Farias I mean everybody's had input to this and one of the our media specialists we had a big meeting with our media specialists yesterday and one of the things we really talked about which is something we really are doing and working on in developing our curriculum is the concept of a self navigating learner in so we want to have that vision out there so just because we do something a certain way today at in fifth grade at the whisk and year or at huckleberry or at center school doesn't mean that's the way we have to do it in in the new environment and so those are things we're talking about how could we build for the environment we envision so it's been an exciting process and I just think all the all the staff that's been a part of really going back and forth for a long time now a couple of months making sure that we get Eddie and Jeff all all the information in Antonio as well so speaking of those user groups which I know you were heavily involved with throughout this process so considering that you've probably heard all of their feedback along the way how do you feel about this plan in terms of how it meets I think right now it we meet all of our programmatic needs I'll use an architectural term I have learned which is called scope creep which means you continue to incorporate everybody's ideas and according to mr.
looking about sin but be mindful that population is successful because a very small church processes you know expanding by some seats would be appropriate and making with additional staffing we do it or certainly not with us yeah then we'd have the ability to expand the program to that side drop down there he did some expansions that just happened this morning when evaluated the space yes it didn't because it was the first year of my keys apparently they're not [Music] we now have to pay we were sharing the rent over the adult day go anymore the Internet yep I'll keep you posted I'm excited about the recreation that we've talked about students we also things that we do have eight keep counting get up tonight and there was nine in the spring and we're going to have one more like next year budget so we'll have 10 staff so seven right now nation to pursue and essentially by December 20 21 December we are steering committee and I are back of you and Esther they're American they provide you some more context so about three years ago our to lead a very high school developed a portion of the graduates specifically today very high school and it's part of the asset foundation process they had to develop their own vision other graduated last year during a 1819 school year during out without work to teach plan we had decided to incorporate the American high schools portrait the Graduate and develop for the Graduate for the district we landed on six characteristics to help guide the work that frankly that Cara and Melissa presented to the board a few weeks ago and so we landed on a district vision statement and mission statement last year around this time that the board approved a mission statement sits on a matter of a district in every school but our teachers and administrators don't necessarily have guidelines on how to operationalize official statement and our eyes the portion of the graduates speech to was to how comes look like and then ideally would begin to look like the experience is that Kara presented a few weeks ago had one of our coordinates and so to help develop the course the Bar Foundation said listen if if you want to be awarded this grant we're happy that you guys you guys have been engaged in the process between Expo and so so give given the size of the award we said we will do just that and knowing that we would be resource in the way to help make this work get it done right we we applied for the grant in fact by playing in the strategic plan Cara is a group student Lee identified one of the goals and it was actually pursuing the grant himself and it was that we were awarded the grant we backed out of some of our initial commitments around taking that fortunately granted that we have developing coming up with what how come to look like what assessment of libel suit experience to look like and they partnered with experts in the field in his work and then we are part of what the center's will change there's actually a facilitator who has done this work the states around the district's around state so she's working with us we had a conference two weeks ago Wednesday night when I was not looking too well so we went to the went to the meeting in Massachusetts are they still convenient Massachusetts two weeks ago on Thursday morning as myself with dr.
hammerschmidt just clarification I think I know the answer to this all the funding adjustments those are all higher right none of them in here have been decreased they're all adjustments up there actually are a couple that went down and what I try to on the printout like this there's a couple that went down that's pretty rare mr. Mill's thank you very much when we talked about this at our work session one of the things that we noted is that the city's carbon neutrality commission there's a whole lot of people involved in this including myself and Commissioner Gabe Randall who are right now working furiously to come up with a prioritized list of projects that are to be delivered to City Council by the end of March in time for budgeting that are nowhere yet in this plan and I am on the energy task force within this and I can tell you right now we have 36 different energy proposals in there some of them are not capital projects but there are at least a few that would be capital projects or that would likely involve a pretty big engineering study similar perhaps to what is being conducted right now for the landfill or that was approved to be conducted for the landfill so can you talk us through I know what that was one of the things that you were gonna potentially look at is how we handled that I've got a whereas clause that I could amend it but I just curious what the what we you said what because because this is a recommendation to council about how they should spend their allocate the budget and I think it would be beneficial to let them know hey this is not well I would say from my perspective this does not recommend I I would want the 20 whatever you're wearing 2021 budget to reflect the things that we know we have to do in the next decade if there are the immediate actions that we need to take so that's long how do we handle this well without knowing the specifics I'm gonna give kind of a general answer but I think it'll still pretty much address it so as you said those things that come out of operations and maintenance type of budget which I suspect a fair number of them will still have to be discussed but they'll be not part of the capital budget and therefore not part of the capital improvement plan now those that are capital in nature depending on what the funding source is if they are general fund asks that would not be unusual because even like the administrator or the financial people can have capital asks that are general funded because they don't come through the same kind of prioritization if they were utility related then the mechanism we could use if there's something that really has to go forward we do have what's called the Sipan group which is like the oversight group for the CIP so if this is passed tonight and there's some water need on your list that you really want to push forward then we could potentially in the Sipan group say what would we move out because the utilities are really funded as a bucket of money equal to that amount and assuming those projects are in it but we can have some flexibility generally that doesn't happen a lot but in this particular case I think we could make it work through that mechanism and as I said the general funded projects ultimately finance administration kind of make the calls because it's the administrators budget that's put forward so I believe we can work through it but the sooner I would know what some of those are that our capital the more specific I could probably come up with the best mechanism to achieve it and if something in here had to wait we could make the adjustment on that Sipan level because that does happen like when projects come in too high even after they're approved even after budget something has to get moved around a little bit we try and keep that to a minimum but it does happen okay yeah so I again because the city declared the climate emergency right and and we're treating it like an emergency are trying to pulling things together like it's it's fast and furious so I mean I know that our group has a list of things I think that your group does too so some of those projects may be known and so I think it's now or at least that they're under consideration whether they make it into the final plan is yet to be seen right that's the purpose of this process but because we're seeing this now and not three months from now when that plan is known right we can't do it so so the one thing I forgot to say also this fall even though it would be a full year we still modify existing years if we need to so I'm thinking there's quite not going to be a lot of things that you absolutely are going to commit to for fiscal 21 by budget time so any of the others that you know you want soon but maybe they're 21 maybe they're 22 we have an opportunity again in just a few more months when we start the modification or the the full-blown next plan that we could ultimately still make adjustments to 21 there again it seems the lawyer it's harder because then we have to sacrifice something to make way otherwise you know it can go to an eight votes thing in which is an impossible in Council but that that is the one thing that's when they're not in capital improvement plan not in the capital budget at that point it becomes a little harder to implement a boat we'll have I think major work this fall based on the results of this committee so I suspect the amount that will impact the immediate capital budget that our capital are gonna be fairly limited am i yeah well I don't want to presuppose the outcome right and so I would imagine that if the probably the biggest capital outlays right away are more of the studies yeah any studies go through operation and maintenance budget that came down from federal Accounting Standards like three years ago now so we report them in the capital improvement plan because they lead to capital but they're actually funded through operations and maintenance so they don't know they're in the capital improvement plan but in the not in the capital budget there's always quirks got it so okay that's that's helpful um thank you very much I think this whole idea of like there's gonna be difficult discussions decisions yes like there's limited resources there's gonna be different difficult decisions and so I'm just you know this is one of the things the key things that they use to try to figure out what those how to make those decisions because we have a good process but we have these parallel tracks so I'm gonna I maybe will read like my where a statement that and you can see if anybody thinks that we might add to it again I from my perspective I think it's helpful to reiterate to counsel that like we're thinking not just about what's before us right now but all the other things that we know especially since we have representatives to Planning Commission on that so my whereas statement is to be added I don't know maybe second as the second from last whereas statement whereas the work of the city of an airburst carbon neutrality Commission is still formulating recommendations some of which maybe consider capital projects to let notice that there's something coming and then the I would edit the result I can have typed up if it's helpful free mr.
president board members dr. Kelton cabinet my name is Louise pion I'm a member of the Dicer District Leadership Council last week deal see had the opportunity to meet at our monthly meeting we broke up into committees for the district-wide Student Leadership Conference in addition to that we discussed possible keynote speakers as well as the theme for the event in addition all of that we wanted to acknowledge and thank miss dr. Kellis for visiting with some of the high school sites student councils regarding leading with empathy and leading by example this is something that can that our group continues to discuss we also want to thank dr. Collis for allowing the group of student leaders to meet and collaborate with one another on how we can make our campuses a great place to come to school thank you thank you alright well go ahead and move on to governing board updates and go with the superintendent update dr.
