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Yes. So they are looking um because there's teachers and uh principles also sit on that. We are shooting for the summer when school has let out. So after May, early June, there's going to be a few meetings there. Uh I think in total we have looking at five meetings at this point. Um two in June, two in July, and one in August to kind of really get a And are they open to the public? They are. So because it's mandated by statute, it is um uh run by sun uh has to follow sunshine law. So the agendas will have to be published in advance of the meetings and it is open to the public. And will it include Zoom meetings? Great question. So the last um the last Kawi did it did have Zoom meetings because of it was during the uh the pandemic. I my I I will go back and check.
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so moved thank you and I'll second it thank you very much uh General consent hi thank you thank you in regards to uh Miss Pope can I interrupt you because we did just do two things that I want to be to mention so I want to acknowledge that the board just approved the appointment of Mr Chris barassi as our next director of personnel and student services so welcome Mr barassi and also uh we would like to acknowledge that the board just approved Miss Tracy sievert as the next principal of North Country Elementary there she is I was gonna have her take a bow you know but but anyway but I just want to acknowledge that and appreciate that the board's trust in us and I know they'll do both do fantastic job so thank you and welcome to your new roles congratulations okay moving on to consent agenda number three approved board stipend increased do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for a discussion so moved do I have a second so good thank you I asked for this item to be brought forward to increase the board stipend by five percent which is uh Allowed by the board bylaw 9250 and Ed code 35120.
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I think the idea is to to continue that practice. Okay. So could you make a request of that committee can do um to assure that everyone can participate that um you know they put out a notice that gives everyone time to care and also to allow uh by Zoom for those who cannot make it physically to the meeting. I would appreciate that. Um could you tell us also um Ken? Yeah. What are some of the things that are decided by the committee on weights? Yeah, so it's not just um small and remote schools. Uh there also is funding as um the previous testified mentioned for English learners um for and it's just the different weights that are looked at to see if they need to be recalibrated u based on what the school's needs are and how best to address um providing the right weights for students so that supports can be provided um as equitably as possible.
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this would increase the monthly amount from 263.94 to 277.14 and would be retroactive to July 1st 2022. this is in line with the increase received by other all other District employees and to my knowledge as I spoke to Mr Lair there we don't think there's ever been a board stipend increase so this would be the first one there was a reinstatement in 2016 but no actual increase um is there any I'm going to ask um is there any public comment I don't have any online thank you um is there any board discussion on this okay do I have a motion to approve consent agenda item number three so moved thank you Mr Bruno you have a second second thank you Mr Bowen General consent awesome moving along to consent agenda number 15 approve resolution number 2022 that slash 2022-23 resolution to authorize the Assurance of services request for proposal do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for a discussion so moved do I have a second thank you Mr Bowen back when we were in the design phase of facts Rex Fortune This same resolution came to the board so I had a question on why is it coming to the board once again since we've already done this so if Mr layer or even Mr Putnam because he's in in the room as well if you could briefly give a breakdown on what lease leaseback is as opposed to design method of construction and then also you know just uh reiterate why we brought this back so I thought it was important yeah if you want to make your way up I'll I'll lead I'll lead into you I'll do the intro and then you can fill in the gaps so there's there's multiple ways uh public school districts can uh fund and and build uh buildings such as Rex Fortune such as the CTE project uh the method we've utilized from for in my recent years all the way back I know to um Wilson Rouse was at least leased back essentially it allows for competitive bidding we end up leasing the property to or the the the facility to a construction company after an RFP has been out it allows us to not take with a design a regular build project a direct build you actually have to take the low bid this actually allows us to see multiple bids and look at reputation and the the work performance of that this we have as other people have too sometimes we take the low bid it runs into problems so this method allows us to do that we current currently have the CTE buildings that is actually a a design design build design build and so it's just a it's a different facility mechanism to to trigger how we can get the best product we fluctuated now each product that we each uh facility that we build we have to have a resolution for that so we're coming back to kick off that with in the packet it allows us to do that model this is actually going to be for the North Country modernization project and it allows us the first step to say we want to enter into a lease lease back attached is the RFP and then we release the RFP get bidders for that project come back with the to the board with that contract we end up it it there's a lot of benefits and we could dig deep into the weeds but that's kind of the general overview unless Mr um Putnam has something additional no you born do you have me on and Lauren is turning you off she said that she doesn't like no I'm just kidding uh yes that is correct so it gives us because there's even a third option which hardly anybody ever does and that's called a piggyback so there's all different ways to build or modernize schools and we pick and choose which is the best method for us time wise money wise and quality wise and so that's why we have the different and each project you will look at what is the scope when it's usually a smaller scope like the CTE buildings it's more cost effective to do a design build than when you have the larger projects like doing a whole new School site or a very complex modernization then you do a lease lease back and in that we are pre-qualifying bidders I signed 27 uh contractor forms today for people who have uh become pre-qualified with the district so we've looked through all their financials we know that these are sound companies and then we go through with other processes for being able to choose when we're who we're going to use on that kind of project awesome yeah and on that why we're choosing the least lease back model on modernization I think why because as you'll see next month we'll come back with a plan it's a very complicated move because it's not one we're going to get done modernization in just the summer so we're going to have to do some movement of students within the site and so we're working on a plan with scpm of how we'll bring that back and actually hopefully get some extra facilities on the site with that so we'll come back with the plan but this is the first step in that process to get that moving forward perfect Union HVAC systems how do you separate those or do you it comes down to really what where the scope is and what we have so with our HVAC program that was basically just a straight here's the bids we open it up low bid got the contract because it's a very limited scope when you're getting into a modernization you're going to deal with anything from site work new structural work uh there's a whole lot of layouts so there's about 10 different layers in a modernization to where like with our HVAC project that's going to be coming up this summer it's one single item it's just replacing the HVAC systems so that's what helps dictate when we need to activate the lever of this is a straight bid or this is going to be a lease lease back that gives us better flexibility to get the best contractor for doing the work and you'll you'll see that Nancy when we get the show you the plans for the modernization it's very it's not just oh we're going to fix some air conditioners it's it's hard work it's or it's it's hard concrete work it's facilities inside it's a lot more involved than just not just because I couldn't do it but but putting air conditioners on a building it's much more complicated little voltage and things will be along there right but contractors would have a chance then each time to come in and put in their stuff or is it just a one-time thing no no it's we when we have any of these kind of projects we make announcements out there through the different Builders exchanges and everything else so we advertise for when these happen and part of this with us knowing that we're going into a lot of these different ones that's where we also let them know it is time to get pre-qualified again with the district so you can bid on these Public Works projects that we're offering thank you any other questions from Mr Putnam thank you sir thank you appreciate it do I have a motion to approve consent agenda number 15.
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So there's a number. The recurring themes though are small and remote schools is one that comes up almost every um cy that I've looked back on. It was discussed at the last call and I know it will be discussed um at this one as well. Um and another question would be is um [Music] in in the meeting when they're looking at deciding um on these weights How many members are on this committee and who are the members? How so what makes up the membership? Got it. It's um it's a pretty sizable membership. I wanted to say it's about 15 or so different members. Um I can get that list is on our previous committee on weights agendas, but they do uh usually it's two complex area superintendents who serve as the chairs. Um and then after that there are principles I want to say there's teachers as well um who also sit on that um and as well as community members.
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thank you Carol there is no public I'll move is there a second all second thank you General consent thank you thank you again Carol uh moving on to business item business items business item a logo concept update and discussion Mr Lair oh do you want to bring it to the floor for discussion first I'll make that motion thank you give me a second second thank you now Mr Larry would you give an introduction sure so as the board is aware and we've been talking uh one of the things we took on this year as we've began to grow into a new region of our district is looking at some rebranding of our our district and one of the the ways we're doing that is addressing website um we're looking at different mechanisms as we go to uh recruitment fairs and different things we're trying to make sure we have the brand what kept coming up is our our district logo which happens to be on the screen right there is is outdated and one of the things we looked at was how do we modernize it when we started this process we were able to get with a graphic designer look at it with some ideas of how can we keep the rich history that we have because I think a lot of us are proud of where we've come from but we want to continue to move forward and so when we went met with a graphic designer we talked through the whole process and said there's a few elements that we would just have to keep with our our our logo one would be the Bell you know if if you have any time with this District you realize the Bell is a big portion of our district and we still have the bell and you'll see it on graduation if you want to come to graduation um and the Sea trying to to incorporate the sea within that and then establishing the uh the date at which we established as a district and so we've narrowed it down to four different options and Lauren is going to just kind of put them up so one of the things I wanted the board to discuss is if one of these fours u4 sitting here saying that's it we want that one great my work would be done if not I would suggest that we possibly put it out to our community and see which one resonates with with the community and then we can bring it back in May for for a final um you know consideration by the board what I will tell you is at first look at these it's funny you kind of go oh I want to be knocked out of my chair but then I looked at our current one and that doesn't knock me out of my chair either and so as I started looking at each of these and gotten feedback from different individuals we have come up with the four that are in front of you two of them are very similar colors are are what they are color we can adjust those one of the things I think we should probably stick with would be that Center Blue I don't know if it's cobalt blue or royal blue I I'll ask Mike Jordan on the colors Mike Michael tell me the colors um but so really I see his three kind of models at the end of this we'll have a nice package of vector files for each of these for clothing once these are established we'll move on to the school sites where we'll end up having them have a similar look we're not going to take away from what's established you know the Oak Hill otters are still going to be the local otters they're still going to be green Center High School will still be Columbia Blue and Gold uh still going to have the cougar but we want to try to get a theme so when someone sees the school sites logo they're recognizing wow that's that's part of Center so that's where we are so I would look for some direction from the board and like I said if you're like Scott we like number three done deal don't bother me again my life will be easy if not I I would suggest that we put it out to the community because it is hard just like at my house I do not pick paint colors I just paint the paint colors because I'll just leave it at that I'm in agreement where you keep these Center District color blue the Cobalt is what I'll call it and stay away from I'm going to say Center High School gold because that's Center high school so we want to be separate from Center but yet I do like the outline of some sort of yellow slash gold not necessarily yellow so more of a I'm going to impress you all with my poppy copy and the other thing is the the the the screen does I know distort some of the colors the colors will get refined and then we'll actually end the product we'll get exactly what those colors are I guess there's color codes specific numbers so that will also be part of it there'll be Vector files but then also reverse files so any of these can go on any shirt or any logo that would be done I agree with what Dale said but I like the one that was just up there on the that one on the bottom right and I'm sorry let me clarify so these are kind of a set there'd be a couple other ones that would follow the same model so we we would have access to all these like the top the bottom left in this idea would be possibly on our website um you know Miss hunt and I were talking about which one would we put on our low our letterheads so we would have access to all these to kind of do it but it's kind of a a package a package yeah and there are other ones that would go with it but these are kind of the gist of it I'm with Nancy I like and the first one is is my thought well just to add my two cents um I actually strongly disagree with both of you on number three um Mr Bruno that's the wrong answer sorry um I just feel that the contrast between the yellow and the white around the Bell just is insufficient and it I I prefer the contrast of the other designs um of the others I'd say the number four is my least favorite um numbers one and two look like the only difference is what shade of blue so that's accurate yeah I like one and two personally but yeah that's just my opinion so my twos my my two cents is um Bruno Bruno said um the in none of these the Bell is gold and or Poppy and I've seen the Bell before I forgot what it looks like now it's been so long but it is made out of brass is it not yeah it's like a bronze so painting that is a gold ish color so none of these represent the bell in a goldish color so I I would like to see something like that myself but that's just me and I do like superintendent Larry's suggestion I think that's awesome I think we should I think we should put it out to the community and to the schools and to the students and the parents and let them be a part of making history for the district especially since we clear we don't have a consensus on this I I would agree that that's probably the best move and one of the things it is I mean there's just four of you and you're I wouldn't say disagreeing but you're not agreeing on one so what we can do is we can put these out with a voting mechanism I'm I'm not going to solicit uh like uh input necessarily other than which one would you pick type of thing and then I can bring that data because otherwise I mean even in our office with 10 people we were all over the board and so what we'll all work with is um probably um someone to get a survey put out we'll put it out for a couple weeks so then when I can bring back in May what the results are with the idea of we gotta we gotta pick one because we are we are waiting and I know um it's holding up like Rex Fortune Elementary when we want to kind of have it envisioned similar as far as the pattern so that's Mr Farrell's probably staring at me right now saying get him to vote right now uh but we we would I think that would be good and I think to Mr Bowen trustee balance point it would be nice to hear you know we may get a lot of people to vote we may not but at least we're putting it out and hearing what people think and then when the school ones come around we can also do the same if that's that's the model that we want to do so these are the only four we have options of these are the ones that we've whittled down to it's getting to the point where we I think we just need to pick color wise we can mess with those um but so no gold bail then huh I can always ask it doesn't hurt to ask unless you know we can agree right now of one that we choose but you want to go dollars I don't know if they could adjust the colors or not because even you were saying that you like the other blue than what was on there I like the blue I just want to make sure it was the the cobalt blue like number one is cobalt blue I believe so see I like the Columbia Blue but but we're not we're not because Colombia is very similar it would be so close to Center high school and I don't want to overlap on there so that blue but a little bit darker kind of like the sign in the brand new sign in front of the district um that color so what I can do is ask them to to not do yeah not do the ones with the other colors leave actually leave number that one off number two and just put the three out to the community okay and Howard what I was referring to is if we put that out to the public for designs and consensus on which one my um history that I remember from doing that is that it turns into one huge fight it just asks for problems so the direction I'm hearing unless I was going to say since numbers one and two are so similar and we're seeming to lean more towards the color scheme of number one would it be possible to try to find an alternate for number two that has a gold Bell and so we're still putting four designs out there I'll ask for sure I'll ask okey dokey we got Direction and how long are you going to keep the survey out there a week I got a well it has to be made I won't say I'll make it but uh yeah at least we'll get it out and I'll try to time it around our our email that we send out to all the families too and then we can have people vote on a Google doc to Google survey or form thank you Mr Lair business Item B celebrations and recognition of staff and student at board meetings do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion I'll move thank you do I have a second thank you very much Mr ballen trustee ballen you brought this forward you want to give us a little introduction trying to get used to holding down this button um so it in my travels since I began the quest of being on the school board um it came to my attention that um some districts set aside a certain amount of time during their board meetings to recognize students their achievements and um some of the things that that they have done or are doing or planning on doing in other words engaging the students at the board meetings um we're here as a board as a governing body a business body if you will but it's it's for the kids for the students in our district and what some districts have adopted is well we need to recognize that it's just not all business we need to recognize our students and what they're doing what they're achieving and recognizing that so my my thoughts were what can we do how can we do it I know that students uh come in and different groups of students come in and give presentations such as earlier this evening and I think that's awesome because that's that's what I like to hear I like to know what's going on in our schools and I think uh as this is a public forum and probably the biggest public forum for this District that we should engage our students as to what they're doing and what they're achieving and so I'm proposing that we develop something that our students can bring to this board and and present to this board into the into the district and into the community of what they're doing or what they're trying to achieve or what they've accomplished May do we have any public comment I have none online Okay um then board discussion go ahead Mrs Anderson we used to Mr Bell and we used to have a second meeting of the month that was entirely for recognition of community members and school students and staff so I think it would be wonderful to go forward with that but we may need to add some time either to our regular meeting or a second meeting uh depending on how involved you want to get we did run into some issues with it and I think Scott would probably be able to Enlighten us a little more than my old memory but um it's something that I think that we we should do more of than what we do and and more recognition of our teachers that was something that we didn't do a whole lot of but I think we should they deserve to be recognized for the jobs that they do over and above their everyday jobs my thoughts on this it's it's kind of come out of other meetings that I work for a different school district and they devote time in pretty much every board meeting to honoring people but then their board meetings will frequently go past midnight if we were in such a situation I would view that as problematic however we're in a situation where we're often done early um and I think that there's a lot of Merit to recognizing the accomplishments of students and staff in fact I'd go beyond just the teachers that trustee Anderson mentioned and you know just staff in general because sometimes it's good to acknowledge that you know technology had this breakthrough or stopped the Cyber attack or something or you know counselors making a difference in students lives all staff of this District at some point or another are doing something that's just amazing in their job um and I also think that you know ultimately we're here because of the students and so when we hear about things like students from McClellan going to the prom or hearing about the student government acknowledging academic growth in students I think it's good for us to hear that because it reminds us that this is what we're here for and so I think that this finding a way to work this in reasonably will be a very beneficial thing I'm agreement with all of you um I like the staff idea to to include that um I also like the idea that I'm not like the idea but agree with the comment you made about extending the board meetings because everybody works here and I really don't want anybody here past eight if we can help it um in the past we used to do a May wasn't it may uh recognition day and it would be at Center High School theater and I think Mr Lair has been working on that once the theater is complete maybe this is what we could do is that correct so one of the things since we haven't done it since since coven one of the things I've been rolling around since broadblast time was how could we do a little bit each each meeting and one of the things might be a standing uh portion of the meeting just like we have reports presentations work with the schools and the other thing we've done in the past we I think the hard part is we took a pause a lot of this because of the the coven but you know we've even acknowledged some of our parents who have been big contributors uh and once we awarded you know them a certificate they ended up getting on the board so you got to watch out if we give you an honor um but but it it highlights and and celebrates and so I think we can do I think this is a good kind of refresh of how can we do that and so what I would walk away from is acknowledging we don't want meetings to go along but if we ever get to that point and we could always look at do we need a second meeting there there's going to be a time where our district will need a second meeting in each month but I think we could we could I don't want to say squeeze in but we can acknowledge our community better at each meeting and probably not go till midnight