover covered in powdered in all colors of the rainbow we had an amazing time putting on this event for the community to bring us closer together Morp is a dance that our Freshman Class ASB puts on from the school and even if it isn't as big as our homecoming or winter formal we had an amazing time and all their freshmen learned some valuable skills that will help them succeed in the future Juniors have started State Testing and AP tests are approaching fast but we know that our hard work will pay off that's not even all the things that we did in March our sports clubs and career Pathways have been hard at work our poxtu club held a spirit week for women's History Month as well as pep rallies every day to represent and support different groups on our campus ceramic students from Mrs Evans class Serena Montoya Morgan Manny and Alexander Garcia were accepted into the 2023 young artist gallery show in San Bernardino and we're so proud of them our camp pathway has been working on Folly art and finishing up some documents are students involved in programs such as Mast EMT Camp automotive and other groups have been getting certified to help their future careers our computer science class also completed an account oh my gosh I'm so sorry in a hackathon and they did great mass hold its second blood drive of the year and collected 203 units our construction team recently won this cie foundation's People Choice design build competition are ascendables Actors Guild had their Adams Family play on the 9th 11th and 12th and we hope that you're able to stop by our sports are also doing exceptionally well golf is competing against Hesperia today in hopes of winning League swim has had their third meet tonight with two more into League finals in our baseball and softball teams are in the middle of the season but we wish them luck in April our career Pathways will start recruiting for next year by holding interviews and sending out applications as you know every 15 minutes project has such an impact on our community and we've been working hard to keep it secret in order to create the biggest effect however because we've been working so hard I want to share some details if you promise to keep it a secret we've been planning filming working with our community and planning our overnight Retreat later this month we'll release a video as well as hold different events on campus in order to involve our peers and show them what every 15 minutes is all about skillsusa is holding its state competition this month and we're wishing all of our students luck we're finally starting some senior activities like prom senior ditch day senior Awards senior Sunset crowd night and finally graduation it's so exciting being part of the activities that I've been waiting to be a part of for four years and I'm so excited to see what our future holds other things going on at avhs in the next few months include field trips Renaissance field day and end-of-year banquets on top of all the fun activities the career center is working hard to help students better prepare for their Futures by creating a job opportunities resumes college applications and scholarships now I know that we have a lot of exciting things going on at evhs right now but we cannot thank you enough for all of your support none of this would be possible without you thank you for your time and remember Sandoval pride is contagious [Applause] reports CSEA has no representative here tonight Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association Karen sabers foreign good evening superintendent Nelson board members cabinet and audience it's hard to believe that we're in the final stretch of the school year at the beginning of March 28 teachers and myself attended the good teacher conference in Anaheim they thoroughly enjoyed the conference and cannot wait to attend next year the teachers including Preschool teachers were excited to learn the tips and tricks that they could bring right back to their classrooms and use avuda invited all teachers to an informational Insurance meeting this past Tuesday Cindy Kunkel was able to attend and help present the information as you know we were exploring options for new insurance for next year however we've decided to remain with the current trust we are able to use our reserves in the trust in the the bridge program to buy down the rates so that the certificated staff's rates remain the same for the 23-24 school year after next year the trust is dissolving and all bargaining units will be looking for new insurance we hope to do this together I would like to give a shout out and a thank you to Lana and Angelique and payroll for helping the teachers when they have any issues they have also been helping our members with insurance needs as well next Wednesday the 12th a Buddha is participating in the art show at Apple Valley High School we will be there handing out treats and Waters to all that attend we look forward to participating in their event and supporting them we are also gearing up for the International Children's Day where we will be handing out books and pencils it was such an a fun event last year and we are looking forward to participating again this year our final event for the month is the community cleanup on Saturday April 22nd we will be cleaning up a portion of Dale Evans Parkway if anyone would like to participate we will be meeting at the old library at 8 am as we move into our final month of school a Buddha will be preparing for teacher appreciation and thanking our members for all they do for their students I hope you all enjoy the weekend and have a wonderful Easter in solidarity Karen I foreign comments superintendent Nelson I don't want Mr Bender to see how long my comments are I promise they matter uh since last board meeting some highlights County super uh student advisory panel members um got together in Hesperia and we were able I was a panel member and got to listen to all the presentations from across the high desert um CSUSB Young artist Awards um I know you have a flyer on your table right in front of you regarding the Apple Valley High um art show but this was some of our Apple Valley students as mentioned Cheyenne mentioned that we had some students that participated in the CSU SB um young artist Awards we had an honorable mention by Nadine escalera patiently waiting which was a cat in a painting um and Morgan Maney who did LA Cafe Du Soleil which was a ceramic it was amazing I saw it before it even went down because I had gone through the classroom one day and they were working on them uh it was under the category of Ceramics and glass and then we had a third place Serena Montoya fresh air which was a Ceramics and glass entry and a first place to Sarah bonstadt who did a painting called Marigold which was a a ballerina it was a dancer and it was absolutely amazing um field day it was mentioned Granite Hills High School knocks it out of the park but this is a time when every school in the district comes together and we see the unity that can happen when we work together it's heartwarming we had beautiful weather which we had not had for several weeks and there were lots of smiles and I agree we should be thanking Mr sluder for the vision Mr Powell for continuing to support it and all the staff behind the scenes and student services and across the district that just come out to make it happen for our families um hackathon was mentioned chopped was maybe not mentioned but I was at um I've been able to make it to each of these hackathon chopped construction trades competition the automotive competition and the welding competition these are putting our kids to um showing their skills that they can take to the workforce pretty cool stuff and our kids do amazing in these competitions then we had spring break and that all happened the week between our board meeting and spring break and then this Tuesday I was um asked to come read in Mrs Fuller's preschool classroom it was a book called A Wonderful Life by the same song you can sing the song in your head but the book is beautiful the preschoolers were lovely to be with I don't think I wanted to go back to my office because at one point when they were introducing themselves one little girl told me she loved me and then it became a Love Fest because all 24 of them had to tell me they loved me but I loved them too so it was great um I'll highlight definitely of my week and then svcss had an Arts education initiative performing art showcase at the cougar grade academy participated in Mrs Buchanan and I were able to get down to San Bernardino to see that um Kyla Cadence Victoria Abby Cali and Paige performed Ex-Wives from the sixth the sixth the musical based on the wives of Henry the eighth if you haven't seen it it's hilarious um and then Kyla performed a monologue from the drama ruined by Lynn nottage about the plight of women during the Civil War in the Democratic Republic of Congo she did not skip a beat the mic wasn't working Miss Buchanan said to me I think we should yell out maroon and gray lead the way Mrs buchananed into it but I did and I was in the front row so it kind of went through the theater um but she just looked down and smiled and waited and they never even introduced her appropriately so I'm glad that we at least yelled out and were there for support um several students received scholarship from the greater High Desert chamber yesterday um Apple Valley was well represented um they they took the mass of the scholarship so Riley Barrington Mackenzie Espinoza Emma Klein Smith all were from Apple Valley High School Samantha grathum and Victoria villagas was from Granite Hills High School and then we all got to hear the state of education from the county superintendent Ted alejandre abhs student Raymond RJ Polito received a football player of the year from assemblyman Tom Lackey several of the board members got to join me that day while he received that and then RJ will be attending the University of Arizona in the fall it was pretty cool for me as as a superintendent to watch him receive that because I've known RJ since he was in preschool so um got to watch him grow he was pretty big in preschool too um and both of his parents work for our district so this is exciting for us uh skillsusa begins uh the the state competition begins this weekend um in Ontario uh we'll be going between the district office on Saturday and Ontario to see those uh competitions because we've got some events happening here at the district as well um it's a gas to go to class next weekend um 1600 near perfect attendance is how they ran it this year they haven't done um it's a guest to go to class for quite some time 216 of the students will be receiving golden tickets because they'll come up with a process by which they Whittle that down and then um two students will come away with a truck or a Jeep so we've had been represented over time in in this District by winter so always fun to see that Mr Schlosser will be attending my place because I'm at a conference that day so um state seal of by literacy was also mentioned by High Desert Premier Academy and this is our first year having it and the test in portfolio will be defended at the end of April um teams of social study teachers from middle school and high school are the ones that will be there listening to the students defend their portfolios and then a list of student events and family events are on the table in front of you I've asked Zoe to continue to produce something in this manner I hope it works for you principals provide these as opportunities not that you have to go but it gives you a variety of them for each month and then next week Kylie will be mailing you about longevity recognitions which begin at the end of April I'm sorry Mr Bender try and run a fast slow you down all right let's go on here out Mr Rick you got anything you want to add sure I uh I always look forward to these these presentations from the schools Sycamore Vanguard High Desert paramet Hills in Apple Valley and you never know what you what you find out uh Cheyenne I think it was great that you uh let the board and the superintendent know that senior ditch day is still uh these we ditched to Lake Dolores which was owned by the Dennis Benders family [Laughter] to all the young young women we've got their good presentations you guys do very well so thank you we look forward to uh Xbox see what you guys have to say thank you very much thank you Dennis okay Amanda all right I do want to say thank you for the calendar I can stop stalking everybody's Instagram page as much as I do um I had the opportunity with um Miss sakpara we went to The Adams Family musical at Apple Valley High School it was amazing um I wanted to go back and I kept trying to beg my kids to go with me but they were like we'd have to get out of our jammies and but it was amazing um and as it was mentioned I did make it out to Granite Hills when they were kind of welcoming their their new ninth grade class I think it was class of 27 which that's crazy um but then uh once that ended I kind of jetted across town to Vanguard and made it for the second half of the evening of literature which was just phenomenal to watch um the different kids and teachers and staff come together and perform reading the books the storybooks aloud what kind of act it was great um and then in between each one we had plenty of dad jokes uh from Mr admire so those actually I think were my favorite part I stole some and took them home to my kids um and then as was mentioned uh Raymond Polito receiving his award from uh Mr or assemblyman Lackey um I think that was last Friday that was just incredible the football players get silent like so fast it was amazing I'm a teacher I was jealous my kids do not um last night down at the California theater um with the the great Academy from Brianna I just they are amazing I'm so glad I I was able to make it down there and watch that um and yeah the granite really especially they just did not get the introduction that they should have um but they definitely commanded a presence on stage and really just took it away it was great and then um it was very obvious that there was quite a large support system like behind us to the left so we could hear them that's supporting yes uh as well I feel bad am I just repeating but the scholarship winners um at the practice actually I guess that was two nights ago for the theater last yesterday it's been a busy week um yesterday with the state of education um and then seeing all the scholarship winners um it seems yeah apple definitely Apple Valley is dominating uh across the desert this year so that's fantastic to see I do hope everyone enjoyed a restful Spring Break um yes testing it is prime testing time we are in the home stretch on our way to graduation seniors enjoy this it is Gonna Fall by um and then only other thing I wanted to say was I I was pleased to see um that we are going to be addressing the absenteeism and the truancy with the safe and civil schools PD that will be coming up um Jessica sprick is definitely a fantastic expert in her field all right Dennis I'm done okay that's good uh Gary uh just so many Fantastic things going on around the district I had some time to spend the opportunity to spend some time with Mrs Lasko that there at Mariana and just want to commend her and and the staff for the the success of their focus on reading and their their math program as as Mackenzie and Camille mentioned about the interventions and so on a lot of that is going on really district-wide and that's just fantastic to see that the students are getting the support that they need so um congratulations to all of them I want to acknowledge the success of at Marion the success of the book fair one of my former students Jenny Ruiz was uh in charge of that and I was I was so jazzed to see her there but when she had to step away from from the library there for a little while when she had to step away they had students lined up outside wanting to get in to buy books and that's a good thing when students are so eager to get books that there's a line uh going out the door or some something good is going on so really want to acknowledge them and also for the success of their family picnic there uh building Community I had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with Mr Powell at Granite Hills and just just some fantastic things going on there at their High School um they made some fantastic strides in terms of school culture and allowing the students to feel welcome and cared for and so on uh I don't know if that one picture is available is that picture not available um yeah no problem oh no problem uh I had the opportunity to visit a number of classrooms but I was I went to one of the CTE classrooms and I want to make sure I get this right it was a system control and design acquisition class and I went in there and and I was I was just totally Blown Away with what these students are doing I took a picture so maybe we'll try and get it out sometime later but it's a picture of the student uh one of the Granite Hills students designed uh this it's basically like a manufacturing um you know job skills type of thing but this student was on their laptop controlling this and and they had made this this desktop about about as big as this desk this this machine that was actually making a little um conveyor belt and on the conveyor belt this it got to a certain point and then he had programmed it to have this little cart open and the material you know the product come out like it was basically like like an Amazon you know type of thing that you might see it in Amazon warehouse and I was just sitting there looking at it and looking at all these wires coming out and this just you know one of the students controlling it with uh with his computer boy I was so important I couldn't make out heads or tails of what this student had done but and and some of the other students were working on their laptops looking at looking at you know some some layouts of different machinery and so on it looked like they were about to launch somebody to the moon this thing was so complicated but these kids were just right on top of it and so and that's just an example of what our students are doing all the time so uh just just some fantastic things going on there just just super impressed uh went to Rancho Verde and spent some time with Mr kranson and um Wanted to commend the teachers and the staff there for the for the growth and the expansion of their campus-wide reading program again an example of the fact that the students are getting the interventions that they need getting them up to speed and so on I also wanted to congratulate their their Visual and Performing Arts program had a chance to visit one of the plays that they were doing and in the midst of the uh the the Western kind of themed play they were doing they did an amazingly spirited spirited anointed presentation of a achy breaky heart and and the the audience was really into that that performance so just just you know the students really learned their lines well and just just performed outstanding so uh great job with them um Mrs White I just really appreciate all the work that you're doing at um Phoenix Academy and again the the reading Intervention Program you know there's there's so much work going on to Target learning loss we hear so much about learning loss from the school closures and so on but but every every place that we go students and staff are just working so hard to to get the students back up to speed to where they really need to go so just just really appreciate that I went to city and bold and spent some time with Mrs Heitman and I really want to congratulate the first graders on their outstanding performance of their Play Once Upon a lily pad uh the the students did a great job memorizing their lines of first graders great job the students were dressed up as as a frogs and bugs and turtles they performed some great songs of actually a whole rendition I think the moms and dads in the audience especially enjoyed the song that was titled listen to your parents I I think I think they wanted to say get that on rerun I want the just a fantastic job I also visited a number of classrooms I went and talked to one sixth grader and this one sixth grader shared with me her six-year plan of of what she was going to be do be doing for for the rest of her academic career here in Apple Valley and she was sharing with me how she had it all lined up how she was gonna be taken when she gets to the high school she was going to be taking uh AP Chemistry and AP Psychology and so on and and she was she was just regaling me with with all of the details she had it all planned and again that's just an example of how parents and how teachers are just motivating our students to to reach for the stars and to attain their goals so so just just um really want to congratulate them and then lastly I want to congratulate the staff there at a Sitting Bull for the success of their after-school program I understand that the cooking class at Sitting Bull is extremely popular apparently they had to had more cooking classes to their curriculum to their program so I just just wanted to mention that if you ever need taste testers in your in your uh taste test your culinary masterpieces I know we have a lot of willing volunteers love to come over and sample some of your masterpieces and so on so again just just wanted to thank the teachers the students the parents for the outstanding work that's going on throughout the district thank you thank you thank you okay now part two I'm gonna give my reels uh sure I'm going to start out by thanking Zoe for this calendar it is a lifesaver now we know where to go that's this