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questions I don't answer just Mark mentioned we are on schedule and obviously we're out there if you've joined by there that's the side of the building's dug up because we're employing the structural and getting ahead of the game so we can open in August uh everything's going well uh nothing out of the ordinary yet I'm sure the music folks are more appreciative than that than having the acoustically would rather have the harder surface on the floor than that very much of it plus it'll last a lot longer in the carpet they pouring out so it's an investment the life cycle cost is much better carpet so I've gone and probably not coming back for many many schools all right these are both action items later on this evening Freedom of Information requests we have received several refilled them they're posted up on the website if somebody searches for fly on their website they'll find those those foyer requests a motion for the Board of Education to approve the consented we need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the consent agendas presented which includes the Personnel report appointment Administration appointment certified appointment classified transfer position exempt transfer position classified the Personnel report honorable discharge excuse me honorable dismissal certified resignation certified resignation classified the Personnel report salary and benefits wage increase classified wage increase administrative the financial Pages the student trips 2023 to 2024 amended under 2024-2025 Amendment calendar and the d-a-o-e-s board appointment second Mike and Joanna thank you very much Mike Davenport aye Vasquez Drexler aye Christopher Espinoza aye shirelle Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye Terry pavisich aye and Nancy kopka aye the center agenda curies we'll move now to the action items the first one is the motion for the Board of Education to adopt the resolution entitled solution authorizing the DuPage County Clerk to extend specific tax rates for tax year 2022.

on May 15th we'll have a regular business meeting at 6 30 p.m here at the ASC and that will be followed by the organizational meeting and another regular business meeting with a new board um for a vertical to closed session but just so people understand they're really coming back out only to vote for uh to open session only to vote on student matter so I need a motion uh so I need a motion to go in closed session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in the park recreational or educational sales or specific volunteers of the district or legal council for the district including hearing testimony on quite large against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in the park recreational educational setting or volunteer of the district Arkansas for the district to determine its validity student disciplinary cases and the purchase of release of real property for the use of the district including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired so Trail and Joanna thank you Cheryl Fuller aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye Mike Davenport um Christopher Espinoza aye Jenny hagstrom aye Trey pavisich aye Nancy kopka all right we'll be going into a closed session thank you

okay that is a 42 reduction the students have bought in the staff members have bought in and so it has grown so popular you'd be happy to know that TK has gone to one of the other buildings and talking to the other Elementary they all we all have our homework we all have our own we all have our own um Twist on the pride but just kind of walking through what what this had because of the benefits that it's had for our students so I really wanted to highlight this is not I know in school it's more as Jessica said more than just academics it's the whole student and I think that we have proof that this has really helped country trail students um I do want to highlight just a few things on the back we did a mural for um Veterans Day that's all of our staff and students making an American flag we hired one of the new teachers um Mr Lugo who has some drone work so he put the Drone up in the air and took a picture I thought that was really cool and then down here of course is a staple we were finally able to have an in an in-person assembly for our Cougar reading Madness program which has been remote you know we've been doing virtual for so many years and so this was the students excitement for um the book that won and so it was just another thing that I would like to highlight so again thank you to Mrs kolkbeck to my NCL committee to all of the teachers at Country Trails uh to your guys's support for everything that you make possible for our students thank you great work yeah if you have any questions for us thank you right next we have the Lower Lake sip presentation [Laughter] good evening Dr sir and Dr Mangan and the board thank you for having me tonight I'm Rebecca Jers I'm the principal of Lilly Lake Grade School and um tonight I just want to highlight uh you should have a little flyer as well I won't go through every piece of it but really what I wanted to do tonight is to just let the the hard work of the students and the teachers um kind of explain themselves but I want to give you a little idea of what you're going to view in just a second so the video will start off um with just a little snippet from our English language learning teacher and the explicit teaching that she does there with targeted skills in reading and writing um you'll see this this little clip of it's like a red blue yellow and you'll wonder why that's in there it's because like Country Trails has been working we work as well with uh social emotional needs of our students and our teachers at Lilly Lake across all grade levels and settings are using zones of Regulation so that is what that is it was really hard for me by the way to cut this down to um it was originally 21 minutes um and then I was down to 15 and so I kept whittling it away to about seven minutes so uh it was really hard because it was so fun to go in and um with I have to give a shout out to Gail Stover who helped me put this together but this is really to speak to the work of the students and the staff in PE Mrs Jackson highlights one of our PE stars and one of the ways you get to be a PE star is by studying the students K-5 also set their own learning and behavior goals and then check in with the teachers and also with me to check in to see where they're at with those goals and do they want to tweak them and we found that one if kids are part of their goal setting then they will most likely meet those goals and so there's an example of a student who is proud that he increased his PE goals in second grade you'll see um again Grady Munchen the inter-reading hmh program that is a new resource for teachers this year here uh Mrs kohlhoff Denise kohlhoff will be extending a lesson and the parts you won't see is that after this last time and we did cut it down quite a bit she also meets with the students in small groups to further differentiate um in third grade you'll see a snippet of Mrs sulkey she's also utilizing the hmas resource meeting with students whole group she sets the purpose for the reading for the day does a second round story and refers her students back to their my book which is part of the resource students do a turn and talk and then they're also referred to Anchor charts and you'll see her front loading vocabulary as well in fourth grade Mrs Schultz will be Melissa Schultz will be giving you an example of what she calls well done Wednesday this is another example of a social emotional um some teachers do more of a morning meeting she does it more after recess and at different times a day depending on the need of the day and the need of the kids and the children you'll observe them complimenting one another and then telling each other what they they like that they do well hence the name Wilder on Wednesday and then in fifth grade Mrs Christina Tinsley will be giving you an example of her number talks um Christina does a great job with that and a lot of other staff members have gone in and and she's modeled for them and they have adopted some of her strategies so this is fifth grade and they're focusing on specific mathematical skills you know again depending on the topic of the day but applying reasoning Computing understanding engaging their their talking and um it doesn't these sometimes go longer shorter but it just depends on the skill that they're working at so that's what you're going to see hopefully I can get this going opportunity to thank Dr Stern and the school board for having me here tonight to share the accomplishments growth and achievements of Lilly Lake students this year as well as the positive effect and change that staff have had on that growth throughout the course of this year at Lilly Lake Grade School thank you for having me so for This One Max you're looking you have to go back to your lesson and you have to find the first sentence the first word and put it on there okay and Colby same thing looks like you're on that there's this one and then you're on medium surprised wait is y'all students hi this year Miss Jackson Choice from your PE star because of my growth mindset in my growth mindset I make a lot of goals one of my goals this year was to run more laps on the Pacer test number one of my goals was to do more push-ups during I during my time practicing for a I ran and did a lot of cardio activities and I did a few push-ups every single day because of that the results of my testing was five more laps for the Pacer test and two more push-ups for the push-up test [Music] hello look at your cards look at your signs if you think you see a diagram on this page hold it up everybody else put them down you see a diagram a picture of something that's showing us something this is a diagram so a diagram doesn't have to just be like a map it can be a picture that shows us something if you see a label on this diagram hold up your legal card okay do you guys see the labels Riley can you point out any labels on here like which one are the labels on this case [Music] yeah one yeah exactly so Riley said these are the labels here it says one two three four that tells us and does anybody see caption on this side yes you guys see the caption down here in this box it's in something called a text box so it's today is our second read of TJ there's Siberian Cup right yesterday we set our purpose look at your notes you should have some written in on page 74.

so um and that doesn't seem like a unreasonable goal based on how the kickoff call went today which is good um there was one more thing I was going to say about it I'm not going to remember it'll come to me any I guess questions I was pretty thorough yeah wow I have a whole if you want to see videos and a whole presentation that I put together but I'm actually I'm very excited about it and just based on so many conversations that we've had I think even just the school year alone about kind of like the the district Vision I feel like this will put us um in a very good direction to achieve that with One Singular system whereas so that was the other piece I was gonna say so Naviance because of where it was lacking we were supplementing with other things anyway so now we'll be able to really streamline into one system a Naviance parent s that was fun um so is security what measures what it what can you touch on that what is yes so is vis-a-b also an Ambiance yes so um that was actually one of the things and it was it was really nice to have Tom Lee walk involved from the beginning all of the the data sharing and data usage agreements that need to be signed they were willing to sign and that all cleared um before we even like went through the process of saying is this something that we want to um move forward with but everything all the data is encrypted they use the clever system which we're using for other systems um within the district so um the same security that's that's there will be there unless a student would give their alumni password to um someone when they're an Alum that would be the only way they could see their their student information but they'd only see it for that account they wouldn't see it for any other students so everything will be um the only other person that could use student account would be their parent that was linked to their account and it all talks through our PowerSchool sis system so um it would have to be someone that's connected to that student in our power school system as well and you said um you'll be ready you'll have the kids the seniors uploaded and ready to go for February 2023 so we'll have one year uh um fuel systems so yeah so we'll have about um it'll end up like half a year so um all seniors will start in this uh this August August of 2023.

yeah and they have shared with us some information where you can watch the competition live stream so I sent that to Marlene and Kevin and Jeff so I'm sure you can pass access to those who might be interested good to know you're so excited and um just real fast oh there was is anyone does anyone sponsor this from town or so this is a unique um this is a unique group because they are a club but they're largely a parent-run club okay so they they fall under a different category quite frankly that um I'm I'm so glad the kids have this opportunity it's so wonderful that the parents are have been so involved in this and we have some um staff members who are also going on the trip who have children who are up on the team so it's been a nice collaboration of everyone and to see them get this far you know it'll it'll be something to to watch and to see where what their status might be next year good deal how many teams are competing 45 teams so good the qualifying matches so cool wish him luck yeah all right and then we have a chorus field trip on April 3rd to the 7th on 20 in 2024.

um overall the project was 10.2 million dollars in construction costs um It produced about 618 thousand dollars in annual savings which reflects about a 24 reduction in the in the overall energy Baseline uh the Energy Services Company that was selected I know you mentioned you you had spoken to Johnson Controls your original project was actually done by a company named amaresco who is uh also an equally capable uh Esco who does quite a bit of work uh in New England and Connecticut um some of the major items that were done in the original project probably the biggest items were the complete electronic hydronic heating system conversion at Highland Elementary School uh and for on the newer wing of the high school uh LED lighting upgrades throughout the district tons of exterior lighting uh an oil to gas conversion uh work uh and then other small things like premium efficiency Motors and just general improvements to the water heating hydronic systems in the buildings for heating okay so a few other um a few other items we've actually done for the town schools over time um one of them was that um you were actually contemplating a power purchase agreement you're kind of pointing rooftop solar we did assist in some of the technical evaluation of that and looking at the providers that proposed we did look in an LED Street lighting project at one point uh and helped to evaluate the buyback uh economics of that um and you know just it and just again as we said we're we still oversee the m v and and really overseeing the original project to make sure that everything was that was promised was actually produced by the eskos and it was a very successful EPC in the in the in the original uh project yeah and just to kind of jump on that the you know the real substantial Savings in that first project that we did with Adam Moresco were the electric heat conversions you know and I know that you know the committee talked a little bit but that was pretty low hanging fruit we may not have that low hanging fruit to offset as much energy costs and if we look at another project I mean that's true maybe we do maybe maybe you'll find something Innovative but um that was that was a yeah I mean just purely on rates alone you know being able to get you off of electric heat was was absolutely huge yeah um just a quick list of other clients in Connecticut that we have worked with and have had successful projects with capital region uh correct Regional Education Council Derby RSD 13 Seymour East Haven Guilford Waterbury we had a massive project um I always like to highlight that one because it was it was a project where we did 18 boiler plants in a single summer about 36 physical boilers and all installed in a single summer window it was insane but um very proud very proud of the of accomplishing that um Branford of course Cheshire uh Southington next door we did a youth project um one of the notable ones there was in a similar fashion to Waterbury we replaced all the rooftop air handling air conditioning systems on their High School in a single summer and I forget I think it was like 15 uh units that we had to get done in that summer window um because you know as you know south of Southington has an absolutely huge High School um and it was you know just getting that equipment and getting everything ready for for school start was uh quite a quite a project it really was uh Monroe and then uh Thomaston schools as well we did a number of work there we also did Street lighting replacement uh at Thomaston okay so I did look at the um the list you sent this and uh I just kind of plucked out the kind of the pieces that looked like they were relevant um to an energy project um so of course HVAC type improvements are always on the table they're always available window replacements are very expensive but you can do them under an EPC uh fire alarm Control Systems um if they're you know if you have older systems and it's a life safety type issue it's something that and this operational uh costs with the old systems that's something that can be considered on an EPC mainly on the operational savings uh ceiling tiles we typically do you know in concert with lighting exterior doors are typical uh water savings or something that's eligible so you can do Laboratory um the China and the fixtures and you can't do a full-blown you know bathroom renovation but the actual pictures themselves you could do and then co-compliance issues and health and safety type items at least if it's in some way related to an energy system is something we can typically get into a project okay so really next steps um would be to engage energy in um we always offer a no-cost energy Financial assessment and really what that is is a high level overview of looking at your utility bills looking at your scope looking at the buildings in a very basic manner um and just looking at it to say is there enough work here to build an opportunity that would be you know worth moving ahead with um certainly just the sheer size of the buildings and you know in the number of buildings in the town there's little doubt in my mind that you've got ample opportunity for a project um the assessment we would do would give you a sense for how large and what type of major items we could do now you know we're very much aware of the fact that you have some very very major Capital renovation uh items planned in the schools building with new schools and adjusting so we would certainly need to you know would want to have details on on where those items are as well and we'll coordinate our report to you know to reflect the things you're already doing okay and I guess with that um really if anybody has any questions um we could certainly uh talk about the opportunity Andrew I'll wait on you because I you know of course I do have a couple of questions yeah I just want to welcome Tim Tim how are you Tim did you did you did you hear everything do you need any part of it um reiterated to you uh I logged on I logged on a couple uh minutes after six and I apologize to everybody for that I just got home from work um no I mean is this uh so Vin just as as a recap um ECG energy uh sorry uh you are basically contracted with the green Bank the Connecticut Green Bank as an owner's rep for a number of towns is that how it's set up right now it's it's actually hi Tim I'm Kendra mcquilton I'm the owner of uh energia um hi maybe you could go back to that slide we're we're actually in a partnership with CCM I think that might be what you're we're remembering um and so this is this was a um an agreement that was secured through a competitive process to provide uh the very services that we're discussing tonight which is um helping the town and the school district through an energy performance contract and just doing all the due diligence and Technical and Financial reviews and um you know Energy Engineering that would be required to make sure that your interests are protected throughout okay so you'd be so you'd be the owner's rep for us we would yeah and and so you know in contrast to Johnson Controls um you know they're a great company there's lots of great companies um but what we do is we sit between you and that company and Johnson would would need to um go through a competitive process as well which we would be spearheading on your behalf to make sure that they're giving you a competitive valuable proposal and Johnson Johnson would be acting in the same capacity as amaresco did 10 years ago or however correct yeah so I mean this this setup makes sense to me I mean the number one concern for me well number one concern is energy in the environment but uh good government is very important you've already gone through the process with CCM which is not officially government but in a sense it kind of is um yeah hold on Dave go talk to Mommy okay I'm sorry about this you're gonna be okay you need to eat your walnuts okay [Laughter] um I I mean in general just the the way the way all this is set up makes total sense to me and I'm I'm happy with it um I mean I I want to hear what you have to say then and everybody else has to say but conceptually this makes sense to me thank you Ben and Rich did we have a firm like this when we went through it with ameresco we did except um we did it a little bit backwards in my opinion um we first did um an RFP for the actual company that did the energy performance contract at Moresco and then we went out and hired ECG it was just kind of a timing and and I don't don't actually remember how we got introduced Kendra but I know it was after the fact and you know you did come in before the work started um but after the investment grade audit was done so that that experience kind of leads us to where we are tonight that the the best way to do this in my opinion is probably the owner's rep who will then provide the assistance to find you know the best contractor or the best Esco to do the work and you know maybe Dave and Kendra just kind of name some other names of companies that are that are doing the Esco work these days we know emeresco and we know Johnson Controls but what are some of the other ones that are active so I mean I mean the major companies out there right now are Honeywell noresco which is really um an arm of Carrier Corporation um train is out there Siemens energy does this work that's pretty much the in Connecticut those are the major players um there's a few others out there but they're smaller and not ones you'd want to use in a project this size yeah yeah I know the other one that bid when we went out the first time was Schneider Electric I don't know if they're still operating and doing much of this work we don't yeah they're still out there I I don't think I've done a project with them in probably seven years yeah okay they don't tend to compete their their biggest concern with them is they have a tendency not to want to compete if they want to get a project through relationships and then so they don't they don't bid on competitive work which is concerning unto itself because they don't they don't want people yeah yeah see the other thing that I wanted to ask if you could you know talk about a little bit is you know how you would can we work you know with you and with osc gr for Construction Grants to fund some of this work like the window projects you know um some of the other things that you mentioned do fall under a school construction Grant yeah now we've actually done that um we've done that on a number of the Connecticut projects that I um that we showed you um Guilford pursued um I believe for solar PV they got a grant for roofing Roofing and solar okay um so yes we can do it um we have done it in past projects um so there is a path forward where we can absolutely apply to get the uh the state Bill the state facility AIDS select items yeah okay and I think that's important for the committee the planning committee to understand I've realized that you know oscgr has very strict procurement requirements and and that they're not easy to work with sometimes but it would be substantial on some of these projects uh we have we have two questions um Sam you want to ask your question then kind of asked the oscgr question but excuse my ignorance so you guys would be and this might be a VIN question you would be the middleman so to speak between um Johnson Controls and us then is that how this works then yeah they would well the owner's representative would um you know do a lot of work actually in the beginning stages to put together a solicitation to find who that Esco that would actually do the work would be so that's kind of one major step and then once that firm is selected there's an investment grade audit that gets done where they go into every building and they look at all the potential energy savings opportunities and infrastructure work that would need to be done that's all documented and the owner's rep is is there to basically represent us and provide the expertise that we don't have in-house you know to do that review and when I say expertise that includes engineering expertise you know they're looking at the details of if it's a motor replacement or it's a boiler replacement or it's an HVAC that is one of the responsibilities the owner's rep has and then as construction proceeds you know they are you know working with us and with the Esco to actually do the get the work completed so they are hired to represent us and in the energy performance contract and I know this may be getting into a lot of detail but their their fee I mean the initial work that um Dave mentioned that would be at no cost for the review you know they will charge a fee assuming that we did business with energy right so their fee would be paid through the energy performance contract correct that's right okay that answers my question because I was going to ask how does the fee structure work here because there's a lot of expertise that we're pulling in and I know you guys got to eat so thank you yeah we roll it all it's another cost of the project hard and soft costs it's all rolled together um into the project to be paid out of the savings so there's no out of pocket for the uh the town or the school district Tim you're muted so anybody um feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this but generally speaking um we are changing the order of how this is happening in part because go back 10 years ago and at that time in Connecticut I don't think that performance contracts were that widely used or at least for say like an entire School District which is what we did so it was kind of like breaking new ground and we were just pushing forward trying to do what we could to save money save energy um and you know it was it's changed since then we have a better understanding people in the state have a better understanding of how this would uh be best constructed in terms of an overall transaction so that's one of the I think that's probably a big reason why the yeah the sequence of actions was different 10 years ago yeah did it initially I I think it uh connected only even established its law the statute that governs it was only established right around that time yeah yeah so what we do is do it was brand new so bottom line Kendra what is the benefit of having you folks involved in the mix like fundamentally if I was going to explain to the taxpayer why do we need an owner's rep to this the reason you would want an owner's rep is that there's a tremendous amount of very complex foreign information that's going to be coming at the at you from companies that are super Savvy and skilled and expert in finding ways to increase their profits off on and I don't want to disparage the companies because they're great lesson checked you know the reason we got into this uh Niche is because we were engineers working with school districts and we were looking at performance contracts this is going back 20 years and we were able to review the financials and saw that the Esco was walking away with 50 profit when the customer could have got say 30 percent more Hardware out of their savings had they even known how to look at it how to hold the esco's feed to the fire um it's it's very very tricky and they are experts in how to pull it in their favor so you need to have an equal level of expertise to pull it back into your favor and that's what we provide um we've recently done a study that shows that on average we generate a million dollars roughly of additional value that goes back to our customer and that's in the form of catching Esco mistakes um you know making forcing them to guarantee rebates for example which they won't do unless they're forced and we have the influence over the industry in doing so many projects that we know what to look for we know what they'll go for we know what's a push for and we can stand up to them okay so that that's really the reason why you would want that um if not I think a lot of entities that have done a project without someone in between them in the Esco are left frustrated or confused or just not confident that the savings were borne out and that's never the case when we're involved you're going to be in the driver's seat telling the Esco what to do instead of the other way around God I appreciate that thank you my pleasure yeah I mean just um to kind of you know that continue along that Chain of Thought the one advantage of doing an energy performance contract that we really didn't talk about and this is whether or not you know energia would be involved but it it is a basically a lease Arrangement so and that's assuming that you know there's enough energy savings that warrants an energy performance contract and it'll work but when we did the first contract it was a lease Arrangement so it did not have to go to bonding and it therefore didn't have to go to referendum even though it was a 10.2 million dollar project it required Town Council approval only so that was one you know I think very important factor um that that we were able to benefit from and the second thing is that the um you know the cost of financing was pretty favorable at the time the market may be a little bit different now but if we do an energy performance contract you know everything is in the mix including the cost of financing the project so you know it either works on its own and if it doesn't that doesn't mean we don't have options and when I say it works on its own that means that the Energy savings will pay for the work that's getting done over a 15-year period of time you know so if the Energy savings isn't sufficient to pay back the full amount of the of the loan essentially then we could talk about ways that we could supplement but you know at this stage you know the the financing you know peace enables you to do a lot more infrastructure without you know having to go out and bond it all at once so I mean I know that the planning committee members you know have been you know involved or lived in town and Tim White has been on the Town Council you know that you know it's very rare that we would get 10.2 million dollars of infrastructure improvements approved for one year but that doesn't happen I mean you you know best case you know town and Board of Ed combined we're seeing five million dollars a year so I mean it would take us five years to get my 10 million dollars right exactly yeah exactly and then the other thing about the energy performance contract is we are not involved in the procurement of the of the contractors that do the work you basically hire the um energy Performance Contractor and they do all the work of finding the you know the subcontractors that are going to do the work there's no bidding involved on the part of the town so that's another big advantage the other benefit that weighs into that too is you have you have latitude to dictate because you can direct the Esco on contractors you like contractors you don't like unless you've had trouble in the past you can keep them out um specific equipment that you want um there's no low bid requirement here so we can direct them to you know to to use the equipment you you prefer which is a really nice advantage if I had one thing I mean the the way you had said before then about not going to referendum that is always something there's a benefit but there's also a drawback I don't I never when we did this 10 years ago since then I've never gotten any inkling from anybody from how many taxpayers that they felt like there was some sort of like games going on with that like people were generally happy as all I ever heard about it they I think people understood what the 10 million dollars was for and it was it was basically just an offset we're switching it out of our energy budget over to our debt budget right it's just important I just say this just to reinforce this for the voters like I think this is something that people would be comfortable with doing the lease instead of a capital Improvement type of thing right right yeah and it's not that was not to say that the the process wasn't somehow transparent the way the financing Arrangement worked like you say you know you spent less on energy and you made lease payments in return so you know under our town Charter did not have to go to referendum it didn't you know it wasn't something that needed to go out to the voters you know go Evan I was going to say just if you could talk one one more component that maybe you could share just some initial thoughts so I had mentioned that Doolittle school is a school that we know we need Windows because they're single pane still the roof needs to be replaced and we do have an interest in doing solar so if we could we bundle that those three things as an example and do you think there would be some you know enough energy Improvement in doing that that it may help us fund this overall project you want AC also at the same time didn't you I was waiting for somebody to throw that in well I'm just saying if you're doing all of them I mean yes laughs I mean the honest answer there is um to get Windows and a roof and have solar pay for probably not um potentially a roof and have the solar offset we've done that in other places there is potential for that assuming the roof can can actually structurally support the solar um I mean there are options for things like canopies and carports you can do ground type solar if there's you know suitable places for it um but that we have done and then of course Roofing is a is a an oacm eligible item yeah yeah and and there's some pretty aggressive solar incentives I know we talked about that that are available right now to municipalities that may not really have been um something that we could take advantage of in the past because of the changes in in the Solar incentives right that's true yeah 810 Brad oh thank you Andrew yeah no I was just curious about that in terms of the solar incentives that VIN just mentioned is that am I right and understanding it's it's 200 a megawatt hour for the what is it the nres program that's what I thought I was reading online but I'm not 100 on that it just says the general is the general guide for a state of Connecticut Dave David or Kendra do you know the answer to that um I do know that I do know the program is changing I don't know the exact that number Rings about um okay okay or if that's the exact number what are the conditions around it um believe it or not the Xerox program is still around um we I think we actually still have some Xerox but I don't think they compete with the enres now the incentives just to be clear the incentives got better 15 or 16 months ago January 2022.

on a three hundred thousand dollar assessed value which would be about an average home for assessed value we're talking two or three dollars a month for a seven million dollar Capital Bond not a ton of money it won't buy half of a Big Mac it'll buy you a small Scooby Snack somewhere that has maybe no meat in it about so 59 of the people said yes they would be in favor of it and 20 were unsure so I think that's pretty favorable for us in our district um and hopefully that these meetings that we're having will help people with that are in the unsure category and maybe some of the no people um realize why it's important that we fund our school district so the mo one of the most popular things that people are in favor of is student safety and so as you can see here a ton of people are really concerned about student safety and one of the things so we're going to go over a list of things that a bond could pay for for our student safety so one of the things that we would use the money for is to re-key slash give electronic Keys around the district so every door in the district could have an electronic key one of those cards where you just swipe the door that will allow us to manage our keying much more effectively and allow us to lock people out at a push of a button or allow us to put allow people to get in at the push of a button keyless entry is the way that school districts are going to be more safe and to manage the comings and goings of people coming to the district if we did an analysis to re-key every door eight years ago and that amount eight years ago was about a hundred and sixty thousand dollars we ended up putting a hundred thousand dollars at it re-keying most of the doors but security and school security specifically is an evolving effort it one of the things that we know now is that most Bad actors and active Killers whether it be shooter or otherwise enter through unlocked doors most not all Kimberly will talk now our next bullet point no pun intended on bulletproof glass I really try to stay away from puns especially in this but the point is this twice now twice just recently as recent as two weeks ago a a shooter with a shotgun blew out the window of the door glass of the school and walked right through took another gun and started doing the shooting Sandy Hook same thing happened that's those are the only two times of which I'm aware that a locked door has been breached but what happens is these people that and they have mental problems obviously and have acts to grind they watch and they adjust their approach to what's going on the guy at the bank took a similar approach so bulletproof glass my guess is that's going to set us back somewhere between five hundred thousand and seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more just to do the vegetables as you enter in the main school areas it's expensive the key re-keen and putting the card key card which would be part of the badge which will we will start requiring for everyone next school year and it's also attached the kids will have a security measure zonars we know when our babies get on the bus and get off the bus we can track our kids and know where they are that's another added expense we don't have now those expenses are evolving if we're going to keep pace and thank you board for enabling us to invest in our community investing in security six years ago with the last Bond of 16 million we have taken that money and we have secured our schools but with the new evolving threats we have to evolve and we have to be in front of it and so that's I'll turn it back over to you on the cost sure going and new if we need it we know that research says that we need people in our schools to support our students that are struggling and to be able to help them work through their problems Dr Wright and I were talking about this morning usually when someone is a bad actor they have shared with someone that they're going to do this and prevention is the best medicine we want to prevent that from happening and part of that is having student support staff in our schools to be able to help these kids when they have when they're having issues the other um thing that we were that we would like to invest in is emergency communication so there's this software that we have been talking about getting that is really Innovative where you can have a map of your school and the map is interactive and you can people that have access can click on the map where there's a camera and they like the police can immediately see what's happening on that camera it's very cool technology it's um was developed for First Responders so that when they come into an emergency situation like that they can see immediately what's happening so that they can take care of the problem in an efficient effective way yeah it's something uh this effort is a county-wide Statewide effort the county was granted a significant amount of money to this end one net is another provider of cell phone provider and they are setting up towers with this money everywhere one net will put an antenna not a complete Tower but an antenna on our facilities where they're needed at no cost for us this program enables all First Responders to communicate with one channel one medium fire police Federal that includes FBI Marshals DPS all of them can communicate with one channel that's not happening now there's a half a dozen different channels so I'll give you an example of problem we had a you're aware of the inclement weather we suffered this this winter one snowstorm I pulled up at 2 30 in the morning underneath hour and couldn't get a signal I couldn't even text I couldn't text or call we couldn't communicate as an Administration team by text or cell phone or landline for a period of time so we have some radios and we said we better move to a radio well after we've visited with this the county we're probably going to still get radios but we're moving to this one net [Music] um solution which we'll require by the way a purchase of cell phones which are about fifteen hundred dollars and we'll need about 50 of them to give to the Personnel that would need to have them so all these things require an investment that's really the point thank you Kimberly yeah so first step would require us to have um special cell phones and we could pay for those cell phones with our bond money uh so the next biggest category that people um felt we needed to work on in Blue Ridge is our technology and you can see a large percentage of people believe that technology is very important which is not surprising in our changing world this goes hand in hand with our student safety of course we need technology to be able to do things like firstnet and to have those interactive maps and things like that um just so you know technology is being used in the classroom daily we're a one-to-one school district meaning that every student has a device um so that's why we would need to purchase over 2 000 computers in the next two to three years to refresh our supply thankfully we were able to get coveted relief money to help us buy on these devices for our students but as you know with your cell phone the device goes out of um uh obsolete yes it becomes obsolete um in a couple years in our um since we have such heavy usage the heavy usage and the obsoleteness um we will need to refresh our um our computers and the cost of techno technology is increasing rapidly um with inflation and just with hard to get devices so we will need Bond money to continue to have one-to-one in our classrooms the the other area I want to add is on our Fab Lab and Robotics we're increasing our CTE our career technology education participation among our among our students it's growing but we have other needs too we would like to be able to have money to continue to fund building a teacher housing we're completing we've already completed two projects and we're working on completing the affectionately referred to as the Waldo Suite that is a building that Mr Waldo started building in 2007 and then 2008 we almost what happened and funding got cut so that that building has been completed almost completely finished by our career technology education construction program but that's going to require to replicate that we have the land we have the labor we have the expertise but the supplies alone to build at around 100 bucks a foot so even if you do a you know a 800 square foot unit it still costs quite a bit of money we're also taking some of our other areas and making temporary teacher housing because we're we're meeting the demand for our teachers that are currently employed we don't want to lose them because they don't have a place to stay and as you know housing is not plentiful in that which is available is fairly expensive so that's another example of Technology career and Technology education and the Fab Lab you're all probably aware of and you've heard at least one competition that these students had at going to a note you're going again right with the NASA this is an amazing program that it takes money we have to support that program we don't want it to go away that's going to require some Bond money to support that so the next topic after technology was the safety and efficiency of our buildings so like we've talked about we need Bond money to make sure that our buildings are safe the bullproof glass the efficiency make sure that we have LED lighting make sure that we have buildings sealed up so that we're not spending a bunch of money on Heating and Cooling and just keeping our buildings maintained well the next the next topic was Transportation um so right now we're blessed because we had a bond [Music] um several years ago and we were able to replace our buses but now our buses are getting old so thankfully we are not having buses break down on the side of the road and things like that but in the next several years we will have to start replacing our buses so we do need Bond money to be able to do that so that our kids are safe and they're on buses that are running and not breaking down and not old I would like to add Denise is our expert in this area but I remember when we purchased those buses six years ago there were about 125 000 my guess is they've gone up probably 50 Grand or more depending on the type of us the type of us we want to get are those that have changed that lower which will be probably another 20 grand 15 to 20 grand but that those that type of Technology we have some of it but we'd like to take that district-wide on a safety level as well so I would anticipate if the bond were approved we would add two to three buses every year the next four to five years to refresh refresh the fleet the other part I want to make just to share is our transportation needs are way different than they are in the valley in the valley if you go to this Gilbert School District and you're in the Central and you drive your bus and get in you go to the main side it takes all of 14 15 miles we drive from here to Window Rock which is really New Mexico and then on the edge of Utah when we go to page and then we go to the valley which is a three and a half hour or four hour drive by bus so we put a lot of miles on these buses and so that that's another reason that our transportation we need to be refreshed quicker more more quickly rather and just so you know rural we do not get extra transportation funding we get the same transportation funding that's that schools in the valley get there is no difference and Dr Wright is right the amount of miles that we put on is Extreme compared to the amount of miles they put on in the Phoenix metropolitan area so one of the things that will have to happen if we do not pass a bond or an override is that we will have to defer maintenance on our buildings because we will have to move our Capital money over to maintenance and operations to pay salaries if we continue down with the Staffing that we have and so that what that means is that we will not be able to fix buildings and repair buildings I was not here in 2014 but I've heard that in 2014 there were some issues with our maintenance on our buildings we could potentially go back to that if we are unable to continue to maintain the buildings at the level that we're maintaining them now I will add I I will I'm glad I know that I've seen a couple of faces that were in the on the committee and in the room when we presented this information in 2000 and early 2016.

and so you take that math and and of our roughly 275 employees 100 are teachers you probably have 20 administrators and the rest are we you'd have a handful of student support the rest are support staff and so that has had a significant impact on our on our bottom line we don't have any control over that I remember a few years ago a person that just moved the community said all you got to do is just take 15 20 of your budget and set it aside for the next year and what I wanted to say is I wanted to start saving for my retirement when I was 23 but I didn't have a two nickels to rub together and so so poor you can't pay attention it's not like you don't want to you don't have them we don't have an extra 20 if the simple math is we're down 1.3 close to 1.3 every year and so these are the elements that have led to that discrepancy as well I would predict that next year next year what's that impact January across the district at the minimum is 8-14 just ballpark at how much more do you think it's going to cost how much forty thousand about forty thousand for a dollar that would just be for the salary that would just be for those people at the bottom if you put in the benefits and if you put oh I would think that if you look at all the factors involved I looked at this that it's been 18 months I think we're we're closer to every dollar is closer to 80 or 90 000 with Benefits over a hundred thousand a year so that puts you at 1.4 in the hole and just as this is just also affecting us so in fact it infects us with all of the supplies that we buy with our transportation with our propane with supplies that we have to buy to maintain the buildings everything is getting more expensive so we also don't have control over that so um we would like to re um so would you support a bond to reduce the budget so and you can see that people overwhelmingly um would like just like to support this to help us with our budget deficit so and you can see again here support for the bond we've got 54 of the people um in support of the and I'm on the wrong side on my computer sorry uh for 52 are in support of the bond and 22 are unsure so again um we would like to help those people that are unsure see the importance of why we need this money to support our district and to support our students and we only need to convince 51 percent of the people thankfully so we've got a good run to start and so for the m pays for salaries we've got 54 of the people that responded to the survey that were in support 20 were unsure and so what so what the m o um override what we were thinking was we'd like to go out for about 10 so the maximum for an MMO override is 15 but we think 10 would do what we need to do that would be about 1.3 million we would use that money to pay teacher salaries to keep class sizes small and like Dr Wright said earlier to maintain all of the wonderful clubs in sports and AP class and honors classes and Nabbit programs that we have now like Miss Brimhall said back in 2014 we didn't have many of these things so all of these things are funded through our override and our bond I I would wish to add that the last override election failed by 167 votes relatively low participation some of the folks that came to me and said look if you'd asked for a smaller percentage I might have voted for it but she just asked for 15 and so some of the board feedback after that time is let's look at what we actually need the bare minimum and let's see about that so our suggestion likely that the board would be that we'd go out for a 10 given that meets meets our current deficit it'll probably leave us a little shy but not nearly as shy as we would be without those resources [Applause] any questions what is the cost per dollar for a 10 override you included the bond but not the override costs if if we're looking at a 10 at the assessed valuation of a 475 000 ohm at 300 it would be about eight or nine dollars a month so the total if you had it say a seven to nine million dollar Bond and a 10 override the total impact would be somewhere between seven and twelve dollars a month a Big Mac meal meal number one is now more than what a value meal would cost you can you also go over I know it was explained to us in the last override which didn't pass but what the percentage does like it was explained um 10 keeps us from Rolling backward the next percentage would keep us where we are and the next percentage would give us a boost so in dollars can we talk about that what that look like the simple math looks like 10 keeps us where we're at 11 10 would keep us close to where we're at we still don't know all the increases yet on insurance we know they're all going up you've probably seen it in your auto insurance and everything else we think that 10 percent gets us very close though so 10 or 11 percent would probably be the ass to keep us even 12 or 13 percent would put us up a couple hundred grand a year on an mno basis free is that correct Just for information the difference between the term on an override in the bond into two separate things what is the term length on the override and what would be the term length and how is the bond funded so that um the turn everything's off the term length on your on an mno override is seven years but um it titrates down um on your Sixth and your seventh year so you get fully funded on your fourth or fifth or your first through fifth year and then it goes down by thirds on your um six and seven your sixth and seventh year a bond is a 30-year commitment and like I said earlier a Bond's alone can you also go through our rating as to how successful our bond bonds have been in the past and where we sit sure so from my understanding our sale of bonds has been really good I think we have an A minus rating which is a great rating um and I don't think we've had any problem issuing a bond at all we never have but in fact last time we had an a rating just a without minus or plus a rating that rating earned us another million dollars in funding that did not come from taxpayers it's because it the price of the value of our business went up by a million bucks we got to receive that at no cost of the taxpayer so we I still we have an A or an A minus rating somewhere in there the bonds that we've had in the past have we been able to pay pay them off sooner we we've been no we're not a schedule um you don't normally pay them off earlier you just um you're on your schedule and you just um tax to pay what you have existing we do have some bonds expiring though I want to add that we have a bonding capacity last time I looked at a somewhere in the range of astronomical money 90 to 120 million dollars we're only using 30 less than 30 16 15 28 27.