next month one of the adaptions that we're doing is we would always honor our retirees at that special May meeting we'll be bringing our retirees that want to be honored they'll be at this meeting in May and so there's always things like when as we've talked through this I think after trustee ballen brought it up like our FBLA students you know I don't know if they get recognition at the school side or not I'm sure I know we get kudos but it would be nice for us to recognize the students who accomplish something and honor the staff that gives up there you know they're going to be down there three days with them you know you just approved so I think there's a lot we can do to honor and celebrate that goes above and beyond what the school sites are already honoring and celebrating and I know I could probably talk to each of our our administrators and there's there's tons of things so we would have no problem honoring it and it is a good thing it's it's bragging about our district you know and not just uh in a this forum but on our social media you know we're looking at with our teacher and classifieds a year how are we going to routinely recognize the contributions not just okay one day but how do we we keep doing that so with with the comments and conversations I'm hearing today I'm happy to go back put something on and see how we can do May's already covered for me because I can bring our retirees and then we can look at each of the meetings June and going forward uh June's hard because people aren't at work and bringing them back but maybe we get a cycle of just having a placeholder and if we do have something great for some reason we don't there's no reason we couldn't remove it off the agenda yeah now that we don't have the antelope news we need to get in the habit of submitting to the neighbors section of the Sacramento Bee because we need to get our is there a neighbor section anymore yeah I'm wrong I haven't seen the newspaper in quite a while but one of the things I think I agree with you one of the things and we're working hard is even with that social media present the website thing just getting things out there and we have some additional help that we're tapping into that we'll we'll start to get that out uh agree we've never been good at patting ourself on the back and we deserve to be heard out there and seen out there because we do so much for these kids that nobody knows about so superintendent said uh took took many of my words out of my mouth on but the one one word he said was routine we meet uh 11 times a year right basically uh and in my conversations with people from other districts and as well as uh looking what I saw online um the 15-minute Mark seems to be the the magic number uh setting aside 15 minutes at each meeting for this I think is the least that we can do Mr Bruno so um along those lines I think if we were doing a 15-minute thing that we could accommodate that with our current agenda length um so I I think that would be good another thing is um it would be another way to encourage people to show up for meetings you know if they or their family members are being honored and that might get someone to engage with the board more and we might start getting more feedback which you know I love getting feedback um and one other little tid that I'd like to say on this though is I would personally prefer putting it near the top of the agenda because especially if we had an agenda that runs longer and students that have to be at school the next day or something it's nice to give them the opportunity to leave if they need to agreed yeah and Mr Bruno my thought would be is right after the adoption of the agenda even before org reports that we would honor celebrate if they want people want to stay great but that way we're not moving it to the very end and holding people captive to get their acknowledgment so to be clear it's to recognize not to perform right we don't want performance we just want recognition of staff and students to celebrate successes throughout I agree to clarify we are going to go forward each month and recognize individuals until the Center High School theater is finished and then we will continue with the May recognition day I would suggest if we do the 12 I our problem with the the May recognition when we all went there it was it we started we were giving folks awards for things they had already received at their school sites and so at this point I would try to do one for every meeting and then see if we want to go that route and have a special one we could um but it might satisfy what we're trying to get at I mean fair enough fair enough okay any other discussion one last point on this the other thing is we can try it and if it's not working we can always change it later correct okay moving on to business item C naming of new Career Technical education CTE facility do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion all motion thank you second thank you Mr ballen since uh we talked in length last month about this topic I don't think there's going to be much discussion but Mr balance since you brought it forward you want to speak a little bit on it forgot to hold it down um did is that is the that line uh superintendent layer is that language that was developed is that in our packet okay the yeah there was backup material submitted as to why individuals are being recommended or an individual is being recommended so um I'll leave it up to the rest of the board do we uh this was prepared by um member Anderson do we do we want to read this or no what was read last month Outlaw did we want to read it again oh what might be be helpful is if if there's an idea of what what wants what we want to name or what the board wants to name start with that and then I know the backup material supports an individual that you would want it to be named after or are proposing so I know trustee ballon you and I've talked a little bit about what you envisioned with this so it might start with that as the discussion I think if the individual which I know is the same individual that was discussed last time you might be able to have that and then in the in the backup material supports why you would be making that recommendation again so that might be the first step is what what are we thinking and then have that direction so in reference to the conversation that I had that superintendent Lair just mentioned um he made a superintendent Lair did a suggestion that I think is is perfect um and since we already brought up uh the name we're speaking about Mr Ray Bender a long time board member who served this community for I believe well over 20 years um and in my discussion with superintendent Larry rather than naming a building because he was about vocation about things that that students can learn that could take them somewhere after after school should they choose not to go to college or were unable to and so um the two buildings represent two types of CTE areas I I guess you would call them one more one more technical one more uh hand Hands-On type of um dealing with with wood and mechanics in section alike um so in my discussion with superintendent Lair he made the suggestion well why don't we call this a center because there is a space for there's plan my understanding a potential plan for a third building and there is actually room in the area for more for another building or two or or maybe more so the the idea was to call this a center uh the ray Bender Career Technical Education Center and that which that would Encompass the area and the buildings of which it resides in and that a plaque would be placed in the there's my understanding there's going to be a walkway that will be going into the center and we can place that plaque uh in some manner at the entrance to this area uh acknowledging Mr bender and and all he has done for this district and years past online thank you Karen is there any more discussion trustee Anderson uh it's I'd like to read this out loud if there isn't any other comment you read it last month but no this is different oh is it the same okay is it anybody else okay it is being proposed with new information and Technologies building be named in honored pass board member Raymond Bender for the following reasons he dedicated his life to Center and we will not forget all that he did for the students of Center and the children of antelope Mr raybender served the center school district and the community of antelope for over 20 years as a trustee for Center Joint Unified School District he provided leadership for staff and students in many ways during that time he served four successful terms as president he was an inspiration to many in our community from the very beginning Mr Bender made technology one of his main interests as a board member he served as the board member who kept close tabs on technology and schools and made sure that Center was ready for its students to be prepared for the world they would face upon graduation he not only championed its use in the classroom by teachers but he also emphasized the staff learn how to use it he knew that in order to compete our entire District would have to be on board with this technology Mr Bender always fought hard for vocational education he knew not every child could or would pursue a colleague college career regardless of their educational status they must be prepared for their future whatever that future may hold for them he helped establish a partnership program spot for reading coaches the NCAA Academy Cisco and many more he felt very strongly that every child should be reading at grade level by third grade he strongly supported programs that supported student health and wellness he devoted significant amounts of time toward the continuing development achievements of Center Joint Unified School District Mr Bender was committed to the long-term Financial well-being of Center joint Union School District he worked hard to get Bond funding approved and optimized the use of voter approved Bond funding he insisted we keep a six percent savings account for emergency use it was that practice that saved us from huge cutbacks during the budget crisis when other districts were cutting back teachers and support staff carefully weighing many factors when making difficult budgetary decisions and supporting efforts to wisely use human and financial resources of Center joint Union School District Mr Bender oversaw the opening of three new schools the establishment of two charter schools Mr Bender represented Senator joint Union School District in meetings with members of Placer County and Sacramento County Supervisors County school board members State organizations and U.S Congressional members to protect the district interest and acquire new resources Mr Bender Faithfully ran our snack bar for many years making such needed funds for all school student Sports programs he not only worked it during game time but spent much of his free time shopping stocking and cleaning the snack bar for all these reasons and many more we wish to honor the memory of Mr bender and never forget the contribution he made to the staff students and community of Center Joint Unified School District Mr Bruno do you have any discussion well my my stance on this um kind of remains constant I generally speaking don't like the practice of naming things after people because that can lead to complications down the line that's nothing against Mr Bender it's just my general principle and I do notice that we kind of keep falling back into that pattern so I'm going to ask that moving forward we try to find other options when we need to name things but um you know unfortunately for for me I didn't get a chance to know Mr Bender but I can see an argument for naming this afternoon okay so is there a motion to approve business item C so moved what is the motion second what's we need emotion Howard why don't you state the name that you brought forward earlier all right so the motion that the name be the ray Bender Career Technical Education Center is there a second I'll second okay uh let's do roll call vote trustee Bruno although I trustee Anderson aye trustee ballon aye chair votes eye congratulations okay business item D yeah the moment everybody's been waiting for governing board vacancy candidate interviews and resolution number 21 22-23 appointment of provisional board member do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for discussion so moved do I have a second second thank you is there any public comment on this item I have none online and is there any individuals here that I okay see none first of all I'd like to introduce the candidates they are here um Miss Adriana Simons would you like to stand up thank you [Applause] and Miss Kelly Kelly who isn't back [Applause] we will proceed with the interviewing portion of the meeting right now but please note that the candidate interview must be conducted in prop public during our regular business meeting a majority of the vote will be used to appoint the candidate at the end of tonight's proceedings during the interview each candidate will be asked a total of nine questions to ensure fairness the order of the questions that are asked will be rotated as well as the board member who asks the questions so right now we will start the interview process okay so I will start with the questions and we'll start with Miss Salmons and one little while you're getting your paperwork what I might suggest is I see Miss Kelly stand in the Salmons and then what will happen is they're going to take turns asking questions so if you guys want to be in the front row you can kind of take take turns so I think Miss Salmons is up first who's up first Miss salmon okay so you're up for sorry yeah you're and then and and Kelly you're you're right there on Deck so okay thank you hi so miss Sammons please tell us about yourself so again my name is Adriana Sammons and I have lived in Antelope um with my husband Ainsley for 12 years now um I am a mom I have five beautiful children two bio boys and three bonus children all ranging from ages 22 all the way down to seven I also am a caregiver for my two siblings and I took that on after my mother passed away in 2013 so I do care for them as well so just my nurturing side is just 100 there I love caring for people and just seeing the best outcome so in a very bubbly thank you very much why do you believe you should be selected to serve on this governing board and what do you believe May differentiate you from other candidates seeking the appointments um well first and foremost I'm very passionate about anything that I put my mind to and my background is early childhood education I am still continuing to go I started going to school again my husband graduated recently went back to college and really encouraged me to go back and finish my degree but even with me stepping away from school to raise my family and care for my siblings my passion has never stopped I'm very active within my community even outside of the kids with at the school um I I just love seeing people succeed especially our children I know that our children are our future and I know that we have to support them and encourage them and help them thrive in any Avenue that they take and that takes us as a village to really support them and I wholeheartedly believe that um so I am active wherever I can and so that's why sometimes I am probably at Oak Hill Elementary School more than I was I'm home and I'm okay with that and I really look forward to making a difference in not only Oak Hill but olive Center um and being and getting to know the different faculty at the other sites as well um something that I think differentiates me um and this is not to upset anyone at all but our if you guys look at Center Unified as a whole we are a big Melting Pot okay of everyone different backgrounds different different ethnicities age everything different Lifestyles and upbringing in history so when we look at our board I think our students we want them to be more involved feel more welcome I think that our board should represent a Melting Pot and so right now I don't know if the students would all feel that they are seeing someone that maybe represents them in just feeling welcome seeing the Melting Pot that our district is so I think that that would be something that does set aside that maybe I have different life experiences or different things that I might be able to bring um to the table that might be a different viewpoint thank you very much you're welcome thank you Miss Kelly perfect to follow I will ask you the same question please tell us about yourself okay I am Kelly Kelly and um I also have lived in this community for a very long time I I don't know Jamie was graduated in 2010 and she started in fifth grade so however many years that is a long time 20 some years um and I've been on the board for about 12 12 years for eight ten years excuse me um and I gosh she took all my words passion I mean I have a lot of passion for education for Equity I my day job is is at the Department of Public Health and our office is completely focused on Equitable outcomes addressing disparities related to health we do have you know the schools committee that I I often sit in on that focuses on Health in the schools and so I bring an interesting perspective from that but but but also I just really care about this job I mean I this the first time I've ever really been nervous about you know whether or not I win or or anything and I think it's because I'm completely vested I love this District I love being able to contribute it's something that I am good at you know being able to review the materials maybe I don't remember people's names and faces very well but what I do excel at is really absorbing different people's opinions and perspectives and just taking a very objective view to things so um that's who I am thank you Mom Mom yep I'm a mom and how do you believe you should be select well who why I excuse me let me start over why do you believe you should be selected to serve in on this governing board and what do you believe May differentiate you from other candidates seeking the appointment so I I did already kind of touch on some of this I've been on the board for 10 years which I know there's a lot of conversation about you know shorter terms in government in general however I think that in school districts that that institutional knowledge that's carried through is really important understanding where we've been the things that we've addressed in the past and where we're going so I think that gives me a really good perspective on the business of the board in addition to that I've worked in the school district for 11 years I worked in both the in in three different areas I worked in the maintenance and operations I have a really good perspective on facilities I do know what a design build is I do know what a design bid build is and a lease lease back I've worked with all of those and you know deferred maintenance and all of that stuff I worked in the accounting office and so again a really interesting perspective on the budget on how things are are managed in a school district and then my third placement was with the student services so I had the privilege of working with students who were struggling with either attendance issues or home health or expulsions a lot of a lot of interesting laws and regulations and things that had to be followed and so I have that perspective as well and then of course the years that I spent on the board have really trained me well on a lot of the facility building and the and the bond stuff and things like that that I needed bonds for dummies when we first started took that and uh and and now I do have a better understanding so I mean I think that my experience speaks for itself I did serve as president during 2021 which we all know was a lovely year for this board and for this district and for this world so um I I managed to to get through that without completely getting everyone to hate me so I think that was a success um okay thank you Miss Kelly next up would be Mr ballen I think you'll stay there Miss Kelly it's going to rotate so it's yeah I'm so sorry so if you see me looking down I'm not ignoring you I'm taking notes so um thank you Kelly for being here this evening so my question is what do you feel is the best way to address differences of opinion on the board or between the board and the administration that's a great question um and I've been through a lot of training with the School Board Association the governance sessions and it's very clear that we are here to represent different aspects of the community we're here to express different opinions we're here to listen to the community and use our judgment and that is done in a respectful manner we are one of a we're 20 percent of a deciding body and once a decision is made We Stand by that decision as a whole we should never be 5-0 on every vote that that just shouldn't be the way that it is because we're all here to represent different parts of the community but we should also never be disparaging our other fellow board members for their opinions great okay thank you very much uh next up um is Salmons and thank you for being here this night tonight so uh the question is what do you feel is the best way to address differences of opinion on the board or between the board and the administration okay let's we have to listen but I think there's a difference between listening hearing and active listening so whenever there's going to be difference of opinions we have to actively listen and then respectfully respond and so I think with this is we have to understand that there's going to be things that we just don't agree on and that could be like Kelly Kelly said everyone could disagree everybody's going to have different opinions um but how do we realize and have an open mind that we are always going to have to have some sort of compromise but I think if we're always having our hearts and our minds in the best um looking for the best outcome for the students the families faculty and everyone then I think we will trust each other as a board to communicate that well and then come up with the best decision so as long as we keep actively listening and respectively responding and trusting our board members as a team that we will always be able to come up with a best outcome thank you very much oh I forgot sorry maybe round three I'll get this I apologize I didn't realize I'm reading question three um as a trustee what do you see as your primary purpose or primary role how would you fulfill that role purpose and primary role is um making the best decisions that we can for our District as a whole keeping every single person in mind but I think our job here is bringing Community I think it is holding us all together um reminding us why we're here reminding us why what we're doing what the students need so I think every time that we show up here if I'm elected on the board or even in the audience is that my job as whether it be a Community member or on the board a family member a parent is that we are holding Center together as a family as a unit as a strong community so any decisions that are made we're going with moving forward with our best foot forward in those decisions hold on okay Miss Kelly same question to you as a trustee what do you see as your primary purpose or primary role how would you fulfill that role so um as a board trustee we are a deciding body um for policies procedures we are not the managers of the district we don't go in and manage the school sites we don't go in and interfere in any sort of personnel issues or anything going on at the site level being aware of those and hearing you know being being observant of those things is good but as a board member we're really here to look at policy we're here to look at policy and procedures and set a pathway for the rest of the district we also have one employee that is the superintendent and as a board we supervise him together so our role is really just to talk about policies and making sure that you know we're fiscally sound making sure that our lcap is done well that you know all of the things that the sites are doing we are reviewing those and just you know celebrating them but also ensuring that we we are in going in the right direction in the direction that the community wants us to go it's still your turn for the next question guys Mrs Anderson so nerve-wracking it's possible as a board member do you believe all graduating students should go to college upon graduation why or why not no um no that's a simple answer um I think anyone who wants to go to college and is eligible to go to college and has a pathway to go to college should definitely we should be supporting that we should be encouraging their a to G completion and making sure that they're they're signed up for Success right they're aligned with a successful pathway but we all know that not everybody wants to or needs to go to college um maybe they're going to go to a Career Tech school or maybe they're going to become a A store owner or take over the family business or do any number of a million other things and so I've from the beginning that's been really one of my big passions is supporting Career Tech we have amazing career track tech programs here and I'm always listening for more for Pathways currently I'm pushing it at work that we need to create Pathways for people that want to go into public health now that is a college pathway probably eventually but but just you know keeping your eyes and ears open for opportunities where we can bring in some Career Tech is is definitely a passion of mine and I've been doing that since before I started so I think probably my first exposure to this school board was when my daughter was was in elementary school and there was a budget oops a budget oops and so you know I got up and I spoke and I was like please don't take away the passion for what people come