is exceptionally well well done and to thank the parents who are out here supporting their children and sometimes we we tend to congratulate the kids but we forget who's doing the job in the background thank the teachers who are giving them the push to stand up in front of all these adults and speak um and to also show my gratitude that we have a superintendent who has no problem whatsoever to good read to kindergarteners yeah preschool um I and I'm I'm impressed with the quality of young adults that we provide producing in this District when I say quality I'm not talking about quantity I'm talking about quality uh when you see an Apple Valley high school or up Greenwich Hills High School or even high desert Premiere or even the elementary school and they open their mouth you know exactly that they have received some quality stuff that has helped them to become who they are um I I watched the trade competition online I felt like I was a fly on the wall because Kylie sent us the link on the website so we can watch I was impressed to see young women changing tires was impressing them running up and down to make sure what equipment goes on the car and to be able to do it right and there was no talking the judges were going around collecting data and I thought that's impressive I want to take a course such as that so that I'll never be afraid to be on the road um the Phoenix Academy I went to I went to Phoenix Academy because sometimes as board members we don't need permission to come to your schools um we just show up and and I have to commend Phoenix Academy because the receptionists at the front desk did exactly what we want them to do she insisted that I show my identification and I am really impressed she kept apologizing because when she figured out I was a trustee she says I'm so sorry I said don't worry you're doing your job I should come with my ID yeah yeah but I just we are not there to test the waters but that one was really impressive for me because as somebody who didn't know that I was a product of this District um and had never seen me and had never heard me I couldn't even put the voice together even though the people in the back room could know it's my voice um they let her finish what she had to do and I'm really really impressed I say thank you to all those people that stood in the front desk because they have to filter so much before they let people in to see our children this coming week um tomorrow as an artifact we'll be making some visits to your schools and I hope you don't stop what you're doing just keep doing what you're doing we just there to support you and I thank you so much for letting us serve you that's it okay first of all I just like to you're going to get to leave after I'm done talking to him but anyway I want to thank all you parents for bringing your kids here tonight it's a great experience learning to stand up in front of people and and talk it's the number one phobia that adults have is standing up in front of a large group and talking and some people it comes easy but anyway I visited um Granite Hills High School I've taught there for 10 years I taught advanced placement history which is a lot different than a AVID program because a lot of your kids in fact most of your kids are the precursor their parents have also gone to college but Mr Powell led us uh through the program it was in action and Stacy Vega but the idea is that what it does is pulling kids in who are seed be students and many of them there's no common and non-denominator of a parent that's gone to college and these kids are hitting home runs I mean they're learning how to become a leader they motivate themselves they got all this stuff going for them and uh the teachers they take control of their own learning and to give you an idea of how well they're doing and this is also a available at Apple Valley High School Phoenix Academy Sitting Bull in Vanguard but last year 213 elective students took avid 96 percent of the students applied to a four-year College 83 percent have been accepted to a four-year college and 100 percent of them graduated from high school folks that's good I mean I if we could do that across the United States I wouldn't worry about China but anyway so Mr Powell I want to thank you your campus was very clean all right and you guys did a good job tonight go home study foreign who gave us this yeah you are you're a tall drink of water how tall are you give us this and my daughter's boy thank you foreign ah you do a good job though this is such a lifesaver okay we'll uh we'll roll this ball down the road closed session reports the clerk will read out any action that was taken in closed session Maria in closed session the Board of Trustees took action in support of the full-lane recommendation from the superintendent B6 conference with labor negotiator on a motion by Mr Raleigh seconded by Mr Bender the Board of Trustees approved the following approved the memorandum of understanding with the California School Employees Association CSEA Chapter 828 dated March 9 2023 regarding increase in hours effective February 1 2023 on a vote of 5-0 that's it so okay adoption of the agenda the board May approve the agenda as is or add or anything to it may I have a motion slow move second oh second all in favor recognition presentation none at this meeting adult education update Adele McLean's going to come up and give this presentation while she does I'll just mention um that the our adult ed program is part of a Consortium but Apple Valley Unified Adult Ed is the absolute Premier Adult Ed program within the Consortium and she's going to tell you why thank you um good evening uh superintendent Nelson cabinet and board members I so appreciate you having me here tonight and your continued support throughout the year the years many of you throughout time have been to my campus and come to our amazing graduation that's sponsored it's a region-wide graduation sponsored by the college and our Consortium lead is here this evening because so they are actually going to host the graduation um I did want to say welcome anytime that you feel that you're in the neighborhood please stop by our school and see what kind of marvelous programs we have we have um going on um I put some outcomes that matter I actually gave you a fact sheet that you can take on the tall one sheet but over the last three years even during the pandemic our numbers have increased for high school diploma and for ESL and CCE I've been to high school the phone numbers up there students versus year and graduates per year we expect that number to be our number this year to be even more robust than 108 but we don't have those numbers till the end of the year so I put those out and this year because of our partnership in a pilot with BBC we've been able to provide instruction for over 250 ESL students and and with my limited funding we were only able to serve a little less than 100 so we're very proud to have that and I think it's a great service to the community also with the wisdom and Leadership of this board and also mdep I was able to offer some CTE classes that are already articulated as they are with the problems with the high schools these are just for adults but they have an articulation agreement with the college and in the past two and a half years we've produced 53 certificates meaning that each student that graduated with a certificate for my program also got three units of college credit from BBC for their work and I think that's tremendous it's really working towards the path the governor would like to see most of those programs go towards pre-apprenticeship we have two levels of construction graphic design and arguments is EKG 12 deal three of the students that were in that program were actually higher the day they graduated that's great um our Pearson V testing center during during the pandemic you'll think we so provide for people trying to become teachers whether it be the Rica or the cset or any of those things so that in mind we tried to open it at least two days a week so that those teachers would have access right here and we pushed out information letting you know that they could get those certificates for free so last year we served 330 people that were trying to get credentials specifically in education and 129 GED tests were given this year we did 147 and this is just up to this point and 409 teaching or you know credential CTE programs so we've actually launched our second level CTE program now this has been a very robust program and actually a couple of a couple of employees in this District actually because they are indeed adults and they've taken some of our programs we had Construction level one which is sponsored by Indiana wine and it's with the carpenters union and people that graduate that first class and get a job with the car commissioning and prevailing wage which right now is about 66.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
that demonstrated that many of the conflicts in society were about the privatization of what were public goods public resources and that that was a continuing struggle and it helped me begin to see many of the things I was involved with in my political life now of many decades around the commons and then I read other things and saw that all over the world people are experimenting with a shift in the way community resources are organized to be self-managed and that the Nobel Prize Was Won by a sociologist from Indiana and demonstrating that when when commonly pooled resources are self-managed by the people who use them rather than either by the government or by private Corporation they are better managed more productively happily for the people and if that was demonstrated in the study of thousands of Commons all over the world and it won the Nobel Prize so in some way and I met this woman or Eleanor Ostrom and in some way I felt that we really in Ann Arbor is an Innovative Town should begin to see our public space particularly the center of the city and how we got focused on that is another question as a Commons as a gathering of public resources that are managed by the people who use them and that was what was presented in 2009 when I first spoke at the city council on this question with the adjunct that this greatest question we've Grace now is how to develop a culture of peace and non-violence for the next Generations and that whenever there is public land or a decision to be made that question of how this contributes to the creation of a culture of peace and non-violence is part of the picture that's what I began with in 2009 and I've been fairly persistent and felt that the commons as a form of organization not just as a neutral word is very important and I feel that and one of the recommendations out of the task force was people need to self-educate about what this Commons is that it's not just a blank space it's a space that has a culture and a character reflected in their Mutual benefit Mutual responsibility mutual respect and so on so I've gone through all that so what I found was in reading this document that that sense of the commons as a way of people relating and developing Community was almost completely cut out and the Amendments I want to propose reinsert that idea not to make it a a fixed idea because it is something that we have to create but a part of the exploration of how we developed the center of the city is a hard place of the city that is really unpaving the parking lot to put up Paradise a Kona white light all the ideas of creativity and essentially in the city that we can have so that all my recommendations or amendments that I will say again are from that perspective that the commons is important education about the commons is important and public space of many functions including indoor functions are important that's what the Civic Center was conceived of in the initial uh proposal a and those things were unfortunately for whatever reason cut out now if they're cut out in principle that you would prefer that this space be run by the parks in the traditional way then vote no against the commons but I don't believe it I believe that people gravitated to this because they sense it is a different way of organizing resources that better builds community and so I would like to see us in the various ways we can reinsert the notion of the commons and the exploration of how it is done the teaching that is necessary to learn you know how we you know self-manage our own resources so that's my preface Ellen real quick here before you get too far into this because you I think you overstepped on the the tech uh the technical definition of preface there a little bit no but you know give me a break yeah I I will I create some latitude here I do want to indicate though uh you know there was a discussion in this working group regarding a Civic Center building in particular and the keyword being building um and there was uh I I offered up the question um because I think we need to have that uh discussion and there was not necessarily interest uh or there was a concern about making that as a called out element to its potential cost there was no resistance to the idea of around Civic Center purposes or anything like that so I don't want you to represent the the um I I have preferable wording that maybe you'll be happier with when we come to that part in the in the going through the text okay so why don't we uh uh why don't we go ahead and take a look at your uh language as well I'm happy to pull it up I am just going to indicate uh before we before we get into uh Alan uh some of the uh ideas you're offering I'm actually not asking that we take a formal vote on this tonight and what I'm asking for is that we get a general idea of consensus but we feel okay about talking with the park staff uh in this direction I think that's uh that's the key thing from a tactical perspective that we need to do uh I didn't want to advance this document to the park staff before we had some eyes on it from this group I didn't think that was right so um so that's really the goal for tonight in my opinion unless there is any um any opposition to that process my last line was made okay all right so real quick Alan before you get into ideas that you'd like to offer to be included I'd like to see if there are any other questions from members of the council who are not members of the working group any questions on process I think Sarah you're up first then council member Briggs thanks um this is a lot of work so thank you guys um for doing this I don't I guess my question is if we have specific a very minor feedback how do you want that do you want me to say it now do you want me to listen how minor it is pretty minor like for example like I clicked I clicked on that includes link and it maybe something's wrong with but it just brought up like a map it didn't bring up anything because you brought up like a Google map and I think it would be helpful to show a map that actually calls out these three or four spaces I think somebody like Jeff I think maybe made one at one time I feel like we have this map this Show's like this is Liberty Plaza this is Library playing this is the library lot this is comp house like on the map because there's so many different properties like I just think that would be like sort of a helpful like okay these are the spaces that you can see like how they're um like two more things that are like that dude keep going I think this is good we're recording this so we're gonna reference it and we can make adjustments so thank you um this is so this is super minor but you talk about the Denali lofts in like the thing with and it it's Lofts not Loft and I noticed further down this is so piggy I'm so sorry but you said this further down it's like a Condo building and I think like since that's the first mention I'm just trying to think of somebody who like is not super familiar with this city like not I wish I knew what page it was on um no it's up it's further up it's like it's the like there's a section where you talk about like the different things that are on the Block uh right the block yeah so the block includes blah blah like if it was like Denali Lofts condo complex or something like that just because people might be like what is that see very minor and then um I don't somehow I think we need to make reference to the fact that we're about to start a comprehensive planning process because particularly when I think about the community engagement aspect of this I'm I worry as always about people being over engaged and having that sort of fatigue so if there's any way to link up like the comp plan is going to be going on for a while it's hopefully starting soon but hasn't started yet um so like there I think there should just it would be great if there was some sort of synergy between the two teams so I mean even just highlighting that we're starting that like I think we can at some point we'll be able to name the consultant we should take advantage of that process um what what is this planning process you referring to something I don't understand I'm sorry the city's doing so the city is doing a comprehensive a whole like City it's called a mass it was used to be called a master plan now we're calling it a comprehensive plan we're finally doing that whole update for the entire city so that includes it's like the land use portion of it mostly um but it's city-wide so there will be like a massive engagement um talking about zoning and land uses and City values and stuff like that which brings me to my final thing I think it would be helpful to also sort of explain you know like these aren't like the library lot is not zoned apart it's zoned I think public land and so you know there is sort of this tension of like part of these spaces that compose the commons our parks and part are not and I think that that's something that this you know whoever applies for this needs to consider and then whoever wins this needs to sort of like suss out like how do we how do we sort of like reconcile those things because there are different funding strategies essentially so yeah that's it those are really good ideas thank you for that feedback thank you for all of your work on this yeah this is this is good like this is why we wanted to bring it forth here uh council member Briggs and then Mr polkstorff yeah yeah um thank you um I just want to offer some just real General thoughts and I can send a specific language later if there's um interests um I thought that it might be um there's a few different sections one is the community value section um which I think is I would there's some language in that that's um I think fairly factual and then the second paragraph Just moves into um a little a little less factual based language and so um I would suggest I can send some recommended language later just maybe shifting that a little bit to talk more about how conservancies work um and kind of that model because that's been a lot of work that the the commission has worked on previously in terms of comparative communities so I can send some language along that the committee could take a look at and um might be able to be integrated before it go to staff um the another component is um in the section I'm kind of bouncing around here but um there's a section um under request um at the I guess that's at the very top um yes sorry the first section so um discussion about a tiered cost specimen which I think makes a lot of sense um one thing to discuss with staff might be just the benefit of identifying how much funding we've actually have for this project right now so that there's a way for Canfield you know those who are responding to provide a threshold of you know provide us something within that cost estimate I worry a little bit obviously the public engagement portion of this um is where things get the most expensive and we have a very long list there so um that's what could really increase the cost of this process so I think just identifying what our funding is is important and then further down I really liked how um it this is separated into kind of the the could and the should be um sections I thought that was a really nice way to handle it um I thought something that in terms of the should language there's a little more clarity around the idea that this could be I think this is alluded to but just face implementation um because we may have funding coming you know if we get through this process we may have funding that becomes available for different parts of the site at different times um and so just it would be nice to have um a final design that is cohesive but also works well um if different sections of the site get redeveloped at different times um and then this is the super very small thing um consistency in the the capitalization of city with one thing uh I think we could take care of those that sounds good and then um I did have to I know Alan's gonna be talking have the opportunity to see kind of a list of things that he was interested that you're interested in um discussing Alan and I I wonder if um we could have a very long discussion if we ended up going bullet point through bullet point about those recommendation um potential amendments and so I would hope that when we enter that part of the conversation that we might be able to um group them together in terms of a sense of whether or not we really want to do a um that level of amendments into this document right now Eric I don't want to cut you off um Alan I think what we'll do when we pull up your uh suggested changes is I'll pull them up and you can walk through them and I I think Erica is right if we can try and group things together to see where everyone's head is at um I think that would probably be helpful