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peggotty birthday like yesterday's fat question was the lego movie what is the name of the construction work in hoods known as this special the answer is Amit the winner is the winner is Julian Julian Julian come to the office tip about your price today so my question is what popular candy creams you can taste the rainbow remember to write your ends are neatly and include your name in class we have a special announcement the winners for each grade for the whole class Starbucks our second grade first place Actos excellence class that can place the Beatrice class and third place tie between Smith and Smith the and Lancaster the second grade has it's a little easy 7 on the board great job second grade third grade first place ki-moon class second place merits class third place hold these class they're great had a total of 54 on the board fourth grade woods class second in place so as possible a third place tie between Stifler and Caleta Scots 4th grade had a total of 38 on the board falling away yeah the following classes one the extra recess for a second staff homework for the raffle in February the date on the extra recess is still determined second grade Mason V from this absences class there would be a title T from this merits class fourth grade Sydney from this sister's class congratulations to miss Coe Temescal of Arthur J classroom had read all of 20 monarch Award nominees and peep and many boost and titles with way to go keep breathing everyone keep on reading of it and now we will observe a brief period silence to reflect on the octopus and disappear activities of the day please stand please stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I pledge to be safe in every way take responsibility here I work and play I will be respectful and all I do and we aspire the whole day through have a wonderful Tuesday once the day remember kindness is spreading sunshine and other people's lives regardless of the weather thanks for watching bye
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Benson to have a strong social emotional connectedness helps with the learning they don't they're not separated but they're integrated it's just trying to connect those dots so when you see part of the classroom time spent regarding 5 radical minutes or mindfulness it is being able to support the student's academic achievements here's the struggle that schools have we are in a public education system that places such an emphasis on letter grades and the pressure that teachers have held to contribute to their school being an a has been enormous I have a teacher Advisory Council one from each school and the one thing they mentioned to me last week was they finally feel as though they have permission to be human and I think that's big what I ask of our parents is to understand that that academics are important but it can't be separated from the social-emotional growth but the humanists from the connectedness that needs to take place so that our students can be lifelong learners and succeed I appreciate the question and the responses thank you district personnel for jumping in on the mindset org free resources there's actually a parent place to do like journaling and things like that to free parent resources so regardless of what's happening in the classrooms well we can be having that kind of dialogue with kids too it's all free I like that one a lot yeah and again it applauded the intentionality of the district to be paying attention to social emotional learning it's interesting State Board of Ed you know meeting on Monday it proved the timeline for they moved up the timeline so in the better part of a couple weeks schools can apply for the extra twenty million dollars a chunk of the twenty million dollars to add counselors SROs that kind of thing too because we're recognizing we need more support for the social-emotional pieces across our state for sure yes so not aware of research that situates just mindset with class size but we have tons of research on class size so our teachers will tell us qualitatively that is a whole lot easier to get it done but the less kids that they have in their classroom but we also know that with practice and with strategies we can get it done with bigger groups of kids - the correlation between student learning and larger class size and while it seems like it would be easy to make it's not successful teachers can get it done with a lot of kids in the room very happy to see engagement be also something that your district has take a look at not only is it good for learning the ways that we can connect in cooperative learning super good for a kid face-to-face interaction and that's a way to structure classrooms that might be a little bit bigger to make sure kids are responding to each other and teachers can rotate more and circulate and talk to kids that way to appreciate the example of the journal - it's a great way I've got you know more kiddos if I'm a teacher I can connect with my kids one on one if I'm responding to it that way as well it's great it's a great question any other big-picture questions uh-huh and I appreciate that perspective huge because that's talking about the whole child and not just the letter grades that land on report card I'm cautious about like grading for grit but I love that so many of our teachers know our kids well enough the ink conferencing with parents tend to bring that kind of thing up and that's really important for us you know to know as parents where our kids might be landing if they're struggling in a classroom and we're not seeing it we need to know so we can respond differently or better I think the comprehensive measures beyond the ADA Athleta grade that was mentioned by your superintendent or just the academics measures beyond that reporting measures beyond that certainly warrant our attention to give parents a whole perspective of what's going on out there kids anybody else you mindful of the on-time departure so you can get back out to the 114 degree heat again thank you for carving out time to spend part of a Wednesday evening with me super grateful that you're here applaud you for making an intentional effort to be thinking about your kids and how you support them as parents so thank you very much I'll stick around for individual questions afterwards yes
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Dweck and hopefully you've looked into some of her work or seen some of her videos but I want to challenge you to really look at the challenges the failures the struggles that your kids have as an incredible experience it's very backwards but it's critical in being able to guide them through that process because the reality is this this is important your reaction to the things they come in contact with are gonna set the tone for how they respond to that I was thinking the other day and I realized you know what parenting doesn't change much from the time they're a toddler to the time they're in middle school in this way I don't know how many of you remember when your kids were toddlers and they were just learning to walk and run and I love this picture because it illustrates that they're really excited and then they start to fall and they hit the ground and the first thing they do almost every time is look up at their parents and and they're checking in like should I be worried here this hurt really bad and I see parents usually react in one of two ways you have the parents that jump up and run over oh my gosh are you okay or you have the parents that that even on the inside sometimes you're like oh no I think that was a bad one you still have some kind of pre rehearsed response my wife and I who's here in the room tonight our our response was always boom and we would say in a really playful way and our daughters would often look at us and think I don't think that was funny and it doesn't feel good but we didn't overreact to that and almost every time it would de-escalate and they would get back on track so I want to encourage you to think about this visual as you're thinking about the different things that come your way with your children now this picture I almost don't even like showing it because it bothers me that over the last I don't know 10 years or so we've in education I think got into a little bit of an adversarial role with parents and we all have probably heard the term helicopter parenting and that gave way does anyone know what the new one is that everyone's talking about anyone lawnmower parenting so if you think about a helicopter parenting was this premise that parents are sort of hovering above kids and they're swooping in to rescue them and help them in situations lawnmower parenting they say is kind of a step further and it's really just kind of removing all the obstacles out of their way so we clear a path and I've never liked talking to parents about that because I always felt like it was combative it was adversarial and it didn't help us solve the problem because if I'm just telling people hey don't be a helicopter parent or don't be a lawnmower parent it fails to recognize some important things one I think all of that flows out of love for children I think people want their kids to be successful and that's what they're doing and they're doing what what they feel like is best to do that and I I've never in fact I've done presentations about this and I've never included these slides until this year because I came across a book recently that changed my paradigm in terms of the way I viewed that I don't know if anyone read the coddling in the American mind I don't know if that's familiar to anyone this book by Jonathan Hite and Greg luciana really deals with a culture of safety is amande they say that it's interfering with young people's social emotional and intellectual development it makes it harder for them to be autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life and they shared a concept that is really resonating with me and I'm sharing it with parents now on my campus and it's this that we want to prepare the child for the road not the road for the child and that's something that we can do collaboratively it's not saying hey don't be a helicopter parent or don't be a lawnmower parent it's saying hey our goal is to do this together and your kids are gonna come up to obstacles and we want them to be able to figure that out navigate it as an educator that doesn't mean I shirk my responsibility of responding to things it just says that it's okay for them to struggle a little bit and so tonight what I want to talk to you about more than anything else is how do we prepare them for the road rather than clearing that road for them how do we prepare them for the and so I want to start by telling you that every time we solve a problem for our children or remove an obstacle otherwise known as preparing them for the road we rob them of an opportunity to learn and grow and we don't want to do that I want you to think about these things these questions as you see your kid come in contact with struggles think about these things what's the worst thing that could happen here sometimes that answer might be pretty bad but many times I think it's a small thing that maybe they could learn from what could they learn from this experience what am I doing that they could be doing for themselves am i solving a problem they could solve on their own is this an opportunity to advocate for themselves and this is a big one I heard this years ago and this is stuck with me for a long time remember this the price tag for our mistakes is cheaper today than it will ever be for the rest of our lives I'll talk a little bit more about that later but this is critical it's critical for us to pause and remind ourselves of this because as we talked about you love your kids you want them to be successful and sometimes it seems like you could step in there and take care of that but by doing that we rob them of that opportunity to learn and grow so as an educator you can imagine I have lots of examples of parents preparing the road I see it all the time and more and more I've tried to be more bold with parents not in a confrontational way but just to encourage them but I want to give you some examples we see this every day at my school and I I implore our families not to do this and it's lesson but I still see it happening kids forget things in their parents bring it we see homework now we don't give it to the kids the parents drop it off and we just say okay thank you and we put it there and we put it in the teachers box but we're not gonna reinforce that I see weird stuff like the cross country kid forgot his shoes and I see dad running in in a suit and tie dropping these shoes off you know so that the son is ready for the country meet water bottles like we don't have drinking fountains I don't I don't always understand that one lunches all of these things are in a well-intentioned