Cecco he said from the NBC he says us architects like to be optimistic and we think we could just incorporate every single idea and we were going to find a way and so part of the process from schematic design is do we have everything that meets our programmatic requirements the things we talked about in our educational specifications that we voted on last spring that we submit it to the state once we have all of that and we can meet meet the knees and have the spaces we need you need to get into schematic design where really the rubber meets the road and you start really looking at do we need you know the does the stage have to look exactly this way can it be configured differently does pre-k need to be I know I'm using my hands but you know is it facing sideways or can the hallway be more incorporated into the kindergarten hallway a lot of different ideas and that's where design development the next phase the next four months essentially continues to occur and so the other part of this that I've learned through the process which I thought was fascinating is the fact that Brookville has had the wisdom to hire a construction manager which is a person hired to do a job which is to represent the town not represent the architects not represent the builder represent Brookfield the best interests of Brookfield to get this facility built correctly they are someone who comes in and does their own independent analysis of the schematic design and starts to really talk real nuts and bolts with the architects and say you know this is what you say in your ahead spec you have a little more space here I you know have you considered this and so there's that whole analysis really looking at square footage and those kind of things and the reimbursable Xand and all that from the state so it's a fascinating process and really an exciting process now going forward so programmatically oh yes yes thank you for asking and I'll also add that the municipal building committee unanimously approved this last night as well I think I think Tecton has done a great job of really sort of following a moving target I mean with with enrollment changes and and also just really being sensitive to the need for sort of quiet consultation spaces and therapy spaces and just you know there's little pockets and rooms and places available for a teacher to just have you know a few minutes with a student that just needs a break or a therapist to meet with a child not in a hallway or a closet or a cafeteria you know it's I think they've done a great job really listening to what we've asked for and you know accommodating off all of those you know make a great point there and you made me think about they really are paying attention to scale as well so for the older students there might be some grander areas and for the younger students they don't want it to be so overwhelming so you know they're looking at ceiling heights and the way the lighting comes in I mean they're really that whole organ amah case of the Wellness and well building that we've talked about it's it's it's gonna be a very healthy nice place to go to school it really is okay any other discussion on this okay all in favor all right big step it's a big step yep okay we can move on to setting the graduation date recommend a motion that I just want to make one last comment on that they did show us the timeline of what's coming up and between now and May roughly there's gonna be a lot of flushing out of the design they say what do they call it the development phase but coming out of that they will have for example the facade the materials thank spring things like that so one of the things we need to pay close attention to and and I actually think the public ought to have a you know come spend some time listening to what teknon saying at the municipal building committee meetings is that's where the look and feel comes right and and I think that and I asked last night that they make sure they have a public forum and or a chance like we did last night to actually sit and dwell on what does it look like and feel like because that I think in the end will be the first thing that people will see is the look and feel and so we talked actually about policy communications committee tonight that Rose and I were going to meet and put together an email that can go out to our community and that press release as well with the bin include the PowerPoint so we can get that communication out hopefully tomorrow okay recommend a motion that the board set the graduation date for the Brookfield High School class of 2020 for Saturday June 20th 2020 at the O'Neill Center at 6:00 p.m.
Andy dr. marks from high school two teachers who also on a steering committee that's the art committee will be built a little further it's going to operate more cakes well representation so something I need to make clear to the board this is about a nine twelve or thirteen graduate it's a damn very high proportion of the graduate and so the expectation is we'll be getting feedback initially from our school staff and students and so the steering committee will be made up of representatives from K through 12 and so we will have elementary in this representation on the steering committee the other committee which is a bigger committee in this committee I was recommended to us by the bar foundation will have the convening and in that community called a portion of the graduated coalition and so a little different for the process that we engaged in in September of 2015 instead of us asking multiple stakeholder groups nonprofit police businesses etc and we speak to them and elicit feedback a bulimic look like this time the coalition will be popped is simply an extended version of steering ISO steering committee with goals and mechanics in the background but that we will expand that group to a coalition and we will ask for representatives of nonprofit business community etc again thinking about that video that doctor cast marrow embolus and they did we presented weeks ago if we're going to get Jim we need to be partnered with dan Barry to help make those things happen so we will get feedback from that initial group then we will ask me is from our clergy community for example please take this survey that we develop go back to your community lean these conversations and break feedbacks in the group mr.
Leonard okay then I would recommend that the resolve statements say that the City Planning Commission hereby approves the as it reads right now as supporting documentation for the city's master plan contingent upon learning what the recommendations of the city of the carbon neutrality Commission may be I don't that that's the part that I'm not sure about personally but I welcome additional ideas on that for survey to it it feels very open-ended in terms of putting a deadline you know like it requires a date for something to be delivered so it can't be contingent on an open-ended delivery date possibly maybe with maybe instead saying with the recognition that this that that council may want to reconsider this in light of the recommend recommendations from the carbon neutrality commission pending recommendations from the carbon neutrality commission are we thinking that the recommendations will come back and City Council will move fast enough that they're gonna it will happen before we go through this process next year I think that that's definitely the intention that's the deadline that we were given that we have been by the way adding extra meetings to our lives like nighttime meetings to our lives volunteer time and that Commission is like many dozens of people we are working towards a deadline so that it can be incorporated so I have I sure hope so okay I was just I meant that we want to be careful in the wording that council does not approve the CIP itself they approve the budget that goes with it so there was something about yourself or perhaps Commissioner down here to set that implied like their approval of the plan well your when you approve it it's approved then they use it for the budget so maybe if the wording could be tweaked a little to say I know what you're concerned about right now in the immediate short-term as if there's anything that your group actually advances to the point where you wanted to prove as part of the current capital budget is that correct right do you think there are any that are actually going to be capital projects ready with a budget because you have to have a specific budget to ask for funding break in this may budget I because I am one lowly person on the Commission I don't know all the details but I think that there's a consultant that they've hired to put together some like more rigorous economic analysis of this but I mister okay well just an observation as as indicated you have authority over this capital improvements plan and it's based on the information you have now the City Council is gonna take this as one one piece resource that they're gonna utilize and setting the city's budget they could they could put a lot of stock in this they could also consider the balance and prioritization of other recommendations that are coming out of those recommendations I I wonder if it's not so much about amending this but a bit of the Planning Commission is sort of communication to them I think what you're saying is we we're not in a position to know how this might change I think what I'm hearing is you want to convey something that if there's one thing we had to predict now these projects some of these projects might have to go because resources are finite in favor of prioritizing carbon neutrality and so you don't I don't the City Council has the opportunity to make those priority decisions independent of that whereas claws are that resolved claws I would I just wonder if that's if that's the intention it could be through whereas claws just simply say as Planning Commission we think that these projects may very well have to evolve if we prioritize carbon other carbon neutrality projects or think about the Planning Commission could entertain how it wants to communicate that through some other means be it a resolution or other or other means testimony for that matter a member of the Planning Commission could attend Council and sort of convey resolution that Planning Commission endorses so just some some ideas that I think are getting around what you're discussing I'm gonna show you Brendan's I just want to make sure I understand correctly so what you're saying is that we will we can we vote to approve or not approve a plan that plan is for a certain amount of money but it doesn't mean that then City Council is bound to actually fund at that amount each of these projects great okay so there's so what you're saying is that there's room for them to then prioritize other projects as they arise if they come from recommendations from carbon neutrality or even other things absolutely okay and maybe it would be helpful for me to just review the timeline so that budget gets adopted in May you said right okay what what happens between now and May the Mr Lennard jump in if I'm saying things not quite on point but the whole the administrator and all the financial people actually start back in November to begin to dive into this they want the CIP done but they already have seen what's in it so they've already got rough stuff framed out anyway but they will work pretty much non-stop from now until I think April is usually when it the administrators budget goes out publicly and there's and all that so well means the action date really they're substantially complete wouldn't you say by the end of March so the window is very narrow so again there could be things that come out of this that are ready for incorporation and I think that could happen I guess is what I'm saying because they have some flexibility my experience this is my eighth time through is there might be one two three projects that they add or do something different than what's here so they very much use the CIP as the mainstay of the budget but they do have some flexibility so I believe they could fund that and then if they thought something else had to go they would probably simply turn to staff and say how do you think we've been adjust for this that has happened before no worries I think we can make it work and what kind of timeline is the neutrality Commission on like when do you think those recommendations would be coming down the pipe I know draft recommendations are I've been working with the sustainability office and we are tentatively looking at presenting those recommendations to the Planning Commission as a body in March so I think and there's there'll be a bit of a roadshow for numerous boards and commissions around that timeframe so I think the goal is sort of late March to have most of that feedback assembled and ready to present to City Council that's exciting the the scoring that we're doing internally to vet them is like February 8th it's super like a week from now yeah exactly yep and just also for the audience who's watching - there's a big public input session that's happening on February 22nd at Pioneer that's like a half-day event and so that's where you're hearing all kinds of ideas and you're voting on things so it's not the only way that you can things but that's one very powerful way you can because you can hear all these things pitched at the same time so we didn't have a formal motion to amend because it wasn't seconded do you want to give a final chemistry how much more clarifying questions since I was not I was not at the working session said anyone give you guys strep throat um so we are asking so all City Council can approve is like that top line number like the hundred and sixteen thousand that we would send out million exactly let me let me take let me take so uh Michigan planning loss sets forth the Planning Commission was responsible for adopting the capital improvements plan and ideally you are shaping that capital improvements plan based on development trends where new infrastructure might be necessary where upgraded infrastructure may be necessary in a way you are while you are still the authority to do that in state law the city is really fortunate to have a pretty robust network of staff around these very disciplines whereas some other Planning Commission's is sort of more actively having to make some of these decisions so the Deb quarterbacks this process where a lot of feedback and scoring and evaluation happens ultimately that's where we are now the Planning Commission is sort of faced with its responsibility to either adopt or reject this plan that goes to City Council then and then City Council again takes it as advice that their advice is that it's been it's gone through the evaluation process to correctly identify projects to prioritize projects and that gives them the ability when they are then taking the resources that are available to them and the various weather their systems are general fun and to use this as a tool to decide how to prioritize the expenditures of those but it is a plan for them to consider if for some reason on the day of the budget somebody comes in and says you know what this is ridiculous if there's one thing we should do is convert all of the streets to cobblestone they could then elect to prioritize that and allocate those dollars to that project so the goal again the combination of staff work other agency work coordination with other agency improvements we are trying to deliver the best sort of reasoned and informed prioritization of projects to them so that they can use that but but it is a plan that you adopt and they they're not limited by these projects they're not limited by the amounts they have in short but most flexibility as to decide how they prioritize we would certainly advise them to look at this as a resource and they as indicated they do there is usually here's my question if they come back and say no like it was 77 now it's 116 that just doesn't fit in the budget we have to cut it to a hundred thousand are they prioritize or a hundred my six thing 100 million are they prioritized within heat like who comes back and says we're presenting prioritize projects to them they're scored within here yep okay so if 16 million dollars was cut we'd know what was okay yes unless City Council was like but I want to keep this project that you or or it frankly in it could happen that way it could happen where they go and say this is really important and they task our engineering department with reconsidering scope so that maybe they can accommodate a really critical aspect without some of the more comprehensive aspects of the project that was originally intended maybe it becomes aligning instead of a replacement if appropriate sorry I'm gonna share with you my dilemma like and so this is what I have right now which I think kind of gets at this idea that we're not we don't want this to be contingent that understanding our world versus planning or vs.