is that okay well I'll be glad to as you walk through the uh six pages I'd be glad to walk through the 18 amendments so you see in total what I am dealing with and then you can maybe group you know what aspects of this can be dealt with together there there is one regarding the notion of the commons that has several Dimensions there's one regarding Community Values which is a little different but related so I don't know I'm glad to go through and you can see what grouping you want we'll get to that in a minute then so Alice I thought you had called on me a point of order yeah I'm sorry you and you you know I I didn't see your hand uh still raised it the technology bumped you down my apologies go ahead um so I'm can I indulge also in some preferatory remarks before I get to my my comment um first of all thank you I think this is a good document a good place to start the discussion obviously we're having a good discussion um my other Preparatory comment is that I look forward to the ideas around the words to kind of breathe life into some of those ideas that that Alan was just describing I think that's important to talk through and and think about that the comments I wanted to make were sort of from the The View as the the pack liaison and I think the language or the questions that I'm assuming that the the colleagues will have is around Liberty Plaza and Kemp house and um the idea that like how to change the use to the extent that the use is intended to be changed of those Parcels um with regard to Liberty that's been a long discussion within the within the city and just like the basic raw sort of governance structure what is envisaged um and in the RFP I don't know that that's it's really it's it's not spelled out um I think we kind of point the way there's a lot of uh homework that the responsible bidder will have to do to really understand the Dynamics there and the use of that land and then also with regard to Kemp house because I I mean even Pac we don't we don't we don't even mess with Ken's house um they're really operating their own their own operation there and it being a historical site and so forth so those I think some of the questions that the parks colleagues are likely to have will be in that direction as to sort of what are we expecting to receive back um from like I say a responsible bidder on this with regard to those topics I think that's fair and I think we can also uh provide some sort of indicative descriptions uh in particular related to kemphos um maybe we can talk offline about what's in the language might look like um but I I totally hear you on that super thank you yeah yeah thanks uh Alice you're up next I have to kind of I it was when uh Sarah was speaking um I really some things really resonated in listening to everybody else so I have to shift back um there was a mention of the fact that uh the center of the the library lot is designated as public land well so is Liberty Plaza and so is Camp House no yeah hemp house and uh the library and so forth there's a lot of public land and Sarah also mentioned the comprehensive plan that is coming in that it's it is does emphasize land use so Parks all parks are public land um they are designated as Parks as part of the public land that's a technicality but it it causes a lot of confusion as to who owns it and who doesn't and who manages it Parks has designated some public land properties that are managed by other than parks and managed by if you will a group of commoners um but um but uh I did want to point out that the owners ownership is public and that makes us owners in an indirect way already so I think that the ownership is a sort of a straw man and I I think we've covered a lot of the things that need to be covered in this RFP since it's not a suggestion for a whole new Society it's it's a suggestion for a place where ideas and people are welcome um so that's what I wanted to say Sarah can we'll have to share a little bit of the responsibility for my having brought these technical things up but no I appreciate that you're right it's all the same zoning I think I'm more I'm more meant like yeah like it's Parks but then Library Lots not under parks and I think that's an important exactly it's it makes it more complicated than it it appears at first so that's what I wanted to say at this point um that and I I also would like to say that um well I'll I'll save that for another time and thanks thanks and I I Alice to your point and Sarah obviously to your comments earlier like it does like we can work on the the language to indicate this comprehensive nature but also clearly differentiate between the parks uh versus the uh city office of strategic planning governance differences I think that is uh you know it's obviously something we have called out directly in the activation uh draft as well um we should probably be very clear about it here as well so it's an excellent excellent differentiation any other comments before I want to I do want to give Alan his due here around uh his amendments and we're going to try and walk through those um but any other comments regarding the existing document as written because this meeting is recorded we have the ability to go back and make some changes we're going to try and do that as best we can and uh and then go from there okay all right hearing none then I'm going to go ahead Alan I'm going to pull up your document give me just one minute here uh to switch over to the um see here Ellen I know you sent me this so I'm going to take some um uh some the liberty of actually um putting it into something I can share on the screen here is that okay that way you don't have to pull up that yeah that's that's what I hope if it could go up there or next next to the draft that we're working on yeah I I hope that this could just be distributed to everybody so they could see it as a whole and then it'd be easier to reference but however you can do it okay give me just one minute here okay okay I think uh split the screen somehow so that we could see what it is that I'm yeah unfortunately I cannot split the screen um it might be simpler to keep well I don't know we can just start and see how about how about we do this Alan uh everyone can take a look in the agenda and see the um see the uh document that was referenced and so you can certainly pull that up and we I think it is a good idea for the public to be able to see your amendments here so um I hope that we find a way an easy way to distribute those so they could have been easily seen ahead of time but however so could I begin yes plea please do and and try and group them uh in in some elements that uh that were there aligned okay yeah well and I don't want to about I I just let me work through this the same you work through the the reference document so the First Essential that I feel should be altered is that this has always been called the center of the city Commons by those who work with it so that's what we should call it in our last discussion that's what it was agreed and somehow that comment that center of the commons part of the center of the city got dropped dropped out in the last draft that uh it was made so I want us to be to call this the center of the city Commons is what it is that we are dealing with as the name of the space and uh so that's number one and that appears in several places where we reflect reference the center of the city and I just want that to be referenced the center of the city Commons this is a Commons and then the second edition I just go through we mentioned the first recommendation which was uh for the Council of the commons was actually to begin that formation it was not a final formation and the uh and then the recommendation to begin planning but I add another paragraph to reference to two other recommendations that are particularly important that to convene meetings of all the partners on the Block and uh to the that was the second one to remove the ground level parking that should be clear that that is the intention from the beginning the city council the Council of the task force and the city council adopted and to integrate this into long-term development as a priority in the city master plan and I Erica indicated that's now called the comprehensive plan but whatever it is this element those three other recommendations should just be referenced that somebody that a a proposal vendor I guess they're getting called and to know those other recommendations particularly around yeah the notion of Partners on the Block because later on I add on who to name more specifically those those partners it's very importantly a third air amendment is in the Community Values which I felt was uh looking to uh negatively at the limitations of City financing and I would have us add what I have said a hundred times in this whole process the resources available for the center of the city Commons development are indeterminate Ann Arbor is a rich city in Michigan and in America in the advocacy of this project the initiating view has been make it beautiful and inviting and the money will be there this is a generous City philanthropic proud and noticed in the larger World design something beautiful for the people that it will feel like home from wherever you came and the people will contribute money and many resources and talents will come from the bottom up and all around as well as from the top down and far away I think we need that paragraph because that is really the basis on which we're going to raise the 50 million or whatever it will eventually be that that Dan Adams talks about yeah we don't have a an access to well we got to have that view of beauty as drawing the funds and let's keep going here okay okay then there there's a references to of the site and it's thought we talk about the Main Street District the State Street District but this is called the Midtown district and we should emphasize that because in the initiating committee at least we are looking on how all the businesses around there can begin to see themselves as a Midtown District at which the commons is a a reference and Gathering point so the Midtown District should be included in in there okay then I added in as I said the to identify who actually are the potential block partner Jerusalem Garden certainly should be mentioned the first Martin Corporation whether we invention spark in the uh continuing education for Women program in this first modern building I don't know I would attempt to but anyhow the music business is on the corner yeah that has always been a there's a place where years the reading room there's rental housing and apartments the intercooperative council is an essential part of that as we're looking for cooperation and the and the University of Michigan Credit Union but in that mention of the block we should also mention that the credit union the Martin Corporation the library are all considering building changes that should be in the mind of somebody who has seen how to you know engage this block it's a block in transition um okay then we had in the other in we're on page three now or what I had is Page Three is what what are the uh the expectations and I would say that the top one well I certainly appreciate Intermodal Community Transportation the top one is what the cities the city itself said safe welcoming and fosters a culture of peace and non-violence that's when the task force report that was approved by the city council that really reflects the character of what we are trying to create in the center of the city if I can proceed then I have a quite a incidental comment about you think outside the box but basketball is a thought is thought too far there's not big enough space it's too disorienting on experienced with basketball in the People's Park in Berkeley it's great but we don't have enough space for it yeah so I think we shouldn't really direct people in that way when we talk about other things we would like uh potential potentially on some things yes maybe but on a water feature we want a water feature we want these people who are doing it to give us a water feature and we want and I think I think we want an active play Space so that potentiality potentially should just be removed and we should say this is something that we want okay let's keep going okay now now let's see where am I am going to number 10.
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is there a motion to approve this second is there any discussion let's do Gold Club yes Carol yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes Doug yes all right moving which needed items number one is a recommendation to approve the donation of 800 from Gregory Taggart to purchase Brown County High School boys basketball uniforms is there a motion to approve that donation right in a discussion they look terrible terrible this way to be able to play games and who knows why that happened but he we hired him as our assistant Jason he told me some given happen right so I knew that was coming because I great asset to the team well that's too great right in the other discussion all right let's do roll calls maybe yes Carol yes Vicky yes yes yes yes number two is a recommendation to approve the out of country field trip to Costa Rica March 19 16 2024 for Spanish students we had a presentation from Mr Austin on this last month approve d is there any discussion yeah they checked because yeah I'm I'm looking at a trip there so I'm looking at their attitude take a look at that anything else but I'm just excited anytime our kids get to go someplace I'm very excited thanks to everybody me like dashboards and stuff that's okay yep yeah that's why it takes a year to get ready and then I think they'll do some fundraisers probably so to make sure they have to have sexual thoughts and stuff depends on the country so right well each country is different learning for them is to know what they need yeah and they are working with World strides though so yeah they'll make sure that they really care about they have a big timeline and everything is yep like Jessica yeah that's why we're starting a year in advance so that they know and they can get ready all right let's do roll call Amy yes Carol yes Vicki yes Stephanie yes yes number three is recommendation to approve the Declaration of the 2002 Food Service bus with a I'm not going to read the serial number or the VIN I guess it is and Salvage is there a motion to approve that just a second is there any discussion I feel like this just helps um us have accurate reporting records of the inventory that we have so okay anything else all right welcome maybe yes Carol yes yes yes yes right number four is a recommendation to approve the renewal of a food service management company contract for the 2324 school year with Compass Group USA Inc and through its Chartwells Division and I understand that we have Representatives here from Chartwells do you want to introduce yourselves sure I'm Sean Carey I'm from the area director all right very good um we had in our packets a section first oh yeah is there a motion to approve that I still move second all right now we'll have discussion um in our packets we do have a copy of um I don't know if it's a contract I guess it's a renewal request letter um and this can is continues our our contract is that right correct so um every five years you're required by the federal government if you're Outsourcing to go out to bid so you get one contract with four rooms so this is your fourth and final renewal and then next year will be um the bid process will start so this isn't anything new this is really already in our contract I said and then it actually does have an increase in fees so can you tell us we should explain that question sure so yeah no I I issue that um so it's all based on the CPI index or the consumeration so every year we always come back so let me practice if just so you understand your contract do you have a what we call a fee contract which is we basically build back all the expenses so you own everything all the profitability you own all the food the labor all the other expenses so on and so forth and then we Billy back our management you know fees on top of that and then anything all the profitability is left to you in the Food Service fund so I always try to make sure that school boards understand that you're just paying us to manage the program but you you know everything is property and ownership of the school corporation um and so this is pretty standard every year there's always a CPI increase it's also built into the Indiana Department of debt the RFP packet you will see that that RFP packet actually becomes the original contract so um if you look at the CPI Across the Nation obviously that's a consumer price index and as we all know expenses are are up due to inflation so on and so forth so I think the national average and so we did not feel that that was we didn't want to put that all on our clients so that's why we're asking for a 70 percent increase I think it says six percent right no I think it says it on it sends it on the renewal button we are proposing the following at a six percent increase in fees for 22.23 okay great I don't know I guess we're getting an even better deal um and so then these this list of fees then it says 85 cents to 90 cents um that's actually not 85 cents eight cents yeah so you're literally going from like eight cents to like eight cents and a half yeah all right well thank you I appreciate that explanation are there any other questions I I just want to say thank you um the amount of support that you have been able to provide our team at central office and at each of the schools has has been representable so thank you well we enjoy the partnership Brown County is a grade school corporation you guys are so I wish everybody was like the best to be honest and we love your kids and we love doing all the nutrition education done and and Paula do a great job and really all look down through but um you know it's a it's a wonderful this is a wonderful community we uh I was a teacher here when we started with chartwellsman there was a very good increase in I appreciate it we appreciate the support anything else all right let's do welcome Amy yes Carol yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes yes all right number five so this is a recommendation to approve the scope of Brown County Health Clinic project it is funded through the current bond funds as an added project to the guaranteed Energy savings contract so this is an approval of what we just had presented to us is there a motion to improve I still move second any discussion he's already had it questions all right yes Carol yes Vicki yes Stephanie yes yes right um next under number six is recommendation to approve the first reading of our Neola board policy updates um I'm the one in volume two um we have policies and they are all listed here I'm not going to read them um but we have we have all reviewed those and um they'll come back again as a second is there a motion to approve d any discussion all right let's do Roblox baby yes Carol yes Vicky and Stephanie yes all right under number eight we have the consent agenda items for personnel we have a separation eighth grade volleyball coach and the Taunton fifth and sixth grade volleyball coach um in High School varsity volleyball coach Jessica Robertson and helmsberg school counselor Carrie Jones General separations and new no new appointments are transferred is there a motion to approve so move ment any discussion actually no I'm sorry anything else all right maybe yes Carol yes Vicki yes Stephanie yes yes all right uh we'll move on to superintendent's report I want to thank our help and her team and her incredible kids for their presentation this evening um it's it's just amazing awesome to to see everything that they strive to do and the money that they're raising the skills that they're learning um I could not be more proud of that entire team um and Barb helped is um said in the families and I think just last week we were able to to go out there and visit them they got to go to the state park and um at stakes and and do some really cool things and so I'm just very very proud of her and that team um I wanted to add tonight that we are excited to welcome her Eagleman to the high school um he is is filling in through the remainder of the year for um Auntie Bartels and the art program again just fortunate to have Kurt here to be able to inspire our kiddos with his incredible talents I wanted to congratulate Chris Townsend and his team for securing a thirteen thousand dollar student-based Enterprise Grant from Connexus those funds will go directly towards screen printing equipment so um that's that's awesome I know that that Grant comes around every year and we always get a little nervous every time we applied for it because we've gotten it every year um so I just want to congratulate Chris and his team for that and then our theater department has also been working really really hard for the performance of Shrek that's coming up next week we don't want to miss it hope to have everybody there you can reserve tickets online reserve seating is ten dollars general admission for an adult to seven dollars students are are five dollars and we have four different shows the first one is Friday evening at seven pm and then we have two shows on that Saturday one at two and one at seven and then we have a Sunday show at two o'clock as well so that will be next week we look forward to to seeing the kids and their performance on that and then just a reminder that we are not in session tomorrow Friday April 7th it was a scheduled makeup weather makeup day that was not needed yay so that's amazing I didn't think you get through the week actually