place but again we're robbing kids of that opportunity I'll see parents that I know are lying for their kids about tardies and absences to get those things excused that always makes me sad grades you know kind of advocating and trying to get their kid maybe a better grade athletic teams this is sadly probably the things that there's more energy about in school than anything else I've been an athletic director or coach parents get so into that and again it's all out of well-intentioned places but you know whether it's playing time or not making a team or any of those things those are things we see them advocate or step in for conflict with their peers conflict with adults family vacation I put this one up because it's it's a more benign one but it's one that I try to reinforce we'll have parents that are that advocate for their kids and say hey mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Bernie Brown she's a researcher out of UT Houston if you've never read her books or seen her you need to know her but I love her take on dignity but it really changed me it's the practice that came from the book and it is don't walk through the world looking for evidence that you don't belong because you will always find it yes don't walk through the world looking for evidence that you're not enough because you'll always find it are worth and are belonging are not negotiated with other people we carry those inside of our hearts and so for me I know who I am I'm clear about that and I'm not going to negotiate that with you I will negotiate a contract with you I won't negotiate maybe even a topic with you yeah but I'm not going to negotiate Who I am with you because then and this is I think the heart of the book then I may fit in for you but I no longer belong to myself and that is a betrayal I am not willing to do anymore I spent the first 30 years of my life doing that I'm not willing to betray myself anymore to fit in with you so the difference between Bernie and your kids is they don't know who they are yet they're still forming their identity and who they are and every day somebody is asking them to change who they are so they have a very short view of life and they have a very short view of I am negotiating Who I am with these people to fit in and devices help them feel unworthy and so we have to be there for them to support and guide them through the process with strategies that actually help when I talk to students about what actually helps the things that don't have are some of our one-liners that we say to them when they come to us like palm down you need to let it go I'm so tired of your drama I'm so tired of this device causing so much drama the word drama is like a soap opera when they come to you what they're coming to you with is their inner pain no matter how trivial you think it is it rests on dignity and so at the base of what they're going through in-person and online is one kid taking away and stripping them of their dignity or an adult with good intention or sometimes not with good intention taking their voice away and so when we talk to them about you need to be respectful and you need to respect your teachers and respect our home and your brothers and all these things they're staring at us like I don't respect you I don't respect him because he just took my dignity away and you're asking me to say sorry so I do a lot of training around the difference between dignity and respect and I'm teaching you this tonight because as they come to you with big things and little things and trivial things and things that are happening on these devices if you can listen and give them a chance to stand up for their dignity you're gonna have a really great productive kit if our go-to response is snapchat is stupid and you need to ignore your best friend they're gonna find a workaround around you and they will continue to just kind of find ways to depart from you because they don't feel like you understand so I'm going to close out the last couple of minutes that I have with you to show you some pretty graphic examples of what's going on online I chose rated G versions so as you look at these and maybe are a little bit taken aback imagine what I'm not showing you because there's a lot out there so human beings have two choices with pain we either transmitted on someone else or we transform it your child doesn't know how to transform pain yet they have a very underdeveloped brain so one of my neighbors came over with this screenshot and her daughter's name is Hayden she's in eighth grade she has thousands of friends she has a beautiful family she's a cheerleader and she said I have no idea what to do with this this is an anonymous Instagram post that says I hate Hayden so that's the name of the page stop telling me to take this down she's a B word and deserves to die and go to h-e-l-l-o she's the ugliest girl I've ever met and she will never have a boyfriend so and so even dropped her for sage sage is another girl ever hope she kills herself so this was made on a Saturday on Monday you can see the photo of who we think created the page getting everybody together to talk about it so this is not a school issue this is not a law enforcement issue there was no direct threat made to her life it's awful it's horrible yes it's bullying yes it's harassment but the police can't come out and touch this or they would be literally touching millions of these types of things so imagine being Hayden and if you didn't tell your parents or your parents had no idea and putting your head down on the pillow and trying to figure out at age 13 how the heck am I gonna go to school on Monday what am I gonna say I can't prove who did it I think I know but I don't know what to do so yes the school will help her yes we have counselors that can guide her through that but this is not a school disciplinary issue to legislate this is unfortunately a parenting issue so on the front of calling other people's parents if she had a relationship with this other person as a parent you could reach out to the other parents you can imagine if you start the conversation with so your kid that I would not do so I have this dumb girl approach to where I'm like hey I was checking Emma's phone and I saw something really weird and I was wondering if you could check Chloe's phone and just kind of can you like get back to me and let me know what you're seeing because this is what I'm seeing that sort of diffuses and it's like we're in this together my kid might have screwed up pretty sure yours did too can we work on this together as opposed to I cannot what Chloe did to my cat that's not gonna go well you're gonna lose it right right if you don't have a relationship with a parent sometimes you can call the school counselor or somebody at the school and say this is what's going on I know you're really busy but I'm wondering if you have any guidance or support that you could offer or any suggestions or strategies that might help my kiddo get through this so again this happens every day all day long this is a very typical example of what our children are going through and they need you to help them through it so on the front of calling other parents sexting cyber bullying alcohol drugs babes booty shots anything that you see in my personal and professional opinion that is a safety issue I have had hundreds of students send photos of themselves to their boyfriends or girlfriends and their genitalia has made it around the school in less than 20 seconds it is a real thing most of them don't know that it's a crime and so as we're looking at how they're conveying pain to each other I think it's really important to understand what they're after so at the top here I have the attachment cycle every device that's in your purse right now or in your pocket serves a need for you doesn't matter if you're thirty forty twelve eight we all want to be seen hurt and left what devices helped us do is to get seen heard and lived pretty quickly so when you see your child dear ailing when you see if something's going on I can't put my finger on it ask yourself what is he or she after am i seeing him am i hearing him am i loving him in the way he or she needs to receive it if you see them drifting to the device to get those needs met those needs are never going to be met in an authentic way like they are from you and so balancing device use I use the analogy this is skittles they need salmon this is a very inauthentic way that in 20 seconds I can post an outrageous photo and I can get seen heard and loved really quickly and so if you see or when I should say when you see your child saying things that are outrageous raw edgy explicit telling grandiose slides about your family and what a jerk you are seeing heard left right so behavior is a symptom of these unmet needs anything you're seeing that things are going south that's a kid I was saying to you I need you to see me I need you to I really need you to hear me and I definitely need to feel that I'm loved by you even if I screwed screwed up other examples of what goes on these are rated G many students have multiple accounts that you don't know about I would not spend your energy and time trying to track down every account of your child hat it will exhaust you what I would spend time doing is when you see photos like this whether it's your child a photo they've been exposed to a classmate that has spent the night at your house and eaten your Oreos I want you to look at these kids as all of these kids are ours all of these kids are doing things that we did too we experimented with drugs and alcohol we may have experimented with kissing these are all pretty typical things - the one on the left that all of us have done in the past this generation just has an opportunity to show 7,000 people what they're doing and they've had no training we have handed this stuff over with no training and so I feel really deeply that when you see things like this sex drugs and rock and roll still self still sells it keeps me a very current and very relevant in my social group the only thing I'm worried about in fifth through twelfth grade is being cool I want to be left I want to be hurt so there are many images out there like this I'd also like to call your attention to some pretty harmful images there are whole communities of self-harm this one happens to be about suicide anorexia and bulimia there are whole communities that welcome girls and boys in and say you should starve yourself you need to be thinner this is how you do it there are thousands of comments underneath here and they're going back and forth talking about how they're gonna do it so if you have a child that is already starting to trend towards feeling like their body isn't something that they enjoy I would be mindful and watchful of Instagram because it it is so image based also to note um people often ask me on the front of suicide and self-harm how do these kids know how to do this how on earth does a ten-year-old think about not wanting to be here tomorrow the leading cause of death in the state of Arizona is suicide aged 10 to 14 the leading cause of death aged 15 to 34 is also suicide so there are people kids adults that are teaching kids how to harm themselves and so knowing how to monitor and supervise and have big conversations around it at a young age is very crucial so I'm gonna end and then open for questions um I'm gonna give you some strategies if you don't have a good router you need to get money buy it for yourself for Christmas or Hanukkah so this is one of my favorites there are hundreds out there so this one's called ero and it is an Open DNS server so all of the information that comes into your home is filtered for explicit and vulgar content you can also remotely from the app that matches it look at what your child is doing or children are doing and you can assign them their own kind of account within the account and if you see they've been on something too long you can hit a button and then their Wi-Fi goes up so we use this in our house that at nine o'clock every night the Wi-Fi shuts down in zone one two and three there's no discussion all devices go on a central charging station and the Wi-Fi is turned off the reason that you have to collect devices is twofold your kids need good sleep eight to 12 hours secondly if you just turn off the Wi-Fi all I have to do is turn on my data and go around you you have to actually collect the device as well questions on routers so far okay central charging station all devices need to be collected everyone needs good sleep sleepovers nothing good happens at a sleepover with technology nothing I can tell you thousands of stories girls that were videotaped in showers somebody's saying so Sarah what do you think about Katie and hitting voice record and then sending it to Sarah while I'm at the sleepover nothing good happens so have a basket and when they come over say I'm gonna give you 30 minutes to be on your