Briggs yeah I have no concerns I just wanted to say thank you when I read the citizen participation report and saw how many individual meetings had occurred it's really evident the communication that's been happening and it's what's wonderful to see so thank you mr.
hammerschmidt was not here for the first discussion of this project I do think it looks great I just for clarification are these changes proposed because of the new partnership with Marriott I might have missed that some of them Mariette carefully reviews the plans so some of the suggested changes were the result of some other changes or things that we did and some came from their reviews some came from our own reviews and as we were making changes we sort of incorporated ideas like yours and things that we thought made improvements overall so and then some of the things really just came out of engineering you know in terms of figuring out where actual places you know things go in the building and that displaces other things I'd like to take credit for the bike changes as being you know thoughtful but they were probably less thoughtful and more the result of something occupying the space that where they came from so we got lucky that it was better sure Commissioner Brandel I would I also am fully in favor of this and one one of the things that I think works particularly well is not only is the pedestrian entrance oriented towards an but the part of Glenn that it does outlet onto is way wider it's like the widest part of Glenn and that was our big issue was it's the only place for the bikes there's only so much room on Glenn you really can't ride your bike up that Street because it's so narrow and so I just think the way that you end up resolving all of this works way more elegantly and I'm just grateful that you all that it worked out this way and I fully supported so so I'll just add my quick two sons I'm I was supportive of this project previously and I'm even more so supportive today of it for the past two years every time I give a tour to an incoming resident to this community I Drive them by there and I tell them how great it's gonna be and I'm finally happy that it's actually all gonna happen so thank you for all the work that the petitioner has done on this without any further comments I will go on to a vote all those in favor please say aye aye opposed it's approved thank you thank you all right moving on to [Laughter] all right moving on to the next item our on our agenda and that is to 793 plumber throat special exemption use and site plan for City Planning Commission approval and we will begin with the petitioner presentation good evening or should I say good night my name is Jack Edelstein I'm one of the owners of the Plymouth Road Plaza building also known as known as two seven nine three Plymouth Road and we're here this evening to respectfully submit a petition to amend the existing special exception use permit for the medical marijuana provisioning center to increase it from currently permissible 550 square feet to 2725 square feet a little bit a little bit less than what the document says the current tenant operating the provisioning center has been there for about 18 months operating out of a tiny 220 square foot suite we wanted to start out small because we didn't know much about this industry or the business we didn't know how would it affect our our building other tenants clients so we thought we'd give it a try on a small scale and see if it worked then we could expand when another space came became available well things have gone in general fairly fairly well we did learn a few lessons along the way one of the things that we did not know when we brought in this tenant is that in addition to the actual store were they with where the sales are made of the medical marijuana products there was a requirement for a waiting area for the patients which was not available in that tiny 220 square foot space therefore the existing common lobby became the waiting area for the patients which worked sometimes but oftentimes during overflow hours it didn't work very well and there were people actually almost pouring down out to the stairs the other issue that we know might come up but didn't didn't know exactly how it would affect us was the odor issue which was not a big deal but occasionally did come up and so hence our desire to move it to the other end of the building to much larger sweep 2,700 square feet that would have plenty of space for for the lobby waiting area the separate store everything that's required by the state for the licensing also that suite as opposed to the current suite is separate the HVAC system is separated from the from the common areas in other words the HVAC system that currently serves the 220 square foot store also serves the lobby and in the hallway so it was impossible to separate the orders with this new suite it'll have its own dedicated HVAC system we brought a video so we've got a few a few yeah a few slides is the present of the appearance of the look and feel of the place we're planning to invest quite a bit of into the build-out to have this high-quality location this is the hallway looking into the door entry door down the hall this is inside the space with the the counter the reception counter in the waiting area that's the glass wall that's separating the waiting lobby to the the medical store on the other side of the glass again here's the lobby we plan to have laptops available for patients to look at information while they're waiting in the lobby this is inside the the store the retail area there will be counters for display purposes and for sales so that's pretty much it for a presentation thank you well now head over to miss Thatcher for a staff report thank you just like to add that there are no changes to the existing approved site plan so really this is just an expansion of an interior space the parking that's existing for this building still meets the parking requirements even with this new expanded use and staff does recommend approval of the special exception use in site plan thank you thank you I'd like to open up the public hearing if there's anybody in the audience who wishes to address the Planning Commission now is your time to step up to the podium state your name for the record and your address and address the Planning Commission for up to three minutes seeing no one I will close the public hearing and I will read the very long motion that's before us this evening the in Arbor City Planning Commission after hearing all interested persons and reviewing all relevant information including an accompanying site plan finds the petition substantially meets the standards in Chapter 55 zoning ordinance section 5 : 1 zero for special exemptions in section 5 : 50.1 regulations concerning medical medical use of marijuana and therefore approves the to 793 flemeth special exemption use for medical marijuana provisioning center the approval is based on the following findings 1 the proposed use will be consistent with the c3 fringe commercial district which provides for commercial activities including retail establishments offices and personal services to the proposed use will not adversely impact pedestrians bicyclists circulation or Road intersection based on the location Plymouth Road provides access to the site and the proposed use is consistent with the other surrounding use traffic impact 3 there's an existing site plan approved by City Council in 2013 on file and planning services for through documentation submitted by the petitioner regarding waste disposal inventory tracking security and other methods of operation of the facility the provisioning center will be operated in a manner that will not have an adverse impact on the neighboring properties or area and will not have detrimental impact on natural features 5 there's an existing approved special exemption used for medical marijuana provision approved for medical marijuana provisioning Center approved in 2018 on file in planning services that will be amended by this special exemption use the special exemption use approval is based on the following conditions 1 the petitioner obtaining and maintaining both a state of michigan medical marijuana license and a city of Ann Arbor medical marijuana permit and providing documentation to planning services within 3 years of a city Planning Commission approval date of this petition to the petitioner operating a medical marijuana business at address within three years of City Planning Commission approval date of this petition three the special exemption used may occupy no more than two thousand seven hundred twenty five square feet of the entire building for the special exemption use supersedes the previous special exemption use approved on the site dated May fifth 2018 and that the Ann Arbor Planning Commission approves the attached site plan which demonstrates compliance with the applicable special exemption use standards and no physical development of the property is proposed you have a commissioner that will move that commissioner Mills seconded by Commissioner gear and all do we have discussion Commissioner Brandel is the site plan kind of recent enough that there is reasonable bike parking that's already there I know with many of these petitions we've added that in it seems like it's pretty recent did it comply but like is it kind of generally up to snuff in terms of how we think about bike parking now - yes it means current standards yeah all right yeah thank you mr. Mill's no limitation on ours or if we talked about ours last time there was no limitation on ours okay I just wanted to see if that needed to be carried forward because it's in a commercial area with varying hours I you know I don't necessarily see any but I just wanted to verify and I think that this was one of the earlier ones and we had a discussion about that and we decided based on it being nowhere near residential that we were just gonna leave it open but I I did see somewhere in their documentation it's I think eat yeah 8:00 a.m.