still moved second Chris and Joanna thank you Mr Espinoza aye for the Board of Education to approve the resolution authorizing property tax abatement for the Rex North facility for the 2022-20 excuse me 2022 dicks here so moved Mike thank you Mike Davenport Jenny hagstrom aye Terry pavasich aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye Christian Espinoza aye Schwab Fuller aye Nancy kopka aye the motion carries next remove the current Financial condition of the district the Board of Education will continue the adoption of the resolution of beta-ly working cash fund of the district the motion for the Board of Education to adopt the resolution ability to the working cash fund of Community High School District number 89 DuPage County Illinois [Music] discussion please call the roll for a vote upon the motion to adopt the resolution Mike Davenport hi Joanna aye Christopher Espinoza aye the resolution is adopted Mrs Knight please record this in the records of the Board of Education excuse me for the vote of Education to approve the intergovernmental cooperation agreement for Mutual assistance in response to crises in the public schools of DuPage County Illinois substantially informed presented by the superintendent and to authorize the president and secretary to sign the agreement Mike and Chris thank you Mike Davenport aye Christopher Espinoza aye Michelle Fuller [Applause] [Music] just do that one got my emotions confused no I did not okay Board of Education to approve contracts with student parking lot to Murphy's Construction Services LLC for the amount of 118 800 hours thank you Mike Davenport aye Cheryl Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye Terry pavasich aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye Christian Espinoza aye and Nancy kopka by the motion carries and finally we need a motion for the Board of Education to prove contracts for the Fine Arts flooring to consolidate your flooring of Chicago LLC for the amount of 95 945 so removed um Julian and Mike thank you Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye Mike Davenport hi Christopher Espinoza aye shirelle Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye Terry pavasich aye Nancy kopka aye the motion curies second reception of the cities did we get any I have nothing nothing okay moving on we'll have communications and announcements uh around Johnny anything nothing new to report the last meeting of school year will be April 27th in person District 99's our representative member for the board of directors and the veterinary board will be expiring uh probably Dr Jim knows about it he will be the new representative for the board of directors um and a new representative and an alternative are needed to be elected to CSS governing board okay um that's what the next word yeah and um also by the end of June I believe I think of June okay yeah so um that's what I was going to add but you said um also it's the asset in District 99 are working out the logistics to host CSS opening day on August 10th and it is still in the planning stages yeah thank you thank you 3.99 Foundation uh we're meeting um Wednesday okay upcoming board meetings we will have our next board meeting will be May 1st 2023 the workshop meeting here at 6 30.

okay um with the system and then we don't have the full planned rollout yet but the the goal is to have as many students using that system this year using School links 2023-2024 so that when we do lose our Naviance access that no data is lost okay anything that students have done that's the other I think the other point I was going to make anything that students have done in Naviance um School links does have a way to transfer that information over so like favorite colleges that a student has saved or something like that favor careers and then one of the concerns um we all had so one of the really cool things that Naviance does is has this scattergram that houses all of our historical College acceptance data um where a student could go into a graph for University of Rhode Island and say with this GPA and this SAT score um this is my likelihood of getting in it's it plots out all the points if it was accepted wait listed denied um that data is our data because it's housed in Naviance on our students so part of the transfer of data will be transferring our historical data to the scattergram exists in a way in School links as well that we will still have access to that historical acceptance data for our students which was I think maybe one of the most important things that we wanted to be able to keep yeah yeah and who um who owns schoolings so they are like an independent company School links is the company um Naviance is currently owned by power school so um and that was a recent acquisition but school and says their own independent company right now and we'll it's so but there's no problem interfacing um School links with power with PowerSchool no and are they looking to develop their own kind of power school I just I don't think so I think they want to really stay on the career reading College platform side of things okay and then um we can put our own you know last year you were here and you gave us that great career um directory inventory we can put all of that in and are we going to be looking to do those 90-second um local uh profiles yeah that's a great question so we do have the ability to upload our own information into it as well there is a whole course planner um portion of School links that we said maybe is a year too of all for us as we are putting information in there but it can track my graduation requirements do course planning um and we can upload like our courses and and stuff into there so students could see um and then the other videos I believe that like once the um Community Partners are in there that they we can be as interactive with that as we want to be it could be listings of information or we could be doing videos and things like that okay okay how much is the savings it is I have my phone out because I have it right here so um using Naviance and then pathful is our supplemental program that does a little bit more of the College and Career planning um is 17 589 for a year and um with School links our first year which is really 15 months um with the startup fees and everything is 14 445 but then after that it'll be 8 000 um a year yeah eight thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars so a significance savings and that is that was another thing I had to say um so I didn't have the PowerPoint for me so I forget right now because Cheshire high school and humiston are two separate schools in power school the way that Naviance like interfaces with them um they have to operate as two separate schools and this experience of the hummus and students are getting is not the same experience that our Cheshire high school students are getting it doesn't have that historical data in there because we there's just not as many students at the at humiston um they have some issues with some of the inventories access to scholarships and not that they can't do those things but they have to like it needs a lot of hand-holding for them to see all of the information um the way schooling's platform is all of those students are are in the same school and have access to the same information which is just an equity piece that we identified a long time ago that Naviance just couldn't fix for us without us giving them more money was frustrating but so that is another um nice piece okay and it's easy to use it is it's very user friendly very intuitive I think as adults learning any new system is always harder I think our kids are gonna grasp onto it very quickly it almost has more of like a social media platform feel um where you know on your your left hand side is kind of like a an ongoing like feed like Twitter kind of thing you know and then there's your search bar and you have your own account and you make your profile um so it's very intuitive to use but from the teacher's side doesn't look um it still looks very user friendly and Naviance is not right now so I think teachers will actually like it better once they're trained on it did the students do it on their Chromebooks or on their problems yeah yeah they say either or yeah both so they can get yes yeah I congratulations good work thank you yeah once we have stuff in there I'll have to show you what it looks like with our our live students so or we would love to welcome you back from that really always happy to do excellent job in all of the research and the way you planned this out it was really well done thank you thanks for coming tonight my pleasure thank you thank you thanks well have a good night you too um all right next is Peck Jones Grant woodquest and I think this will be um so we haven't requested any of the pet Jones um since 2020 and the reason for that was really we were feeling that we had everything we needed through those Esser funds and that things were going well as you've heard Kevin and I talk about at these meetings previously throughout this year we've been talking a lot about the reading materials in the primary grades and in the Elementary grades and our desire to really scale back from any of those subscriptions that we had for digital reading materials that we were really needed during covid and to move into print materials and there's a couple reasons for that one is the one that we all know right in in 2020 when the schools were closed we sent so much home with students and we didn't get it all back which is understandable and then in some cases things were so worn out that it was time for a replacement it got worn out a little more being home for the spring and the summer so we needed to we need to revitalize those the other piece to this is you know we've been going through um all of the um really self-assessment due to writing the waiver for the right to read act and we acknowledge as part of our plan that we need a significant number of decodable texts for our kindergarten and first grade readers so our um our elementary Reading specialist put together a list it's about a 14 page list of all of those decodable titles so looking for dinosaur Lily wants to fly you know seasons of trees we love to swim me and my dog I'm giving you some examples right of all the many many titles that we will be purchasing in order to really replenish and upgrade our kindergarten and first grade libraries these are the classroom libraries these are the books that the teachers use on a daily basis for kids to read that they're selecting and putting in their book bins these are the the things that are going home with students every night that they're getting extra practice at home and the cost to do this would be about twenty two thousand dollars so what we're looking for is your approval to move this forward to the full Board of Education so that we could request these funds from the town and we would need to spend this money prior to June 30th that way we would get these materials in-house over the summer and we could label them based on reading level and get them into all of the schools for when the teachers return in late August oh so I'm a little confused is this K-12 or is this kindergarten or first grade it should be kindergarten and first grade sorry about that I'll update that for Thursday and down at the bottom yep just the first kindergarten in grade so the 22 is going to cover just the decodable text but or also other tells okay both and what we did or what I should say Pat did was she worked with the classroom teachers in all kindergarten classrooms and all first grade classrooms didn't inventory of what we had went into our closets went into our storage areas and really tried to find out exactly what we currently own and then filled in a number of spreadsheets to figure out specifically what was needed so these are tailored to specifically what every classroom here needs and so when when this is complete these these two grade levels will be up and running and we can move on to second and third grade that was my next question is so are they more in need at the K1 level because that's where they're we prioritize something really happens yeah okay I don't think it's a bad thing that books got worn because they were home and being used right if they ever came back at all that's why I said it wasn't anything we didn't expect and we have to do this from time to time you know okay I don't have an objection yeah um so I put together we move that I uh move that we approve or request for Peck Jones grant funding in the amount of twenty two thousand dollars for purchase of uh classroom books or kindergarten grade one okay will that work um so let's do that again okay thanks I need to have a another question were there since we haven't done the peck Jones for a long time were there other things sort of on the list that got sort of put aside are there no I talked with vin I talked with Jeff I talked with our elementary folks I I this is the as you say in the in the scheme of things this is at the top of the pyramid for what we're looking for we really want to make sure that through all of this that our kids have to write books in their hands to be able to grow a reader as readers in the in the youngest grades do we feel like we got a lot of things covered from the pandemic with the Esser funds and things like that I think it was very helpful I mean a lot of that we spent in training a lot of that we invested in our own in our own people so because we've used five Jones for that in the past we did use Peck Jones funds for some reading material in the past we've also used it for band uniforms when we needed band uniforms at the high school we've used it for instruments K-12 depending on where they needed and we replaced music instruments across the district so we've we've always used it for really where in that Niche area we've needed it before we went one to one we used it for Chromebooks okay it's a yeah can it's it's really an interesting font and it can be used for some really unusual things and um I guess the the reasoning behind it and the the benefit of it is that it it can be used for things that don't fit into easily identified categories right now this is an easily identifiable category but I think you know faith and I have talked about um the budget and the instructional has really stayed the same and and had a zero percent increase for for a while now and ideally I would love to come to you at our next meeting and say this is how much money we would like for second and third grade libraries and that we could then begin to spend another chunk of money on those hopefully for next year oh I know what my other question is so because we haven't used the funds for a couple of years do we have more to spend or how does that happen it's in an account that is um I believe and don't quote me on this but I will have the information for Thursday because we call across you know across the street to figure out how much money we have available and so they let us draw down a percentage each year so there is a finite amount of money in there that we will eventually expect okay but it is it's receiving it's like a endowment right it receives interest interest so it keeps building up yeah and then we can only use a percentage right right and it has been building up right despite all of the ups and downs of the market as far as we know as far as we know okay it's probably in a safer yeah investment area okay more yeah no you're okay I just needed to remind myself what tech jobs okay so we have a motion that um we would approve a request from the um of Peck Jones grant funding in the amount of twenty two thousand dollars for purchase of books and texts for the uh K1 K through first grade libraries um all those in favor post yeah okay thank you I'll see that again on Thursday yes all right and then um item three is uh teen teaching proposal yeah so this is um sort of an interesting conversation that's that we've been having and I know many other districts around the state have been having this conversation as well and that is about um how will we address teacher recruitment and retention and so there was an article that you may have seen in the record Journal I think it was yesterday and it highlighted some of the things that Waterbury was doing because Waterbury was short I think 200 teachers to start the school year now we have not been in thankfully that situation because we are able to fill positions that we have it continues to be more difficult to fill special education positions um some some mental health counseling positions for ours our special areas um and and it's been a significant challenge to fill our para educator positions so folks have been brainstorming ways knowing that that is on the horizon and also the problem that we and Cheshire have been trying to address is collaboration and planning time specifically for elementary teachers and so there have been a couple of ideas that have been coming down the pike and I thought I'd share a few of those with you tonight um I know that the agenda says proposal but this is much less a proposal and more of an informational um sharing of some things that we've been talking about in District and so one of those ideas that was um was discussed by administrators and some teachers is the idea of combining two classrooms with two teachers and a para educator in which there would be a four day work week so that they would teachers would work a full week within four days in those weeks that we we have five day work weeks so there are some pros and and cons to that and would certainly need additional vetting we would want to look at the educational benefits to students we would want to really talk about the scalability of this but we know that it is attractive to teachers we know that teacher burnout across the state is real and we're looking to see what are some innovative ways that we can get teachers that collaboration time because we know that when two teachers are coming together for planning and co-teaching that two teachers are are able to really produce some some magic together and are able to be able to meet some of the intervention needs of students of course we were bringing it this could not happen unless parents were included and opted into that kind of a team teaching model some other ideas that have been brought forward include something that they're doing in Waterbury which is offering graduate course work through a partnership with a local University in which the um the teachers would not pay for The Graduate coursework they would be able to take it in-house and the benefit would be that they could gain degrees you know that they could further their education and then on the upside also receive pay according to the salary salary increase according to their degrees earned another one that was shared by some of our teachers was providing child care so some type of district-wide child care opportunity so that it was on the same schedule as as the schools for like professional development days and Vacations so I think there's more to come on this but I did want to let you know that this was something that we were thinking about and something that is in the works and we'll have more to come on a solution that we might be zeroing in on any feedback um yeah I think um it's Innovative and it's going to be controversial so um so I like it because I know I know that things are moving this way but I'm also anticipating the um the pushback so so I'm glad you're taking it slow and steady and putting what needs to be done behind it the other thought that I have along those lines is um um starting with really seasoned teachers um yes that know how to collaborate that know how to team teach already [Music] letting them do their thing yeah I think it's really interesting and the other question the third question I asked no keep going that's fine um when you talked about the Waterbury schools and getting the Masters is that unlike what we we do at Quinnipiac University students are doing this is offering that to your current teachers so let's say a teacher with a bachelor's degree who needs to get their master's degree it doesn't have it yet right or someone who is looking to get a sixth year or get an administrative degree I think there's certainly opportunities there I don't know with our current Staffing how much of um how much interest there would be so that we would certainly need to you know do further explore that it was certainly working for Waterbury where they were taking in the lineup yeah new I'm wondering though if we we have a lot of them we do if we do we have a lot of their seasoned and academically proficient are advanced degree candidates I mean we've already discuss this a little bit but my concerns are the same as yours and that is that um you know I not a concern obviously I mean I'm all for Innovation and and we've got to be open to it um as it as these problems come at us but um you know I think we need to emphasize that it's going to be the same number of hours worked uh not just because you don't have the same number of days they will be filling those hours as um required by the contract um I guess you know would the contract allow this also uh so I think that's why it's so important to make sure that the union is included that your parents are included yeah your teachers your your principals are included make sure there's a common understanding and you know you've got the parents obviously but also getting the someone a lot of the pushback is going to be from also from non-parents from taxpayers who are saying oh wait a minute come on and and get them again as you discuss that get them involved in that conversation as well um and then you know how to sell it and you know not necessarily being done anywhere else so you've got to find a similar similarly Innovative controversial program and how the dis that particular District held it yeah yeah who else is doing where some of this we can't find anyone else who's doing this we found a lot of districts who are doing a four-day Work Week where kids and teachers are only working four days and they've done that due to budget constraints due to Transportation costs Etc you know um I I think a lot about when Jeff had proposed hiring our high school students to be substitutes during covid and that was certainly an Innovative idea and some may say it was controversial you know how are you going to put high school students in front of a class and it really worked out incredibly well we had such an outpouring of support from our our graduates who were home or taking classes online because their own programs shut down and I think in large part it really is what saved us and enabled us to stay open for all that year so yeah there's a lot to consider well we've got to keep doing stuff and we've got to keep trying yeah put new things together because we're losing teachers right right and then I think our pool our candidate pools are getting we've seen them get smaller [Music] yeah we talked about that the other night so we're we're doing a lot to sort of talk about our recruitment we've got Mike's helping with a couple of videos too that we could use at recruitment fairs you know talking a lot about of course our health and wellness initiatives that have been recently recognized so a lot a lot of irons in the fire and lots of things we're trying to do to keep Innovative and to continue to be a play continue I just want to emphasize that be a place where people want to work and where people want to send their children I'm really glad you're thinking of new and Innovative things yep um okay keep us posted also on other ideas that come up sure okay uh moving on to Old business update on our new format for the School of Business Partnership yes and I'm going to invite Dr um Reed to chime in here because she was also present at the meeting of the school Business Partnership that was held right before break on April 6th um a group of community members and and School District employees met in this room and the focus was really on the trades so we had quite a quite a group here together and I'll thank both Jeff Solon and Andrew Martelli for bringing the particular group together yet auger from the Chamber of Commerce was here Doug Johnson from Marion manufacturing Mr riccio who's a general contractor who you may know Mr Bowman was here Jason vayanese from Richard Chevy was here and Maureen I can't necessarily remember all the others who sat across the table so if you're thinking of anyone that I missed please I don't you got quite a few of them okay so Maureen was here was Ben and I we had Leslie pair from the business department we had Sean McEwen who is the department chair for career and Technology education Michelle katusi who is the school counseling director was here as well um Steve trafone our athletic director so there was Lindsay D'Angelo the new school Lindsey tangel who you all have met but she was on maternity leave for a little while and she runs the College and Career Center up at the high school as a as like a bit of an aside Lindsay had just hosted a trade panel for students which is a spin on the old career day so that it's targeted to a certain group of students and students can elect to be there so they really want to be there and want to hear what folks are saying and it was a it was a great group and this was almost a continuation of some of that discussion so we started out by talking about um how we want to prepare students for for College and Career that they they need to be prepared for both and about the wide variety of opportunities that students have and students aren't always seeking a four-year college degree and I know we've had this conversation for a number of years but it was important to bring both school and Community together because we're doing so much in the schools to promote this both with the work that Lindsey D'Angelo has done you've heard from Michelle katusi on more than one occasion the board has supported the work that the district is doing around the dual enrollment program in manufacturing so more than anyone I'm I'm aware of we have taken and supported from every aspect of the board and and in the school day-to-day workings uh kids who want to do something besides college and so the conversation that ensued with that school Business Partnership committee was really interesting because we heard from each of um each of the community members about their struggles to hire people right so we heard about from Jason Viennese how he is trying to get technicians to work on cars and how significant that is and he also talked about the salaries that are paid out for those jobs then we heard from Mr Ricky Ricky as the general contractor and what he sees and the architectural firms that he works with and um and how how students need to know both both sides of the business and how difficult it is to get contractors to come out to get Tradesmen to get plumbers and electricians and HVAC technicians into these jobs and then we also heard from Doug Johnson obviously from Marion manufacturing talk about the potential salary earnings and he threw around the all of them throw around some numbers about you know 26 year olds making over 123 thousand dollars and about kids who without college degrees you know in their 20s making ninety three thousand dollars so I felt like we all were asking for and all wanting the same thing and here we are we're targeting students the counselors are having these conversations with students we're offering those courses but you look at at Sean mcewen's manufacturing course and there's not enough students signed up to run it so we have all this Machinery all this technology we've put in all this effort we have these this machinery and we don't have the students to take the classes so while it's true that we do a really good job of making sure in middle school that were were identifying the students who should go to welcome and encouraging that we've got maybe 25 who go to Wilcox and 13 who go to voag and you know a few more who go to EAC for a total of about 45 students who who were finding Pathways for that meet them Cheshire Public Schools is never going to be a Wilcox and we're not we don't have a voad program but what can we do and so we really came to and Maureen you tell them wrong but the parents are the folks who need to hear some of these individual stories about Pathways and how successful students can be back in the late 90s it was all about college and we needed to get every kid into college and that's when Naviance became so in cellular right and um and now you've seen the pendulum swing it's been what we've all been saying for a while we need to educate parents about the other options we've done a wonderful job educating folks about about college and college is no longer the only way to a successful career path and so the group was really a one I think engaged in a wonderful brainstorm about how we might do that and they talked a lot about video clips because we're already doing Shadows we're already doing internships and this community is ready to embrace more students for shadows and more students for internships but we talked about and I think started a conversation about how can some of these community members maybe come to our Middle School open house and be there to have conversations with parents so that we can educate our community about the other options that are there and then what I thought was incredibly poignant was the individual stories that people told who are sitting in this room a lot from the educator side about how they had a fear of if their child didn't go to college and might have been resistant and then once they sort of let go and and saw that that path was a good one how successful it was for their child most importantly how happy their child was but because they were doing something that they loved they are successful in that path and I and it was I would say pretty emotional um to to hear those individual stories from the group so anything that you'd like to add on I think you covered it all one other piece I think is um Jeff talked about with these companies and maybe in the summer they could open up some time to have some middle school students come in and and kind of tour and see what happens there because I'm not sure that that shattering is happening maybe some high school students but opening it up to the middle school so that's the only other piece I can remember that was yeah and two at a time seem to be reasonable for the people because I could keep my eye on too we could probably finish it a time so it was um I think it was a very productive conversation I think it was a conversation that we needed to have and I think now we've identified a potential goal post that that we need to get to so I wanted to make sure that we shared what that meeting was like because it was definitely a different format and I think you'll see some good things to come out of it and Dr Reed and I can certainly share as we attend more of these and bring that back to the group um do you have any questions so you know I can remember when we went to the um cave meeting at the first yeah and you and I were talking and saying talking about the pendulum swinging and you're going education tends to have these wide swings in the pendulum you know in in so you know my um you know I I guess that's the caution is that we don't go crazy on the other side too that we like to stay we just kind of you know like those little clacker balls yeah kind of thing but um um it's Pace me that wonders if trying to win parents over in middle school is almost too late you know I mean this is uh every parent of a kindergarten starts thinking where's my kid going to go to college um and so it's ingrained it and I we had mentioned the possibility do we get the PTA involved in this also that it isn't there isn't a stigma um that is developed in even at the elementary that it doesn't have a chance to develop that we see College and Career as really it's not like the European track system or the the Singaporean track System since Jeff is over there I mean they do they they you take your test and you're either going here or there and don't ever try to to jump um so I think somehow we have got start changing people's minds even perhaps even earlier than the middle school so yeah I think that's a point well taken I think the other thing that um that came out oh I just lost my train of thought because I'm thinking about what Michelle said before about her video clips and I'm thinking about how School links that starts in the elementary school and how if we use some of those with our own Community people you know that would could hook kids too that um oh I know where that is I drive by that all the time you know it's a neighborhood thing it's a community thing and that would start to expose students but certainly parents would have that option but yeah I think that's a point well taken faith and then I guess the other thing um and I don't know how to how to deal with this um I I think we're all concerned about where are kids that where our kids are going and we talk about the salaries that they're going to make and do we put too much emphasis on that and are we ignoring a human side to education and I don't know how to fix it I don't because it is I mean we're all talking my kids making six figures a year and I societal right it is societal and bigger than town it's cultural um and you know I think how do we um temper that a little bit and like just a thought um and I'm not sure what these guys anyone would say about it but it's just something that kind of jumped out well I think one of the things that came out in the meant to addressing that faith is having some of these owners who have these graduates working for them they mentioned the salary but they also mentioned that these kids are being leaders they're truly six-year-olds and they're showing leadership and so you know a success path right which brings contentment and enjoy to the workers so there's a piece of that too it wasn't just all about salary so I just okay to make sure you know yeah okay just some thoughts the ruminations of an old lady all right um okay if you're ready to move on yeah okay um and then update on the March 17th professional oh that was the big St Patrick's Day party well with that introduction I guess I'll start off by saying that Kevin Hanlon won for one the coffee Wars he got the most votes for would you like to describe what your which is nice baby it was uh I think I kind of won by there were a couple I that got split votes by Marlene and Ryan Murphy and and Jeff was playing a long game but we only voted on the morning so that was he was going to Diet Coke around so but it did set the whole thing did set up um welcoming Justice yeah really having the whole District together which I think we've shared in this meeting only tends to happen at times like convocation so this was kind of a big event for all of us to coffee Wars was a good way to kick it awesome I'm happy that I've taken home the prize of winning the coffee doors share your recipe um absolutely no it was it was just iced coffee okay well what's special though well you ordered it from somewhere right yeah I can't remember where though yeah he had a Little Help from Rachel de vile DARPA it was it's all good so good buff with that um and then we had 19 sessions and I guess the the big takeaway from that was the feedback that we all got from the teachers and not only the anecdotal feedback but the survey results um were pretty incredible and something was it 96 of the staff said that they walked away with a with a takeaway and felt positively about their experience so it was I think pretty pretty significant and all of the things that people took away actually tomorrow will be sending out an email to the staff because in their survey they had to write a note to themselves that we told them we were going to send the Tuesday after break with something that they didn't want to forget that they wanted to remember um to consider and this is actually a strategy from a book that many of us are reading called building thinking classrooms it's building thinking classrooms and Mathematics but it's really not just about mathematics it's by a gentleman called Peter liladal and Mary and I had the opportunity to go to one of his workshops along with some of our other math leaders and and Kevin as well on a second day and so this is a strategy to remind students about something that they had learned in class so that they can begin to apply it and not forget it so we'll be doing that tomorrow and in May we'll be meeting with our District's leaders because they debriefed the sessions as well and said how much they appreciated having not the interactive sessions where they just didn't sit and hear a lecture but they actually got to practice and take and Implement some of the things that they learned and how much they appreciated having the time to do that and um and so we're taking away all those responses to plan for our August professional development day which won't necessarily be a full K-12 day but the learning that everyone took away will be fed forward to when they are presenting and preparing for the August professional development day we'll do this the one once a year we'll do it once a year or maybe if we do it every other year well I think what we really need to do is see what the needs are after August and by the time we get to November sort of assess what are what's the responses what are people saying they need where are they at and is that something that's conducive to a K-12 day or do they need something specialized so to be determined until we know what the needs are but definitely successful enough that we would certainly consider replicating that that structure again in addition to the feedback on the TV design that the teacher and leaders saying oh when we saw this we want to implement that kind of approaches we're providing our own PD uh one of the ideas of that day was to recognize that we'd be teaching kindergarten reading and someone else may be teaching High School Career Tech yeah that there's a lot more commonalities than we often recognize and we did hear through the feedback that theme and we might not have gotten it because that was that was something that was part of the design but we might not have made those connections but in addition to what Marlene said that was one of the themes that came out that people did had that recognition did have that appreciation did have that opportunity to have a conversation with someone who was potentially teaching something different from a Content or age level than they were so that was another piece of feedback that was came out as we debriefed that we were planning for and hoping for it but might not have gotten but I think we we did hit that Mark based on feedback good thank you um okay and then final item um is the update on new instructional materials for grade six seven and eight math so I've been giving regular updates on this uh ad hoc committee that's vetting um six set of length textbooks at our last meeting we had a latched on to one potential resource and illustrative math and we were doing an initial bet of another one which is a program called iready and we weren't sure whether after that initial review of I ready whether we were going to be ready to make a decision then or whether we'd do some forever betting it turned out that we wanted to do superb embedding by ready so we had we've done continued to do things like tryout lessons and classes communicate with other districts who have are you know multiple years into implementation to see how it's going in those districts hearing on the ground not just from sales rep on how it's going the committee met today and we have one more meeting a week from today today was really about diving deeply into some specific segments of both of those curricular Resources with some very targeted questions and really trying to make some fine line decisions between two programs that we ultimately the committee feels comfortable that either both are definitely meeting the bar in terms of standard alignment in terms of promoting practices standards for mathematical practice in terms of level of rigor which in terms of having some platforms that are going to be responsive to students which is something that we currently have that we do want to lose in any updated program so both of them have some strengths and some shared strengths but they're a little bit different approach it a little bit differently so we walked out today with pretty close to recommendations there are two targeted questions that the committee wants just to get a little bit more information on but we'll leave next Monday's meeting with a recommendation that we'll be able to bring to the May 8th curriculum committee meeting that timeline is important to us because should this committee approve make that initial approval of what we're recommending we know the textbook review process has to allow for two weeks of public opportunity to review that's going to take us to the June 1st Board of Ed meeting for consideration and we are looking to begin training within June for teachers for next year because it's important it's been important from the committee from the start to get enough of insight into what their what they'll be using next year as a resource before they leave for the summer so they're not walking in saying here here's a brand new resource you have to wrap your head around this because either it's going to take some training professional development and planning on the teacher's part that's a little bit different than what we're doing now so we know that we kind of put that timeline on ourselves by taking a little bit longer than initially anticipated that but our textbook but I actually feel very good about the process that this committee is using in the care with which they're making this recommendation they're certainly taking the responsibility seriously knowing that it's a resource that we might use for for several years so I recommend them for the questions the feedback the thought the care and their willingness to try things out and it's taking us a little longer than I was going to be doing anticipating but I think we'll have good out anticipate at the next curriculum committee meeting that will have a recommendation is it one program of instructional materials that will go through all three grades yes yes and that that kind of movie is important yeah so yeah representatives from each of the each of the grade levels right great and we also have the math department chair present in the very beginning of this to make sure that the philosophy was in line K-12 so we had both Alicia nailway our math coach for the district at the elementary plus our Middle School people plus High School people available so that that we know that all of all of this will be in sync I guess that was my follow-up question is you know what do you do with Elementary and then High School you've got three different Publishers and um but um let me just to add to add on to that is um I forgot it but um you talk I'll come up with it sorry sorry I had no I didn't mean to cut you off like all day um the good news about both of these programs is they're really built from the standards up which are elementary math curriculum is as well so there uh it was noticeable even in what we did it today the overlap and similarities even though it's different vendors to the design and that that was important to us we want to make sure that even if it's not the same Denver that we're using at the elementary level that there's some progression that goes through and I would say either these would accomplish that goal they approach it slightly differently but it will not be a hard right training for our students going through fifth to sixth grade and Nora will be at Civic either eighth grade into Algebra 1 or so three into algebra one it's like okay because that's the reason for asking right then that consistency can go through as long as the Publishers of the texts are paying attention yeah which I think yeah I mean correct me if I'm wrong they're doing much better than that for the early versions of programs said oh we're standards aligned and that wasn't necessarily that was that was a marketing thing to say oh yep pre-match this up but they weren't designed from that the programs now are designed from the standards up I will say there we have some next needs on that continuity um so the resource for yeah no all I wanted to say to that point was that's also why we engage in such a rigorous vetting process because people will say oh it's ngss aligned oh it's common core standards aligned and when you really start and engage in this process that we've done before you find out that well that's just not true you've missed this standard and this isn't clear so that's part of what's baked into the the vetting process and if we screened a dozen programs we dives into three of them a little bit more more hardly and one of them that we thought was going to be a favor coming out of the gate we stopped after the the next level of Engagement like oh this was really good sales material this is not what we need and the opposite was true for one of them like okay this looks good enough to that but we don't anticipate that this is going to be underneath and we got into it like oh actually this is this is very very much climb with what we're looking for so um to go in this group going in with an open mind about really taking a look at what we're looking for a program or whether the programs matched it um they definitely have done their due diligence on that and to just take it yeah I really appreciate these committees and the time that they spend getting these I had materials and programs because that's what makes the difference it really need people to really dive in deep and what is it what are these programs really offering and to recognize that they're not our curriculum but a resource for our curriculum so a good chunk of our conversation has been about that this Tech series and the accompanying materials as a support for our curriculum and we're going to honor the design of it early on but you need to be able to see through that and say okay this is the good parts about this we're maintaining this with Fidelity and we also know how to flexibly respond to students for the program that's the idea that's the idea but it's not our curriculum it's a resource to support our curriculum and this group has it needs to be user friendly for the teachers as well as the students that was a key a key piece just this week and and that may actually in the final which one of these we recommend that may be because they're otherwise pretty similar that may be a really important piece of puzzle that has to be usable for those students it has to be usable for the teachers yeah so yeah and that was my that was kind of my follow-up question is what kind of you know as we have explored with the reading the right to read act and you know what we do and the pieces we put together to create our curriculum um so and they're all there are many supplemental parts to make the whole thing work so are we seeing what you're trying to do is ensure number one that we don't have to bring in a ton of extra supplemental Parts but but are there those I hope that they are also continually reviewing the standards to make sure that those standards are consistent because we hear about you know the neap testing and um where the pressure is on to maintain kind of [Music] um are prominence and international understanding of mathematical Concepts and everything so my guess is there's pressure on standards to change with time so I don't know where this question is going but you know do you see what I'm saying I mean are we able are we going to be able to if those standards adjust and change are we going to be able to adapt this curriculum to adjust and change with that easily does that make sense yeah I don't think that there's we're I'm hearing no signals about the standards changing I would assume that that our resource I would assume that the standards will last even longer than our resource okay but I would say that you're part of part of the question is about adaptability right so I agree with Marlene I don't we're not seeing signs or signals that the standards are changing in the near future but I will say we just referenced this building thinking classrooms right so instructionally there are things that we know and are learning to be more effective strategies we can use so part of our question embedding this resource is what lends itself when we have a pretty strong emphasis on complex thinking social emotional learning right what uh these programs lend themselves to what we have defined and it was important for this District um and that's that's an important part of the vetting process that supports part of seeing through the resource enough to know that we can adapt and use a flexibly to meet our needs so that just for a small bite-sized example that building thinking classrooms and math which really has caught on from a Groundswell of of teacher led up to say oh these strategies really work it became a consideration for the resource which one of these lends itself to these instructional strategies that we know are pretty powerful and that's been that's been some of the lines of questions and thinking about because we do want to be able to use it flexibility and adaptively for our district for our students for our skill set with the teachers that we have so we don't want it to be the entire curriculum we don't want it to be the entire instructional model it has to support that so that's where I think either of these I feel comfortable and confident about either of these are going to mean any of those bars and you know whichever way we tip it's gonna a lot of it has to do with knowing the work that it's going to take to seek through it and to be able to use it flexibly so that's that's our conversation which is a good conversation to have a very good conversation to happen it's not so different than where we were from a reading of standpoint we're making um to be able to have some resources but be able to use aggressively based on the students that we have and the teachers that we have yeah okay you said you start out with like a dozen are there that many programs oh my texts yeah and our initial kind of pre the committee getting together we were looking for programs that were going to be standards aligned because that's we've got a misalignment right now and we're doing a lot of work to mitigate that that's constant and never ending and imperfect and our teachers are doing a good job with it but it's it's work that we don't need to be doing rather work on the instructional side of it yeah um and trying to make sure that we're teaching the right things that you have the right material right yeah um and from that we could take half of those off the books after the first meeting we do a little bit more deeply into someone to say these look more promising than others that's what we that's when we got some work directly with each of the companies and made decisions about whether to continue that work or vet further from there so that's been a process what's the lifespan of it are they um of a program of a math curriculum that's a good question yeah I'm trying to think well we've had Eureka now for eight years maybe more um we had another Elementary resource before that that supposedly the standards aligned that just was too cumbersome for teachers to too many manipulatives it's just too too heavy so that wasn't here for too long um and from the history that I know before that there it was before also before the common core standards and it was sort of materials in a crate talking about the elementary so I mean it really runs the gamut speak to your when you were in Canton how long was the math resources input you know so we were we were at a similar spotting turn of um who passed at that moment in time programs that had slapped uh standards alignment thing up stamp on their old curricula or their old resource but the current one in Canton has been in place for and probably eight years and they're still using it um both of these resources there are printed materials that go with with them but they also have online materials that are constantly updated so that if um they'll keep any of those updates live and that going which probably extends extends the versions out a little bit longer and has a little bit less turnover from whatever version this is to the next one because we can make smaller so that's a positive I think we're waiting with a bit of bread yeah it's a lot of work yeah so is the rest of the committee yeah it did have a nice conversation with one teacher who said you know you advertise this as X number of meetings I know I know false advertising it would be worth the movie and we also have the administ another administrator principle on that committee as well yes yeah coaches teacher reps uh principal okay thanks all right and then we have um item five just uh overnight field trips uh for starting with CHS robotics so our robotics team is headed to Houston Texas tomorrow to compete for the first time in the World Cup captions um started by competing locally and then were able to then move to the next level which I believe is in Massachusetts just last week and with a quick turnaround found out they would be headed to Houston this week so they take a team of did you come from 14 14 students they leave tomorrow they come back Sunday and they will be working you know they all have different parts of this team some do programming some do I don't know yeah you know um so they all have a role and they're going to go for the competition so very exciting it's World competition yes yes about 14.