devices the rest of tonight you're actually going to be human it's gonna be so cool we're gonna be human together have a sleepover imagine that lastly and I have some Flyers here tonight one of the apps that I'd highly recommend you looking into is called bark so this is a conversation that popped up on bark so bark is an app that you think on any device of theirs and your device and every night you get a real-time update of anything you need to be worried about you if you want to know about profanity bullying predation explicit content suicidal tendencies anything that you want to know you will receive and you get to pick if you want to set it super tight you want to know everything or super loose because your kids 17 and he's a pretty good job so it allows you to see conversations that you probably need to know about the best part about it is it monitors snapchat and Instagram the second best part about it is underneath this conversation a drop box comes down and gives you three tips to think about before you completely freak out and they're written by psychiatrists and psychologists who give you very developmentally appropriate things to think about before you go up to your student and say what the heck is it so there are many ways for $7 a month and for a $300 router that you can begin to protect your kids so I'd highly advise if it's not bark there are plenty of other apps out there that do similar things this is the one I recommend most often because it does a hundred and fifty different platforms including video game platforms so a lot of things happen on video games as well as social media so I've set a whole lot in a very short amount of time so I will open for questions yes sure yeah yeah it's so hard um what I would say is every kid is wired differently so I have a set of twins one is gonna be a total nightmare online and one could care less and so even in the same household it may look different and so I think there's so much information coming at us as parents that if your gut is telling you that she's doing pretty well I would go with your gut but I would also think about having something like this where you're just choosing I just want to know if there's any distress and I just want to know if there's any predation so there's kind of a happy medium between safety and privacy and our real goal for me at least is can you be a decent human being are you moving forward socially and emotionally and doing pretty well and are you safe I mean really those are the three things that I'm looking for my goal again is by 1516 that they're starting to take flight but I'm still going to have something like this and I will tell you in the past year and a half I've changed my mind a little bit about 17 and 18 year olds when we take phones away we are taking away oxygen and a lifeline so if and when you take a phone away because somebody did something inappropriate wrong etc it's being a jerk to you we have to replace it with some sort of support because I have talked to many families who have lost their students to suicide who were dancing with the device back and forth and then after the student was no longer there they looked in it and they were like oh my gosh no wonder he was so angry he was depressed no wonder he was so upset this person was being horrible to him and because they were 17 or 18 the parents were like he should have been fine but he wasn't and there's some finality to junior and senior-year like oh my gosh I have to go out in the big world and be an adult and so I would still recommend having something to balance the safety piece now people that are tracking their kids across ASU campus that's not something I would totally subscribe to at some point they need to take place other questions yes yeah ah yeah and I wish I had a super great answer for you but what I have found is like K through six we do a pretty decent job of not allowing too much of that to happen and then seven through twelve it's what you're experiencing and so I would encourage you at the high school level especially to be talking to site Council and PTO and principals about what those stats say like the stats of anxiety depression and stress are directly correlated not causal but correlated to 17,000 notifications of I just got a B+ on this like the whole grade portal thing that was supposed to be a communication tool not a pawn in our parenting game so I I don't have a great answer for you because the state standards and the federal standards are telling our schools our kids need to learn how to use this and so their hands are sort of sired by the it C standards as well that this is an advancing tool my rub at the high school level especially is I sit in the back of classrooms and I watch kids do research and 20 of them are doing research and six of them are snapchatting and instagramming and so I do think it's very difficult to teach and it's very difficult as a student to to just be so stimulated all the time I think those statistics are a direct reflection of that yes mm-hmm that's great self-governance yeah it's hard work the whole thing all of this is exhausting right it's like a whole of their full-time job but if you would have heard me speak two years ago I would have had a whole chart of apps and what app you need to know about and all of that I got away from that because everyday and other apps coming out I would encourage you to really sit down with your child and have them teach you I learned everything I know from teenagers I sit down every month and say what's the new thing what are you doing they've taught me everything I know so if we're gonna bridge this gap of us versus them dial them into the family table and say I really want to understand this tell me more about what you're doing on snapchat I'd really like to understand and if you get a good answer let me know yes instead of going why do I need to be in there if all it is is garbage like 90% of yeah so so when and if he's using these platforms I would be on a weekly monthly basis really talking to him about show me the pros show me the cons and having him start to identify this makes me feel good being part of this makes me feel really cool and let me tell you why then you're right dad I really I don't want to follow that person anymore that's not making me my heart feel good they need our guidance to do that because as I said the only place I get relevance is being online 24/7 especially in boy and girl roles if I'm not online all the time then I'm losing position in the social group just like we did on the playground so their playground has become this I still think well I know you too so I know he's getting the goodness study means but kids that are only in children my recommendation would be find them an outside mentor outside of the family doing something that makes their post race so if they love airplanes find them I'm 20-something year old mentor to be that person for them what our boys and girls are desperately in need for is outside mentorship they need their family unit they need a mentorship family and they need a cultural family so most of them have two of those the middle mentorship piece is what he or she might need well I will go ahead it is a river yeah are they watching other people play yeah it's like man that's right so I'm gonna give you an analogy that a father and one of my audiences gave me he's like well I'm just going to defend them for a little bit because I want to improve my golf swing so I will watch strategy on how to do that so it is very similar as they're watching other people play so my advice for you on the front of YouTube is really get clear on consumption so are they consuming it to be strategic or they consuming it and going down the rabbit hole and depending on the kid and how they're wired some of them are really actually doing a decent job of getting the strategy and then applying it to the game so when I look at screen time as a whole what is the content what is the context and what kind of connection are they making because we as adults say oh my gosh you're burning your brain out you've had so much screen time you're gonna just turn into mush well actually no I'm not mom because I'm actually watching this makeup tutorial and I think I want to be an aesthetician and so I'd like to watch this content for 30 minutes what do you think and so I would not put yourself through the torture of trying to stand over watching him watch somebody else I just wouldn't do it I would you have to have a little bit of trust but I would also go into your YouTube settings and lock them down because you're four clicks away from pornography unfortunate yeah one more question yeah then you definitely need a really good router you definitely need a really good app to monitor and supervise but you also need to be aware of that as he makes fantastically horrible mistakes because those brains anybody with a DD ADHD OCD on the autism spectrum those brains approach technology in a different way and so already being aware of that you're ahead of the game and then the conversations that you're having have to be okay we've made a mistake I love you we can't do that again here's the pathway back here's what we're gonna do being aware of that he is adverse to risk taking I think is half the battle a lot of people just think all kids are going down the rabbit hole like I said one of mine is and one of mine will not so I really think your approach will dictate his next move if you hammer him every time he makes a mistake or goes down a rabbit hole with shame and isolation he will work all the way around you and then some if you approach them with like wow that was sort of a dumb move what do you think we can do next time he's gonna come to you and keep telling you the heavy-duty stuff we do a lot of shaming and a lot of isolating and that those are the two legs that addiction stands on addiction to technology addiction to substances addiction to all sorts of things so keeps shame and isolation out of your game so I will linger for private questions or additional questions and I just want to thank you so much for having me here tonight I'm around medicine a lot so if you need me I have a business Facebook page if you just put in Katie Macpherson I post on this subject every single day I do interviews with experts so if you're looking for additional information please look me up I also have these flyers for you if you want to grab one there's a discount code for 20% off for life or something so thank you so much for having me and I hope you have a safe safe night home [Applause] thank you [Music] [Applause]
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
you like the nicotine yeah you like the way makes you feel at 15 years old via pouchee is one of at least 2 million teens who've tried or using electronic cigarettes according to a recent study cigarettes have surpassed traditional cigarette use among teens but inside the battery-powered plastic device is liquid containing nicotine masked by a rainbow of flavors flavors attractive to younger customers nicotine is not a benign compound and nicotine can be harmful to the still developing brain of the adolescent and nicotine is addictive that's the head of blue e-cigarettes are you marketing to children no I am NOT but the parent company of blue Lorillard has a website saying kids may be vulnerable to trying flavors like cherry vanilla and pina colada increasingly big tobacco is manufacturing these East cigarettes tapping into the booming market according to watchdog site open secrets among the biggest players Lorillard Altria the parent company of Philip Morris and Reynolds American together have spent nearly 22 million dollars in the last year-and-a-half lobbying Congress the flavors and ads like this trend have critics calling fouls saying the industry that fooled Americans wants about the effects of smoking is trying to hook kids on nicotine again and by the way the tobacco corporations in the tobacco industry aren't aren't only the ones behind the advertisements that we saw the print ads the magazine ads they are also paying many of the influencers there's articles that have come back and come out in the last few weeks talking about the amount of influencers that jewel was paying to make a big production a big show of using jewels on Instagram on social media so what do we do about this first and foremost get familiar with the signs and symptoms associated with substance use and if you grabbed your packets on the way in that we're out there in the lobby there is a page that has some of the signs and symptoms the easiest way to break it down is this you know your kids and the kids in your life better than probably just about anyone knows them you know what is normal for them normal tone of voice body language facial expressions level of eye contact you know how they carry themselves when they come in the door from school anyone can have one off day or two off days but if