to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday Saturday 10:00 to 9:00 Sunday 10:00 to 6:00 so they pretty much flowed the hours that we've we've seen in the past any other discussion all those in favor mr. Gibb Randall I would just just for our own edification if you could please come up and tell us about what the odor issue is because I've read about this but nobody ever really talks about it in the real and so it'd be really helpful for us to kind of understand as a commission what what's going on in terms of how stinky does it get like what what what is it like you know we we don't know much so I'd just be curious to know what we're passing these days in terms of what these facilities are like before I was remiss in not introducing our architect body shake has produced these drawings the odor issue where it comes from is a good question in the in the old days before a year ago changing rules vendors were allowed to bring the product the flood the flower we call it into the store and open it up and show it but that is no longer possible there are very much stricter packaging guidelines today than there were even a year ago nevertheless you know the flower does the smell if somebody opens a packaging advertently then it's possible for it to leak out i'll tell you that the we were very sensitive because that location the current store is on is right over our biggest tenant the DFC you financial bad combination huh during the first six months that I think there were about three complaints and we each time tweaked a bit HVAC system and there have not been complaints in the past year so I think it's been under control but it is still nice now that we have that extra protection of not having our system that sweet system flowing to any of the other spaces of the building so we don't expect it will be a problem if I can just make a point though to the petition that you read mr.
hosteen I didn't hear us but specific anchorman maybe I missed it increase in the size that we're asking for from the 550 to the thousand the special exemption used me occupy no more than 2,000 and it further it supersedes the approval for me make that 2018 okay further discussion please say aye aye posts it's approved moving on to election of officers is that most wonderful time of the Planning Commission year and you are going to pick your leadership the officers for the Planning Commission as specified in the bylaws are the chair the vice-chair and the secretary those positions are currently occupied by Alex as chair Sarah Mills as vice-chair and Shannon Gabriella's secretary they are eligible to serve up to one more year as the bylaws provide that individuals can serve in those office positions for up to a two year period and this would be an appropriate time for a motion to be made to re-up them for another year or if you deem somebody else appropriate for those positions they can be nominated and voter done independently sure so they I make a motion to nominate the existing sleep do we have a second sure Commissioner Briggs any other nominations I've got the secret ballots ready if you want to seeing no other nominations all those in favor please say aye opposed it's approved thank you that's that's too late now annual review of City Planning Commission bylaws at this meeting we also once a year review our bylaws and in our packet I will take a motion 19 20 20 Harbor City Planning Commission move back mr.
Ackerman seconded by Commissioner Briggs and we have discussion Commissioner Ackerman Thank You mr. chair we changed the format of developer presentations then staff report and that public hearing and then discussion I didn't see that captured in our bylaws and I'm wondering if they need to be amended for example in the public hearing portion there are rules about speakers that pertain to the petitioner for example the first petitioner gets five minutes falling representatives get three given that they now have a bulk of ten at the beginning does that need to change do we need to codify the new format in the bylaws etc I think we should I think we still call we started that I think I'm somewhat of a trial basis to see how it resonated I like it a lot and if if the Commission thinks it's working I think that's an excellent point we should reflect this another proposed change that I was considering but I hadn't proposed if we are gonna make some other edits I guess I'll throw it in there to see if it's something you'd like to see articulated maybe in a future meeting for consideration is the notion of requiring an affirmative vote four of six six commissioners to advance a petition one of the things I would like to potentially clarify is that doesn't apply to a postponement sometimes we find ourselves that we don't have a quorum we we can have a quorum of five to hold the meeting but not enough people to conduct business one of the changes I was not not proposing a change that it would reduce the number to advance action or a determination on a petition but that's sort of a more procedural scheduling thing could be done on a simple majority so if that seems agreeable maybe I'll propose that change in addition to updating the public hearing section to reflect our current approach as well it's that seem reasonable mr.