Calais Thank You mr. president members of the board and members of cabinet it is a great thing that's happening with the Dicer Student Leadership Council this is an opportunity where student leadership from each of the high schools comes together and is planning activities that will bring all four high schools together in a very meaningful way starting off with this district-wide Leadership Conference that they are planning I would like to congratulate and recognize two schools by cirtl and Sonoran Heights Elementary who were just notified today that they will be receiving a plus team visits to determine whether or not they it's really the an important step one that to submit the application and then if they are appropriately qualified than they're granted a site visit by the the judging team who will come to assess whether or not they're an A+ school we know they're in a plus school and we're absolutely without a doubt know that they will do great on the site visits and so we're looking forward to seeing them progress through the process of A+ award that's all I have to report thank you dr.
as recommended by a principal mark Belinda second was this your first choice date probably some kind of hint to the theme of his speech or something like that you know wonder what he's up to over there a big lego project perhaps or something again mr. Blandon on this okay all in favor all right aye all right on to old business we have these superintendent's 20 20 20 20 21 budget discussions in a possible motion so this is not a motion at this particular moment in time but we may hopefully unless we have another special meeting planned we should aim to adopt the budget tonight so now is when we need to really dig in hopefully we've done that but tonight is when we need to have those hard conversations anything you know pressing we need to have it resolved tonight so at our last board meeting we asked dr.
Gianelli for the business community please go back as an example please go back out to the community take this survey and get feedback and everyone will be tasking leaders from respective groups to go back to their community beyond that can't necessarily reach and they will bring the coalition will be charged with bringing feedback to in addition to steering committee we have plans to get elementary school trying to think about what activities will look like to make sure our kids part of the process families a part of the process communities order process whether it's surveys the stakeholder groups again trying to inform what dan Barry graduate including should and you might recall do it during Cara's presentation so I talked about hey you want to talk about what a graduate would look like when a student is leaving elementary school or graduate when a student is leaving middle school and the same thing with the high school so in our eyes the portion of the graduates gonna be representative of all of those steps into we're really excited about the work in this time we've been resourced with expertise from it from a sense of school change in addition to two of our teachers will will be great at least to also be part of this support like I said not the markings of dr.
councils are all in this so the whereas clause now that I would suggest or if it's better as another thing and like another communication I just think we've got to whereas clause before us so or we're a resolution before us so whereas the City Planning Commission recognizes that the recommendations of the city of Ann Arbor's carbon neutrality commission may include capital projects which City Council should consider funding like I don't know that we can say City Council should do something but I want to send the message that we know that there's more things that City Council considers than this and we want to ping them like hey don't forget about that list that we don't have right now but that might be coming that's my right that's my rationale behind this but I don't know that we should say she should consider funding so friendly amendments or if we want to just give up on this entirely I understand and I will go to a City Council how about so I I don't know if you want to restate or I could you got whereas the the Planning Commission recognizes that the recommendations of the carbon neutrality recht committee could result in capital projects that should be considered in the context of this capital improvement plan the projects there and and the prioritization of those projects oh that sounds so much smarter so you know so it's aware as clause it's clearly being communicated that you're taking action on the information you know but you're just sort of putting a note out there that aspirationally this may very well need to be reconsidered quickly yes is that a friendly amendment I don't even remember who moved her seconded but as long as nobody objects I mean it's up to you this is the 21 to 26 plans so it's in that time period what are some of the things that you guys are considering with that Commission like for potentially in the next year maybe Spencer just sometime in the next five years it's comfortable enough I don't know that we there's no at least the stuff on my subcommittee there's been no like timing put on it but if we're gonna get there by 2030 needed to happen last year right like so yeah sure so vain you guys are scoring February 8th is that your prioritization or recommendation of prioritization towards the capital improvement plan Hey different groups are in different time we're all aiming for this March thing but if that's her group I got it we're all vetting things internally and then it goes to and and things are also going out to the community too but there's there's going to be a consultant that comes on board to be able to look at the greenhouse gas fallout basically in terms of what these different strategies are and not quite sure when that and that's soon I know but I'm not quite sure when that happens in the scheme of that kind of next a couple of months but so it's being vetted with these small groups and and there's input from the community as well it goes to this greenhouse gas kind of like bang for your buck basically in terms of that but not bang for your buck in terms of greenhouse gases not in terms of a budget because none of these things have budgets attached to them right I mean that's the thing it's great that's the thing that I think that could happen is the study part because that's something that really could be turned around pretty quickly so and that could very well happen you know so that that's but again it sounds like that may not be a CFP issue if it's it's a study so but again I don't think either of us feel comfortable enough to know like oh it's not this or it is this you know at this point in the game and that's going to all have to filter through this staff people that are associated with our groups to be able to determine which pathway it takes in what pot it comes from and then I have the other question is does emergency status have a score when it comes to prioritization in the CIP not directly but indirectly because there's like level of service scoring and often that it's kind of interpreted that way in there so certainly in council can would accept emergency as sort of an entity unto itself in their consideration because they have done that in the past right like if we're talking about low scores drop out for budget how do we make climate emergency those scores get to the top of that list and I mean stay in the budget so I guess that's what I'm curious about they're not we don't have a plan now but we want to kind of be able to get them scored last minute like it and then they have to score high enough to maintain I'm just curious what that process is well again so they're talking about projects that are not even in here at all that's an independent scoring system they would simply present these are the highest priorities they don't think of the 70 some staff that work on yeah this main plan that anyone would see that as contradictory because it's a unique goal of the city that was articulated very recently I think it's very important that by fall we figure out how to incorporate the equivalent of that score into the overall CIT very explicitly and I know Twitter's new Brandon Mills brought that up at the works and I think it probably will end up being an explicit NewsCorp rest or taxation criteria what I anticipate happening okay Oh mr.
Kellis all right let's go ahead and move on to superintendent governing board updates section three governing board updates so I do have something attended the coded messages of the Underground Railroad it was in conjunction with the city of Surprise Arizona humanities and with Dysart and it had to do with those coded messages that Harriet Tubman and others used in order to help the slaves go from one point to another each of the freedom quilts had a message and so it was pretty interesting to listen to all the different variations of the of the quilts and stuff so it was very interesting it was right here at Valley Vista that's I have a strange presentation and I want to share it with the board because I'm giving this to the board not sure if we know that January is school board recognition month and school board members a school board members we shoulder the critical responsibilities and make critical and difficult decisions for the district and this is all without pay we don't do it for the money we don't do it for the accolades we do it because we like to see that there there is success in our students and we wish that they can go on and be productive citizens after leaving the school district our rewards as board members are of course many hours of looking at documents and agendas and annual budgets and presentations mr.