you're seeing multiple changes in behavior over a prolonged period of time a week two weeks three weeks sit down and have a conversation and find out what is going on is it related to substance use are they going through depression are they dealing with relationship issues but it's up to us to recognize that and it and have that conversation it's also important to recognize signs and symptoms specific to vaping in e-cigarettes now the unexplained smells is probably obvious because of these the flavors of the e-liquid however I'll tell you this if you're banking on being able to catch it through the smell good luck because the amount of smell put out by a Joule or a a puff bar is far lower than the amount of smell put out by a cigarette the amount of vapor put out by a Joule or a puff bar dissipates very quickly versus the way smoke from a cigarette lingers now increase thirst and nosebleeds the reason these symptoms are associated with vaping has to do with propylene glycol which we talked about earlier as I mentioned it is used to dry up foods to keep moisture out of food to keep it from spoiling that propylene glycol when vaped can dry up the mucous membranes and can dry out the mouth and then you see caffeine sensitivity some people who begin using nicotine develop a sensitivity to caffeine not everyone but some do if you have a teen who never starts their day without a rock star a monster a Red Bull and suddenly they're for going all caffeine and you're seeing some of the other symptoms we talked about that may be pointing in the direction of using vapes or cigarettes and the rest on this list are probably pretty self-explanatory now here is one that is a little less common if you get on YouTube and you look up the phrase DIY Joule do-it-yourself Joule you will find videos explaining how to take a USB to micro USB cord and modify it the way it works is you keep the USB end intact you cut the microUSB end and you'll notice that there's green wires from black and white wires if they are stripped and the black and white are twisted together with the wires exposed to red and green twisted together with the wires exposed what someone can do is they can take a jewel pot they can plug the intact USB n into a laptop or another power source like a phone charger battery and touch the 2x Bo's wires Oh plates on the jewel pod and can hit it straight out of the pod without having to pay for the jewel device which is the most expensive part of it having to hide it from their parents and when the pods are done they're easy to dispose of they're easy to hide they're easy to get rid of fortunately I was already familiar with this when we had a mom of an eighth-grade girl come in our office and she came in with a backpack and she said I found something in my daughter's room and I'm concerned about it and I'm hoping you can help me understand what it is so she opens the backpack and dumps it on my desk and 25 of these in this condition fall out and she said my daughter's telling me oh I just keep breaking them but they're all modified in a very specific way red and green together black and white together stripped wires and I told them mom explained exactly what it was so she went home and talked to her daughter again her daughter owned up to the fact that that's what they were she had been bought them at the 99-cent store by Paradise Valley Mall modifying them and selling them to her middle school classmates for five dollars each that is the future business owner that is an entrepreneurial spirit if we could harness that and direct it in a positive way that kid's gonna change the world someday not only can it be used to hit the jewel pod directly without actually owning a jewel that same modify wire can be used to charge a jewel if you've lost your charger so that wire will be down there for you to check out afterward okay so what do we do about this what are the solutions number one get on the same page with your spouse or partner if you have a spouse or a partner involved in the raising of your child or children get on the same page if a kid is hearing one thing from one parent and something conflicting from the other parent regarding the rules around drugs and alcohol that conflicting message increases the likelihood that they are going to use a unified message a consistent message is a protective factor that decreases the likelihood that they're going to use and where do we have these conversations at the dinner table Casa Columbia Columbia University center for addiction and substance abuse an annual study on the importance of regular family dinners meaning at least four days a week preferably five or more where the devices are put away we're not doing this the whole time the TV is turned off and we're actually engaging and connecting with one another as a family they have found that families that intentionally regularly set this time aside have lower rates of teen substance use and other behavioral and mental health issues now if dinner at dinner time doesn't work for you because of your work schedule or your child sports or extracurricular schedule you can modify this find other one-hour periods that you can set aside during the week where you do an activity that lends itself to having a conversation watching a movie together is not a good one playing a game together working a project together we had a dad that went through a project rewind program and I saw him about a year and a half later because the dad a single dad of a 16 year old son and I was doing a presentation the school presentation like this and he came up and talked to me afterward he said hey good to see again we loved project rewind I want to talk to you about that dinner thing my son and I tried it and it was two guys awkwardly staring at each other from across a dinner table it was weird but here is what worked when we went out of the garage together and we were working with her hands on projects on the old truck side-by-side not across from each other that's where my son opened up that's where he started talking at a mom who's eighth grade son she said oh I can't get him and sit still for dinner she said what we do is we go out for walks and when he's out moving around and once again we're side by side and I got him out moving around that's where he opens up you know your kids you know the environments where they're likely to open up in the environments where they're likely to shut down you can modify this creatively and make it work for you and here are the final six tips to summers ago our chief programs officer jarana Montano was interviewed by The Huffington Post Deronda is a 20 year veteran of the prevention field and Huffington Post said if you were to take everything you've learned in those 20 years and narrow it down to 6 tips for parents related to substance use prevention what would they be and we have them here they're very plain because we want the content to stand out number one start talking your when they're young the average age of experimentation with drugs or alcohol in the United States is 12 years old that's the average age if we are going to truly be preventive we need to start having those conversations prior to those years now we've already talked about family dinners but maybe you recognize there's a week to week a three week to month period where you look at your schedule and you say my work schedule and your school schedule your sports schedule that's not gonna let us have these one-hour activities maybe you realize the window of opportunity you have is what you see here when picking them up from school maybe you recognize wow this 15-minute car ride to and from school or this 20-minute car ride to and from sports practice this is the only opportunity we're gonna get to talk for these next few weeks to really uninterrupted have a conversation make that car ride a car ride where the phones are put away now if you've never done this before the first time you ask your teen to put their phone away in the vehicle you may get some resistance we have family that went through project rewind that said the first time they asked their 16 year old daughter to put her phone away during the car ride this and you would have thought we could dipped her in boiling oil I kind of put my phone away even though she made it uncomfortable for them they stuck with it they were diplomatic and they were gentle about it but they said yes we want you to put it away as they did that on subsequent car rides they noticed that her reaction was less and less extreme about a month and a half into it they said she started self-regulating her device use more and about three months into it they noticed her anxiety beginning to decrease and they realized that at least a portion of her anxiety came from the constant device checking and the constant alerts and I have to do this and I got to post this and I have to respond to this and then at the bottom every day asked him two questions what was your favorite thing about today what was your least favorite thing about today to start the conversation in a non conflict manner now please don't hit your kids with these questions the moment they get in the car from school or the moment they walk in the door from school it's had a lot of students tell me hey I get what my parents are trying to do with the questions it's great when I get the car or I get home I need like 15 minutes to just decompress and we feel the same way as adults so do this but don't hit him with it right when they get in the car number two be clear about your rules and your expectations related to drugs and alcohol a lot of times we assume oh no no my son knows the rules or my daughter knows what I think about vaping better that we sit down and we have that conversation one more time and we be abundantly clear then to assume they know and I have there be any gray area or any confusion I know as parents of proteins or teens you have probably found yourself at some point asking your child six times to take a [ __ ] and you're saying yourself I know I've already told you to do this but it is until that six or seven time that the message clicks and they actually follow up on in behavioral health with youth there is a concept known as dosage it is the repetition of a message in order for it to sink in this is no different have this conversation multiple times how do you have the conversation it seems like not a week goes by without a local or national news report or incident related to drugs or alcohol when that's on the TV when that's in the newspaper when you're pulling that up on your news app that's an organic window to begin that conversation what do you think about this ask them a question ask them what they think about it and let them talk listen and let them talk number three understand the teenage brain know that they are physiologically wired to be impulsive and take risk in the early elementary years 1st 3rd 2nd 3rd grade both the pleasure-seeking part of the brain and the logic driven part have not matured in the teen years in the preteen years the part that seeks out pleasurable activities has come online but as we mentioned earlier the prefrontal cortex which which controls impulsive decisions has not fully matured yet there is a reason we see in those preteen and teen years kids starting to gravitate toward things they think are going to make them feel good without thinking of what's the potential downside and as you see here help them find positive activities to achieve the feelings they're seeking I mentioned earlier about finding out the why if they've been drinking or using asking them why an equally important quest is what what have they been using because knowing what they've been gravitating toward will let you know what types of natural activities can replace that or get that neurotransmitter release naturally on the end of the spectrum where kids are gravitating towards stimulants nicotine is a stimulant cocaine methamphetamine if they're taking adderall that they're not prescribed for ADHD some other kids medication to get the euphoria the buzz people who like that dopamine release that rush that energetic high can benefit from things like martial arts extreme sports skateboarding that allows them that dopamine release and that adrenaline rush naturally on the opposite end if they're gravitating toward things like alcohol benzodiazepines valium klonopin xanax opioids THC marijuana THC concentrates trying to bring themselves down they can benefit from things like yoga or meditation now tell you now if your child is used to tossing down a 2 milligrams a kneebar and in 15 minutes the universe seems perfect the first time they do yoga it's not going to equal that but over time as someone is no longer tampering with their neurotransmitters and they begin to balance out they can achieve those releases of dopamine and serotonin through natural activities find what they love to do find what lets them feel good and lets