um it's an opportunity for our chorus to actually perform to take um to take part in some workshops and um the Festival of Music um I just adjudication thank you so they will take part in that festives of Music they'll have the awards ceremony so there are a couple days and days involved with that and then they're also taking a couple of days to enjoy some of the the sites and you know get that also educational experience and they'll be judged by college coaches College directors actually will be judging them and giving them feedback which is a I think a huge opportunity for them to grow and to bring that back instructionally as Greg was is really excited about that and they're also going to do a performance I'm just in this in this venue um so where they'll have coverage by you know college teams otherwise teams so it's a lovely team building opportunity as well and then I shouldn't say team group Greg Bell has really done a nice job at taking over in this role and in building the program after covid because numbers in all of our musical areas was low after covet and so you may recall that Greg had done a day of Chorus for all of the sixth graders back in the winter time where the Middle School performed and the High School Coral chorus performed so we think we'll have even an increase in the number of students involved in Chorus at the high school in the years to come and I know it's a long way off but that too will be will have a live stream capability so we'll be able to see the kids performing which will be really fun right good okay um no action required there so I guess we have covered the agenda um okay um all in favor and we're done thank you everybody

if you recall raise your hand if you remember the locker room where their visitors used to change for football near the main gym it was like a third world country and there was horrible and then the the uter junior high which is a beautiful building now and if you're new you wouldn't know it wasn't it devolved into a warehouse and a holding place for garbage it had been vandalized it looked horrible it smelled like an NP tuna can it was horrible and our buses we had some that are as old as 40 years old and the odometer they they had who knows how many hundreds of thousands or millions of miles they had on them we were in a tough state and now we won't get there overnight but y'all will get there soon sooner than you think it costs money to maintain these things and also in order to continue to get sfb dollars State Facility board dollars we have to demonstrate we're doing our part if we don't keep up our air conditioners and and pay to have them serviced or service them ourselves they will not replace them and that's fair so that takes a good amount of of effort and resources to do that those documents are required by the sfb every single year they require us to submit maintenance documents and if we do not submit those documents Dr Wright is correct they will not fund us all right so the other consequence is that we're going to have to have a reduction of services that's a reduction in support staff that's a reduction in all areas in the district um once we are if we can't move once we've moved the maximum amount of capital then that's the money that we have so we will have to reduce Services as well and as you can see the people that responded to the survey do not want a reduction in services I would like to interject in 2014 we did not have a band we did not have a Fab Lab we did not have an art program we didn't have as many choirs as we have now we did not have a theater program we did not have technical theater we did not have a robust robotics program and we did not have auto shop thank you what's that no con we didn't have a construction program and we had a lot of Aging embarrassingly old uniforms that's that's what we're talking about and so when board members would call me at night and say I'm so sick of seeing athletic tape put on the back of the uniform so they could run and it sticks out can I share the story Jennifer I said Jennifer that's our Stinger that's Buzz's Stinger of course she didn't buy that and so it was a uniform with tape it looked like they had a tail because the pants were so big for this kid to run our uniforms across the board were embarrassing and so we care about student safety and success I don't know anybody that doesn't care about student safety and success so the part of that is making sure that we have these programs we want to maintain these programs we want to maintain the level of support that you enjoy today yes ma'am also um fund the block program at that time and then we could not keep our AP classes we had significantly less AP and honors classes at that time and then our dual enrollment credits also were severely reduced because we couldn't find the teachers to be able to teach those classes thank you all of that's true maintenance people we were down way down in maintenance yeah it's true all right one of the things that we're we've been able to do um especially with the coveted relief money is keep our class sizes small if we do not pass a bond and or an override we will have to increase class sizes and as you can see the people that responded um to the survey would like to keep our class sizes small I can tell you as a teacher for 20 years I liked having class small smaller classes it's easier to get to students individually I think it's what's best for kids but if we don't have the money we can't keep the staff so we also have an issue um with inflation that we have no control over and we also have an issue with minimum wage which in Arizona we have no control over either and so those are concerns for us because those are costs that are increa going up increasingly the next two slides are going to show um how much those things are increasing so in Arizona you can see that in 2000 18 minimum wage was ten dollars and fifty cents this year it's 13.85 it went up a dollar five from last year we do not get additional funding from the state to fund minimum wage this just they just assume that we're going to pay we have to pay for it and they do not give us extra money to fund it this also causes an issue with compression because what's happening is when people are coming to Blue Ridge and they're coming in at a minimum wage job they're making the 13.85 but we've had people that do other jobs where we're not raising them because we can't afford it so we need to be able to also um eliminate or reduce compression as much as possible all classified jobs so maintenance staff Transportation AIDS in the classroom positions like that food service I'll also add that those roles that were just listed we're making nine dollars to 9.25 an hour in 2015.

so we have a huge bonding capacity but we're asking for a small portion of that and part of our rating is because of our how we manage our debt and how we pay our bills on time it's just like if you went to finance a house you'd have a lower rate if you have a a good credit score that's our credit score how many bonds are expiring and what does that mean for the taxpayer so we have one Bond expiring and what that means is that when that Bond expires there'll be a lower tax rate um it is um when you say which one elementary school bond or the 16 million dollar Bond of the two of which I'm aware elementary schools initiated in 2007 I think 2006 or seven 2016 for the other one right so on the I'll find you the exact answer but the information from stable doesn't list the title of the bond it just says that it's going to be expiring so I'll find out for sure when is our energy and conservation whatever your energy our Energy savings right yeah two year I believe it's two years but let me find out for sure that is um 200 about 230 000.

yeah and they have shared with us some information where you can watch the competition live stream so I sent that to Marlene and Kevin and Jeff so I'm sure you can pass access to those who might be interested good to know you're so excited and um just real fast oh there was is anyone does anyone sponsor this from town or so this is a unique um this is a unique group because they are a club but they're largely a parent-run club okay so they they fall under a different category quite frankly that um I'm I'm so glad the kids have this opportunity it's so wonderful that the parents are have been so involved in this and we have some um staff members who are also going on the trip who have children who are up on the team so it's been a nice collaboration of everyone and to see them get this far you know it'll it'll be something to to watch and to see where what their status might be next year good deal how many teams are competing 45 teams so good the qualifying matches so cool wish him luck yeah all right and then we have a chorus field trip on April 3rd to the 7th on 20 in 2024.

and so you take that math and and of our roughly 275 employees 100 are teachers you probably have 20 administrators and the rest are we you'd have a handful of student support the rest are support staff and so that has had a significant impact on our on our bottom line we don't have any control over that I remember a few years ago a person that just moved the community said all you got to do is just take 15 20 of your budget and set it aside for the next year and what I wanted to say is I wanted to start saving for my retirement when I was 23 but I didn't have a two nickels to rub together and so so poor you can't pay attention it's not like you don't want to you don't have them we don't have an extra 20 if the simple math is we're down 1.3 close to 1.3 every year and so these are the elements that have led to that discrepancy as well I would predict that next year next year what's that impact January across the district at the minimum is 8-14 just ballpark at how much more do you think it's going to cost how much forty thousand about forty thousand for a dollar that would just be for the salary that would just be for those people at the bottom if you put in the benefits and if you put oh I would think that if you look at all the factors involved I looked at this that it's been 18 months I think we're we're closer to every dollar is closer to 80 or 90 000 with Benefits over a hundred thousand a year so that puts you at 1.4 in the hole and just as this is just also affecting us so in fact it infects us with all of the supplies that we buy with our transportation with our propane with supplies that we have to buy to maintain the buildings everything is getting more expensive so we also don't have control over that so um we would like to re um so would you support a bond to reduce the budget so and you can see that people overwhelmingly um would like just like to support this to help us with our budget deficit so and you can see again here support for the bond we've got 54 of the people um in support of the and I'm on the wrong side on my computer sorry uh for 52 are in support of the bond and 22 are unsure so again um we would like to help those people that are unsure see the importance of why we need this money to support our district and to support our students and we only need to convince 51 percent of the people thankfully so we've got a good run to start and so for the m pays for salaries we've got 54 of the people that responded to the survey that were in support 20 were unsure and so what so what the m o um override what we were thinking was we'd like to go out for about 10 so the maximum for an MMO override is 15 but we think 10 would do what we need to do that would be about 1.3 million we would use that money to pay teacher salaries to keep class sizes small and like Dr Wright said earlier to maintain all of the wonderful clubs in sports and AP class and honors classes and Nabbit programs that we have now like Miss Brimhall said back in 2014 we didn't have many of these things so all of these things are funded through our override and our bond I I would wish to add that the last override election failed by 167 votes relatively low participation some of the folks that came to me and said look if you'd asked for a smaller percentage I might have voted for it but she just asked for 15 and so some of the board feedback after that time is let's look at what we actually need the bare minimum and let's see about that so our suggestion likely that the board would be that we'd go out for a 10 given that meets meets our current deficit it'll probably leave us a little shy but not nearly as shy as we would be without those resources [Applause] any questions what is the cost per dollar for a 10 override you included the bond but not the override costs if if we're looking at a 10 at the assessed valuation of a 475 000 ohm at 300 it would be about eight or nine dollars a month so the total if you had it say a seven to nine million dollar Bond and a 10 override the total impact would be somewhere between seven and twelve dollars a month a Big Mac meal meal number one is now more than what a value meal would cost you can you also go over I know it was explained to us in the last override which didn't pass but what the percentage does like it was explained um 10 keeps us from Rolling backward the next percentage would keep us where we are and the next percentage would give us a boost so in dollars can we talk about that what that look like the simple math looks like 10 keeps us where we're at 11 10 would keep us close to where we're at we still don't know all the increases yet on insurance we know they're all going up you've probably seen it in your auto insurance and everything else we think that 10 percent gets us very close though so 10 or 11 percent would probably be the ass to keep us even 12 or 13 percent would put us up a couple hundred grand a year on an mno basis free is that correct Just for information the difference between the term on an override in the bond into two separate things what is the term length on the override and what would be the term length and how is the bond funded so that um the turn everything's off the term length on your on an mno override is seven years but um it titrates down um on your Sixth and your seventh year so you get fully funded on your fourth or fifth or your first through fifth year and then it goes down by thirds on your um six and seven your sixth and seventh year a bond is a 30-year commitment and like I said earlier a Bond's alone can you also go through our rating as to how successful our bond bonds have been in the past and where we sit sure so from my understanding our sale of bonds has been really good I think we have an A minus rating which is a great rating um and I don't think we've had any problem issuing a bond at all we never have but in fact last time we had an a rating just a without minus or plus a rating that rating earned us another million dollars in funding that did not come from taxpayers it's because it the price of the value of our business went up by a million bucks we got to receive that at no cost of the taxpayer so we I still we have an A or an A minus rating somewhere in there the bonds that we've had in the past have we been able to pay pay them off sooner we we've been no we're not a schedule um you don't normally pay them off earlier you just um you're on your schedule and you just um tax to pay what you have existing we do have some bonds expiring though I want to add that we have a bonding capacity last time I looked at a somewhere in the range of astronomical money 90 to 120 million dollars we're only using 30 less than 30 16 15 28 27.

[Music] why does it come up and grab a microphone I can't hear very well sorry yeah Lauren you know I make sure that Mike gets passed around for questions um is the bond and override going to be on the same ballot during the same building time it can be if the board chooses to call for a bond and or override election it would be on the same ballot no it's one vote the bond would go for seven years excuse me the override would be in effect for seven years staging down in year six and seven and the bond would be for a designated period of time between 10 20 and 30 years depending on the project they would be separate separate so in other words Kimberly makes a good point they're separate questions which means there'd be two lines on the ballot do you favor override yes or no I make them simplifying it do you favor a bond yes or no they'd be separate on the same ballot so if the last time failed by 167 votes what do you do to advertise to make sure that you get enough votes what's the method of advertising so that people are aware of it particularly now that we have more to Second Home people who aren't up here all the time I I think honestly it was uh this the effort was fragmented at best well intended but it was not I would say not necessarily well organized and got a late start so I mean the boards could respond to that I can't participate in that effort and I don't mean to make any disparaging remarks about people's efforts but I would say that a lot of folks the election came and went and they didn't even know about it so it was a handful of hard-working people that were insufficiently supported we would need a well-organized big team of people that use social media and by the way the district cannot participate or use any of its resources once the election is called up to now we can say what we want but as soon as elections called we cannot participate so it had to be ptso parental groups stakeholders youth programs that that want to have I'll add another thing ahead one of the coaches came to me and said we would like to turn the high school area into for a youth sports what would the community think about investing in the high school facilities to enable Youth Soccer youth football and everybody to use the field more frequently lights on the field at this at the soccer field and the turf field to reduce maintenance and water and allow more use of that and that's a community question that's something we probably would want to ask on the next meeting the point is though it have to have a very well organized effort leveraging social media especially to get people that are younger participating there was a big negative feeling at that time of that last boat too all over the United oops all over the United States there was a negative feeling about everything and it affected it affected the vote on that my recollection of that election is that for people that voted that same day we actually won that election and then it was reversed when they had the melon ballot and a large percentage of those ballots were individuals that not that did not reside in the area and they did a calculation there was a large percentage of people that actually lived permanently in another location but kept their registration in our community and so they didn't even meet the criteria to be able to vote for that election and we did not have the opportunity to pull those ballots prior to because we did not have enough time to review that so that swing literally swung heavily as soon as those non-permanent residents milled in their ballot there wasn't a big information push to those people either they did not know the problems that we were facing because people would say well what is happening at Blue Ridge they had no idea but they hold a vote they have the you know the possibility of swinging an election but they didn't have the information as to how dire it was that and the the feeling in the United States of negativity did not help us at all I will say this too I thought was really interesting I wasn't here during that time but we went over the demographics with a consultant and the voters from the age of 18 to 40 were a very low number 32 there was only 32 people between 18 and 40 that voted so we do need to focus on that demographic for sure because those are the people that have kids in school we had a very low turnout that year too for voting and that hurts because all the negative people come out and vote it does it's true so we as a board we have the we have the option to choose between an override or a bond or both okay so those are those are some of the decisions we're going to have to make whether we're going to decide whether it's just a bond just an override or a bond and an override when it comes down to I think we have until June to decide on that so and I think we need to get more information from the community because I'm one of those horrible voters that if you ask for one great if you ask for two I think you're greedy and I'm going to vote no for one of them so that's just if I wasn't on the board and didn't understand that was my perspective as I would pick one or the other but I would not pick both and we need to see if that's similar to a lot of other people in our community we don't want a divided vote ruining our chances we also have engaged a consultant to look at it and it's interesting because our demographics are similar to Miranda the Marana school district has a lot of similarities the one difference where the two diverges in growth they're growing like crazy and we're getting smaller but the other part ethnicity permanent residence snowbirds a lot of the same elements and they the schools that went with a very well stated and organized Bond and override passed at a higher rate than one that had just one question and what he said is people either going to say yes or no and sometimes it's heck yes and sometimes Hypno but heck yes one on those votes as a g version I think and I think another thing too is that we need to work with the town because um in our last projects that we've done it was told to us that the way your school goes so goes to town and if your school is sliding backwards or losing population or has an inability to maintain then it's hard to it's hard to draw people to the town so the town slides back there's no new building you lose businesses so if you keep your if you keep the urgency about your school and keep focusing on that the town Rises up to so it has to be a town and school effort I am my thoughts go to the north end of the school district um shallows growing and they have land to grow and they're going to continue to grow and they're going to pull I think people that live in the North End of our school district just think they live in shallow and that's where they're supposed to go to school so I think we need some type of educational process and when you get your taxes it tells you what school district you're on but how many people they're renting a house have any idea where the school district they're in so I think we need to um I don't know I I don't even know how to approach that but I think the north end of the school district really needs some attention because I think we've lost some of that any ideas from that's why you're here I hope to give some ideas about that or maybe just a comment about that given that we have to we cannot use District resources to get the word out I know that we have a pretty I'm hoping that we keep the vibrant ptso that we have at the elementary school what's going on at the junior high and High School boosters ptsos up there in order to get the word out because I think both primary and secondary have vested interests as a resource teacher in the elementary school you can bet you can know where my dollar is but I also know having raised two kids that the secondary is just as important because we have to keep those kids in school getting what they can in terms of Nabbit and the CTE and all that kind of thing so I guess it's really a question for secondary what's going on at that level to really get the word out because this is going to be important to turn those into even though they were the non-resident we need to get our parents out and get our parents registered to vote and forget whether I'm Republican or Democrat this is not a Republican or Democrat issue and I don't want to turn into that either that is a really good point really good point and I don't think we should look away from that at all I think it is it is maybe we haven't focused yeah we're not Democrats Republicans we're School Board yeah as the Americans that's a ptso person but there's another one here too and someone who's now been at all three sites um you've nailed it it's the parents and we have amazing parents but [Music] um we've got to bring them and we there has to be some sort of strong push not from ptso or parents but really from the schools too and I'm meeting with Mrs Hoffmeyer tomorrow because I have some ideas about this but it's there the parents are there and morale is high among parents especially at Junior and high school and we're seeing that at the elementary school too but I have heard of parents of families who are going to opt to homeschool or go to one of the private schools for this step or the other and I think that these are issues we can address I just wanted to to agree with you really it's we need to pull the parents in it would be so nice if we could get as many people voting as come to our open houses the first week of school that elementary and middle school is packed and I don't know what you do to attract that many parents or get the excitement going but if we could have that many people voting in an election because if you look back on the number of people that have voted in our elections that concern schools it's really bad it's really really low and it shouldn't be it shouldn't be at all because we can't turn right around the next year and do the same try the same thing that doesn't work Mr Grace one thing I'd like to add because I mean we can't we can only do so much as a school to push this but what we have done as a district is to open up our social media platform and try to increase and bolster that and I think Kyla can probably be backing up on this one but if we put something out on social media we're getting we started off getting very low numbers and now we're getting several hundred engagements per post of people looking at them things like that because one of the ways that we can get people in the building without physically getting them in the building is to show them what's going on because there's not enough hours in the day for everybody to take off to come visit their kids to see what's going on in the classroom and so across the district our social media push and presence has gone up to try to highlight the positivity and then the great things that are happening at the schools another thing that's different when you compare the different bonds that Blue Ridge has passed if you go back far enough this population now quite often both parents work and so that makes a difference too as to how much they know about what's going on in our district in years ago people came in they volunteered in the classroom they knew firsthand what the teachers needed and what the buildings needed but that's I don't think that's probably happening right now unless we push to get the information out I can speak I can speak a little too as well to the junior high because we we do notice that we we need some more parent involvement and so I do think that this move that we've made with this uh the stakeholder committees at every at all of our campuses that's a great move where we can get a lot more involvement from our community members and our parents and then we're looking at as well as other opportunities for parents to come into our building and really be involved in some of the the data points that we want to share with them as far as student achievement and social or excuse me is uh and mental Wellness we have a lot of ideas in place and we're going to continue to work on that piece of it but I agree that that is something that we definitely need to boost at the junior high and the secondary level so back to like my original question tied in with all that if you can't do like a TV commercial or anything like that because that's a different kind of advertising and the school can't actually be involved in the advertising can you do like I'm in the hallway that's leaking at the elementary school and all the other half of the sixth grade has moved and all of fourth grade has moved so when they start to do the repairs can those repairs go on social media can we show the parents this is what the Bond's for this is what we need the money for this is what we're trying to do to make things better because they're not worded like that but can we show them that this is where your money goes this is what your taxes do so that they know we're trying to make things better for kids because they don't come in the building I'm at the very last room in the very last hallway in the corner nobody comes back there that's one sixth grades back there you know so today thank you as we should be um but but the parents don't see all that and so the school district's going to be involved in rebuilding all that putting in new windows and new drywall wall and floors and that's all for the kids we can man I think that's a great idea showing in our social media right now because once once we make a decision to do this we we can't put anything on our social media the school's social media we have what Facebook Instagram and uh Twitter Twitter we have the school's official accounts there and once we decide to go for a bond or override or above we can't say a word about it but up until then I mean we should we ought to we ought to be going there instead of saying all the good stuff we ought to be showing all the big cracks in the floor and the water dripping in the ceiling and in all the broken windows and and the kids sweating to death because air conditioning is not working yeah this is why we need things there can be a political action committee formed of people in the community and every year both times I've been here for both elections a committee has been formed and there hasn't been a problem getting donations that committee can do just what you're suggesting there they can do that but I like the idea too let's get ahead of it before it's called and let's demonstrate the needs by show and tell on social media Ali had a yeah I agree I think that's a great idea to show the needs ahead of time similarly your question about how do we involve parents who are more Junior High in high school because you do have the ptso at the elementary it's incredibly hard to get parents to volunteer like I've been a ptso president you've got Sarah here and we're like calling every person in our phone to ask them to volunteer and I used to feel really bugged when parents would have kids get older and then it was like what like you phased out you've done your dues you don't have to do it anymore and guess what that's me now not because I've done my dues but because my kids involvement is in sports so I would say rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and say how do we get parents to come out at the Junior High in high school I'd say use use where parents are already coming out and supporting in their Sports and while the school might not be able to say it all of the sports team's parents are in communication with one another so I think trying to go through the sports teams and acknowledging this is the thing that's going to get cut when your kids don't have funding they're not having their Sport and you already have the parents showing up at the schools for sports so I don't know what the regulations are there on how the school can reach out but I guess before that you say it official maybe start saying it through the sports teams of okay well if we want to keep doing this then let's get that groundwork going with the sports team families that are already involved before we call the issue can a parent get up before a soccer game or a football game and address the people that are there sure well it wouldn't be football or soccer no no it wouldn't be football or soccer but whatever's left yeah Fine Arts are the other ones we have a good captive audience Mr Webb it would also it not only sports but any of the other all of the programs that we've talked about the CTE the navit the Fine Arts programs those are all additional things that do so well at the high school and kids that's what they really look back and enjoy and what makes a high school a good you know this is a culminating experience is what they feel in their high school year and so how do we help those parents understand the importance of that for having that available for their kids so yeah I agree with you with the sports but also in all of those other classes those same conversations can be held and should be held with the kids and hopefully those and and how do we encourage those kids to have that conversation when they go home to talk to yeah I really want to do the welding class but it's going to be hard if I'm having to drive myself there and I can't drive myself there or how do we make sure that I can still do the construction trades class here on Sunday at school and get a job outside of high school where I'm going to be making good money and and maybe that'll help me make my decision whether I want to go to college or not so it's those are the Avenues that we definitely can hit I'm in total agreement I think that I just recently went to a non-profit seminar through MPC and they brought in a consultant that looked at how do people get information in our County and I was actually shocked newspapers and print ads less than 10 percent but cost almost 90 percent do you know that Tick Tock is actually really high in our community had no idea plus YouTube and Then followed by Facebook but Instagram is the least and I thought oh I use Instagram the most so when it comes to information I think that we can do a better job in our community we can do a better job to support our community and then have those inexpensive ways to show the great things we're doing let me give you an example for NASA and I don't think a lot of people recognize this so my daughter is the only girl in this Nance Rover competition the only one I think it's really sad there should actually be at least 10 to 12.

so we have a huge bonding capacity but we're asking for a small portion of that and part of our rating is because of our how we manage our debt and how we pay our bills on time it's just like if you went to finance a house you'd have a lower rate if you have a a good credit score that's our credit score how many bonds are expiring and what does that mean for the taxpayer so we have one Bond expiring and what that means is that when that Bond expires there'll be a lower tax rate um it is um when you say which one elementary school bond or the 16 million dollar Bond of the two of which I'm aware elementary schools initiated in 2007 I think 2006 or seven 2016 for the other one right so on the I'll find you the exact answer but the information from stable doesn't list the title of the bond it just says that it's going to be expiring so I'll find out for sure when is our energy and conservation whatever your energy our Energy savings right yeah two year I believe it's two years but let me find out for sure that is um 200 about 230 000.

all the rest are boys so she's welding and she's doing everything and this NASA competition over 30 countries from around the world petitioned to come to this program and in every state every state in the United States they had more than one request to be part of this NASA rover competition there is only eight schools in the United States that there was accepted to this competition and we are the only Public School in the entire United States actually in the world because none of these other schools that come that has been invited to this NASA competition this is a huge deal this is something that not one school district in Arizona was able to accomplish and we usually win and we beat the colleges in how they've produced this amazing NASA rover this is the information that people need to know that that program every year there is a person that goes on full scholarship to one of these huge technology schools like MIT or whatever so I that's the only one I know my daughter came home what's Massachusetts Institute of Technology and I'm like only a scholarship opportunity for you to go um but that's a really really big deal so we need to be able to join forces as a community to figure out how we do this same thing is you know we'll talk about in a little while our our school schedule and our days our kids reap this benefit I have the same daughter as taking three college classes right now so she'll only have like three classes left after she graduates from Blue Ridge to have her associate's degree those programs are the ones that are significant risk but I don't think that a lot of the community knows but like NASA in itself this is something that the state should be coming to our school and saying how wonderful we are because we're the coolest by the way in the entire nation the coolest Public School in the entire nation and I would say in the world when it comes to NASA that's a big deal so there was a question um who who can vote for like who should we be targeting for the override of this election who all can vote is it do they have to be a homeowner do they have to pay have taxes that they're going to be affected or can anybody vote anybody's registered it doesn't cost renters a dime they can vote as long as a registered voter and their kids are in our school district or they live in our school district kids don't be in our school district county so if you live in the county you can vote in this election if it's in our school district boundaries so we do have a large portion of our boundaries that are into Show Low and a large portion of our boundaries that are in the county Dr Wright and I said we were going to go knock on those apartment Doors Down by Show Low Lake this next time go door to door asking people to vote you still up for that yep and Catherine some ways going to make cookies we're going to hand them out she's not here to defend herself so she said yes we're in oh so my question would be why not and I know we're far away and we're considered a third planet from the valley get a TV station up here and interview those kids and talk about it because I guarantee you most parents here have cable in one way shape or form that's right and I don't care whether it's the fox station channel 5 or 12 whatever even the Tucson stations yeah get someone up here to actually physically do an interview and then get that on social media that hey your kid's gonna be on TV tonight we've uh we've sent it to every news outlet that would listen I did at National locally Statewide what we need to do is figure out we do belong to that school Finance reform thing that she's a world Network we'll get somebody over there but that's how I'm going to do we tried that though invitations haven't worked so far so we need to get somebody else to compute our home our horn for us Arizona Indiana we have part of our community includes homes that are outside the they think they're outside the school district they're inside the school district but they they're somehow this feeling like if I don't have kids that go to the school district I'm not included in supporting that or I don't live or I can vote so I agree with Mr Webb that you have to get the word out that you can vote and you know and and who can vote to support the school Sarah bromke just just volunteered to help out Kyla and she's only going to do TV which I think is really awesome she's doing traditional way to go TV or our own old people social media we need to tap into some of our high schoolers who are gone title like Jensen cook and I mean Noah had been he was a viral Tick Tock sensation so we we could definitely I think access those kids if we formed this pack and pull the kids in but also it does go back to the older community members or second homeowners of people who don't have kids and we do have to reach them because they don't care we have strong support in the in the country club especially Pinetop Country Club that supports our scholarship but a lot of those people go home before the vote happens or they don't hear all the support because they always vote earlier they vote by mail and they're not aware of everything that's why it was too late last time and I think we need to consider those people because they will support the school because they realize that that also affects the value of their home be is there any other comment regarding the bond or override if not I think we'll move forward to Dr Wright we'll turn this time away again for the uh for for a school schedule okay so for those of you have met with uh two or three different groups of teachers kind of just organically and other staff members expressing their views on the four-day school week the uh as I've mentioned earlier if you just are joining us there's a prescribed path that the board must follow in order to adopt a four-day week a big part of that is community input there are three stakeholder communities committees that have been formed at all levels elementary junior high and high school that must participate within that it's an open meeting a series of open meetings that need to occur just like tonight and so there's really no structure other than share with the board what your feelings are regarding that I just want to reinforce there's been no decision made that we're moving that direction I mean I have my own opinions and I'll withhold those for a while but in the end it just it needs to the board needs to have your feedback to kind of get some direction as to where we're at now we recognize this is not a one and done this is a long process but uh I'll just I think Mr President you open it up right the reason he's put this out here is because I I made him do it he didn't want to do it right now he said yeah we'll do that because I have people come into me and I know we have people in the on board that are coming to them with that question you know shallow desert snowflake desert Round Valley does it and why don't we do it we tried it once and Lauren were you here when that happened what happened when we it's anybody what happened when we went under that four-day period so that was at the early stage when we were trying to do reteach and enrich Friday and um kids would come in to take the bus into school and then they would just leave and then go to the movie theater hang out on Town wherever there was no teeth in having them be there on Friday and so it was hard to patrol those kids coming in another part of it that a downside of that is the school spirit on Friday for games and activities it was hard to have that if there were no kids at school typically you'd have your your pep assembly pep rallies on that day of a game if kids were gone participation in those activities kind of dwindled as well and and just if I might add Mr Webb it only applied to the high school k through eight was a five day so we had not had a district White how Lauren remembers it is I mean I I interviewed in November of 2014 on a Friday and there was no one at school I said where are all the kids they weren't in school and so I the reteach didn't work that's clear for a number of reasons but so this question is a district-wide four day and to be clear for the board for their evaluation we're talking about everything being closed all offices everything the only thing would be open would be extracurricular support Transportation custodial and that's it none of the offices none of the schools would be open on that four day I will add that anecdotally the schools that have gone to four day that used to be five day it could be an impact of a lot of different variables but all the schools locally have gone down in letter grades that went to from except for snowflake that have gone from five to four so we're four and a half right now just to be clear we're not on five or four and a half so snowflake is a unique environment that none of the other school districts but I think that Matt like has an enrichment Friday correct a reteach Friday snowflake so from so my I'm the only board member that had kids in high school during that so I'll give you my perspective I loved it and the reason why I loved it is because my kids are heavily involved into sports so I loved it because my kids were taking AP classes and they needed additional time especially during basketball season when sometimes we have three away games and it gave them an opportunity to have one-on-one with the teachers I loved that component I felt like academically it was awesome the kids that were going were the kids that were the a students the kids that were supposed to be here were the kids that weren't the a students and I know that a lot of teachers tried to get those students in and I did and it became a problem I was one of the Swing votes to make us go back to a five day even though I loved a four day and the reason why was because of Bob London and Bob London and I was like don't talk to me about it four days my favorite I don't ever You're Never Gonna Change My Mind mind I told my kids I'm got your back we'll never vote for the opposite and Bob was like our our Sports is diminishing our school spirit is tanking our kids aren't graduating from school and the kids that are the ones that are supposed to be here are not coming and the ones that are the kids that are supposed to be here that are coming are doing things that are really bad in the community and that truly was happening so um could there be Corrections and changes absolutely I think that the implementation was very poor I feel like you can still have an enrichment Friday and it can maybe be done a little bit differently but our kids that are um maybe I still don't know how to solve the problem with highly involved children and an opportunity for them to catch up I think we're still lacking in that so I don't know I'm I'm a swing either way but um I saw the huge benefits for the highly excelling kids that wanted to do another additional project at that time that's when the the Robotics and NASA rover competition was bigger better because Friday was build day so they were there all day Friday and now my daughter's staying till eight o'clock at night every night trying to build and so it makes it a little bit difficult to get homework done so I don't know so I don't know what my answer is yet but I love the idea of a reteach enrichment but I don't know what's the best option so my kids loved it but I see from a school standpoint it was an absolute disaster some I think that's that's the issue we have you know snowflake is the model always put up there I think they have a whole different Community than we do they have highly motivated parents for one thing and highly motivated students we have what is it 45 or free and reduced lunch here or something like that 40 below poverty and 52 percent free and reduced lunch so we're looking at a whole different demographics than that so I think we're looking at the masses compared to a group of kids that are highly motivated they're going to succeed no matter what like that like your kids are Jennifer so I don't know feedback that's what we're here for well they didn't shut down they didn't shut down either during covet did they no no just I don't know if you've heard but I've heard from a couple of other people that show low is revisiting their four day week and they may be looking to go back to five um I've got a few notes here so I'll just spit them out right now a four day week with and I understand that we wouldn't extend the school day means 36 fewer days of school that's a quarter that's a lot I'm a special education teacher for second and third grade students and I know that I need every minute of every day that I can get them into my room my students when I look at my second and third graders right now the vast majority of my students are reading at a first grade level I need time with them and if I don't have Fridays it really impacts everything that I do with them because for a lot of my kids when they're out of school they slide back idea you know as like other teachers when my kids come back in August I have more than just a summer slide I have a bigger slide because given our demographics as Mr Merrill just said my kids don't always have somebody in their corner at home that's willing or can in some cases even provide review of math concepts or letters and sounds or just reading a decodable text and you know this is my fifth year in the district and I'm proud of the work that I have accomplished with my kids our kids and I send them on to fourth grade with a pretty good track record of getting and achieving all of their potential I'm also sum up with this I have a student former student she repeated third grade last year because of the pandemic here and when I see her today tall much taller vibrant a smile and she feels like she can accomplish anything and she's making the honor roll and this was a girl two years ago that couldn't do that or even last year and I'm not saying we take the credit she's doing the hard work but she needs time in school and I just worry about some of those kids that don't have anybody to advocate on the home front and you know there's just so much that gets wrapped into it I think you know we talked about the difference in the demographics and the school districts a big problem we ran into aside from the problems the high school had with discipline for the kids that did show up on Fridays we we also know that there were some instances where there was no babysitter at home or they expected the only the older children to take care of the younger children because they couldn't afford a babysitter or there's no supervision at all for any of the kids so they're not doing homework you know that that's pretty much a day that you need to worry about and I appreciate your you saying what you did about that too um so I am currently a sixth grade math and social studies teacher at the elementary school last year I was in eighth grade science teacher at the junior high I have 24 years experience in education as a teacher and instructional coach and a Content coordinator I had large classes last year I had some classes that had 34 32 kids in it they were hard to do science and have Labs every week but they were doable I can do the larger class sizes if I need to but what I need to have is the kids in school I'm part of the groups that met with Dr Wright and my understanding is that if we went to four day there would not be anything on the Friday and there would not be any extension of the other days for instructional time like we would stay the same length I had kids last year who missed sixth grade because of covid who missed part of seventh grade because of the hybrid and the eighth grade science test was composite of sixth grade seventh grade and eighth grade and it didn't matter how hard I worked I was not getting them to pass a test that they missed three years of instruction on I have kids this year that are in sixth grade that missed fourth grade they missed fifth grade part of it they can't multiply they can't divide and so I'm teaching them pre-algebra in sixth grade and we're trying to do all the other skills too my kids love being last year and this year they love being in school they love being in person they don't want to be on a computer they don't want to be home by themselves last year I had kids who win their sisters or brothers were sick they had to stay home and take care of them because there was no daycare available they would email me and say Miss Grace I'm home because my little brother's sick what do I need to do I think that if we had Fridays off they would be the babysitters I know that the daycares around here there's not enough of them for people to sign up for Fridays only my my children pay for my grandchildren over the summer so they can keep their spot for the fall when they have to go back but I also know that I have a lot of students I have homeless students I have everything else that cannot afford to do that and so their kids would just be by themselves we have a new curriculum it's rigorous it's showing positive results in my grade level at least my kids are excited they don't complain about it but I need the time to get them where they need to be to build those skills that they're missing and right now when I turn on the TV what I see is a nation that blames education and blames teachers for all the lowering scores that came out last year after testing and yet they don't want to give us solutions they don't want to give us money and I think taking away the instructional time would be one more step backwards I think that we need the instructional time so that we can demonstrate to parents and other people that we're trying to do the best with what we have we're trying to get your kids caught back up we're trying to make up for those gaps that's it yes back here um just one thing to consider is that this district has two full-time speech therapists and one part-time correct and I know I can't speak much for the for the part time but for the two full-time therapists they can hardly fit in the kids they need to see the meetings they need to have the paperwork they have to do and the testing they have to do in the five days that we have they they have a hard time just squeezing in to that five days if you were to take out a fourth you know go down to four days I don't know how you probably have to would you would probably have to hire another speech therapist because they don't have the time in five days let alone in four also for child find as well that our only day to do that is is Fridays and I don't know where we would fit that in either so and what else uh I just like to reiterate um what was said about child care I think in our community there's maybe three day cares whatsoever and a large portion of our demographic has both working parents and so uh you know with two working parents the kids have to do go somewhere so if you can't get them into a daycare what do you do and that can actually affect you know people's ability to get hours or work on a Friday because they'd be required to stay home and and take care of their kids so I think that it sounds good in theory but in reality it wouldn't work for Our Generation uh with two working parents um I taught it snowflake so I feel like I have a little bit of insight as to what um is going on over there we mentioned or you mentioned the um the demographics is very different from the demographics here I actually left snowflake because of the four day week it put a very hard strain on me as a teacher trying to get through all of the curriculum that needed to be to get through those students who were not thriving just did not because there wasn't enough time there wasn't enough space to get to everything they needed those students who have that support at home and there are a lot of snowflake students who have that support um and they're they're going to succeed no matter what um and so that's one thing that I just really fear if we do go to a four day week just the strain it will put on students and teachers do you know if they completely shut down the whole campus on that day they did reteach and enrich like okay was done prior here behind you on the reteach day you mentioned that your daughter came in and got help and for her it was more of enrichment because she was already in the higher programs and your daughter is an example of someone who's going to succeed no matter what because she has you as a teacher the person that I want to come in for the enrichment is the one who doesn't have the transportation and everything to get there and they're the ones who are going to fall farther and farther behind if we are closed completely on Friday the children like your daughter and the ones that I want no one gets the enrichment and then everyone Falls farther behind I yeah I agree with that so my um oldest and my youngest actually have some pretty significant learning disabilities and that's why I loved it because I was kind of selfish because my kids had one-on-one instruction time with their teachers so that's why enrichment was great for us so our kids my kids never had a four-day school day I was just grateful that 90 of the students were gone because then the teacher spent one-on-one time with my kid for four hours so it was a very selfish thing I thought on my part and my other two children my middle kids that didn't need to have the enrichment and they're like well I have A's in my class I'm like I don't care you go anyway so my kids still went five days a week but it was wonderful if there's any way that we can solve that situation where a kid can get four hours of one-on-one time with their teachers can we figure out how to do that in our override budget that's where the kids are successful and that's where there's research that talks about enrichment and I think that's what's most important when you start to slide back enrichment goes away and if you want a kid to be successful then they need to have the enrichment activities they need to be in sports and music in theater and NASA and then those are the kids that are successful in education especially those kids with learning disabilities but I agree because it was a very selfish thing for me I'm like hey no one can show up that's cool because then my kids are now in calculus where they were on an IEP and they were struggling in math and now they you know they're in college and doing excellent because they have the one-on-one with their teacher time so I love you guys but if we can figure that out one-on-one with teachers it's it's probably nothing more than about 150 million dollar endowment we can make it happen no problem sure no problem I'll win that 100 billion dollar lottery or something whatever there's there's more questions too yes I have one um so I'm retired I guess I'm Community now but I also had two boys in high school during the four day week and I was teaching full-time five days at the elementary now my boys were not taking a lot of AP honor classes so they were home every single Friday and they couldn't go in to get help because the classes that they had there were already kids there supposedly being helped or it wasn't a lot of gifted and I didn't care for it at all they both played sports sports like my brother had said went down the tube the kids had no they never had a pep rally even the dances I think were somewhat limited that year because they're just they just weren't doing activities and I can say even though I'm retired now and I I do feel bad for teachers because it probably would be nice to have a three-day weekend and be able to replenish yourself as a reading specialist it would be the worst thing for my kids because even the two days of the weekend we see where they forget things that we've taught and I can't imagine then every week losing a third you know an extra day so there's three days and we're starting over on Monday and then if they're absent a couple days due to an illness you're only getting two days to teach a brand new concept and hopefully they can Master it so just speaking out there sorry guys okay so I question if and maybe this is a if wishes were fishes thing but for teachers if you could have the students there that need the extra help wouldn't a Friday where you have less students in the classroom be easier and why not we shoot those mics I can't hear a word I'm sorry it's not like I'm the only one talking because we actually all talked about all this but yes so like like I have your kid right now so we she she would love it because I have her for Math and she doesn't like math but I have Monday through Thursday we do all the concepts and everything and even though Friday is a half day we do our assessment and everything and so then I can use that and I can decide what I need to reteach and all of that and if I lost that even that half day and I went to four days then I still have to have a time where I assess to see are we making strides and what do I need to reteach so now I only have three days to teach and I'm going to do my assessment day and so now my days are even shorter and if we have a snow day thrown in there or a water pipe breaks then I have even less and I'm down to two days and when do I teach like when do I actually get it out there I would rather have all of them there all the time than have every time someone's gone I look at the room and I think oh my gosh now I'm gonna have to catch that person up and I'm gonna have to catch that person up I'd rather have everybody there or nobody there you know I think the one of the one of the arguments for four day would be Finance it cuts down the costs but if we're still Staffing with teachers and everything on Friday and keeping the buildings open and everybody here then we haven't saved a penny we've just lost and we're going backwards I was and this is anecdotal but I went to Sonic the other day on a Friday two o'clock in the afternoon no no it was it was we went about 11 30 and it was a pack of about 30 Junior High kids there and and they didn't have a thing to do and it was bad I'm telling you I never heard so many F words in my whole life if boys and girls and it was it was bad and when they left that place looked like a garbage dump and I was saying what's going on with these kids you know Junior High principles going like this you know that's just the age you know but anyway but and I and I had some bad feelings from that and I've also learned that that school district in the last what seven years eight years has had four different superintendents so I don't I think they're just struggling to find a median where the community is happy and they're still getting good grades but I can tell you right now their grades are going downhill they're not they're not benefiting the kids some of the parents are happy because they got another teenager boy that's working building houses because there's a lot of that going on down there and so I think you know there's I don't know where my mind lies but you can kind of get an idea where my mind lies so anyway just my own personal feelings and comments can I ask a question about the hours so um my oldest son had pretty significant learning delays and I tried really hard the school was different then and so I actually removed them from public school school and put them into a private school and in that private school he had eight kids in his classroom for three years and it was only taught four days a week now in that four days a week we had three hours of homework every night and it helped him be more successful but in his classroom was two-parent households correct with a class size of eight and so I think in comparison just on an average day the class size of eight could you accomplish significantly more than a class size of eight versus a class size of 20 okay just in general and if you have a four day because I know that there's some teachers here in this community that now we're teaching in the larger class sizes that used to teach at some of these private schools and there I I don't want to speak for them but they're totally Pro four days it was great for our family because we had Ketchup Day for homework so explain to me that difference because four day worked really well with this group and our fifth day was when we would play the inner Collegiate sport activities was our fifth day so that's why school was out anyway because everyone was gone playing soccer and basketball and volleyball and all that stuff so is there a comparison has anyone taught in that type of scenario and then taught in a public school yeah so Ed and I taught at a four-day school week with in that at Bisbee and there are amazing Arguments for five day and I certainly have a little boy at home who needs every little extra they can get but he's getting it believe me he's getting it um and we loved it and we when we started at Lowell School in Bisbee it was a failing school so the state had come in for an improvement plan it was I mean we stripped down and you go bottom to top and look at everything and um we used a program that I'm talking about that's what I was referring to earlier with Miss Hoffmeyer that brings parents in um and it was a true four-day model we did assessments on Thursdays we were required even though I didn't I mean I knew what my kids were doing throughout the week I didn't need a little test to know if they were succeeding or not but we it was absolutely an important part of our week those Thursday tests the DFAS and then of course it moved on to this huge data collection and by the time we had moved up here but Lowell school was a b grade in School and that wasn't because of the four day week necessarily but it was because we addressed those other factors that are so real and in Bisbee we if you don't think we have parents up here who care we do and just because families are poor it doesn't mean they don't care or they're not motivated but in bispy we were dealing with cartels we had incestors I I that's such an icky word but we had very crazy I mean it was the Wild Wild West it still is and um and we were able to at that school we just were able to create something in the district even on four day so I'm saying that not because I mean I could go either way I kind of like having the structure of the five day but we did have a very successful experience with that and I'd love to talk about it more at another point where I'm not the person who disagrees with everyone else [Music] another question um if you would do a four day would that require you to extend the school year I've I've read articles and about going to a year-round school district or year-round school and having more breaks throughout is that something that's ever been explored or talked about we operate on an instructional time model we already go longer than we need to fairly significantly the elementary school day may be elongated but extended by 15 minutes and the other 20 to 45 but I don't think you would actually go longer we'd have to I'd have to do the analysis though there are 36 fewer days so we'd have to do the analysis it the answer would be possibly but we're not talking about the middle of June we already get out the 19th of May so maybe the first week of June would be just a guess sir and I could find more about that and if you'll give Mary Ford your contract and contact information on follow-up with you Mary's right here I'm sorry Mary he's right here go ahead [Music] so I know a lot of teachers are here we've talked about this I think the other thing that we have to be caucus and aware of is our classified staff our cafeterias staff all those people who would suffer with a four day week they would that that's a that's up to the that would be a financial decision for the board some districts what they've done is go ahead and pay them the same over four days so it's actually a pickup for them but I'm just I'm saying that would be my vote if we did do that I wouldn't want to cut pay and we can't lose bus drivers or support staff so all of this all of the staff members would have to be done that's why there's really not a huge financial pickup you don't do it for financial reasons you do it because the board would believe it's going to be better for kids and better for staff yeah okay that certainly clarified that because yeah the research that I've been reading it says that the cost things are really minimal one to two percent so um you know it saves on the heat and running thousands and that kind of thing that your larger effects stay the same salaries and benefits and all that so I want you guys to take a good look at the board I know we all look older compared to Jennifer because I'm old too you know not as old but we all had kids that went through this district and I think all of us had kids that started in kindergarten and graduated in the school district so I'm thinking back and some of you might remember when Blue Ridge was in the football playoffs every year and that requires several weekend several Fridays that kids missed and when I was doing I was volunteering in the elementary school and I'm looking at all these kids and the teachers are just shaking their heads like we lose so much having kids in class Friday and just losing Saturday and Sunday and starting over on Monday with some of them but when we let or we didn't always let school out but when so many families missed on Fridays that was another day tacked onto that weekend that hurt the education process and then we had some parents that said well since we're taking Friday off let's take Monday off too and so then those kids would only be in school Tuesday through Thursday so you've got a group that has to catch up like that or you have a stretched out family that has kids in college and they're like everybody's going to the ball games so let's spend that time and go see so-and-so at their college so it's not just what you decide on the whole group it's what parents decide to back and that did not work well at all it was like having a four day week in the fall because we missed so many Fridays so we we promote all our activities but when they get good that means they miss more school so you know if there's just a domino effect and whatever you decide to do and I really enjoy listening to the teachers perspective on kids that miss and kids that miss during during coven and I have grandchildren that mister and covet far longer than we did here and it's it's horrible if you don't have parents that can catch them up what is our absentee rate on Fridays 17.6 I don't know how many days can we miss per calendar year what how many days can a student Miss per calendar year well technically ten okay uh technically 10.