to school for you know people are not necessarily passionate about writing essays or learning about the Civil War but they might be passionate about um you know geometry or construction and geometry and construction or they might be passionate about the pharmac sessions or they might be passionate about any number of the different programs that we offer MCA so music dance art drama all of that stuff that's what brings kids to school because that's where their passion is and if they have that passion they're going to carry that over into their curricular education as well yes as a board member do you believe all graduating students should go to college upon graduation why or why not no um so college is a great absolutely is it for everyone no um and the reason I say that is because myself you know I did start going to college my path did change you know I did have to make some adjustments and then I stepped into entrepreneurship did I have any schooling in that originally no but has it helped me take care of my family am I passionate about it am I fulfilled in it in my teaching my son who is now eight years old how to run a business he's had a business since he was six he's almost nine and he loves it so I think when we are as a whole teaching our children about furthering their education that education doesn't just come from a book it can come from experience and a lot of times our best people when we put them in positions are from their life experiences are from their passions so I think yes like we believe if there are students that are like I can't wait I'm gonna apply at you know this college then I'm gonna go we encourage them we push them we give them all the tools that they need our counselors are there but I think we also need to be prepared to ask those students and listen to the other students that say I don't know if I want to go to college I'm terrified I don't want to go you know or I want to be a mechanic or I want to do this now how do we step in and support them and make them feel just as prepared when they leave school so I think we just need to continue to remember that every student is different every student is unique and we just need to open up the doors of success for them give them the different paths and talk to them encourage them that it's okay to have a different view then maybe you know your family's gone to college for the past 15 years you know excuse me 15 you know or all these different Generations so how do we prepare them to say it's okay to have a different path but I think when we say you only have to go to college we are now setting them up for failure because we're not supporting them and what they really might want to do or helping them and encouraging them to find what they're passionate about thank you thank you you can stay there oh okay so I'm I'm next yes so please explain what your budget priorities would be if you were on the board um so budgeting is very important um no absolutely so this is an area that I am open and willing to 100 continue to learn about um but there was something that and please correct me if this if I'm not answering it correctly but something that did come up at the last meeting was then talked about again today and something that I was very concerned about was the special education department um as I stated I have two siblings who are now adults they are special in these adults um and it breaks my heart that they went through the same amount of schooling that I did um and worked really hard my brother never missed a day of school and he actually got an award for not missing one day in all 12 years um and he had to get a certificate of completion and so now me being his caregiver him asking me can I go get a job maybe please forgive me if I get emotional he's older than me he's my older brother and I have to help him do applications over and over and he can't get a call back so it breaks my heart that he is so passionate and he's like well I was a janitor you know in school and that was beautiful that the school did that for him but I want to see that the students have the support you know the budget to have these AIDS that they need to be able to create the pathways that we need and to be able to make sure that they are ready um to the best of their abilities when they leave so I think I'm very passionate about the special education budget to make sure we are not pushing aside the services that our special education department needs thank you very much yes you can sit down Miss Kelly same question ma'am please explain what your budget priorities would be if you were on the board so I mean first and foremost we have to say stay fiscally solvent if we don't stay fiscally solvent we don't have a district the state will take over and we lose all of our deciding making power in addition to that sorry my mind just went blank because I'm nervous um flew out of my brain um in addition to that transparency is extremely important having been in a district where things were not always as transparent as they should have been and having and and other experiences through CSEA uh not through CSEA yeah through CSEA which is the uh classified school employees union um I've heard about districts who will purposely put items in to line items to hide the money so that they don't have to pay their employees what they deserve there's a fine line between storing money for the future and and being you know prudent about having money and then not um hiding money or being untransparent one of the things that um that I know is maybe not my maybe not popular with everybody but I feel like the people who pay taxes today are paying taxes to support the education of the students of today they're not paying to educate the students 12 years down the road when necessarily those people are not approving tax bonds or you know paying as much taxes so there's a fine line between using the funds for what it's intended now for the people who are here and planning for the future this is why there's triggers in the state regulations this is why there's limits on how much we can hold and so just keeping a really good eye on that and the transparency there are a number of things that happen during the year budget related we have the budget revise we have the budget proposed budget in January we have the budget Revision in may we have you know our our own budget aligning it with the lcap is important and then we have the the budget actuals that happen on a quarterly not quarterly but trimester basis and then we have the unaudited actuals and then we have the audited actuals um and each and every one of those phases is important to review the documents and make sure that things look right you might not understand every single detail of it but as you start studying it more you start to recognize things that don't quite look right or that you have questions about so with the budget there's always you're always learning you're always asking questions luckily we have Lisa who's like a genius when it comes to this money um but yeah it's always a learning experience so for me for Budget stay solvent be transparent continue to learn review all of the documents and then for funding how it should be spent that is something that is decided in the lcat but for me personally I've seen buildings go from bad to worse not necessarily in this District but go am I is my time up time up they're fading me out they're musicing me out off the stage I'm sorry um what did I say so um fiscally solvent transparent reviewing all of the budgets and then for me personally I'm passionate about facilities I don't want to see hvacs that are 10 years past their their expected lifespan not maybe one or two but hundreds of them I don't want to see roofs that haven't gotten repaired when we're maybe adding extra programs and stuff but the building's going to collapse so we're really good about that Richard does a great job but it's definitely a passion of mine that we not let the buildings fall apart while we're trying to get fancy on other stuff right there's got to be a balance that's it do I need to stay is there more questions um yes and state Mr ballen the question is if a parent guardian or Community member cornered you in a grocery store and asked for your support on a particular hot issue how would you respond we talk about this it's definitely a difficult situation you don't want to appear rude or distant but at the same time you can't commit to anything so just reminding them that I'm you know one of five people on the board I will definitely take their their information into consideration and it will be part of my decision making as my you know for one vote but that I am not allowed to really discuss or commit to anything outside of a public meeting that's it okay thank you that that you can now it's uh there's Salmon's turn same question if a parent guardian or Community member cornered you in the grocery store and asked for your support on a particular hot issue how would you respond um so I would briefly but also respectfully hear them out for a moment um now depending on what the issue is if it's something that needs to that is being discussed at the board level um then again I would make sure they um just get involved but also come to the meetings we have open discussion um voice their opinions if it is a board level now if it is school level or teacher things like that I always encourage and even now I do it with my friends that come to me and they're like hey I know you're really active in the school I have this issue and you know I'm gonna go to Scott and I say well hold on did you give the teacher you know so just reminding the parent of the channels that they need to take first keeping an open door policy with the teacher expressing their concerns and if it's not met there then now there are School administration the principals giving them the opportunity to correct whatever that issue is first and then if that does not work then there are the next channels of maybe reaching out to Scott at that point moving up but giving our teachers and our staff the benefit of the doubt and opening those lines of communication so we can try to work through whatever issues as parents we are having because sometimes the teachers don't realize or they're so overwhelmed or the schools so let's start where we can first and then encourage them to move up is [Music] Steve's turn Mr Bruno's okay identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance Community concerns student needs staff considerations and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue so can I go back to the um because if you guys are all here you heard me last time um it is it is special education that lasts you know with the budget cut um I feel very strongly about it and it was just very worrisome because I don't like the feeling of kids not having AIDS because I believe if the number was correct there was somewhere in the 37 38 AIDs that were you know outsourced but were let go so my concern was very strongly how do we make sure those third if I don't know if it's 38 or if some of these AIDS were helping more than you know one student but how were we making sure those students aren't missing out on a thing um and I'm sorry I feel like I'm losing the question can you tell me one more time so I can go right back sure identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance Community concerns student needs staff considerations and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue okay yes that is a fool so I taking just not just mine out my opinions but thinking about how is it affecting these students as a whole how what can we do at a school level to try and alleviate some of that loss in this particular issue um and so sorry it's the first question but also just keeping in mind what the community you know these students are our community and I think my decision would just I'm a type of person and it's outside the board but I pray on everything I take all the facts I take everything I keep everybody's how the decision is going to affect everybody and I just take that information and try to make the best decision possible but our students are our first priority so I would listen to everything that comes in whether it be from students parents Community but I think our whatever is going to bring the best outcome for our students is what decision I would have to make I hope that answered thank you same question to you identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance Community concerns student needs staff considerations and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue so um this one might not be real recent but we did recently put into place an equity policy we realized that we did not have an equity policy in place and um given that that's what I do during the day it was very important to me on a personal level that we get one into place we also were having a lot of community input a lot of discussion at the board level and just in the community in general that you know we needed to have a policy we quickly put one into place it became contentious in the fact that we threw it together pretty quickly but we also knew when we put it together that um it was a starting point right it's a starting point and it can be at it can be modified as we go along so the way that I did and would make those decisions is to listen to what's happening in the community and in the society as a whole and really just consider what's going to serve well I hate to repeat what she said but what's going to serve our students the best and we definitely did have some concerns that we were not serving all of our students well by not having an equity policy in place and so my initial you know my response to that was we need to get one in place immediately and so we took the best ones that we could find and we modified them for what we needed in this community we took into consideration what students and and families and Community were saying and we did what we could to get the best policy in place as quickly as we could knowing that it could it can always be improved so I don't know if that answered the question but it was an example could you support a board decision you did not vote in favor of and why or why not so we already I already touched on that yes absolutely um if I'm 20 of this board well hopefully I'm 20 of this board one one trustee is um and again we're supposed to bring in different perspectives and just different views and we're supposed to also come to some compromises even if I was adamantly opposed to a decision that was made I know that that was the decision made by the board and I am part of the board and so I would definitely support that decision now would I at a later time potentially bring it back up for review with revisions with other ideas that's always possible certainly but once a decision is made a decision is made and we all support that wholeheartedly thank you thank you could you support a board decision decision you did not vote in favor of and why or why not yes um so as I stated that when you are communicating and working together as a board there we are always going to have to compromise um and that's just that's life but especially here not everyone is going to agree but I know that we all if I was to sit on the board would be working in the same favor of our students staff and faculty so I know that I would have to trust even if I did not if that wasn't my original thought I would have to trust that my board is still working in the best for the best outcome for our district and so and with that trust and with working together I would I would have to support it I would support it because we are a team and we would work together for the same outcome okay and I stay here I got it now [Laughter] last question my dear what questions do you have for the board to help you prepare to take on this Commitment if chosen um I don't have any specific questions but what I would say is if I was chosen um this would be my first board other than the Oak Hill Elementary School PTA that I sit on I would just ask that you guys would all open welcoming arms um and give me the opportunity to learn and just trust that I am eager and trust that I am a go-getter and that our students and our just all the families everyone every part of this district is something that I am ready to serve um and just bear with me as I would learn because it would be brand new but something that I don't ever back down from is a challenge and so learning the duties of the Board of Trustees would be a challenge but I'm ready for that so just welcoming arms and no questions other than that if you were to take the position or get the position it takes a year to really feel welcomed or not welcomed but at home in the position I mean all of us have gone through that um just getting to know what all the rules and laws and all that verbiage is so don't feel like you would be different no thank you I will tell you it takes a lifetime to learn how to be a parent so I'm up for the challenge and that's all thank you very much thank you Miss Kelly what questions do you have for the board to help you prepare to take this commitment to choose chosen I am struggling with this question um I know I should have good questions in mind but I really at this point I I just don't um I mean my questions are always on whatever the subject that's being discussed right like I'm I'm listening to the presentation I'm reading the materials my questions are related to what are the decisions we're making so the question for the board is I guess would you be doing the same thing and I already know the answer to that is yes I know you are I've worked with you guys for a long time and I and I know that we're all um very diligent about this role and and this responsibility and that it affects the lives of every student and every member of this community and so I I don't need to ask you that question but that's the question that comes to mind is would you also be doing the same thing so um gosh I feel like I should come up with a better question than that but I that's it that's a good question you guys know me you know my passion uh I think you have a difficult very difficult Choice um in front of you and I'm really happy to have been given the opportunity again to to serve and if I don't get selected I'm I'm not going to go home and cry but I will be disappointed and that's okay okay thank you Miss Kelly okay it was a pleasure having both of you participate in tonight's candidate interview uh Your Enthusiasm and engagement are truly inspiring and we appreciate you taking the time to meet with us tonight we have already read the interview questions and we have listened to their we have already reviewed their information sheet and have listened to their questions is there any board discussion yes Mr Bruno first of all I want to thank you both um I've been on that side of one of these interviews it's not easy and frankly being on this side isn't very easy either we have two people who have been here in the audience many times have individually shown a commitment to this District have very fun personalities are very passionate are clearly do wanting to do this for the right reasons I don't think there's a wrong choice here um and frankly my interview scores are pretty much dead even so uh just thank you both Mrs Anderson do you have any discussion I pretty much agree with what Steve said there's you know very close um I think um the one the one difference just that both of you have done a very good job and I wish we had two positions but we don't thank you Mr ballen do you have any discussion so I concur with uh board members Bruno Ann Anderson um you know thank you for your your service to this District in the past both of you um and as uh trustee Bruno said uh yeah the it's pretty much even it's a very very difficult decision and uh I very much hope whoever uh is not selected will continue to support the district and and look for new opportunities with us thank you and I agree with my fellow board members this is this is a tough one um so at mimic motion yes so just a second is there a motion to a point one of the two candidates as our new board member and to be named on the resolution 20 number 21-22 3.
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So I think uh in previous years we've had uh like Julie Morawa who was part of climb high who is a business collaborative um as well. So a number of different stakeholders um who are invited including including people from remote definitely. Yes. Can I go ahead? Um so in the resolution it has the word greater in be it resolved to be resolved that the board gives greater consideration to small and gives greater consideration. Um when you say greater I'm I'm trying to get a handle on that because then it means everybody also get less. So, so could we say give you more an equal equal or I'm not sure just that you know then the special needs and will say well we need greater we need greater and the bigger schools will say well you know we need greater so I guess I'm having difficulty with with that and perhaps maybe in the resolution that we say have a whereas where you know we want to balance the the needs of the English learners the um special needs and and the other other other groups that was um brought up by HSTA um and that you know how to and balancing it all taking into consideration because yeah you you have a class of you know six kids and then you have a bigger schools where they have a class of 30.
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Mrs Anderson you want to make a motion I would like to motion that we appoint Adriana Simmons to the board second I will second that okay okay very good well then um let's just do a do of trustee Bruno I will vote I trustee Anderson aye trustee ballen hi and chair votes I and you both did a great job thank you and Miss Kelly you did a great job see she would have voted for her too okay so we're going to continue with the meeting congratulations Miss Adams we do not have a student representative today he is absent so we will continue with Barton superintendent reports and we're going to start with Mr Bruno this evening okay I've actually had a very busy month um and I think I view that as a really good thing um I feel like I'm leaving some things out so I apologize if I do um one of the things I got to do is went to Dudley for the oral language Fair um first and hopefully not last annual oral language Fair where students went up and presented poems that they had memorized this was fourth through sixth grade students and especially the fourth graders struggled with this but it was so inspiring to see the way they were supporting each other and encouraging each other and I thought all the students did wonderfully and so that was really awesome and then left there and came to Center to uh to watch the play uh to play with his wolves it was rough subject matter it was definitely not easy um but just like you know you have some movies that are fun and silly and enjoyable and you have others that are really deep but kind of make you uncomfortable This falls into that category um I really enjoyed it I thought all the performers were amazing there was one scene um it was about a girls soccer team in a like high school age soccer team and there was one scene where the goalie just loses it and it was done so well the emotion was so raw I was Disturbed for a couple weeks from that one scene and it's still getting to me now just thinking about it amazing play not not a pleasant one but very well done and then right after that went to uh Riles for the sixth graders coming to visit um and the students at Riles were giving presentations about the different elective choices and I thought that was such an effective way to get the kids interested in these elective choices because they're hearing about it from their peers not from teachers and I just thought it was really well done and again another great experience then shortly after that there was the top 10 dinner for the top 10 uh GPA students of the graduating class and listening to their stories and the impacts the teachers have had on them and the impacts that they've had on their teachers um just amazing and one of the things I particularly enjoyed about that is some of the teachers that were asked to introduce these students were some of the same teachers that had major impacts on my student on my children when they were at school including um Ben Klatt who was my son's wrestling coach and um did introduce the geometry and construction which was the first math class my son really did well in um Mr Metcalf the the band teacher who I cannot say enough good things about what he did for my daughter Elizabeth Mr Huey who was incredibly influential on my daughter Bella is just wonderful to see other students getting the same thing that they were um and then just this past Friday I got to do my first ever site visits and definitely will not be my lost it was absolutely wonderful I got to visit Dudley and Oak Hill and some of the things that I saw that really impressed me first of all Mr homsley knows the names of almost all students at his school on site uh I can barely remember the names of the board so um trustee ballon and I were both really impressed by that um but the other thing that really struck me on that site visit was the way they addressed some behavioral issues that they had not by coming down on the students not by lecturing the students but by adapting the environment to meet the student needs for instance they had students that were riding their bikes between buildings and rather than having them get sent to the office and having to deal with them they moved the bike rapid and the problem went away they had a student who kind of was in a habit of trying to leave with premises so they introduced a walking Club where the student can get their energy out in in the morning and then actually