Brill and Ken to put together a list so that we can exercise the budget as fully as we possibly can looking at all areas whether we you know value these programs or not what are some ways that we can get this very large number reduced so dr. Borel if you wouldn't mind sharing sure those items sure so Ken actually has the list he'll pass that around and you know I would like to share that Ken and I didn't work on this in isolation I have to thank the the principal and other administrators that worked with us and really we we really tried to exercise the budget in consideration of the fact that the last several years we've had to freeze the budget and continue to move forward with a strategic plan and our goals and give you the the best information we can but at the same time this is you know similar to last week's meeting this is not the kind of discussion we want to have by any stretch of the imagination and there's nothing on I will preface this by saying there's nothing on this list that I like that I am frankly I'm going against my will in putting this down but you asked me to do it and so I am here bringing it forward so there's not an exhaustive list here because we really don't as I've stated many times we don't have slack in our budget and that's why it's important that we're transparent when we have needs or we might have a budget over just or something like that we we bring it forward to the Finance Committee in the board and the town if we so need to so as you can see here there's a list of several items that come to a total of 360 thousand two hundred seventy nine dollars or 0.82% of a possible reduction to consider that doesn't mean we're not going to entertain other questions from board members on other subject areas but if we're really looking to limit as best we can the impact on students this is the best I can do I'm all ears if there are other ideas but we are as you know we have a budget that is made up of 80% staff that is we're a service industry and we have many laws and mandates that we must meet in order to run the school district so I have an impact statement next to each of these so just to start off we have a delay in some of our social studies professional learning and that would be a reduction of ten thousand dollars that would impede the progress in the curriculum revisions we're working on the thing I want to remind everybody here is our freeze this year that we're on we're freezing $40,000 worth of extended duty which is going toward existing curriculum working continuing to move forward on that so we're already slowing down in the nineteen twenty year by forty thousand dollars worth of work and product we can get with our curriculum we have we're putting that kind of work forward in the budget so every time we freeze and don't spend the money we don't get that work done and frankly the curriculum for in the experience is that we're trying to get developed for our students and prepare them it doesn't get done and it puts us behind another year toward our goals by Mazzy in technology presentation stations we're looking to reduce by forty six thousand dollars of one of our big goals which to move to digital platforms and all of the high school and start on the middle school of what we would do here is by reducing by forty six thousand dollars we would finish up we would leave one department at the high school unfinished for next year we wouldn't put the new presentation stations into that department and we wouldn't at all go to the middle school we wouldn't even start there if we reduced by the $46,000 we are putting a we would reduce by twelve thousand four hundred dollars library books while while that delays in upgrading and expanding offerings in our libraries we do have a relatively robust account there and we know in two years when we get the new school in the budget for the new school is a brand is a lot of resources in a brand new library so we would take our existing materials and add that to the new materials and so we thought that could be a trade-off there so this twelve thousand 488 is across all four schools savings across schools three of those three of the schools elementary to a to our elementary I thought right it's so huckleberry had the largest increase that we reduced as part of that this was a combination of all the principals working together books periodicals and subscriptions in that area we will reduce by six thousand dollars and from my proposal and what we would do there is we would limit we would work on our online resources and the principals would look to find free online resources instead that they use depending on what they would make their determination on what they would reduce one of those we talked about from whiskey near just as an example was newsela used to be free now they charge for news at newsela so sue and Dean will go out and look for a free resource rather than paying for newsela so these are the kinds of things and the creativity that the teachers administration would engage in the other one is going down the list of reduce one of the proposed additional first grade teachers and that includes the health benefit saving almost $90,000 and so just as a reminder for everybody we're reducing just on depending on and dependent on enrollment we're reducing one section at huckleberry in third grade and we're moving that section to a linear but one section to kindergarten at center school we then are adding two brand-new sections to center school in my proposal of two first grade teachers what I'm proposing in this reduction is taking one of those first grade teacher proposals off the table and that would increase class size to 20 point eight per class remind me the range for 17 to 20 is the range in first grade and then you can see the subsequent $10,600 under that which is the supplies for a new section curriculum supplies other instructional supplies is just another one what was the class that's on the edge in your prison here right on the right pay 7 18 points so with the two sections it was 18 7 and this would take it to 20 point eight okay we've worked in great deal we never like to touch textbooks we worked in great deal with some of the work that's going on at the high school that mark thought he could while still providing options to slow the rollout of some of the options in English language arts and in a French literature and cinema class that he's thinking about and so that would while still have a significant increase at the high school for a number of Cape approved materials that are going forward in textbooks reduced that line by six thousand two hundred fifty dollars and that really is the non people areas where we can find any dollar amount of significance after this folks we really start to get into and I know I was asked to find around three hundred four hundred thousand dollars if I could we start to get into people and it gets into difficult conversations and it goes right to public comment this evening we also have mandates and requirements that we have to fulfill all kinds of different classes that have to the students have to have for courses and one of the areas that was brought up in questions by the board members that we talked about two weeks ago was the k-6 world language program and so I bring that forward again as an area if you're looking to get chunks of dollars it is people and that's really the only other way to get it because other than that you have people and nothing to teach with no curriculum to be developed and we're left with nothing so we need to you know make hard decisions as I understand these are these are very difficult conversations so I put on here as a starter for the conversation tonight the k-6 world language which would be a net savings of one hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars because you wouldn't that's for teachers we're talking about but you wouldn't just at the middle school if you didn't have the fifth and sixth world language what would happen there is you would increase social studies time based on the current model that exists as well as some of the Unified Arts specialist time so you wouldn't need to backfill those positions for the students to have a different class or anything like that however at the elementary school the students have to have another class the way the specials rotate in the way things work so you would have to backfill that with a different program if you were to go in this direction and so we have some ideas that we've bandied about but you know that involve arts infused and stem infused curriculum and things like that but again we haven't put any energy into that because we don't know where we're gonna go based on this conversations this in that number is this the gross this would be net gross was how much for fork and for 30 something how much was it five seven yeah sorry thank you Mike and that's all I have that comes out to approximately three hundred and sixty thousand dollars which is not which is 0.82 percent it's not even one percent well I'll start the conversation I know I personally have gone back and forth about the kk6 World Language Program as it stands right now you know not being a language acquisition program not having a whole lot of exposure to another language itself is something that's concerning to me but on the other hand this is a program that has been heavily valued in the community and as I my opinion right now is that we need to enhance this program better it before we decide this is no longer a program that we value but again that's for a conversation starter guess what in what ways make it a language acquisition I think that's I would probably Kevin Holly's not here tonight but I would most like to see her recommendations on improving a world language program in the elementary levels I totally agree with you if this is about language acquisition that's a valuable skill can't agree but this isn't as it is right now it's true and enhancing it sounds like more investment of not only money but I think more importantly time 45 minutes a week that's what we're told final mag schools are getting 45 minutes a day and they're showing similar outcomes so when we say enhancements I I totally agree like I'm not saying that a second language or learning a second language wouldn't be would be detrimental the thing is the enhancements time and money I mean where they come from the whole idea at least how I view that is if if that is something that's a direction that the board wants to take then that's what we advocate for well like I got to point out because because time is I think I'm just gonna start what time because money is what it is it was Express us that argument of writing was important and and the fact that the 45 minutes is already being taken away from social studies in factors of that bleed into things that are tested by the state that there definitely should be serious consideration I in about you know whether it's you know even efficient I mean that's that's a big number there's a lot of little numbers on top that make that 360 not so scary it makes it just based off of more empirical evidence that we've been presented with I think the more efficient way to go is how we make it more efficient as far as just K through 8 in general as far as testing state testing going forward it's it's it's tough to put this put this pie in as far as that's concerned right and and all of your points are valid I just want to remind everybody that at this point in the budget cycle our job is to put forth a responsible budget but as we define a responsible budget what that is is a budget that represents what our students not a number that fits in a box not a number that we imagine it's some imaginary number that we think is going to be more palatable to people a responsible budget is a budget that meets the needs of our students so if we're coming at this world language program from a position of we no longer value or we question the value of the program fine but or if we want to say we value this program but it's not working right now we need to enhance it that again is still talking about value to our students I don't want to talk about it in terms of well it's a hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars that we can chip off of this block so that'll get us there so none of this gets us there it does it's a chip and I agreed to Jen's point you said a few weeks ago once it's gone it's probably not coming back it's true and I'm not I'm really not comfortable with that I think it's a valuable program even like Bob said just as an exploratory just to give the kids that exposure at a young age is valuable so so I'd like to make two comments first is on the language program in the seconds on social social studies you know what we've heard on the language program we seem to be hung up on the words language acquisition versus explore it I forget the other term explore exploratory and I don't know about any but I don't think there is such a thing as a language acquisition program per se without significant investment at the elementary level the elementary level kids are getting used to hearing the words and getting familiar with it and learning a little bit about life we've got all very multilingual families and are in our schools as we've all learned it's it's a it's a unifying thing and as I said at my last meeting I have had children who had that type of exposure very early on in their life and it has stayed with them for their life and it was not a language acquisition program it was just immersion right it was go learn understand what the word for door is understand where the word from Hungary is you know it's just fun right but that Fontan translates to an ear an ability to hear language that you don't get you if you start too little too much later because as our speaker said tonight the older the kids get the left more more solidified they are so I've always valued this program I think this is very good for our kids and I will also add it's the one thing we've heard over and over again that lends some excitement to their school day right you know it's a it's different it's fun it's it lightens up what's going on so I am a huge advocate for this as part of our educational process and I wouldn't give it up lightly I just wouldn't I wouldn't just do it because we're sitting at a budget cycle we may be back here in two or three months but our jobs to advocate what's a good holistic educational program for our kids so that's my comment you said immersion we're talking 45 minutes a week when I say immersion they were it wasn't it wasn't structured immersion it was just it was exactly what we do here so it was get a chance to talk about it and by the way that teacher would actually speak in the language to them right and that's what our teachers do right they're not speaking in English and saying the word for this is they'll come in and say you know say good morning and in Spanish and that's it that's