[Music] why does it come up and grab a microphone I can't hear very well sorry yeah Lauren you know I make sure that Mike gets passed around for questions um is the bond and override going to be on the same ballot during the same building time it can be if the board chooses to call for a bond and or override election it would be on the same ballot no it's one vote the bond would go for seven years excuse me the override would be in effect for seven years staging down in year six and seven and the bond would be for a designated period of time between 10 20 and 30 years depending on the project they would be separate separate so in other words Kimberly makes a good point they're separate questions which means there'd be two lines on the ballot do you favor override yes or no I make them simplifying it do you favor a bond yes or no they'd be separate on the same ballot so if the last time failed by 167 votes what do you do to advertise to make sure that you get enough votes what's the method of advertising so that people are aware of it particularly now that we have more to Second Home people who aren't up here all the time I I think honestly it was uh this the effort was fragmented at best well intended but it was not I would say not necessarily well organized and got a late start so I mean the boards could respond to that I can't participate in that effort and I don't mean to make any disparaging remarks about people's efforts but I would say that a lot of folks the election came and went and they didn't even know about it so it was a handful of hard-working people that were insufficiently supported we would need a well-organized big team of people that use social media and by the way the district cannot participate or use any of its resources once the election is called up to now we can say what we want but as soon as elections called we cannot participate so it had to be ptso parental groups stakeholders youth programs that that want to have I'll add another thing ahead one of the coaches came to me and said we would like to turn the high school area into for a youth sports what would the community think about investing in the high school facilities to enable Youth Soccer youth football and everybody to use the field more frequently lights on the field at this at the soccer field and the turf field to reduce maintenance and water and allow more use of that and that's a community question that's something we probably would want to ask on the next meeting the point is though it have to have a very well organized effort leveraging social media especially to get people that are younger participating there was a big negative feeling at that time of that last boat too all over the United oops all over the United States there was a negative feeling about everything and it affected it affected the vote on that my recollection of that election is that for people that voted that same day we actually won that election and then it was reversed when they had the melon ballot and a large percentage of those ballots were individuals that not that did not reside in the area and they did a calculation there was a large percentage of people that actually lived permanently in another location but kept their registration in our community and so they didn't even meet the criteria to be able to vote for that election and we did not have the opportunity to pull those ballots prior to because we did not have enough time to review that so that swing literally swung heavily as soon as those non-permanent residents milled in their ballot there wasn't a big information push to those people either they did not know the problems that we were facing because people would say well what is happening at Blue Ridge they had no idea but they hold a vote they have the you know the possibility of swinging an election but they didn't have the information as to how dire it was that and the the feeling in the United States of negativity did not help us at all I will say this too I thought was really interesting I wasn't here during that time but we went over the demographics with a consultant and the voters from the age of 18 to 40 were a very low number 32 there was only 32 people between 18 and 40 that voted so we do need to focus on that demographic for sure because those are the people that have kids in school we had a very low turnout that year too for voting and that hurts because all the negative people come out and vote it does it's true so we as a board we have the we have the option to choose between an override or a bond or both okay so those are those are some of the decisions we're going to have to make whether we're going to decide whether it's just a bond just an override or a bond and an override when it comes down to I think we have until June to decide on that so and I think we need to get more information from the community because I'm one of those horrible voters that if you ask for one great if you ask for two I think you're greedy and I'm going to vote no for one of them so that's just if I wasn't on the board and didn't understand that was my perspective as I would pick one or the other but I would not pick both and we need to see if that's similar to a lot of other people in our community we don't want a divided vote ruining our chances we also have engaged a consultant to look at it and it's interesting because our demographics are similar to Miranda the Marana school district has a lot of similarities the one difference where the two diverges in growth they're growing like crazy and we're getting smaller but the other part ethnicity permanent residence snowbirds a lot of the same elements and they the schools that went with a very well stated and organized Bond and override passed at a higher rate than one that had just one question and what he said is people either going to say yes or no and sometimes it's heck yes and sometimes Hypno but heck yes one on those votes as a g version I think and I think another thing too is that we need to work with the town because um in our last projects that we've done it was told to us that the way your school goes so goes to town and if your school is sliding backwards or losing population or has an inability to maintain then it's hard to it's hard to draw people to the town so the town slides back there's no new building you lose businesses so if you keep your if you keep the urgency about your school and keep focusing on that the town Rises up to so it has to be a town and school effort I am my thoughts go to the north end of the school district um shallows growing and they have land to grow and they're going to continue to grow and they're going to pull I think people that live in the North End of our school district just think they live in shallow and that's where they're supposed to go to school so I think we need some type of educational process and when you get your taxes it tells you what school district you're on but how many people they're renting a house have any idea where the school district they're in so I think we need to um I don't know I I don't even know how to approach that but I think the north end of the school district really needs some attention because I think we've lost some of that any ideas from that's why you're here I hope to give some ideas about that or maybe just a comment about that given that we have to we cannot use District resources to get the word out I know that we have a pretty I'm hoping that we keep the vibrant ptso that we have at the elementary school what's going on at the junior high and High School boosters ptsos up there in order to get the word out because I think both primary and secondary have vested interests as a resource teacher in the elementary school you can bet you can know where my dollar is but I also know having raised two kids that the secondary is just as important because we have to keep those kids in school getting what they can in terms of Nabbit and the CTE and all that kind of thing so I guess it's really a question for secondary what's going on at that level to really get the word out because this is going to be important to turn those into even though they were the non-resident we need to get our parents out and get our parents registered to vote and forget whether I'm Republican or Democrat this is not a Republican or Democrat issue and I don't want to turn into that either that is a really good point really good point and I don't think we should look away from that at all I think it is it is maybe we haven't focused yeah we're not Democrats Republicans we're School Board yeah as the Americans that's a ptso person but there's another one here too and someone who's now been at all three sites um you've nailed it it's the parents and we have amazing parents but [Music] um we've got to bring them and we there has to be some sort of strong push not from ptso or parents but really from the schools too and I'm meeting with Mrs Hoffmeyer tomorrow because I have some ideas about this but it's there the parents are there and morale is high among parents especially at Junior and high school and we're seeing that at the elementary school too but I have heard of parents of families who are going to opt to homeschool or go to one of the private schools for this step or the other and I think that these are issues we can address I just wanted to to agree with you really it's we need to pull the parents in it would be so nice if we could get as many people voting as come to our open houses the first week of school that elementary and middle school is packed and I don't know what you do to attract that many parents or get the excitement going but if we could have that many people voting in an election because if you look back on the number of people that have voted in our elections that concern schools it's really bad it's really really low and it shouldn't be it shouldn't be at all because we can't turn right around the next year and do the same try the same thing that doesn't work Mr Grace one thing I'd like to add because I mean we can't we can only do so much as a school to push this but what we have done as a district is to open up our social media platform and try to increase and bolster that and I think Kyla can probably be backing up on this one but if we put something out on social media we're getting we started off getting very low numbers and now we're getting several hundred engagements per post of people looking at them things like that because one of the ways that we can get people in the building without physically getting them in the building is to show them what's going on because there's not enough hours in the day for everybody to take off to come visit their kids to see what's going on in the classroom and so across the district our social media push and presence has gone up to try to highlight the positivity and then the great things that are happening at the schools another thing that's different when you compare the different bonds that Blue Ridge has passed if you go back far enough this population now quite often both parents work and so that makes a difference too as to how much they know about what's going on in our district in years ago people came in they volunteered in the classroom they knew firsthand what the teachers needed and what the buildings needed but that's I don't think that's probably happening right now unless we push to get the information out I can speak I can speak a little too as well to the junior high because we we do notice that we we need some more parent involvement and so I do think that this move that we've made with this uh the stakeholder committees at every at all of our campuses that's a great move where we can get a lot more involvement from our community members and our parents and then we're looking at as well as other opportunities for parents to come into our building and really be involved in some of the the data points that we want to share with them as far as student achievement and social or excuse me is uh and mental Wellness we have a lot of ideas in place and we're going to continue to work on that piece of it but I agree that that is something that we definitely need to boost at the junior high and the secondary level so back to like my original question tied in with all that if you can't do like a TV commercial or anything like that because that's a different kind of advertising and the school can't actually be involved in the advertising can you do like I'm in the hallway that's leaking at the elementary school and all the other half of the sixth grade has moved and all of fourth grade has moved so when they start to do the repairs can those repairs go on social media can we show the parents this is what the Bond's for this is what we need the money for this is what we're trying to do to make things better because they're not worded like that but can we show them that this is where your money goes this is what your taxes do so that they know we're trying to make things better for kids because they don't come in the building I'm at the very last room in the very last hallway in the corner nobody comes back there that's one sixth grades back there you know so today thank you as we should be um but but the parents don't see all that and so the school district's going to be involved in rebuilding all that putting in new windows and new drywall wall and floors and that's all for the kids we can man I think that's a great idea showing in our social media right now because once once we make a decision to do this we we can't put anything on our social media the school's social media we have what Facebook Instagram and uh Twitter Twitter we have the school's official accounts there and once we decide to go for a bond or override or above we can't say a word about it but up until then I mean we should we ought to we ought to be going there instead of saying all the good stuff we ought to be showing all the big cracks in the floor and the water dripping in the ceiling and in all the broken windows and and the kids sweating to death because air conditioning is not working yeah this is why we need things there can be a political action committee formed of people in the community and every year both times I've been here for both elections a committee has been formed and there hasn't been a problem getting donations that committee can do just what you're suggesting there they can do that but I like the idea too let's get ahead of it before it's called and let's demonstrate the needs by show and tell on social media Ali had a yeah I agree I think that's a great idea to show the needs ahead of time similarly your question about how do we involve parents who are more Junior High in high school because you do have the ptso at the elementary it's incredibly hard to get parents to volunteer like I've been a ptso president you've got Sarah here and we're like calling every person in our phone to ask them to volunteer and I used to feel really bugged when parents would have kids get older and then it was like what like you phased out you've done your dues you don't have to do it anymore and guess what that's me now not because I've done my dues but because my kids involvement is in sports so I would say rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and say how do we get parents to come out at the Junior High in high school I'd say use use where parents are already coming out and supporting in their Sports and while the school might not be able to say it all of the sports team's parents are in communication with one another so I think trying to go through the sports teams and acknowledging this is the thing that's going to get cut when your kids don't have funding they're not having their Sport and you already have the parents showing up at the schools for sports so I don't know what the regulations are there on how the school can reach out but I guess before that you say it official maybe start saying it through the sports teams of okay well if we want to keep doing this then let's get that groundwork going with the sports team families that are already involved before we call the issue can a parent get up before a soccer game or a football game and address the people that are there sure well it wouldn't be football or soccer no no it wouldn't be football or soccer but whatever's left yeah Fine Arts are the other ones we have a good captive audience Mr Webb it would also it not only sports but any of the other all of the programs that we've talked about the CTE the navit the Fine Arts programs those are all additional things that do so well at the high school and kids that's what they really look back and enjoy and what makes a high school a good you know this is a culminating experience is what they feel in their high school year and so how do we help those parents understand the importance of that for having that available for their kids so yeah I agree with you with the sports but also in all of those other classes those same conversations can be held and should be held with the kids and hopefully those and and how do we encourage those kids to have that conversation when they go home to talk to yeah I really want to do the welding class but it's going to be hard if I'm having to drive myself there and I can't drive myself there or how do we make sure that I can still do the construction trades class here on Sunday at school and get a job outside of high school where I'm going to be making good money and and maybe that'll help me make my decision whether I want to go to college or not so it's those are the Avenues that we definitely can hit I'm in total agreement I think that I just recently went to a non-profit seminar through MPC and they brought in a consultant that looked at how do people get information in our County and I was actually shocked newspapers and print ads less than 10 percent but cost almost 90 percent do you know that Tick Tock is actually really high in our community had no idea plus YouTube and Then followed by Facebook but Instagram is the least and I thought oh I use Instagram the most so when it comes to information I think that we can do a better job in our community we can do a better job to support our community and then have those inexpensive ways to show the great things we're doing let me give you an example for NASA and I don't think a lot of people recognize this so my daughter is the only girl in this Nance Rover competition the only one I think it's really sad there should actually be at least 10 to 12.

I use those really well by the way I say and they add technically I would like to add to the conversation a little bit I'm Rachel catalase 18 second grade I totally agree with everything that my co-workers have said I'd like to bring up a couple other things I have two kids in the district that are um one lower elementary one Upper Elementary both receive Social Services one gifted one resource and they would be heartbroken if we took away Friday to be honest they are sad when we have a snow day weird kids but um they love being in school and um I think they would be pretty sad I was one of the weird teachers that was thrilled when we were going to full day Friday because I could do all sorts of enrichment on Friday afternoon but um one of the things I wanted to mention was since I teach second we got babies in our class I really worry about them going home on Thursday and not eating until they come back to school on Monday a lot of our kids we mentioned just the free reduced lunch they eat lunch on Thursday and then we have the backpack snacks which is great but they're not going to eat until they come back to school on Monday for breakfast and that's concerning for me another thing that I was concerned about also going to the high school level I worry about the programs that we just were mentioning that if we can pass this bond in this override these programs but if we cut those hours I don't know how that would work for them to even have those programs anymore I know that it's the minutes are great I don't know much about it but I know that the minutes are important so on top of what has already been said I just those were a couple of things I wanted to add to the conversation I just wanted to mention too I'm a classified staff I'm in the front office at the elementary and my family is like we're really lucky because I don't have to work but I work because I like to be there and um but as a mom I would love the Friday like I love being around my kids and my kids know I love being around them we have a lot of kids at the elementary school and I'm sure at all the levels that don't know their parents love being around them so being at home for that Friday for my kids they would probably be more High achieving even though they're not in school for those kids that is damaging for them to be at home longer to have be in that environment and they need to be at school where they see that people want them around and you can tell from the teachers our teachers want their kids around they love them they want them um we have third graders that take care of their first graders they they do and it's because the daycares are full they are 100 like cost wise they could get their daycare paid for but they can't get into the daycare because it's full um I just and on a selfish level I worry about my high achieving kids in school every day if that Gap gets widened even more because they're going to you know once they get to the high school level they're they're able to be separated out they're able to be an AP they're able to do those sorts of things but in the younger levels they're being taught to a level where with the the kids that need the help and um there's something else anything else can say but I can't so that's all you're a good person because you see all sides of this being at the elementary and the position you're in and that's you know that's invaluable because you see the people that care and want their kids there and you see the people that are just so frustrated because there's nowhere to put their kids where it's supervised and even if they're there does that mean it's meaningful no it doesn't really because they're one of a bunch of kids being looked after they do get a meal but you know it's not as good as somebody else that can stay home with a parent that's home and actually do something that's enriching or spend time on extra homework so she's a good person to evaluate our demographics she's just a good person well I was gonna say that but and I I do think important as a I've always been a working full-time mom and so I was fortunate enough to be a director so I had four kids at the hospital hiding underneath a desk on Fridays on because my kids were in private school on Thursday so I was fortunate to be able to do that because I could not find child care probably 75 percent of the time so if my parents couldn't drive up to take care of my kids on Friday they were eating a lot of Hospital ice cream you know and so I can see that that is a pretty significant issue that we have to think about unless the whole Community can rally around all of these parents that have careers that they have to be at on those Fridays our whole entire Community can't shut down especially you know if you're in the trades and if you're in medicine you have to work to take care of people and it's not just those people but if you miss a job in some of the jobs you don't have a job they don't even allow you out for doctor's appointments or anything like that so if you miss or say say for instance you're working with a group that cleans houses if you don't get that many people satisfied during your week you won't have a job so that's what they face too it isn't because they don't want to be around it's just they have no other choice and those are the families that are receiving the backpacks and stuff they're not making enough even working as many hours as they can to um accomplish what they want to you know we've we've talked a lot just about the Elementary's kids but the Junior High in high school I think are just as critical for the four day you know I five kids went through the school kindergarten to to graduate and they've all become successful adults and I attribute it to the education they got because and the foundation they got here and the foundation they received here was not just all academic they had to do hard things I mean they had to work I mean I can remember my son sitting Mrs Peterson had to make him pass it he had to pass a test before he could go to a state playoff basketball tournament so the whole basketball team was sitting in the Hall waiting for him in Mrs Peterson to pass him on that test before he could leave no pressure and no pressure you know but hard things make good kids and and so I think that you know I look at the board here and we have Chuck and Diana and Jennifer and Margaret and they are all professional Educators in one way or another I'm not I've observed what this community went through when they went through the four day I thought it'd be a good thing I thought it'd be a good thing but I watched our school spirit I saw our competitive level in sports in every sport dropped to uh to where people are calling us you know I I don't want to say it but um we weren't the Blue Ridge that people remembered and and I don't want to say it was exactly attributed to the four-day work work week I think there were a lot of other factors but I think it was a perfect storm and I think in the last couple of years we have recovered substantially from that I know the elementary school I love you people you are doing such uh great work to teach those kids and you love them and I know the junior high and high school teachers love those kids and they're working hard for them and I know their coaches love those kids individually and that's what it takes and and I I personally think it's okay to do hard things I personally think it's okay for kids to have to go to school on Friday I think it's okay to learn discipline in their lives and I think it teaches them how to depend on other people [Music] in their team sports or whatever so that's that's what I observed and honestly that's why I'm here is so we can bring back to that level what we used to be that I remember my kids thriving in even though it was hard my girls I can't tell how many nights I set up to midnight with them while they cry on the edge of their bed because it was hard to do this or my sons you know who who participated and had grades they had to maintain and and practices were hard and things were extra and it was hard for them but you know what they wouldn't have it any other way because it's made them who they are and I think that's what you're doing is making kids into great adults and I appreciate that so much and and I thank you I mean to Moses I feel the same way and I also know that for many kids Blue Ridge is their family aside from their own family but maybe in some ways a lot better family and they feel the support they feel the continuity and some of these kids they have to have that every day and when we talked about that four day I thought well you know I I see the benefit for the for the top kids who always want more and will always accept more help but I just thought it was a really bad idea for allowing some kids not to be in school because you're never going to get the ones that you need to be there Transportation maybe they have no push at home to better themselves it's up to them or maybe they're babysitting and they can't come in so or they're you know they are the ride for everybody else so they can't come in so there are all kinds of things like that to think of in our community but I think we have to remember that we are some of these kids only family or the ones that care the most and I see these these teachers out here and I'm just blown away I mean we always have really good teachers in our whole group but the elementary teachers see these little kids come in and and that is so important that they have the continuity of the whole week the way I feel so unlike Chuck if you'd like to just kind of wrap it up I think we've hit seven o'clock and what everybody said as much as needs to be said if you'd wrap that up I'd really appreciate it well I'd like to make a few comments first but uh Dr Wright um I would like it if we could get some documentation from the other districts especially the ones around here that are doing this in particular I'd like to see the results of their test scores for a couple years before they went on the four day week and then since they've been on the door four day week to see what's happened academically ACT scores um grades attendance his attendance gotten better for four days or worse also as far as the community has it affected crime uh things like that kind of ripple effect things do they see less problems with psychological problems with the kids or worse that kind of thing I would like to see some of that data from the schools that have been doing this the teachers in Show Low too like the four day week because they can use that fifth day if they're allowed to be there but it doesn't always mean that their AIDS can come that fifth day and they need those AIDS like for special education in order to plan ahead or have a good meeting with a parent or anything they have to have that Aid there because of the AIDS input but they don't get paid to come in on those days so that's another thing to look at or paraprofessional last chance to make a comment so um we spoke of the override and it sounds like it's something that we really want to do I cannot see the announcement of a four-day Work Week go together do they yeah so in other words we spoke of uh highlighting our programs and doing everything that we're doing for your families one of the ways of highlighting that would be uh stating that we we are going to stay on a four and a half day or even a five day and save our families the child care costs and the food costs but I gotta gotta say that making an announcement that we're going to go with a four-day is I wouldn't say that's good advertising for for the override point taken thank you very much thank you uh if there's nothing further then I think to officially close this can I get a motion to close I have a motion from Chuck I have a second from Margaret all in favor of during this meeting meetings adjourned thank you so much