them also work out that anxiety that they're dealing with number 4 I love this gray in a code word that they can text you and you will come and get them no questions asked now no questions asked doesn't mean that if there needs to be correction or consequences later on that you don't apply that what no questions asked means is if they're at a party and they're under the influence they're about to pass out of the party under the influence they're about to get in a vehicle with someone behind the wheel under the influence or they're about to drive under the influence all that matters in that moment is their health and their safety and keeping them alive there will be time later to apply correction or Consequences so the way that this works involves a code word or a code phrase and teens like this because it does not look like they're being rescued they are hesitant and of a group of their peers to call and say dad I need you to come get me mom and I'm at a party things are getting weird they're afraid to do that because they can't save face with peers so you agree in a code word or a code phrase that if appears see them texting it it looks like nothing but you know what it means well you need to know where they are so you call them back and some families I've seen use this scenario where the parent calls back and they say where are you you had like six chores you were supposed to do tonight none of them are done I need to come get you and they can say to their friends oh I'm in trouble again all my mom is so uncool or I know one family that went to the extreme that when the mom received the code word from her daughter the one time her daughter took her up on the offer the mom called and said where are you your aunt is in the hospital we need to go to the ER right now where are you I need to pick you up so agree on that code word in advance number five oh by the way let me back up as far as no question asked you can even take that a step further further there is a parent that we work with some time we work with a lot of parents some parents of recovering addicts that speak for us and there's a lady by the name of Pam who speaks for us sometimes and her daughter's took took her up on this offer one time and she said I picked them up at the agreed meeting place where they told me to come get them and they got in the car and I kind of gave him one of these and I just started driving and I said nothing and that silence drove them nuts and within five minutes they were telling me everything I would have asked about had I asked any questions so sometimes the power is not in our words sometimes the power is in the silence that we allow number five and I love this one to decide on consequences together with your child now this may sound counterintuitive I'm supposed to let them pick their own consequence and tell you think of it this way they may suggest something that you hear and you think oh yeah oh yeah that's way better than what I came up with yeah let's put that down we as adults we think very big picture with our consequences when you heard in my introduction that I have a permanent felony that I was incarcerated that I nearly lost my life we hear legal problems in debt and we hear felony and all that and we said wow that would make me not want to do that teens can often disconnect from that because they see it and they say well that's never gonna happen to me I said that and everyone I've met recovery said that as a team what often resonates with them are immediate short-term consequences that click in the world that they live in and they all start with the letter C credit card cash cell phone curfew computer car credit card cash cell phone curfew computer car or the restriction thereof so if they come home smelling like alcohol you can tell that they're drunk you sit down with them you have the conversation you find out the Y you find out the what you maintain your composure but then you say hey you know what remember what the rules were and what the what the consequences we talked about I'm gonna move your curfew I'm moving it from 11:00 p.m.
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Martin teachers Johnny's going on a trip to Hawaii for a week can you please make sure that he gets all of his work or whatever and what I've encouraged my staff to do is to flip that back and say you know we we feel like this is an opportunity for Johnny to reach out to his teachers and figure out what he needs to do to be successful if he's gone so again that's one of those things that I think sometimes people just aren't thinking about but we try to ship that responsibility over sleepovers this is one not school related but it's one that I like because one of our daughters really struggled with this she had a lot of anxiety about staying over at people's houses and she would say mom dad can I go sleep it so into this house and we'd say sure no problem and then we'd sit down and we'd say here's what's gonna happen tonight about two hours into this you're gonna call us and you're gonna say hey can you come pick me up and we're gonna say no okay so are you okay with that yes okay and then we'd go and we meet with the parent we'd say okay here's what's gonna happen in two hours she's gonna call us she's gonna go to you and say hey can I call my parents and see if they'll they'll pick me up we're not gonna pick her up or you okay with that and if the parent was okay with that then we would move forward and it happened over and over and over and over again but it got less and less and less and eventually she is a strong young woman who doesn't have those same kind of anxieties because we didn't reinforce it and we communicated to her by our actions you got this you can handle it we're not gonna rescue this is one of my favorite ones this is actually not my family but where it was said a child was camping with my sister's family in us we were just outside of Payson and the parents let my sister and her husband know in advance hey we're a little bit afraid that he is gonna get nervous and sometimes he gets a stomachache and other things and we said he'll be fine you know no problem well the second day I was talking to my brother-in-law and he said oh yeah his dad's on his way up right now and I was like what he said yeah he's not feeling good he's a little nervous his dad his dad drove from Phoenix to Payson to pick him up and I I was so sad for the boy because what his parents told him was you don't got this buddy will come up and save you from that and so I'm not trying to be mean spirited or anything like that it's all about that end game of preparing them for the road this is another fun one for me and my family years ago my wife actually one of her friends co-workers was driving kind of an older car it wasn't like a bad car or anything like that but it definitely wasn't her car and so my wife asked her hey what's going on with food with the car and and she said oh well we bought this for our child but it's a five-speed she can't drive a five-speed won't do it so she's driving the family car now and I'm driving this like here's what a bad parent I am I my wife and I went and bought a five-speed car for our kids and we said you're gonna learn how to drive a stick whether you like it or not because we want you to figure this out and our one daughter has I don't know that she thanks us she does make jokes about she she's the only person that she knows that knows how to drive a 5-speed which is I feel like her way of encouraging us but this is another example where the parent could have said hey we got you a car I mean it may not be exactly what you want you can let it sit there and walk but you're not driving our car you can you know we'll be happy to let you learn how to drive this car if you want so these are some examples of preparing for the road we could probably sit here all night and share those but I want to give you one that's an easy place to start and if you're not already doing this and I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands because I always I feel I don't want this to feel as if I'm confronting anyone but if you're not already doing this don't run home and do it tonight but start figuring out what you need to do if your kids are not waking themselves up in the morning and getting ready on their own I would encourage you to start there I would implore you to start there we started our kids early on second or third grade we got him alarm clocks and we got him waking themselves up and I talked to parents that thought are you crazy no we didn't put the alarm clock in the first day and say you're on your own and and walk out like we built that over time and since our daughters have thanked us the older ones that thanked us the youngest is 14 it's gonna be a while before we get any thanks but they all appreciated that and they're all really good at in fact I'll start by saying that we live very close to our three schools of elementary middle and high school we did that strategically we as educators knew that our schedules were fixed my wife's a teacher and so we wouldn't always have an opportunity to take kids and pick them up and different things so we thought we need to be really close to the schools and our oldest two daughters I don't think they ever up in or we're late for school ever and our last is actually probably the most responsible out of all of them and last year she's an eighth grader and I get a text at about nine o'clock and usually we're gone well before she got up and the text said dad I overslept I texted back bummer can you come get me I said no I'm at work what do I do I said you're smart you'll figure it out and she did she got herself ready she went to school and again I lived we lived two blocks from the school so it wasn't a huge deal for her to get herself to school we might have had the brainstorm a little more but I knew she had it in her this is the part that kind of makes me laugh and makes me sad a little bit at the same time so great kid never been in trouble for anything walks into the front office at like 9:30 and one of the secretaries who knows her you know and knows your parents are educators and everything else and we have a good relationship secretary says hey Peyton what why are you late today she starts bawling and crying and and the possible policy is that if you had an unexcused absence because she said are you gonna excuse this and I said no I I didn't sleep in you did I'm not gonna excuse it but what was funny was the school in a cup excusing the absence cuz she'd never been in trouble for for anything ever and I was a little bit sad like I kind of wanted her to get a lunch detention or whatever just to feel that or whatever but we got to talk later about something else which is good credit versus bad credit and I talked her about why do you think the school did that for you well I've never been in trouble I've never been late I said there you go so we still use that as a teaching lesson but I want to encourage you if you haven't started doing this please start soon I also put a physical or alarm clock up there because we're going to talk about technology a little bit later and I'm going to encourage you not to have cellphones and other things in your kids rooms at night get them an alarm clock and that's the way to do it alright next technology and screen time this is one of the most complicated things and ever-changing things that I have ever encountered in my time as an administrator or a parent I think about even there's ten years separating my oldest from my youngest that landscape has evolved so much in the last ten years it's incredible there's decisions that I've made as a parent that I look back on and I would do it differently as an educator at the same time I don't want to say anything out of judgment here I just want to encourage you with some things I want to talk about my evolution if you will first though I love technology I probably am gonna look a little bit like a hypocrite I have an Apple watch I have an iPhone I love technology I use it all the time however I want to share with you my story so I as a as an administrator was often looked at in my district as one of the people pushing this kind of innovation use of technology in the classroom having kids have phones out for educational purposes bringing their devices to school for allowing them to use it at lunch and passing periods and different things like that I was on committees I was doing PD in our district and all of it for me was about responsible digital citizenship so for example at three schools I was at we would let kids use phones at lunch and my purpose for doing that was twofold one I thought they need to responsibly manage this and learn how to do it and I feel like we can help them do that and the other thing I thought was if we give them an opportunity to use these things during lunch maybe they're more engaged in focused during the school day