pay attention in class and this is a creative way to meet student needs and I absolutely loved it and um my favorite moment though was as he was taking us on the tour he told one of the other staff members that student over there he knew the student's name is having a rough day why don't we have him join the um the walking Club this morning and see if we can turn it around so a student's having a rough day and rather than coming down on him you're compassionately finding a way to redirect it and try to make his day a good one after all that really struck me and then at Oak Hill as we were being taken around um I noticed the number of students that came running up to give this Oliver hugs which really says something about how safe they feel in that environment and how they view the administration the other thing at both schools that I really enjoyed is looking at the history of Staff members we have staff members who used to be students whose parents were were staff members um there's a lot of people who served as teachers and then vice principal principal and they're now in the district office it it really brings to mind what a tight-knit community Antelope is and what a tight-knit district centers and then my favorite part of the tour of Oak Hill we were just popping into classes trying to be you know trying to kind of be in the background so we don't disturb the classes but one of the teachers called us back in as we were getting ready to leave because the students were doing a unit on electoral college and since we were elected representatives she wanted to talk to her students about us and actually let the students ask questions and they asked really good questions and I just it was second grade I was thinking it was fourth so it was it was absolutely wonderful um I liked being put on the spot frankly and again it's a reminder of these students are why we're here some people may not appreciate the value of a site visit but having done one I really value it and I'm looking forward to doing some more on Friday and the other thing got going on haven't done it yet but we've got the purple core dinner for the students who are accepted to four universities tomorrow and you know again I get to be inspired by the the students of this district and I just I think it's wonderful and I'm really appreciative that I get to be a board member so that's all thank you thank you Mr Bruno Mrs Anderson I was able to attend field day at Oak Hill and it was done very very well congratulations since a lot of you are here tonight um very well attended the kids had a ball and the vendors were great I talked to a couple of them for some time and they were really good people who did a great job um I also went to the play and it was a great play the kids did okay I failed to see why we have to use a play that has so many four-letter words in it I just these are high school kids why do we have to ask they're not acid but why do they have to use four letter words every other time they say a word in a play I just don't understand it it doesn't add anything to the play in my opinion um the top 10 dinner was wonderful good food good people the kids it's very always very emotional it's one of my favorite events the stories behind everything that goes on with those kids and how they get to where they're at and the top 10 dinner is amazing sometimes um it's when one of the times that you really do take pride in what we do as a district and what those kids are able to accomplish other than that I it's been a great month um looking forward to some great weather and the festivities of the end of the season and graduations and all the fun stuff thank you Mrs Anderson Mr ballen forgot the button again I'm I might get it by the next meeting uh thank you president Pope so um I think as uh trustee Bruno uh this last month may have have been one of my busiest months since taking office even with the school break um so with that said uh first I hope all the teachers staff and students had a wonderful and relaxing break so this time around I had the opportunity to attend a number of events and tour a couple schools uh on March 23rd I too attended the Dudley Elementary oral language Fair poetry recital I was very impressed with the students delivery and their Poise in their presentations and I thank Delane Mathis for her invitation to participate in this wonderful event as a jugs you know we we got to judge the students in there and you know I forgot what was it uh first second and third place was that was how it worked I believe yeah so it was a it was a fun time uh and March also on March 23rd I too attended the CHS spring drama theater play production the Wolves uh very interesting play I must say and I can see uh all those that were involved in this production were fully committed to their roles and I commend Drama teacher Doug huey on providing the students the opportunity to showcase this production on March 24th I attended Wilson Riles junior high for the district's sixth grade class screening and introduction it was very informational and I know that the sixth graders had a great time you could tell there was so much school spirit in the air it really was and I know all the sixth graders going to Riles will do very well this coming year on March 24th uh I met with superintendent Lair board member Anderson and superintendent secretary hunt at the district office to prepare for the this evening's board member interview process we reviewed applications and selected questions to be asked for interviews and discussed the process that was going to take place on March 25th I along with superintendent Lair and board member Anderson attended the memorial Services of former Center Unified School District superintendent Rex Fortune at the Rex and Margaret Fortune education complex in Elk Grove it was a very nice service and I was glad to be there for the family as an elected representative of this District Dr Fortune gave so much to this district and it was a privilege to honor him by attending this service on March 28th I attended the Center High School top 10 dinner along with the rest of the board at the legion's restaurant at the Wood Creek Golf Course in Roseville I was amazed at the accomplishment these young men and women have achieved while under the guidance of this District's many exceptional teachers they are representative of the achievement level that can be attained by all students in our district again I as Mr Bruno uh spoke to when he gave his report I had the opportunity to tour a couple schools we toured them together it was on April 14th Dudley and Oak Hill Elementary um along with uh superintendent lair and I'd like to thank principals Brett holmsley and vice principal Melissa Oliver for their hospitality and generous time afforded us to show us their schools programs and students as always it's great to know what is happening in our schools and meeting the students teachers and staff so unfortunately on a negative note I am again bringing up the issue around Safety and Security of our campuses and our students as many of you are aware I ran for this board seat on a platform that included security and safety and I want to be sure that we in the district are doing all what is needed to ensure the safety and security of all our students teachers and staff I bring this up only as a reminder that we must all be diligent in assessing our surroundings at all times and if we see something say something if you're familiar with with that program I bring this up because sadly in just the last month there were deaths of several children this is a tragedy that we must be sure we Harden ourselves against and make sure we are doing what we can to safeguard everyone concerned in the district I sit myself sit here before you this evening with the promise that I will work to make sure the district will keep say all as safe as can be and do everything possible to keep it that way anything I personally can do to ensure that this occurs know that I will be at the Forefront of any efforts to do so and lastly I want to congratulate Andy Rana Salmons for being selected to the board oh there she is I applaud you for the important commitment you've made to this district and our community and wish you every success in conclusion I want to be sure that all that watch this board meeting live or recorded know that you are more than welcome to come here and attend this meeting in person your presence will always be appreciated and anything you may choose to present will always be welcome also please know that we appreciate any comments on any of the district's social media platforms as well such as YouTube Facebook Etc Additionally you may reach any board member or the superintendent via email which you may obtain on the district's website remember it's you the parents and guardians of our students that have the strongest voice in how your children are educated this completes my report for April 2023 thank you very much superintendent Larry saving yourself for last huh caught me off guard well my uh my report here is going to be a little uh all over the place because that is the end of the year and that's what we do right now the end of the year so I I've two public service announcements that I said I do miss Jenkins handed me a flyer she had to leave for the evening but she was going to share that Dudley PTO is holding a family fun night on June 3rd and so they're trying to get as many folks to be a part of that other schools as well so more information to come on that event secondly I I said I would be uh Mr Riley Mason's proxy proxy and just let the board know and some were addressed tomorrow is purple core dinner I'm hoping people can make that I know one of you cannot but it sounds like others might make it so miss Anderson we'll hope when you'll be able to join us too um on May 5th is this sports arama for Center High School it's a fun event if you have an opportunity to attend it's it's all right the kids love it dance and band concerts are coming up we also have the moving up rally on May 18th at Center High moving up rally for those that aren't familiar is the seniors give up their spot for in the gymnasium for where they sit for rallies and the Juniors move over sophomores take theirs freshmen take theirs and then we have the eighth graders there that take their spot in the Freshman spot and it's it's pretty loud usually so so anyway so I wanted to make sure that we got those on for for Mr Mason because he could not join us I also want to take a moment and thank Kelly Kelly for her efforts tonight and it's great seeing her and I do know I've known Kelly a long time I know she she's not going anywhere she'll continue to support our district um and then I welcome Miss Sammons to the board um hope you know what you're in for no just kidding um but yeah procedurally I'll we'll I'll reach out to you too in case I don't catch up the meeting so we can connect but we'll officially swear Miss Salmon's in at our May meeting um so you might want to bring your fan club with you because I I'm like I'm kind of geeky that way I think it's kind of special um so we'll we'll make sure that we do that and there uh we'll move forward from that also acknowledging a lot of remodeling has been been done in the business office and I want to acknowledge maintenance and operations grounds and even warehouse for their continued efforts to make it look incredible I'm shocked odd and cannot believe the talent that some of our staff members have and it went from me kind of joking around like we should we should move a wall to the actual wall actually moving um so anyway Lisa's not going to let me give my input on anything anymore but I I appreciate the work that everyone's doing to make it happen it's going to be a nice uh way to receive our families and give a little more um privacy and and dignity for that office acknowledging Mr barassi and miss sevard again I think uh again on probably geek but I think it's a big deal when we get promoted and we promote people from within so I welcome you both your roles I know you'll be very successful in those roles and we are here to support each of you in those new roles so we're all there additionally uh as the boarders remember we engage with West Ed for our diversity equity and inclusion work and we've wrapped that up for this year and are looking to come back for our second year of that so more to come on that and I think May will have the next segment of that work and then finally the board action tonight to name the facility after Mr Ray Bender I think it's important that we know while he wasn't here to acknowledge the honor that he received Mrs Linda Bender is here and she keeps hiding every time I look I see her back there but I can tell I can tell she's crowd I know Ray would be very proud and into the family would be is very honored for this recognition and we will make sure that you know well in advance before we get anything planned and we'll make sure that you and your family are are available for it so you'll be our number one priority the rest of us will will bend around you but I love you very much so I want to acknowledge Mrs Bender uh being here to to hear that I think that's a special thing and it goes back to the the point Mr ballen you brought up with recognition and this is what we're all about in this district is recognizing and supporting each other and I think that's another example of how we're honoring folks uh as for their legacy so with that I'm looking forward to the end of the year graduation's right around the corner and then that little thing called Summer breaks right in there somewhere so anyway thank you and I'll turn it to you thank you Mr Larry um I would like to say you know Kelly Kelly it was an honor to have you here tonight and and thank you for participating and congratulations to you Miss Ammons and I reiterate what Mr Lair said um congratulations for the recognition for Mr Bender um as he said we will let you know the festivities um I'm not going to talk too much about the activities that I attended because it was pretty much everything well Mr Bruno's pretty much his board report but I do have a couple additions um to add to that um a few weeks ago there was a shooting in Roseville at mahaney park off of Pleasant Grove and Wood Creek two individuals that were once students of our district and graduated from Center High School currently serve as supervisors I see your face Miss Bowler did I scare you because somebody said you should not start your board report like that because it sounds like something happened so I'm sorry if I freaked you out but these two students who are supervisors at the pools of Roseville and they were at the Aquatic Center at the time of lockdown and they are employed by the City of Roseville both of them happen to be present there when the lockdown did happen at the facility according to their mother they expressed feeling very well prepared to handle the situation due to the past experiences with the lockdown drills that they experienced here at the district so I would like to thank everybody for taking these safety drills seriously and to continue to do them I want to thank Mr barassi for continuing with the safety meetings and all of them that's the safety team that's present practice practice practice as we just heard they're very effective so the mother wanted me to to kind of or ask the mother if we could share that information with you on another note I would like to share some information provided by Mrs Tammy jabaly I would like to announce that 19 of Center High School students have attended peer tutoring at least once this semester peer tutoring is funded by an atg Grant and the program is run by the student student and Family Support Services Department it is held in the learning Lounge right here in the annex this is a model from the El homework Pro help program that we ran several years at all Forks elementary schools in December they hired the tutors and three other counselors uh it was Abby Sarah and Julia that did the tutorings for um for the tutors did the tutoring for the tutors um the program was launched in mid uh in mid January um it is so nice to have our students utilizing the resources that we have especially now when it's finals time um so thank you everybody that's involved that is my board report nice and short and that is unusual for me so we're going to go to Advanced planning future date May 17th right here at the district and it's like a six o'clock is there any suggested business or a suggested agenda items um not necessarily for the next board meeting but for not too distant in the future I would like to discuss the possibility um when it's time to to run for school board one of the options is the district can pay um for the candidates um statements on the in the handbooks I'm not phrasing this well but um and I would like to have a discussion about is the cost to the district worth the fact that that could get us more candidates to uh to run for the scenes so I mean frankly I don't have an opinion on this but I would like to have the discussion at some point and I figure since since we're far away from uh campaign season it's probably the best time to to have that discussion okay thank you so just I just interject real quick just make sure that we're everything's on the up and up uh we don't go too too far down the road uh you know there's the election laws uh I don't know if that would be um if that's within the so there is there is some uh Education Code that allows for it so we could bring there's a policy that we have that we can determine which route we want to go so we could when that time comes we could bring the policy forward but we would certainly want to vet to make sure that we don't go too far one way but there is language in there talks about the district covering the cost of the um candidate statement because that's really the only fee you pay um right so so I think that would be I think what Mr Bruno is putting forward is the discussion around that so those are all points you guys would want to discuss uh with that uh I'm getting this thing down too Mr ballon finally get my thumb um one of the things just to put in the back of your heads is now that we have appointed a new member the member would join us officially May at our May meeting be sworn in and then I think it would be good for us to sit down uh either as a workshop or like an after work June meeting where we go over the brown act I can ask our our board uh our board our legal uh to come in and give an overview of that I think as a team and then dust off our governance handbook and see if we can uh revamp that I think we got fairly far but with an almost you know two two fists new it'd be nice to get new input on that document to see where this board wants to go because it'd be nice to have a handbook when new members come on so they would know hey what am I getting into so I think that would be something just to put it back in your minds come May I'll probably ask you more specifically let's let's pick a date and we could do like a Saturday morning like we've done before or pick a three o'clock in the afternoon at five o'clock whatever works but just think that through needed to activate okay very good we will not continue in closed session the board is adjourned at 905.
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It's like, you know, one teacher, but then how do you balance that, right? No, we would be open to that. That that makes sense as far as um uh pointing out that balance that is necessary. Yep. Sure, Senator Richards. Thank you. Um I'm listening very carefully to the comments. Um near and dear to my heart are the rural schools because Big Island, right? Yeah. And I appreciate the difficulty in trying to strike that balance in larger schools, economy of scales. I think we've actually had this conversation before and so um I have to say so your committee on weight so cow I kind of like that. That actually works good for me. That's right. Um but I can appreciate the fact that trying to find the balance in there is difficult but I'm very interested in these conversations coming forth and um you know appreciate what chair has said um about participating in that um trying to find that sweet spot where we're talking about agreement of equal opportunity which how do you scale that in a city versus a real rural Yeah.
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And so that's what we're we're talking about and and finding that sweet spot. So um and this highlights a conversation, but this may not be the way to get it done because it sounds like things are going forward. I am definitely supportive of the concept. Um but how we go about it may be and I'm I want to participate in this. So chair, I appreciate you asking about the um the uh Zoom potential But on the big island, I think I would show up anyway. So, um, I don't know how you weight that correctly. Um, I don't know how you weight that appropriately, but the conversation does need to be had. So, um, thank you. I appreciate the comments. Thank you, chair. Thank you. And I think um my last comment would be that um even though we you know we have small and remote schools and I think there will be some um further uh discussion on the content the language in this resolution but with the use of Zoom can we not um find a way to gather the small and remote schools to say this school is going to have this teacher to teach this this teacher to teach that.
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Could you guys share? So if someone wants to have this instead of this at their school that they could zoom into this class. I mean the high schools have done a great job with uh allowing some of their students to take um you know university type courses. So, what I'm asking is the small and remote schools figure out a way to do that also um by through the the means of Zooms because I I totally get small and remote schools. I mean, they even have a hard time getting to school because of bus issues, but um I think if we were able to figure out a way how we provide that means to them that that might also serve them well. Also, great comments. Thank you, members. further questions, comments, comment. We're going to have teachers participating in this conversation as well. Correct. Yes. So I can I was just looking up.
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So at our last call, we did have um registar principles uh teachers uh as well as from both middle, intermediate and elementary as well. So yes, teachers in the past have been and will be again participating. And I don't know if it's um possible, but maybe even student leadership get a student council president or representative give a a consumer's perspective for lack of a better way to characterize it. Thank you, chair. And also so for uh HSTA if we could bring this to your membership to um you know let them know that should we be able to do um this type of Zoom meetings for different classes that that they're aware of it and it's up to them if they want to um participate. But we strongly you know this is for the students. So I'm hoping that they will um want to do this also because I know for some of the the teachers they don't like zooming.
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I mean, we had a lot of teachers retired during the pandemic because they thought they would have to do uh teaching by Zoom. Um, and I guess this is the time to determine if teachers are going to want to participate and they need more skills at Zoom meetings that HST find a way to help them do this. Thank you. You know, being able to get online and have the hardware in order to do it. asked the the key part. Well, I believe all schools have the hardware. I think it's the teachers hesitancy because uh they they wouldn't know how to bring back a meeting should they get shut down. And this is where um they should use their students because when I have issues at home, my it's my 11-year-old grandson that comes to my aid and they know more than we do. So, um, yeah, I'm just saying that this is maybe a a class they could start with with without the weighted student formula issue that just to help the teachers.
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Um, I think this would this would actually give the kids a a kick and the teachers. So, yeah. Yeah. Can I ask um can you restate the the the different areas you said that you fought for for the readiness? Our first count, our first count had a hundred 100 participants. No, no, I don't. I just want to know the different because we got to go into class. The different areas you said that you you fought. There was special ed. Okay. Special ed, English language learners and economically disadvantaged. Those are the three. Okay. And she wish she had done smaller. Me too. If I had known the issue, I would have fought for that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Members, further questions? Uh, if not, the chair is going to recommend that we pass this resolution out. However, we will um do some changes to the wording of the resol resolution and instead of the word greater um equal that's one.
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Did you have another? Yeah, I was thinking if you could do uh whereas you know that the student weighted formula take into consideration as well um the English learners, the special ed canonical disadvantage and then a possibly another be it resolve to that we did through the form of the committee look at creative ways in which to have remote schools work together to find ways that they can share resources like that. Okay. So comments regarding that members. Okay. If not uh recommendation is to pass this reszo with amendments. Chair vai chair votes eye on HCR 1160 with amendments. Vice chair vai. Senator Kuki I is in back there. Senator Richards I sllo five eyes. Resolations adopted. Thank you. Meetings adjourned.