a good thing it's a good kids get used to it so on social studies two years or three years ago when we had the last discussion with but three three years only three years three years ago we spent an extraordinary amount of time in this in this forum talking through social studies versus world language I will give a huge at the time we were looking at eliminating the world language at the elementary mostly because we couldn't find an instructor right who would do the job who was sir both certified in the language and certified to teach at the elementary level that was that's a hard combination and it was eventually we found our way through it but it was you know it was very significant at the middle school we had an issue of too little social studies and because of that we put some other language into the specials actually some of the cultural stuff is into the specials and reduce significantly the amount of time for Spanish and increased significantly the amount of time in social studies we actually higher social studies teachers and and and rebalance some things I get that right Dean okay Dean's nodding his head and what at the last meeting I asked have we had any empirical evidence of its help of that decision that we made because we did make a decision to add a lot did is it helped or hurt and what I heard was there's no empirical evidence yet it's too soon right so I don't think we ought to overreact to the social studies thing until we see if the changes and investments we've made are paying off right or if they're not paying off I think we have some hard decisions to make but we don't have any evidence that's been presented to us as a board one way or the other other than the general feeling that more is better right to say change what we did so I actually think I I am a big believer in social studies but in the middle school level because I do think it adds a lot to children's ability to deal with complex subjects and that type of thinking is different than the basics of language arts if you will at the elementary level it's a transitional period but I'm not convinced that the decisions we already made aren't paying off and until we do I wouldn't go rip out the valuable language program just because of the generalities right so that's I'll send my piece and you all I think I've talked to many of you privately about this I have a sixth grader that's doing world language now I asked him a few weeks ago you know talk to me in Spanish tell me something he's like well we're really not doing a lot of that right now we're learning about Peru intentional or not no he's in Spanish when they come into social studies as a push in and I don't know if that's an intentional thing Dean if there are some social studies kind of work going on in the world language class oh is it not now yes I know that's one of the things that they're working with I think it's specific to but during that pushing time they are doing they are still learning Spanish they're still learning to speak Spanish obviously within context of Peru but within the specials remember the special time that they have which is just a rotation so he may they may not have an hour they may have it later or may have already had it that is all spanish-speaking countries so you learn about culture traditions so it's sort of ties in with social studies but in that in that short time that they are in there that they are speaking Spanish in the teacher you know is still teaching different parts of Spanish for the students to learn more about it it's not just the cultural part of it I guess so and by the way that was part of our struggle as a structure we agreed on which is you could get a little social studies anyhow right in that in that's been the special it wasn't strong right it was more in the nature of picking up Spanish but it was topically flexible across the two subjects so that just might I'm sorry I'm I felt like I just stood up on a soapbox as part of this discussion we do have to just it's for everybody to be reminded of them for for the public to understand that we have state required standards that we must teach in social studies and there there aren't state required standards in elementary Spanish that must be taught I'm not disagreeing with anything that was said I just want people need to understand that that we have many requirements and mandates and half twos that we must get to as a school system it is we're requiring is our responsibility so just putting that out there so we admit and are we meeting those we're doing everything we can to meet those are we meeting those or are you saying to us that we're not meeting those I'm saying we need to make sure we have enough time to meet those I'm not saying we're not meeting those okay okay because I don't really important state measures and I don't want to be passive-aggressive but now this topic like this time this topic this topic is feeling so are you are you recommending that we eliminate middle school Spanish no not recommending okay I'm voting a forward for a discussion point because I was asked to come up with but the words you just used made me feel like you were advocating that was not advocating the latter what what I was saying what I was saying is that we just have to keep in mind that there are require there are valued programs that we love and adore that to your point that you're making above you don't have to necessarily measure everything to have something be valuable I get that right and you have experience I understand exactly what you're saying and I appreciate that but when you come down to very difficult decisions I just want to make sure it's out in the forefront requirements that week there's have tools that we have to do and I'm not saying we're not meeting those and there are those want twos and those other things that are valued and we just have to look at the balance of those and I think it's just part and parcel of this conversation it's all I'm saying I think you know if I feel like if we take a step back to before we felt the pressure of this budget nobody came to us and said we have a problem with social studies or we have a problem with exploratory Spanish we have to figure out how to improve that program or improve this program so I feel like we're reacting to these numbers so I think as Rosa said before we have to think about what we value as a board and as a district we've made a commitment to Spanish we've made a commitment to social studies and I don't mean to be saying your side your side is physical just realized I was doing that you know if we need to make adjustments to either program that's what we have to do but I don't think I don't feel like we should be in a position to say you know we don't think it's working so get rid of it we we need to figure out if they're improvements that have to be made well how do we do it but I but I feel like like was said before we fought for a long time to get an elementary Spanish program and I think it's our obligation to figure out how to make it work so I'm with you I'm not ready to by any means let it go you know and just to connect what you said Debbie if we I would like to make a decision based on data so I think we have some anecdotal data maybe fill this experience with the world language program that's positive or neutral or negative we definitely have that but we don't I don't think I don't know if we have enough data to make a big decision like that so that worries me mm-hmm and I do think we're good we're doing it because we're trying to get the budget down so how do you which I understand that's a very practical thing because it's a huge number and we have to be responsible to the community I guess I just worry that it is something that does make Brookfield unique and special and a little different than other districts so when if we got rid of that or we do are we still unique and special and different other other things that make us unique and special and different or have we just kind of I mean the sad thing is is as you reduce things because of budget concerns do we sort of you know reduce what's especially unique about us so that's what I worry about and really it I don't know if it makes us special and unique because most other districts have it and I would hate to see this district go in a direction of we have nothing but the things that we absolutely have to have so joy what do you think you think Wyatt I think I kind of put out there last time how I felt but like dr.
B will also be one spirit to be with representation elements so we are excited we have to turn this around quickly and so like I said you know we a year sounds like a long time we also have the summer in the middle in steering committee you know we just have enough centipede but we were excited about the work ahead I'll probably have a moral piece as we move forward wherever that first big meeting Kevin you make reference to the grant time which is that a little over $200 and prescription unfortunately here did teachers body goes that's 200 so I for example the partnership is also requirement like you have apartment with some agency that will facilitate this process you need to get one year that's what they write off in it yes yes magnets cooperation plan when they funded the magnet school it is a magnet school which music surrounding its outside gave her intro would feel like there was a plan was submitted to the state being there and describe the operation of the building which was an her students next with six before he missed matches the goal stay within that person getting fun I did verify the funding it's about 2.2 many males here and that's why yesterday number you saw up there tonight it's inclusive in there in terms of political expenditure so we do receive that that's an offset which means for still contributes over above what you get about fifty thousand dollars and these are going to to make building the building was never paid for by local taxes and in 20 years of that building becomes a damper and read to you facilities committee and asking a question they don't if you were to ask them how to buy it they would but they know the precedent that in 20 years when they teamed up with let's say for the restaurants in the past they built the dishes on the buildings for special education purposes in 20 years those sites became school district sites same it's just applications here 20 years AAS becomes you still would receive if you operated the way the operating will still be still get same universe but we still have the same criteria operator to change the motto asking there is a process to go through if you would have to go do that but over time however you do it they need to the replacement of the 2.2 million dollars so what I suggest that you do is that as we look at we're looking at the demographic work you know we've had the big room look at the enrollment again because of the number of students that have come in they should go back to it because we're finding out that we're absolutely the elementary is not where the most challenging yet the Unison challenge has been on high school surprising who sold away revisit the number i've hired them to be consultants to the board and facilities group and the 20/20 and sharing expenses with the city for them to go back and get everything out again and charge them with coming to the board and to the 20/20 committees that they actually present the options to the thinking last ring you may recall one of the ideas behind was that kingship that was we were throwing out we thought we needed that we added the modules to the middle school two years ago next year we'll have them all fill in the first year so give them the options to come back to us and say this is what I think you could put in this idea the Magna school what if what if it becomes a district school what does it mean other than in fact your moment we know the charter schools been approved if it gets funded which is a possibility that gets done the calculations so that person can objectively bucket that the Newport members the people that we have hired have done all of their metrics already they have all the numbers that's why they could start pretty aggressively looking at some of my district temporarily or if we have to make some other adjustments I'm uncomfortable I've been uncomfortable because I keep getting this idea where's the 22 million dollar company though we've talked about it and we did there was a 2020 committee and then it became what I know is this that the Osborne stream was looked at as one possibility along with putting modules at other sites and the city came down on board need space this is a building space that we own we could produce a good seven classrooms they also looked at the same number about finding out they see a tremendous challenge at the minimum high school which was unusual and the money that was in his part of 20 to me would help us accommodate those numbers they've come up very aggressively number-wise terms of enrollment in addition so they thought it was proven to put this into the amount line now one word that the mayor said that first in one situation an elevator so they've cobbled in some things they need to be done that's all I know that's all I know and I think that the best thing to do is now is to get these consultants come to us and say this this is the moment this is a space that you have these are the space utilization we're collecting data from every principal how they're using the building's because the Ohio a population which is about 26% services has changed how we use our abilities through dramatic yourself so what are we gonna do so I've charged them with coming to us I've asked Joe tonight I think the best thing to do is bring the Facilities Committee and the 2020 diamond together and let me present that informations you know as to locate the same information ask the same questions and then get that clarified but whatever we build the board has to approve the specs the town can't go about they can just provide some spaces a disability so that's how that could work question we discussed it is an aside some facilities last week and even if we were to try to take it over during the state that's going to no EDID looking for its artists in five years ago anyway and correct me if I'm wrong you can only be phasing out grades anyway I would think the boy that's what the Lord would do with into play because would be just blatant unfair it up and pull the rug out where these students know if we're phasing in it in any way correct me if I'm wrong you wouldn't be picking up a meaningful number of seats for several years in terms of addressing our overriding we'd be picking on what twenty or twenty percent a year and by here hundred the figure would not at one time not incremental incorrectly the wrong by here too we're starting to jeopardize her money a year to you would jeopardize the money to question we'd be out of balance and then you have a year the fix and not pro