those that's what my thought was and I did that for years a few years ago we started getting some parent feedback and saying and I don't think this is such a good idea it was a small number I wouldn't say I was dismissive about it but I thought yeah you know I know some people feel differently about this but I feel really strongly about responsible digital citizenship and then all of a sudden I just started seeing the wheels come off in different places and realizing I think we got this wrong I realized I think we're not teaching responsible digital citizenship and I don't think that kids can really handle this in fact I started feeling like letting him use the phones at lunch was almost like giving a drug addict drugs in the middle of the day and then expecting them to like function well and and I don't say that like in with hyperbole I really am starting to think that's what goes on in a middle school brain and what was funny was some of my teachers came to me and I think about this I'm like the innovative guy pushing technology get phones out as much as you can for educational purposes that stuff I had two teachers asked to meet with me and they came in and they said we think we should just get rid of phones completely in your backpacks off during the day whatever we know and I said I'm with you let's do it and I think they had this whole spiel prepared like that they want to do it and I was like I think I was wrong I want to do this one of the things that changed my mind on this was the book the coddling of the American mind it deals a lot with technology and does anyone know who Sean Parker is by the way started Napster you remember that I mean that's how much technology evolves he was he was one of the early employees of Facebook he joined Facebook in the first year and there's a there's some quotes in the codling in the American mind he wasn't interviewed for that book but they took some excerpts out of an interview that he'd done and this is when I read this when some things started to crystallize for me this is him talking the thought process that went into building these applications Facebook being the first of them was all about how do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible and that means that we need to sort of give you a little bill for me and hit every once in a while because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever and that's gonna get you to contribute more content and that's going to get you more likes and comments it's a social validation feedback loop exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with because you're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology and the next line was the one that really hit me god only knows what it's doing to our children's brains I a hundred percent agree with this and it is destroying our children I don't know that we have the data yet longitudinally to show it but here's what we do have we have some corollary data that I want you to see and again this is from the book the coddling in the American mind these are the adolescent depression rates kids aged 12 to 17 who had at least one major depressive episode in the past year look at what started happening in about 2011 just shooting right up and we see this all the time at school almost every social conflict that we see on our campus has some connection to social media whether it's snapchat Instagram snapchats the big one right now like with middle schoolers and high schoolers I cry see the most there but it's it's really all of them the other one and I always hate sharing this one because it's such a serious topic but I don't want to miss this one either this is suicide rates per hundred thousand so the numbers you know when you look and you look up on the left and see well it's you know six seven six kids per hundred thousand four girls about 13 14 15 four boys but realize what's happening is those rates are have about doubled in that length of time the other thing to notice is that males is higher than females a lot of people are surprised by that boys actually typically choose of suicide that are more successful and that's why those numbers are so much higher so these are successful suicides and again that's a sobering slide to look at it's not correlation does not equal causation I don't want to imply that it does but it is important that we recognize that there's something going on here and I believe it has a lot to do with screen time especially social media applications but also boys aren't necessarily using social media the same way sometimes boys are on fortnight and talking about things different ways so I think sometimes we look at social media and think well my boys not on snapchat you know as much as the girls are or whatever but they can get sucked into other things there as well so what do we do I remember going to my PTSO president last year and saying hey I really want to make some changes were we're thinking about doing this stuff I want to run it by you and her response was I agree with you and I she's someone who I collaborate with all the time and I have an enormous amount of respect for she said I agree with you but I don't know how we unring this Bell and it that hit me but I said me neither but I'm gonna try and so as a school here's some things that we've done first thing is we started really hard and fast on the district policy with phones so often in your backpack once the bell rings and they stay in there all day and I've even had a couple staff people that were kind of sneaking things because what the what our staff would do sometimes is they would reward kids by letting them listen to music if they finished a test early or finished an assignment and what some of our teachers started to realize is that kids were rushing through tasks just to get access to their cell phones and so we collectively put an end to that and that's been one of our commitments the other thing we did is we started a committee with parents and staff and we just started talking about it like I don't even know where to go I talked to a few people who do this work regularly and I said where where should we start they said read the book glow kids go from there anyone read that book by the way fantastic book it's incredibly informative and incredibly scary so when you I encourage you to read it but you'll have to put it down sometimes and and really rethink what you're doing as parents what can you do don't be in a hurry and by this I kind of mean two-fold one don't rush off tonight and take your kids phone away and shut things down or whatever don't be in a hurry there and also don't be in a hurry I don't know where your kids are in terms of development or age but they got lots of time and I'll tell you we had a we had a middle schooler who would come home and tell us all the way through middle school we heard that we had her earn that and she had to read seven Habits of Highly Effective teens and write us a paper on why we had her do that before she could have Instagram and then we met regularly and talked about that and we did eventually get give her that but when I say don't be in a hurry just there's there's still time for them to get those things down the road read glow kids I encourage you to do that no screens in the room at night and this is one of the things that I think I as a lover of tech I messed up because when my youngest was I don't even remember how old we bought her an iPad and she was a pretty responsible kid we at the time I was like well she can use her iPad as her alarm and you know and different things like that and I wish that we hadn't done some of those things because it made it harder to scale some of that back use parent controls if you're not doing that iPhones have some of that screen time stuff embedded in it there's lots of good applications out there I use one called our pact which allows me to control some things you can just do some research on that there's lots of options out there but if you're not doing that do it my daughter's a freshman her phones still shuts down at 10:30 every night and is basically a brick and she can't use it for anything she hates me sometimes for that but that's okay I love her too much to let that be an issue and consider a family contract there's lots of stuff online resources about that I'd look into that and finally this is a big one model the desired behavior kids think we're hypocrites and we often are a few years ago I remember my wife and my kids would confront me on how much I was on my phone and I was dismissive I'm just checking some emails from work or I rarely get on and do this and I did realize you know what I'm on it too much and I need to stop and so now even at dinner I always leave my phone in the kitchen somewhere so I'm not even tempted to do that when we go out to restaurants and things like that we're committed to putting our phones away and not having those things out but we we really need to model that desired behavior for our kids that's that's really important all right now I'm going to talk to you a little bit about some parenting stuff here that's more general and here's why I want to do this because I just laid some things on you that are gonna cause you to maybe rethink some things you're doing and you're gonna want to come home and start making some changes with your kids whether it's you know giving them more ownership letting them struggle letting them fail at things transferring power back to them putting some controls in for technology that maybe aren't there and here's what's not gonna happen when you start to make those changes your kids aren't gonna go oh thanks mom and dad this is awesome I'm so glad you're looking out for my future they're gonna freak out more than they already do as middle schoolers and I want to share this with you is anyone familiar with parenting with love and logic or teaching with love and logic those resources these are to me the most useful things that I've ever encountered in my career as an educator and as a parent but it wasn't always that way when my wife and I my wife and I actually got married 18 years ago my oldest will our oldest was six years old and Megan who was the youngest the time was four years old and it was hard becoming a parent instantly I didn't have kids or anything like that but I'd been in education I was pretty confident I you know for a while things were going really good and then we started struggling with with Megan and she wouldn't help she wouldn't go to bed and stay in her room and she would come out like all the time we tried all this stuff and nothing was working and finally I told my wife hey remember that book we got when we got married that I thought had a silly title and someone gave it to us and I thought we're not reading a book on parenting where is that book we need that book like because I don't know any other books right now so go we found that book we started reading it it was love and logic and I can honestly tell you that it changed our lives because we started to anticipate things that we're gonna happen as parents we felt empowered and prepared and not only did it change our lives I think it helped us develop two and then three responsible kids and so I want to share some things with you the first thing we're gonna talk about is putting an end to arguing back talk and begging and I'm gonna go through some of this stuff pretty quick because I do want to get some Q&A at the end I'm pretty sure all of us have this issue if you have kids at all you have this issue the first step is when those things happen just go brain-dead don't don't start to think about it too much because if you do you will get angry and you will argue next avoid lectures we're all really skilled at that they don't care and it's not gonna work in fact I heard this once and I try to remember this as much as possible and I am a world-class lecture I have really smart things to say to my kids but I've tried to say I'm gonna save words for happy times all right next step to step one brain-dead step to calmly repeat a one-liner this was one of the best things that happened to my wife and I and we still do some of these things today my favorite I love you too much to argue with you it's sometimes the girl I know with you and they'll say it back to you which is even more thrilling for me to know that I won that thanks for sharing well so-and-so has Instagram thanks for sharing and just keep repeating it over and over again maybe so that's another good one especially when they're comparing their parents are way better they get maybe so well I'm just gonna go live with especially if you're in a split family sometimes you'll get that threat I love you wherever you live like that's a good one just to to de-escalate that and then this is a good one but don't say this unless you absolutely mean it because I've we've never really used this one but I've heard that parents get a knock at the door at 6:00 a.m.