all the rest are boys so she's welding and she's doing everything and this NASA competition over 30 countries from around the world petitioned to come to this program and in every state every state in the United States they had more than one request to be part of this NASA rover competition there is only eight schools in the United States that there was accepted to this competition and we are the only Public School in the entire United States actually in the world because none of these other schools that come that has been invited to this NASA competition this is a huge deal this is something that not one school district in Arizona was able to accomplish and we usually win and we beat the colleges in how they've produced this amazing NASA rover this is the information that people need to know that that program every year there is a person that goes on full scholarship to one of these huge technology schools like MIT or whatever so I that's the only one I know my daughter came home what's Massachusetts Institute of Technology and I'm like only a scholarship opportunity for you to go um but that's a really really big deal so we need to be able to join forces as a community to figure out how we do this same thing is you know we'll talk about in a little while our our school schedule and our days our kids reap this benefit I have the same daughter as taking three college classes right now so she'll only have like three classes left after she graduates from Blue Ridge to have her associate's degree those programs are the ones that are significant risk but I don't think that a lot of the community knows but like NASA in itself this is something that the state should be coming to our school and saying how wonderful we are because we're the coolest by the way in the entire nation the coolest Public School in the entire nation and I would say in the world when it comes to NASA that's a big deal so there was a question um who who can vote for like who should we be targeting for the override of this election who all can vote is it do they have to be a homeowner do they have to pay have taxes that they're going to be affected or can anybody vote anybody's registered it doesn't cost renters a dime they can vote as long as a registered voter and their kids are in our school district or they live in our school district kids don't be in our school district county so if you live in the county you can vote in this election if it's in our school district boundaries so we do have a large portion of our boundaries that are into Show Low and a large portion of our boundaries that are in the county Dr Wright and I said we were going to go knock on those apartment Doors Down by Show Low Lake this next time go door to door asking people to vote you still up for that yep and Catherine some ways going to make cookies we're going to hand them out she's not here to defend herself so she said yes we're in oh so my question would be why not and I know we're far away and we're considered a third planet from the valley get a TV station up here and interview those kids and talk about it because I guarantee you most parents here have cable in one way shape or form that's right and I don't care whether it's the fox station channel 5 or 12 whatever even the Tucson stations yeah get someone up here to actually physically do an interview and then get that on social media that hey your kid's gonna be on TV tonight we've uh we've sent it to every news outlet that would listen I did at National locally Statewide what we need to do is figure out we do belong to that school Finance reform thing that she's a world Network we'll get somebody over there but that's how I'm going to do we tried that though invitations haven't worked so far so we need to get somebody else to compute our home our horn for us Arizona Indiana we have part of our community includes homes that are outside the they think they're outside the school district they're inside the school district but they they're somehow this feeling like if I don't have kids that go to the school district I'm not included in supporting that or I don't live or I can vote so I agree with Mr Webb that you have to get the word out that you can vote and you know and and who can vote to support the school Sarah bromke just just volunteered to help out Kyla and she's only going to do TV which I think is really awesome she's doing traditional way to go TV or our own old people social media we need to tap into some of our high schoolers who are gone title like Jensen cook and I mean Noah had been he was a viral Tick Tock sensation so we we could definitely I think access those kids if we formed this pack and pull the kids in but also it does go back to the older community members or second homeowners of people who don't have kids and we do have to reach them because they don't care we have strong support in the in the country club especially Pinetop Country Club that supports our scholarship but a lot of those people go home before the vote happens or they don't hear all the support because they always vote earlier they vote by mail and they're not aware of everything that's why it was too late last time and I think we need to consider those people because they will support the school because they realize that that also affects the value of their home be is there any other comment regarding the bond or override if not I think we'll move forward to Dr Wright we'll turn this time away again for the uh for for a school schedule okay so for those of you have met with uh two or three different groups of teachers kind of just organically and other staff members expressing their views on the four-day school week the uh as I've mentioned earlier if you just are joining us there's a prescribed path that the board must follow in order to adopt a four-day week a big part of that is community input there are three stakeholder communities committees that have been formed at all levels elementary junior high and high school that must participate within that it's an open meeting a series of open meetings that need to occur just like tonight and so there's really no structure other than share with the board what your feelings are regarding that I just want to reinforce there's been no decision made that we're moving that direction I mean I have my own opinions and I'll withhold those for a while but in the end it just it needs to the board needs to have your feedback to kind of get some direction as to where we're at now we recognize this is not a one and done this is a long process but uh I'll just I think Mr President you open it up right the reason he's put this out here is because I I made him do it he didn't want to do it right now he said yeah we'll do that because I have people come into me and I know we have people in the on board that are coming to them with that question you know shallow desert snowflake desert Round Valley does it and why don't we do it we tried it once and Lauren were you here when that happened what happened when we it's anybody what happened when we went under that four-day period so that was at the early stage when we were trying to do reteach and enrich Friday and um kids would come in to take the bus into school and then they would just leave and then go to the movie theater hang out on Town wherever there was no teeth in having them be there on Friday and so it was hard to patrol those kids coming in another part of it that a downside of that is the school spirit on Friday for games and activities it was hard to have that if there were no kids at school typically you'd have your your pep assembly pep rallies on that day of a game if kids were gone participation in those activities kind of dwindled as well and and just if I might add Mr Webb it only applied to the high school k through eight was a five day so we had not had a district White how Lauren remembers it is I mean I I interviewed in November of 2014 on a Friday and there was no one at school I said where are all the kids they weren't in school and so I the reteach didn't work that's clear for a number of reasons but so this question is a district-wide four day and to be clear for the board for their evaluation we're talking about everything being closed all offices everything the only thing would be open would be extracurricular support Transportation custodial and that's it none of the offices none of the schools would be open on that four day I will add that anecdotally the schools that have gone to four day that used to be five day it could be an impact of a lot of different variables but all the schools locally have gone down in letter grades that went to from except for snowflake that have gone from five to four so we're four and a half right now just to be clear we're not on five or four and a half so snowflake is a unique environment that none of the other school districts but I think that Matt like has an enrichment Friday correct a reteach Friday snowflake so from so my I'm the only board member that had kids in high school during that so I'll give you my perspective I loved it and the reason why I loved it is because my kids are heavily involved into sports so I loved it because my kids were taking AP classes and they needed additional time especially during basketball season when sometimes we have three away games and it gave them an opportunity to have one-on-one with the teachers I loved that component I felt like academically it was awesome the kids that were going were the kids that were the a students the kids that were supposed to be here were the kids that weren't the a students and I know that a lot of teachers tried to get those students in and I did and it became a problem I was one of the Swing votes to make us go back to a five day even though I loved a four day and the reason why was because of Bob London and Bob London and I was like don't talk to me about it four days my favorite I don't ever You're Never Gonna Change My Mind mind I told my kids I'm got your back we'll never vote for the opposite and Bob was like our our Sports is diminishing our school spirit is tanking our kids aren't graduating from school and the kids that are the ones that are supposed to be here are not coming and the ones that are the kids that are supposed to be here that are coming are doing things that are really bad in the community and that truly was happening so um could there be Corrections and changes absolutely I think that the implementation was very poor I feel like you can still have an enrichment Friday and it can maybe be done a little bit differently but our kids that are um maybe I still don't know how to solve the problem with highly involved children and an opportunity for them to catch up I think we're still lacking in that so I don't know I'm I'm a swing either way but um I saw the huge benefits for the highly excelling kids that wanted to do another additional project at that time that's when the the Robotics and NASA rover competition was bigger better because Friday was build day so they were there all day Friday and now my daughter's staying till eight o'clock at night every night trying to build and so it makes it a little bit difficult to get homework done so I don't know so I don't know what my answer is yet but I love the idea of a reteach enrichment but I don't know what's the best option so my kids loved it but I see from a school standpoint it was an absolute disaster some I think that's that's the issue we have you know snowflake is the model always put up there I think they have a whole different Community than we do they have highly motivated parents for one thing and highly motivated students we have what is it 45 or free and reduced lunch here or something like that 40 below poverty and 52 percent free and reduced lunch so we're looking at a whole different demographics than that so I think we're looking at the masses compared to a group of kids that are highly motivated they're going to succeed no matter what like that like your kids are Jennifer so I don't know feedback that's what we're here for well they didn't shut down they didn't shut down either during covet did they no no just I don't know if you've heard but I've heard from a couple of other people that show low is revisiting their four day week and they may be looking to go back to five um I've got a few notes here so I'll just spit them out right now a four day week with and I understand that we wouldn't extend the school day means 36 fewer days of school that's a quarter that's a lot I'm a special education teacher for second and third grade students and I know that I need every minute of every day that I can get them into my room my students when I look at my second and third graders right now the vast majority of my students are reading at a first grade level I need time with them and if I don't have Fridays it really impacts everything that I do with them because for a lot of my kids when they're out of school they slide back idea you know as like other teachers when my kids come back in August I have more than just a summer slide I have a bigger slide because given our demographics as Mr Merrill just said my kids don't always have somebody in their corner at home that's willing or can in some cases even provide review of math concepts or letters and sounds or just reading a decodable text and you know this is my fifth year in the district and I'm proud of the work that I have accomplished with my kids our kids and I send them on to fourth grade with a pretty good track record of getting and achieving all of their potential I'm also sum up with this I have a student former student she repeated third grade last year because of the pandemic here and when I see her today tall much taller vibrant a smile and she feels like she can accomplish anything and she's making the honor roll and this was a girl two years ago that couldn't do that or even last year and I'm not saying we take the credit she's doing the hard work but she needs time in school and I just worry about some of those kids that don't have anybody to advocate on the home front and you know there's just so much that gets wrapped into it I think you know we talked about the difference in the demographics and the school districts a big problem we ran into aside from the problems the high school had with discipline for the kids that did show up on Fridays we we also know that there were some instances where there was no babysitter at home or they expected the only the older children to take care of the younger children because they couldn't afford a babysitter or there's no supervision at all for any of the kids so they're not doing homework you know that that's pretty much a day that you need to worry about and I appreciate your you saying what you did about that too um so I am currently a sixth grade math and social studies teacher at the elementary school last year I was in eighth grade science teacher at the junior high I have 24 years experience in education as a teacher and instructional coach and a Content coordinator I had large classes last year I had some classes that had 34 32 kids in it they were hard to do science and have Labs every week but they were doable I can do the larger class sizes if I need to but what I need to have is the kids in school I'm part of the groups that met with Dr Wright and my understanding is that if we went to four day there would not be anything on the Friday and there would not be any extension of the other days for instructional time like we would stay the same length I had kids last year who missed sixth grade because of covid who missed part of seventh grade because of the hybrid and the eighth grade science test was composite of sixth grade seventh grade and eighth grade and it didn't matter how hard I worked I was not getting them to pass a test that they missed three years of instruction on I have kids this year that are in sixth grade that missed fourth grade they missed fifth grade part of it they can't multiply they can't divide and so I'm teaching them pre-algebra in sixth grade and we're trying to do all the other skills too my kids love being last year and this year they love being in school they love being in person they don't want to be on a computer they don't want to be home by themselves last year I had kids who win their sisters or brothers were sick they had to stay home and take care of them because there was no daycare available they would email me and say Miss Grace I'm home because my little brother's sick what do I need to do I think that if we had Fridays off they would be the babysitters I know that the daycares around here there's not enough of them for people to sign up for Fridays only my my children pay for my grandchildren over the summer so they can keep their spot for the fall when they have to go back but I also know that I have a lot of students I have homeless students I have everything else that cannot afford to do that and so their kids would just be by themselves we have a new curriculum it's rigorous it's showing positive results in my grade level at least my kids are excited they don't complain about it but I need the time to get them where they need to be to build those skills that they're missing and right now when I turn on the TV what I see is a nation that blames education and blames teachers for all the lowering scores that came out last year after testing and yet they don't want to give us solutions they don't want to give us money and I think taking away the instructional time would be one more step backwards I think that we need the instructional time so that we can demonstrate to parents and other people that we're trying to do the best with what we have we're trying to get your kids caught back up we're trying to make up for those gaps that's it yes back here um just one thing to consider is that this district has two full-time speech therapists and one part-time correct and I know I can't speak much for the for the part time but for the two full-time therapists they can hardly fit in the kids they need to see the meetings they need to have the paperwork they have to do and the testing they have to do in the five days that we have they they have a hard time just squeezing in to that five days if you were to take out a fourth you know go down to four days I don't know how you probably have to would you would probably have to hire another speech therapist because they don't have the time in five days let alone in four also for child find as well that our only day to do that is is Fridays and I don't know where we would fit that in either so and what else uh I just like to reiterate um what was said about child care I think in our community there's maybe three day cares whatsoever and a large portion of our demographic has both working parents and so uh you know with two working parents the kids have to do go somewhere so if you can't get them into a daycare what do you do and that can actually affect you know people's ability to get hours or work on a Friday because they'd be required to stay home and and take care of their kids so I think that it sounds good in theory but in reality it wouldn't work for Our Generation uh with two working parents um I taught it snowflake so I feel like I have a little bit of insight as to what um is going on over there we mentioned or you mentioned the um the demographics is very different from the demographics here I actually left snowflake because of the four day week it put a very hard strain on me as a teacher trying to get through all of the curriculum that needed to be to get through those students who were not thriving just did not because there wasn't enough time there wasn't enough space to get to everything they needed those students who have that support at home and there are a lot of snowflake students who have that support um and they're they're going to succeed no matter what um and so that's one thing that I just really fear if we do go to a four day week just the strain it will put on students and teachers do you know if they completely shut down the whole campus on that day they did reteach and enrich like okay was done prior here behind you on the reteach day you mentioned that your daughter came in and got help and for her it was more of enrichment because she was already in the higher programs and your daughter is an example of someone who's going to succeed no matter what because she has you as a teacher the person that I want to come in for the enrichment is the one who doesn't have the transportation and everything to get there and they're the ones who are going to fall farther and farther behind if we are closed completely on Friday the children like your daughter and the ones that I want no one gets the enrichment and then everyone Falls farther behind I yeah I agree with that so my um oldest and my youngest actually have some pretty significant learning disabilities and that's why I loved it because I was kind of selfish because my kids had one-on-one instruction time with their teachers so that's why enrichment was great for us so our kids my kids never had a four-day school day I was just grateful that 90 of the students were gone because then the teacher spent one-on-one time with my kid for four hours so it was a very selfish thing I thought on my part and my other two children my middle kids that didn't need to have the enrichment and they're like well I have A's in my class I'm like I don't care you go anyway so my kids still went five days a week but it was wonderful if there's any way that we can solve that situation where a kid can get four hours of one-on-one time with their teachers can we figure out how to do that in our override budget that's where the kids are successful and that's where there's research that talks about enrichment and I think that's what's most important when you start to slide back enrichment goes away and if you want a kid to be successful then they need to have the enrichment activities they need to be in sports and music in theater and NASA and then those are the kids that are successful in education especially those kids with learning disabilities but I agree because it was a very selfish thing for me I'm like hey no one can show up that's cool because then my kids are now in calculus where they were on an IEP and they were struggling in math and now they you know they're in college and doing excellent because they have the one-on-one with their teacher time so I love you guys but if we can figure that out one-on-one with teachers it's it's probably nothing more than about 150 million dollar endowment we can make it happen no problem sure no problem I'll win that 100 billion dollar lottery or something whatever there's there's more questions too yes I have one um so I'm retired I guess I'm Community now but I also had two boys in high school during the four day week and I was teaching full-time five days at the elementary now my boys were not taking a lot of AP honor classes so they were home every single Friday and they couldn't go in to get help because the classes that they had there were already kids there supposedly being helped or it wasn't a lot of gifted and I didn't care for it at all they both played sports sports like my brother had said went down the tube the kids had no they never had a pep rally even the dances I think were somewhat limited that year because they're just they just weren't doing activities and I can say even though I'm retired now and I I do feel bad for teachers because it probably would be nice to have a three-day weekend and be able to replenish yourself as a reading specialist it would be the worst thing for my kids because even the two days of the weekend we see where they forget things that we've taught and I can't imagine then every week losing a third you know an extra day so there's three days and we're starting over on Monday and then if they're absent a couple days due to an illness you're only getting two days to teach a brand new concept and hopefully they can Master it so just speaking out there sorry guys okay so I question if and maybe this is a if wishes were fishes thing but for teachers if you could have the students there that need the extra help wouldn't a Friday where you have less students in the classroom be easier and why not we shoot those mics I can't hear a word I'm sorry it's not like I'm the only one talking because we actually all talked about all this but yes so like like I have your kid right now so we she she would love it because I have her for Math and she doesn't like math but I have Monday through Thursday we do all the concepts and everything and even though Friday is a half day we do our assessment and everything and so then I can use that and I can decide what I need to reteach and all of that and if I lost that even that half day and I went to four days then I still have to have a time where I assess to see are we making strides and what do I need to reteach so now I only have three days to teach and I'm going to do my assessment day and so now my days are even shorter and if we have a snow day thrown in there or a water pipe breaks then I have even less and I'm down to two days and when do I teach like when do I actually get it out there I would rather have all of them there all the time than have every time someone's gone I look at the room and I think oh my gosh now I'm gonna have to catch that person up and I'm gonna have to catch that person up I'd rather have everybody there or nobody there you know I think the one of the one of the arguments for four day would be Finance it cuts down the costs but if we're still Staffing with teachers and everything on Friday and keeping the buildings open and everybody here then we haven't saved a penny we've just lost and we're going backwards I was and this is anecdotal but I went to Sonic the other day on a Friday two o'clock in the afternoon no no it was it was we went about 11 30 and it was a pack of about 30 Junior High kids there and and they didn't have a thing to do and it was bad I'm telling you I never heard so many F words in my whole life if boys and girls and it was it was bad and when they left that place looked like a garbage dump and I was saying what's going on with these kids you know Junior High principles going like this you know that's just the age you know but anyway but and I and I had some bad feelings from that and I've also learned that that school district in the last what seven years eight years has had four different superintendents so I don't I think they're just struggling to find a median where the community is happy and they're still getting good grades but I can tell you right now their grades are going downhill they're not they're not benefiting the kids some of the parents are happy because they got another teenager boy that's working building houses because there's a lot of that going on down there and so I think you know there's I don't know where my mind lies but you can kind of get an idea where my mind lies so anyway just my own personal feelings and comments can I ask a question about the hours so um my oldest son had pretty significant learning delays and I tried really hard the school was different then and so I actually removed them from public school school and put them into a private school and in that private school he had eight kids in his classroom for three years and it was only taught four days a week now in that four days a week we had three hours of homework every night and it helped him be more successful but in his classroom was two-parent households correct with a class size of eight and so I think in comparison just on an average day the class size of eight could you accomplish significantly more than a class size of eight versus a class size of 20 okay just in general and if you have a four day because I know that there's some teachers here in this community that now we're teaching in the larger class sizes that used to teach at some of these private schools and there I I don't want to speak for them but they're totally Pro four days it was great for our family because we had Ketchup Day for homework so explain to me that difference because four day worked really well with this group and our fifth day was when we would play the inner Collegiate sport activities was our fifth day so that's why school was out anyway because everyone was gone playing soccer and basketball and volleyball and all that stuff so is there a comparison has anyone taught in that type of scenario and then taught in a public school yeah so Ed and I taught at a four-day school week with in that at Bisbee and there are amazing Arguments for five day and I certainly have a little boy at home who needs every little extra they can get but he's getting it believe me he's getting it um and we loved it and we when we started at Lowell School in Bisbee it was a failing school so the state had come in for an improvement plan it was I mean we stripped down and you go bottom to top and look at everything and um we used a program that I'm talking about that's what I was referring to earlier with Miss Hoffmeyer that brings parents in um and it was a true four-day model we did assessments on Thursdays we were required even though I didn't I mean I knew what my kids were doing throughout the week I didn't need a little test to know if they were succeeding or not but we it was absolutely an important part of our week those Thursday tests the DFAS and then of course it moved on to this huge data collection and by the time we had moved up here but Lowell school was a b grade in School and that wasn't because of the four day week necessarily but it was because we addressed those other factors that are so real and in Bisbee we if you don't think we have parents up here who care we do and just because families are poor it doesn't mean they don't care or they're not motivated but in bispy we were dealing with cartels we had incestors I I that's such an icky word but we had very crazy I mean it was the Wild Wild West it still is and um and we were able to at that school we just were able to create something in the district even on four day so I'm saying that not because I mean I could go either way I kind of like having the structure of the five day but we did have a very successful experience with that and I'd love to talk about it more at another point where I'm not the person who disagrees with everyone else [Music] another question um if you would do a four day would that require you to extend the school year I've I've read articles and about going to a year-round school district or year-round school and having more breaks throughout is that something that's ever been explored or talked about we operate on an instructional time model we already go longer than we need to fairly significantly the elementary school day may be elongated but extended by 15 minutes and the other 20 to 45 but I don't think you would actually go longer we'd have to I'd have to do the analysis though there are 36 fewer days so we'd have to do the analysis it the answer would be possibly but we're not talking about the middle of June we already get out the 19th of May so maybe the first week of June would be just a guess sir and I could find more about that and if you'll give Mary Ford your contract and contact information on follow-up with you Mary's right here I'm sorry Mary he's right here go ahead [Music] so I know a lot of teachers are here we've talked about this I think the other thing that we have to be caucus and aware of is our classified staff our cafeterias staff all those people who would suffer with a four day week they would that that's a that's up to the that would be a financial decision for the board some districts what they've done is go ahead and pay them the same over four days so it's actually a pickup for them but I'm just I'm saying that would be my vote if we did do that I wouldn't want to cut pay and we can't lose bus drivers or support staff so all of this all of the staff members would have to be done that's why there's really not a huge financial pickup you don't do it for financial reasons you do it because the board would believe it's going to be better for kids and better for staff yeah okay that certainly clarified that because yeah the research that I've been reading it says that the cost things are really minimal one to two percent so um you know it saves on the heat and running thousands and that kind of thing that your larger effects stay the same salaries and benefits and all that so I want you guys to take a good look at the board I know we all look older compared to Jennifer because I'm old too you know not as old but we all had kids that went through this district and I think all of us had kids that started in kindergarten and graduated in the school district so I'm thinking back and some of you might remember when Blue Ridge was in the football playoffs every year and that requires several weekend several Fridays that kids missed and when I was doing I was volunteering in the elementary school and I'm looking at all these kids and the teachers are just shaking their heads like we lose so much having kids in class Friday and just losing Saturday and Sunday and starting over on Monday with some of them but when we let or we didn't always let school out but when so many families missed on Fridays that was another day tacked onto that weekend that hurt the education process and then we had some parents that said well since we're taking Friday off let's take Monday off too and so then those kids would only be in school Tuesday through Thursday so you've got a group that has to catch up like that or you have a stretched out family that has kids in college and they're like everybody's going to the ball games so let's spend that time and go see so-and-so at their college so it's not just what you decide on the whole group it's what parents decide to back and that did not work well at all it was like having a four day week in the fall because we missed so many Fridays so we we promote all our activities but when they get good that means they miss more school so you know if there's just a domino effect and whatever you decide to do and I really enjoy listening to the teachers perspective on kids that miss and kids that miss during during coven and I have grandchildren that mister and covet far longer than we did here and it's it's horrible if you don't have parents that can catch them up what is our absentee rate on Fridays 17.6 I don't know how many days can we miss per calendar year what how many days can a student Miss per calendar year well technically ten okay uh technically 10.

to develop those Partnerships um okay I'm just reading to you what they sent us okay so we have the ability to say yes we want to redline that now during the meeting because I think we should we did so in essence to your question Lucy we have the building for at least 25 years and then after that whoever's in power can do what they want with it so there's no sustainability in this at all I mean it's not long term it's like a it's conversity I always say you know developer's dream here well once again you all didn't negotiate this I didn't negotiate this Dr Lauria did not negotiate this this was negotiated by a prior board under a different manager so you know we're and and at least the Ura understands that things have changed so um you know we're we're trying to we're trying to work our way through that um that being said Joe is that term negotiable as well I mean if we're I'm assuming their discussions with Ascend or I mean as a non-profit organization to infuse all of this capital and and um moving to Commerce City um 25 years puts a an end date on things when I I mean I I think that should be negotiable um and should being longer I mean I I understand the tie to the Tiff increments and and how the URI worked but I think if if we're being asked to help with the development and help with basically establishing a Multicultural Center in Commerce City which does not exist then I think we should have a little say in that so that is by Statute the 25 years um that that's what the Tiff goes for is for 25 years I mean you could have a shorter but uh the statute doesn't last for longer um it's just it's 25 years so they took the maximum amount which is 25 years running across a lot of problems with tiffs through this and the understanding you know as a legislator I had one understanding but now in pure application I'm like oh my application and policy are not necessarily consistent well and I think we're gonna have to um very clearly identify the needs of the district for whatever portion of the building we got um and what it's going to cost us I mean if we're infusing capital investment in this as well um and in conjunction with any higher ed institution um I don't know how how quickly we get to the determination of that without working together to develop a concept of the building and what and what that's going to look like so it's not supposed to cost us anything uh in terms of build out uh in terms of you know supplies things of that nature what it comes down to is is um your vision of what it should look like and that's what we provide them this is the vision of the board and and um you know they'll draft up uh they'll draft up the concepts and then you can all sit and look at them and say I don't particularly like that pillar there or I think that you know there needs to be a room over here but this isn't supposed to cost us anything at all um really that's what it says that's all that's all I can go off of whether it will cost us something um I I don't know it as if yet I can only go off of what the contract says thank you yeah I think that all needs to be discussed because um for example in my my meeting with uh Metro State um they clearly identified the need for a video conferencing capabilities so that they can combine um classrooms and teachers um so to me that reads server space I.T technology like that's all stuff that's either gonna come under Adams 14 and at a cost like it's we're theoretically building another building um the infrastructure to support that infrastructure and also um you know the maintenance um to my understanding is going to be on us and um insurance and uh some of those you know other details that will create a cost to us uh we'll get Friday huh um Dr Lydia and Joe do you need further direction to us did we Mitty The Waters by having this conversation like what um what more can can we uh combine I think you're trying to filter the waters actually um it was it was sufficiently muddy uh as we stepped into it um and um you know just just another thing that we're having to deal with as a result of MGT um so you know I think that you're filtering it uh we're not their perfect clarity just yet um but you're why would you be uh you know we're we're just trying to catch up to everything right now I think we'll have more clarity on Friday and then we can certainly reconvene um you know I know that this board is is hugely hugely um mindful of of community input and Community Direction and unfortunately the way that this uh process has has moved um not so certain that there was a whole lot of community direction or Community input into this and I think it's way too late for that to happen and so now now it really comes down to you but but then again you know when we get the schematics the blueprints of the building maybe that might be a good time to to jump in with Community saying this is what we got what do you guys think right and uh and and then have them uh brainstorm have the community brainstorm and what you know Multicultural Center looks like yeah and to add to that piece with the expectation um that any program that might be there sharing with us or partnering with us um you know in the building is going to be to benefit our students and for our students who have you know easy access to those um to whatever program is there so he's not only sharing a building and you're doing your own little thing on one end that we're doing something you know on our ends is actually to support and supplement and bring richness to what we can offer to our students so so that is clear on um on our site thank you Dr Lydia I love that yeah because even if um the Ura does contracts separately with any organization including Ascend um I think Ascend is committed to um integrating themselves in our community and and specifically our students but I'm I'm at the point where I'm uh I need to see everything in writing so I would love that incorporated into the contracts um especially um I I don't know an easy way to say it but I I mean when um Lucy and I went to see this the performances um I didn't see ourselves there I I it was um not very diverse um I I think um Ascend made it very clear that they're committed to diversity and and working with our students and working with our community but I absolutely think it needs to be included in the contract all right well we'll certainly uh address it uh the contract is septal that's the problem um and um I mean we can we can ask for additional terms that um you know require Community engagement or at least a reflection of uh you know our our community but um you know we will certainly bring that up but um yeah we're working from a disadvantage I mean we really are um and that's that's uh a little infuriating um for for all of us I'm sure um mind if I ask a a question that's directly related to this but not necessarily about contracts um does does Commerce City still serve as the host for and I remember that this used to happen every summer that uh kbno would bring a bunch of bandas into Commerce City and play at Dick's um like it used to be like a ton of bands that would come in is that does that still happen no not that I know of um the cultural Council does the concerts in the park but that's the only thing um director Molina do you know of any or director no no because I would probably be part of it Joe um because I I work directly with that Community just so you know most of those events move to Stampede in Aurora and if we do anything big it would be at the Adams County Fairgrounds um for the this kind of evolved but that's not happening anymore um why wouldn't we do it at Dicks they can do so much stuff there we have all those fields we have everything we've held Music Festival after Music Festival there that's why I said I know that nothing like that happens I mean even when they do the fireworks show how can we not get bands out there to play when they have the big Hummer City Fourth of July Expo out there I mean that happens every year and we don't have anything to say in that with our culture out there absolutely zero and I served with the the Commerce City Cultural Council here for a few years um so all we do is it's music in the park Renee that we get to do every summer that's it so it's according to the budget really right no money no honey okay well I guess I guess we have some direction from you madam president okay and we'll we'll you know we'll um we'll sit down with them and just uh hammer out things and uh and then as soon as we're able to get schematics uh blueprints I don't know what the right term is I'm not I'm not a I'm not a building engineer or an architect so um whatever we get from them in terms of design um I think that that should be really larger Community conversation between the board and and the community but I think that this could be fun to develop this Multicultural complex yeah I I um I openly said and I said you know as me as an individual not on cast support I would I would love if um if they are choosing to partner with us and that we as a district have representation and the three entities you're a Ascendant adam-14 work together to develop that space um because yeah I personally think it would be such a great opportunity for our community all right well um discussion not necessarily action but I think you you indicated that you guys have um are our thoughts on things and and we'll um pursue this on Friday in your discussions with them and then okay okay Madam president please expect something in your email in about half an hour okay awesome all right any further questions or our discussion okay uh may I have a motion to adjourn some motion to adjourn second thank you uh Ramona roll call I think you're still muted I'm sorry Mr Amador aye Ms Lovato aye Ms Molina bye all right thank you everyone we are adjourned uh Ramona you need to call the other two they need to be declared as uh excused okay um Mr Amador hi Ms Estrada she's excused Ms Lovato aye Ms Molina aye Ms Zubia and she's the um excuses all right so um classes majority uh we're adjourned all right everyone thank you and we look forward to the original information have a good afternoon evening I'm just going to give you a call right okay good evening foreign