over on Tuesday nights one of the cheerleaders and they said if they call off school tomorrow for their office when we go to school Friday and I said well we're supposed to but it's a close day you know we hope to go to school tomorrow we made it right now we just we have to take it to the end of the year so within us the ribbon cutting for the next week it's next Wednesday at work that's one officially um yeah we have a everybody's cutting at Eagle manufacturing and our new facility that's when it's Wednesday right now okay well I was excited about that um okay and Publix advice yeah did I just do that so anyway I think it's exciting it is so excited to get the show I want to show that all right you said it that's all I have thank you all right thank you and everybody's got home safe from San Diego so you want to talk about that just for a minute of what you guys did yeah um we were able to attend the world of work conference that was in San Diego um again we got to go visit uh different schools from preschool to through high school and you know there are some of the most Innovative schools I've ever been able to visit so I was fortunate you know Indiana had a really big crowd that was there at this conference um and I think Brown County was the only District that actually brought teachers so to be able to bring people Beyond just administrators to be able to see this work firsthand was to me a game changer our team came back and have already debriefed a couple times and um have some ideas moving forward and I think it was exciting and energizing for our team to be able to go out there it sounds like it was they were really inspired so I'm excited but anytime we get again our folks get to go do those types of things you know one of our priorities is having staff having students and um to help kids be as happy as possible while they're in school and everything we can do for them that was one of the things that I love so much about these schools five years ago is that kids they're engaged it's obvious it's evident there's no questioning it and um when we were on the bus right back from the single schools I had asked one of our teachers what they thought and her response was everybody just seems so happy and so to me like that that validated everything for us for them to be able to pick up all right well thank you I'm glad you all had the opportunity to do that um board updates um I have on their legislative update I haven't prepared anything uh but the legislative session is coming to an end here in the next couple weeks so there's going to be a lot of Education bills that are either going to pass and they're not so I don't know where they're where they're at but um I do encourage everybody if you have an interest in education to be paying attention to those and talking to legislators so uh other board updates anybody else have things you want to share Doug anything yeah guess what come in check out this food process things going on that's about it yeah okay sounds good don't worry all right uh with that is our move to a motion to adjourn any chance that we can talk about Claire let me let me speak to your boy lyrics I am the board president this is not the time you had an opportunity at the beginning for three minutes and you didn't do that so at this moment we're going to adjourn and if you want to talk to us individually and we do that but it's not going to be part of the public meeting well I think this is all reported and I just really want to ask you why is school board existing when the person attending here cannot express of course that of three minutes but if something is that's what you need you need to call again I understand it but I would like to ask them to carry more respect better for people of participating because school board is for the state of school and children and also parents are part of it okay so do not treat us right yeah thank you um welcome hey yes yes
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the second program was uh remodeling residential Remodeling and they are building a tiny house that will exist on my campus out of the culmination of this year in July and maintenance is working with me to have a little place to set that so we're very proud of that it has working lights as working Plumbing we won't hook it up but it'll it'll be something that will let people know what we're really doing and that's very proud of it we had a graphics design course oh there's another employee kind of Graphics design course um the EKG 12-league course here though I think that the graphic design course had someone from Granite Hills High School and then the EKG classes where we had three of the graduates hired at St Mary's Mary's right out of the spot um also we're getting to some of the funner stuff and the conclusion of my thing my presentation the former student and current avusd employee also in this room Miss William was awarded the California Department of Education and access Student Success award this year and there she is helping the student because they would not let me nominate her until she had a job so apusd made this video why did you respond I responded because um I was told that for two years they would be tracking my progress and I knew that if I responded that this would benefit the next student that came after me [Music] and there she is helping a student did you see there and what better salesperson than someone who's already gone through the program and and can show overcome when you receive the text email survey for this year I mentioned that Leon Andres pslr forces we have four CTE classes that are free we are in the WASP candidate process and that should be concluded on the 28th of this month the wiola grant that we applied for we got for the next four years we have we are an ajcc official Parliament site which means that for the American jobs and all of our 29 County Partners um we are one of four adult schools in San Bernardino County to be an official connection site so that means that they are getting a signage and they are having like a portal for us to be able to refer clients directly to America's job Center's pad the department of rehab and they can also refer clients to us and I'm also proud to say that as of two days ago we have 16 graduates from awsd that [Applause] to trying to get people to jobs and to the college and so everyone that is on my South is cross-trained to help in this process we also have people coming from the outside to give like workshops on how to go to college how to do how to get financial assistance in life in general how to get hired what does that look like some of these people have so many barriers to employment that we need to give them multiple layers of support if we're going to get them you know a sustainable job I just put a little fire or a little piece in here we've served over 200 ESL students in 2023 and apple also provides on-site child supervision and the same model that we find there are Partners there but the parents are in the Next Room over so if they need to go to the bathroom or something that's all handled and it'll gives me a place since we have been an amazing computer lab that I wanted to thank adst for because during the pandemic we got some of this you know so many some of the funding was provided so that I could have a state-of-the-art places to teach these adults that are coming in with these incredible barriers so um we don't want them putting food there so we have the next room over where they can put food classes like to celebrate different things and bring food these are some words from our students by the way both of these students are from a referral from Department of rehab what is next for you now that you're completing our program well what do I see next for myself is to give back to the community that is my ultimate goal uh throughout my life there's been many of people that's helped me as far as support system and I want to be somebody's support system I want to give back to others what was your experience like here at Apple Valley Adult I thought it was great because uh I only went up to seventh grade I only completed seventh grade so I always wondered what I missed not going to high school and by taking this class now I know what I missed and I missed a lot a lot of good stuff a lot of good things this is Michelle Moore oh she's been very helpful when I felt there was a moment where I felt like giving up and it was so hard for me and uh and she wouldn't she wouldn't give up on me and I just kept going and going and so that's all that's my experience so far [Music] what is next for you now that you're completely um D thank you so much for your continued support please come out and see what we have to offer and I hope we see a few of you on the June 9th graduation so and thank you for having me foreign [Music] Kylie do we have any public comments uh we do we have five this evening Mr Javier cabinet and board members um I'm here tonight a director of the great Academy to express our deepest appreciation for your ongoing commitment to providing a comprehensive education he especially want to thank you for uh for your support of the Arts which play a crucial role in the intellectual social and emotional development as we continue to strive towards offering more robust Arts programs we would like to express our gratitude for the release of business is in number chronomics Ricardo is one of the most respected names in classical music his visit was a once in a lifetime opportunity for our students during this two-day visit Ricardo reached roughly 500 students across four different School sites costing roughly 16 per student is because it was a remarkable experience that helped Inspire our students and Foster their appreciation for Carnival Morales is one of the most sought after clarinetics in the world he has performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls around the globe including Carnegie Hall in New York the Royal Albert Hall in London pellets it has also been featured as a soloist with many renowned orchestras including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony he has been nominated for a Latin Grammy by providing opportunities for our students to engage with world-class artists such as Ricardo Menards we are not only envisioning their education but also concealing in them a lifelong appreciation for their I am grateful for the financial support that allowed us to bring Ricardo to our district and we are proud to work we are proud of the work we are doing to ensure that Arts that the Arts are continuing to be an essential component of our students education as we gathered here tonight let us recognize that music that Arts education is not just a luxury or a pastime it is an essential component of a well-rounded education that Fosters the intellectual social and emotional growth of our students first and foremost Music Arts education politics has been proven to enhance cognitive development research shows that students who engage in arts education perform better in subjects such as math and reading this is because true Arts strength and neural Pathways enhance facial temporal skills and boost memory and attention by investing in arts education we are investing intellectual development of our students secondly Arts education promotes the developing critical social skills participation in arts Fosters teamwork communication collaboration as students learn to work together to create harmonious artwork additionally our education teaches students discipline and perseverance they practice and refine their skills over time these invaluable life skills will serve our students well beyond the classroom preparing them for success in various aspects of their lives moreover Arts education contributes to the emotional well-being it offers students a creative outlet for self-expression allowing them to explore and understand their emotions this emotional exploration can lead to improved mental health and resilience helping our students navigate the challenges about the challenges of adolescents and adulthood finally Arts education has the power to bring diverse communities together through the universal language of the Arts students from different backgrounds can find common ground and Foster connections by promoting inclusivity and celebrating cultural diversity Arts education can help break down barriers and create a more unified and understanding Society in conclusion Arts education is an indispensable aspect of a comprehensive education that cultivates cognitive social and emotional growth in our students by providing access to Quality Arts education programs we are not only enriching the lives of our students but also building a more inclusive compassionate and culturally Vibrant Community in Apple Valley I urge you as members of the school board to continue to prioritize and support Arts education in our schools with the passage of prop 28 we at the great Academy stand ready to help in any way we can and we look forward to working with all of our amazing staff to proudly prepare our students for their future thank you for your time thank you good evening Apple Valley Unified School District board members and superintendent Nelson and guests I'm here today to express my sincere graduate excuse me uh gratitude to the Apollo school board for funding the visit of the world-renowned master clarinets Ricardo Morales to the Granite Hills High School grade academy and instrumental classes Mr malice's visit was an inspiration and a benefit to all the students who attended he shared his passion for music and his expertise in clarinet playing with our students and they were all captivated by his talent and enthusiasm Mr malice's visit also provided our students with the opportunity to learn from one of the best clarinetists in the world he gave them invaluable insight into the Arts of music of clarinet playing he also helped him improve their own playing skills I am confident that Mr Morales visit will have a lasting impact on our students they will remember his visit for years to come and they will be inspired by his example to pursue their own dreams of musical Excellence again I would like to thank you for funding his visit it was truly a valuable experience to our students and they will benefit him for years to come thank you for your time good evening [Applause] Corbin is your Corbin Colvin okay Nevaeh okay thank you I apologize it's better than mine some of the people that I look up to are going to be presenting exactly what I'm going to be presenting but from the perspective of a student I think it might be a little bit more not necessarily Dependable but a teacher could stand there and be like oh yeah school is good but when a student says it it's kind of like oh well then you're right though so yeah um I've been a long-term student I'm sorry [Music] I've been I have been in abusd for a lot of years now it feels like okay okay I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I've been part of the awsd for a while now and in between that time however I have moved across the country and back and each time for as long as it's been available to me every single year I've taken a artistic class whether it be music theatrical choir uh any kind of visual Performing Arts I've taken and I've thoroughly enjoyed and without the experience and the encouragement and the everything it's it's a lot like I was there to experience meeting Ricardo Morales and I didn't think that would ever even happen I didn't think I would ever meet I don't want to say anyone important but anyone um that a lot of people know so that I don't remember a lot but I will remember that for forever that is that's crazy that someone that could do could do something for a living something so much that they'd like that's what I I um an artist myself I like to do 3D modeling I was actually reached out by an Autodesk rep recently to do that with more people and I have been encouraged to by multiple people um to continue doing this and without the funding without the encouragement without everything that we've been receiving from not only you guys and then we as an individual from them this none of this would be really possible so I just want to say that I appreciate you guys appreciate you guys and I look forward to continuing my career under awsd I suppose so thank you very much thank you Ken good morning uh good evening board uh good evening uh staff members I am coming with you with an idea that both me and chief Molina have uh passionate about what the recent events in the news of shootings and the craziness that this world is bringing uh we want to introduce pops parents on patrol where since the police is campus police and the police officers are stretched so far and thin allowing parents to be present as representing officers as Observers this would give the the community uh opportunity to feel more safe that their kids are being watched over like an owl without being directly involved uh the conflict with that being said if there was for example an incident what the for a parent that is being abrupted or cars like this morning with yokoloma Elementary a police officer was not present so parents are driving about 30 40 miles up and down that street with children in the crosswalk if a police officer vehicle or pops was present they tend to slow down and obey the law a little bit more making it a lot more safer for students the idea behind this is to not only get parents involved in their community and protecting their students but also giving the police officers more time to go and take care of necessary calls with that being said if there was like a shooter or someone speeding we can go and intervene and have the school campus but these and the popular authorities to come and affiliate that in a quickly and timely manner instead of instead of being strung out and worn thin it gives them an opportunity to come to an important call such as that and I am asking that you guys take this into consideration we could use some of the old police cruisers as the Pop's vehicles we would be essentially Recycling and reusing what is not needed I thank you guys for your time thank you [Applause] Terry foreign excuse me I'm sorry hi everyone um first I want to apologize for how I looked today I was painting for a set for next week so I apologize but I wanted to be here was important um first of all I want to thank you all um the support that we're given at our school is I I can't even I can't even thank you enough um we have some beautiful new equipment that you guys afforded us to have which is as some of you came to see a show I've seen um several of you uh was Came To See Much Ado About Nothing which was our Shakespeare play this year and we got to use our beautiful new projector which is amazing we had a Sunset Beach scene in daytime Beach nighttime Beach that played through the whole show it was beautiful we are so fortunate to work to live and work in a in a place that allows that kind of Hands-On equipment for our students to use what I really wanted to point out was we have um we've been really fortunate to have our kids grow up and I've got one of my seniors is here with me fortunate to have my kiddos here too and they came to support [Music] um one of the things that happened at our Tuesday thing at the California theater was we got there and there were there were no mics that worked none they had zero um so I was able to come up the hill grab our portable set that you afforded me take it down there and we set up mics for the show um the situation with uh uh was all solved by my 12th grader right here yeah so pretty good um so Mr Nick saved the day um as he does often on our campus as well um he's he's my uh go-to it guy but he he also designed and runs the lights uh designs and runs a sound he knows how to do everything on the stage which we're teaching all the kiddos to do um I just want you to know that it's important to them to be able to do the things that they do and the cool thing was there were Union people there working the lights and sound boards he actually got a card from a guy he's like call me because he was amazing but that's you know that's what we're trying to do we're trying to get them connections and jobs anyway that's all just thank you [Applause] any other comments superintendent Nelson no Rick just briefly um first off for the the education adult education um I I did go last year in June and I was amazed at how many students graduated and how enthusiastic the the family members were at that graduation so that was an eye-opener for me so appreciate the presentation the Arts when you articulated up there what the Arts do for students it you know it opens up a whole new uh view in my point for me is how the Arts do affect different cultures bringing children or students together and things so keep up the good work that was really uh I was really impressed with hearing what's occurring there so I never heard of the person for the plays the clarinet but he sounds like he uh his world renowned they're going to share some photos oh okay great yeah that was great keep up the good work okay Amanda I was really sorry I missed the concert because I actually played the clarinet all through Middle High School elementary College um but I did have another commitment that night um do we have a Time on June 9th by any chance I only ask because it's my daughter's birthday so I'm gonna try to okay thank you thank you we were just at um an adulthood Consortium medium yesterday and there is still some question about um the gymnasium must have been solved today is that possible so immediately you were um our superintendent of our graduates so the formal invitation will come out yeah thank you