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April 20th meeting of 2023 of the Ann Arbor renters Commission as you all know the purpose of the renters commission is to advise the city council and the city administrator in matters affecting renters in the city of Ann Arbor uh the Hanover renters commission is made up of voting members appointed by the mayor and approved by city council two non-voting city council Liaisons one non-voting liaison from the housing and Human Services Advisory Board I think that seat is currently vacant two non-voting members representing different landlord perspectives and a non-voting representative from uh the University of Michigan Student Legal Services to speak during any of the public comment opportunities you will be able to speak through the webinar link if you're calling it through Zoom or by phone for phone access please call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 935-8080-1941 that's meeting ID 935-8080-1941 to be called on to speak uh if you're calling um with your phone press star nine or use the raise hand function if you're calling it through Zoom you can always access the web link through 82gov.org forward slash renters commission meeting with a capital uh first letter of each of those words and then you'll be called upon by City staff and uh you'll be able to give your three-minute uh comment period after three minutes you'll be placed on mute so that the next speaker can can get their comment so let's move on to roll call um same as always because it's electronic we have to say what we're calling from so I am here I'm calling from Ann Arbor commissioner Chen absent commissioner Peterson hi I'm here calling from Ann Arbor welcome commissioner Kelly is also absent commissioner Cohen Smith cheers they're absent actually she resigned didn't she is that official um she um was not seeking reappointment so um her appointment goes through May I believe okay that's what I thought and thank you uh commissioner rumel oh I'm sorry I'm here Ann Arbor Township wonderful welcome I got some popcorn there commissioner droppleman president in Ann Arbor welcome commissioner else I am here in Ann Arbor loads present in Ann Arbor welcome commissioner Tibbetts I am here in Ann Arbor commissioner Rosen I'm here calling in from Ann Arbor welcome council member Regina here in Ann Arbor councilmember Harrison here in Ann Arbor welcome so uh oh yeah city of Ann Arbor staff Kristen um I'm here and um Attorney General wonderful okay now I throughout the meeting I know we've been using first names if you're uncomfortable with that just you can speak up during the meeting and if you prefer to be uh you know use the last name your title that's totally fine just let me know either during the meeting or send me an email um always open to feedback okay so moving on to uh number three item three approval of agenda is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda so moved by Jeff is there a second second by Lucy thank you um all those in favor of approving our agenda say aye aye aye aye aye all those opposed saying okay unanimously approved move on to item four approval of last meetings minutes uh so we have the minutes of March 16th meeting of 2023 is there a motion to approve the meetings from last minute the the minutes in our last meeting rather ocean okay thank you Lucy motion by Lucy second uh do we have a second Ed second by Jeff thanks um see uh all those in favor of um approving last minute last meetings minutes say I oh there's a post a name okay unanimously approved wonderful so now we move on to our first general public comment period item five and I'll pass it over to Kristen public comment can be made by phone by calling 877-853-5247-488-788-0099 and enter a meeting ID 935-8080-1941 or by um using the zoom web link and that is a2gov.org renters commission meeting and if you are calling in you can press star 9 to raise your hand or if you attend through the web link you can use the raise hand feature we'll give it just a moment and there are no callers or attorneys okay thanks Kristen so we'll move on to item six uh which is our business um and we will have public comment uh on our action items so tonight that would be uh we we have a resolution 6-b um and I think that I'm not sure if there's anything else on there that has public comment but we will move on to our first piece of business 6-a which is a presentation about Equitable engagement so welcome Heather thank you I really appreciate you inviting me to attend um or at least allowing me to attend I think I had asked to be part of this um and I appreciate you allowing me to spend some time with you to talk about our Equitable engagement initiative so I'm going to share my screen I do have a presentation and as I'm doing that just to give you a little bit of background about myself my background is in urban planning and social work which brought me to do this kind of work um I'm now actually over at the Housing Commission so again my background in urban planning and social work has brought me to work on affordable housing but prior to that I was in a group called systems planning at the city and um focused on things like long-range planning projects as well as engagement so took this up because what I was seeing is what was just kind of a lot of imbalanced Engagement I guess I'll call it um and so let me get the presentation going and I will share the story of this initiative and the outcomes so really this all began because we wanted we as an entity as the as the city government as well as the community um Express a value in having inclusive and Equitable um community and we see those of us who are in the game of um of Engagement really see as Equitable engagement as really Central to that and so what we sought to do was to develop a shared understanding of what Equity means so really have that common language and then develop some policies guidelines and practices that could be implemented to help us be the inclusive City that we desire to be so before we did that we realized that we needed to get grounded as staff so we brought staff together and and this was really a multi uh multi-discipline and multi-department efforts so we pulled in people from OSI they were very interested in doing this um people from each are people from planning um Laura ortad who you may have met became involved once they came on board the city we had people from public services involved and so with that we started off just as an internal team trying to ground ourselves and we began looking at promising practices from other communities so what were other places doing that were successful and then looking at local and Regional conditions related to equity so where do we stand basically so we were looking at a bunch of data related to that and then we also looked at what our current practices were one of the things that the city has been doing for a long time is using something that's called the community engagement toolkit which is a method of going through thinking through a series of questions about who we engage and how do we engage what are the the ways in which we're going to reach out to people and and how are we going to ask the questions what are the questions that we're asking however this engagement toolkit isn't universally applied across the city so that's something that we needed to dig into why were some people using it some people not to some people it felt cumbersome other people um it just it seemed to take a lot of time and so didn't bother with it so trying to figure out what the ups and downs were with that toolkit we also looked at demographic data and I'll talk about that in a little bit more at least show you the data and we began collecting this back in 2019 so right before the pandemic and with that we wanted to get an understanding of who we were reaching so we can determine ways to to broaden our efforts um we also started doing staff training on engagement best practices so there's an international group called The International um International Association of public participation iap2 that does trainings specifically on engagement and so we invited them to come start working with staff again this was right before the pandemic so those trainings ended up getting shut down but we're starting to revive them and this was really just to help all staff gain a higher Comfort level with engagement as well as understand methodology a little bit better we also looked at what we've done in the past with youth and there's been a number of things that the city has done throughout the decades reaching out to youth but one of the more recent efforts was holding a class with Central High School um or I'm sorry Community High School and inviting youth over to come into City Hall to help them learn about how the city operates and to really impress upon them that they have a role to play in making decisions that will affect them as adults in the future assuming that they'll stay in in the community and then we also looked at our public participation requirement for developers which is a little bit above and beyond what other communities do but I just really started examining does how is it working is it effective um um are there things that we wanted to change about that so this is the demographic data and as you can see on here uh We've compared this against census data so how do we compare you know with people who are coming to our meetings and taking our surveys again some of this is from right before the pandemics that we had physical meetings a lot of it was confined to just online meetings and online surveys but as you can see um basically the people that are participating with us are primarily White wealthy homeowners that are older in age we knew this um you know we this was our assumption that's what we were sensing at our meetings in this um the state of verifies that so thus the steering committee was born and what we wanted to do was not get the usual suspects so not the same people that were coming to our meetings already and our events already but really reaching out and so we did um a strong effort with trying to reach Again The Not So Usual Suspects um we did some of our standard stuff by going through our social media so Twitter next door Facebook are kind of the big three that the city uses we also did a press release um we put out flyers which seems kind of old-fashioned but really we're going back to doing things like that because what that does is it captures people that are just passing by so not people that are already on our lists are you know and that and that's part of the problem is we just kind of keep reaching out to the same people that have already signed up to be part of our system so um Flyers helps us get to new people um we also sent out flyers through Meals on Wheels which is not something that we've traditionally done and we're starting to do more more and more we put it in a community newsletter we did do email distribution we also sent a flyer out through schools so inviting both Youth and parents to be involved in this and then we put together a PSA that was on CTN which I don't know that very many people saw but it was just another means to get something out there which we don't typically do with that we got 80 applicants so that was more than I had anticipated so it really shows that there's kind of a craving for this there's a lot of people out there that really want to talk about this um we felt that that would be too big for a steering committee um so we made a tough decision to near it down to 30 people which is still a big steering committee but we just didn't want to narrow it down any further um so one of the first tasks that the steering committee did was Define equity so what do we mean by equity and this is the definition that they came up with Equity is the fair and just practice practices that ensure all community members can Thrive Equitable practices acknowledge and address structural inequities historic and current that Advantage some and disadvantage others and this is distinguished from equality which is treating everyone as if their experiences are the exact same the topics that we covered during our steering committees which took the course of over about a year and a half um are these and I have to say I started off with this very linear path in mind I had all of the meetings planned out in my head and this um you know this project plan this this neat tidy project planned and it really we deviated from it quite a bit because what I learned early on is that we really needed to go with really talk about the things that were meaningful to people and we couldn't just talk about engagement which is what I had kind of sought out to do we had to talk about all of these other topics too all everything that relates to equity you have to address that when you start talking about um engagement as it released Equity so where we began was talking about the opportunity index which is something that the county has put out there if you haven't seen it I really encourage you to to go look at that so the opportunity Maps area as in the county that have more opportunity than others and it's based on a variety of criteria which the website explains so again if you haven't had a chance to look at that I do encourage you to to take a look we also reviewed demographic data that's the data that I just showed you and dug into that a little bit more and talked about why that was why why are we only getting white wealthy older homeowners coming to our events uh we did talk about the engagement toolkit and kind of picked it apart what's what seemed to work well and what doesn't work well we also reflected on engagement efforts that were in process at the time so one of those engagement efforts was the American Rescue plan act funding um which several members of the committee felt um we could have done a better job at so we looked at that and then some members got really involved with the water treatment plant project which is an effort to to examine how we're going to restore and rebuild our water treatment plant so some members got involved in that other members got involved with other projects as well so some people are participating in some of the transportation implementation that we're doing one person got involved with our um our forestry management plan process uh so so the the influence started spreading a little bit as we were going through this process we also talked about land use planning this is so key as a as a planner I think this but I um you know we really needed to examine our history about where we are now in the history of segregation and and the government's role in that so we talked about that and Brett Leonard from the planning department came and spoke on that affordable housing so Jennifer Hall came and talked about that we also looked a lot at City hiring practices so at the time the committee started an article came out that talked about how the city's um upper level staff members for mostly white men and so people really wanted to talk about that um so we dug into that quite a batch quite a bit and we had a number of um people from HR that came and talked about that we looked at sustainability efforts and then of course we looked at the building blocks of meaningful engagement we also did some field trips so this is one of the field trips to the water treatment plant that we did uh this was something that the group came up with we actually didn't end up putting this in the report but I really like it so I wanted to show it to you it's this visual that we have of a paw um which brings together these topics that people really wanted to focus on so housing and accessibility um City hiring and Leadership practices and how engagement if Done Right really can influence the toes so if you're really grounded in the and the main pad of the foot you know you'll set the direction of of where the Paw is walking and and kind of um you know put put it on good ground so that really brings me up to the recommendations that the group came up with um which I want to read to you and I do encourage you and Kristen you'll have to let me know if we have not actually sent you a draft of the report yet I'll make sure that you get it because the report gives a much much Fuller detail about the story of how we got to these recommendations um and then it also and some of the recommendations there's some strategies or sorry not just strategies but some action steps involved so I do encourage you to go look at more of the detail but the first recommendation is to demonstrate that the city is committed to advancing equity and the reason behind this is is that people who have been minoritized and marginalized will not engage with the city if the city's not representative or clearly committed to sporting Equity so under that we have that the city intentionally hires minoritized individuals especially in higher level positions um the next one is to create transparent and meaningful Pathways for promotion of minoritized individual levels after that we have a point racially and ethnically minoritized candidates representing impacted Community perspectives to boards and commissions and then after that city council adapts and enforces policies that help ensure decision making is Equitable and in the report there are actually some possible policy statements ultimately we do want to take this to city council and have them consider adopting those policy statements as well as thinking about how we can advance these recommendations um and put budget behind it the next strategy is to be authentic and I know that seems really General but this goes back to the idea of that we need to come to the table and be really sincere so ask the questions that we need to ask don't use complicated language um share information just be really direct about everything and then finally build trust and transparency through continuous Outreach and relationship building so it's not necessarily enough that we have meetings in response to projects that are going on but we need to have a continuous relationship building effort so the next recommendation is um to provide both ample and targeted invitations to engagement opportunities and the purpose behind this is that people need to be made aware of opportunities in addition to feeling welcome and valued at engagement events so this is really important so it's not enough for us just to Make a Better Effort of getting notices out but once people get there we need to really make it uh worthwhile for them to be there so make their input really mean something and to of course avoid having Arenas where things feel hostile and meaningless so under this we have the strategy to translate and transcrate and translate create means adapting a message from one language to another while maintaining its intense style tone and context on meeting notices and content and Our intention is to work with the most commonly spoken languages first but then expand from there the next strategy is in addition to social media and email use non-digital ways to get the word out such as Flyers as I mentioned before we're seeing that that's more effective um word of mouth so again that's another really effective way because it's coming from people who are trustworthy typically door hangers and other methods like that including posting at Community hubs such as community centers libraries and schools the next strategy is to get the word out through places like religious institutions barbershops bus stops and informal Networks and then after that if actively recruit black indigenous and people of color to participate in engagement events and then finally create an online engagement Hub that is easy to find and use and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment because that's something that's already moving forward recommendation three is to develop Community engagement plans with care and the purpose behind this is that engagement plans are the blueprint for ensuring quality Equitable engagement so with this we have one main strategy which is to provide the resources necessary for staff to conduct meaningful engagement so that involves ensuring a budget is available for in community engagement events often time in the past Community engagement was tapped onto a project and what we're calling for is to make it central to a project and to really have some robust resources behind it such as being able to pay for food you know for expecting people to come between work um and other things that they need to be doing in life so provide food or even pay people to attend really honor people's time um and also to continue to increase staff training and conduct quality engagement continue to use and evolve the City's community engagement toolkit and then create suitable measurements and milestones for our successful engagement engagement so that's us always checking back in on ourselves like what's working um and recognizing that this is always evolving and that we need to keep up with it we can't stay static and then finally the last recommendation is to make engagement events more accessible and attractive and the purpose behind this is that engagement events that are not easy to access seem unimportant or feel hostile deter people from engagement from engaging um so with that we want to offer hybrid meeting options what we did find during the pandemic is that we were getting a broader some to some extent a broader scope of people coming to meetings because online really offers some opportunities for people who um are not interested or not able to come to City Hall all the time or the other locations that we typically have meetings you can be at home and have your kids running around you you can be in your pajamas or you can eat your dinner so we want to continue to offer these online opportunities and also have in-person opportunities so looking for ways to have effective hybrid meeting options we also want to provide various ways for people to provide their input we ways avoid ways that allow for dominant people and narratives for taking over the meetings hold meetings at various times so in the past we typically have them in the evening which is useful for people that have a traditional work schedule but many people do not so looking at various times and again over the pandemic we found that if you're doing something online these a variety of times such as lunch time or even early in the morning it can really bring more people out record meetings this is another thing that we've learned about online life with engagement is that people really appreciate recordings of the meetings that allows people to go back and actually hear things verbatim instead of relying on notes um so I I personally like them too holding people to the Golden Rule standard I know this seems you know maybe kind of basic but really just you know hold people to treating other people like how we want to be treated so with that we are working uh we try to enforce ground rules now at every meeting so listing out ground rules and enforcing those and and just really really trying to encourage and enforce people to be respectful to others um this is the same recommendation continued we also want to recognize that the community's timing energies and value is valuable especially for people with limited resources so again trying to find ways to compensate people such as with food stipends gift certificates um the next one is to hire trained and continue to train meeting facilitators and moderators in fields such as Social Work psychology diversity Equity inclusion public practice participation so we can really have skilled people out there um the next one is to create space to listen and heal Old Wounds using highly trained engagement facilitators so not ignoring kind of the ills of the past but really acknowledging um you know that things haven't always been perfect um also creating uh sorry and the next one is taking time to celebrate and experience joy as a community so we don't really do that enough you know we often have meetings where people are responding in Anger to something but we also have a lot of successes and you know we need to come together and Bond as a community more not just with complaining about things but actually experiencing joy and and looking at things that have gone well and then finally when a decision is being made clearly communicate what that decision is the decision-making process who ultimately makes the decision and the level of influence that the community can have over the decision so that's not some that is something that needs to be spoken at the beginning of a process and then also we need to make sure that we Circle back at the end of the process which we haven't always been good about and and saying okay this was the decision that was made and this is why it was made and and this is what your input did to influence that decision so going back to promising practices this is something that I mentioned that staff had researched earlier um here are some highlights of that that we seem to be moving forward with that are based on the recommendations too so creating um a system of community liaison so these are people that will probably pay or we're hoping to get the budget to pay for Community Liaisons this will likely be an extension of the Equitable engagement steering committee and the networks that have come out of that steering committee so what we're hoping is to get people that are involved in our projects um going forward we also want to measure participant satisfaction so we've developed some some polls and surveys just to continuously check in where we're at how we're doing continuing to do a mix of meeting styles again we've been confined by Zoom for a number of years but we're starting to get back more in person of what we want to avoid is the typical Town Hall meetings where it is just one person you know going up to the podium one at a time where people can really dominate a situation and set the tone for a situation but doing things more like shreds and open houses and having things more interesting um one of the things that has been rattling around my brain is having storytelling sessions and and doing games like tabletop games and doing solution you know problem solving that way so those are just things that are seedlings um but we hope to evolve those we've also talked about information kiosks so the less one of the lessons that we learn over and over again is that we can't expect people to come to us we really need to get out to people and this might be a way to do it as having kiosks set throughout the city not just in the downtown but really throughout the entire city on the outskirts and with these kioski we can share information um we can also probably do digital polls things like that so we're looking into that technology um continue to do more surveys on polls um I worry about us kind of over saturating that but right now people seem to really like taking our surveys I think because it's fairly easy you can do it on your phone you can find it online and do a survey from your home so we'll continue to do that and then the engagement hub so this is an example of an engagement Hub that this is from Pittsburgh what we have right now is just kind of a listing of ways to engage with the city um so our our page isn't very Dynamic um and we want to move towards something more like this uh this uh the research behind this came about from a group of U of M students that we worked with during the process from the school of information so they looked at our current website who was using it um and then looked at these best practices from other communities and this is just one of the examples but you can see it's you know it's more visual than what we have right now um what's up here is what they call cards so it gives an image of what the project is or what the topic is and then a description and then you can click to learn more and this will be continuously updated you can also do searches on here there's a particular topic that you're interested in but we really want to have something that's Soup To Nuts basically with all engagement opportunities instead of trying to hunt through the entire city website to look for the topic or if you just want to be an Engaged citizen you can go to This One Stop Shop and say okay what's happening now what what what do I want to get engaged in and just kind of look around and then finally this is um going back to the idea that we need to celebrate more so we've closed out meeting regularly as a steering committee and our final event was getting together to do this potluck and I think you'll recognize one of your own commission members Dan Dan is part of the committee um who made the best dumplings I've ever had in my life and I'm still dreaming about them so this was a really nice event because most of our actually all of our meetings were online so this is the first time we had come together physically so it was nice to talk to each other and actually Bond a little bit more so I went through that very quickly I'm happy to give more detail or answer any questions you can also go to this website right here um and oh I'm sorry this is an email if you do have any comments that you want to provide if you have a chance to read through the report and just want to give more thought to it it's still in draft form we're we'll be finalizing it in the next couple of months though and then you can read more about the Equitable engagement initiative on this page so I'm going to start sharing so I can see all of you and see if there's any questions or thoughts Heather I just want to thank you I My overall