rata if you just chip resolver yes so we're not 6040 to be able to here to fix it and then if we're not 6040 again in all of those that time that's what they have a disk that's the onlythe revenue source that you forget you get 3000 for each of our students so that it's 200 we get that money and you also get the 7200 almost 70% meters so what I suggested to do is before we move down on this road put it in the mix with everything else and have them look at it you know they might not make any sense financially whether or space-wise it was the Democratic side I was trying to suggest a date he wasn't thinking in two weeks we met with them today we did ask over the work and they said it would take about two weeks for them to saying that at least from our end though the site support this new consulting group split into two questions from the psych test to look at this look at this then evaluated in addition to what they could but they had missed the angle of this firm and they did all the work already so what I've said to them given the constraints that we have and they've evaluated all of our sites what recommendations can you come to the board about accommodate in the space and they will give us a presentation and then clarifying questions send them back to drawing board good better ideas it sounds logical do you think then that presentation should be made to both groups simultaneously so everybody gets the same oh maybe because of the confusion and remarks and it just you know just didn't feel right so I'm not sure which is the curtain which is the horse you know on both these committees what would happen a modified me selected something and he made sense the 2020 define what an issue I put investors when that happens then we said it 2020 this is what we like in the spaces they are men and if that moves forward then to prove and by statute to create that's they actually monitor with the city respect we then back out they take they take it over and when they're done they in the back and I've asked them to do something that we will stay funding for we will learn is up to eight years though these predictions [Music] I said do something continues some big some calories so that's when we charge the franchisor their consultation with you take into account we've discussed before these short term and long range planning projects I gave them all the information at the city giving their information stating evaluations of sites so that then you you know part of taking all the time is they go off through all this part some of it the city has done in confirms of government work and then Kevin and Courtney have been collecting of utilization so we've given him that [Music] a Pacific there was a tender take a look that if that's okay with everybody here so we can have it that they do with the city so that they can get the message out to different piece of taxi yeah otherwise well I'm just targeting a time frame they need at least two weeks so maybe following the warranty is a suggest maybe the 11th which they followed me to see counties and so I should check Joseph [Music] so we leave it at 10 into it let me talk the city into the two consultants there clear [Music] yeah yeah this way we're gonna get some information if you got some questions didn't think I should give the seven to me now federal refund and over to blended the physical evaluation he's also built some of the additions in the school so he knows as well the demographers but all of the work so if you got some ideas I've asked what if we have to do some redistricting where and should we do that if you ask the questions get it to me I'll fold it to them so they can at least have it in advance stress to all of you you know that lead to expulsion you ought to tell me about trying to make sense of your factory it doesn't so a factory we need people to do your observation please try to get your observation in because we only have certain people that have their to do the expulsion and I know stuff that feel work every day we try to you know Rangers different but experiment what he did those observation and what it really was valuable so that made it worth the trip all the way to the other side there was a workshop on best practices for alliance it was okay the conversation was okay but it will hopefully lead to more alliance district focus work from Kane so I hope to see more from them the handout last meeting just kind of outlined what is an alliance district was a priority district and things like that especially for new members also tended to know their lay public relations workshop done bank rec which I thought was well done and you can find in other handouts in website and then the Westside middle school Academy is volunteer judges for their science and engineering engineering fair which is happening on January 30th judging is from 7:30 to 10:00 a.m.
lonner um I would ask you to as members of that committee to help maybe both I am not particularly involved in that project and the rest of the Planning Commission I'm I'm just thinking about the context of the capital improvements plans over the course of master plans that have been generated over time with long and winding community input versus the prioritizing projects out of this process which is on a pretty truncated process with while you know I I have no doubt that the aspiration is to have wide public input but it's it's a different conclusion than a master plan so as we're going through that I think it'd be helpful to help well just everybody to understand when we're making those trade-offs on what I'm the basis that that's happening I appreciate that and when I think about the things you know right now I bring this up because we're talking about capital improvements and again on our on the energy sub teams list of 36 projects there's only a few that I can think of that are actually be counted as capital per capital projects there are a number of things that our land use and zoning related a number of things and so how that gets through our process right like and how much additional public input that requires I mean these are things actually that have been on our to-do list for a long long time increasing housing density right like it's there a lot of the things in terms of like requirements for energy efficiency things that are on our you know how to change planned projects so I think that that that's really going to be a key I mean the built environment the built environment in our city is the biggest contributor right it's the the power that we use the natural gas that we use in our homes and workplaces and the cars that it takes the emissions that are generated from the cars to get us to and fro and we're not just considering those cars we're also considering the cars that come here every day because we don't have places for those people to live or they don't want to live here which is legit but there's a probably some that do want to live here rather not be stuck in traffic so there are a whole lot mean they're a whole bunch of planning and things that are implicated in this so deeply - people don't want to live here what all right further discussion on the amended motion see no one all those in favor please say aye aye opposed it's approved thank you miss Gosselin for all your work thank you and we look and we will see you next December this December thank you all right at this time we are an audience participation members of the audience we address the Planning Commission in regards to anything at all for up to three minutes if you could come up to the podium seat your name and address for the record and you'll have up to three minutes to address the Planning Commission I'm here in support with some of my colleagues as a short-term rental host I went to Michigan I graduated a few years ago and decided to return back to Ann Arbor and I basically invested my savings in a few units here in town and you know we do a great job to be great neighbors I take it upon myself to bring people to this town to show them something that I just I discovered when I was in college and I've really grown to love since I've been here and you know we did this above board we looked at all the rules that were on the books we said you know can this be done is there you know framework for getting a certificate of occupancy and making sure that we follow all the rules and we did you know to the letter and so you know in this discussion about regulating short-term roses came up it wasn't a huge surprise to us this has been happening you know in many many cities and and I think contrary to some beliefs were very much on board with that we think that it should be permitted the city should be aware of them and that we can be helpful in that process and so really I'm kind of coming before you for the first time to kind of introduce myself and say you know we'd be happy to help and most importantly that we think that there's a kind of common sense solution to come to but as some of the you know colleagues behind me said you know we heard from Elizabeth nels nelsen you know to our faces that said hey there are some you know nuisance concerns yada yada but we don't think that you guys who a responsible host should be penalized for that and that we can come to some you know understanding and ultimately that's not what was proposed in the option three from the Carlile report and the way that we see it now is you know there have been a lot of advocates for regular Ric there have not been any advocates that I know of for this you know measure to ban and so kind of ultimately it's you know before you guys to come to some understanding of what's really gonna function the right way for our city and so I think that the best way to do that is to net to analyze what's actually going on what the numbers actually are which as they've said this report really did not do and so ask that that information be brought forth in any kind of pragmatic that sense that makes sense and I think that we're all on board for something like that but right now that's not what's you know on the table and so it's a very big concern for us you know as neighbors as Ann Arbor residents and as you know small business owners who share that with many other businesses via coffee shops or restaurants or you know vendor stands at any time this is something that's a big big benefit to the city and to us as individuals and Michigan graduates and I implore you guys to kind of as this process develops really think about kind of the impacts that it will have because it may be you know very positive or not thank you let's just see if there's anybody else shirkuh if you don't mind just saying your name interstellar yeah you want my address too sure 15:24 Marian so one of the things that kept playing over and over at the council meeting was that neighborhoods the residents of our neighborhoods have the right to expect that when they buy a house and they move in that they are moving into a neighborhood and they're not moving into a hotel zone and I totally agree with that I I don't feel that my house is in any way a hotel we don't have that kind of traffic but but there's also the flipside is that my expectation when I bought my property was that we were gonna upgrade the property improve the neighborhood by doing that and my expectation was that that I would have the right to rent that property and I go and I get the CFO and I spent all this money with all fixing all these little things that that are required and and everything is done aboveboard and so there's expectations and rights on both sides of this issue and I hope that you will consider that you know we all there's a solution here for a win-win I believe and and I know that we want to work with you to craft a solution that is in everybody's best interest the other issue that came up was the issue of zoning violations and there was some discussion about you know we were running businesses and neighborhoods well I made the point at council meeting that there are all kinds of businesses being run out of homes all over this city that generate far more traffic than my once a month or twice a month guests that come in and out so I just don't buy that argument and I think that we need to be very careful about talking about zoning because if we're gonna start talking about zoning for we're in a college town we have student rentals we have sublets in the summer that are three months those are far more disruptive than somebody's Airbnb house in a neighborhood we know this the police department knows this so there's a lot of things that need to be thought about and I think what needs to happen is we have to have a comprehensive plan that's put forth that's not specific to short-term rentals but that includes all types of rentals and what are we going to do with them in the city and how are we going to regulate them to create a win-win for everybody and if that requires better ordinances in place to deal with the problems then that's what needs to happen thank you thank you really quick Commissioner Mills I appreciate what you said tonight about all the fish that we have to fry as a community they're very obviously is a housing problem in this town that deserves comprehensive housing plan and I would think being a person that works in I'm a consultant that works in the strategy world what makes sense to just to me is articulate the housing issues first then the next layer down is articulate the zoning plan that supports the housing issues then then you can get to things like STRs and ltrs and where things are and how do you mitigate transition if you have to make tough decisions but I I understand again you know that there have been complaints and that's what prompted all of this but to make a decision that in fact that affects any particular group of people that are paying taxes not just with property taxes and their substantial to focus on one group of people that have actually made an investment in this commune for the most part is is tremendously unfair but even more than that it's unfair to the people that really are suffering because of that housing problems that we have that have not been corrected it takes at the attention away from where it needs to be and it's just it's just doing things out of order so I appreciate you saying that because I feel very very strongly that that you know this whole thing should be tabled until those first two steps are our work through and I for one am planning on attending as many Zoning meetings or anything like that that I can because I think that's part of the part of the issue and you know we now have expertise to add to the table for what it's worth in terms of how zoning regulations could be changed again to address the biggest problem which is affordable housing in this town not STRs and the behavior of a very small subset of guests so thanks again for your time I certainly appreciate it thank you sir anyone else wishes to address the Planning Commission please please do mr.