very much all right Gary I just want to say thank you for the impromptu concert that I was given in your in your class uh it was amazing to walk to walk around a classroom maybe twice the size of this room right here filled with students all with a guitar all playing uh yeah and it was it was just amazing the talent there that that uh that you you are fostering and just watering those seeds so thank you very much for for all the Visual and Performing Arts for what you're doing and and your speech was tremendous it was it was right on thank you for sharing that that's what well I'm going to start with thanking Adele Adele was my I was a teacher when I was the principal so um it's always good to see her Blossom this way uh she was my go-to uh teacher when I was the principal if I needed anything anything at all anything that looked like is out there that is not possible Adele will get in her car and make it possible you know so uh thank you so much it's always good to watch you know what you're doing out there and and I will show up invited or not yeah I just I just need to know that you're doing it or somebody is doing it if I know I'll be there and for the great Academy um I actually saw your class and you had the students perform for me and I was really impressed to see those students and they were freshmen the students were the freshmen and they were able to know which note to to play and I did tell you that I want to learn how to play piano um because I think I figured that in old age that might be one thing I can do um you know without having too much happening um I you know if the district is investing this much money you need not worry thank you music is has a lot to do with math and all that really helps with uh right this was my brother's uh Band Room he played the alto the tenor and the clarinet he went to uh NAU on a music scholarship he was the first band teacher hired at Apple Valley High School he was drafted went to Nam he came back never did any more music he hired out on the railroad did there what did really well in business in the stock market but uh Nam did a lot of bad things but anyway music is important all right where are we at now here public hearing none at this meeting no special meeting discussion session delegate authority to the superintendent to execute and approve the transfer of federal and state educationally related Mental Health Service funds from avusd to the selpa via the administrative unit can I have a motion on that so moved all right any discussion all in favor aye adopt the updated Declaration of Need for fully qualified Educators born to be affected from July 1 to 222 through June 30th 2023 as required by the California Commission of teacher credentialing motion second in any discussion March 17th are they all not fully qualified are you asking about our non-re-election process yeah they were not all fully qualified for fully qualified Educators and we are letting go fully qualify the indicators that's I'm a little confused why do we I can speak to that the the Declaration of need allows us to um pursue candidates that might be completing their credential process intern candidates uh so on and so forth occasionally we do come across those that we bring in remember the the need for highly qualified is not necessary that is a defined term not an opinionated term so sometimes people make their way to getting the papers needed to enter our field and yet they get here and realize it's just not for them and so I might on paper be highly qualified and realize that you know the the railroad is a better place for me to work or or so on and so forth so I I mean it does happen um but we we um yeah the the Declaration itself just allows us the ability to hire the teachers that might have intern credentials or uh you know obtaining the the exams Adele was speaking to through her um adult program as well so I don't know okay may I have a motion okay all in favor aye okay approve the loss control agreement between Apple Valley Unified School District and Keenan and Associates to be affected from April 6th 2023 through February 26 2024 motion second I'll second any discussion all in favor aye all right approved the certificated and classified Personnel actions as listed second on discussion anyone all in favor aye aye approved recommendations for a requested leave as noted it's motion any discussion all in favor all right approve the recommendation of the administrative hearing share person affected immediately on expulsion case number 13 2022 through 23.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
oh wait wait no no we went we we go back another potentially yeah you had several others oh yeah restroom I think restrooms are really important how we do that it's a limited space I don't know but we should the composting toilets in the sense of a full circle of the life system is important and I think as a demonstration place the common should have composting toilets and we should ask the people to explore that there's an excellent book called humanure uh looking at all sorts of composting toilets Arrangements including for places like our Commons now then then this comes the question of the public building that I thought we had left in the last draft that we agreed upon but when the when the markings came out Rita said no cross that off and it should not be cross-sucked I would say all right I'm sorry I'm sorry but I'm just going to say a point of order this is we have a commission member who's been speaking for seven minutes now um well we had we had a chair who's been speaking I'm glad to stop and go through the rest of this later we could talk about what I've already spoken so far and then we can deal with the rest I only got uh eight more Alan Let's uh I want to uh I want to be conscious of trying to give you some opportunity to talk here but I also want to be conscious at the time we what I don't want to get into is an explanation around every point we will send out the document to everyone I think you've already done so we'll post it publicly I I did it properly I sent it to uh Chris Christopher to and to you and to Alice to have it distributed and I don't think it ever got distributed well you sent it this afternoon so no that's right okay I'm committed to send it sooner I want to give you another five minutes and then we're gonna we're gonna try and we're not taking a vote on this tonight okay we're not taking a vote of this let me go do it so yeah on the Civic Center building I I suggest to go back a little bit so I can examine location options cost and feasibility of a year-round Civic Center building or four season space Arrangements allowing for such functions as in those eight functions that are listed there are things that often have been mentioned in terms of what we need as a Civic Center a visitor center Gallery Cafe and so on I don't need to reiterate them but they should be part of what this professional group is helping us think how can those functions be met in a building or in the new Martin building or in the uh of course basis building or in the noble house okay let's keep going all right we did we did talk about this building in particular extensively okay so that so now I'm keep I'm keeping the functions and leaving the building as an option the creative people could figure out what to do with it okay okay uh there should be in there maximize geothermal power in particular because the capacity of geothermal from the basement of that parking lot is very positive but emphasize it the whoever the developers are they should look up 820 priorities for uh 2030.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I'll just interject here be you are allowed to take action on 13 through 17 in one motion if you choose to but also there's an amendment to eat number 11 which comes later and I have that Amendment okay so we can go ahead and vote number six thirteen through seventeen all right all in favor aye and then which one do we have to book separately right here our expulsion case number 11.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and uh I'd like to add another point of order okay these are these are available to the to anyone including the public we look at we are not taking the vote tonight and we have heard many of these things before in other meetings uh it what we are so we are have developed is not a finished document we are not voting on it and I think we should take a look at the first words of of each one of these things and and move on yeah Alan I I I'm gonna uh say that we need to like I said I want to give you two more minutes and see okay I will try and deal with this as quickly as I can on this report from the activation committee that branding this as the center of the city and omitting the commons is not acceptable at all that's not the brand yeah and two further sections are one to describe the form of organization that could be commonly pooled resources what is a common is an organizational form and that was referenced further it is not a amalgam it's it is an organizational form that we need and what is the kind of of Education of of self-managed resources that we need that is something also that should be referenced uh I would add up besides uh letting people know that Library green is a 501c3 and giving the correct name of the Ann Arbor Community Commons initiating committee that we should have an invitation or or a an intention of Education around materials as to what is the commons Peter linebaugh's uh book on magnitude pesto and several others David Bowie's book is thinking like a commoner particularly Eleanor ostrom's work on governance of the commons it is reference I wish it would be and should be pointed out in the appendix but we should reference that so it would be another special attention what is the education needed to engage the question of the commons and so what was those four as well as the David Bowie three is those are David Bowie website which is just amazing and uh enthusiastic well in your time all right okay cool okay I think I got there I'm done I got my 18 in there I and we're not voting but I hope people recognize that the commons is really what this is about if you think this is not what what it's about we will have a discussion about that Beyond this because I cannot believe that people would vote to exclude the comments as a functional part of this Ellen yeah we heard it yep we got you all right okay so I'd like to see if there's uh if there are any comments related to any of these we have offered up uh ever to everyone the opportunity to offer up uh changes to the original document we're going to take into consideration those uh and so I'd like to do the same with any uh areas here uh and then I do want to explain from a process standpoint how I'd like to approach this to make sure we have something to take the city staff so first things first any ideas here that are in support or concerns around any of the ideas Allen has offered forth uh it doesn't guarantee that any of them be incorporated but certainly want to capture folks thoughts Rita go ahead I agree with uh indicating the block being in transition and I think the exploring the potential for geothermal is a good idea possibly exploring the space as a resilience hub that's all thanks Rita Jeff yeah I I want to uh although uh sometimes I have some reservations about uh the the extent to which Alan proposes uh uh things I I do support his idea of a comments I do think we do need to Inc stay with that and Define it some uh so that we uh we we all understand what we're talking about but I I do think this is more than just a downtown park I respect the concerns of people who who are worried about uh the commons interfering with the possibility of getting a park put in place and maybe that's a strategic or tactical issue but I I I want to express my support for Alan's focus on the comments yeah thanks Jeff Rita this is something else mistake sorry no worries okay and I will say we did not without it was not without debate that we talked about idea around Commons is a term versus commoning uh and there's a lot of concern about confusion regarding a movement versus a space we did have a a pretty lengthy discussion around this uh as well and there was overwhelming support that we did not want to create that confusion for the designers uh Erica and then um our council member Briggs and then council member Cornell I appreciate the um perspective that the uh the committee took on this I think that was the appropriate approach I um you're putting an RFP out for a design process and we need to make this simple thank you councilmember Cornell yeah I think I'm just gonna echo or build on what Erica said some of this feels really overly prescriptive and the RFP calls for um you know a lot of community engagement and I would just caution this group to to not to not presume to understand you know what the community actually wants and to to put so much of this I liked the fact that the RFP was you know gave really solid guard rails you know within which to work um and this just this just feels really um myopic and some it makes assumptions around what the public might want for this space and and I'm not comfortable with that so I just want to go on record is that Jen do you mean these amendments or do you mean what what we presented earlier no no I think what you presented earlier was was great I'm I am fine with proceeding with the RFP as it is um I think these amendments are just super overly prescriptive for where we are and I think would stifle um some of the responses we might get back from firms who would you know be willing to do this work um and I do think that it also sort of makes assumptions on what the public at large in our community engagement process would look like by you know baking all this in at this stage I will indicate I agree with you council member Cornell I think uh that uh the idea behind having a sort of a broad um forward-thinking um open-ended approach is going to yield us with a lot of results where as if we try and narrow we will cut out opportunity so uh Frank I I just wanna echo my support for Jen's comments and uh Erica that and I think the group and individually we've discussed this with um Alan and I I think what we we all want is to create something that has the potential to be these other things but not to over prescribe these other things at this stage uh if we don't succeed in getting the physical space um as a public asset than all these other wonderful ideas you know will not be possible so uh a building the commons Etc I think those things are only possible if we are successful in getting this scope completed getting the design study started and see where this takes us let's not over prescribe it at the front end thank you Frank uh and I see Jen and Jeff both up their hands up I think that's carry over from last time Frankie beer is up to so um unless there are any other comments um what I'd like to propose then we have this meeting is publicly available um we've uh recorded uh all of these comments uh I'd like to I'm going to review them uh afterwards and I'd like to have uh uh the committee um grant me the ability to take into consideration any comments that seem to have majority support reject any comments that don't seem to have majority support and make some amendments I will send it back out for public posting and then I'd like to have a conversation with the staff at the parks department utilizing that document is that something the community is willing to grant me um the ability to do uh going forward I didn't quite get it I didn't quite get it what do you mean by majority support I didn't quite understand what was proposed closed captioning not available if there are changes make them as as what seemed to be the direction of the committee well if the direction of the committee is no I do not approve Alan real quick I didn't actually call on you yet Steve still has the floor so Steve I was just answering your question yeah I I appreciate that I guess my um larger comment is I just want a chance to read more fully those comments I thought I I followed along with Alan's discussion but I haven't had a chance to read them I agree with the comment I kind of like the flavor of a lot of the sentiment there I don't know that I agree with all of the granular changes um and I'm also inclined towards what council member Cornell mentioned in terms of not over prescribing uh with regard to the space but kind of giving the hints um to the to the bidders as to what what they ought to consider so I want to I I think I'm in favor of what you described Adam I think you're taking a lot of the responsibility on yourself to try to sort of distill the discussion and make some modifications to get to a document that we can then float to the parks team Park staff with a straight face um I guess like I said I want a chance to read the comments and read the the whole proposal kind of with its with this discussion tonight in mind um the other comment I'll make is that are we 100 sure that it's just Parks or is there DDA is there anybody else that needs to be sort of ground floor with this document so with that I'm sorry for talking so long but those are my thoughts on that no that's okay and I I think what I'd like to suggest based on what you just said Steve is certainly want to give folk because they are everyone is seeing this these uh Allen's amendments tonight um I'd like to see Chris if we could uh uh um pass these these amendments out and also uh you know when I give maybe through the weekend we'll take a look see if there's any uh Reflections Steve and others as you take a look at them and see if you'd like to send any comments back you can do that and I can send another document out we could post those both publicly so that we don't have any transparency issues Chris is that something you can do yes so to um what I'm going to do is I'm going to create that into a PDF and upload it um to uh agenda making it so that everyone can see it okay that's great thank you very much for that so we'll do that we'll do two things we'll we'll upload Alan's amendments to the agenda uh and Chris Tudy has those so you can take her there and then we'll give you through the weekend you know on Monday uh through Monday to uh take a look and see if there are any feedback around those and I will make some adjustments at that point in time send out a revised document let us know uh uh let's put it this way yes we don't want to be in violation of any Oma so we won't communicate on the document but if there are uh if uh you know hopefully that will be a reflection of of where um you know where we're at based on the amendment so um and and Steve to your second Point regarding staff um one thing that we did talk about with Heather previously was and she had worked out within the city uh departmental uh interface was that this the parks department would be the ones leading it so I do give them their their due at uh you know coordinating however they choose within the city structure you if you had described or you were going to write out exactly what you thought was going to be the process when we get review of what comes what parks is working on how Library green gets involved in the review of this or that that whole process after what we send to them how do we hear what comes back and what is the process of actually reviewing the uh the responses to the RFP so that in the discussion of part with parks that should produce some sort of working plan that's in the work somehow in your conversations yeah I mean I think it's fairly open-ended right now considering uh the last conversation we had with parks and this was a little while ago any agreement at that point in time was we would take a look and take a First Step at the scope and then come back and so what that process is going to look like I think we'll come back and ask them um you know but we have not gotten to that point no I will keep you posted Alan thank you Alice once again too much has been said between the time I thought um but I think the one point that Steve made and others have made Erica and uh is that there is a time for the granularity and that would be in the time when we haven't a successful bidder for the RFP and they are developing the process for engagement and for the design of a space that might meet the resulting agreement about uh what kind of things we want this is way too granular if I'm and so I I just have to say also that there are some there is some wording which I which I would not want to accept at this stage and the word Commons is part of it um in that before the um proposal a was considered in past the name of the um RFI response that um I authored and Allen signed the the last change that I wanted to make was not to have comments on that um I mean the title of that and that title is now owned by the city and so they would first perhaps need to agree to The Branding of that um because the proposal that I wrote went to the city it is city property and therefore there are some intellectual property um questions in in that but mainly this all of this could come out easily in the public engagement and none of this is in stone we probably will give up a lot of control over this once it goes to Parks but we will not give up all contributions so um that's all I want to say now and I'm pretty tired all right thanks Alice all right uh Ellen do you have anything last comments to add I think we've got a direction on this at this point yeah well since nothing is written in in stone I don't have any stones but yeah well Alice what you just said where we began was the a2c to Ann Arbor Community Commons Alan I don't want to talk about it I'm sorry okay you know the point of this was to talk about the RFP so let's uh wrap it up then I think we've got good direction so Chris is going to post Alan's comments uh or Alan's uh amendments here so they're publicly accessible take a look uh and then I'm gonna make some uh you know um changes to the document based on where I think folks are at in our public discussion this evening and then we will try and start talking with Parks um as quick as possible here and uh that will be a topic for uh the next agenda of this group uh in addition to some working group agendas in the interim so I'll pull ahead and pull this down and I think um we can move on to Ellen you already indicated actually you already spoke to the other uh documents as reference points those are in the activation working group area there were two some interesting things I just scanned them uh Alan if you have one minute if you'd like to summarize either of those two documents or just pass them as points of reference it's fine as well yeah I know it just just passed them on reimagining the commons beautiful Innovative projects in places all over the country and the first one I sent about Parks there's a lot of good ideas and I think we immerse ourselves in those it's all it's good for us to see what other places are are doing whatever they whatever they yeah call it so I didn't have any further I did want to though in the activation part if we if we can move for a moment to our next uh yeah working group the Earth stay is coming up yeah Jeff Crockett gave a very nice description we got some great music we'll have some excellent speakers we're going to have exhibits of organizations what they're doing for the earth and the climate and good stuff I would hope that the initiative the uh the initiating committee is sponsoring this I would hope that this is our function in some way that the Council of the commons would say this is a good idea and encourage the city uh Council and City staff and to all come and make this really a community event concerned with the Earth we share and the environment and participate in another way people and so I would be very happy if we would just say yes to the Earth day and be able to pass that on Hope is a city a newsletter could put a notice of it in often the parks uh people put in notices of what's going on in the parks around town but they sort of leave out the center of the city Central Park even if it's not so administered and now this is opportunity sort of activation to get the city agencies more engaged so I could I think I sent to Chris he had the current leaflets on the uh on the earth day that he could post up but anyhow it should be a good program I hope everybody will come and I hope we could say a yes to it that could be passed on to the city council and City staff and make this uh center of the city this will be the 10th 10th time we've done this in in the Commons Library lot area since 2014.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