uh commissioner Lee commissioner dish is seconded um any discussion on the minutes no all those in favor please say yay any opposed no no motion carries um so I want to uh pause here and I've been requested by commissioner Clark to take a moment to say some words so I want to open up the mic to commissioner Clark um so I'm Gonna Keep it pretty brief because it's still recent but I just wanted to acknowledge um Public Service of Jude Walton who we lost recently and it's hit a lot of us in the community really hard and it's very difficult to say anything about at the moment but um Jude had an enormous impact on different areas the city public service um with her work with igpoc with the work at Avalon housing um and I just again I'm a bit short on where it's a bit difficult right now but um I just wanted to acknowledge that in her public service to community and requests that you know uh if you have a moment to show some extra love and appreciation I know the people in um that she worked with in all of her functions and capacities are really hurting right now so that's all for that okay uh next up are reports to the clan Planning Commission council member dish do you have anything to report Oh indeed I do so 415 West Washington has been the concept plan and the rezoning from PL to PUD received its final approval last night with one um I think not not to burdensome amendment that um that at a minimum whatever comes out of whatever process moves forward from here is net zero ready and I think that that the spirit of that is really to give progress okay uh it's to send a signal that we care about it but that we also trust staff and we entrust staff with the flexibility to do what they can because we really want to succeed with this project this time we've gone on for a long time and it it feels it feels urgent to get that cleaned up and do it in a way that doesn't cost money or it doesn't cost money that feels like money right you know general fund money so um I don't remember anything else that you would be interested in but perhaps I am overlooking something Mr Leonard um I have two uh uh two items first one additional item on the agenda last evening was the city council approved a contract to hire interface Studios to draft a new comprehensive plan for the city um I think commissioner dish is probably so excited about it she's just wrapped up in optimism as opposed to remembering that procedural detail um so um roll up your sleeves we've got a couple we've got a busy uh 18 to 24 months ahead of you as the Planning Commission and then um another another item that on the manager report I'm going to take a moment to go in a little bit more in depth here um I've provided two documents to you uh as the as at the Planning Commission um one is a letter um from the petitioners of 2929 Plymouth who are here I'm sure to happy to address any questions that you might have requesting reconsideration of the denial of their project they've proposed a petition that's been shared with you that to summarize they would they would like the opportunity to continue uh submittal of their site plan not the special special exception use with the intention of removing drive-through Lanes from their proposed project and adding some additional sustainability features the motion has been decided however under the Planning Commission bylaws they can request and it's up to the Planning Commission at your discretion whether or not you are interested in reconsidering that motion to that end I've proposed three motions for your consideration it seems like uh a lot of a lot of steps for for this but that's the nature of this process there are three motions that I propose one would be a motion to amend the agenda this evening in order to add reconsideration of the 2929 Plymouth site plan approval not the special exception use approval to your agenda if you as the Planning Commission by a majority present elect to do so then another motion is presented um a motion that would reconsider that motion as I've summarized this would in effect uh undo the denial only of the site plan it would not undo the denial of the special exception use allowing the petitioner to submit revised plans that would come back to City staff for review and evaluation as that site plan changes to make sure it is consistent with city regulations and then the last motion would be if you determined that that is something you're interested in to postpone consideration of that until the June 21st Planning Commission agenda as I note in the memo this is I think it is a reasonable approach this would shift the criteria to measuring this as a site plan against the UDC typical to any other site plan um and um but there are no specific criteria this is really a procedural item at again at the discretion of the Planning Commission and that motion could be made for reconsideration by any anybody present here as all of you were on the prevailing side of that motion I'm happy to answer any questions I know that's sort of some convoluted steps um um I think I understand what the procedures are I don't understand why we would need to do it it wouldn't it be wouldn't it just default back to a buy right and wouldn't they just submit a site plan um it could have the future they could do that they could that that decision could stand and the petitioners could just elect to start the process over again that would result in them filing a new application paying a new application fee starting that process over again if this was granted reconsideration they would pick up their existing project mid-stream if you will afford them the opportunity to sort of just not to sort of to submit a revised plan staff would continue to review it under the current application and then represent it back to the Planning Commission the ultimate consideration would be the same in either circumstance it would be measured by the UDC so it's a it just if you could help me I'll I'll do a commissioner dish statement here struggling to make this make sense so this is just for filing uh and fees so this would save them so if we took this up and followed the motion the way that you have outlined it they wouldn't have to start over correct but we would still see a new site plan correct we would not be making a decision based on the previously submitted site plan correct so it's just a cost differential I time would tell I would anticipate the site plan will look very similar to what was presented before Sans drive-through lanes and some additional sustainability measures that I don't think would impact the site plan layout yes you are correct in either in either step the process internally would look very similar to the petitioner of the process would be more costly in one and I don't I don't know the time and timing would probably also be longer in one too because submittal deadlines are once a month so it might also create a lag before a new sipeline could be submitted under our typical review Cycles and then one more question around so could you outline with the feast like what are the the steps so there's this well you know what the steps are and I won't try to stake them it would be a new uh citizen participation uh notices out to all Property Owners within 500 feet I think based on the scale of this project uh it would be a pre pre-submission meeting with City staff that's a required step in this case I wouldn't anticipate that that meeting would be very long because much of that kind has been already identified then it would go through uh this typical review process where it's going to be distributed to All City departments based on whatever changes to the layout are are happening I would anticipate that layout is going to be pretty efficient again because um it's probably removing aspects of the site that add complications rather than being additive and then and the June 21st day was an estimate of giving us some time frame to go through that and get it back onto agenda noticed okay I was wrong I have one more question so because you just said something which is it sounds like if we take this action we remove a public comment period with the petitioner in the community you would you would remove a notification of postcards to all Property Owners within 500 feet you would not remove a public hearing public hearing no no I'm sorry can I I know there will be a public hearing at the table but usually the notice has a petitioner neighborhood engagement not for the scale project because the size of this project it's only a notification okay so it wouldn't require that correct so it would have required that previously with the special exception use permit because they wouldn't be considering that it would strictly be a notification that they have applied for a site plan to the city and then I'm sorry okay thank you um have you in your consideration did you weigh that against the feedback that has come in because we've received some 20 Communications from community members who have asked us not to reconsider this and to deny the reconsideration so I just yeah most of those comments came in after my recommendation and my recommendation would stand the conditions would be very similar in either circumstance we're going to end up with a site plan that is being measured against the unified development code um uh again there's no criteria here that says you at you as the Planning Commission have to do that if you if the Planning Commission chooses not to that would be the only Avenue for the petitioner to to continue or they could elect to just say nope had enough but in either event we get to the same result or excuse me the same decision points I'll let that go yeah thank you good um any other Commissioners officers or liaison have anything to report so uh okay you're good um at this time uh this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes moving on to public comment about an issue that is not listed as public hearing on this agenda since we have not amended the motion the agenda with what was discussed currently this would not the current thing would not be part of the agenda um the request for Plymouth Road so any persons wishing to speak on that would be fit in here as well um so we will first call an individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely plus star nine if listening by phone or use the raise hand feature viewing through the web link for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-6634-1226 City staff will let callers that have raised their hand using the last three digits of your phone number or by name if available for those accessing through the web link you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to quiet area and mute any television or background sounds we may hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time seeing no one is there anyone that would like to address the commission remotely we have one hand raised at this time praveena ramaswamy you have permission to speak and address the commission hello my name is hello my name is pravina ramasami I live in Bromley neighborhood which backs on to this proposal I did speak at the last meeting I asked the commission to not reconsider this proposal at the last meeting the majority of the Commissioners voted against it not just for zoning but they brought up some very valid points regarding the future of our city the future of Plymouth Road thinking about multi-use spaces rather than a single story building that has a cookie cutter bank I know the community has really spoke we had over 50 people email multiple people come to that meeting and even from the asking not to reconsider we've had a lot of people in the community speak on this I know we've had a little bit of time but in that short time people have come out to really oppose this and I think it's because we want to see the space be a space where we can have multiple use we're not saying no to UMC but we're asking UMC to consider building a space that has multiple spaces with retail housing whatnot and with a bank not a there could be cutter brand building when we say it's not vehicle specific well in my eyes it is even without the teller Bank the current location is very accessible for bus walking biking well this proposed space is not if you'd have to go past the Speedway bank and walk quite a bit you'd have to cross a busy road without a crosswalk with the bus so this doesn't make sense to me it still sounds like people would have to come by car I'm not seeing the benefit moving it from where it is to to this new proposed location especially without a teller space I'd really like you to consider you know a 15-minute neighborhood this is your grand opportunity to create something special down Plymouth Road and to really think about this main Corridor where people come into our great City what will it look like what services can we have and where can people live so I asked permission to please not be considered the proposal as it stands today as the single story cookie cutter branded sloped building regardless of the environmental pieces they're adding to it I think from a long-term 25 50 years from now even maybe you issue now we will be not be using the banks and Standalone buildings we're in a digital world so let's forward think let's think about the Innovations of space usage of our city thank you thank you one more caller has raised their hand Alex Lowe you have permission to speak hi this is Alex calling in from South Southeast East Ann Arbor and I just want a stage from umcu when you come back with your new plan please take the communities feedback into account you're not Bank of America you're not Chase plopping down identical uh buildings all over our country you're you're the University of Michigan Credit Union your community owned your focused on Ann Arbor thing here we know that the site is good is going to be tc1 at at some point why don't you get ahead of that make it a make it a fully TC one as a show people what uh what uh what TC what one can look like and show people that the uncu is Forward Thinking and not stuck in the 1950s thank you thanks Kelly do you have anyone else uh two other callers have raised their hands Brandon dimshup you have permission to address the Planning Commission larrytown in Ward four um I um also would very much like to see this um not be um just a simple bank and a building that would actually have multi-use and stuff I worry that we are kind of too late for that at this point um and I think like this really emphasizes why we need to consider applying tc1 to these corridors as quickly as possible so we don't have all these uses that I think many of us agree are undesirable showing up in areas that we are soon going to um disallow this sort of use so we'd like to encourage Planning Commission to um you know really really think about trying to get that um the rest of the the corridors rezoned it as soon as possible and I think you can thank you our next caller is Christina Watkins you've permission to address the commission thank you my name is Christina Watkins I reside at 2960 Sheffield Court approximately a quarter mile from the proposed site um I would just like to reiterate what other callers and what other residents letters have already stated which is we'd really hope that University of Michigan Credit Union does take into account Ann Arbor's zero initiatives and the fact that we are aiming to create a 15-minute neighborhood we want multi-use buildings we do not want single-use single-story buildings especially so close to a community pool and school so we do hope to see a better proposal next time thank you there are no other hands raised at this time thank you next we move on to public hearings next business meeting makes Kelly do we have public hearings scheduled for next business meeting yes at the Tuesday May 2nd Planning Commission meeting which will be at 7 pm there will be a public hearing for 999 Maiden Lane a site plan and rezoning for city council approval this project includes a rezoning petition to amend the conditions of the C1 AR campus business residential with conditions zoning designation by removing the condition that the property shall only be developed as the 1140 Broadway planned project site plan as may be administratively amended end quote because two of the three approved buildings have been constructed and a site plan application to construct a 180 200 square foot seven story residential building on the building b side of the Beekman Broadway development replacing the previously approved building with similar dimensions in this location the zoning district and development site are 6.4 acres and Building B site is 1.4 acres thank you all right moving on there's no unfinished business and less at this time anyone wants to move for previous agenda items yeah you could make that motion now it would uh it it could happen at any point in the agenda prior to commission proposed business the bylaws would not permit you to take action on any petition during commission proposed business but this would be an appropriate time if if the Planning Commission desires would it be appropriate for us to at least have a discussion in this period of time would you guys be open to having a discussion um I would propose that you make the motion to add it Amendment to the agenda that would be a forum for the discussion and then if based on that discussion you choose not to that vote would be the outcome of that okay then they'll all make that motion so this would be a motion to add um I guess item call it 9B potentially other business uh uh reconsideration of 2929 Plymouth yep yes so moved by commissioner Lee second by commissioner White your questions about reconsideration oh yeah so I it's always open for discussion or okay okay um I just want to better understand because because I I hear everybody um and I'm we're obviously getting a lot of public comment about this as well so um to be clear this is currently zoned office am I correct correct so the kind of use we would have far limitations we wouldn't be constrained by uh height but we'd be constrained by far if they were to proceed to try and redesign for a tc1 type development correct office is far regulated and not high regulated okay so in essence what we are asking them to do is to say or at least what what I heard the last commenter ask for specifically was please try to redesign for tc1 which is not currently the zone would that be an accurate statement so I there was a lot of discussion I've what I heard from the commission as part of the findings of denial of the special exception use was that the special exception use requires consistency with the city's comprehensive plan and I think commissioner Soviet sort of actually during that deliberation kicked it off kicked off this this item and other commissioners it resonated from from my recollection that granting the special exception used for drive through lanes that was inconsistent with our goals for evolving this as a Transit Corridor the use of tc1 other items um there's a lot of other discussion about sustainability about questions about the site development but for my lens I thought that was particularly relevant to the special exception use standards and the denial of that of course came hand in hand then with the site plan that reflected drive-through lanes that once that special access exception use standards are not found then that site plan was no longer compliant with with those standards so um that's those are the findings I considered of course now the petitioner is requesting not reconsideration and special exception the site plan for more time to amend the site plan to be reflective our current codes specifically removing drive-throughs of course and then also the letter indicates uh uh heating the building without Natural Gas but um alternatively they could seek tc1 zoning they could redesign something else under the office District too much or answering your question oh no I think that answers my question um thank you uh I I want to speak from a practical standpoint kind of following up on commissioner weisha's line of at least questioning and inquiring about this particular topic let's say that again postulating that we don't hear this or it gets voted down essentially the reconsideration thereof would it just be a hindrance an annoyance for the petitioner would they bring it back basically just having paid the fees again so I just I'm trying to better understand from a practical standpoint what are our options here so I just try to understand yeah again practically what what decision we're faced with yeah I want to be clear I haven't gone to that depth of understanding with the petitioners of the commission would like to discuss that you're welcome to I think practically speaking again I think that um I I feel like the petitioner has heard some of the concerns that were raised by the Planning Commission I recognize that not all of the concerns that were raised at Planning Commission nor all of the concerns that have been raised by the comments subsequent to that in any in either circumstance considering this plan devoid of a special exception use is going to be a permitted use in the office District subject to those regulations if it is not reconsidered and the petitioner chooses to file a new site plan that same condition will apply so from my lens the petitioner has offer is offering some sustainability Provisions that are above and beyond for example what the minimum requirements are of the code um so I I haven't gone to the depth to say that those would go away if we started over or from from that perspective but that's my premise that I think it's reasonable to continue evaluation of this site plan for some of those reasons gotcha so this might be an opportunity to try and I I don't want to use the word leverage but to say that we better understand their commitments to sustainability I think that's that's what they're saying in their letter that they're interested in presenting more of that commitment as part of a project could is it appropriate for me to ask the commit uh the petitioner to give me an idea of is that an okay question to ask at this time I just want to hear from them essentially what they're thinking yeah I'm fine with that this time oh God so what are you guys thinking from like again practically if if this doesn't get reconsidered you guys just gonna submit another site plan saying hey I'm going buy right so it's just gonna cost me more time and money but this is gonna happen or like I guess I'm trying to better understand sure uh thank you for that so yes we we would are still interested in building on the um property that we own um so we probably would submit a new application if that's the the direction we need to go we had a long conversation with your staff as well as our team for options and just to save everyone in time and we just felt like it might be more appropriate to go this route um we are we did hear the Commissioners we are listening to the the members of the community of which is why we have elected to um remove the special use that we were attempted for even though we felt it was part of our business model and witness system of our members with either handicaps or other other needs that they have for wanting to choose a drive-through in addition to evaluating other sustainability options in addition to the one that was pointed out as far as heating it without Natural Gas does that answer it it does it seems like you guys would bring forth if this was not a reconsideration you guys would just simply bring it back under another application is that accurate summation yes that would be accurate yes okay gotcha um and I guess I I would like to just kind of um hone in on one one of the things you had said here which was we've listened to the community and one of the things that they just spoke about I think you know what five ten minutes ago was a 15-minute neighborhood additional benefits you know again from access of magnetization of neighborhood and and connectivity and porosity so just um I want to better understand you know other than the drive-throughs whether those kinds of comments um what what you would say to the commenter that just spoke Alex and one of the things we had discussed just to give an example and of course we haven't gone through um actually we're looking at we have regular design meetings so as a group we haven't completely fully talked about this and designed it but what would it look like if we added you know any sort of bench or kind of Park area on our space somewhere we did that at our Carpenter Road location we added because they were trying to do more walkability and they have bus stops a lot of people commute via vehicular means and so we added bench benches and kind of a a nice resting place for people that they could just kind of sit and watch if you're a people Watcher or I just want to rest and wait for the the bus it's a little bit further away so we were looking at some of those discussing some of those options as well gotcha understood um and please remind me what is the current use of the site and the utilization of that office building right now as it stands as you guys are the owner um as far as like square footage is that what you're oh yeah what's a building being used for right now is it occupied is it yeah the Carpenter Road or I'm sorry the 29th 29 29th yeah it is it is currently um empty space it is empty it's fake and it is parking lot okay yeah gotcha understood um just wanted to again better understand kind of what decision we're faced with whether um all we're doing is delaying um I guess what you guys will bring forth again for a buy right consideration I think I set up this in in the last meeting or when we revised this review this the first time um from stormwater retention uh coming bringing that up to standards I saw as a public benefit electrification would be a public benefit and I think consideration of even maybe a triangular dedication of a cut through path with some greeneries that would allow for better connectivity to the bus stop would be something that I I would find more comfort in doing but I think it was just helpful for me to hear because I I haven't made up my mind yet about the way this is going I know I think I'm looking at you know the rest of the Commissioners I think I have an understanding of where they're likely going to go with this but I wanted to at least give due process and listen to all of the parties involved so thank you oh yeah of course uh I I'll yield my time because I think I have an understanding of what's happening so I'll defer to my other Commissioners thanks commissioner white um just a clarification of the site plan would the with this the new site plan also include the division of the property and does that stop at the planning table or does that go to a council I was trying to look it up in the UDC but I couldn't find it could be a condition of site plan approval so effectively uh the Planning Commission would be adding that condition land divisions actually can be approved administratively in this case it would be a condition of any site plan approval based on the arrangement of the site and what's the Collision of that in the conflicting land use buffer um isn't that going to lock that site time will tell the ordinance revisions committee will be looking at conflicting land use buffer language but currently if that lot is split and residential uses would become present next to it then the conflicting land use buffer would in that case apply both to the north and to the West so it would make the parcel very challenging to develop on so it would like almost force it into a PUD probably not as much as Club impacts r4c development but it would it would remove some some buildable area okay so this is a problem of the um of the UDC and where we sit not necessarily an issue with the petitioner so they they bought the land the land is zoned how we've zoned it they they're bringing a site plan that matches the zoning and we are realizing oh that's not really what we would love to have there but we haven't done the work to say what we want there so we're in this I think someone adequately called it an inflection point where we are running into the age of our UDC or the comprehensive land use which informs the UDC however we mince those terms and and that's really what we're kind of struggling with because otherwise this is just by right so we all we're really deciding is do we want them to start over or not and just personally if that's all we're deciding I I don't think it makes sense to force them to start over um personally but I think um this gets to a larger issue which is the The Neighbors in a very agreeable way don't want a single story single-use development here they have communicated that to us um do we have a tool to remedy that and how would that intersect with this petition so I I think the way that you summarized it I would I agree with I think that that's a that's a great overview to the question um that's a question that I just want to be honest I'm wrestling with and we are wrestling with there are a lot of there's a lot of um aspects to that obviously we have rezoned some corridors to tc1 we have not yet had development proposals on those subsequent to that city council has specifically directed us to make some modifications to the tc1 that is we've had some conversations at this table about making those changes and modifications so that as that District expands to other areas of the city we have addressed those concerns there was some concerns at at the rezoning of the stadium corridor there was concern at the council level about whether to rezone that but for these directives that they've that the city council has now directed The Planning Commission to look at you're seeing the first of those this evening there's another piece of that which is the right-of-way um so we are attempting to from my perspective we need to address those changes so that when the tc1 district starts getting added to other quarters in the city it is done with the confidence of both this body and the city council that it is an appropriate district for those areas and so I think that the frustrations from The Neighbors in this case is that that work has not gone fast enough to be at a position where that's done today yeah okay all right commissioner dish yeah that's right so but I I really liked your question commissioner white which was do we have any tools to get something closer to what we wish it would be or not we so we have an obligation under this case to consider this site plan well we don't have any obligation to consider this site plan but if a new site plan comes in we have an obligation to measure that against the UDC so I would say in short we don't have tools we cannot force this applicant to apply to rezone their property to tc1 the city council or the Planning Commission could elect to rezone initiate a rezoning of that Corridor or this property but again the messaging that I have heard from our policy makers in the direction that you have received as the Planning Commission is that we want to see changes to that District before it goes forward and and I am emphasizing that that came out of some uncertainty at the application of that District to the stadium Road Corridor and so replicating that uncertainty before those questions are answered from My Lens doesn't seem like the appropriate path I understand that that doesn't satisfy all urgency and there might be differing perspectives on that for sure but that's how I am approaching it as as the planning manager so I guess what I would say is that I appreciate that the petitioner is listening to the sustainability to the Energy Efficiency concerns that were raised in our last discussion um and at base I think the objection to this project beyond the drive-through which was a significant element that was because it is trip intensive I believe was the term we used last time it's very much at odds uh with the desire for a more walkable City picture of a more walkable City or one other key feature of a more walkable City is dense efficient use of land and this is not that and so if you really wanted to hear us in my fantasy what would come back is a two-story project because you want to have a bank and you want to have a conference center and you want to have a place where you can counsel people on how to get loans these were things that if I'm remembering you talked about which I thought were laudable can't that be done in two stories and with a less of a footprint and with less you know with not so large of a setback that's one of our concerns is that the more things that we get on this Corridor that are that have large setbacks the harder it is for it to be a place where people genuinely want to walk because it just feels weird even if you're not walking in front of a huge parking lot it feels weird to walk in front of a huge field of grass um so that and obviously I can't all I can say is that that's what I think is laying at the base of this is this desire for denser more efficient use of land and that desire makes sense to me because we are a very built out city and we are a very expensive city and we don't want to be an expensive city because an expensive city is an exclusionary City and so you're asking to use a lot of land to do not very much in the neighbor's eyes right it's one thing it's one thing that they see a lot of on the corridor so um I take your point commissioner watch that it seems um the words that are coming to mind are so judgmental that I don't want to use any of them but that that pointless is good okay it seems pointless merely to refuse to reconsider so that this might take a month or six weeks longer and the petitioner has to pay another fee well that doesn't seem very um but on the other hand I don't know that I want to make it easier to build something that isn't a dense and efficient use of land in a place that is very built up and where the building up where the that condition that we are all working under is really having significant consequences for people's principles so I am torn more discussion on the motion about many agenda commissioner wait so I just want to come back to the tool question that I think I asked or maybe commissioner dish took it over so we'll don't know who to give who to give credit to so um it um I think the challenge I agree that the motion to reconsider probably makes sense because it doesn't make a lot of sense to just force it back into the piece the the question that I was asking about the tool is not exclusive to um making a zoning change right because we could propose a zoning change and then go through the process of a zoning change but that might be spot zoning so I don't know what the rules are around that type of apparatus but do we have incentives at this point are there fees that could be waived are there things that could be expedited that incentivize the petitioner to realize what we are hearing from the community and what some sense at the table is um indicating so it's office and residential is permitted in office I I couldn't find out other than the far how much residential they could do are there things where if the petitioner were were agreeable to consider we have inside the city to make their development and the work that they're doing easier for them and it helps the neighborhood because I I think what I'm just trying to assess is is there a win-win uh here the petitioner already has the property it's already zoned they they have every right to build what we have told them is permitted there period and are there tools where we can say if you build this this might go better there are things that are coming in the development that if you were to consider we could um move around I don't know that's what I meant by a tool not just a UDC change because I understand we we can't affect the UDC change in the midst of this because that would probably open us up to some legal challenges ah in short I'm not aware of that tool but I I would say that the petitioners here asking for an accommodation they've already provided some um Beyond minimum standard modifications um I feel I I can't I I wish I could be confident and promise you that I could guarantee you but some outcome here in either circumstance but I I do think that by continuing our relationship with this petitioner on this site plan I just feel that it is a a better position for us as the community to to sit with them at the table maybe we could explore um a reducing the footprint overall of the site potentially in the absence of drive-throughs to still accomplish their goals and sort of try to make the development as compact as as it might possibly be but again at the end of the day I want to be clear we we have to respond to the application that's in front of us but I I I think that the best tool with this case is saying thank you for your thank you for listening we have a couple other things that we'd like to explore with you another way that we could do that frankly is we could instead of postponing this to a date Stern as you could table this to make sure that we have the space with the project team to come to work towards the best project we can I want to be clear I don't I don't I wouldn't intend for that to mean it's going to be a year but rather than being constrained by that specific date if there are some um some modifications that we're exploring with them that we that staff thinks is receptive to some of the concerns that either the neighbors have raised or the Planning Commission is raised that might give us a little bit more space to address those um but at the end of the day whether it's I want to be clear if the Planning Commission does it does do this and at some point staff says hey it would be great if you eliminated this parking space so it'd be great if you considered this additional non-motorize if those aren't required standards um ultimately um they would have the ability to say thanks for your advice but no thanks come on Shirley for again procedural basis how many votes does it take to would all six have to basically no in the case and in the case of this it would be a majority of those presents so in that if you um based on the motion here would require four affirmative votes to amend the agenda and then it would require four affirmative votes for a reconsideration and the corresponding table and gotcha understood and I I do want to clarify kind of again my position on this the reason I asked what's the current utilization of the site is that it's vacant it is a vacant office building um to me what's important is the health safety and general welfare of the community right I want this to be a healthier Community I want this to be a safer community and to me the concern I have is there being a bus stop right now um so let's say that we you know make this slightly more for lack of a better word obnoxious for the petitioner right we push it back uh we tell them hey let's redesign what mixed use development requires a different Capital stack requires a different Vision a vision that seems to be more aligned with frankly the comprehensive plan so that's what we're trying to weigh right now right and so I'm of the mindset that um it it takes a lot more time so how long does it sit before you know I'd rather see kind of again a cleaned up productive eyes on the street Jane Jacobs kind of concept where we have a safer healthier community so I mean obviously the drive through lanes were not in concert with that but keeping this property vacant for a longer period of time also I mean again it's trade-offs and so I'm looking at it from that standpoint of what is the decision we can make tonight as a body that is in concert with the greatest amount of improvement in safety greatest Improvement in health and without knowing all of the variables right I mean obviously this is a lot of consideration so that that's I just wanted to say from that time timeline standpoint of uh I'm not going to say it's inevitable this is happening but uh you know the petitioners indicated they'll bring it again and so that that's where my consideration comes in it sits fake in it's it you know there's no eyes on the street and it is you know it sits for another several years and that's not necessarily something I want either so that that is kind of again from my standpoint and so I wanted to kind of clarification so it requires the majority um not necessarily the the six that it requires to advance something um also uh but I would like to also hear um from actually commissioner sovay specifically only because you did make fairly compelling arguments last time about you know this isn't a spurious denial we have had specifically tc1 allocated it isn't tc1 but I just need to refresh myself where that's codified and and where that Community goes so I'd love to hear from you kind of on uh your thoughts regarding this and what what are the rationales that just going through your mind currently um sure the grounds are special exception use we have the discretion and Liberties to deny uh based on that and part of the special special exceptionary standards are um applying it as it relates to our comprehensive plan we need documents and I didn't believe that it meant several of the goals of our conference planning documents and so with that the special exception used and the site plan together got denied in the context of today I believe that the tool that we have is time in actually a positive we are discussing tc1 the petitioner is here to hear some of the progress and the goals of tc1 um I understand that we're talking about conflicting land use buffers in the immediate future which could have an impact on this site as well and adjacent and so both of those discussions are immediate that the petitioner can take into consideration where those discussions lay to reapply to an updated site plan simultaneously being able to start again allows them not to kind of like band-aid and tuck point some of these issues but a reconsideration from the full traffic standpoint there were concerns but you know fire truck Point access bus access and things like that so I I think that there are uh eminent discussions around other policy immediately like in the coming weeks that may not be adopted immediately but depending on the duration of reconsideration about a petitioner it could actually influence the design more than deleting the parking or the Brazilian the drive-through Lanes um and so I think it's it's things like that that really uh make me kind of consider like what would happen in in the time it's really hard for me to believe that based on the goals um kind of stated and even what the petition wants to incorporate that this would be ready for reconsideration in two months so at that point how many times are we noticing this versus the opportunity to reset and do a full notice by postcard again so those are the things that I'm weighing in terms of notification if not to a date certain how do we re-engage the community if this takes longer than the date that we set tonight and what are the um current things on our working plan that the petitioner can now engage in because I think a lot of the discussion from last time was about haven't you been paying attention these are very con consistent discussions about drive-throughs this cannot be the first time that you're hearing about this if you've been working on this project within the city for quite a while so I think that these conversations are public and can be considered so that's my take thank you no I appreciate that feedback and then also again a respect your opinion so um I I wanted to hear um from me again uh Mr Leonard um you had proposed a separate kind of modification of the emotion in one which we may be able to table can you refresh us on that well to be clear in either circumstance it would require reconsideration of the motion I in my memorandum to the Planning Commission I propose is a postponement to a date certain I think that was from largely a perspective of the site would not change significantly other than the removal of the drive through and adding the condition of electrification my hypothesis is just instead of modifying a postponing it to a date certain if the Planning Commission chooses to reconsider tabling action that means there wouldn't be a date certain I want to be clear in either case of either a postponement or a tabling because of the nature of this process the public hearing will be re-noticed that's distinct if the item would have been postponed at the previous public hearing because that there could be individuals who were noticed of that meeting and are not here to understand even if the Planning Commission shows that so that will be re-noticed to commissioner sovay's point if it is not reconsidered additional notification will go out based on our citizen participation requirements but if more time if we weren't under a deadline of the 21st it might afford staff and the petitioner more opportunity to come up with some other Creative Solutions uh thank you but but I want to be clear to your question I those they are likely going to be more modest than for the reasons that you are I think articulated that drastically reconceiving this building and its financing model would be pretty different so I'm thinking about more of just scale its Arrangement on the site its relationship to the other sites so I I just want to be honest about expectations and where I would see movement sure sure I understand and again the alternative is we don't move to reconsider and they will likely bring back another site plan so um I will take that into consideration for that I will move to reconsider the motion on a tabling basis we're still in discussion okay yeah I apologize yeah we're deep into this cool I'll offer one more kind of question to this sorry I'm I'm stretching this conversation about the motion of the agenda item because I like if we don't talk about it now and it fails we don't get to talk about it the next step so let's just get all of it out now um and um I guess my question like from the letter from the petitioner there's no guarantees of electrification it's just an accommodation that they've said that they would do but when it comes back there's no guarantee that we have to hold them to it it still would come back as a buy right present a plan that doesn't include that um in other site plans though I will note that when petitioners are responding to those Community goals we do when they're offered voluntarily and they are memorialized then as in a development agreement so they do become obligations of the site but you're right it this plan could come back and say yeah we looked at it no we don't want to do that yeah and that's like in in both cases the same scenario of it okay I just want to open up that up to the table any further discussion commission I just want to clarify one thing that you just said um so you memorialize in a development agreement so even though the city does not require electrification right now if it's in the development agreement the petitioner is required to do it once they've passed Planning Commission correct okay I think we're ready for a vote we are vote sorry we are voting on the motion to amend the agenda to add reconsideration of 2929 Plymouth roadside plan approval as item 10A other business [Music] well maybe Maybe the wrong spot it'll work on the motion to amend the agenda to include 2929 Plymouth commissioner Lee yes commissioner Hammerschmidt no commissioner no commissioner dish yes commissioner Clark no commissioner Weiss no uh this emotion fails okay so now we are moving on to regular business which includes tc1 yes I'd like to say I'm recusing myself from the discussion of tc1 on the basis that my employer owns property in tc1 thank you commissioner Lee um and so this I hand it over to Steph report to start yeah um I'm going to turn it over to city planner Alexis DeLeo for uh an overview of the proposed amendments oh you're fine uh no we're fine um actually we're going to give commissioner Lee the opportunity to recuse himself from the room commissioner Lee based on that action I think you should go home um so uh before Alexis kicks off the presentation I just want to be clear um regardless of the outcome this evening I know that this motion will fail you have a quorum to conduct business however you don't have with uh commissioner Lee's recusal we don't have six affirmative votes to pass action this happens from time to time I want to be clear it will be reported onto the city council as a recommendation of denial from the Planning Commission but they will also be shared with the record that would show whatever the outcome of that vote is um my rationale is um that this per our last discussion there's a lot of interest I think in getting this District in the best shape as possible and so my intention is to continue moving this um regardless of the challenges that we've had with attendance tonight um again I don't know what the outcome of your vote is but because there are not six members present it will clearly not be for approval foreign like a a law that says because we don't it's in your bylaws okay so then since it's in our bylaws then why can't could I make a motion for us to postpone this to the next meeting so that we could vote on this because and the only reason why I am asking that question is Council it's my understanding that Council looks to planning to understand where things are moving as it comes to their table they have their own ability to vote at their table but they also want to understand how planning is weighing in on some of these pieces and I think that's sort of evident in our last meeting where staff said denial and then the table had a very long conversation and it passed six two so that information is important when it goes to the council table and we're going to lose our ability to communicate through our vote to the council table now I'm just concerned about like why are we doing that sure um so your first question of course the planning convention always has the option to approve something deny something or postpone action on it so that is definitely an option in this case um I I concur uh the report of uh hypothetically if all five Commissioners here president voted in favor of the proposed amendments that transmission would be a denial because it doesn't mean six votes but it would also reflect that all members present were supportive of that action I will say that there have been circumstances in the past where the city council I think has seen the totality of that record and understood the circumstances of of a case like this frankly where um based on some peculiar scenarios of our attendance there was we were unable to achieve the required number of votes um I can't speak for the city council how they would project that what the vote would have been if the president the presence were there so in short it's a possibility for the sake of a lot of work ahead I have of the mind and I would advise the Planning Commission to take your votes here and let's progress it to city council I think that city council is hungry for these changes based on a lot of the conversation of the previous item and other conversations that they're hearing so the nuances of that I think the downside of that singular voice of Planning Commission that is a that's unfortunate that if otherwise there would have been more members here it would have been a different outcome I think the totality of that record will not be lost on Council and it'll afford US the ability to move that forward and get on to the next work would we have the capacity to officially amend the motion like if we made amendments to the motion and then voted on those amendments prior that would be official record yes yes okay so we could pass on an amended motion that failed correct but at least the um the per the discussion we could amend it and then send that to council to understand maybe some changes to it the bylaws stipulate that six votes are required for items of advice items to the city council and so whatever actions you take at this table happen but six affirmative votes have to that signifies a recommendation of approval or denial to yep so it's four votes still to amend it and three three now three from the because now we're down to five three votes to officially amend it and then we have a formal record of any amended if there's discussion and decision to do that and then that proceeds but it will always in this case proceed as a fail yep okay option I don't know that it's necessary I I just want to acknowledge that I think there is some complexity here because I do think that when Council kind of returned tc1 to the Planning Commission is with some requests that I do not think the Planning Commission is necessarily fully in sympathy with Council on so the the complex situation tonight is if it fails because it has to but also because you don't like some of the changes that are being made and so that is the harder that may be the harder message to communicate but since there is the ability to amend ment um the council members I'm fairly confident have the ability to read so they will they can read our minutes and I can report the sense of the discussion and I will do so fairly regardless of where I stand on the things that are discussed here but it is true that we are missing some voices who raise crucial refinements often to the things that we're looking at it's just you know what I'm hearing from my colleagues on Council is a tremendous impatience which I have some frustration about because it's April 18th I mean we were told when we sent this back that we wouldn't get everything back until the summer it's not summer it's November out there so you know so I I am worried that a postponement is going to start a little brush fire so I would kind of rather that you trusted that the minutes any amendments you make and my report of the sense of the discussion would not lose your Nuance if we feel we can proceed without the expertise that we're missing because we are missing some considerable expertise so Alexis take it away thank you let me share my screen oh my God all right thank you oh I'm not at the beginning okay we are at the beginning all right thank you before you this evening are some amendments to the unified development code can you get your mind closer I'm sorry even closer even closer yes all right got it all right um tonight before you is um amendments to the UDC related to the tc1 transit Corridor District foreign these amendments are to allow vehicular uses I'm sorry these amendments are to allow vehicular sales and rentals specifically the thanks it's automobile motorcycle Recreation vehicle equipment sales and rental is what is in the primary use table to allow this in the tc1 district second to allow automobile truck and construction equipment repair as a primary use in the tc1 district and to redesign the transit Corridor development use specific standards table to clarify the building topologies and application of the standards let me start with a tiny bit of background not super in-depth but the tc1 district was created in 2021 it is our newest zoning District added to the UDC it's in supposed to be located along existing Transit corridors to realize mixed-use developments and mixed-use corridors and to support and sustain Transit service which means increasing housing Choice housing affordability sustainability and decreasing resource and energy needs from those developments um the reason we are bringing forth these amendments is city council passed a resolution in December asking to the Planning Commission to evaluate and recommend some amendments specifically to incorporate some limited automobile related uses but there was a note to exclude drive-throughs and gas stations and Council asked us to address constraints of the existing narrow rights of way primarily thinking of the West Stadium Boulevard area but or any place where tc1 may be is or may be applied tonight we are only addressing the first element incorporating limited automobile related uses we will have to come back to you in the future to discuss addressing those constraints of the existing narrow rights of way the 31 District is a version of form-based code similar to our downtown zoning districts D1 and D2 but the tc1 district has is heavy into and has a lot of form-based code elements as a reminder to level the discussion form-based codes are a way to regulate development that controls building form first and building you second some people also describe it as a means of regulating land develop Land Development to achieve a specific Urban form or Land Development regulation using physical form rather than separation of land uses as the organizing principle our tc1 district has some minimums some maximums some must have some of those form standards highlights are there are minimums include a two-story buildings the first floor height has to be 15 feet and that allows for a variety of uses long term into the future regardless of what the initial use is 60 for slower transparency must-haves include functional entrances facing the street the building spans 70 percent um of the lot Frontage at least we require smaller block designs for larger sites we have a 15 foot maximum setback um a footnote is that is for mixed-use buildings not for residential apartment buildings those can go 20 feet we have a maximum of one curb cut we maximize the vehicular use area at either 100 or 125 percent of the building footprint so that the dominant use of the site by surface area is not parking we have maximum Heights and we have a maximum diagonal dimension for that building The Limited automobile related uses we are suggesting to incorporate um our vehicle sales summarized without the full titles but vehicle sales and rental and vehicle repair um we recommend Vehicles these um and we recommend taking them together we feel that there are so many of interrelated nists to these sales and rentals sometimes businesses could um repair and then rent out what they sell or vice versa sometimes repair can be attached to retail Parts and Service Parts and such there they work very well together um and we are recommending approval be relying on for our form-based codes for newly established businesses vehicle repair or sales and rental businesses the tc1 standards are triggered by new development and if someone is any business whether it be these limited automobile related or any other business of any sort if they are willing to build to our form then we we can can well confidently welcome them into the into the district in that sense um selling brand new automobiles is no different than selling T-shirts or bananas um it's going to be in the same building typology um and then for existing businesses our rezoning of some of these corridors um both the West Stadium Maple Corridor and the state and Eisenhower Corridor are pretty much built out they have there are but one or two vacant sites on each of those and that means there are some of these existing limit existing automobile related uses we have made them non-conforming our code takes a very hard line you either have a conforming site and you can make all of your improvements whether big or small incrementally or you're a non-conforming use and you need to be phased out we can discuss regulating non-conforming uses in a different topic but for now there is really no middle area and making these existing businesses back to conforming does open up again the potential for incremental improvements towards compliance so it they might be in one story buildings now but this is uh would slightly incentivize bringing those not punishing the the uses and then focusing on getting the forms to where we'd like our batch of amendments also includes some table redesign of table 516-2 the tape we um you know of course I thought this was the best table ever um it had it um provides the regulations into two classifications for lot widths up to 250 feet and then lot widths over there were three building typologies mixed-use buildings townhouse apartment buildings and all buildings broken up into five categories with horizontal lines and columns and colors and it's not as intuitive as um as one hopes so we've proposed we proposed both a reason design and some amendments that seem to come naturally out of these uh the table redesign um it just has sort of three categories talks about sites how to lay out your site talks about building um building regulations and then just a little bit about some specific buildings the specific buildings are townhouses and apartment buildings or not townhouse and apartment buildings um and we've added some numbers and headings for easier discussion talking on the phone looking at it you know commonality um and we've also made an attempt to really reduce the repetition um between the two or between all of the the standards I'll go through the substantive table amendments um and I do believe that this provides a little bit better than the staff report may have um they don't conflict but I think this goes this visually goes a little bit better um nevertheless we've added a heading called development Arrangement and it comes from the previous standard that says in originally when the site is more than 62 500 square feet the site must be designed as blocks 250 feet on each side or as near as practical given the site shape with sidewalks pauses or drives separating the blocks and we've proposed an amendment that when the site is 200 site is that size it must be designed as two or more blocks with sidewalks plazas drives or private streets or proposed public rights of ways separating the blocks we have removed the 250 foot Mark but hold on it comes back for building Frontage there were three standards one was minimum Frontage equals to lot width less 30 feet or 45 when adjacent to residential zoning or a minimum of 75 feet or I'm sorry 70 or 75 percent proposing a change and the substantive part is that there's no 75 requirement it's 70 percent um and the minimum Frontage is 70 percent of the lot width but we do allow that as long as there's 30 feet between the building and side Lot line normally or 45 feet those 30 and 45 foot numbers were chosen because um 30 feet is the side setback um I'm sorry 30 feet is when provides you with a conflicting land use buffer if necessary and the width of a driveway 45 feet provides the side setback required when you're adjacent to residential so you can still have you can still have a driveway and maximize the building Frontage um and it was a point of confusion that if you were to divide your site as blocks like we asked how then do you measure the frontage is it based on the original dimension of the site or is it based on the blocks and the additional separation you've inserted into your design so we've clarified it with if the site is divided into smaller blocks as required the minimum Frontage applies to each block for transparency we have proposed to actually strike the language that was written and to refer to a section 517 6c2 which I've repeated below here that section is for the buildings in the D1 and D2 district and so rather than repeat the language in two different spots in the code but um this language is a little bit clearer provides a little more detail a little more tried and true we've been using it in the downtown and has a little more specificity about exactly how do you measure and Achieve that transparency um for building Dimensions we've combined that 250 foot block length that we had mentioned previously and the maximum diagonal so the building with parallel to the street may not exceed 250 feet pulling that standard from previously because that's what we sort of meant the 250 feet standard comes from downtown the width of the private property on our smallest downtown blocks which we are using for a proxy a very comfortable pedestrian scale blocks is 250 feet but if you add the width of the sidewalks adjacent to those blocks the depends on how you define block do you define a property line to property line do you define it from one including both sidewalks do you go to Center Line of the road to the center line or the next Road here so it doesn't matter we've removed that confusion about how do you measure a block and switched it to the maximum width of the building parallel to the street is 250 feet and then please add your sidewalks and plazas and so forth and the maximum diagonal Dimension remains at 360 feet that's the diagonal Dimension if you provide a building that's 250 square and finally um clarifying what you clarifying where we are prohibiting residential uses and what does a and that not all intersections are the same previously it said mixed-use buildings couldn't have the portion of the first story within 100 feet of an intersection or had to be occupied by non-residential uses for townhouse apartment buildings not permitted within 100 feet of an intersection of public rights of way this was all-encompassing this included then the intersection of state and Eisenhower but it also included the intersection of Collingwood and Abbott which are you know vastly different scales it would be appropriate to have residential within 100 feet of of say Collingwood and Abbott so this has been switched to residential uses are not permitted on the first floor of a mixed-bused building within a hundred feet of a signalized intersection and similar to the townhouse and apartment buildings and I think yes so this concludes our substantive amendments um it's a lot I'm happy to break down or go over any additional um either related to the auto related to Auto uses or the substantive or redesigned of the table elements but planning staff are recommending approval of this as we all understand the vote tonight May at best would be five to zero um it can be characterized as the vote um is not so much denial I think that city council will understand the vote is not so much denied as it did not reach six votes now if the vote is zero to five that would be different but if it's five to zero I believe our city council has experience in that it doesn't mean it has been denied but it means that it has just failed to reach the minimum threshold any question oh public hearing I'm sorry thank you Miss DeLeo so uh now we're going to move on to public hearing this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about the proposed UDC amendments to the tc1 zoning District we will first call individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during the public hearing remotely press star nine if listening by phone and usually raise hand for sure if viewing via the web link for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter median ID 977-6634-1226 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand using last three digits of your phone number or by name if available for those X as seen through the web link you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds we may hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments first we'll go to anyone present I do not see anyone we have a lot more chairs in here though that you just start to notice we are packed with chairs again okay um is there anyone that would like to address the commission remotely Miss Kelly there are currently three hands raised our first color is Adam yaskevich who permission to address the commission hi this is Adam jaskiewicz 1430 Las Vegas Drive I live in the dickin neighborhood adjacent to the West Stadium tc1 Corridor um while I'm not a big fan of changing the allowed uses for tc1 before we even see any new development coming out of it I've been following these discussions I understand why you're considering making this change I also understand that this will be um I guess technically denied um tonight which I guess is the best kind of tonight um what I've had what I have a hard time understanding is how most of these kinds of businesses are going to be compatible with a Transit Corridor having with pedestrian bus and bike traffic I think it will be difficult for developers to thread that needle we have a climate crisis and we have a traffic violence crisis and therefore we have committed to cutting vehicle miles traveled in half adding more car Centric uses is not compatible with that goal however looking at the ask from Council and from watching prior discussions on this topic it sounded to me like the intent was that these be added as a special exception use and that is what I was expecting to see tonight this would make the use consistent with our D1 and D2 zones which I believe was a point made in Prior discussions of this change in fact that is mentioned in the second whereas Clause from Council whereas some automobile related commercial uses I.E car rental and repair located in close proximity to housing are supportive of the goals of tc1 zoning District but currently aren't permitted by special exception use if you really must allow these uses in pc1 please consider making them a special exception use rather than a primary use so that you can retain at least some discretion in whether or not to allow these uses thank you our next caller is Adam Goodman you have permission to address the commission hi there Adam Goodman 400 Virginia Avenue um so I've spoken to you several times on tc1 before especially on the west EDM quarter near where I live and one of my principal arguments why we needed to move tc1 forward as quickly as we did is the idea that I think the community really does not want to see a lot of net New auto-oriented Uses along this corridor in fact I'm talking to you before I specifically noted a site on West Stadium advertising potential use as a car dealership and I asked is this really what we want I think it definitively is not rather we are trying to transform these corridors into dense Urban mixed use and mixed mode corridors and we are trying to further important city goals including reducing vehicle miles traveled by 50 so honestly I'm kind of baffled tonight by the suggestion that we re-allow these auto-oriented uses by right now I'm going to admit I've actually had some mixed feelings about certain kind of subcategories of these uses I do find it personally find it useful to have an auto repair shop in walking distance of my house I do understand that it will take incremental changes over time to reach the future that we're all envisioning and council member Briggs did make some Fair points in her resolution initiating this effort for example saying that enabling convenient car rental locations could actually help households reduce car use and ownership overall and that is after all what I want what I think a lot of us want I personally want a future where I no longer feel the need to be a car rider but for that to happen we do need to substantially transform our city so the question I think we need to ask more broadly tonight is how can we enable the flexibility we need in the short term and medium term recognizing Carson continue to be a necessity for some for now while still ensuring the policy we've adopted will help us get where we're we want to go now I actually kind of thought this was mostly subtle I thought that the doctrine of continuing non-conforming use was sufficient to address those near-term needs I'm hesitant to support you all going any further than that in one sense and yeah you know I can also see the rationale that says we should make tc1 more consistent with D1 and E2 I don't know maybe the answer is that D1 and D2 are the districts that need to change here not tc1 so in any case if you do feel the need to do something I think allowing some of these uses a special exception uses consistent with the current standards downtown is the most you should do tonight I think allowing these things to buy right is is totally contradictory to what we're trying to accomplish here I do not believe it will advance our goals thank you our next caller is Michelle Hughes you have permission to address the commission um shots and fortified to see a car uses being put on as a buy right primary use in these tc1 zones because it was my understanding that the whole point of tc1 is to take these neighborhoods that are on Transit corridors but are currently horrifying death strodes and turn them into um comfortable walkable neighborhoods and allowing car uses there is the opposite of that um and I could I could kind of understand when they said that when somebody said that having a rental having car rental in walking distance makes it easier to not have a car but um having a car sales definitely does not make it easier to not have a car you know that's promoting power use right there um and um you know it's a car a car sales lot a car repair lot that is not going to be the kind of thing that's fun to walk by even if it's in an attractive PC one building it's not something that's going to be activating the neighborhood and these are neighborhoods that need a lot of help because they're currently uh horrifying death strodes and um so I think we need to go as far as we can in in signaling that cars are guests here and aren't the primary residents of these neighborhoods because there's going to be a great temptation to um make car uses here and apply for special exception uses there are special exception uses available for these types of these types of purposes um and uh you know yeah even if you can make a car repair a lot downtown um people are less uh likely to do that because that's just not what is happening in downtown right now um but in these terrifying deathstrodes yes car culture is exactly what's happening here so we need to go further in countering the car closer um so please do not allow these car versus the common Rule and what's been happening thanks our next color is Brad pritz and one more hand raised after Brad pritz you have permission to address the commission uh thank you for the opportunity to speak to you Brad Fritz from 3030 Lexington uh Ward 2 and I am one who's dependent on the Plymouth Corridor so I watch this with interest uh let me take a different view from any of the other speakers let me say I agree very much with the long-term goals of tc1 sustainability and affordability those are both issues for our city that are very very important let me though add um for those of us including myself and my wife for a Mobility challenged the ability to have ready use of a car is very important and will be for the rest of my life however long that might be um and so let me say I like your approach to say let's have for for the building a less car-centric Community more carrots and fewer sticks and I think the approach of let's look at the form and so long as the use fits with our form designs then it should be allowed to go in you're not going to get a modern car dealer building under these constraints a car repair guy sure anyway um that's my comment thank you again for your consideration our next hand raised is Alex Lowe you can address the commission all right go ahead hi this is Alex Lowe calling again from South Southeast East Ann Arbor tc1 is great it is it's not perfect but it's and I really am look uh looking forward to developments that make it better unfortunately with uh with uh some of the proposes amendments from staff they say that chief what's what's proposed here with uh allowing car Centric businesses is basically a trojan horse being offered to the tc1 zone that if accepted would fundamentally undermine its purpose so much of the city is already dedicated to car Centric businesses and tc1 isn't going to force the existing businesses to change what does proposal would allow it is you concentric businesses to replace existing businesses that are far more amenable to uh to walk ability and Far More in line with tc1 so if we do really truly need uh need to allow this edition of some new car Centric businesses at GTC one I think it is reasonable to allow them only as special exceptions where the addition of that business will actually improve uh improve that tc1 as opposed to buy right which is just ridiculous at this point I'd also like to see some additional requirements to ensure that the changes are in line with the city's Vision to reduce carbon emissions and increase the sustainability for uh for example what uh one big one is don't allow this to be the uh the only use if you have to have a a car rental that's great put it in the parking garage along with a bunch of retail and some apartments uh easy uh second let's let's limit this and and say okay we're only going to uh allow this if all of the uh their cars there are electric and uh and third along with that let's make sure that uh that any of the uh any of the cars that are being rented out Etc the property owner provides green and renewable uh and energy to replace all of the energy consumption of those vehicles perhaps through unsight solar perhaps off uh offside with Etc thank you that's our last hand raised Madam chair thank you so now we will close the public hearing and I will read the motion uh so the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission hereby recommends that the mayor and city council approve amendments to chapter 55 unified development code section 5.15 and 5.16 to allow automobile motorcycle recreational vehicle equipment sales and rental as a primary use section 5.15 table 5.15-1 to allow automobile truck and construction equipment repair as a primary use section 5.15 table 5.15-1 and to redesign the transit Corridor development use specific standards table to clarify the building typologies and application of Standards section 5.16 table 5.16-2 moved by commissioner Hammerschmidt seconded by commissioner dish have discussion commissioner dish oops I wanted to ask a question about um the does the distinction between buy right and special exception use become less significant when you're working with a form-based code that is a great question and I'm I'm not um I guess I don't know I can I can mull it over and I can think about it um my death my working definition of a special exception use you know adoni district has a permitted principal uses meaning they are they are appropriate everywhere anywhere regardless of context and a special exception use is something that could be appropriate in that particular District based on context um and yes I can see arguments where if you have a form-based code that with which is very heavy well form-based code and it would if it's so strong in form it has dictated the it has dictated the context and therefore maybe there are no special exception uses in a form-based code I will say that our UDC is not a full form-based code it we borrow elements from it but it's not a full-on official form-based code so I want to say that the reason I asked that question is because as I was reading the staff report I was very oops I'm looking at the public comment right now yeah um I think I paraphrased it but this part I didn't existing form-based standards make us more confident to permit limited automobile related uses that's my paraphrase right there because we know that whatever else they will be they will have to conform to the things that we have said you have to do in tc1 to not recreate the landscape of a 1960s or 1970s shopping mall so I was open to that suggestion if I if it is a suggestion on your part part um but I but I am not sure that I think that there isn't still a place for the distinction between permitted uses and special exception uses even though we've kind of we've made all uses conform to something that creates a different environment than what is currently on these corridors it might still be the case that we want to consider carefully what kind of auto repair or Auto Sales it is and I don't think that we I I would be surprised if we could write into law we're only going to sell electric vehicles like we probably can't do that but if it's a special exception use we could think about which you know do we need a truck dealership and that was probably a rude thing I didn't mean that yeah right exactly I want the kind of truck that can run my house when DTE collapses um so I so I am I am I can see why we could use both it's not redundant and I could see also though that um that even if it's not a permitted use even if it's a special exception use we've still got the flexibility to encourage existing uses to modify themselves and get closer to what we're looking for rather than to simply be phased out I thought that was one of the very persuasive parts of your memo that as it is right now we kind of freeze whatever's there is Frozen the way it is and it's either a conforming thing and then we like that or it's a non-conforming thing and we're just waiting for it to die but that could take a long time bad things live a long time so um I I feel persuaded by that part of your memo around why we need to be open to thinking thinking about how the long term it's not as though we're trying to preserve these uses it's actually because we want to change them so but okay I'm sorry that's like too much of my thinking out loud but okay thank you what else okay I'll start with questions I have a lot okay I got really technical on this one um I got early attack um so I I guess I just maybe definitions to start outdoor sales permanent that's not outdoor sales of cars like that's already a permitted primary use can you give an example of what outdoor sales permanent would be when we had a Kmart at Maple Village it had a outdoor sales area where they used seasonally but that was a permanent outdoor sales space shown on the site plan where they put stuff for sale out there could be like a garden center or a lumber yard kind of side adjacent to a big box or anything else right okay I cannot there are very few of those in the city it's a um it's in most zoning ordinances you know is that you identify it and regulate it but that's what permanent outdoor sales are this would be compared to like if um a grocery store puts up a tent in their parking lot for two weeks in May to do flower sales or something like that but we have a temporary outdoor sales yes that's the difference between permanent outdoor sales um and Tamara and I yeah which might take over right I think parking spaces right I'm not 100 certain but like for example Bill's beer garden might be permanent outdoor sales it's not but it has parking spaces so it's a vehicular use area maybe that's not the maybe that is not like the one example then but I'm saying but like yeah so what I guess I I'm quite asking about that is there ever a condition that a vehicular use area and a permanent outdoor sales area would overlap as the same surface area or it could be adjacent to each other so right now we have vehicle use area 100 of the building footprint area but could you get like if you had a 100 000 square foot site and I had a 25 000 square foot building so thus I had a like single first floor building or like two-story building right 25 000 Square footprint then I could have a 25 000 square foot vehicular use area because that would match at 100 and then could I have a 25 or 50 percent of my lot coverage be outdoor permanent sales so all of a sudden I have a footprint of 25 building coverage and 75 open area I would say yes and no yes you can have those three uses on your site but the the permanent outdoor sales area doesn't it's not building footprint so it doesn't increase your side in the tc1 district it doesn't count towards the percentage or the surface area matching for the vehicle loose area right so like there it could it could be additive like but we still have minimum maximum setback standards that we need to cover so it's not like you can just push your building into a point Tower and have a big open space plan in tc1 in a lot of ways well you could have the big open space plan but it can't be a big parking lot right but it could be a big open outdoor sales it could be yeah okay I just wanna like I was like now that we're addressing short-term car storage that's a parking lot right what is short short terms to car versus medium term car both are not allowed in oh in tz1 right now but just to get definitions of what all these I'll let me see I'm sorry I told you the short-term cars are that's like less than seven days right uh so hold on I did highlight them but I just want like because they were still a little uh short term short term uh all it says is the site must have at least 87 000 square feet two acres of vehicular use area so we would not allow a site to be that large 87 000 square foot site two acres yeah two-way vehicular use with parking as approved with a p district on an approved site plan short-term car storage um is parking of personal privately owned vehicles and parking lots for up to 14 days this use is typically associated with car sharing services or park and ride Services okay and the only place that's currently eligible for this is the Briarwood parking lot okay because that's not car rentals because they're not personally owned correct okay um right so this is where like if you want to take the air ride from Briarwood to the to the airport and leave your car there I guess for free you can do that got it um and then the medium term it's like 30.