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to 7:00 p.m. they can then make that immediate cause and effect association when I come home drunk I get my curfew moved up when I do this this happens I don't like how this feels maybe I shouldn't do this they can make that immediate cause and effect association doesn't mean don't talk to them about the big consequences if addiction runs in your family if alcoholism runs in your family that genetic component increases the likelihood that that child will go down that path if they choose to drink or use if they know someone personally who's lived through it use that as an example because that makes it real it's not somebody in a book it's not somebody on a TV show that makes it much more real to them but include the consequences that they choose and include those short-term ones and then if you ever have to apply the consequences which are not fun nobody enjoys doing it you can say not only did I show you the respect of making sure we were clear in advance what would happen if you broke this rule I actually let you pick this consequence you made an informed decision and number six this is everything in prevention this is everything keep communication lines open even if they are raising their voice to us which we don't want and it's not ideal that is still preferable to a preteen or teen who is disconnected they've isolated they've shut down and we can't get anything from them that is a scary place to be and even if they come in all emotional and hot and worked up and they're up here all charged up don't need them up there you come in down here maintain your pitch your meter your rate of speech your volume now I'm not telling you that the first time that your teen is all worked up and you talk calmly they're gonna immediately calm down but there are some very amazing verbal de-escalation techniques that can work there's some great tutorials on the internet yes I'm advocating that you as parents implement skills implemented by law enforcement they can work and while we're maintaining this communication be conscious of your tone of voice your posture your body language and your facial expression depending on what research you read as much as 93% of the message that is conveyed is often not in our words it's in our nonverbals tone of voice body language facial expression etc and now this sounds exaggerated until you think of it this way imagine I'm a dad I have got us my son sitting right here we have a great relationship we love each other very much but I just found out that he's doing something I'm not okay with I'm really scared I'm worried for his safety and I say this to him do you know what I love you do you understand that the words were I love you that's what I said is that the message I just said no dad's raising his voice dad's hovering I'd like to have these conversations sitting down maintain eye contact allow them to break it sit in a proxy me that shows that you're there with them don't check your phone don't check your watch be there in that moment with them and for teens or preteens who are struggling with quitting this is a resource that they can text and there is text support that they can get to learn to quit to eventually be able to stop entirely but parents of teens or preteens who want to know what they can do to help their team quit this is a resource you can use we've spoken with some local physicians recently who've said to us this is now becoming a thing at my pediatric practice where I'm having to help kids figure out how to taper off of nicotine and they're saying we I've never seen this with the frequency that I'm seeing this now because kids are starting with jewel or they're starting with nicotine eliquid because they like the buzz not understanding how hard that is going to be to quit so if you grabbed one of the packets on your way in on the next to last page there is a double-sided page that on one side of the page says taking action and it has a list of checkboxes it's on the next-to-last page and on the opposite side of that page it has a list of blanks and it says our family prevention plan if you have a spouse or a partner involved in the writing of your child or children sit down as adults first sit down with your spouse or your partner and go through the taking action list and check off the ones you want to incorporate and cross out if there's any ones you don't want to use then flip that over and customize it to meet your needs your principles your values your guidelines your living situation the age of your kids the maturity of your kids once you've agreed upon that plan as adults then present it to your team take them to dinner make them their favorite dinner and bring it and say we feel like we owe it to you to be clear what we expect of you and what you can expect of us what do you think of this let them amend it let them add to it because if you let them be part of the process you'll get more buy-in from them it'll feel less dictated to them but I ask that you not let them cross out anything that you've put on there and come to an agreement because if the rules are clear they're concise they're consistent they're understood and they're agreed upon in advance you are less likely to have an incident and you are more likely to have a positive outcome now no prevention plan is perfect but if you are intentional about forming the plan as a family using those six tips from jaronda setting aside those family dinners or regular communication times incorporating all those pieces the more pieces you put in place into a prevention plan the more pieces you put into that puzzle the higher the likelihood that you're going to have success and we have some free drug test kits for you over here from first check they test for 14 different drugs seven illicit seven prescription results in five minutes in the privacy of your own home between parent and child one of the substances that this does not test for however is nicotine which is why we are showing you this Express drug test is a company based in the Scottsdale air park global medical systems these however will test for THC which as you saw is being vaped even more frequently than nicotine eliquid also if you do grab one please grab the sheet that says before you test because there's a very specific way to approach these we do not advocate this being used as a gotcha or in a heavy-handed way or as a disciplinary measure if this is approached in a negative way this will become a negative thing please do not take one of these kits and walk into your team's room tonight and go like this with it this can be used as part of a reward system rather than the focus being on what's the punishment for a positive test how about the gaining or the maintaining of a privilege for negative or clean tests I know a dad whose son turned 16 wanted to use the family car and the dad said I completely believe you're not using drugs but if I'm putting you on the streets of Phoenix in our car I have to be a hundred percent sure I'm gonna test you when you come back clean let's get your license and maintaining that privilege will come with periodic tests I don't know once a month once every two months whenever I feel like it and here's what I like tests that gives them an out that gives them a way to say no and save face with their peers they can blame it on us I love to smoke that with you I can't my parents are crazy they drug test me and if I come back positive I can't hang out with you anymore it's not about me it's about them my daughter is seven years old so we're not quite at this point yet that's a little ambitious but when she is hitting those middle school years where that temptation begins if it keeps her off of drugs and if it keeps her healthy and safe I'll be the uncool dad she can blame it on me all she wants and please if you have your phones please take a picture of this we are 15 episodes into our podcast the response has been excellent that web address is the direct address where it's hosted but as you see below do you already listen to podcasts and Apple podcasts Google Cass Amazon Alexis Spotify except you can find the podcast there as well all of the topics that we speak on that you saw in that interdependence model we have podcasts on while we talk about the problem and the scope of the problem we are much more heavily focused on the solution some of them are heavy topics but we are very positive and inspirational with the messages that we use also we have a few episodes with some parenting experts talking about things that don't even necessarily have to do with drugs or alcohol increasing family communication etc and then finally if you got a survey with your packet if you missed my name at the beginning where it says presenter name or it says presenter right here my name is Shane Watson Shane Watson if you liked the presentation if not my name is jeff' Smith and while you're filling that out first and foremost thank you so much for your time I will be around here for a little while later if you have some questions that you wanted to ask feel free to grab multiple kits we have two cases of 36 here please come by and take a look at the devices and I will be down here in just a couple of minutes if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them for you thank you so much for sharing your time with me I appreciate it have a great night [Applause]
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okay I'm right I'm ready to argue about what we were talking about so if you do say that one just be prepared for it all right another thing we got to do is we got to teach responsibility they don't just learn it naturally so kids who are allowed to learn from small mistakes early in life are far less likely to make tragic mistakes later on so this is another one we're reframing that we're recalibrating that we're realizing that if they make mistakes it's good because now hopefully they won't make that mistake later on and again I told you earlier the price tag for our mistakes is cheaper today than it will ever be for the rest of our lives it's important though use empathy as you're going through this process and you're teaching them responsibility don't be sarcastic don't lecture empathy is a great way to hold them accountable but not lose their love and respect and this can be really really really hard but I'm gonna give you a framework to think about that I think will help you it helped us when you look at things that are happening try to determine is this an affordable or an unaffordable thing for them to go through let me give you some examples for getting their lunch totally important some parents at my school don't think so but I try to reinforce to them people can live for weeks without food and I'm pretty sure that your child is gonna be okay if they go a few hours they it might be uncomfortable but they're gonna be okay so that's an example of affordable unaffordable chatting with strangers online okay if they're online gaming and different things like that or chatting you can't go well I'm gonna see how this plays out like that's not one that's an affordable thing you're gonna have to step in and do that staying up too late another one totally affordable they're gonna learn that lesson but there's another one playing video games for hours we can't just let they're never gonna shut that off and it could possibly do some irreparable damage they're forgetting to do homework the consequence why because remember we talked about that long-term they're less likely someday to forget to do a project at work if they've learned that that's not something you will have control of at the end of their life hopefully hopefully when they have projects from work they're not still living with you I hope so more on teaching responsibilities this is an important one don't be afraid to delay consequences this was one of the most magical thing that that ever happened to my wife and I I told you that our daughter kept coming out of her room late at night and I'm talking she would come out six seven times and we would