impression of that was it was positive in in a world where there's so little any media that is positive that was positive and hopeful and I appreciated the effort uh and presentation thank you so much thank you Jamie go ahead thank you uh yeah thank you so much Heather that was awesome um I had a couple questions I was wondering is the toolkit something that is like ready for public consumption is that something that we could access it is just on our internal website right now so it's meant for staff but that doesn't mean that we can't send you the pieces and parts of it I'm happy to do that I mean there's nothing to really hide about it and really like eventually we do want to put it out there especially for Consultants that we're looking to hire because we we we do want to require Consultants to go through our toolkits so we can have thoughtful engagement you know with a Consulting team that's hired to do that um so I I'm happy to share that with you what's involved in it uh just to give you a little bit more detail of the parts and pieces so we do have an ever-growing stakeholder list so one of our hopes is to make sure that we're not leave inadvertently leaving people out so we have a stakeholder list that we talk through like who needs to be at the table you know some of it is like the standard organizations that the city like does the ride need to be here does it you know but then we've we just keep growing it we've recently added churches to it in the past there was this um idea to the you know that we wanted to separate church and state but we realize we can't really you know like we're missing out on a lot of people and we gotta get to those um more informal networks and communities um and church was our huge part of that so they've been added to the list um so that's one part of it and the other part is a is a questionnaire basically that we're continuing to change all the time trying to get more at Equity questions um but it's basically thinking through um what is the decision that's trying you know that we're trying to mean that we're trying to make and what is the question that we're asking the community because one of the big mistakes that we've made in the past is just coming out and saying what do you want you know when really people don't have influence over anything and everything in a project it might be something specific so like a road design for example there can be some tweaking of the way a bike lane is designed but um it's not a question of whether you know whether the bike lane is going in or not at that point but that's what people want to talk about or they want to just read us on the entire road so we just kind of need to be clear about what we're actually asking and then to think through that level of influence so are we going out to just to inform to tell people about something or are we trying to um you know have input over certain topics so having consultation basically with the community and getting advisement or do we actually want to go as far as empowering people and so putting the decision making in their hands so thinking through that yeah that's awesome um and then my other question was just about the community Liaisons I was wondering um if the plan for that is to have people like within specific like would you have a community liaison related to housing or like how would that be set up yeah we haven't specifically detailed it yet aside from just the concept of not the usual people you know like being representative of of groups and people that have not traditionally had a voice um in bringing them more Central to the decision-making process so and I think probably the first test case of this is going to be our comprehensive plan I'm not positive about that but I think that is going to be a component of that is setting up a team of ambassadors or Liaisons or you know whatever we call them and going through a process of identifying who those people are and bringing them into that effort awesome thank you so much again yeah thank you heather um and just to clarify are those Liaisons to the steering committee um for the comprehensive plan it'll be um to the to that effort itself the steering committee is basically kind of done right now not that it's really done because there were brands that were formed and some of us pledged to you know stay in touch and do things together but we're we are not meeting any further um um my kind my kind of Hope was that um that some of the steering committee members would want to come back once we have some sort of Ambassador or liaison program set up that they would want to come back and and be those Liaisons or ambassadors but um if not you know we'll be opening it up to other people being able to participate in that that makes sense thank you and I have another question well first of all I want to say that some of the recommendations in the presentation I think are applicable to our Outreach to tenants in the city so thank you for that I would like to see some of those um uh what do they call the the toolbox yeah yeah okay I'm interested to see those um and I have one question one last question for you which is how did you gather information on how your applicants found out about the ability to serve on the um the steering committee we did ask that question not everybody answered that um but I I can go back and see yeah and gather that data for you I don't really remember what the most common um point of contact was with that but I'll go back and see if we can identify them sure yeah I think that since tenants are spread out over the whole city it would be interesting and we're not looking for you know to honing on a super Niche group um we want to cast a wide net and it would be interesting to see how you were able to do that with your steering committee yeah yeah yeah there any other questions for Heather okay thank you so much we really appreciate um the presentation um and you know where to find us uh so please stop by anytime communicate with the renters commission about any events we'd definitely like to help in any way we can increasing engagement with all parts of the city yeah absolutely and I encourage you to reach out to me as well again I'm over at the Housing Commission now I've been there for about a month so I'm really thinking about the experience of renters and um housing conditions it's heavy on my mind um so please do feel you know feel free to reach out to me if we can uh join forces on anything and again if you have any thoughts that come to you later if you do have time to read the report or if you just have a question that comes up please do reach out I'm happy to talk about this at any point thank you very much Heather yeah thank you all right wonderful now we've just finished 6-a I believe Kristen we can move on to 6-b sound good okay so we do have a public we should have a public comment session for this and action item since we might be voting on it so um Kristen do you mind leading that or not I mean anyone would like to address the rentress nutrition on this topic you can call 877-853-5247-488-788-0099 and enter a meeting ID 935-8080-1941 or you can attend um using the zoom link and that is a2gov.org renters commission meaning if you are attending with the zoom link please use the raise hand feature or if you are calling you can press star nine again this is an opportunity to address the renter's commission for up to three minutes there are any um callers or attendees would like to do so go ahead and raise your hand now you have one hand raise go ahead and state your name at the beginning of your comment Luke uh can you hear me great uh hi my name is Rich fine I am in Ann Arbor um and I just uh like to just um review with the commission a study uh that I've done relating to utility rates on um all electric Apartments uh versus mixed fuel Apartments uh it's my understanding uh that one of the issues that you're addressing is is the fact uh that some people have claimed uh that uh the utility costs uh for an all-electric apartment uh are um higher than that for mixed fuel where natural gas is used for heating and underwater um I had forwarded a uh an analysis of this I don't know if you can show it right now if you're able to view it or not I I cannot yeah we do have that Kristen would that be okay if I share that I think it's in the communications sure okay uh while you're calling that up I was wondering this myself so I decided to uh do an analysis of this uh the uh the analysis was energy analysis was performed uh with the same tool with the Rocky Mountain Institute uh uses uh for the study that you quote in your resolution um and uh what what you'll see this is uh this is an analysis of a 1500 square foot uh unit uh in the new 320 unit apartment complex recently approved uh by the city uh using natural gas uh for heat and hot water according to this analysis of utility costs uh for an all-electric apartment are indeed uh more uh than for a mixed fuel apartment uh you'll see it on on the uh first set of green lines the first and the second set of um the difference of cost is between 240 and 335 dollars per year uh this equates to twenty one dollars to twenty eight dollars per month depending on the unit I will mention that if the developer were to spend a portion of their savings uh from Building without a and a a gas hookup towards improving the efficiency of the building the cost difference actually drops to between six dollars and fourteen dollars per month um there's another line on here the third Green Line shows the CO2 savings uh and by going with all electric uh the Savings in the first year per unit is 3600 to 4 500 pounds of CO2 uh per year if you multiply that by the 320 units in this apartment complex that's about 1.7 million miles of driving a gasoline car per year and as we improve our fuel mix on electricity over time switching to you um switching to Fossil free Renewables uh the difference will become millions and millions of gasoline miles per year and that is for this one single apartment complex no one wants to see expenses go up every dollar counts for low-income households but must we sacrifice our climate for utility costs of this size I hope you see that the continuation of apartment construction using natural gas is too steep of a price to pay for the amount of dollar savings I encourage you to vote for the resolution thank you I have color ending in one three four um thank you Kristen and chair Farah my name is Ken Garber and I'm a renter at 28 Haverhill Court um I'm intrigued by the previous caller Mr fines analysis I think finally we're hearing some actual actual data being brought to this question of utility costs which I think has been subject to a lot of um speculation exaggeration um in you know previous meetings I think we have to actually refer to actual um data and documented information before making uh claims that um this uh gas ban ordinance would um be bad for tenants um sounds like the difference in utility costs over the course of a year would be slight and if um landlords took some common sense measures to improve Energy Efficiency of their buildings and as a renter in Ann Arbor I know there's plenty of room to do that um I think that basically it could be a wash or close to it um so uh but I want to raise a few other issues you may have heard that uh three judge panel from the ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week against the Berkeley gas ban ordinance this is obviously not good news but it's important not to overstate its implications for Ann Arbor first Berkeley has signaled that it does plan to appeal either to the full appeals court or the supreme or to the Supreme Court and second I spoke today with a University of Michigan environmental law professor he had not yet read the appeals court decision um but um Berkeley's ordinance amended that City's building code Ann Arbor on the other hand is proposing to amend its zoning code and um this professor did point out that courts give much greater uh leeway to localities in general when it comes to zoning um which is considered strictly a local matter um very difficult to preempt at the state or federal level than it does for building codes until Ann Arbor situation is different than Berkeley and so I don't think this um sport decision uh as disheartening as it is really uh shuts off Ann Arbor's opportunity to pass an ordinance to ban gas connections and new construction to Major Renovations the subject of um the resolution tonight and the resolution does allow for interim measures to be implemented urgently to incentivize electrification or penalize gas in new construction other cities and are doing this I just got off the Ann Arbor for Public Power Roundtable uh discussion um one of the panelists was Darren Springer general manager of Burlington Electric uh he mentioned that Burlington has implemented a carbon pollution impact fee starting at 150 per metric ton for new construction um that is buildings that install fossil fuel thermal energy systems um and for existing commercial and industrial buildings 50 000 square feet or larger when that building is installing fossil fuel space heating as well so um I think Ann Arbor has a lot of different options here as it works through the legal process towards a full gas ban and so I the bottom line is that your resolution tonight is very much relevant to our short-term prospects especially as every two weeks or a month uh the city is approving another gas burning project some of them quite large and this is just making it absolutely impossible to achieve our a20 carbon neutrality goals we're falling farther and farther behind frankly the city is failing in this effort in real time um and so I in my opinion uh this resolution is a no-brainer and between Mr fines um utility cost analysis and um the overall urgency of the situation when it comes to Ann Arbor's building boom um I commend you for considering this and I urge you to pass it tonight um and send it on to city council thank you so now we can move on to see we can move on to discussion of uh 6-b resolution in support of an ordinance to ban natural gas connections and new construction and major renovations uh I'd like to just walk through a few small changes that have been made to the resolution very quickly it's more or less the same resolution but what I've changed um was uh I removed a paragraph regarding the health concern implications of natural gas combustion in apartment units and just added in something very similar there were some slight inaccuracies in what I had written and after discussion with um an energy commissioner um I I changed it to make sure that it was correct moving on there was another slight inaccuracy which was corrected through the discussion of an energy commissioner um and I included a small sentence about the fact that the energy commission has already passed a very similar resolution they did that on April 11th and I hope that we will join them and uh then there were some awarding changes at the end here to make sure that we're delivering this to city council um and our recommendations are for city council and the administrator rather than any other part of the city government since our role is to give advice to the city council and administrator finally I know we were concerned there was there was concern about the increasing potential increase in utility costs as a result of this and so um you know whether or not this gas ban goes forward I think it's a good idea that the city council considers uh any sort of policy that or policies that would decrease the monthly cost of utilities for tenants like the electric bill and name them so um I think the see the examples I wrote down here were implementing the proposed green rental housing efficiency checklist that was proposed by the green mental housing task force which was created by OSI I don't think that those recommendations have been implemented but the city council members can pipe in and correct me if I'm correct about that rebates for Efficient Electric appliances like heat pumps induction stoves uh and programmable thermostats as well are some another option um and finally we had this in here that the resolution be communicated to the Planning Commission I'm not sure if that's totally necessary but we put that in there recommendation isn't for the Planning Commission but we wanted the resolution to be um if it's passed you see madam all right so with that I think we can open up for quick q a and then open up for discussion afterwards are there any questions okay go ahead uh oh I saw Bob's hand first and then you put it down sorry it's up uh just uh double clicked too quickly okay we'll go ahead then what is the definition of uh major construction is that of is there a standard definition of that yeah I believe that the planning I believe that the definition is any renovation that costs more than 50 percent of the evaluated evaluated cost of the property got it okay that's my understanding and um [Music] the market value I think it's the assessed value okay I understand it interesting okay yeah just to point out there's that's not that's not that much um uh uh fairly modest kitchen renovation could exceed the value of the uh half the value of an assessed of value um like 80 000 I know it's terrible amounts of money but is not unheard of for a kitchen renovation and assessed values are around 50 of uh market value for single family homes so um that it's uh it sounds much it sounds like a lot but it's not that much thanks Jordan thanks for the changes I'm I'm glad to see that we are encouraging the city to think carefully about the impact on renters and in general I I'm I'm supportive of this I'm really struggling with that 50 though I'm I I mean even like we called contractors I talked to them I said if we were doing this here like is it even possible and for these old buildings if we were to do a renovation that's 50 of the value retrofitting it would literally cost far more than the 50 of the value just for the systems so I guess I I feel like if I didn't speak up for that perspective I wouldn't be really serving our landlord perspective very well um you know in general I'm pretty supportive of these things but I I guess I see that the potential for that 50 of value unless you are doing a huge demolishing project with ton of money behind it for people like Robert and I this this it would not be possible like you'd put us in a position where it just really wouldn't be possible um for example to Electrify one of our big older buildings um cost wise so I'm I'm struggling with that piece but in general I support it I'm thankful for the changes and considerations and for the people who spoke tonight but I feel like I have to have to bring that part up I appreciate that Jordan thank you Jamie yeah just a quick question and you might not know the answer to this um just wondering would this also apply to would like would the university be included in this or are they exempt do they have exemptions from he does not include the university there are separate entities so I think that the zoning uh they're not affected by his opening okay okay thank you and thanks to the the caller who mentioned the distinction between zoning and Zoning code in the building code the difference really is important um okay um I see Nick who's next thanks I have a question for anybody who has an opinion on it what is the Pro what are the pros and cons of doing what we can to incentivize uh alternative energy sources and cheaper sources um rather than ban gas you understand the way I'm putting it is is there what you know have there been communities that have succeeded in this regard um I was really impressed with our speakers they're both obviously very knowledgeable about this probably far more than I'll ever be um so I take everything they say is true I accept that there are many many benefits for natural gas not being used and Alternative forms of energy being used um but can it be done in a way that as I said incentivizes Alternatives rather than banned gas Jordan did you raise your hand to answer to respond to that okay and Jeff were you responding to that um kind of yes uh in the same vein I was I don't know if we can actually get a response from um Mr fine I was curious about his carbon offset numbers as if those were were that specifically the building or does that Trace all the way back to um you know the generation of the power itself and and tied into to what Mr Ramel said you know um maybe adding something or or having something about incentivizing Renewables maybe along with this because of course um you know if if the the carbon offset is just going to the power plant versus burning in houses you know what is the advantage to that and you know I I did some number of research myself and from dte's own numbers almost 60 of their electricity Supply is still from coal um it's it's like 57 from their own release numbers which is I think 20 higher than the regional average um so kind of tying into that you know a multi-pronged approach I guess to this idea yeah well I'd like to respond to that thank you Jeff um so I when uh Mr fine contacted me asking to include the communicate the um his analysis on our agenda today I think he got me yesterday we did speak about that um question of you know is this really going to be decreasing emissions if we're just switching from natural gas in the home to Coal natural gas somewhere else and um the he did it uh consider that in his in his analysis he did consider the fuel mix and uh it still resulted in reduction in emissions and I think the reason why is because in your home um you were using natural gas on a much smaller scale which is much less efficient um than it is in a large power plant even though there is a difference between natural gas and coal so overall it still would result in emissions reductions and those emissions reductions would likely get only larger as DTE shifts away from the coal towards natural gas and slightly towards maybe more Renewables I'm not crazy about where they are right now or where they're going to be in the next 10 years however it is going to get a bit cleaner um and my understanding from one of our commenters I think it was Mr Ken Garber um this would likely be challenged in the courts and would a natural gas ban for new constructions wouldn't be implemented for some time so I think the idea was the city council would have time to implement some kind of incentive-based system in the short term while this is being potentially implemented uh after some kind of court case that was my understanding but again you know the city council members who know this better can chime in thank you any other questions okay well uh comments I also we can open up for any sort of discussion here okay Kristen I just wanted to quickly um kind of recap last month at the meeting this was moved and seconded and then postponed to this meeting so this amended version hasn't been um you're kind of learning about these amendments and then you could move in second to approve the amendments and then after those are approved you'll go on the main resolution as amended so you'll need to move in a second and a vote and then a vote after that question um so I do share the concern from Jordan and Bob oh I I guess I'm not sure that you expressly said this Bob but about the major Renovations part and about how that may not be practical I'm not really prepared to say that it definitely would be practical so I if you all have any comments on that and what if you think that there should be amendments regarding that I'd be open to discussing those but I see Nick yeah I just again real quick please remind me procedurally is this a recommendation to city council or is this a standalone resolution on our part that is mainly symbolic in value I guess it is a resolution that is the that concludes the recommendations of city council it is symbolic it doesn't have um teeth to it you know we're not Banning gas capsule and they're gonna do if they were to consider this at the council level there would be public comment from anybody you know well let me ask if I may uh council members uh radeen and Harrison to what extent do you think Council might it might make a difference in consideration of this issue should we pass the resolution I'm going to give you a very unsatisfactory answer but it's very similar to to my uh I abstained from this conversation at the energy commission um and so I am I am not going to be able to give you an answer to that here either uh we're in the middle of ongoing conversations with City staff and legal staff and exploring multiple paths forward um so I can't really say much more than that at this point okay uh Miss Harrison same that's okay you know that's fair Bob just to be clear I I am uh supportive of this I I just want to be careful to point out uh unintended consequences because as as Jordan says you know if these costs kind of go in a direction that is uneconomic then it's it's just not a you know I appreciate the cost analysis for a new construction and I think that that makes a lot of sense and I think the you know the the the the new construction techniques that are required that are effectively very different make this feasible and uh a good idea on an old building um it can certainly be done um I'm certainly working on that on our own house uh which is an old building acknowledging that um you know it doesn't have the envelope and so it may be uneconomic I'm still gonna do it but it's going to be uneconomic so that's just you know the renovation thing might have unintended consequences uh I'll let others who maybe have better better information than me speak on that sure thank you anyone else can I go quickly I just wanted to if if they're still here say thanks to the people who called in it's really useful and informative especially to see some data on the utility stuff because we had talked about that last week I thought that was really useful strongly in support of this I think it's great um really appreciate the people who put it together and I think um working on more projects that connect climate policy with affordable housing policy I think this is great thanks Lucy Jeff uh I also want to thank our speakers they answered quite a few of the questions that I myself had at the last meeting um and um I do support I mean I've supported in general but I feel much more comfortable with um having some of this analysis uh going forward uh thank you Jeff I actually made a mistake earlier I said 50 of the appraised value and there was uh that's not actually correct I was just looking it up from uh the the draft ordinance opposed by um Planning Commission staff uh includes uh let me see they mentioned any renovation where the cost of renovation exceeds 75 of the appraised value of the entire building or structure so that does sort of change it um especially if you have uh a multi-unit structure um and then they also say any addition or cumulative Edition in any five-year period the result in an increase in floor area of 50 or more so it's a very major change Bob that's a lot more reasonable that makes a lot more sense I agree thank you very great thanks yeah and I apologize for that mistake I must have mixed up the numbers um I know that there was a lot of thought put into exactly what the recommendations were and even if you still are unsure about that and if we do vote on this tonight and I um hope that we will um and you disagree with certain aspects of it you can always advocate for a different position to city council directly if this is seen by city council okay anything else before we move forward okay I will motion to make the amendments to amend the resolution uh in the ways that I I showed um do we have a second for making those amendments second thank you Jeff all those in favor of amending the resolution say aye hi hi hi all those opposed say name okay the resolution is amended unanimously and do we automatically move on to voting Kristen um yeah you can hold um some discussion so now you are voting on The Resolution if you want to do any discussion about that before holding up all you can right so now that we're discussing the officially amended proposed resolution is there any other discussion foreign to approve the um resolution is amended and a second before we discuss I think because I thought the previous motion was to just amend the reservation so now now we have the amended draft resolution in front of us and we can discuss it um the entire resolution is a we were kind of Blended the two discussion sections so apologies but um if there's anything else to be added about the resolution now would be the chance before we actually vote on it okay going once all right now we can move into voting right Kristen yeah great okay all those in favor of passing the resolution uh before us say I uh and all those opposed say name okay so I uh the eyes have it um one no vote right so this resolution is passed and will be sent to city council the administrator and Planning Commission thank you everyone for the debate I know this is probably outside what was outside of the conference area for a lot of people but I really do appreciate everyone who thought about it carefully okay so now we move on to 6-c discussion of Remedies relating to the apartment wait list issue uh informed by waitlist report right um so let me open this up the draft report of the um about wait lists for rental units in Ann Arbor was finished by our working group uh my understanding is it was sent to City attorneys um Kristen has that happened yet I did send it but I haven't received any um like memo or comments on it okay um reuse looking specifically