and he was planning for how much a school would cost we took what current cost to build the school was and we thought we were really really clever because we said well we remember back when Katrina happened and it drove all the constructions across the University and he said we're going to plan as if there were two Katrina Allen when we went to school and we thought we'd had way over built our budget and in reality Katrina was horrible terrible natural disaster but on the scope and scale of the impact it had on the construction costs was just a lip on the radar the global pandemic and some of the other things that were happening in the supply chain space right so I'm not going to be a bashed about it we have we'd have budget challenges and have from the work that Dean's done we have some pretty good and innovative solutions and it's one of the things that drove the field trip to awaken and see because one of the concepts that came up was how if we have a limitation how can students and families and partners hopefully that's a good set and not a bad set though that's perfect thank you very much so members of the governing board it's a pleasure to be here with you this evening um I'll be very brief on the design part because I know we're running a little bit long on our time and have other topics we need to cover as well uh the design that I think most of you have seen in previous presentations is is kind of Fairly consistent it has not had any kind of major changes from what was presented with a governing board back in the fall we've really kind of focused on the design aspirations of really trying to focus on adventurous learning health and wellness indoor outdoor connectivity uh creating Community impact and kind of stewardship and sustainability as some of the kind of driving goals that have been driving the design process so as you can see on the screen that's the site plan design very similar to what was presented to you and Paul and this is consistent with what we have actually just recently submitted to the the City of Phoenix for our first building permit review as Jay was mentioning alluding to some of the challenges we're running into in terms of construction budgets and trying to make sure that we can deliver all of this within the budgets that we have available we've been really focusing on uh this Zone that we're calling Zone a and which is really the heart and the core of what the project is that includes the new school it includes all of the kind of primary outdoor spaces that are immediately adjacent to that so the learning Courtyard which is really the heart of the new school is all included in that as well as vegetable gardens and pollinator Gardens outdoor play spaces what it's not including at the moment that we're going to get we have designed and we'll get pricing for but we don't have high confidence that we're going to be able to deliver within the base budget is a lot of the areas on the Northern portion of the site which would include the Eco play and the community garden and Orchard area the multi-use sport field will be able to repurpose the existing multi-use sport Fields so that will be there on on day one and the the Eco play and some of the Community Gardens are some of the things that we're thinking could be built as projects as as we're able to obtain grants or additional funding to kind of implement those uh going forward and the wetlands is included the Wetland we are working our best to include in the base budget that is something we are trying to include in the base um so that's the kind of strategy for the for the site in terms of how we're approaching the budget it's really about kind of prioritizing that core area and then strategizing on how we can look at phasing and implementation for the balance of the site um through grant funding and other opportunities and then as we go to the next uh slide uh the the plans of the building itself really have not changed any major way from what we've talked about previously on the scale of the facility has not changed we're still two stories organized around a learning Courtyard that's the heart of the school um the the kind of interior spaces are all fairly consistent with what we showed you in the fall and then the renderings that we showed these are the same renderings that we shared with you in the fall just kind of a reminder this is a view from the pollinator Garden looking back toward the multi-use sport court and the uh indoor dining and then the next slide is a view from the multi-use sport Fields looking back towards the north side of the school and the uh outdoor player one of the one of the concepts that keeps coming up recently in life for me it's about sometimes when you're doing a vision it helps such to become a realized and so you know we talked a little bit about some of the challenges that we have but one of the interesting things that started to manifest itself because every time we talk with Partners we talk about these challenges and the things that we would like to be able to do a little bit from them weeks ago we had a member of our actually of uh professional who lives in our community who is working on her PhD and needs an engineering project as part of her dissertation she has found donors who are going to provide all the materials of construction work and her dissertation is uh has to do with how concrete slabs here in Arizona because all of the standards apparently that are used right now are based on Texas and we use Texas standards or hypothesis is that we may have better standards for everything we figured out how those are symptoms so uh the theme from Little Gilmore is currently working to figure out how that might integrate but it would give us the opportunity to have some concrete slabs of either a part of the existing design at no cost to the district very limited cost or if that's not a fit to be able to perhaps create some of these spaces that we don't have to budget at work to be able to drop those in as a solution in order to create some other spaces so so there are some things that are in motion out there in the universe that seem to be trying to help us out even though up until this point everything in the questions right sure it sounds like they're going to receive this super magic and we've been working with the Creighton Community Foundation on some grant opportunities to fund elements that are in that Northern portion of the site so we're already working hard on that and and I feel like there's some good opportunity there there's some great stories to tell I think and I think there's some really worthy elements there and it it I think it'll something that will draw interest for Community organizations around the valley so with that I'm going to take us through the so thank you Cindy thank you thank you before I turn this over to our project managers I'm going to kind of take us real quick through where we've been where we're going and and if you have questions it doesn't have to be political but many of you was kind of experienced this as we've gone and we worked with Molly Smith and then start planning originally engineering um thank you so much for that um that we began in early 2021 we had actually um originally talked to Molly in November of 2019 but as I mentioned earlier we had we had some delays there um we did get the architect and the contractor um hired through the selection process and then the full design process began in summer of 22.

Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Miss Rof, would you please recite our mission statement? Yes, it is to empower each student to positively impact the world for a bright new future. Okay, next up is public comment. We have one tonight and it's Mary Bragg and the topic is thank you to outgoing board members. Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board and administration and uh community members and guests. I wanted to take this opportunity for our board members, for all of you for your hard work and dedication and commitment. Um, people do not realize the time and the dedication and everything you do for everyone in the district, our students, our families, and most of all, our employees.

in savings that we just realized we could get in our health insurance account we could count that toward the 000 reduction so um what we have done and this could change in the process but uh we re-implemented the special ed teacher for the Thrive program at Cherry Brook Primary School we reinstated the Paras that we wanted to reduce from the budget and Donna was also able to forecast some some cost savings and electricity because we're now going with Constellation Energy as the service provider through eversource then we'll realize about eighteen thousand dollars if I believe the other correct so that's where we are now with our budget reduction Monday evening um we have the annual town meeting which is the public budget hearing that will be at 6 00 PM um in room app so 6 p.m right here on Monday night and um Lou will say a few words on behalf of the board that budget Bob Bessel will say um some words on the board of selectman's budget and we will be present to answer any uh taxpayers questions and then the budget will be sent to referendum um at some date to be scheduled in May so the mailer is out you each should have gotten the mail from the board to your homes um so are we in a quiet period now where we can't Advocate that's correct we cannot we cannot Advocate using Board of Education you can work by now but we can't do anything more than what's already out there now that's correct you can't use technology we can't improve the Flyers everybody has big excuse on Mondays pound meeting May 9th is the uh is the vote the votes here there has to be a minimum last time it did not meet the minimum although I I tend to think I was talking to Mr scheiler here and I tend to think that this one might stir up this is this is a one of the larger increases that this town has seen in some time so it may still have some emotions yes the most important thing you can do is encourage voters to vote in the referendum right any questions about our budget where we are at this point so Monday night is the next budget meeting all right to go into my report I don't have much to report on um tonight I was going to report on some of the items the students reported on to again let you know the Disney trip was successful as the students mentioned the choir received the superior rating of the band was rated first in their class and then congratulations again to our student Jack bendinger who was uh given the recognition of the best student accompanyist so congratulations to the band Inquirer and blue and I'm going to take a look at our upcoming meetings before the end of the year and invite the students to come and present their PowerPoint we also had a very successful student trip to Ecuador they would also love to come and present to you um what they learned throughout the trip just as the music teachers in the parent chaperones on the Disney trip deserve to be commended both teachers who took our 13 students to Ecuador deserve to be commended we earnings to Breezy and Andrea Shack both veteran Travelers and did an outstanding job and I believe well I know one of the highlights was eating a guinea pig I thought they were joking was why I saw the guinea pig on the platter so we'll we'll hear from the students in the future we'll we'll hear from the students in the future about their wonderful experiences I can't I can't thank you enough for providing both opportunities for kids and especially the international travel opportunity because that really is something that our district has valued and the students take so much away from that so thank you so much for that again I want to let you know that following our last meeting where we had several and um Lou and I met Adam brazar as we look at staff who report back to you but what our staff is is saying but I wanted to make sure you knew that we were following up on that I sent the notice out today about our next uh Equity Community Gathering being tomorrow night um I received feedback from several key members of our group that um the date wasn't communicated out enough frequently so many have conflicts tomorrow night so we're going to postpone tomorrow night's Community Gathering and hold it on our next scheduled date which is May 17th and I'm asking here and now the first thing in the morning send that message out to the community somewhere I apologize uh for not communicating that more on the April 19th day that was a date that had to be rescheduled um but I look forward to our next gathering on May 17th so to be clear our next Gathering will be May 17 7 to 8 30 through zones I worked with Claudia today to put together a calendar through the end of the year yes with all of the important dates to get us through June 30th so what he will be sending that out to you but there are three dates I really want to highlight for you right now June 9th High School graduation will have a reception in the high school beginning at 5 30.

all right I got the notice that we're live streaming Cameron are we good to start I would like to um finish one procedure here in the back end to make sure it's live on our website okay live streaming so please hang tight I would like okay good news we are Live on YouTube um whenever you choose to start the meeting Guadalupe is ready to make a live interpretation announcement great thank you so much um welcome everyone to the adam-14 Board of Education special meeting um it is April 18 2023 a little after 4 P.M um may we start with the interpretation absolutely thank you participants is thank you so much um personally I like to call the meeting to order um Ramona can we start with roll call please Mr Amador here Smith Estrada Ms Lovato Here Ms Molina great thank you we're missing um directors Estrada and Zubia but they are accused and we have a quorum so we will continue um this afternoon we're meeting to discuss the mile high Grand Greyhound Park facility um Dr Lydia or legal council do you have anything that you'd like to start off with the conversation or sorry I was talking I didn't have have it unmuted um by and large this is just a matter of of uh you know us following the timelines and providing um direction to uh you know to the deciding body on uh what what it is that the Adams 14 would like to do you know we have been in Communications with them they asked us questions about some uh particular red lines of of the agreement because you know some of it doesn't make sense now um since the agreement was made uh you know a few years back uh when MGT was the uh manager of the district so we've been going through and and you know we've been uh Crossing out things that don't make sense um and uh I think the two big things uh that the Board needs to discuss is number one Metro uh being a partner in the space um and also the uh cultural community space so those I believe are are the two major things that should be just discussed okay great thank you um I'm happy to start off the conversation because I am on the Ura board um and I have had some conversations um from the direction of that board as well as um from our Adams 14 board uh you did authorize me to engage in discussions with Metro States um I have had one conversation with um uh their uh strategic planning office and it was really great I'm very initial conversation I do think um what I pulled from that is they definitely want Adams 14 to take the lead on the programming side and um perhaps we can direct uh superintendent Loria to engage in further conversations with with Metro State and her staff as to a kind of programming or what that would look like um I also met with Ascend Performing Arts um that was more so part of the urra discussions as well as um through the board we we've often talked about the desire to bring performing arts and to make this a real hub for our community um not just a building an extra building to be used so um so I I will say right now I think it's almost um to a point where Ascend or the Ura is really wanting to have that Performing Arts component um and so I think we need to discuss what that would look like as well as how that development with the the other half of the building I'll call it um I have no idea what space allocation would be needed for each um I also just left a meeting with uh the Ura director as well as um folks from a stand Performing Arts and I think there's a need for us to all meet together in the development of that building but I'm very curious to hear um director Molina and um director Amador um your thoughts or any discussions you've had um with the the use or the development of that space so I guess I'll go I I'm trying to think what originally when this was being designed and built I guess for me is what allocation of that building we were supposed to have and then what was supposed to go with it because I think where the confusion is is there was a big thing saying you know oh we only needed x amount and then a lot of people were promised to space and now as a district we're like no we want the whole space and now you know trying to find what we want to put in there and and how that how we can accomplish that and still not you know still give some of the um you know the usage of what it was supposed to be used for I mean I guess it doesn't seem like it was really clear on what everything was supposed to be there and who it was promised to and and everything like that so that's when they asked us and we said we wanted the whole building and now you know it seems like we have to take a range to be like oh well we're gonna do all this stuff in there I mean what was the plan before and what plan did they have written out before they even asked us if we wanted the whole building the second time around when when it started to come around I mean there had to be some kind of plan there and I just I guess I really like to see what plan that was so we can make sure you know I like the Performing Arts all the stuff that we're talking about but but what kind of focus and what kind of you know plan is that and and what do we have to do to get that done thank you director Amador great questions and and um I I will say it's been incredibly frustrating um to be a part of these conversations because um as as our legal counsel alluded to earlier we wore um under external management and I think MBT heavily overstepped um because there were conversations being had promises being made that we were not aware of we were not informed of um I also think um we're inheriting this these discussions um happened with the community happened with your array um before our time on the board and so unfortunately what I found is nothing's been documented so while um there are some community members that say um we were promised an entire building because you know this is happening it's going to have great impact on our schools um the whole development of the mile high Grand Greyhound Park area um I think that's where legal counsel and and Dr Lydia and her team come in is we're working through those contract terms because um what was discussed or promised was not um documented or what we're inheriting I guess um I will say as being a part of the Ura um the whole Mile High Greyhound Park discussion is wanting to make that a community Hub so there's still development of um restaurants and dining and shopping and um in negotiations and building that and getting folks to come in a lot of that discussion is um you know how can we make it a place where people want to come and I think that's where the Performing Arts aspect came in um because that will incorporate our community as well because we have many many local musicians local bands um that can use that space that can hopefully have performances there um and what I Envision is folks you know coming there to have dinner and heading over to a show almost like a little mini Denver Center for the Performing Arts um but I think the the biggest component and our our component that we own is ensuring that we have those opportunities for our students um and our educational programming so it's a little bit of balance and right now we are fluid and have the opportunity to give input and change the direction of what was not documented or not discussed previously that's a really long-winded way of saying uh we're almost starting from scratch so looking at the development of the land and what has proposed to be developed there um they just broke down broke around on the hotel that they're building correct where where in that section with the building that we have there and and the building that we're talking about are we taught are they looking to put I guess the restaurants I mean because we have there's enough space over there like I I totally agree this is for our students or our community but how can we develop that area because we've tried that with the king supers area all those buildings are empty that are right next to King Soopers I mean we have I mean we're gonna put more we're telling them that we want to do more stuff there which is great and I would love to see that happen but we have the space there that no one wants to come into and I guess I just want to say if we're moving some of our programming there for our kids or CDE stuff like that Performing Arts like what kind of Performing Arts are we talking when you you know are we having shows there every weekend and it's going to be something that we're doing like uh using it for like a semi Event Center um where our kids are going to be able to perform and and we'll have other bands in there to perform um you know looking at that space in that building and all the space that we can have with that you know I guess for me looking at the team with Dr Maria with our legal counsel putting it all together trying to figure out what's going to be the best balance because I don't want to say oh we want to do this but it doesn't develop the right way because you know we can say we want to do this but if it's not developed in the correct way it's going to be a big thing there where our kids are going they're doing all their stuff but we don't have anyone coming right there's there's no development or anything there and that's what I'm that that's my biggest thing is you know we built all of these apartments and stuff there but we really didn't develop like a mini culture there yet neither there's not anything there that we when we built that or when it was designed that built any kind of community towards it like and that's I mean I think this is great that we want to put some stuff there for our kids to do because the programming will be wonderful and it's space that we can use for our kids um I just don't want to put something there for our kids and then you know what we're trying to do and develop for them to be great and show off their skills don't get to you because we don't have anyone that wants to participate in it either right and I I guess that's my thing for me that really hit home learning art so they've been doing this they're nationally and internationally known and I think they could manage that and then um we as a board could Empower Dr Lydia and her team to build out the programming aspect of it and the use of that but it's almost putting the ownership of of the Performing Arts Center portion of the of the building I guess onto them um when I went to visit them they had opportunities for like graphic design and um stage development and audio sound technician like all of these programs that to me tied with our programming as well as metro state or another institution um I really think the education part of it should be left to the Educators to develop um and so it's almost serving two two points I think we have to absolutely build something that will serve as a community Hub otherwise it's going to be another building um just as you said um director Molina you had your your hand up yes uh and again uh thank you so much for your service all of you guys and for um listening to like I I'm sorry I was not part of the the MGT process and all that stuff um the um that took place right for this deal to go through um unfortunately it's not uh I I don't see our community getting the best the best deal right um so I I would like to add as many might know if you don't know I used to run a music program uh a long time ago and and just adding to to the education part why I opened a music program was for the brain development right because of I mean really it is a universal language um that I mean I could play a music with my friends from Korea right and we don't even speak the same language but we understand the music notes uh and that's how we communicate through that music um so uh my children uh my child has a you know special needs I was advised to put her in music um I come from a family of musicians my mom's a singer we open nightclubs all this stuff I will tell you as a employer uh most of our kids here uh are musicians and our students that are actually part of the our bands here they they go perform at Stampede in Aurora I ended up opening my program in Aurora which is where I got my funding Aurora supported our program because we hadn't I didn't have that here I was asked to come back by my Commerce City the cultural Council they wanted me to bring these music programs back to Commerce City because most of our students and our community actually we have a very talented Community here in Commerce City all the way from the north uh we have fashion designer Norberto mocardin here he's a worldwide New York uh fashion designer uh so we have really really um talented Community here in Commerce City um as well as my my child uh he's been playing the the saxophone since he was in the fifth grade right he's he plays the the saxophone Omar does I have to I mentioned last time that I had to buy his uh saxophone at the pawn shop because of the lack of um you know we don't have that type of support here in our community but we do have all that Talent um I personally uh definitely know how important music is to the brain development of the students as a whole child I know I see it worldwide I worked I worked I work really close with the Korean family that I have uh in other International um Community right that that music is really it's part it's not an elective it's it's actually like math they have to take it they have to by the time they get out of Junior High School they learn how to play the piano all this stuff so it is part of their curriculum um I always wanted to see that in in Commerce City in our community and see where uh that would not only benefit our students but as a as a whole as a community we have many events center here that um you know we have to borrow sometimes to be able to do some of these things right uh fundraisers or events so I would support uh support some some type of uh music program or a Cultural Arts Center because we Commerce City doesn't have any of that we really do go to a cat which is where I'm at that's the Aurora Cultural Arts District in uh Aurora that's and and you would be surprised to see that half of those children are from Commerce City I just came from the Capitol and I just met a kid that is in Rhonda Fields office that grew up here on 76th and Ivanhoe uh and he is in Rhonda Fields office and I'm so honored to say that he's a former alumni uh so we have a very talented children here um again I believe music is uh uh I don't understand why in our culture it hasn't become uh not an elective right something that is mandatory for the brain development and also emotional development I also play the violin um I got to join president Lovato uh for the Ensemble for at Metro State I will add also as a business owner here we were promised a long time ago by the city that there was going to be a university here okay they have the city has lied to us many times over and over and I agree with director Amador about some of the buildings there because those are my neighbors as you know we run for you Alondra some of those those are my neighbors those empty buildings those empty those are and I do wonder how that's gonna two things gentrification is something that's always right on our radar because a half a million dollar home is not affordable housing to me um and I don't want to be part of the problem uh we shouldn't be part of the problem we should be part of the solution instead of burying our community even more down right we need to uh Empower them so I would support an art culture because we don't have that here we really don't have that here and our community is seeking other places I live here and I was doing my work and I have been doing my work in Denver Thornton and uh Aurora because that's where that is accessible to us in our groups in our I mean you guys all that Talent is from here though those are the dancers that you guys see at my events they live here the teachers live here they just don't have a place so yeah again and thank you for all that you guys done with MGT I do hope that we should have to go back to the shop to the to you know the page one and start redoing this whole plan because there's a whole other situation now gracias and and Madam president if I may oh yes Joe um also I wanted to um after you add I want to add what the direction of Ura is and I would also um like to ask Dr Lauria um the work and the ideas of her team okay so just to be just to be clear board we're not starting from scratch meaning that we get to re-enter negotiations we get to um you know decide what what we want want to do with the property it's been decided what needs to be done is is the board um just needs to provide directions so we can go back to the Ura and say you know Metro States coming in and um you want you know you you want it built in such a way that it it supports uh Community cultural um you know Community Cultural Center um that's that's basically what uh what the Ura will be voting on I believe on Friday is that right Madam president I do not have a meeting scheduled with them um I know the Ura is meeting but not not the body I guess I should say they're they're having discussions okay yeah I just received something from well not just but I think we all received something from Bill saying that there's some type of meeting happening on um on the 21st do you have that Dr Lauria um okay finally unmuted I'm sorry for that yes we did receive an email um last uh last week I'm looking for it um that's that actually um was saying that there was going to be a meeting this um this week's yeah Mario Marquez around a chief business officer Bill Aiken Caitlin uh quander um yeah splits so basically they're like okay what do you guys want to do how do you want how do you want this done okay so that's an internal meeting about what the district wants to do with that space yeah that's that's that's the meaning that where you all decide you provide direction to where you know Marty was able to to sit down with them and say yes you know um we will be having Metro State coming in we're already in conversations with them and we do want it to be a cultural center um as you know was proposed and um you know we would like it built in such a way that you know that reflects you know the ability to you know enhance uh you know the the work that's going to be done there something to that effect I mean okay um drurya do you mind speaking speaking or any identified needs that you've had other than um like bringing in metro state or an Institute of higher ed like I um other than the conversation I had with them I don't know where we stand with that members of the board thank you um we did yes I found an email uh just like Joe said it's Friday April 21st and this is an internal meeting um the discussions we had with them were actually um there was um a very uh clear um desire I think from conversations um before I was here and um they had with uh former manager of having the culinary arts in there uh some kind of a small restaurant space for students to operate kind of a bistro kitchen on the lower level um in flexible meeting spaces on the upper level and um part of what they had said was part of the discussion before that was also uh having a space Maybe Outdoors for food trucks or some other culinary Center Centric events um some space for other groups here in Commerce City um Etc so when we had discussions uh originally with them and we told them that there was no interest on this board to have a culinary art or a small Bistro that was run by our students in there um we do have that at the high school that program is going well so we did not see the need to actually move it or to have a double program there um they did say at the time Mr Aiken said they were open to hearing what we how we wanted to use the space about time it was we were told that we could use the entire building 60 000 square feet um a multi um store institution um basically like a complex right in which we could have um have different programs in their opportunities for the community what one thing is clear is there's an interest from the board in from the city um to what I can uh in the conversation as to what I can understand that this is a multicultural complex and that is when the uh the initial conversations about bringing the musical program um kind of Performing Arts for our students um their interest in the community to bring back the Mariachi program that we've had a few years ago uh bringing just this different cultural events and programs for students that really will just um celebrate our culture in in our district um so that was an interest from both and also having opportunities or areas there for the for the community bringing the university bringing um higher ed or a different type of preparation or technical supports for adults as well not only for students but also for adults was a great entrance so those are the conversations we've had who will of course need to engage deeper with the community once we are okay from the city that we this is you know or maybe once we get clarification on how much case we can use and if they are um supportive of the of this type of um programs in a building um so the CTE programs and the academies that we're building are in the developing at the high school will not necessarily take place here not at this time that we can think especially now that the high school and the academies can also use part of the building um where hands and Elementary is is currently out so we don't uh foresee um that to be the case so you know to have an extension of the CTP program because we're gonna have a um additional spaces at the high school um however um that is up for discussion based on needs right but as it is right now we are not expecting that we're going to need a digital spaces for any of the academies that are currently being built at the high school thank you Dr Lydia um I think a couple of things um I um I agree the discussions that I've had is we do not need any additional culinary space um I think that was an unfortunate discussion with the external manager um and under the premise that they were building a hotel that would have immense space and would add to our our programming um it's now turned into a long-term extended stay with no uh event space meeting space um I also personally see and hear a need from our community that we need um general meeting space General like a testing space like I know we have our GED program and and those our testing center that's currently housed at Leicester Arnold um to me I would love to see like a flexible space where we as a district can manage if we needed PD there or wanted to have um some certain classes that would pull away for trainings or I don't know I just see it as a multi-flexible use um I think what I also explained in my meeting that I just left with Ascend and um the Ura is if if we are building a Performing Arts Center I think we need to work very collaboratively on what that looks like like it might be a separate building because to me we can't have the the noise of musical uh whether it be practice or classes or rehearsal or anything um interfere with something as important as taking the test or or attending a college class um so I Are there specific terms uh Mr Salazar that we need to provide Insight on or do we need to kind of let you guys fly the conversations on Friday what what are you asking of us so uh and thank you for that that question um so we we've already filled out the terms um they submitted to us back in February a sheet saying okay we understand that your um your needs have changed uh we also understand too that you know maybe uh the manager at the time you know indicated that certain things were were important such as a culinary arts school and then having our students engage in uh in labor to service the hotel industry it's just mind-blowing in itself but um but anyway they recognized that things have changed so they sent us a sheet and Dr Lodi and I we went through it along with Mario step by step uh to indicate you know what what things have changed um you know we wanted to give ourselves some room to you know number one find the uh the appropriate University uh or higher educational institution to work with us and lo and behold it is still Metro so you know um I think on Friday we we just need to indicate that you know the the partnership with Metro um it's it's gaining ground it's gaining traction and you know we certainly believe that we're going to be able to bring them uh to the to the center um you know as as was um you know hoped in the in the original agreement and then and then number two is the cultural space but you know that uh Adams 14 is committed to the cultural space and we understand that um you know that cultural space is a much needed uh space in our community um and uh you know at that point it then shifts to what does that look like right but we just need to have you know Clarity for them that yes Metro will be coming and number two that will be a cultural space and we will still need to get clarity because it seems to bounce back and forth do we get the full 60 000 square feet or you know we're still I I think I'm still left uh up in the air in terms of my understanding of is it the full 60 000 square feet just say yes or no right I I've heard yes but then I've heard I don't know so we'll get clarity of that uh coming up on Friday um but I think that those are the two main main things uh Dr lauria's that's your understanding as well or not yeah that is the understanding I think that we need to know how much of that space um it is and also Clarity that we were hinted last um the last couple of meetings that if there was going to be another partner in there that um it was actually uh okay actually what they said it was even better for the city if that if the um School District I was 14 actually selects who that partner is rather than having to go through them of course there's going to be some agreement or understanding that whomever is going to be partnering with us if there's anybody partnering with us in the use of space what's going to be supportive of these Multicultural um a concept right um but I think we need Clarity on those two pieces number one you know how much space we're going to be able to to have if it's still the 60 000 square feet meaning the entire building and the second piece is if there is a partner who is going to be sharing that um that building with us whether it's Metro or Ascend or any performing groups or any other um organization from the community um who is going to be managing or okaying that that you know that organization will be partnering with us so I I think we need to Terry in those two pieces before we can actually move forward because the space is going to be a huge indication of what we can do there thank you Dr Lydia I think um a couple of things it's it's somewhat difficult um and I was very transparent with uh the Ura in fact I stepped out um of the executive session that they had but I I want to balance um the promises that were made to the district um with the needs of our community and so um I I'm not even sure what our percentage agreement of the Tiff is working to uh this agreement or separate agreement um but that also comes into play with my decision um I also think that you are a is really pushing to have um the Performing Arts aspect managed by them and completely separate by them so I I I wrestle with the I don't think the district has the capacity to oversee a non-profit organization that's wanting to bring all that they want to bring into this like if I think that they're going to have their own Performing Arts Center or complex that that should be developed in conjunction with our names um whether that be a separate attached building or just ensuring that we have the soundproofing and our needs address but I think we need to we need to lead what happens and where that delineation is of what what are we overseeing and and what are we not um because my understanding is the Ura is already working with this end to bring that part in and if that requires a change in our contacts then um I absolutely think that's between legal counsel and and you as our superintendent to um get clarity I mean we've got to have Clarity because I I too agree there's been so much back and forth we have the whole building we have a portion of the building we have a floor this building has not been developed yet so I think I think we just need to very clearly have that in writing because I think that's been a big problem with getting us to where we are now we have all these promises being made and discussions being had but nothing's been documented in writing in a contract direct Amador and director Molina I feel like I've been coming during the conversation what what are are your thoughts I mean I'm I'm okay with the culture aspect of it and moving you know if we need it what we need it for I I trust our legal and our superintendent to do that it is just those questions right we continually hear one thing and then something different I mean um you know it'd be really nice to know exactly what we're getting into with this and what we have I mean because like you said if we're gonna have a place for a community and have testing are we really going to throw you know let's say that on the second floor and put a first floor of of music and everything else which I I love I mean I was in band I know how to play like four or five different instruments it's the point of that I don't know if that's going to be the greatest uh use of that time for those people who are trying to take tests especially if we're going to use it for you know our adults um our parents to do GED classes and have a community college there and stuff like that I mean it's just really is really the clarification how much of the building is ours that I think we need to get and who's gonna who's gonna who's gonna run that right if it's us that's going to do one part of it and then do the other part let's get that clearly in writing which I think Joe and Dr Maria can have that meeting on Friday and find that out and get those information for us and come back so we actually know hey when we say we want to do this this is what we have this is what we can do and this is the property that we're going to be using for it thank you uh director Amador and president Lovato um uh I had one quick question or a point of clarification perhaps uh Joe you might I in previous meetings I don't know if I heard correct that basically this building isn't like loan to us we're not do we get to keep this building or how how are we going to pay rent in the future or or just want to clarify this if I'm maybe I misunderstood and you know that is this building going to belong to the district or we are are we going to be um this is this is the this is the language the authority shall own the Multicultural facility for a period of no less than 25 years after which the facility will then be transferred to the city Adams 14 shall operate blank program for a period of 25 years at which time a conversion with authority and or city will occur to determine the appropriateness of the next dimension of set program so and and and it says the authority owns approximately 6.88 Acres on parcel BN which it will deliver a 60 000 square foot building the Multicultural building items 14 and its partner metro state will agree to occupy a minimum of 15 000 square feet of the Multicultural uh building so at least 15 000 is going to go towards uh towards Metro um the the the remaining 45 percent um that's I guess that's the that's the question um Joe do we still have time or um it's problematic that um we're naming the institution um and that I I really think that should be redlined and it should be up to items 14.