no action will be taken on this case right now Expo no motion no second that's right expulsion number three 2022-23 all in favor I mean emotion second all in favor aye annual review 2023-23 all in favor no motion first second all second all in favor aye annual review number 14 2022-23 motion second oh second all in favor aye adopt resolution number 2223-11 authorizing the insurance uh issuance Insurance of the 2023 2024 Tax and Revenue anticipation notes for the Apple Valley Unified School District and requesting the border of Supervisors of San Bernardino County to issue said notes may I have a motion second all right this is something we have to do with them all in favor aye consent agenda we can evoke consent we can improve these all-in-one motion if there's any questions speak now okay we'll pull item number 21 we're going to vote on the other one and then we'll come back to it I would like to pull item number 19 to get clarification of the text okay 19 and 21 have both been pulled can we have a vote on the remainders of motion items one to 18 20 22 to 20 to 45. okay a second on that I'll second that all right all in favor aye okay let's go back and um let's take you Gary on number 19.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
thanks Alan all right um so with that we're going to wrap up the activation there are a couple of linked items in that agenda item um the next item is in the next agenda items we've already got one which is just to have um the results of any of these RFP discussions that come back from Park staff are there any other items that uh that we'd like to touch on I know I have been working to reach out to a couple of other community uh other community communities rather who we have worked with or spoken with about coming to speak as some guest speaker similar to how we get with David Cullen at the city of Detroit but there are certainly other opportunities for that too are there any other ideas here that we'd like to have included in that well actually the the question was raised about what is the organizational form of this Gathering of resources and so I would like that on the agenda of what is can be the organizational form I did talk with Lawrence uh the County Deeds man the castenbaum about how a Commons would actually be formally organized and I think that's the question of how these very disparate properties can be brought together in a unified administration of management on the agenda all right Alan thanks Steve and then uh councilmember bricks uh this is my second to last meeting so the next meeting is my last uh and that's because my term on the parks advisory commission is uh over my last meeting there is on May 16th so we think we have identified the lucky winner from Parks advisory commission who will take the role of liaison um uh Rachel skyless has actually been observing the meeting here this this evening in the sort of in the in the lobby if you will um and she didn't get scared off yet even though despite you know us showing what we really are like as a as a committee and when I first got on this thing because the opportunity came up within Parks um for the this liaison uh I volunteered right away because I thought this would be the most Ann Arbor thing ever and having been born and raised here uh I felt like that would be something I did not want to miss and this has not disappointed um I thought it's been a very good discussion and and honestly it's a difficult discussion because it uh it's a topic that doesn't have a lot of easy answers it's a complicated site it's got it and so I think it's really been worthy of our um time and energy to get it from where where it was to where it is now and so um I'm I'm happy to have been part of that Journey but like I say I'm I'm out of here like this whether I like it or not my role is expiring so I would put that on the topics for next meeting um just because I'll be stepping out and the new one will probably be stepping in and so to sort of make that transition um uh part of the discussion so what you're asking for is a celeb celebratory uh evening to celebrate Steve uh specifically second that that motion yeah very good we can arrange that all right councilmember breaks you have the last word here and then we're going to move into public comment and a journey very good thanks for all your service here Steve um I I did want to let folks snide on if we need to have this as the next agenda item but um we did receive a memo back from um from City Administration regarding the food truck um memo uh so check memo responsive back to the recommendations um that city council had made and and the commission had made earlier so just wanted to let folks know that that's um will be distributed probably directly out to the commission um at some point attacked the next city council agenda um and I would actually like suggest I I don't think that that Allen's recommendations for the discussion around management of the face or the commons is necessarily appropriate we have a I didn't understand what you were just saying relax yeah I I Alan had made a recommendation for next agenda item around management of the spaces of Commons I think that'll I think that'll um management the space will come out later okay okay very good all right thank you very much councilmember Briggs for all that um we're going to move into uh public comment uh Chris do we have any other members of the public who got their hands raised yes Robert black is just racist hand Robert you'll be given three minutes you are allowed to speak thank you thank you it's echoing I think again yeah Robert I think you've got your uh you probably have uh your mic on and your computer on with the volume that is typically what causes that issue it is and try it one more time here um if I speak more quietly no unfortunately it's it's definitely I've done this before so I've experienced this problem you are um and uh it is certainly you've got two devices on no I just have one one just one so why don't you call that in we'll we'll get to any other speakers and once you hop off and we'll get you at the last word thank you [Music] okay Chris any other members of the public okay uh Daniel Adams you'll be given three minutes this week thanks Dan uh good evening Dan Adams again 1016 Daniel Street um before I begin I want to acknowledge the effort that went into the RFP document and especially the contributions made by volunteers City staff um even folks that I don't agree with on the merits of the project I think those those efforts deserve to be acknowledged and respected um I say that because I think I need to speak you know plainly about what I've heard tonight about the stakes of the RFP that you're discussing I think they're significant um the costs of treading water here are going to continue to incur grave damage on the city and City residents who might have benefited from the Investments that could have been made absent the intervention of this project so my email to the council from two months ago requested an update on the Project's financial status including a summary of the library green conservancy's fundraising progress fundraising plan and financial support for the RFP I think this is a reasonable ask given the stake to this project and the public commitments that are going to be made to fund it I didn't hear that tonight and I'm asking again that the next meeting include that update there are Library green officers on this Council we ought to be able to hear that the public deserves that with respect to the RFP this body had two years to deliberate and get this document ready to issue you have a working group task to that objective and you should have been ready to issue the document the moment you had the resources to do it but it's clear from tonight's dialogue that you're not um much of this meeting has been spent reviewing and even debating branding choices in the draft document that hasn't even been socialized with City Park staff meanwhile the project itself is years behind schedule has no funding source and the city is continuing to burn millions of year in Revenue that could be plowed into various city funding priorities including housing support for the homeless all kinds of things that we need money for and don't have I don't understand the lack of urgency especially from the library green members on this Council who were champing at the bit to plan and build this project in 2018.
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on number 19 regarding the approval of the recommended Literature list for the Apple Valley School District part of the text states that the committee is composed of a group of teachers who put together this this review list and in my conversations with the superintendent I have been I have a concern that parents and the community should also have input on this and in my conversations with the superintendent I've been told that the books on this list have previously been approved by by parents and the community and so on so the text indicates or implies to me that only teachers put together this list but actually it was previously approved by parents and the community which which meets my concern so I would just like the the text clear clarified on that item we will and um board policy 6161.11 actually addresses supplementally supplementary materials and indicates that those will go through the same process that any curriculum adoptions go through so um just for the Public's knowledge on this piece we have had core lit pieces in this district for you as I entered the district in 2003 those lists were never put together other than by grade level through curriculum committees I'm sitting looking at the the curriculum groups at the back that worked on these um some of the books were in place when I began teaching in nineteen 91 21 1991.
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I wish these folks had the same level of energy that they had plowed into defeating the course basis project into creating this park and issuing this RFP the rfp's community value section reflects I think an acknowledgment the first one to my knowledge of the harsh Financial realities that this project faces that there is no money in the Parks budget nor political will within the community to pass a large supporting millage to to build this project I think those are true statements the omission of Library greens fundraising capacity is also I think a tacit acknowledgment that they are not on any time scale this project I think if these statements are true then you are as an Advisory Board of the city council obligated to inform the city council and the public of these facts objectively clearly and plainly without false optimism meaningless euphemisms like activation and pleasant sounding bromides let's be clear about what we're talking about the statement that we are taking a deliberate activation focused approach within the center of the city that is nonsense and I mean that literally I don't know and I'm not meant to know what it means thank you Dan any other members of the public Chris okay we're going to try uh Robert black one more time hopefully the echo has been fixed Robert Robert I think I fixed it okay um kudos to council member board store thank you for your service and I trust that you're the next liaison that comes in will continue the kind of respectful dialogue that you create and I really appreciate that um just also to say remember this is called the Council of the commons and so you refer to comments twice a couple times or two two times in Ann arborist history there's a Downtown Commons you could you could explore this there's already a sentiment from this council member behavior and council member Henny that the commons is an important future tradition if you look at one of the other RFI responses which I helped put together and Champion it talks about learning from the past and then the present and the future there is a trend already to the Future that has to do with this idea and I think you could include some language that at least sets the stage to move into this discussion okay the second thing is um there was a bullet delineated uh from uh section three deliverables unanticipated results that Heather's safe Earth Miss safe Earth has actually included in here from the early language that was stricken from here and it said includes a year-round Civic Center building if feasible and what I heard councilman Crown chair Zemke say broad thinking open-ended approach to not cut out opportunities don't cut out the opportunity of the possibility of a building look at 23 as a task force report it says we have heard enthusiasm for a Civic Center Commons building they would host activities such as Commons decision making space Cafe Community Theater Auditorium celebration room art gallery and Studio Visitor Center on and on do not preclude that it is only the city and you have no resources that's a that's an old Paradigm that no longer applies here um I know there are many people who have money in this town that would support this if you have the right Vision um and also council member um Amber Schmidt I really appreciate your planning professional approach here and same thing with council member um Alice Ralph um during this this session in section two site detail of the block I provided an example of a professionally rendered block on Google Earth Pro that does exactly what council member Hammerschmidt was saying and I think if you add that graphic correctly this version shows the bike paths on it the one that's in there is unprofessional it's not Ortho corrected I would not use it as a professional therapy sequence and then lastly I just want to reiterate the fact that activation is occurring on this thing and to the extent that the Council of the commons is championing the activation Earth Day for example you've heard some good things about that join in and see I wrote a song last year that was sung there and it will be sung again this year find a spirit in this place that you can see in activating the commons and then also join with with Mr Crockett and the group to foreign and let's get some activation going that'll that'll bring the spirit of the community together here so thank you Bravo and your good work tonight thank you thank you Robert any other members of the public Chris [Music] okay um nope no there's no more excellent thank you so much Chris thanks you for your facilitation of our meeting this evening your first one welcome to Ann Arbor uh in the most Ann Arbor way to quote uh steep workstorff tonight so um I think we've got a good uh tactic uh if uh Chris will post uh for the public Allen's amendments uh and then I will start on Monday um making any edits to the document based on our recording this evening so uh thank you very much to everyone who participated this evening thank you for the time we're pretty close to time we have a motion to adjourn all in favor say aye aye excellent any of it posed thank you so much everyone have a wonderful evening uh and we'll talk soon thank you
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and uh so I just want you to we did realize that the um statement of the public review process was not included in that and so um I said to Mr RC absolutely let's pull it let's talk about it so that everybody knows um in the last 10 years in ed services everything has gone through the public review process any new books coming forward will have a curriculum committee um that will actually sit down they will review those and then they will move them forward based on grade level for um review of the community and be posted as all other textbooks would be posted thank you very good as a matter of fact when I was the president yes oh yeah yeah as a matter of fact when I came to the district um some of the books that are on there my kids actually experienced the text because my my kids went through this school this district from uh kindergarten we did not have preschool from kindergarten to 12th grade so I do remember some of those books coming home and I do remember the suffering my son had for one of those books because he just arrived from um from overseas and English as we speak here is not the English that they spoke there this was the British English and they were reading something that was a little different and my poor son struggled with dma sahensha and so when I saw the book I just cracked up laughing I called my son after I looked through it to say guess what that book is still in the books so yes this has always been the case it's just this is the first time that we are seeing the folk the total compilation of all the books okay thank you it's going to be a list of each security I can address that this list has already been reviewed by that's all been reviewed by parents future books you will absolutely have the opportunity to look at and as we add that and it's not only just teachers the whole Community can look at them yeah okay all right now and and I pulled item number 21 because I wanted clarification on the California Community Schools partnership program yes um because we don't have I I don't know if any of you have full clarification of what that entails and why we need a consultant for for this so I wanted to have clarification going moving yeah we have been approved for the planning Grant only the planning Grant and we have applied for it um Our intention is to potentially apply in the future for the full grant for several of our schools in the district this is a grant that supports us to provide services to our students that are outside of education meaning Dental Services Counseling Services all of the wraparound services that families actually leave a school to go find and sometimes can't receive them and so the Community Schools Grant is a new Grant um the planning Grant we're in we are in the second round of the planning Grant maybe third round and now we can we can apply moving forward for the full implementation Grant the reason we have requested a consultant is because we would like to go through processes by which we can identify what our program is going to look like with input from the community community facilitated by somebody that isn't within our district as a district member so did we put out an RFP to get a consultant with this not in this case because he's an expert in this field we're focused on trauma-informed instruction things that students need outside of school which we want to support which is the mental health capacity and he's a leading expert in that rfps usually have to go out to alert when it's a large fund that we are going to spend in this case if you want to direct us to go to an RFP we can do so it'll just slow the process down any more questions okay then we have a motion to approve 19 and 21.