Mill's another change that I noted is on page 10 its article 10 section 4 we've recently been having sometimes allowing for the public comment to happen at working sessions or like RC meetings early on so with it we know what people are there for as I read this that doesn't say that we can't do that but that we would have to still offer that we would have to still provide it at the end I think it would be helpful for us to discuss that or if we're okay with it at the beginning that just because we have been experimenting again with that one I think it would be good to get some feedback on well what we where we want to go so my only thoughts on that is that since there's no action being taken at work sessions is that what you're referring to sort of work sessions in Orsi having yeah it's work sessions in Oh RC and so sometimes especially when the room is full it's helpful to know what they're there for my only concern is speaking at the beginning in the end and then it takes away we only have two hours so it's making sure that we have enough time allotted and I think instead of putting this in in here it's a case-by-case basis just depending on if we walk into a room and it's full then we we can at that point one of the commissioners can move that we move public audience participation higher on the agenda versus it being at the end as right now we could we shouldn't be doing that since it's the shall be provided immediately you know one of the things I'm thinking about as you're having this discussion is maybe that should be generalized just to clarify that audience participation shall be incorporated into working sessions and committee meetings perhaps we can draft it in some way that just makes it clear that it is the responsibility of those committees to make sure that that occurs but it doesn't specify when so that it provides that flexibility for the committees or working session to determine if it's to happen at the beginning the end or potentially both but it would set the expectation requirement that it has to occur during those meetings but it wouldn't be so prescriptive and when it happens in the context of that recommended on that just I imagine this goes through the City Attorney's Office just making sure that sound compliance of the LMA thanks for breaks I've really appreciated that we've been offering the audience participation at the beginning and I think it's great that we've had beginning and and I would perhaps encourage us to always have it at the beginning and then potentially if we have time to have it at the end as well that's great but I don't see any benefit of having audience participation simply at the end of the meeting that's not why people are there I mean is I've never seen it actually in our working sessions or in our RC jeopardize our time if anything we can talk less and listen more I think sometimes so I would be certainly in favor of encouraging that to always happen at the beginning mashenka Brandel so I can think of a couple of regulars that show up that I think are just curious and are that often comment under discussion in very thoughtful ways and and I think they're just they just come because they're interested and I don't think that they would necessarily have much to say at the beginning and so anyway I just throw that out there as because I think you know who I'm talking about and it's always really valued in terms of hearing what they have to say in terms of our discussion so I wouldn't quite see it in such black-and-white terms in those ways because I think some people are there for a cause and they are gonna show up for just that meeting and then there's some people that are just very invested in understanding what's going on with our business and have a lot of thoughtful comments that make sense after the discussion too so commercial breaks I completely agree with what you're saying and I think the flexibility I think this commission has been really receptive to public participation I think we're really open to it the only reason I am bringing it up more is that I have been an outsider at other meetings where you're the first time thing and you just don't realize that you can even ask to change the rules and so I think they're first-time participants and to people who are coming from out of town it's just really nice to know that it's when you can speak and hopefully you know that's beginning and and works really well so I I just just I don't really care exactly how I guess it's fine if we don't make changes to this I my point really is more just for the agendas if the agendas could reflect public participation I think that would be great potentially that they can occur at the chairs discretion at what time sure yeah just because if there are all some 10 people in the room we may want to hear up front versus wait until later um so do I do we want to postpone yes do you have a motion to postpone Commissioner Mills seconded by Commissioner Briggs all those in favor postponement please say aye beause they are postponed we are now on to audience participation this is the time for anybody in the audience to address the Planning Commission regards say any items there's anybody in the audience please step up to the podium set your name for the record then you may address the Planning Commission for up to three minutes seeing nobody I will close the audience participation and I will move on to Commission proposed business is there any Commission proposed is there any Commission proposed business commissioner Mills we're both in the letters tonight and that were brought up around this table that we don't need to solve tonight but that maybe we can put on our long list of things to deal with in work session or on our potential like future work plans I thought that there were a couple interesting things about affordable housing and what different in the letters that came through about what policy levers we might be able to use that I'd like to some of them were really long and I didn't have a chance to dig all the way through them and so I would like this is something that comes up before us a lot I think that it would be helpful to just ping that we got a couple good letters about that this time there was a lot of interest in or a couple letters about Airbnb that I know has been sort of on our on and off our work plan list and I think kind of I don't know what prompted these so getting a little bit more do you have more detail on that well I can just tell you a City Council has directed staff and you to make some recommendations so right now it's in the staff side of that we are starting to figure out how we're going to approach it I think I can tell you from my experience the one thing I've heard more and more is that there's any perceived issue I don't have a sense of what our community goals is around it and so that's that's one challenge the second challenge is it's a pretty right now we are looking in this I guess philosophically as these are uses that are pertinent to a rental house or an owner-occupied house and we regulate those in very specific ways this would for example this would be might be the first time that we start really regulating owner-occupied homes in a very significantly more detailed invasive way than we have in the past so we're starting to do some research on that ultimately I think we're gonna be sort of putting together what our kind of engagement plan is to sort of answer some of those questions about what as a community are the challenges and what are we trying to accomplish by doing something about Airbnb x' and so ultimately that will come through this board was there a time limit that the city put on that just so we've got some sense of when it's coming there usually is I want to say late summer or the fall but I I can follow up with more yeah okay the other have to mark cuz we talked about a lot of things came up one of the things that Commissioner Briggs brought up was about requiring sidewalks like if within private developments that that is an expectation on both sides of the road and if we can just verify that especially if it's a private road in this case and the other one is more of a point of clarification I I think processing it after like the discussion if a petition came before us for our 1e today would they be able to build a building that would the basement count towards their 2,000 square feet yes okay so so if they wanted if the first floor and the second floor were the same footprint and they wanted a full basement then we're talking like 650 right 1,300 square feet and then the 650 square foot basement okay I'm totally fine with that but if other people aren't then we should probably discuss that and we should probably discuss that because I don't know how feasible it is for somebody for a builder today to build a 1,300 square foot house and make it so that based on our land costs in the city and make that work for them so something to I would put it low on our to-do list and then just add a comment and we're about to air BnB x' there is currently believe there's a bill in the Michigan Senate and there's a bill in the Michigan House of Representatives that the goal I believe for both of those bills is to be on the governor's desk at the end of this session that have to do with air babies yeah those bills I can't I haven't thought of him as much this year last year similar bills were proposed and they would prohibit communities from enacting regulations to regulate them and from what Michigan Realtors Michigan Association realtor is saying it's looking good this year but they said the same thing last year so we'll see it looks like the realtors would like it adopt it correct the Realtors would like get adopted but it's looking good from that their support from there's bipartisan support and House and the Senate and also to not regulate so there are municipalities for example I believe I was reading about Ludington Ludington does not allow any leases any short-term leases and you know and then you have communities nearby but do allow short-term leases and it's a study on property values that was the report that I was reading well property values in Ludington versus another city that's nearby I don't remember the exact city how that impacts property values and homeownership rights well I'm glad that stripping local control is a bipartisan issue yeah tough crowd oh boy all right mr.