so welcome to the April 18th regular meeting of the Ann Arbor Planning Commission for detailed information on meeting procedures please review the full printed meeting agenda provided mix Kelly can you call the roll yes noting that uh give Randall Abrams and Mills have indicated that they will be absent for this meeting uh commissioner salve here commissioner Hammerschmidt here commissioner dish here commissioner Lee here commissioner clerk here commissioner Weiss here you have a quorum thank you next we'll move to uh the agenda so may have a motion to approve the agenda approved by commissioner Witch seconded by commissioner dish uh any discussion all those in favor approved motion carries um may I have a motion to prove the previous minutes uh from April 14 2023.

is like 30 days um that enables someone within a large parking lot to say store vehicles um for the defined period of time which I believe is 30 days to more effectively use a parking lot um but again it's for how to better utilize super large parking lots so your site has to be zoned p and it has to have a certain size area um so those uses are not permitted in the TC one yeah I just want to kind of get a definition to be like does this fit under the you know why isn't Car Sales uh medium or short-term car storage you know outdoor car storage sort of thing that's uh that's I just want to kind of like understand why we have these separate categories and what exactly falls into it so yeah um so it could be I'm just trying to think of it in a scenario like Briarwood might give space in their parking area when they get an extra like an oversized shipment of cars for their dealership that don't fit on their lot yeah Briarwood has asked this came from I think of the time it was written there was a manufacturer that was doing recalls maybe Volkswagen or something and a nearby dealership received a big influx of cars that they needed to address and they couldn't store them on their site so they restored um I'm off-site and I yes I think this is um that's what you're getting at say you have a large shipment of vehicles that are not personally owned you don't need there's no point in you don't want someone to build a new parking lot just for this one purpose yeah let's utilize existing parking lots but that's where it is I think maybe what you're going I wonder if you're um when we when staff was considering allowing the automobile sales and sales and rental I think that the dealership the showroom portion is not the objectionable part that's where if you are inside of a building yeah you know um there's a population out there who may think walking past a showroom is great like see the new shiny cars it's the outdoor storage of the new inventory that's the objectionable part and in and I would argue in the tc1 district though that dealer owner will have to make a hard Choice you're only allowed so many parking spaces based on your building size are you going to use those for new vehicle inventory are you going to use those for customer or employee parking and if you're in a mixed use with like an auto dealership on the first floor something above it you've got to balance if you're providing that parking I think this is where some of the short-term medium-term parking come into play you can you can buy even a car online you don't you that we can have businesses that separate the showroom from the inventory spot and I think this was some of our reasoning why if a business such as auto sales or rental was willing to meet our Forum standards we can you can be that first floor use they will have to figure out someplace else for where they store their vehicles in a more appropriate spot so I guess I'm working kind of backwards from the logic of if we're selling cars versus TVs you know storing a product for sale um a car is a product in storage is that different you know is that different than car you know a car versus a product relative to what we call the space that it's stored in uh and I guess what I want to confirm is that there's no wiggle room that a parking space is also a car storage space relative to these two uses like there's no other space that a developer could build out to increase the amount of places you could put a car on a site in tc1 like we have maximum parking requirements and that would be kind of the one-to-one measurement of our form-based code of how many cars you could store relative to like fixing the truck or selling you have 80 parking spaces you can only have 80 cars and pick how you use them for customer parking or your stock and that you can't say oh well that's my outdoor sales area and you park them you know bumper to bumper like is that a lot like can you park cars Bumper to Bumper an outdoor sales area for a dealership I I do think that um so absent permanent outdoor sales I think the tc1 district is tight in that regard um I do think the definition of permanent outdoor sales would allow an outdoor auto dealership um outside of their parking counts it yes now now we could probably also have a discussion about is inventory storage part of the sales area or is that Outdoor Store outdoor storage right like are we is it right are they is that a sales there that people can walk through to look at the inventory or is it long-term storage that only staff can access to be able to like grab the keys and Shuffle it around yeah I'm just trying to break this into what's a Savvy car dealer would expand the amount of footprint for a car you know outdoor cars and I guess that's where I really see outdoor sales permanent is vague enough to maybe allow cars to also creep into that area along with that 100 building footprint parking area as like a moment of conflict or doubling down on how many cars we actually are going to see on any one lot does it like is is that hazy to you too like well like I'm I would as staff I would say I think I see in black and white the thread the needle I think in a highly motivated person might be able to present this at least apply to do both right like yeah okay but I think of all of the uses that are permitted in the tc1 district and where the tc1 district is going to be located I don't see that as being a car dealer's best option to do like car the sales and use is not the only use permitted in the district it's one of many uses and I don't see the demand for brand new auto dealerships I think the Classic Auto Dealerships do not want to be on Stadium anymore they've moved out actually what we may see are the sort of online based or something who just wants a showroom a more newer modern the newest car dealership on Stadium Boulevard that we've seen is it was a Fiat Dealership yeah an extra post office and no it's the post office and now it's turned into the car right I think that that's probably more likely what we're going to see just because that is the way Auto vehicle sales are are moving um and with land values the way that they are I I don't see it worth somebody's effort to work that hard when it would be much easier to um much easier and so that's my I don't know a tiny Bank footprint well it's worth three million dollars to buy a vacant office building and demo you know I so that that's what I I have concerns because there are especially a couple of large lots that if building construction is exceptionally High being able to build the minimum viable building uh utilize the maximum amount of currently available land area to just turn cars actually seems like a feasible option to pack them in our experience in downtown however has been not the minimum size building that you can possibly get but the maximum size building that you can get right but I like there there is right now all of downtown is walkable we're trying to move that way and change that kind of value and love restructure and I don't think we're there yet and so that's where we need to put be able to kind of stop Gap momentum in the wrong direction and my concern is what will pencil out now might be a tiny dealership with a lot of cars if you can fit some of them in your parking area and some of them in your outdoor sales area um as a consideration so I so I'm jostling with that one parking structures are an accessory use right that's what I have too so I'm just going to kind of like parking structure or an accessory use in the tc1 district which means that's just the use case so you have to have a primary use and and I know we kind of have gone back and forth for clarification I think it's pretty clear the footprint of vehicular use area which is outside of the building can be a hundred percent of the building footprint but once you get inside of that form that can be a building structure as long as it doesn't exceed our parking maximums right so I can have like three stories of parking in the building to get up to my parking maximums even if the square footage of parking area between the vehicular use area and my parking structure is more than the footprint of a building yes and that's what it says it says we we are limiting the surface area devoted to parking but we are not um but that is not one and the same as the maximum number of parking spaces yep so then I'll go all the way back to repeating myself about adaptive reuse and parking structures and how we typically in America build them as slope floors which are very hard to adaptively reuse versus doing them as flat floors with you know like uh spiral access points um and so if there is alternatively another way for this to kind of get leverage to really you know I know we have parking maximums but to really maximize out that parking storage there may be a higher likelihood that we're seeing parking structures which are not readily adaptable unless we write into our code a form-based requirement of how those are designed to be horizontal slabs right which I believe like is that I think it's applicable to UDC or is that building code like are we threading a needle there too um no I mean we currently do not have any um such standards for parking structures they can be added that's a form-based okay thing so I'm just going to put that one out there too um and yeah I guess that just circles back to Car Store does car storage equal parking maximums and relative to a Savvy outdoor permanent sales person we might be able to thread that needle um I will say what I did find interesting was 5.16.3 C which allowed or required in the c2b district storage and repair of automobiles trucks and construction equipment must be located in an enclosed building um that seemed like something when I talked you know I was thinking about amendments to include along with c2b tc1 to make sure that the repair of automobiles isn't happening outside that we kind of capture more of that maybe in the ground floor back of the building sort of thing if we're trying to hold more in a building to get more building doing the same measures that we're doing for c2b relative to the same use might be a another restriction we might want to apply alternatively uh special exception use so I saw that um as maybe a benefit for the repair it may it isn't applied to anywhere for the auto sales or rental um I and that's where I jostle with like is it a benefit to put that in a building do we get more slope fillers do we need to go write another you know portion of the um Amendment two so I'm just going to put that on the table before I come back if maybe that's opened up some thoughts for other Commissioners um and I think the last thing relative to the the 70 30 to 45 feet um it says adjacent to residential zoning I know we're going to talk about Club should be residential use is it relevant should it just be adjacent to districts requiring a club a conflicting land use buffer just semantics of calling it residential zoning versus residential use but say that first part again so um in the sorry let go to the table in the table if I can find it again sorry is um 70 lot width provided this allows 30 feet between building and side Lot normally or 45 feet between the building and side lot when energy when adjacent to a residential zoning and I understand that to be purposefully to help support a conflicting land use buffer like to give some space there because that's not a required setback it's just 70 with that wiggle room for that reason right yeah um that is purpose that is purposeful the conflicting land use buffer section in the Landscaping section says the tc1 district only needs to be buffered um when it adjacent to a residential zoning District okay or a park okay so we don't have to worry about the other club because yes language tightened right in the downtown area and in the tc1 district we do not require buffering from land used for residential this would be introducing completing languages buffers almost maybe every single lot would need to buffer from every single line right you'd be possibly having 30 feet of building breaking up that street wall which is not what we wanted right right okay um um okay those are mine for now so I would say like in summary the things that I'm considering are how much do we open this up for car storage based on what we currently have as permitted uses um concerns about what we're doing exterior versus what we might want to include in the building similar to what we have in 516 3C for repair um and what we think about parking structures and their building form standards if anyone else has comment commissioner Hammerschmidt okay um you may hear me think a lot and it's too late for that um so I have a really easy question to start as you were just sort of going through them because you're like the TC one like Guru so the 100 feet first of all the table clarifications look so much easier to read so thank you um 100 people signal intersection awesome change if you had a building that was like part of it was 100 feet but part of it was 200 feet it was all the same building could could you could have residential use past 100 feet right I just wanted to clarify except okay perfect um okay the reason that we're including Sales and Repair and rentals all sort of together from the council resolution was sort of to provide flexibility right so like if you had a car rental if we didn't if you have like an Enterprise that wanted to locate on the corridor if we didn't have them all sort of together if they wanted to like sell a vehicle as I think they do that would not be allowed right like is that sort of why we're considering these all all these uses sort of together well they're two as in our current format they're just two uses one is sales and rental oh that's one together okay and then repair is one pair is one got it okay and the definition of repair almost makes it seem like putting windshield wipers on it when the staff of the auto parts store puts windshippers on that becomes a auto repair I mean and so like um and yeah the and the rental part and even technically the sales part even if you are if a classic car kind of guy and you're just sitting at your home on your computer on the internet like dealing like buying from one guy and selling it to another guy you never take possession of the car you're still a car dealer but it covers the gamut but sales and rent sales and rental is one use okay I mean I guess where my head is at right now like I am I guess more leaning on the the form-based code aspect of it so we we know that we're limiting any use to be to look like how we want it to look to you know have the walkability as aspects of it that we want them to have um but what you just said about like kind of breaking it especially with the parking garage thing um I would be open to like form-based parking garages if that's something that we can do because like I hadn't even thought of that until you brought it up the other week about like the angled parking and like you can't just re adaptively reuse that um and I do still sort of think that we're in an inflection point in the city where like people are still relying on vehicles for better or worse and and I guess I'm maybe a little more cautious and maybe I'm being naive but like I'm sort of on your like what you were saying about like just the way that people are doing business like I don't I don't see like these big car dealerships trying to come and like locate on Stadium like they're gonna go out to the townships where they actually have room but if they want to if like there are urban car dealerships I was Googling them like they can look okay and you know if they're going to replace something that isn't a form that we want like maybe that's okay um I would like to have more of a conversation I think around this special exception you aspect of it because I'm torn because I think that like we already know what we would approve if we made these social exception uses so I'm kind of like what's the point like maybe we should just like say what we want instead of pretending that we would actually consider something that we don't want if we don't want some of these things so I've been saying like I'm ready to vote Yes I want to move this along but like if there are things that we think are like deal breakers like now I'm a little concerned about this like outdoor storage thing then let's talk about it before we send it on Mr Clark so can I just can I just uh clarify about the parking the sales um to kind of pick that apart a little bit further I'm sorry um so I know it's like on Jackson Road um there's a couple parking lots that are just um I don't know the buildings are long gone and there's just like an air parking lot and it's kind of just like a budget used car lot wouldn't I mean I wouldn't necessarily think that someone would go and build a car lot for that specific purpose but I worry about it delaying progress with like well if you can just rent it out for your vacant parking lot to put a you know a very makeshift car dealership there is there incentive to invest in that parcel or are you just going to keep renting it for that immediate purpose for however long um I guess there might be something that's already preventing that um but yeah there are a couple examples on Jackson Road you just go a little bit West and yeah and they've been there a while so just curious that's a question I believe that our we we do allow that right now your parking lot for car storage but it's not permitted in tc1 so we have a so we have a way to if that would were to occur in the tc1 district that's a violation of the zoning ordinance um and we would and we could enforce it in that way um if that was occurring in a P Parking District that was um met the threshold um that's actually not a violation that would be conforming but in the tc1 district that would be a con um a not not a permitted land use and that could be enforced okay just for our own understanding I'm just um what's the distinction between the scenario the commissioner um described with the with a enterprising dealership if they wanted to find that technicality what's the distinction there between them just like kind of um like what would be the limiting factor there so I I as it's we're on our working interpretation here um on a site they could have a a building of exercise and maybe the first floor of that building is a car dealership and they can have a parking lot of the same X size um and so maybe that because of the dealership size and the building size maybe that parking lot is um 50 spaces or something like that and that would be have that 50 spaces would be unless they built a parking structure that 50 spaces would be for every use on the site including customers and employees and car inventory and Sales inventory and so forth but if they also put a permanent outdoor sales area on a site plan so they had not only their building and the vehicle loose area they could have an undetermined size Outdoor Store outdoor sales area where they may display X number a few or a lot of cars and so they would be trying to say that this this big area of cars on is not car storage they're like this is our outdoor Car Store thanks it kind of clicked part way through it's late and then one more question just kind of again um for just another scenario to kind of so if we're worried about things like let's say um minimizing conflict points with pedestrians and you're having uh you know a showroom there would we want a scenario where let's say however many customers per hour are driving in and out of a vehicle and adding those you know entering and exiting through as opposed to a different use where it would be people may be walking up to an urgent care or people walking up to just you know at any other business versus something that's actively encouraging cars to be coming in and out um and I just you know just something to think about outdoor sales yeah like Network I guess I know this isn't yeah this isn't what was on it but kind of running through the scenarios if we open a valve I feel like there is kind of a valve to kind of close to mitigate the compounding effect of this and I guess I I see a few ways forward which if we maintain the outdoor sales um it really is the special exception use allows us to measure the full site plan as presented if they are trying to do that parking area and the outdoor sales we have some discretion to then evaluate oh they are trying to thread this needle this is not the intent and then we can kind of push back on the kind of doubling up of outdoor area versus building volume that we want so I think maybe like the cleanest way for me I guess is I either want it in the building or and I want that building to have flat floors or I want it to be a special exception use um because it's it's just too many open valves to add this in I absolutely like I understand um kind of sales going for like yeah I've been in a lot of cities and you walk by any other thing and it's I mean I think it's things like we talk about vehicle sales this says automobile and truck but you know it's like scooters like all sorts of Mobility can really be in a lot of these storefronts um the test driving I hear you um so I don't know maybe I'm just going to open up the discussion and see if there's an app like which way I'm happy to make a motion but it's either special exception use or including it as interior space with a horizontal floor somehow maybe staff can weigh into like what's actually cleaner to move forward it sounds like I think the second one sounds a little messy because we're inventing a new kind of form-based weight recommendation moving up the ladder to city council but I think uh to my opinion um is a special exception the special exception use should be used when it's just the character and the intensity of the land use itself is not appropriate throughout the district um and an example I often use in talking to someone is um um the residential districts a lot of the residential uses single-family uses all over the place that says if you're in this District the the home the dwelling is permitted but a child care is a special exception use because it's not really appropriate everywhere there's cul-de-sac streets not for example probably not appropriate um but if the if the site for child care is a big enough lot if it's on the corner if it's you know then that's why it's not just up loud everywhere it sounds to me that the the concerns which are legitimate the concerns of maybe automobile sales are not because it's not appropriate everywhere I've not heard like I don't want it I I it needs to be on the transit line or not it needs to be here here I'm not actually hearing that so I'm not hearing that it should be a special exception use what I'm hearing is it needs better standards or maybe the use needs to be broken down more individually so it's not all forms of vehicle sales um we have found an example where there was you know it could be personal vehicles and then heavy equipment the same thing with repair so that I mean if it helps the discussion at the table um I'm not what I haven't heard is um that these uses now they can only go on a street of a certain size they can't go here they can't go there they have to be within this proximity I've not heard that it's more what I've heard is more about the unintended consequences or just the broadness of the use and so therefore I think the answer is to add um better definition or Nuance to permanent outdoor sales I've heard Maybe levels of auto sales or and Rental maybe even repair oh that hasn't been as much of a discussion but that's what I've heard the concerns are and I don't think that special exception use is the tool to address those um to address what I've heard and that's my opinion feel free to disagree Mr Clark can I just add one quick con I'll keep brief um I think something just that I haven't heard come up a lot is the relationship between the use of the property and to the like the idea of a Transit Corridor of like moving people efficiently in general and just the maybe one of the core issues with the auto Centric uses is the limiting flow of things like buses and having cars turning on and off and limiting it from being a primarily any literally anything that doesn't interfere with like a rapid bus transit or something but you can't really have a rapid bus transit going down you know Stadium if you're going to be having people testing out a brand new car they've never driven trying to drive in and out or you're going to have even like you know the existing repair shops that are there time um oh that was another side I was just um curious what threshold like percentage if the auto repair sorry is a separate so I'm kind of jumping around um just a question how what percentage like would they have to be uh renovating their building to then have triggered the T1 I can't remember that offhand um the it's addressed in the non-conforming youth section and I yeah sorry I think it's 50 for a non-residential use and 70 percent um the expansion when it's considered a new build would be the 50 of the value so be pretty substantial uh renovation for any like repair shop or whatnot that's there yeah I guess that would just be my concern would be looking the only other Factor would be just how it interacts with the idea of Transit and efficiently moving people in the future of like a rapid bus um and having minimizing conflict points with that yeah I do not have the numbers in front of me but I do believe I'm fairly confident that in terms of trip Generation Um Auto Sales are much lower than other uses that are permitted in the tc1 district for example restaurants would have a much higher trip generation than auto dealership including probably test drives commissioner which just a question about the comparison between the tc1 and the D1 as it relates to the auto use so in the T in the the D1 D2 It Is by special exception use I'm double checking that right now and then I wonder why if it was in the council whereas Clause it didn't come across as a special exception use was that a staff decision to ignore that and when I say ignore I don't mean that maliciously so don't don't read anything into that Mr Leonard um for the vehicle sales and rental it is a special exception use in the D1 and D2 districts it is a permitted use in c2b and C3 for repair the same special exception use in the D1 and D2 and a permitted principal use in the c2b and C3 um I think that as staff were for the sort of the reasons I articulated previously I didn't think we thought that it should be a special exception use because of our form-based controls we thought it could approach the contact it would fit in context everywhere that tc1 was zoned um and if the and it is very valid if the commission disagrees would a car multi-story elevator work that is to say it would have a short setback because they're those elevators they probably would have to do a 15-foot first story but outside of that they could go up because the far would probably fit the footprint so we could get a bunch of car elevators in the in the structure that we have right now is that we could but that would be yes we could and that would be I think I think it'd be considered a building either way it's a structure yeah and I'm pretty certain that's not what we want and what we'd like to do so that's for me that's why I'm trying to figure out why we didn't bring the special exception use over because it gives us the most amount of flexibility as the district transforms into what we want it to become and if I understood the council member's concern was by excluding it early we harm the transition I didn't hear the concern from Council say that this is something we want to permit in perpetuity it was something that we wanted to create to create a easier transition and this it would seem that the special exception use would allow us to enact that and then there was something else you said earlier around um it's been my it's been my understanding that we do have rules for non-compliance but we don't always enforce those rules uh I don't I don't think no I don't think that's why that is not what I was trying to articulate oh sure and I don't need to put that into your uh in your comment I think it was in response to something that commissioner Solvay said which would be we would be able to correct that through enforcement and so I'm trying to understand how because we have a lot of non-conforming things within planning but we're not like a lot of the conversation that I've been trying to have around um r4c is non-conforming but we're not going and saying this is not conforming and it needs to come up to code we wait till there is a change then we bring it up to code and so the the enforcement is a lagging indicator in a sense it's like a lagging tool it's not a a primary enforcement tool so I just wrote that down as a like I don't think that's going to get what we want um but it was then it was in something that you were talking about like if somebody tried to like pencil in the the parking lot and all these things to like like really thread the needle we have a tool to correct that I think is how it came across which is through enforcement and I don't know if that meant you would prevent that through the building or through the enforcement of like the inspection of the site plan if somebody tried to do some trickery or some some non-conforming things so anyway it was just something that I I noted and I I just don't see us using those enforcement tools so you can clarify like you know if we had a stenographer we could read back the transcript but I'll have to do that after the meeting offer up the thoughts maybe similar to drive-throughs and special exception like we there was kind of a consensus of the intent behind it like near Highway interchanges on off that you're not kind of coming into their community and disrupting the flow of the neighborhood we are opening and considering it once we get into our neighborhood corridors that's where we drew that line and kind of set it on West Stadium with a second bank and then Plymouth Road and it's almost like we want to say with special exception uses here it's a special exception use when it's modifications to an existing building we're not interested in special exception to allow this into new construction is at least what I'm hearing as part of the discussion and I think that's where I I hear both sides like uh staff de Leo and commissioner Hammerschmidt about sometimes like sales can move and is sales in a building doesn't matter like does that matter but I guess what I disagree with is when you're changing windshield wipers that's not a primary use as vehicle maintenance because we're talking about primary use table selling cars online is not a primary use of a space and that's what I kind of distilled down to like we're talking about primary use of these projects not accessory uses or kind of you know Fringe uses and so if we're if we're selling cars online or like coordinating rental pickups that's that's a desk job like an office use it's an it's an office use I don't see that if there's anything in the plan that is about myself instead of the use of the space and the impact of the space um that's why I think we have the uses delineated differently so that we can measure intensity differently and when we start talking about the future of some of these uses that intensity dwindles to start becoming office or something similar that we currently allow to be permitted and I think that's maybe another kind of piece I'm grappling with is if it's lower intensity use it might fall under a different category when we think about primary use table um because I think you could change out a battery and that's not the primary use of a AutoZone that just happens to be some subsidiary thing that you do it's just good service but it's not like so I don't I want to move this along and like this should be it feels easy and it feels very hard at the same time so I'm really like I feel like I'm really pulling all the weeds at this one um and I really threw in that outdoor sales thing um um but yeah I like I understand not the special exception use but I actually think it's probably the clearest way to send a message about how we need to have early and Frank discussions with projects about this that um without opening up too much potential for new like new projects in tc1 and so I I think it's maybe the message I would say and I'm going to make an amendment so we can kind of move with discussion somewhere the message I would say with an amendment to include these two uses a special exception is that the intent is to request that staff maybe encourage any petitioner that brings a project to maybe bring to a working session to have a priest Middle have an early conversation to see what it like if it's a big addition or something um but I think that like that's the intent I think we're trying to convey and I don't know the clear other clearest way to do it I think one way if I yeah be so boldly butt in would be to um uh make a right because there's five members present tonight maybe make a recommend maybe break up the motion and make an amendment on the parts that you feel confident to move forward and to postpone the um and postpone other elements that maybe need more consideration revision or maybe need to be and then included with more amendments to to to be I I get the sense we'd like to look a little more holistically and there's probably a couple options but to look at some things more holistically maybe this entire package of amendments is not ripe for um forwarding to city council commissioner Hammerschmidt there was a part two right there was a part two of something else we were bringing back to us for tc1 and I'm forgetting what that is but there was a part two related to the narrow rights of way thank you until that even comes back and we move that on to city council they're not going to let us resume any other corridors is tc1 right so but even the amendment that brought this to the table said these changes should not delay the adoption of tc1 so I just wanted to give that Counterpoint no thank you I was trying to buy us more time no because because there was a separate amendment to uh briggs's original motion that struck something that was like and we recognized that this will slow down or delay the implementation of tc1 and it was struck from the amendment because it is my understanding of watching Council that they want the TC ones to move throughout the city um okay somebody said something here tonight that made me think that we weren't literally with you so I I commissioner watches right that but I I propose I just want to be frank I propose that language because modifying this district has consequences and yes that was struck struck but I I would reiterate my position the reason a factor in that resolution being presented back to Planning Commission was there was ambivalence from my perspective at the city council table of rezoning a corridor to tc1 because there was concerns outstanding on those matters those are specific issues that were raised and I I'll just reiterate my premise that until those are resolved I think bringing any additional areas those questions are going to remain in the minds of city council I'm projecting that I'm basing it on the experience of the past rezoning but that's why I think it's important that we advance those changes prior to pursuing additional geographies okay what is the timeline for the um setback thing um my voice is going we're hoping to shift to that after the automobile uses was resolved oh so you don't want to do them at the same time I mean I I do sort of to miss Celia's suggestion like I think that maybe makes sense um or I mean if it was a special exception use for everything you commissioner said something about not on new buildings just a special exception news for this season these uses on existing buildings or well I think similar to drive-throughs we've kind of taken a position right special exception is about a certain context and so to Mr Leo's Point what we talked about was context and so drive-throughs it was like it's close to an interchange you're quick on quick off you're not coming into our neighborhood that has context Ambitions but at least it was kind of like clear like we drew a line This Not That in terms of special exception is about the expectation is there a way to clearly communicate This Not That in a similar fashion with special exception here and I think that's where it's it's different because it's not about context relative to you know the the planning opinion of you know how we use our ordinance policy to do it versus how we're talking about how we want to try to regulate that land use so different but the same in terms of trying to draw like splitting hairs on when it might be appropriate or not so at least we can communicate that earlier so that we don't have people like coming all the way to site plan and be like we told you like this was not part you know qualifying as a special exception use okay can I can I just yeah um no yes go ahead I'll just well I know but I wanna yes I'm supposed to give everybody the platform I'm practicing um I think there's equal ambivalence at this table as there is a city council uh relative to tc1 on the other side and we will Instant adopt maybe at city council until things are cleared up and I think ambivalence to make changes until we see more movement uh so that's where I also see kind of a conflict of should we do should we wait should we wait should we do between these two tables um and I'm trying to kind of reconcile and like appreciate you know a lot of the professional opinion and then poke those loopholes because we want to have projects come before us that set a positive and ambitious precedent for the types of projects we're trying to see and if we see a dealership with offices on the second floor with a parking lot a parking structure and an outdoor sales use as the first project in tc1 like I feel like we would be taking so many more steps back in terms of where this where I think there are a lot of strong moments of this policy instead of keeping it tight to the things we know we can get out of it as it stands right now say maybe it depends on what it replaces but maybe it doesn't actually depend on what it replaces and I I think you're right about the ambivalence like I want to keep rezoning and just sort of fix TC well Plymouth could in Washington could bring up issues again that nobody had thought of um Mr Leonard can you remember me where are they on our work plan right now are they sort of postponed because we're dealing with this or next year this year so generally our time frame with CC1 was to resolve the tc1 direction that Council has provided then we were contemplating simultaneous rezoning of both Washington and Plymouth So based on timing um I mean you were in the midst of this as we are at this table trying to predict how long the first part of that will take um I I want to be clear we've been having a lot of conversation as staff with other property owners and potential developers regarding the tc1 and I want to be clear we have 10 other suggestions that have been proffered um and I can't sit here and tell you which among those I think are good which of those I think we should pursue which of those that don't rise to prominence for me we're trying hard to get this District in a form that works I I do want to be clear and honest we have yet to have a tc1 proposal in any District I don't want to say that that is because the district is bad um I think the District of sound we um you you'll recall when we started this conversation we presented a lot of different scenarios we talked about varying approaches different TC districts we talked about trying to build upon some of the known quantities and Regulatory Frameworks of our existing districts we very intentionally tried to use building blocks from some of the things that were within our ordinance so I think it's sound but I I think it's fair to also sit here with the experience that you as the Planning Commission have not yet seen a tc1 proposal and so I there could be a lot of factors to that I frankly think that economic factors are a big part of that building right now is very difficult but I will say there are other proposals happening you are seeing other proposals so um I I just want to I I I put that out there to say I acknowledge that tension of trying to rezone more areas to tc1 and getting areas tc1 zoning more appropriate I advise my opinion is that we are having this conversation because there was unease uh at the council table I I can't speak for a council at that moment I'm telling you how I interpreted that and I'm projecting how that unease might carry forward to the next districts there might be new issues as well so I don't even want to suggest that resolving these two will be a Panacea that those similar questions won't be raised but I think it's sound to try to be responsive to what the council's asked us to do before we lay that next conversation on their lap because there's more people to talk anymore if we if we said we want these uses permitted with it we need a special exception use can we put conditions around special exception uses like can we say like if you do a parking garage it has to have flat floor plates or yes but that suggests to me that we have some more work to do to present you that text okay that it achieves that okay thanks uh just to clarify um this came in at the transition point of the old Council to the new Council and it was championed by if I remember correctly a single council member um so when we talk about unease I I just want to contextualize it that it was not a majority of the council so it wasn't a mandate in terms of it I hear use it in a very unique position it's a different position than I sit in and I respect that position and I respect that you see the proposals and you hear from the developers and you are talking to the policy makers and you're trying to create a vision for what's going to work and what's going to move through but we do have a new Council we this table I think to be kind uh to use the kind words that commissioner so they sort of intimate it there's some ambivalence is how I would look at that um and so I just I I see this I'm I am struggling with this because it it's slowing down what we need to do and then we're seeing petitions that are getting in in this transition that aren't in our 50-year plan we know in our 50-year plan we do not want to dedicate this much land to these kinds of uses and so if that is what is known and that is the trajectory or to use a term that I use in my profession are Telos it is our future it is time for us to activate our future at the table um and if that means that we do it by Special Egg use exception or we just ban it all together and send it back to council and say we looked at all of this here's where we're going we do not agree I I that's where I would sit to give you feedback to miss DeLeo because I didn't say much at the beginning um so just some more piece and let me just say I did not say this tables look great thank you for those changes I I would love to have seen these separate so that we could just um just Heap Praise on the changes that you are making and thanks for your both your expertise your knowledge and your diligence uh in this work we are the beneficiaries of your good stewardship foreign okay I'm gonna do I'm gonna rip this Band-Aid off and I'm gonna make a motion to uh amends to make special exception for the Auto Truck Repair and the auto sales and my reasoning for this is I do want to move this forward it's going to technically fail and we can continue this discussion uh whatever Council wants to kind of do next with it but also if the intent is that some of these uses are moving forward in a way um that are reduced in intensity to what we're seeing now like we're selling more things online and we're having inventory off-site we might deliver it and things like that then it might fall under a different use category as the primary and the special exception should be evaluated in terms of what level of use is it actually doing an intensity of the site versus these so really the question is not um where but um like does I I think it when it applies that they need to request a special exception it's to the discretion of is this cutting the threshold from like office sales to Auto Sales relative to a primary use when we're talking about how sales are transitioning in this modern era so I think that's what I'm also kind of hearing that there's some gray area in the type of sales and if Auto Sales looks the same and when it does look like this there I have concerns about car storage and what we're prioritizing there for neuroform and how much more parking structure we make it instead of Apartments so I have two amendments one is a motion to change the Auto Truck and Equipment Repair and the auto sales and rental to a special exception used on the table my second motion and I can take them at one at a time but okay yeah yeah I need your first one okay move by move by Me seconded by commissioner sorry so I guess we'll take that one up for discussion for that motion sorry uh it is to change from a permitted use to a special exception use for the Auto Truck Equipment Repair and the auto sales and rental so the two first two of the three bullet points of the original motion to be a special exception use instead of primary use any discussion no thanks Kelly can we have a roll call sure on the motion presented uh commissioner Hammerschmidt yes commissioner yes Mr dish no thank you commissioner you said it wasn't the tool to use and so I am not in a place where I can think about this commissioner Clark yes commissioner Weiss yes that would carry back to the original motion I'm going to make a new motion that is to apply the use specific standards 5.16.3 C uh two the automobile truck Construction and Equipment Repair which currently is applied to c2b which just to kind of read for everyone's edification um requires storage and repair of automobiles trucks and construction equipment must be located in an enclosed building so I want to motion to apply that use specific standard um without a yeah because it's called out in the uses for just c2b relative to that table by commissioner wage discussion question does that that sounds good to me but I remember us discussing this at some point either when we were having the endless maker discussion or some other time about would you be able to fix your bicycle in your driveway or something like that is there anything that staff would like to raise about why not to do this or implications that we need to think through really is actually what I mean to say foreign I would um not want to evaluate or analyze at the table okay but I would offer that um when preparing the next version of the ordinance and we all and we'd also prepare a briefer transmittal memorandum to cover if we have then flagged something we would articulate that to council and expanding or saying that a different way when we're then working to fulfill the planning commissions recommendation to council um we imply a recommendation to city council as well and we could say this is what the city council has this is what the Planning Commission has recommended we have we do see this concern though and we may then suggest suggest something along those lines but that it would be in like the worst case scenario but I'll go back to my original point I'm just not sure at this time like you know yes do i do I um see an under consequence with that I don't I don't see it right now but as part of our work to forward on to to forward your work to city council if I do then see um a concern I would articulate that as well and make some sort of recommendation whether it be I have an alternative that fixes or whether it should be postponed and returned for more work depending on what I may or may not see okay I mean I will say that as the attentive traveler that I am when I'm in urban places like Paris it is all inside and you appear in the windows and you're like oh my God that's an auto repair in there and so I can see that that makes a lot of sense and is a clean amendment I think commissioner hammership which can you say it again Five Dot yep it's 5016.