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second I'll second it all right all in favor all right staff report for not doing that no closed session of second order I think that's about it well then what I need is a motion to adjourn ing all right second one second all right we're out of here thanks for coming right I have science stuff
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it is 5 30 and um we have an unusually large group with us today which is really exciting as a work session we're just going to get started before we start um if you would all with me just take a moment of silence for the children and families in Nashville and all the other places where we have to deal with violent death of children so take a moment of silence with me thank you very much I appreciate that time I just went to a conference to learn how to be a better school board member and as such I'm going to start every meeting with a little statement good evening as president of the Board of Education we extend a warm welcome to everyone present and to our television viewers the board the superintendent and I are pleased that you've joined us as we celebrate achievement review information and make policy decisions related to the effective operation of the Lawrence Township Public Schools this is a work session and all items discussed are voted on this evening have been posted as required by state law as the MSD Lawrence Township Board of Education we're here to set goals listen to the reports of the superintendent approve budgets contracts and Personnel appointments and make policy for the district we are not here to make management decisions or solve the problems of individuals management is the responsibility of the superintendent meetings of the board are open to the public the work sessions are not meetings with the public therefore comments from the audience will be reserved for our regular board meetings the next regular board meeting will occur on April 24th and we will be in the PD room as this room will be used for voting I'm pleased you've taken the time this evening to join us we're very proud of this school system and thank you for your interest in MSD Lawrence Township Schools thank you all right um the first item uh Mr Smith is an update on our Blue Ribbon facilities Madam president members board Dr Smith we continue on LC just to mention there's about 85 percent complete of the building in itself so we are starting to see the end of the light at the end of the tunnel on these projects there on the West End we're looking uh forward to turning that back over to the building by the end of May it's a new senior Cafe on that West Side connected to the cafe as well as the media center in that entryway LC pools Move Along decking goes on and I believe this week we're going to be setting some concrete short walls uh there on the west side of that pool Ln demo continues on they've been working on the inside working their way out phase two classrooms this is six classrooms the LGI room uh or small theater if you will that is being renovated at the present time Ellen Poole continues they had drained the pool and uh what they're doing now is putting the uh tile work down on the sidewalls and work their way out over the deck We are continuing with our HVAC with middle schools and here at lecc and again getting ready to start full Renovations on these on the two middle schools and part renovation on this building starting in June fabulous board members do you have any questions for Mr Smith on this update Madam president the only thing I wanted to point out was was kind of exciting when I learned of this um Mr Smith I when I spoke with Dr Smith earlier he said that this was that these two High School Renovations were the eighth largest construction projects in Indiana is that correct correct pretty incredible project it's pretty incredible that we've got all of this work happening in our district yeah Mr Smith up again can you fill us in on the request for the approval of construction sorry Wendy I'm sorry yes just um just for public knowledge on if as we began our Middle School Renovations will this interfere with any jump start programming now the middle schools will have full jump start in the building we've been working with the building to section off so that the students and staff will be free and clear of construction but we'll continue with both thank you for that clarification sir thank you Miss Puckett um okay the request approval for construction bids on lecc Renovations Madam president members board Dr Smith we receive bids on March the 24th there were four bid categories and we had 10 contractors bidding the bids came in about 2.1 million below our estimates uh good competitive bids and the GMP contract for powers and Sons to renovate lecc is 11 million thirty thousand four hundred seventy one dollars and we'll recommend this later on in the board meeting thank you any questions from the board I do have one Mr Smith I read in some of the documents ahead of time that we came in under budget in this in this bid what happens to the remaining budget that was originally allocated for this project oh we set that aside for the entire project for some of the unforeseen things that may take place during the the renovation we have those dollars set aside there to make sure it is completed okay any more questions um and just a quick note the board does not usually vote on items presented at the meeting unless it's in the case of um this kind of building construction time is of the essence so we probably wouldn't vote on a strategic plan at a work session for instance but these kinds of budget items we do vote on okay um curriculum update this is uh now this would be Mr noder are you with us Stephanie he's going to start us up okay okay good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board this evening Mr Andy Harsha our director of secondary education we'll be presenting our math program review information and recommendations for adoption good evening Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board I bring to you this evening are recommendations from our K-12 math program review uh on the next slide you can see a little bit of background uh in 2011 public law changed from the state to more of a local control on our curricular recommendations so we as the local school district set the procedures for what a review will look like and also which materials we will adopt for us moving forward I will start with our elementary as you can see there we have not reviewed our math curricula in about six years our teams and math Specialists have worked together to really focus on our nctm that's National Council of teachers of mathematics and our goal was to become very systematic and make sure that we had a similar approach across all of our elementary school and again aligning to our state process standards and always we are looking at our curricular adoptions to make sure that we are promoting positive identity development through our resources um the next slide shows we did have a number of Pilots that were occurring at buildings at different grade levels throughout our district um and you can see there we had quite a variety on the next slide I want to take just a minute to pause before I get into all the details of what that review looked like our teachers and our building leaders play a tremendous role in this process and we have a number of Administrators and teachers that took part in our elementary math review so I would ask at this time if you took part in our elementary math program review would you please stand and be recognized thank you so much um as you can see we typically start by doing a little bit of research through Ed reports and a number of other resources to make sure that the pilots that were or the curriculum that we're piloting are established and receive high ratings as you can see there we've had teachers from grades K through six we're in violated pilot invited to Pilot those various curricula we had a number of shared opportunities including the nctm conference different School visits and our large group meetings at those meetings teachers were engaged in research articles we previewed our data we had conversations about what we were you know trying to create a common vision and then of course updates on all the different Pilots that were going on throughout the district on the next slide you can see a few bullet points from the vision that was created at our elementary school they were really focused on a student-centered curriculum that created that positive math identity they wanted an evidence-based program that focused around problem solving strategies instead of simple application of memorized algorithmic or computational procedures um and as you can see on the next slide after all of that work our elementary team has bring brings to you this evening a recommendation for reveal math again trying not to read each line to you but uh it is important to know they were meet expectations on our Ed reports um direct alignment with our instructional model and those eight nctm principles that were part of our Focus there's some SEL component into the lessons all of them of course promote mathematical discourse we want our students to be talking about math and engaging in math in groups um and uh again you can see there are a number of hooks that engage our Young Learners um so that is our recommendation for the elementary and I'll pause here for just a moment before we get into the secondary to see if there are any questions that I might be able to answer about those slides I do have a question I'm assuming that the materials and span as well for there are in addition to some embedded language supports um yep so thank you and then teachers says every teacher in the district have a voice and turn terms of are they able to vote on what curricular resource or is it just the Educators that were in the committee that's a great question and typically the um the option to Pilot a curriculum is open to all buildings so we communicate that through the building principles and the math leaders our math Specialists for example at the elementary school so anybody that wanted to Pilot was able to do that and then we invited representatives from each building to actually come to the large group meetings so they were able to be a voice for the other teachers back at their school final question what was when you choices was reveal were vfar the choice of most Educators in the district yes and um I don't want to necessarily give a specific percentage but it was the overwhelming Choice from the teachers it was really down to three and that was the overwhelming recommendation yes thank you very much um I wanna I think it's important for us to be a head of the narratives that are currently out there that are in our learning spaces and so CRT for my understanding is a Collegiate level courses that are the intersection of race and law so I just want to be dutiful and asked to do any of is any of what is being presented to us tonight would you call any of that CRT I hate having to ask that but it's the narrative that's out there no I would not thank you I have a similar question um just for those members of the public I think there's a general between the difference between state standards and curriculum could you please just take a moment to articulate what we're talking about here when we're talking about curriculum yes and um so if you think about our state standards those are the skills and and knowledge base that the state determines is appropriate for students at each grade level to master in order to um to be successful our curriculum is truly a resource it is part of that equation but another really important part of that equation is the people that are here tonight also in terms of our instructional framework we use that curriculum as a a resource as a support to give us instructional materials to give us practice problems to give us assessments to help that teacher help students achieve the standards I have a few questions um first of all I don't know that I'm understanding everything I hear about the curriculum but we still teach multiplication tables addition tables to our youngest Learners correct we we still that memorization process is still important yes and um my um my area of most confidence is at the secondary level I am trying to do my best to represent our elementary folks here this evening but yes um the the the the math is the math what we really are trying to work on is how do we support the students that are struggling with the math and also different ways that we can present the math to make it meaningful for our students good and to that remark um can you describe I think in the room we understand this but can you describe for anyone that may be listening two things can you describe what it means to to instill in the student a positive identity with math and also and maybe an example of an SEL component in the lessons so um the first part is about students seeing themselves as mathematicians and seeing themselves as being able to be successful at math what I do know about reveal math which is the recommendation for elementary is that um many of the lessons include your math story is what it's called where students think about how that math might be relatable into their own life and also another thing that I know is for both of our choices this evening they talk about multiple entry points for a student so when students are given opportunities to have a discussion in class they may not know all of the ways to solve that particular problem but they can engage in that conversation that's their entry point into the learning so that was the answer to question one and I'm going to be very honest that I don't um I can't give you a specific example today about the SEL and how it is a specific example of what that might look like but I can't tell you that they are embedded the SEL components are embedded into every unit of reveal math great okay one other just point of clarification of the questions are any other school districts in Indiana using this curriculum they are in fact are um look at my cheat sheet here for a minute if you'll let me I know that our math team reached out to a few districts in our area um I think they talked to go ahead Troy so specifically within Marion County um Pike or excuse me Warren Township Decatur Township and Pike Township all have adopted reveal and they adopted it last school year and so um team members from our committee were able to connect with both Warren and with Pike through a virtual conversation and working from their implementation experiences and then we actually conducted a school visit to Decatur Township to see it in action so those three school districts have been very helpful and collaborative in supporting our process of making this recommendation ladies and gentlemen that's a voice of our academic team Mr Troy nolder our chief academic officer he does have a nickname but I won't say it from the 1980s he's been on a lot of these Zoom meetings thank you very much Mr noderer we appreciate that input very much um if it's all right with the board then we'll go on with 2.04 the curriculum update for the English language arts adoption he's finished math he's got it oh I'm sorry I paused there just to ask specific about elementary and I'm sorry I will tell you that this is going to be a little bit shorter because many of the procedures and the first slide for example are the same but I do want to take a moment I know we've got a number of our secondary principles and some of our Math teachers and leaders that are here and again I would ask if they please be stand and be recognized [Applause] and again I just want to publicly uh recognize all of the folks that participated again we have asked them to do research we have asked them to Pilot and try something brand new um during the school year they have attended conferences and been away from their family they've attended meetings after school and really given a lot of themselves to this process and we just genuinely appreciate all that they've put into this for our secondary math review process again very similar we looked at our Ed reports we reached out to our buildings and asked them to Pilot a few different products that were out there we created some of those same shared experiences we attended the nctm conference there was a virtual conference at a lot of our secondary folks attended we made some school visits and then of course we had our meetings where we just tried to figure out what else is out there we talked about shaping that vision for what secondary math should be for our kids and then of course gave them opportunities to talk and build a consensus around our recommendation on the next slide you can see a little bit about the vision I just put a few bullet points there about what was important to this group of teachers and leaders that student-centered curriculum where we really are focused on the student uh and being the doer of math not the receiver real world and authentic opportunities promoting student engagement high levels of rigor that will align with our instructional framework that positive math identity and then of course a lot of we believe that our our teachers believe that the more information they can understand about what their students know and don't know the more effective they can be in helping them Reach those high levels of learning and then of course I know you asked a question about our language supports and again that was very important to our teachers so on the next slide you can see there our recommendation for grades seven and eight as well as at the high school algebra geometry and Algebra 2 is in Vision math I want to remind uh everyone that are upper level courses for example are IB and ACP and AP courses those textbooks and curriculum are dictated by the providing institution so um there aren't an extensive list of those because they frequently change and then lastly our high schools have been piloting part of this process they piloted Delta math and they would like to recommend that that remains part of their curricular resources so again a quick sheet there uh of the why for Envision it scored meets expectation in all the categories on Ed reports it was tightly aligned with our vision that secondary math teachers created they've got a lot of new highly engaging digital content videos and images um links for students to utilize a strong focus on academic vocabulary and support for all of our Learners including our English language Learners lots and lots of teachers supports and resources for planning instruction and assessment and every lesson focuses on student discussion and collaboration which is where we want our students to be so we also we're very pleased although it was not a mandated part of our outcome that the middle schools and the high schools would utilize the same curriculum but it actually ended up that way so that really will be nice that will have alignment from seventh grade all the way up through algebra two we'll be utilizing the same product Delta math just a couple quick hitters there this is not a full-blown curriculum it truly is going to serve as a resource it allows our teachers to assign specific practice problems to students and see the students work and get notes and it allows some really great digital interaction there integrates nicely with canvas and most importantly what the high school leaders said was that many of those cases those other textbooks that I just spoke to don't provide a lot of practice problems other than what's in the book and Delta math provides that for them students and teachers both were really really pleased with that during the pilot so when students are working independently at home you can see there are support videos and some other things there so that was part of the recommendation and and that is uh the end of that any questions about the secondary recommendation I just had a question thank you Mr Harsha for non-educators like myself can you explain again on the the products so enVision Math would run up through Algebra 2 is that correct that is correct and then um Delta math would be trigonometry and calculus no I'm sorry so Envision does go up through algebra two and most of the resources do because beyond that there are lots of different math courses so most of our of the publishing companies will have a a standard product all the way up through algebra 2.