Briggs since we're making the laundry list I think this is on there but since we always are talking about the tree which trees are getting protected I don't know if the if there has been discussion in the past about you know elevating in terms of natural features protection which trees are sort of ones that we're trying to cultivate more in the city or kind of deemed you know and then also there was a really interesting discussion I thought tonight around the ecosystem and trying to encourage that and that being such a benefit and so if there's a way to integrate that into some our existing ordinances that would be that would be lovely and the last parting thought I have to say I mean listening to developer come in and he talked about what his takeaway from nap and how he really seemed to to learn a lot from that and it was it was really great to hear I thought we learned a lot and he learned a lot it sounded like about how to make that development a little bit better Commission get Brandel quick response just so you know environmental actually looking at there's a subcommittee that's looking at the natural features and one of the things one of the pieces that I asked them to look at was to create a heritage tree category that were its species related but it's also size related that it's just kind of upping the ante and the landmark thing for they're really like the burr Oaks that are five feet across in diameter you know I mean those kinds of things we don't have a lot of them there's not a lot of them around but that they get a different designation so that's one thing that's in the works right now but I will bring up the whole kind of ecosystem thing too in terms of the woodlands to see if there's some way to incentivize that because we do have this great resource I think with nap that that is something that we have as a city that not very many cities do really frankly but we also can't put a lot of pressure on them to be checking sites all the time either so it's a little sticky but it would be great to figure out how to incentivize that in some way without burdening staff a lot too so I was just gonna say um as far as incentivizing that it made me think of some of the past frustrations that this board has had with the planned project criteria that there's I think this the spirit of those criteria are are in the avenues that were interested in but they might not have the specificity that's the kind of thing that I think of maybe we can improve that framework to say when we're talking about natural resource protection above and beyond the ordinance requirements this is what we mean yeah sort of like instead of solar ready we mean providing solar panels been anybody else that's eight it's eight last-minute items all right I'm not no do you have a motion to adjourn move by Commissioner Gabriel second bike mr.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Wednesday July 17th 2019 and I called the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order we could all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag okay we are ceding our full board this evening and so the first thing on our agenda is public comment and we have two people signed up for public comment first we have Mary cereal oh so Mary if you can just please come to the stand and just state your name in your address for the record please my name is Mary cereal oh and I live at 13 red barn land Brookfield Connecticut sure you're all set hi my name is Mary Sue yellow and I am a member of Girl Scout Troop five zero seven seven seven along with Charlotte Goodsell Adrianna with Cisco grace Goodsell Rebecca Smith and Kaylee O'Connor we are here to talk about our Silver Award project as cadets in the Girl Scout community the highest award we can earn is the Silver Award and for our project we decided to focus on the state of our schools and decrease the amount of germs in our community this about this sparked a conversation about germs and clean hands here are some interesting facts we found 144 million kids miss school per year for being sick Hansen Houser products can reduce this by as much as 50% when hand sanitizer is used properly hence can eliminate 99.9% of germs on your hands in any classroom Republic space germs spread quickly even if you're not planning on doing things like eating talking the students or even sharing supplies other people's germs can affect you especially in environments with students especially during flu season minimizing your exposure to other people's germs is crucial for your health a few times a day when your sanitize your hands you reduce your chances of getting sick if soap and water were not available the best alternative is using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol to reduce the number of germs on your hands this is how this is how we've been preparing to help implement our silver award first we completed our required journey book which gave us skills we needed to help develop plan and start our silver award today we have contacted peer counselors schools facilities and the people from Brookfield business and operations some private companies we contacted our Pfizer hat city city paper and supply company in kimberly-clark our initial request is for dispensers in all classrooms cafeterias gymnasiums libraries and main offices of all for Brookfield Public Schools but and that would make a total of 236 dispensers but after looking at the financial needs and sustainability of the dispensers we decided to lower the amount of dispensers and place them only in popular areas that where they were needed leaving us with our new proposal we want to put two dispensers in the cafeterias - two in the gymnasiums one in the main offices one in the libraries and one in the main entrances of each school which would make seven dispensers per school and 28 dispensers total troop 507 7 and their families will take a day to install the dispensers in each school prior to the start of the school year it was recommended that the dispensers be installed with screws and fasteners there will be a contact card with our troops information on each device in case of any malfunctions or refills our plan is to store them with the janitorial supplies in each school then we'll meet the proper code for the American Disability Act so that'll be wheelchair accessible we've secured that hat City Paper Company is going to be donating the dispensers in Kimberly Clark is making a donation that we will use to buy the gel our troop will be supplementing additional cost for the next two years we're working on a letter for grant to help with purchases such as screws in additional gel if the letter is rejected our troop will supply what is necessary for the next two years the dispensers and installations are free of charge in addition to that we have the privilege of having one of the representatives from half City Paper Company come to help us with the installation of the dispensers in closing we are requesting the Board of Education approval to install hand sanitizers in each of the schools thank you for your time any questions question first you have grace good cell if needed was that you just ran over on time okay thanks normally during public comment it's not a back-and-forth it's just comment but I think this is unusual and since we have the troop here and available for questions I am okay opening up public comment this time for questions if anyone was so he said to in the cafeterias so I got the two in the cafeteria one in the main office one library one of the main lobby what were the other two locations the gym so two in the gym [Music] okay questions just about like ongoing maintenance and refilling like is somebody gonna be coming back to see if they're they need to be refilled and who's responsible for refilling them and maintaining them we were in contact with the student leadership representatives at the middle school and they agreed that they would be able to refill the ones in the middle school the representative from the high school never got back to us but our chief said that we would be able to go back and refill them one needed and then how often do you think they would need to be filled based on I'm I'm just trying to envision the dispensers like monthly bimonthly and it's only because they this is the microphone so no one can hear you on television unless you're at the UM we did reach out to all four schools that the high school said they couldn't they wouldn't be able to refill for us and we haven't heard back from huckleberry on the student leadership team there to refill them I'm kind of going back to Debbie's Brooks comment and center school we thought they might be too young but we are also going to have a card on there with our troop with a phone number and who to contact when they need to be refilled and or if they are malfunctioning or they need to be replaced and Colet how often they yeah we don't know yet because we don't know how much is going to be used and we ask that from half city like could you give us an idea and he said it depends on the usage so we're not sure but we will have supplies so once they're installed we'll have supplies already ready to refill them in the schools and available sorry I think two offs what you said to maybe get that information be really crucial to maybe get something the girls can contact local schools that have them or any schools that do have dispensers to find out how often they need to be replaced because I know it's quite often at least in my school some of the kids I like to play with it just kind of push the button right so that would be good information to have sounds like you're storing them at the janitorial location the janitorial team's been consulted and they're okay with a place to store them the custodial team had mr.