for like a response from the attorney's office on like just like General comments or like is what we're suggesting legal right yeah I suppose I think that that had come up earlier um because we want to make sure that we're not misspeaking saying anything that's untrue and if they do have any thoughts about the legality of the proposed remedies that would be helpful before it's sent off to um city council okay so I would encourage you all to read through the report if you haven't already it's the same report we've seen a few times but it's finished we think um it has more information um in the let's see in the background regarding um we implemented some survey data from Central student government that does just pertain to student tenants but I think it's useful unless we included more information about let's see there was a I think an improved discussion of [Music] um of waitlist fees versus application fees which is pretty confusing since there's not a strict definition of the two in the state of Michigan and then there was um some discussion of relevant policies in other cities and other Jewish jurisdictions so actually we probably should change that to make sure it's not just cities states and cities uh thank you to Lucy for doing a lot of the research and then recommendations these are the two recommendations that we came up with and I can read them here the first recommendation is the city council should prohibit landlords from charging any pre-tenancy fees besides the security deposit that would include application fees move-in fees um no hassle fees option fees Etc we don't have exact language that would be before an ordinance for that but we think that this is the the goal that we want to suggest to the city council and then the second recommendation is that city council should consider amending their early leasing ordinance to more clearly provide that a landlord shall not offer at least to attendant before the appropriate date what that means is um landlords the way that it currently works is with early leasing ordinance 8 5 30 in the housing code uh landlords aren't supposed to require uh tenants tubes okay all right I'm sorry I don't have a language right in front of me they're not allowed to so what they're currently doing what some landlords are currently doing is they're having tenants sign a contract but the landlords aren't counter signing it to try to circumvent the law and we think that the language around 8 5 30 should be amended to make sure that that practice is clearly prohibited we read through it a few times and we think that they're it's not totally clear we think it might still currently be illegal but we're not sure so maybe the language should be clarified okay Jordan um yeah good good thoughts there and I'm really grateful that this report is out um as you know and as you and I have talked about Zechariah we really don't charge any fees ahead other than security deposit we tried to be as transparent as we can and what um a total lease is going to cost our attendance for the year I think that feels really important so um thanks for this report and that and I yeah I think I think that is really important so there's lots of different situations that are happening right there's the wait list option in which you might have a chance at that apartment there is um the situation where landlords are having tenants sign and they think they have a signed lease but it was never counter signed and so then the landlord backs out and says oh we didn't actually have a signed lease and the tenants are stuck in March without a lease um that has happened almost 10 times to my knowledge that I've heard from parents in the last couple of weeks um so clarifying that but I think also Claire find that um just the idea that that Elise um yeah I guess I I wonder if this bullet point is enough um so for example we're staying foreign not that I want to put the blame on the tenant that's it's surely not their fault that this is happening but no no party May sign a lease um and that at least like almost I'm trying to think of a way to specify for tenants like um that no lease that is not signed by like a lease must be signed by both parties to how do we kind of is there a way to incorporate a little bit of a tenant education piece in this blurb um I guess as maybe the impetus for my question does that make sense like is there a way to say that the idea that a countersigned lease isn't legally but or not counter signed lease isn't legally binding seem to be a lot of the the unclearness both on terms of tenants parents like all of that so wondering if there's a way to be even more specific about what this situation looks like I don't know maybe somebody else reads it and gets an idea from what I'm I'm saying thank you Jordan I I think I do understand um that no partition sign Elise is fair um and maybe clear Gail well I think the issue too that you're trying to get at here is um what the early leasing ordinance talks about is that a landlord may not enter into an agreement to rent the lease premises you know before until 150 days before the end of the lease and what that means exactly you know does that mean what does it mean to enter into an agreement is it just assigned lease is it offering a lease to somebody else so a little more clarity and understanding about um about the language within the ELO I think is is maybe what what Jordan's talking about too so and and I'm you know as you know fully supportive of eliminating what you call the the junk fees I mean I've been seeing over the last I don't know however many years just a continual increase in additional fees that are that are really meaningless and um you know like you you mentioned administrative fees move-in fees no hassle fees you know all sorts of additional fees that have made it really hard for tenants to have a true sense of what their actual cost will be in the lease and so um simply eliminating those fees would be would be incredible and and you know save it make it more clear for for tenants and and save money as well so um I you know as you know fully support that thanks Kim and I'm guessing that some landlords will likely say that uh If you eliminate these fees then the cost of event will increase and they may choose to increase the cost of rent uh which of course is not good and maybe they'll even increase it more than the fees cost uh there's nothing stopping them from doing that unfortunately but at the very least tenants would know what they're going to be paying and I think that's getting to your point there Gail I agreed I mean I think it's a run around to increasing the rent so it makes it seem slightly more affordable for tenants than it really is because if you're if you're paying you know a thousand dollars or more in fees you're you're paying it a higher rent than you're realizing so um I think it would be helpful to just if you want someone to pay more rent you know be clear about what that is I realize that's not an ideal solution and and the rental costs in Ann Arbor getting pretty out of control so um we'll see thank you young Jeff I just wanted to clarify um what Jordan though Jordan said um so is my understanding correct that landlords are circumventing the ELO by inviting people inviting or what or suggesting that people sign before the 150 days and and then using this technicality uh well since we haven't signed it it's not violating the ELO is that yeah both in from see John got his hand up too so we can today right now looking for housing for fall of next school year 2024 2025.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
all right we'll mean to order it is 701 PM welcome to the April edition of our Columbia Board of Education meeting I can't believe can you go roll call please here today Andrew Corey here Greg Meyer here Scott Middle Camp here Lisa Schumacher here Tyson search here perfect everybody stand with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance please foreign thank you all right Welcome to our visitor tonight and everybody else joining at home do you have any public comments all right perfect little Glimpse behind the scenes tonight this real quick I guess you can see me uh my name is Taylor Dickerson I teach German at the high school and at the middle school I just wanted to say in public comments tonight that our German exchange program is currently ongoing they just arrived last Friday I just want to make sure to recognize um the my colleague my German colleague Andreas hoiser this is his 30th anniversary of doing our Gap student exchanges so this is his 16th visit to Columbia um we did some math the other day our exchange we've had almost 550 students go back and forth throughout our uh our 30 years on our exchange so it's a great program to be a part of something where I'm really very proud of that we have here at Columbia and I just wanted to recognize that it was going on you might see them on the community the next three weeks they'll be here until May 7th um so be sure to say hi if you've seen them anywhere thank you awesome thank you that's great say hello say hello nice to start off some good news there so perfect and correspondence is going around I believe we'll run right into our consent agenda all right walk us through you've got your minutes and the reports and things of that nature we've got uh resignations Miss Bedard is resigning from the softball coaching positions so she takes over the administrative positions for next year um we've got under employment of certified Personnel Sherry Daniel has rescinded her name she's had some family issues and so she's not going to be hired by us she's going to stay where she's at we also have a math teacher at the middle school that I'd like to get added Marla Fisher is her name under leaves we've got Samantha Kendall and we'd like to add Kristen a Christian Avis Rouse to that he's going to take two weeks at the beginning of next school year it's a paternity we're all excited for him under extracurricular We've Got Annie Dent there who's going to be our drama for the middle school and the high school she's got experience working with the kids and so we're very excited about that we're going to add Lindsay Wehrenberg and Savannah hunzaker to volleyball freshman volleyball they're going to split that stipend uh you I believe were sent the extended school year that's going to be June 5th to the 23rd it's going to be three weeks um and then we've got our postings we've posted for a middle school language arts teacher and that's because Miss Simmons Laura Simmons is going to be moving over into the social studies position that we've got bacon uh and then we've got the seventh grade and the girls softball coach which was Where Mrs Bedard left and then we've got our summer workers that we do every every uh every year so we will not we will bring the names as they come but we're just asking permission to post those uh oftentimes we don't film because we don't get enough applicants so if people are looking for summer jobs they should apply with that said Administration recommends that you approve the consent agenda as presented just to clarify the the calendar move is later in the action items this is for the approval of Staffing for the extended school year yes did I say something about calendar yeah what do they say about extended school year calendars oh yeah oh the yeah that's for the staffing that's yeah the Staffing of the for things yeah it's three weeks in the summer yeah perfect nice song Sorry and also since there's been so many additions and all that since you sent out your super tennis report yeah can you follow up with just a quick email to us giving us all those names again yeah please thank you any other questions comments concerns what do you mean like a make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented I'll make a motion thank you for a second second it's got seconds a roll call please yes Andrea Corey yes Craig Meyer yes Scott Middle Camp it's a Schumacher yes Tyson search yes move on to our Communications report and presentation the enrollment report packet if again as I saw and we'll start with our administrative reports and our building report here the time has flown and so I'm pleased to share several pictures up here I'm not going to walk through them all but overarching themes for this year have really been School Readiness and these are our individual students in the Columbia School District Early Childhood Pre-K of one and it's all been about getting ready for school and learning how to do school learning how to be together in groups together and their own individual trajectories of learning and growth um Community Building Community has been huge at our school we're so thrilled to be able to welcome lots of families back into our buildings so we've had breakfast with buddies recently which you'll see down on the bottom to the right the pictures on these pictures to the right are our kindergarten school musical which I'll reference in just a moment the top left or top two pictures are we had an epic book tournament for March Madness at our schools that was the kickoff with several teachers themselves out there running layoffs the children cheering them on and presenting different books and then we had a tournament style breakdown the family's really got into that as well we can go to the next slide and then here is a great um examples of the learning that's been taking place in our schools at all ages what I love about Eagle View is that we approach a holistic view of our children and so they're learning through all these different pieces but it's multi-sensory and we're meeting each child where we are we've done a lot with differentiation this year um and every student growing regardless of where they start these are our covid babies as we call them you know they weren't necessarily conceived of born during Culver but they're the ones that there are two three their immunities their the Readiness should have been developing that and there was a you know somewhat delayed but that as we see from lots of illnesses Eagle View is a beautiful place but it's a German place so we always have lots of hand sanitizer on hand um and then talking about our kindergarten musical which the last performance is going on right now is called get hopping and it's basically a story of some buddies that are expected to hop you know why don't you hop Bunny's hot and they all have different interests they all approach things in their different ways and I was telling Mr Grody and Alyssa that kind of an allegory for school you know everyone has these ideas or expectations of children as they come in but they all have their own paths and they all grow in their own time but they do grow and that's what city will do this year okay so I I've asked every group of teachers at school for a little breakdown um so I teach Early Childhood so the Pre-K and early childhood and we have done a lot of Easter egg activities um we've dyed eggs we did some fun activities holding eggs on spoons walking we had these train hunts as well um the pre-crate the Pre-K registration for our classes opened excuse me on January 4th on the day of registration open we had one class completely full so that's 20 students and then then they opened it to the public and then 30 spots were filled and so all of them pretty much were filled by January 6th so in six days or just two days I'm sorry and we have a wait list of about six or seven still I think right and tomorrow is our Ace Olympics I'm at the high school um hopefully the brain holds off um that's for all of our special education students and so that'll be a fun time for myself and the other Early Childhood teacher um and all of our students um kindergarten did a Easter egg hunt as well in the gym they did for a good character um they have their kindergarten musicals as Mrs Benny just said and at the end of the year they have a Kindergarten Celebration which is where they sing songs again parents come in and it's actually really cute I watched it several times if they do something similar so it was very very cute um first grade one of the teachers is hatching chickens from the eggs and another teacher is hatching duck eggs um about 17 chicks right now in case everyone's wondering if we had an explosion of birth yesterday that we were pretty excited about um and then we're uh all the first graders are watching caterpillars life cycles and how they change into butterflies um one of the teachers class wrote and has published a class book about themselves um they're very excited to get the books in the mail and take their journey and their page to their class before each copy getting a fan or a copy to take home to families in the speech Department they're working on Spring speech activities and are excited about the East Olympics as well tomorrow because they participate in that Mr Miller and PE their field day is always at the end of the year that's always a fun you know a culmination of the school year I think one of the favorite stations that the kids enjoy is the Whataburger you know they carry the water everybody gets soaked and so that's a fun thing that they're going to be doing here soon music is doing the githopping Mrs Hughes said that kindergarten is doing the GitHub and musicals I mean student at their very own part and they say and she said kindergarten did a fabulous job first grade with music is they're finishing finishing up their five families of instruments the students played experimented and created various instruments individually such as the harp Auto harp the keyboard the glockenspiels I don't know what that is okay and many many percussion instruments so lots of things going on fun things like this like Mrs vanity says you know we're Hands-On you know the moving we have to move every once in a while for sure it's it's been a great year it's been fast yeah [Music] thank you very much all right we'll move on to our assistant superintendent report what's up um so I have some shout outs I'm going to start with at the high school I want to give a shout out to Missy Steve one of our Math teachers I was I just happened to be in her room the other day as I was walking around doing some observations and it was interesting to sit and watch right a lot of things kids are like why do I have to learn this and she was not only really good about pointing out here's why you're going to need this math but also taking the math vocabulary and relating it to what they did the lesson she was doing that day they were talking about like midpoints and medians and she started relating it to when you drive what's that section in the middle of the road called and they were like oh and she was like why is it there they're like oh because it's in the middle like so it was just fun to see her take it and adapt it to what they would understand and they're used to which is important especially when you're in high school and you aren't sure you really want to be sitting in that class um at the middle school I want to point out Joe Burch he's actually one of our shared staff members I'm at the middle school and high school but um he not only does a great job drumming up that excitement about our AG program but he actually had his biotech students giving presentations in Middle School the other day and the cool thing was was not only did they do their presentation but at the end of it the class was asking the presenters questions and they were giving their answers and feedback so it really wasn't just that I prepared and memorized my presentation they had to really know their content which is just that extra step of critical thinking and Mastery of their learning at Parkview I have on there Carlo wantack um we are looking at how can we improve our phonics instruction um going into next year and like Eric said we're getting these kiddos at this age where a lot of that they would have been in school and these kiddos were trying to learn those basic phonics instructions online which is extremely difficult to do so we've been looking at how to do that so we have several teachers I told you before going to the Orton Gillingham training to get some ideas this summer but Carla actually stepped up with a phonics program that we had and got shoved to the side for whatever reason and wasn't used and she's trying that out and piloting in her room right now so that we have another piece of data to compare and to pull the best parts of what we need for our kids in Colombia and then at Eagleview the middle picture there is one of our cafeteria workers Suzanne garlic who um is always willing to help she is always you know she came in early for breakfast with buddies to make sure that we had everything set up and ready to go um she has a smile on her face when the kids come through the line and she just is a great addition at the school I will say this month I've gone over so I'll keep the other part of my presentation short I have a few other shout outs I want to give um so the top picture there is one of our bus drivers Diana Thomas Scarlett um Mr Grote actually had some parents um that called him and a lot of times when we get the calls up here in this office it's because something is going wrong but we actually had some parents reach out and go on and on about how she not only obviously is a great bus driver and keeps our kids safe but she knows her kids she's built relationships with their kids and because that they feel so much safer about sending their kids off to school all the time so that is fantastic in the middle there is our very own Taylor Nickerson again um so I just think you know Taylor not only has done a great job with this German exchange program we were even when Mr Grody and I went over to meet the exchange students the other morning and Taylor was presenting we got to speak um to Andreas and his wife and they were telling us about how Taylor has it all covered and figured out and he's even thought about this and that and I'm sure part of that comes from the experience of doing it for multiple years but it just is awesome to see that he's got it so smooth not only for those students but also for all of our teachers to be able to have those students around so the other thing that I really appreciate him for is we at district office we're getting very concerned about the future of the German program because we didn't have a German a class this year we didn't have any seventh graders in German and we have been Taylor went down is actually teaching at the middle school this year and drumming up quite a large following of students interested in taking German and so not only is that great for our program but I think that also speaks to um Taylor and his teaching abilities to be able to get kids interested and and want to join in and do that so we very much appreciate him for that and then the last picture is um Abby Mueller our transportation secretary so we have a student at Eagleview that is just very nervous and apprehensive about the bus there's a couple situations coming up that he'll need to be riding on the bus and he and Mom both were very nervous and Abby has gone above and beyond to come over she brought the bus over she worked with him and Mom to get him on the bus and do some practicing and so I was told that that's not the first time that she's done things like that that she will just go above and beyond to do whatever is necessary for our kids so cannot say him enough about how lucky we are to have her in our district now my only other two things like Amy said ace Olympics start tomorrow so Jean had asked if I would extend an invitation to all of you it starts at 9 15 with some of our very own students singing the National Anthem um so it's from 9 15 to 11 30 so if you have time tomorrow and you want to stop by and she said they love to see the stands getting filled up with people to cheer all the kids on and then stargazing that April talked about or I'm sorry that Amber talked about when she was here last month in April um the weather canceled that date out so our stargazing actually moved till next Friday on the 28th still at 7 30 p.m and still at the Salt Lick Point Land and Water Reserve but it got moved so that fits into your schedule too I just wanted to share that out as well and it's just the end of the year craziness so my turn your turn all right uh votes should be in tomorrow they have canvassed the votes we did not have a contested election so we know exactly who they are but the point being that you've got 40 days from the election not from the canvas of the of the votes but from the election and so we've got to have a special meeting by May 15th to see our new people I asked you all to bring your calendars I believe the week of May 8th is when most people will be back you know yes Wednesday the 10th does that seem to work for everyone it does for me it was easy good deal all right yes yes there will be time that day I would assume seven o'clock unless you want to do six was that does is Tammy okay with that date yes cheers yes so 7 P.M 7 P.M on Wednesday May 10th 7 P.M Wednesday May 10th we will have our special meeting and we'll get that posted um we also received from the cea as summer approaches our demand to bargain we uh when I first got here in 2020 we negotiated a three-year contract we're going to need to get back and negotiate because this is the end of that three-year contract um I have talked to some people I believe Mrs Schumacher is going to be taking the lead on that one correct yes and Mr search said that he would be more than willing to to step in as well so if there's no concerns comments complaints speak now or forever hold your peace but they'll be updating you in our closed sessions as we go with that um and it is the end of the year today I I have to do a shout out to the high school um there was a fire in the dumpster and we watched the videotape and and um there there's no cons no real clear how it got started you did see people throwing stuff into the dumpster and things of that nature but Trent Mahaffey drove as he was going from high school to another location he's our technology person he saw the smoke and he stopped and he called 9-1-1 instantly and then he alerted the office and everybody watched the fire in the dumpster which was not near the building so we didn't empty the building because it was safe the police not the police but the fire department got here quickly put it out quickly they beat me from here to the high school they beat me um they got notified first though confidence they also had their sirens on and my car went the speed limit but you know right but it was just really neat to see how everything ran so smoothly and they did it all perfectly and when it was all done you know we said to the firemen you know we really felt like emptying the building would have been silly and they're like yeah no I mean it's that's yeah so um but yeah I would have to say that was my first dumpster fire ever and literal literally um so yeah it's just it's the Summer's approaching the school year is going and when you deal with these uh situations it's just it's great to to know that things go on you know you've got your German guests here and you've got a dumpster fire outside just it's wonderful what you can rest at ease knowing that the people that are taking care of the children are doing exactly what they need to do when they need to do it and it's just it's it's a good thing so with that we will go into closed session we've got no actions but there's a couple of things I do want to update you all on um and with that I'm done with the superintendent's report thank you very much move right on to our items for Action the first one is the approval of the Consolidated District plan yeah this is one of those big documents they've Consolidated all of the extra information for Grants to one plan they did that I think five to ten years ago um we do it every year you guys approve it every year they come back with something that they want us to change every year it's always in a different area it's always what was approved last year but we'll change the wording and um that'll allow us to get our grants so Administration strongly recommends that you approve this procedure so that we can get our state and federal grants correct grants we do like friends any questions comments concerns what do you mean like make a motion to approve the Consolidated District plan I'll make a motion Thank you Lisa do I your second I'll second Andrew seconds Rocco please yes Craig Myers yes it's got middle camp all right Lisa Schumacher yes Tyson search Adam okay all right next item is the approval of our amended 2022-2023 school calendar Yep this is that time of the year where we look at our school year we say that we had two snow days and with that our last day will be May 23rd it will be a half day it's a Tuesday we recommend that you approve that calendar with those two days as presented questions comments concerns remember they may like to make a motion to approve the amended calendar I'll make a motion thank you Adam for a second oh second nice in the seconds all in favor aye any opposed any potentials on that one all right item C is the approval of the land lease for the Columbia agriscience Association yeah in your package you guys had the last lease that we had with them it was uh for seven years it's for the 73 and a half acres that we have in Sinclair County are agriscience Association they farm that land um they sell the the produce that's or the crops the crops thank you and um they pay us for the use of that land the this is a um they came to me they would like to see the lease extended this one would have taken us to 2025.