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Delta math is actually a school-wide license so all students at Lawrence North all students and teachers at Lawrence Central all of our students would have access to Delta math there are resources that are also good for Algebra 1 and geometry but particularly it was our upper level teachers who said we don't have access to these types of practice problems that students can do when they're trying to you know work at home or they need some additional practice and so that was a really important resource for them okay thank you for explaining that one I just want to Express gratitude to the teachers who have spent their time and talents in um in really supporting these uh recommendations I know it does not um it's hard work and it's a lot of looking through various Publishers so a lot of gratitude there um but also just wanted to ask or also Express gratitude for looking at Ed reports I know that is such a fabulous fabulous resource so love that Lawrence Township is using that the Dual credit ACP IB AP courses that curriculum I know for example we were able to adopt in the district where I work Bedford Freeman and worth for um IB is that something that is completely dictated by IB or is there Choice within the district to be able to choose from a variety of different vendors my understanding is that that is dictated by the providing institution so they will say if you're going to offer our dual credit for example of course this is the text that we use at Indiana University so this is the text that you will use how quick how how often does that shift in change oh I think it depends sometimes when there are department head changes at the universities and things like that things can change some of the techs have stayed the same for years and years and others seem to change every two or three and what support is given to our Educators in terms of professional development for all of these curricular resources great question so um starting with the folks that were part of this math program review they are going to be leaned on to be some of our building level experts because they've already had a chance to dig in a little bit another thing we obviously will um as part of this adoption we will be purchasing some professional formalized professional development over the summer so we will have you know launch training and everything from how do you log in and all the different resources that are available another thing that we have started to do which has really been beneficial is that we pilot these curriculum during our jump start programming so for example this summer in June when student are coming both are teachers and our students will have access to these curricula here so they can start to get familiar with them and that way when it hits in August they're they're ready to go thank you again for all the hard work you bet okay um just so one more question um the videos that we have connected with these curricula um are those in English and Spanish uh that is a great question and I don't know the answer um but I will sure uh find out for you I will find out thank you thank you thank you okay and um those of you those of you secondary teachers who have worked so hard on this please forgive my passing over secondary math um so now it is time to hear a little bit more about the curriculum update as it relates to the English language arts and for sixth grade yes Madam president Dr Smith members of the board tonight I bring an update on our language arts review process for sixth grade in April of 2022 we had asked the school board to extend the sixth grade language arts review so that they could be allowed to Pilot springboard for this school year the seventh and 8th grade did adopt springboard in the spring of 2022 and the sixth grade teachers want an opportunity to try out that curriculum as well and at this time they would like to bring forth for your recommendation to adopt springboard officially for sixth grade I'd be happy to take any questions any questions board I don't have any questions um all right curriculum update again science adoption yes Madam president Dr Smith members of the board tonight Chris mceloon our assistant director for Workforce Readiness will come forward and share our science stem program review and recommendations for adoption [Music] good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board I'm here to present the stem program review and our science curriculum adoption uh background of context so this first slide here just reiterates the point that public law allows our Lea to make these decisions about um curriculum on the next slide this slide discusses the Lawrence Township stem for all process that was conducted in 2018 uh so to kind of frame this up in 2018 we had a 45 member committee assembled members of the community including representatives from business and higher education and families all participated in that this was kind of a launch point for a larger initiative that launched that included bringing on elements of Project Lead the Way the kind of formation of our elementary maker spaces the introduction of computer science for all kids in Lawrence Township and the the development of what became the Inspire series that was powered by nepris which we'll we'll talk about in later slides uh this last round what we did is we Revisited that process with a 35-member committee that committee was broken into these six subcommittees to address things from elementary stem education to high school science classes uh to the again that computer science and Makerspace this slide represents the process that was common across that K-12 curriculum it's kind of a four-phase process that we've developed to to go from building a vision to implementing a curriculum this was something that we did back in 2018 uh the implementation process in 2018 was interrupted with a minor hiccup called a global pandemic and we have been kind of trying to get our feet back underneath us ever since so this stem for all 2.0 process really was a good healthy way for us to get our feet back underneath us and come up with the recommendations we have for you today the next slide talks about our elementary stem so let's let's start there uh the subcommittee for uh for the elementary stem decided to recommend an expansion of our existing programming so in 2018 the recommendation was that we would have one Project Lead the Way module implemented at each grade level kind of as a start uh and we had invested in those modules we began implementing those modules later just on the heel of the curriculum we introduced a jump start and jumpstart created the impetus to have another module of practically the way introduced the success of those two things has led to this recommendation of a full adoption and full expansion to four modules and at every grade level K through six we recognize that there's an important connection with literacy and so that's where the CK science comes in and a recommendation to connect with some additional literacy supports that provide some background knowledge to go along with those modules the next slide just gives you a little bit of why Project Lead the Way launch is good there's a lot of pieces here um but the I think the highlights include everything's available in Spanish natural Spanish so not just translated from English it is a major component of buildings your positive stem identity right so having kids have positive stem experiences at younger ages just kind of builds that that confidence and this curriculum really does directly align with our instructional model the next slide describes the secondary current reality it's been six years since our last science adoption we had amplify science was our curricular resources in grades seven and eight and nine through 12 kind of had a hodgepodge of different things all aligned but different providers for different courses Sciences kind of unique at the high school level and that you have several different curricular areas with lots of different curriculum providers for each the next slide talks about our recommendations so the secondary science level we've recommended the adoption of a couple different things I'm sorry this is the process we had participation from everybody so middle school and high school science departments were fully engaged and participating they attended multiple conferences attended the the science curriculum Caravan we piloted some things in the in the classrooms we've looked at modules from different vendors they attended vendor presentations and this group actually there are several members in the audience that I'd like to recognize so if I'm May I'd like to pause and recognize the members of that science secondary science group that worked so hard to make this presentation possible so secondary folks thank you okay on the next slide are the recommendations so for Middle School we have the twig science is the name of the curriculum twig science is a seven and eight adoption is what we're recommending here it is based on authentic phenomena so it starts with an anchor phenomena or experience something like um you know a example of a marsh that is dying out because of an invasive plant species could be an example and they show a photo Lapse video of the effect of that invasive species as an anchor phenomena and then that phenomena drives the rest of the curriculum throughout the rest of the the unit right it is all aligned with the new Indiana standards which are all aligned to the national standards the ngss and we felt like this curriculum really does support that positive identity development it has embedded language supports which are huge embedded reading ports right inside of the the curriculum itself and it really does build a nice skill based data and assessment system that isn't so heavily layered onto literacy as to make it impossible to really enter into so this is our middle school science recommendation the next slide is our high school science recommendation for this we're recommending the provider Savas there's a common platform across all courses which will help kind of streamline that transition As you move from one course to another you're using the same product just different content there's rigorous text embedded in all of that along with those phenomena right and there is a shift in kind of traditional labs to more Labs based on these rich experiences and Rich phenomena and we felt that Savas provided that there's additional course specific recommendations like Mr harsher mentioned for AP IB and ACP that would go along with again those that those specific providers that wouldn't necessarily align with Savas and then we're also recommending some additional equipment and lab materials be adopted to really beef up and modernize our science labs and our teacher leaders really did a fantastic job of identifying some of those that will really take us to a whole another level next I want to speak about computer science so computer science is wrapped into our our stem work here the T in the stem right the elementary level um we have a scope and sequence that we adopted based on the former standards the recommendation would be that we revisit that given that there are new standards out however in looking at those standards we discovered that the two curricula that we had already adopted in 2018 were actually kind of the natural national leaders in that uh in that field so easy Tech is one of those curriculums that's going to cover digital literacy and digital citizenship and then Tinker provides a scope and sequence for coding at Middle School level we're going to recommend that we expand Tinker to grades seven and eight for all students this is a little change right now if you want to continue your computer science work and you're inspired by that in elementary school you have to sign up for specific electives in computer science nothing wrong with that that's truly fantastic but it also leaves some students that choose other electives without additional supports so by having access to a a tool like Tinker for all kids they can use that tool to express their learning in other classes through coding but they can also continue on that path to learn more coding individually and independently I think that does it so questions comments concerns just have a comment I'm excited why am I excited I have a kiddo who is in school right now who the light switch did not come on until she was like junior year that stem was something that she was passionate about and it was from Project to Project Lead the Way in stem where the light switch came on so just to hear all of this um I'm really excited so I thank all of you because it literally like kids don't quite always listen to the parents but the Educators who kind of pour into that kind of help flip that switch on so I'm excited so if you guys see my son work on him we're trying to figure out which one of these that he's gonna do so thank you I completely agree this is so exciting again thank you so much to those Educators that worked so tirelessly on this process in the vein of thinking about our fabulous Educators in Lawrence Township I know you um shared that you are working to provide materials um I also know that as Educators many times we're going out and getting the consumable items out of our own pockets are those things that the district will also be investing in for our Educators they are and I will say that's one of the benefits of having at the elementary level maker spaces in every building the maker spaces that we're putting in at the middle school and high school level having a space wherein those materials can be stored supplied and regularly available is huge right because even even in the event that the teacher wants to go out and buy it oftentimes it comes down to a storage and Logistics issue right so being able to have that available is is certainly part of the plan all of the curriculum that we're adopting I think pretty much all Maybe minus the computer science will include kits that have all the materials and those kits are refilled every year that's absolutely outstanding I'm sure our educators are going to be very pleased to hear that um one other follow-up question and that is you referenced a rubric that you all use is that rubric the same rubric that's used across all adoptions it is not so that that rubric was very specific to stem education it is one that we adopted from um the stem ecosystem which is a Statewide organization that provided a resource for us to look at stem curriculum through that lens uh the the teachers that served on the committee use that to particularly at the Caravan and in some of those presentations to kind of give them a starting point to to judge everything off of and then superintendent Smith I do have a question about CTE courses are those because I know some of our CTE courses my daughter had the great opportunity to attend McKinsey career center and really really enjoyed the biomed courses and so thinking about science and so forth are those courses also taken into consideration in terms of textbook adoption at this time they are not so yes biomed and those programs are fantastic they are in a different cycle than this right here okay however I will say one of the lenses through which we looked specifically at the high school programming is how can we take elements of those incredible expertise level programs like biomedical science and Infuse those down into like a biology course that is available for for all kids right so that was a lens through which we really looked at this adoption Stan again thank you so much for all the hard work that all of you have poured into this I Echo what Ms Dunn was uh was saying about the work that you all have put into this this is a lot of of work on everyone's behalf uh one question this is actually a question for Roger Smith I don't mean to pull you back into this convo but I'm wondering if you could just highlight some of the work that we're doing in all of the different buildings to help support some of this learning because as we all know Sciences uh is needs some physical space to help support um to support that activity so if you could just tell us a bit about that we work with curriculum at all levels at all buildings so as you heard uh well they wanted stem in the elementary so they designed it we put it in place and build it and they are using it so we do that at each level the maker spaces is what I was hoping you could kind of touch on just quickly the maker spaces and some of the updates that are planned for the middle schools and yeah yeah a lot of neat things that they have required in the maker space we've actually grown the space from the old industrial Arts areas in our middle schools and turning that space into both robot robotics as well as Project Lead the Way in the stem space and of course with the high schools we have made historic changes in their facilities would you agree high schools okay it's been a long time so all of their facilities have been upgraded into modern spaces and Roger Smith was starting on the middle schools so Dr Smithy thought I was going to let him the hook but I wanted him to brag about those maker spaces a little bit put that on the record all happened thank you Mr mcaloon for that wonderful update you've all covered all the points that I had so um we'll accept that as information this evening and we will move on to our board goals updates Mustin Dr Smith members of the board were excited to bring to you tonight an update of our board goals and we'll begin tonight with equity and anti-racism and we'll look to miss La Plante for that date thank you just as an update we do continue to implement the action plan that was approved by the board almost a year ago this month and we continue to update and put our progress on the dashboard as we move forward to student achievement just a review of the goals our graduation rate as you know the goal is to maintain a 93 graduation rate we will have a preliminary idea at the end of July and then we'll have a final number um in October of 2023 of where we've landed this year our rigor Diagnostics this is our instructional goal how we get in and take a look at how all of our teachers and buildings are doing with our instructional framework the goal is to have an end-of-year score of a nine or to grow by two points from beginning of the year to end of the year we are just now starting those we've had three buildings complete their end of the year with diagnostic to date our growth of 10 percent with the number of students meeting grade level proficiency as you can see our semester update is on there and we will be able to give you an end-of-year update at the end of May and then an increase by 10 percent of the number of students designated as approaching at or above proficiency for iLearn the iLearn window starts April 17th and goes into May and by the time it's ready for public it'll should be about the middle of June that we can give you an update on that data our next area is strategic planning and as you've heard pre yes it's on can you hear it now okay thank you Dr Smith um as you might remember from previous updates we completed focus group interviews with Dr Jill Kramer in November December and January and then held to very well attended community-wide meetings on February 1st and March 2nd um we have since March 2nd been taking the input from the various um uh strategy groups and compiling that for you and we tentatively will have a board recommendation to you at our April 24th meeting up next is our people goals and I'll turn it over to miss Carla Johnson our chief of Human Resources good evening Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board proudly present our people goals we've not had any changes since our last update but in the four areas our first one are all employees will participate in common District develop PD for all job classifications and that all Remains the Same I we're hoping to have a hundred percent completion of our safe schools by the end of the year but we're constantly bringing on new staff in various roles intentional focus on hiring recruiting and retaining our bilingual staff that is our new goal for us this year and we're in the process of working with technology and building a Data Tracking System for that goal increasing our racial and ethnic certified staff diversity by three percent through Recruitment and Retention our current reality we remain steady at the 48 percent and recruiting and retaining 90 percent of District effective and highly effect of teachers will be able to bring you an update on that at the end of the evaluation season so we have operations and finance and most of these levels Center on finance we'll turn over to Mr Matt miles yes as we shared the first two goals in our operations in finance were end of year end of calendar year goals and we've met those we shared those of our last update but uh just so that you the audience can see those once again our cash balance goal which again we met 1231 of 22 and all of our taxing funds being a positive balance once again we met that 1231 of 22.
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