post has been aware of this and mr. Caldwell had been aware of the the requests to move forward on this but the custodians have themselves I don't think have been consulted on this yet so there's a little bit of legwork on that hope you still have something that school oh yeah okay school principal knowing about any locations of the specific dispensers a little more fine-tuned than two in the cafeteria and doing the gym have we actually walked this space with someone in the schools this age here and here and that's okay with them you guys do that yes you'll do but you'll do that before we go this okay that'd be great and I um I applaud the the timeline as well that's a lot of hard work I would suggest and I'm not sure about everyone else that this that the new proposal since it is a new proposal go to the Facilities Committee or the Facilities Committee to discuss yes our next meeting for the Facilities Committee is Tuesday August 13th at 9 o'clock in the morning and we're going to be meeting in the town school offices in Town Hall if you're able to come and sit down and meet with the Facilities Committee that would be terrific um I do have a question do you in in addition to having a notice saying when they need to be refilled with your troop number are there going to be any type of warning labels like do not put in your mouth do not put in your eyes that may be just a suggestion that may be something that yes yeah what you know like the skull and crossbones do not eat and the manufacturer may have that on the dispenser you could double-check that and then at the Facilities Committee you will receive could you actually have them in your hands from the dispensers no no I understand I just think it would be good to have a sample when you come to the Facilities Committee level right I've been out to be a great I you know let let the facilities director see it let the Fitz Facilities Committee see it I think it's it's a good thing to always have a visual like that they make the money on the job it's like Keurig machines I would suggest that maybe you rethink the locations for the high school a little bit just to just one because the high school has two gyms and also because a lot of people enter at the auditorium entrance in addition to the main office entrance like when there's special events or games or town meetings and in the auditorium so you know just maybe give some more thought to to where you might put them in the high school and just give some thought to the gyms - maybe consult with the PE teachers about where a good location because we don't want that spilling on the floor other than the gym floors because I could ruin it I know huckleberry hasn't finished I think it's great so it's a great well it's been a lot of hard work in a long time and this you've done a great job thank you and thank you very much for coming to see and I have to compliment you all a perfect example of argumentation which we work on all the time so thank you very much that was great what a display tremendous concise and administrative question do it does the board need to approve this or can we delegate this to the committee I think once it supports the facilities yeah I think it's just a simple my decision lies with the facilities we have all the questions answered and we know what we're what we're implementing we can just implement absolutely so for clarity you know we won't be voting on it tonight but with the committee will be authorized along with the administration to give you the go-ahead good thank you again very just coming home thank you and you're welcome to stay for the rest of this very interesting life it's cooler in here all right next we have written correspondence okay we had Monique Matthews regarding interviewing for the director of pupil personnel position Ron Jaffe regarding implementing a civics education program and the National Alliance on Mental Illness program and committing met communicating that to parents Michael caffee Ellie regarding enrolling in the Brookfield School District Praveen tokus regarding badminton programs and Linda Kalman regarding the News Times article and AP testing I also have a thank you note from Claire lund she was one of the top eleven that I'll be to you says dear Brookfield Board of Education thank you so much for the beautiful recognition dinner for the top eleven it was such a wonderful evening and I really enjoyed the dinner time spent on my teachers you all do so much for the town - thank you for the beautiful pen and letter opener they are gorgeous and will make such a nice memory I loved being able to share at the Board of Ed meeting and really want to thank you all the entire evening sincerely Carolyn you are very welcome Claire all right next we have approval of Board minutes recommend a motion that the board approve the minutes listed to blow as recommended the regular meeting on June 19th 2019 any discussion questions clarifications alright all in favor okay next we have the superintendent's report thank you mrs.
Stern so I just have three items but I'll take a little bit of time I wanted to share a little bit about what's going on with the generator for Brookfield High School that's a big capital purchase for us that we ordered about eight months ago and while we talked about it at Facilities Committee prior to this meeting it wasn't talked about at the meeting that's gonna be discussed tonight and for subcommittee reports I just wanted to mention that the generator while in process is not going it was supposed to be delivered at the first week in July and then installation would take a couple of weeks the manufacturer sent us very last-minute the first week of July that it won't be ready due to a shortage of parts and all kinds of things going on nationwide with generators until October so it's three months behind where we anticipated it would be here and that's an issue because we're heading into heavy thunderstorm seasons and hurricane season here in New England and the key piece is that there are two key pieces one we use the school as a shelter so you know there is a difficult storm that we have to deal with and the other piece is when you install we have concerns about disruption when you install during school time the whole point of doing this in the summer is you're doing this in the summer that the school isn't being used so we drafted a letter that we shared with the facility committee tonight and Colet and Steve done and me signed off on the letter just expressing a little bit of our disappointment and the fact that we want to remain the verbally told us that we're a priority for them and we want to remain a priority in terms of first in line for delivery because that all their customers will be late in that if in fact we do have a storm prior to having the generator that on them they would provide a standby generator for us to help us through a particular storm or something like that so we're doing what we can to move this along of course we're disappointed but I just wanted to share that with everybody I don't know if anybody had any questions or anyone from facility committee or Ken had any further comment on that okay the next thing under up another piece under operations very some really interesting news would share trial balance I'd like to turn that over to Ken with the town sure report I believe it last month's mean that we had developed a way to change that we we post our entries so that the town finance office would not have to maintain in effect a shadow set of books for hours and now that we're into the new year we've tested actually gone live with it and are several postings and it's been successful the entries are posting properly it's setting up the offsetting due twos and do from Zahn both of the ledgers so it's a been a success and we're all quite happy about that that's great only one I'm aware of yeah it's pretty exciting there and we're also Marsh is hosting the first fun if it this can be fun for mr.