Hicks but also attending conferences workshops professional development listening to parents teachers community members and of course concerts are my favorite school plays and the list goes on and on through partnership with teachers administration and classified staff parents and community the board members support the vision power in the preparation excellence and the journey of success for a lifetime so I don't like to toot our own horn so that's why I'm presenting something to each of you and it is just recognition for being a great board member and you get sweets here is your jar of sweets and it is a pleasure to serve alongside of you guys especially you too since I've known you for several years and and we've gone through ups and downs and challenges and everything but our reward is giving back to the community I think that's what we do every day so this is for you guys and that was all I had well I was awesome thank you for that thanks for putting that together she forgot the graduation we get to hand out the announcements that's my favorite part she gave me peanuts anybody else all right let's move on to going on to F motion to approve consent agenda items mr.
Birla said I think we really need to focus on our mandated requirements I'd like to hear from dr. Ruby about how you feel that we fair is meeting our mandated requirements such as social studies and do we need more valuable time for the for that content area in particular social studies is the last of the core for that we are addressing in terms of curriculum revision and alignment with standards and there are you know four important domains within the new standards that we have to address and we you know I I'm not going to tell you that we're doing that because we're not it's the the new c3 framework the Connecticut social studies framework hasn't been used as a document in a consistent manner to revise all of the curriculum for social studies because the curriculum for social studies hasn't been revised since before I came here because we have we've been focusing on ela math and science and it's it will be a challenge to to address all of the standards across all the grade levels particularly as we get up in the grade levels when we don't have a full complement of time but if if that's what we have if that's the amount of time that we have to deal with we'll do the very best that we can but we feel that social studies is an area particularly when you get into civic engagement and having children really take action that's a place where you can get into a lot of extension work and in Richmond work where you really do need the time and so will we as we get embark on the real revision of that work it will work within the time that that we're given but we have not revised that curriculum yet that's the work that we are gonna hopefully start devyn myself in the the end of this current year to be able to support the teachers to really launch next year we started working on it two years ago and it was just given the amount of time that teachers have to put into writing curriculum we just absolutely could not tackle ela math and science and social studies all the time the same time there's only so many hours in a day and we don't want to do you know a half way job on everything we're looking for quality and I think that's what we're getting and the social stage is pretty a pretty exciting area because there's just so much that kids need to learn how to do in terms of this not so much the content the content obviously is important but it's not a memorize and regurgitate on a test you know like you know the capitals of the states and all that the kind of stuff that probably many of us have it's really thinking out the about big ideas that happen in the past and how they relate to what's happening now in alignment with the work that mark Belinda and his folks are doing up at the high school it's the same type of framework and it's including his civics history geography and economics from kindergarten right straight through high school and so that's a very very different approach to teaching social studies than what we've been doing for you know decades and decades I think Jen can relate to what I'm talking about it's a totally different approach and focus its inquiry based it's it's a very rich curriculum that we're looking to develop and if we don't have the full complement of time we'll have we'll have what we haven't will we'll make it work the best we can how do other districts fit it all in is there a model that you know a district that you know of that has K through six World Language and manages two districts do different things some districts have more a longer day by you know not hours and hours but they have a longer day some districts have their instrumental sections before school many many districts I was just at something at cap scape and they had a band from from that I can't remember what school it was but it was amazing and I went up to Thaksin because I'm always interested because I think the music programs are very important but time with time is you need time you can't do all the things that you want to do you can't have enrichment and remediation and robust curriculum and exciting integrated programs for kids and mentorships with people coming all the things that really our kids should be having when you can't fit it into the day so with this particular band was amazing it was a middle school band it was like being at like some concert hall they were just fabulous they don't have class these kids all come in the mornings and and a lot of districts do that parents bring their kids in the morning the teachers are there there's different formats within the different unions and what kind of mo use or mo ways they have for how the teachers are taking care of in terms of you know the work that they're doing before school Berry has it before yeah and so it's and so you know it's it for as many schools as there are there are that many ways that people make it work out but we have a short day and I just hate to have the mindset that we're gonna just try to make it work like I don't that it's not confident Oh it'll work we'll make it work but is that the best that what we're achieving is that the best thing we can do doesn't sound to me doesn't sound like it well I I can't predict what you know tell you what it's gonna like but I can tell you that when we the curriculum that we revise will be quality curriculum but we're you know we're if we don't have that if we don't have the full content time every single day they're gonna be things that that would be enhancements and enrichments and where kids get get their engagement and their ability to take what they're learning and then apply it to a problem maybe we won't be able to do as much of that as we would like because we know the time but we certainly will we'll cover all the essentials I'm just telling you honestly that right now we're not we're not aligned with the standards 100% because we haven't done that curriculum work yet and I would love to like you said see the data I mean absolutely but there is no data to see so but why is that okay you know why is that okay that we keep pushing it forward with no data to move forward I just I'm not comfortable with not fully going forth with a mandated requirement such as social studies pushing that forward which I think but I think that first item on John's list would say that we need to support the curriculum writing effort here you know it's a board I think this is this is if we don't get going on that this will be as you said the fourth area right this is the one that needs our support to continue to progress and the curriculum which has been so beneficial to our studies so that this is an area that out of that we could get some data on you know how are we aligning with those things so and I think to your point what you were mentioning before Bob was that until that curriculum writing is is further along we don't know how well we'll perform so we could say oh yeah social studies is gonna suffer but we don't yet know that so to remove a program I would say I'm also talking about data as far as world language yeah well we know it's not a language acquisition program and I don't think anybody here is saying that we need to somehow perform on a language acquisition test I think there are again qualities that we value that might not necessarily be measured and we want those included in our education but you know in in just sort of any interest of can continuing to move this conversation along I don't want to spend all night considering this one thing because we have other things that we have to talk about and in all honesty we are probably going to have to revisit this again so maybe we can just sort of take like a small poll and sort of say like you know is this something that we based on our values which I think you know seems that Mike and joy have you know questioned the value of this program which is absolutely fair so let's just take it I clarify I don't I don't that's fair to say okay language this program well I mean the other issue I have could we halt world language it's Spanish it's not world language okay Spanish why we call the language the value learning a second language or having a grasp on other cultures totally value that what I don't want to see happen is I don't want to see things like social studies get neglected or suffer as a result of an exploratory program neither do i and if we do see that then I think I will be in a position to say okay we need to take a harder look at what is the value added so let's just you know sort of take a poll because I think we need to I'd like to get to the point where we can adopt the budget tonight so if we if there are things that we need to eliminate from that budget I think we need to sort of have that that information from us so this is not an official vote but who would be in favor of eliminating the k-6 world language or Spanish program from this from this budget from the proposed budget would be in favor okay so as of right now it will stay in the proposed budget okay if you want we can just sort of go work yeah we could work through it but through line by line in general I I feel like as you said earlier our job is to put forward a responsible budget so I feel like really we need all the things that are on this list but you know I feel conscious of the fact that we have to be thrifty responsible of course so I I can be persuaded to maybe hold off on things that maybe affect huckleberry being that in two years huckleberry is like you said we'll be we'll have a new school the new library will be in we'll be getting new equipment so if we look at it just from sort of a common sense perspective if maybe holding off on things like and I hate to say this the library books at huckleberry I would be okay with something like that knowing that in two years there will be a new school if we can any in any way figure out which whiteboards and smart boards are in fifth grade classrooms I don't even know if we can get it down to that level okay so that's not an that's not a factor but I sort of feel like the rest of it is are things we need I mean except maybe the line for books periodicals and subscriptions I don't maybe we need more detail on that but the $6,000 but I feel like as you said we're going to we're probably going to be back in this situation in a few weeks so I I just feel like this is why actually I actually agree with you on the library books and the subscriptions you know I think those maybe aren't things that we while we need them are not super high maybe on the right on the priority list it's funny when I was looking at the line items that are in here some of them were rate and pace items you know so the the words were delays upgrading and expanding on well maybe we slow down a little bit on those and it's not great it's not perfect but it's not hurtful right it's a great pace question there's other items on this and so I would put that into the forty six thousand for the whiteboards that's a rate and pace question the library books is a rate and pace question the online resources struck me more as let's find a creative way to get free stuff so that's okay and then and then the rate and pace question was on the VHS textbooks that was a question of expanding offerings to me that's a decision of how fast are we moving to continue to improve our schools right and that's a decision we can take it's not a lot of money I mean in the big scheme of things those four items which were rate and pace items add up to fifty eight like seventy thousand dollars then you got it down to would we advocate for increasing the class size above our above our recommended amount and we can debate that point that's a discussion I know where I stand on that one and then we've just talked about the both the social studies investment on curriculum and and the world language so I think we've got three discrete items and then a rate and pace question about when a Trump that's how I think about the principle that's how we looked at it as well so we appreciate that yeah and financing priorities does anyone there's anyone okay with the first grade teacher I think we're gonna be in the same position we were in at the beginning of this school year with that it means the same class so and who knows what's