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things [Music] back there I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America I just let it stay before we get started the opportunity tonight to recognize our students and very excited to do that because so all right I'm gonna call the meeting to order at 6 32 and thank you all for coming this evening to the agenda tonight um number three on our agenda is recognition of visitors and comments from the audience we have a little piece of paper for people to fill out if you want to have three minutes to talk to the board on a particular topic right now I only have one of those for up there Stanley if anybody else they're at the back door so if anybody else wants to uh do that um go ahead and fill that out and let me know uh otherwise Clara you're up um we come up to the table we've got it set up there with the mic so everyone can hear you good afternoon and I am going to set as we do with everyone up you got it a three minute timer all right thanks uh that we um this is kind of representing I'm not really representing but this is kind of a group of key to your president is that just a minute thank you okay that can some parents and PTO officers we had a little a meeting last night and we kind of wanted to ask some feedback or status check about referendum and uh just I want to share some of the concerns we had still parents are being not clear about how school money is being spent and because I had a some some other uh Community residents uh having a little concern that why how This 1.2 extra million dollars have been spent I mean I don't have to ask the question that some people have the question and how that 1.2 million are greatly used so that we can have a more confidence to to ask people to support referendum how that extra 1.2 million coming from referendum so essentially used for our schools so that was one of the concerns and and also we really wanted to make sure the referendum will go for the election and may 2024 and then we head up to something probably it may not happen in November 2024 so that was one thing that we really want to make sure is going on and and what time what time of election and um then as some parents kind of were expressing concern about CRC and if school has to go financially struggling because if you don't have the 1.2 million how is school going to deal with CRC so that was kind of concern so we really also some parents really were worried that if we don't if there's no referendum passing that is really worst thing we want to imagine a world book for it but if that happens the school can go until 2025 but you finally are faced the deficit and what's going to happen if if referendum doesn't want you to pass next year what is our future thank you thank you thank you Claire anyone else all right we will move on um we have a presentation tonight and we're excited to have all of you here I know you're just here for the Governor's work that work ethics certificate but we're really glad to have you here and we're really glad to recognize the students who are receiving that I'm going to recognize uh Mr Baugh and Miss Brian is she here tonight no okay um and oh okay well so you're gonna go ahead and do our presentations and tell us a little more about it foreign thank you problems right next yeah so those of you who are here for this presentation it's okay Hey Kevin Slow Down Kevin [Applause] [Music] walk slow all right thank you so much all right next on our agenda um is discussion of which we have none and number six is approval of public session minutes from April the 6th 2023 is there a a motion to approve this any discussion and roll call yes thank you yes and tonight we have a number of action needed items as number seven um the first one is a recommendation to approve the donation of two hundred and fifty dollars from the Bezos scholar program to the pop or Pop Festival team in order to celebrate their accomplishment and the end of the school year is there a motion to approve is there any discussion yeah I'm very excited that we're continuing with the best and I'm excited that the name of scholar system right roll call all right number two is a calendar change it is a recommendation to approve the 2023 amended school calendar for us to be in session on October 16 2023.
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hi I'm Sharon Houck a 424 Cardinal Lane and I have something to say about something else but I just wanted to address that uh issue and I had heard it was a survey on safety and safety in the school as far as like bullying but the first question was what gender were you and they gave you for your choices and someone I know in the Middle School spoke up and said oh there's only boys and girls and he was sent to the office okay that's not really what I was going to talk about I want to address the issue of school safety in light of the latest school shootings I have questions to ask but I just wanted to make some comments I know you can't make comments about what I'm talking about this would be a major concern this should be a major concern of all parents and school officials there have been 377 school shootings since Columbine in 2022 there's 34 four students and adults died while more than 43 000 children were exposed to gunfire in school just in 2023 there have been 14 school shootings I have a question about how Cheshire is protecting our schools and students because we must be proactive what safety measures are in place at each School are there trained security officers in each School are you working with the police department to keep the school safe I hear there's a security person in the middle school and high school but what about the elementary schools these are soft targets 93 percent of School shooters have planned their tax in advance in four out of five cases of the School shooters at least one other person has knowledge of an attacker's plan but has failed to report it meant also so this is an issue that we can address and I'll go on further a little bit about that mental health mental health is the one factor that's an issue with these School shooters what education plans do you have in place to make students and children and teachers aware of signs of individuals with aggressive or mental problems or potential threats and how to react to them Mass violence is caused by many social and psychological factors what is the ratio of students to counselors a psychiatrists and social workers especially in the middle and high schools what are your access controls do you have a method of prevention to gain access to the school are all doors secured at all times we know that there was one case there was a case where they wasn't secured and there was a shooter that came in how do you know that these are secure uh secured doors and and everything what about the access for vendors and delivery people another thing she was training in drills are there enough drills in place for each School are all Personnel included including substitutes and visitors aware of the drill procedures I bring up these issues and questions for the peace of mind we all want in light of these horrific school shootings so thank you for attention it's something to start thinking about thank you Sharon uh actually Adam wanted to provide some information to you but if I can ask a favor I I took down as many notes as I could I didn't got most of your questions would you mind emailing thank you Anna do you want to give some details yeah I just wanted to comment um a lot of the detail that you're looking for uh our policy committee did an extensive um I guess testimony from our security consultant I think it was December 2021 unfortunately it was after another school shooting where um I had asked the consultant to come in to kind of explain to us our own security procedures and a lot of the um um I guess soft procedures that we take that aren't you know that don't deal with armed Personnel I guess um so that that's over we did over two hours uh with that person so I believe it's uh December 2021 and that's on videotape that's on YouTube on the Cheshire Public Schools so you can watch that for additional information of billions of dollars that were addressed to school issues so I don't know whether their grants issued so I don't know whether you're aware of it yes would you mind getting some of that detail Mr Messianic that we do have well thank you for the questions and I I certainly understand the concerns you know I think I know I could speak for everyone here these are important issues that uh not only do we worry about what but we've been aggressively addressing you know many of the things that you asked about are on our checklist and and we would check most of the boxes the one we won't check right now is that we do not have an SRO at all our schools we do have one assigned to the high school and the middle school but they do float through the other schools I will also tell you that we have a district-wide school security task force that includes not only administrators and some other key personnel that work for the schools but our fire chief our fire marshal three members of the police force including the two are sros and an additional officer we meet regularly we're Drilling in the schools every school has a drill every single month and the drill is not just a plain fire drill so we we do a lot and we have taken advantage of the school security Grant programs in fact there were four rounds I believe that were previously available we did receive substantial funds in all four rounds and we are applying for the fifth round of grant funding which is has a deadline of April 28th so we have plans to apply for that so it I understand and I I can tell you that we're doing everything that we think we should be doing and we'll continue to invest the funds that need to be invested that is a priority for us hope that helps I I think assistant superintendent Marlene Salon I wanted to give some additional information but what I would add is we had a secure open Forum on security four years ago yeah that was really well attended by the public at the Cheshire high school a lot of great ideas came out of their concerns uh since there are a number of things have been done I think we touched upon security earlier to school year I'm just wondering you know we could plan this out for this fall but it might be worthwhile to have a may not a form at one of our business meetings uh maybe at the start of school year just to recap some of the safety measures in place and get out the parents because you know we just shootings and valves in general seems to not go away and I don't think we should just be talking about these things when these things happen but for peace of mind for parents there's a lot of work happy eye scenes we don't share a lot of details because we don't want to publicize the perpetrators you know most of our plans but we can certainly cover what's been done today that's reasonable so I have it to do to work with the board to get that on one of our meetings uh if not the end of the year we get to start a school year just refresh what we're doing thank you for bringing that up Miss Solano join us yeah I'll just add that I I appreciate all of your public comment about this topic because we are the folks who are in those schools every day and it is equally concerning to us it is as it is for you and your children your children we have a number of additional things in place and I won't go into all of them because this would be a very long meeting but um we have what's called speak up which is a a tip line where parents can email us and we have gotten emails from parents it's Anonymous we're able to follow up on tips or about concerns that either a child expresses or an adult expresses or a Community member expresses and I think that's really important when you talk about prevention and how people do hear about some of these things before something happens so we put that into place about a year ago when you talk about Mental Health this year we implemented mental Teen Mental Health first aid for all of our sophomores and over the summer our teachers were trained in that and also at our last curriculum committee meeting we heard from the school counselor and the principal at the middle school about a program called signs of suicide where they're not just talking about the signs of suicide but rather about all of the things that Encompass mental health because kids oftentimes talk to their friends before they tell an adult and their the training is about contacting an adult to get some help all of our doors are kept secured and locked under Mr Maciano's leadership we've got biometric readers on all of the buildings so it really is a very secure campus and when we have visitors come into the building like a vendor that needs to be pre-set up and pre-screened and even at that we're scanning driver's license to check for any type of it's like a mini background check I'm probably batching that a little bit but driver's licenses are scanned so I think it's important you to know that every member of our staff has been trained both physically in person in um in those types of different lockdown drills and how to be proactive and they also receive video Based training so that is across all of our buildings and we do have plans in place that have existed for at least a decade to make sure that our substitutes know what the plan is should something happen so that's just to elaborate on a few thank you and uh I also want to add uh Anna reminding me that I believe at the next policy committee meeting which is going to be Tuesday May 9th at 6 30.
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School District Board of Trustees for uh so uh part one Open Session uh I'll call this meeting to order at 7 15 pm I'll move on to roll call Maribel will you please call the roll today is a special board meeting of April 20th 20th 23 at 7 15 p.m members of the board in attendance president Memphis vice president Karina de Alara present Kirk Andres Quintero uh I I was informed by Club Quintero that he is unable to attend this evening member Linda Chavez president member Andrea Laura Shelton present members of administration superintendent Dr Bauer superintendent Bauer is not available this evening assistant superintendent Chang is uh uh Acting Superintendent okay is that is that it or I'll call there Maribel yes let me hear what um Culver said present yeah I'm here Marabella we finished with roll call yes we are okay thank you so we'll move on to uh the land acknowledgment uh the Board of Trustees at the Alamo Union Elementary School District uh does hereby acknowledge that the district schools and Facilities sit on the traditional lands at the muekma Ohlone people and the Board of Trustees further acknowledges with respect and reference the welcome people tribe of San Francisco Bay area for their Stu for their stewardship of these lands uh so with that if you would please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] what's wrong okay uh with that uh Carlos would you provide a kindly provide explanation to our audience please okay so um good evening trustees and general public in our community is so for those members of the public who wish to address the board in Spanish we have life interpretation in person tonight thank you so much hey thanks so much Carlos so with that we move to part two uh closed session uh the board will recess to close session at approximately 7 20 p.m Open Session will resume at the conclusion of closed session so I am 2.02 announcement in public comments regarding items to be discussed in closed sessions uh uh Mr Chen would you please make the announcement regarding items to be discussed sure thank you for president um items related to existing litigations are Alum Rock Union Elementary School District versus Delores Marquez um item number two Jane Row one at all uh versus Alum Rock Union Elementary School District and item number three um Alum Rock Union Elementary School District versus Esau Herrera thank you okay thank you so much Mr Chang uh at this time I will open it up to public comment uh on items and to be covered in closed session all right see no further demand for public comment I will uh the board will now recess to close session at 7 19 pm and we will resume oh we will uh resume in Open session at the uh when closed session is finished how to use an orange TV with this new little piece wow okay you know what I talked to him about the Wi-Fi okay so with that the board is reconvening an open session at 7 39 pm okay uh section three uh 3.01 report of action taken in closed session there was no action taking in closed session to be reported okay thank you very much moving on to section four board business item 4.01 uh approved resolution number 58-22-23 climate change in Green School yards uh this uh so I will start uh this is my supposedly it should have been the second resolution at the regular meeting but it didn't get in on time but it's sort of a apropos because uh you know because this segment yeah and a little opportunity to uh you know uh commend Russo mcentee on its redesign today and uh this resolution uh you know uh as we're offering uh new programs for today's needs uh this commit you know this resolution recognizes that you know the importance of the environment the opportunities that come with providing environmental science uh curriculum to our children and to commemorate the uh today's launch of the redesigned Russo mcentee as Alan walks's environmental science and Justice elementary school so uh it's in you know it it is with that in mind and I bring this resolution uh or consideration by my colleagues today uh I'll open uh item 4.01 to public comment seeing none I'll move to questions and comments by members of the board yes trustee Chavez so I have a [Music] there's so much debate about um global warming and a lot of the data um is inconsistent um how do you see Alum Rock only teaching one side and not teaching both sides well it's not just one sign I mean uh you know it would be a you know uh it would be a you know uh experience that's specific to Russell mcninty uh there's a lot of you know environmental science is not just climate change it's also drought prevention it's also about conservation uh you know we uh yeah what let me finish okay but the thing is that uh you know I I have visited our schools and I I've seen our teachers in action and our teachers are generally they're in balanced uh you know this isn't about teaching one sign or anything it's about teaching a basic you know a set of available facts but also providing our children opportunities and outdoor education uh plant science uh earth science uh and in the Life Sciences and uh and the possible career opportunities that are uh available in in these fields and as well as to commemorate the good work that the uh teachers and staff and administration and parents of Russo mcentee so like you know I you know I we want to be careful before we accuse you know I shouldn't say accused but I don't really see uh our teachers you know um teaching something bias to our students here uh vice president I think I was next uh you said that wait yes yes so you you you all right so there's a lot of measures that they can take as far as the drought goes especially since they didn't prepare um a lot of a lot of the uh things that could have held the water so that we wouldn't have just let it go out to the sea to the ocean and as far as conserve conservation goes a lot of the wildfires is due to the fact that they no longer do controlled Burns so I'm just saying I mean this is a good item um I'm just saying that both sides need to be taught as follow as far as maintaining everything yes and and I'm kind of confident that both both sides of the argument will be taught in Alum Rock schools and uh you know this is uh you know this program is in line with uh you know State of California grade level science grade level expectations uh in this subject matter uh vice president Herrero thank you so much and um thank you so much uh trustee Chavez I think what the point you make in regards to making sure that it's not one-sided our education it's not what one side it is very important um and as somebody um who's gone through K through 12th in college and you know has my daughter um and also have um lived um historical um let's see so whose grandparents have unfortunately and parents um had a very one-sided uh education and still continues to be and barely here in Alum Rock do I feel that we're finally having both sides so I agree with you trustee Chavez education should be but you know two sides um so I think we have been one-sided for far too long and I'm just saying public education for centuries and finally we have um two sides so thank you uh board president for bringing this resolution forward for me it's important as trustee Chavez mentioned to have two-sided education um and you know we can't be oblivious to the realities right that we are living you know whether it's fires us trustee Chavez mentioned you know the uh uh water river I can't even think of the word but that we've all been affected with um in the last three months atmospheric River how could I forget that I call it a lot of rain but they call it atmosphere thank you yes I mean we would be just you know we're all intelligent here like it's obviously impacting us um so I am happy that our children are going to be able to learn um and be exposed to you know some ways that maybe our our Earth has been taken care of for many years right I know we'll be celebrating um Earth Day on Saturday uh as a community and we have a lot of events coming up um and for my culture specifically um as I um I think mentioned that the last time you know making sure that we're always honoring all four elements of Life earth wind water and fire um I know that this resolution will ensure that you know we're learning about that too and that our children are exposed um and that you know maybe we're even reconnecting right to some of our indigenous ways ways that we used to care take for our Mother Earth or the wind the water the fire and that some of us continue to do um so I'm really excited and um thank you trustee Chavez for pointing out some good points and I will be supporting this resolution thank you uh crusty Flores shell so thank you to president Pham for bringing this to our attention um always find these resolutions you know it's like we want to make sure they don't like sit on a shelf right but I think this is saying a lot and I agree with all the comments of my fellow um trustees about how frankly complicated um the environment has become for all of us but I think we do know that our young people are engaged in this conversation about sort of the Earth's future and the environment that they um that they live in and are schooled in so I'm super excited for mcatee Russo um and for Alum Rock to sort of plant this flag and say that we have an environmental justice focused school that's very exciting and I think our young people are really going to benefit and their families from learning about all of the um sort of again complicated issues that are related to not just taking care and being good stewards of the Earth but what are the choices that we all make um to help keep our Earth um locally as well as globally um as healthy as we can for future generation so um appreciate this and excited for Mac into yourself thank you okay you know I just wanted to wrap up you know and thank you uh uh trustee Chavez for bringing up the um always Salient point of being fair and balanced in education and uh you know it is certainly uh you know I I'm confident and my hope is that you know our our teachers are fair and balanced uh uh when when teaching you know in the teaching of our children you know the other part is you know I always you know uh uh the uh you know uh Land Management and Water Resources management that that's all that's the you know that uh you know those are issues dealt with agencies at at different levels of government government but you know I think that for for for the purposes of uh Alan Walker you know it it's an opportunity to uh give our our students valuable experience in The Sciences in at the K5 level which prepares them for the beginnings of lab science in their middle school videos and then finally as they go on to high school you know giving them a a foundation for uh College Prep life science later on and also uh you know a fun and a fun and attractive way to uh think about uh career that's never too early to think about careers in this day and age now so uh you know so it is good that that uh you know thank my colleagues for considering this resolution and I see Rusty Chavez okay one last thing aside from the difficulty often perplexing scientific issues related to climate change the topic is smart and uh a few minutes ago you said that you guarantee that they are being taught like that but I I don't want to say that they are or they aren't but to make an absolute like that you guarantee especially since the kids aren't being taught that they didn't uh prepare the reservoirs for all this rain um they don't do the conservation the way they they should um and we seem to be the only state having this difficulty whereas the other ones the Land Management uh is there they do a better job than California so um I just wanted to put that out there thank you okay uh seeing no personal questions and comments by members of the board uh having a motion and a second will call her a vote I apologize as I see you Preston Chavez no uh vice president Herrera loera hi uh trustee Flores Shelton yes and myself voting eye item passes a via vote of uh three to one with uh trustee Chavez dissenting and Kirk Quintero grow absent moving on to items 4.02 approved legal services with Davis Benson and young uh motion to approve a motion to approve by vice president Herrera loera second second by uh trustee Flora Shelton uh Mr Chang will you present the item thank you brother president um staff is respectfully requesting approval of this service agreement with Davis Bankston and youngsten to support the district with certain litigation thank you okay I'll open item 4.02 up to out to public comment uh seeing no desire for public comment I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez no uh vice president Herrero loera aye um trustee Flores Shelton yes and my self-voting eye the item passes uh three to one uh with trustee Chavez dissenting and trustee uh I mean Quintero absence so with them part five internment uh you know on the meeting is adjourned at 7 53
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