Beldon I think it might be fun finance Friday where there'll be some collaboration around finances between the town and school offices in some of the the inroads that do to the bloom Shapiro report and our real hard work on the Board of Ed side some of the things we're a little bit ahead of the town on and working with the town folks and those individuals learning from us and us learning from them and sharing how the immune system can work in efficiencies and all kinds of things and so Marsha is gonna provide some refreshments and the teams are gonna be together for a couple hours on Friday and training opportunities for people who need it yeah and and try to provide an environment where people can ask questions and learn from each other rather interesting because it also promises accounting fun and games and so we're just say what kind and joke you know accounting jokes and games you know such a things and it's like an accounting jokes the word of the games come in yes said there might be a little Cara Lee being calculate erases things like that wild times and then if there's nothing nothing no other questions on that the the final piece I have it's kind of a it's a prelude to the consent agenda but I just wanted to share hiring update we're really very busy with hiring as we are every summer and really some exciting new folks are joining the team you'll see there's about ten teachers that have formally been hired that are on the consent agenda but we also since the consent agenda has been developed we've entered into contracts with a few other teachers so there are one two three four six more teachers that we are set and filling those positions and we have three four five six seven eight nine positions still open and the majority of those we have our interviews with those folks next week they're scheduled next week our principals with the exception of mrs.
LaBrie Shah know all the principals that various and marine are all on in training this week in different places so we weren't able to get our interviews all done so we're looking forward to it and we have some even ran into without knowing it a former student that was hired I wasn't I was on vacation so I missed that hiring process and it was great to see her so from 20 years ago so yeah so she said I looked exactly the same and I told her he already signed your contract you don't need to say so that's all I have if there's no other shows those are names that are beyond what's on our current yes because we'll have an updated consent agenda in August with the remainder of you know filling the remainder of the facilities makes sense to amend our agenda tonight to have the name know because not all of them have contracts at a formally signed you know we've entered into verbal agreements or some and move things along I wouldn't yeah no I just wanted to let you folks know that we're you know on top of things and it's going quite well okay that's all I have great thank you thank you can I just ask a question before we move on if it's appropriate now or we could save it since there was that article in the news times about the AP would it be appropriate just to sort of inform the community the results of that in case any people had questions about I think the one the there's there's two things I can say is that my understanding is that College Board has has moved on they're not looking into anything any further and all the AP tests were scored if there was a problem with any of the AP tests we would have been informed of that and so clearly there was no problem anything further would kind of fall under student confidentiality and so forth so I think that's probably all I should say at this point I think maybe the community just probably wanted to hear that the tests are being scored and that the College Board sort of closed the case yes and informally that the case is not closed because we're waiting for a letter from College Board and so unfortunately that is still slow to come mr.
Bolen des is you know checking email multiple times a day to see when if that letter has come in because once we have that letter I'd be happy to share it with the public Oh calm and I even had a conversation with Julia from The News Times and share it a little bit about what you just asked me about Jen so okay she's aware and she'd be happy to publish anything to the contrary of the story in the complaint okay thanks we can move on to subcommittee reports first we have Cape so the Cape committee met on Wednesday June 19th and we had two major items of business the first one was a request to update the text for AP government in politics their current text text was over 10 years old and quite outdated and so they have selected a new text American government roots and reform AP Edition and we had an opportunity to review it and it really looks like something that's much more student-friendly much more aligned to the AP course which has now been revised and it seemed like a really good choice so that cape committee sub escape committee members it's you nationally supported that selection and then also mr.
Oberlin to shared some information about the Connecticut State Department for Education guideline for graduation requirements and he attended a workshop about looking at this idea of a mastery based diploma assessment which we used to call capstone here and it sounds like we're a bit ahead of the state in terms of our thinking and planning for what this will look like the guidance from the state doesn't seem to be very specific at this point so mr. Burlando and others have sort of brainstorm some ideas of options of what that could look like and they're also visiting several high schools to observe what they do currently to align themselves with this idea of a mastery diploma assessment so I think that's work that's still in in progress but they're still sort of making some movement towards that do they have a year that that's required yet because I know at one point they kept pushing it off you know a future it might be twenty is it twenty twenty three now trying to think it's uh so this year's incoming freshmen I think it's for our incoming freshmen but they keep pushing it back so that's any indicator I don't know but that's why we're thinking about it okay now that was part of the the thinking in my budget presentation back in December talking about thinking about mr.
Jaffee's communication to us with you know civic engagement and civics programming in addition to the things we already have in place but also we think about capstone in internships and real-life experiences and application for students in you know in a leadership position that could really take that over and manage all of that if we really get you know a high percentage of majority of our students you know deeply involved in those kind of independent projects so it's exciting times we're just not sure exactly where the state is going to be the other thing I did want to share on this Jenna I'm sorry to take the floor on this is there Fox 61 did Ann Fox 61 had a piece and then there was an article right up the I'm not even sure so I'm not gonna mention names there in the newspaper but we still don't have as far as I know a new Commissioner of Education for the state it was going to be one of my superintendent colleagues and then now apparently after six months of back and forth since governor Lamont's been in place now it's a different I believe it says someone who's a sitting Assistant Superintendent who will be named so there's a lot of consternation on going on right now this is a lot of sit and wait including for the State Board of Education so any decisions on these things are going to be in limbo right now until we have a commissioner in place any other questions for Jen or the Cape committee thank you next we have policy communications I'm going to go ahead and let Bob give this update since I was absent at this meeting the policies were bringing forward are on the agenda for tonight so we'll talk about them when that time comes in addition to the specific policies dr.