gonna happen in September or October and no I don't think I'd want to it's not somewhere I want to go right now comment what's that coming coming oh yeah so I've asked a lot of kindergarten teachers and first grade teachers about because I think I said something about what roughly to hire more aid instead of a teacher that obviously doesn't will reflect the the numbers as far as a student per classroom but least we know we have a certain amount of bodies to a student and every single one of them across many districts that told me an aide is not the same thing as a teacher so I just want to make that comment towards obviously keeping the teacher but I think that's important I mean this was about 15 teachers I talked to so not a huge sample size but I have a hard time thinking that it would change if I talk too hard yeah we brought that was brought up at the last meeting I'd love to have both yeah but we can't afford it all right so it sounds like no one is in favor of reducing that additional proposed first grade switcher right so that along with the supplies line are going to remain in the budget so what about sort of the delays so that's the textbooks the subscriptions the library books in the presentation stations is that what you had marked where everybody's thoughts on those items I think it would be reasonable to say that we could delay things like that it would be optimal but I think by delaying it I think who we just maybe get an idea Erik of sort of what was you know has the paceman going along normally and this is like really something or have we already been going really slow and this kind of leg really grinds it to a halt sure so the pace I've been trying to keep is when I first got here we kind of had an all over the pace place kind of pace also at the time frankly the the cost per board was more expensive and if they've come way down so we were kind of fulfilling parts of departments or we were doing stopgaps where we had damaged equipment or older equipment and we were filling up and then we started to kind of see inconsistencies right certain teachers had the newer equipment other teachers didn't so my approach I started with last year was that at the very minimum if we're going to upgrade boards we're going to do a full department in one shot you know not you know eight of the nine teachers or you know half of half of social studies and half of English that it would be one full department so the remote my original proposal was an aggressive amount it was for 30 30 boards to complete two departments here and then really kind of start to to move down to whisking here and kind of show the lower schools that you know their equipments coming so what this cut does is it actually reduces me down to ten based on what we have right now so I'll still be able to do one whole department my hope is that we don't come to a screeching halt there's other initiatives and and other things that will need to be brought and addressed in future budget years sort of bring this down to a screeching halt within have it but against some other things I'll be posing proposing next year the following year so the idea was to slow the pace down a little bit but not stop completely okay thank you thank you well I agree with Jen and Debbie I think I think those are reasonable reasonable delays that we're we're just gonna have to to deal with so presentation stations library both possibly just we just don't maybe just bring that number down instead of just all together I think that number so he so Eric that is actually the number four to bring it down to ten boards so it's not stopping it's not stopping his original proposal the sixth Erika right right facility so he still we're still making progress so how does everybody feel okay everybody feel okay with those reductions actually listening to Eric I'd like to not trim the 46 as much right I think it's a good trim good area to trim in this environment but I think Mike you're you're right on which is I've loved it how much would it cost to finish the high school the full amount finish the high school the rest of it was just a dent in the at lower schools so the 69 thousand it's in the budget yeah the original proposal of the full 69 for a full 30 boards would fulfill the entire high school and depending on certain needs when it came time for the installation we would consider over the summer of maybe if we had you know a location that changed here at the high school you know we might end up dropping down to twenty eight boards needed at the high school and we can start to two to five boards at whiskey so the the whiskey near is just a happenstance roll on yeah yeah and we've had this happen every year some you know things change to club classrooms change locations what was a classroom becomes you know or a language lab as it did a couple years ago and you don't need the same equipment there anymore so certain changes that that come into effect could change where the final resting place of these boards end up here can quick question can is there any state mandates or state recommendations that I want to make sure we're not falling underneath standards well standards is actually another thing we're working with our Technology Committee short answers no there is not state support if you will comes in to 21st century skills 21st century learning recently I think 2002 say 2016 for students and then each subsequent year the state adopted what they call the ISTE standards which is a symbolic adoption something we were going to get in with our Technology Committee and dr.
that morning or you can come by and just view the projects from night volunteer to be a judge contact Jonathan Kozol I gave parroted information so you can reach out to characters and madam chairman you just clarifies the role of the PTO for liaison just so we all know what we're supposed to do there's to attend the meetings if you in the profession it's not good to go there and really jump into the conversation it's getting information and concerns that we want you to bring back to us okay and I say to people to be very careful well then you listening when the information back to us and at some time at some point yeah and just advanced I felt like if there's an event all members should be invited to attend it should be just one representing all of us thank you community Operations Section okay Community Relations we just had a meeting tonight was our first meeting and we basically discussed what the purpose of the the committee was trying to focus on the next meeting with some thought process as to how we could communicate to the outside world the the what's going on in the district and also looking at different sources of media to engage the public in our in our quest of disseminating the information projects one we had us Rajon therapeutic approach just that we just reviewed the series 1000 community relations again after Kay scented back with a few errors so we will rework that for me again on memory stick and that sort of push to take some extra responsibility and we all work together to thank the English lady Vargas in Sandy Hook about week ago and it was used to a centered around a lot of the computers around struggling teaching us and it just cost me valuable discussions and then the other thing they said I just wanted to remind both consumers had a panel discussion next Thursday and we all the boarders they survived icky Mary Castro report because they not have enough participation I don't think they have any specific agenda these possible I didn't [Music]
Gabe Randall can I ask a question and this I know is gonna be completely anecdotal but if you'd come back up since you own several of these I'm curious about the level of occupancy that you achieve through the year over the the several that you own because I'm just curious about affordable housing and how much you know having it as a year-long rental for somebody versus having it as the short-term I think that what effect I know is there's some cities in the world that are grappling with that sure huge areas of vacancy because the short-term rentals are filled 20% of the time and so I'm just curious what kind of occupancy rate you have I would do would you be patient with me if I gave a two-part answer absolutely I I will answer your occupancy question but I will do it with a little bit of prejudice because I think I can make a very convincing argument based on my experience that depending on how funds are applied and depending on the condition of the specific house or unit or property that we're talking about that the STRs actually help affordable housing more than they harm it so I'm going to give you an example I my company has probably purchased you know 20 houses and with the exception of a few that we just bought on South State Street most of them are not habitable what I mean by that is and we buy in for a low price I mean they're there at the lower end of the market because there are things like floor joists don't connect into the sides of the foundation or their mechanical issues there is asbestos that you could see from outer space there's black mold places where if you could scrape if you were in a situation where you have limited funds and you could somehow scrape together the money to and get a mortgage to buy those it's not a place where children should live so these are my company primarily buys houses we renovate them you know we pay an extreme increase in the property taxes and that all goes into the general fund and you guys do with it whatever you do I would hope that there is you know the marginal difference between what used to be the taxes on that house and the new taxes on that house at least some portion of that could be paid into a housing plan affordable housing plan so if you take a look at the specific houses that we buy that we put money into and these are expensive renovations that your own employee just said contractors aren't motivated right now and it's been that way for a long time for the last at least you know since the since we got past the recession so so you know like it's just it's false logged it paulus logic to say you know unless we're gonna say people that have need of affordable housing have to live in crappy houses you know I'm not prepared to say that but I know from my own experience that you know the houses that possibly you could afford if you're in that financial circumstance you wouldn't want your kids living there it wouldn't be safe so if we can stipulate to that based on my experience you don't agree with me but but that's my experience it it's very much dependent on you know where it's located what the time of the year it is it's very cyclical you know December January February very low times but we do have one property that is at bassist Stadium it's on White Street it's busy all the time because the way we have it set up is there are six Suites in there so the people that stay there are willing to share common space but they get their own suite but then it's very competitively priced and the people that end up staying there are you know kids that are coming into town for grad school interviews or they're here for something other than like a football game so our occupancy is on most properties is probably about 60 to 70 percent most of the time that that is more in the April to October November time frame and then it's pretty empty they're much less you know booked during the winter months because there's less reason to be here but I will say too that on the bigger properties we do a lot of business with people coming to the hospital and I think the thing that I passed out kind of just tried to share some some of the information about the different people that that you know unfortunately are in Ann Arbor for that experience so of course on the football weekends we're gonna get partying and and but you know we have people abiding by by the rules but people are definitely there for a football game they're not there for any other reason and I don't want to make it seem like it's it's just a hotel for the hospital or anything like that so you know I I don't know what anybody else's occupancy is I hear people talk about the fifty to sixty percent range and I think that's that's roughly what it is I just really think we need to separate the issue of affordable housing from strs they're the only common the only overlap in the Venn diagram is both things involve a house or but now that it's midnight thanks thank you all right we are on to Commission proposed business and mr.
president I do have one thing regarding the consent agenda and has to do with there were a few grammatical things that need to be corrected and they were just minor and I've already given them to Louisa and and if they were for the minutes I'm sorry for our meeting that was earlier this month so I think I'll go ahead and make the motion I forgot it I move to approve the consent agenda items with the notation of the few grammatical errors as presented again motion made by Tracy sourcing fell and seconded by Jen Tanner motion carries thank you all right let's move on to consent agenda items recommendation for oh there we go sorry h1 policy governance board monitoring of adopted policies section 8 meet and confer dr. Kellis Thank You mr. president members of the board members of cabinet mr. Deano introduced to this item mr.