Cipolla came and visited with us before she left and actually it was great that she came because she gave us a send ahead on her thoughts on a lot of policies that we weren't in a position to act on she wanted to give our new director of special education and an opportunity to engage and she joined us tonight to start that process but the but we did get dr.
cipolla's input on a lot of the policies that are in her area so I just publicly thank her for taking the time to do that she didn't have to so and we got an update on the 4,000 series which is our next series which if you remember our prior discussions we're going to try and do that as a non mass update and and we're going through the administration's going through a process of comparing them to the cave policies to what we have today to see if anything jumps out of that before we go down that path because though that 4,000 series is very tight into law and you know and so it's very important to tie into the cave updates because they they're much they're much more automatically updated so so we just want to look at it one more time before we brought those forward as a group but that's it thank you moving on we have vs facilities meeting the special meeting on we have 27 all right we've been very very busy at our last or second not be at a meeting tonight the meeting before that is we were presented with three quotes by architects to look into renovating the boys locker room at the high school it was decided upon by the committee to hire Tecton associates we made that this decision for two reasons one their cost was considerably less than the other architects who gave both in the second Tecton has done so much work here at the high school who knows all of the players and we really felt that they would be the best fit for the locker room renovation as they had walked through they've walked through it several times and they've made recommendations to the strategic steering committee in the past so we have detect an associate hired to as our architect just so the public again understands this is costing zero dollars this is money that was already allocated to us in capital improvement plan second thing that we're doing that is actually very exciting is the whisk in your portables are being cleaned from top to bottom the classrooms all have a fresh coat of paint on it I walked through yesterday they look and they smell wonderful after the floors are done being cleaned the hallways in the portable are receiving a fresh coat of paint so our 5th graders that are going to be entering in in the fall will have a bright cheery nice smelling happy portable classrooms to learn it let's see Hilliard update as you know we have contracted with Hilliard they are a time management adviser also a they have cleaning supplies that we have contracted with them to use they have been phenomenal they have visited all four the schools they have met with the custodians they are in the process of training our custodians we actually I again yesterday I was flagged down by two custodians at whiskey near and they told me how wonderful Hilliard was that they were helping them come up with different and new and innovative ways of cleaning a classroom better more efficiently and thoroughly all of the products that we are going to be using are green so we will have no chemicals in the classrooms in the hallways etc damn Caldwell our Director of Facilities next month will be doing a presentation on Hilliard for us which I think the public will actually find and actually the board will find very very interesting one of the things that I like that I use in my own company is they have a sheet that takes the guesswork out of everything this is you go into a room this is what you're going to be doing this is the product that you're going to be using this is how long that it will take you to do it then it has an audit trigger where the head custodian will receive on their smartphone a classroom to go and inspect and he checks off so there's checks there's balances we've got green cleaning it's it's wonderful the custodians are very happy about it I'm very happy about it as the chairperson of the committee because I think that we're addressing all of the needs that that we've forever talked about that's great as a committee I think you took the generator the water project at the high school has been completed it's closed everything's done with that our new head custodian at the high school started he is on the ground working doing well any Debbie joy covers it yeah so with our next meeting is the 13th at nine o'clock in the morning and we look forward to the Girl Scouts coming and visiting us any questions so the proposal by for the design phase in the locker room is within being the allotted amount for the capital projects yes okay yes zero dollars we watch our money yeah okay any other questions for me for the Facilities Committee moving on we have the healthy school start time okay so we last met on Monday July 1st and the first thing that we did actually for the last couple of meetings was to engage in sort of a protocol discussion so actually now we have quite a Bank of empirical literature on adolescent sleep health and structure and we usually take about 20 minutes to half an hour at the beginning of each meeting to really reflect on a lot of those pieces anything that really sort of touched or that we connected with specifically so that has been going really well the next thing that we did was sort of to firm up the committee's objectives and we kind of formulated the following goals that I'd like to share with you so one is to study the available empirical research regarding adolescent sleep health and its relation to school start times to communicate such research to the public via subject matter experts and public forums and to deploy surveys so the surveys is something we'll talk about in a minute but just to kind of give you a really sort of future forecast we do plan to have a public forum on this matter specifically because it does touch everybody in this community to consider whether a change in the start times of our schools should be recommended to the Board of Ed and lastly to advise the Board of Ed on the use of consultants to help alter start times so as of right now we are aiming to have that recommendation to the board before the next budget is approved so that's also something to sort of look forward to over the next six to eight months the so on to the the surveys as I mentioned so we decided as a committee that it would be best to deploy three separate surveys one to students one to parents and one to teachers and staff so we delegated the responsibilities of committee members and we have three people working on the development of each of those surveys so at our next meeting we will go over our first draft then in September we will most likely finalize those surveys and be ready for deployment sometime in October when people have sort of acclimated back into the new school year and lastly we talked about our communication strategy so one thing that kept coming up was that we would love to model the communication strategy of this project like the new school project because everybody I think was very informed and there was 100% transparency and so we would like to do that as much as possible but I think having our own website and our own Facebook page might be a bit cumbersome for what the level of detail this project really has it's not like the school project in that way so we will continue to use the district website and the district Facebook page and we will just continue to heavily post on there and make all documents available things like that so that every we do maintain that transparency yeah so the next time we will meet is August 5th and we will actually start to invite some members of communities that have either implemented this change considered this change subject matter experts so we can sort of pick their brains on timeline and pros and cons and things like that so any questions yeah very cool I just think you're doing a great job on that I really do I love the transparency I love that you've set the goals and keeping everyone informed it will be extremely successful you've done a great job thank you welcome a long way to go moving on we have the consent agenda recommend a motion that the board approve the items on the consent agenda is recommended new hires transfers new assignments and resignations any question discussion I think dr. burrow covered most of it in the superintendent report welcome Gina so that was if khalad if I may I'd like to introduce to the board genome iconic missus genome iconic our new special education director and I know we're excited to have someone with all of Gina's experience we're just chatting today approximately 30 years but I shouldn't say that all the time you know sometimes we all have a lot of experience here in education now and really brings a lot of credibility and knowledge of our district having been here for almost a year and a half now as a supervisor with us in that for grade 6 through 12 and actually I would like to invite Gina up to the podium just to say a few words and introduce herself thank you first I want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to fill this role I think it's a great honor and I really look forward to working with the community and the families of the students within the program dr.
Beryl dr. Ruby have given me an opportunity to work with dr. Cipolla for the past few weeks to transition I've had the opportunity to meet with Ken and discuss budget I've had the opportunity to meet with Christine on several occasions to discuss a variety of district policies budget committees all all the typical roles and responsibilities that the director needs to accomplish I've had the opportunity to meet with Brookfield cares already I have a meeting set up with the Sept Oh two of the president and the vice-president of the cept oh and I have already set up appointments to meet with some of the out-of-district where our students go to different facilities to look at those facilities in the programs that they are providing so and I've also met with Karen Olsen who has been an incredible help but she's very organized and has also showed me a little bit of the ropes so thank you there you've had a busy couple of weeks I have that's only two and a half weeks in thanks Gina thank you very much and when Gina mentioned Karen Olsen Karen Olsen is our secretary in the special education department for at TSL quite a transition for her as well all right all in favor aye aye opposed moving on to new business the policies of policy 3450 to recommend a motion that the board approve policy number 34 52 funds management for a first reading as recommended by the policies of policy communications subcommittee we are adopting the policy from the from Cape we felt our policy was good but this is better this is Miller there's this little replacement one where is the same in there this will replace my hair the as you can see in the edits in your coffee there really aren't that many edits other than titles and rap and certain references to classes so but at the core it requires the signature the proper signatures before disbursing funds require it defines who the custodian is and and it basically put some basic business controls around us so you all had a chance to look at this with these first three players this brings in for the first reading so any questions post now we have policy 30 170 recommend a motion that the board approved policy number 30 170 budget administration for a first reading is recommended by the policy communication subcommittee this one is a also a replacement you have in your packet the new one and also the one that's it's with this right guys right is is the one that we had before this also was an adoption of the Kay policy almost as is and it's it basically puts the pace of controls around our budget administration so and it's pretty straightforward I think we can include it when we and it's what we recommend emotion that the board approved policy number 61 60 3.32 service animals for first reading is recommended by the policy communications subcommittee service animals is an interesting topic that's you know having live animals in the school is to challenge broadly and so there's a this is the cave policy with some edits and and that's why we had doctors Apollo spend a lot of time with us because we want to make sure that those possibilities for handling the animals or agreeing to bring animals into the district and so forth we're well documented but this is at the core is the cave policy with some minor adjustments as recommended by doctors of office and I think as you read through it you will find and it is pretty straightforward and you'll get to the point where you have to have section on miniature horses and I had to turn to Google and I will just add just on this particular policy we've been sort of talking about this and going through this for the last few months so there were several different versions of this that keep suggested and we decided that this was probably the best policy for Brookfield and yes miniature horses are apparently the second most popular service at law which is very surprising to me but yeah so this probably conforms to law in Islam I'm much better and I guess is more clear than some of the other versions so it's really long but it's a good one and one other question on it when I read it this pertains just to service animals and not therapeutic yes yeah so yeah is will there be another policy developer that or is that just something that is not her policy something that's about within the school so we have nuts therapeutic dogs are therapeutic animals are not covered under law like they're not service animals we have to allow into the schools and so that's why we have this policy but not therapy and so generally we just don't have those they're not recognized at this point this is documented reasons for having a service animal is how this all works now law applies to a service animal not a therapy okay thank you thanks for the carpet there's an important distinction thank you yeah all right all in favor aye toast okay so those are all of our first nights when is your next policy meeting so when do you want any questions um really bye-bye the September meeting because and we are meeting very briefly in August but that's very briefly because our board retreat is that day so by the September meeting I have 18th 21st oh that's right I was only looking at when we were meeting for policy okay thank you okay moving to old business become an emotion that the board approve policy number 35 34 to replace policy number 35 33 an employee officer bonds for final reading as recommended by the policy communications subcommittee first reading was on June 5th 2019 it's just a quick question the 35 34 and 35 33 that almost seemed interchangeable when I was looking at him this Cape just I mean they some have this as a 33 and sevens of 34 does it just been an update so now they're all moving I believe that's correct okay and I'm sorry I didn't see I just noticed yeah all right any other questions the motion was definitely twice as long yes recommend a motion that the board approved policy number 35 42 point 33 food sales other than national school lunch programs which will replace policy number 3540 2.45 vending machines for final reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was on June 5th 2019 any questions okay all in favor post and lastly we have policy 3152 recommend emotion that the board approves policy number 31 52 spending public funds for advocacy for a final reading as recommended by the policy communications subcommittee first reading was on June 5th 2019 any questions on paper I posed there was business moving on we have the new school building project updates I just want to and we need to use the high school as a place for Rockville residents to come it is working and we will be open for that service I just I was sitting here thinking about it and dr.
birrell when you would mention that we do have the delay with the new generator yeah and what we can do yeah is they can eversource always an emergency can provide my generators for us in this particular vendor you know we can provide a standby generator for us just like we did during the Mack reverse because our existing generators so weak and unreliable that's what we would have to do so it's still the high school could still be used as a shelter I'm sorry I just wanted me shiny thanks see if it's a good reassurance okay so onto the new school building project there was a kickoff meeting with Tecton and her selectmen dr. Brill myself members of the NBC dan called no is there there yes so just main interests are just to kind of go through clarifications the lines of communication and protocol and they're just touching on all of the different items one of the things of note is that there are several different phases or milestones that Tecton will go through there's the schematic design which is where they kind of develop design options and the design development that's where they refine an option the construction documents then did and permitting and then construction and so it was determined F at the end of each of those milestones and phases Tecton will have sign-off from the Board of Selectmen Board of Education and the NBC so you'll be getting probably a fairly detailed update at least at all of those the milestones for those different things so we felt it was important that all of the you know just if we have to if we have to air versus communicating and over communicating we're gonna air on over communication with all of this so we're going to definitely have sign up in all of these parties at the end of each of those milestones we also did talk about establishing three public forums and meetings and there was a lot of really interesting collaboration in the development or what the proposal of what these would look like we thought they would they would be joint meetings with the Board of Education and NBC definitely then with perhaps four selectmen and others as well and make them more of a collaborative collaborative interactive meeting with Tecton and ourselves and also the community where they can ask questions and get feedback on a more kind of relaxed make suggestions and make suggestions as well and then the other suggestion about this is that they are held at huckleberry versus the auditorium that's where it's gonna happen that's that's where we're going to have everything you know we can we people can look at the parking lot back sure thanks klutz so thanks for bringing up the joint meeting so we're really excited about the joint meetings these would be you know public input engagement opportunities I want to keep the dates out publicly and for the board to get these dates on the calendar because to have an actual meeting a special meeting we call to order we would need a quorum so the first one will be September 26th all our October at 6 p.m.