try everything we tried consequences we tried whatever and the most magical thing happened when we discovered delayed consequences because she'd come out and we'd say if you come out again the consequence will be this and okay you came out again and then you're like piling on you're grounded forever and you this is taken away or whatever and in love and logic we read something about delaying consequences and it was glorious I still remember we were sitting on the couch just wait we knew she was gonna come out we were like okay we got this tonight so she comes out stands up in the hallway and looks at us we did our whole thing you know where are you supposed to be right now wow I'm scared where are you supposed to be right now well I wanted it and we went through that net and then I said okay well you know what we're gonna have to do something about this I don't know what yet but don't worry we love you a lot we'll figure something good out we'll take care of it try not to worry about it well what are you gonna do I don't know everything we do doesn't work we're gonna have to think of something way better but it's gonna take us some time we love you a lot we'll figure it out try not to worry about it every time you say try not to worry about it makes me worry about it more maybe you want to go back to your room I don't know I won't think of something don't worry so it did not magically change overnight but over time this started working unless what we realized she was doing if she was doing the math she was standing in a room like ok I'm gonna be grounded for two days I can live with that I'm going out but when it became unknown she couldn't tip the scales at all and so we we were helping her with that I knew it worked one day this was awesome we were swimming one day and she came over she swam up I was laying on a raft and she said dad in a little while I'm gonna come tip you over on this raft try not to worry about it and she swam away to the other side of the pool and I I thought man I think we won that battle so that was a great thing that helped us setting enforceable limits all the time we we say things to our kids there is no way we can enforce at all and there's a there's in the love and logic or on the love and logic website they have something called enforceable versus unenforceable statement and turning your words to gold again I have links for this at the end but I want to show some of them to you an unenforceable statement don't roll your eyes at me we've all said silly things like that that there's no way we can really control and probably will actually make them roll their eyes more here's something you could say I do extra things for people who treat me with respect and you can control that I mean just just today are hard you kiss called ask my wife I think texted said hey can I have a friend over you know we let kids have friends over who clean up their rooms and their bathrooms she hadn't done it and I'm sure she's really angry in this right now but she's gonna think about that tonight and hopefully show cleaner room in the bathroom we'll see unenforced will stop spending all of your time playing video games you cannot enforce that enforceable I allow video games in this home as long as I think they aren't causing any problems and you're totally in control of that another one leave each other alone when they're in the back of the car and how many times have we said that in some scenario as a parent and we're frustrated this is a good one I charged two dollars a minute when I have to listen to kids argue you can set the dollar amount I don't know what the economy is in your in your home that's an arbitrary example but these are things and there's a whole list of them on there so I'd encourage you to go to their website look these up these are great things that that we were able to use as parents sharing control this is another big one give some of the control over to kids but you've got to have some rules with this number one rule only give choices that fit into your value system so I'm going to encourage you to give choices but really think about them carefully because they have to fit into what your value system is give most choices when things are going well this breaks down when you're already in conflict so try to do this almost proactively give choices before the child is resistant once they dig their heels in it will not work for each choice give two options that you like I'll give you some examples of these in a minute use care not to disguise breakfast choices this is hard because you know would you rather behave correctly or me drag you out of here by your neck like you can't you can't say things like that or or threaten to have things taken away or whatever actually give two choices that are that are decent choices that you're okay with and finally once you give the two choices if they don't choose quickly choose for them and don't let them go I'll do that you make the choice and you move forward if you go back on it and you let them make the choice this will not work long term you have to do that I use this we don't have to do this with our kids as much anymore I use it a ton at school with kids I'll give them two choices and then if they don't choose I go with the one I want and they try to score them out of that and I don't let them here are some examples now will you be wearing your coat or carrying it I see parents all the time arguing with their kids about your coat bringing a jacket whatever just say hey you want to carry your coat you want to wear it and then toss it to them and and walk out you want to leave now or in five minutes this is a good one not for little kids it's actually a joke in our family my whole family says this to each other now like the adults do you want to go now in five minutes so that everyone although they make fun of me I see them doing it with their own kids and with each other now and you can choose any amount of time there I think my wife does that with me sometimes by the way too because I talk too much so she has to tell me do you want to leave now or in five minutes do you want to do your chores now or in an hour this is a great one if you want tasks done ask them when they want to do it a lot of times I'll set the timer on the microwave I'll ask my daughter hey do you want to do this task hour in 30 minutes 30 minutes okay I'm set in the microwave timer and then I'll just walk away and she comes out once she hears the timer and she takes care of it doesn't always have a smile on her face but I don't have to argue with her so I'm fine with that are you going to turn the TV off now or in 15 minutes another good one and are you going to turn off your cell phone or just ignore it until after dinner again though with the cell phone stuff you have to model that don't forget that all right guiding kids to solve their own problems this is one of the last things that we're gonna talk about I talked to you a little bit before about providing a strong and Sisir dose of empathy sometimes this is hard to provide empathy because sometimes what they're going through is pretty silly and you almost want to laugh about it or sometimes you're frustrated with them it's hard to be empathetic or sometimes you want to lecture them and tell them everything they've done wrong start with empathy though and I'm sorry that's a bummer whatever whatever it is you choose to do lovingly and the problems out when they bring it to you and say what's going on and that stinks you're having you know I I failed a test that's a bummer what are you what are you gonna do to fix that this is critical get permission before you share any ideas and it is sometimes they'll say no I don't want me in this okay let me know if you change your mind and it almost always will come back to you and say that but get permission before provide a brief menu so you want to know what I've seen a couple people do or what worked for me provide a couple things and then walk through it with them to evaluate it you know what do you think would happen if you tried this those sorts of questions and then at the end let them learn from solving or not solving whatever happens at that point let them do the learning don't go back to them and say well I told you if you would have just done this or whatever you robbed them of that opportunity and finally remember this wise parents only step in when they are certain that their child has a problem that's too big or dangerous to solve on their own so when they bring you that problem don't react right away really try to think about this is this one too big for them to solve on their own and you'll find them I mean we've had we've had a few along the way where we have to step in and we have to navigate it but I will tell you the bulk of the problems that our kids brought to us were things that we could hand back over to them and as our older kids have come back to us they have thanked us for doing that in fact my my oldest daughter was a RA in college which was a tremendous experience for her and she would come to us and say oh my gosh you oh boy how responsible these people are that I that I have to work with or their parents are showing up and trying to talk to me about the problems that they're having or or whatever so your kids will thank you for this someday not in the middle of it but always try to think about that so that's really it I close with that slide just to remind you this is something I keep at the center of what we talk about every parent we have I start with this we're gonna put this up in our our conference room where we do our meetings that this is our goal we want to prepare the child for the road not the road for the child so that's it I do have some resources that will be up there for you on the website if you want to do that but I did we have a few minutes for questions if anyone has questions I'd be happy to answer any or try to so I don't know what if anyone does feel free to take pictures there any questions yes sir yeah if you look at the through that what are my thoughts on financial literacy allowances things like that the love and logic stuff is what we used they their principles were really about don't give kids they should do chores and other work around the house because they're part of the family so not connecting those things necessarily I mean maybe you want to give extra money for an extra job or whatever but so that's the first thing they separated those two things and then they said that give him money and we actually said and we found my wife found one of the envelopes and probably what two weeks ago there's something like that and what they said to write on it was because we love you spend it wisely and that we would we would give him that envelope and we we found one of those the other day and it was really neat to see that so you know really giving him the money and letting them manage it and that's hard cuz our oldest was she would save and our middle daughter like she would get something it would be like can we go to the store you know and she's she's still a little bit like that but she's learning she just actually bought her first house and some other stuff so transferring that over the other organization Dave Ramsey I don't know if you follow Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University has a ton of stuff for kids that's another one that I would direct parents any other questions yes yeah yeah yes I've seen different things in different publications and I don't remember exactly usually it's about an hour to two hours a day but if you see the research right now it is ridiculous I mean it's like some kids the the averages are up like 8 9 10 11 hours a day because what's happening what's driving those averages up a lot is two things I think one is they're having their screens in the room and they're on all the time I remember that can be TVs whatever I mean so many parents have TVs in their kids room again we're horrible parents we've never done that my daughter hates us for that but that's okay I can live with that the other thing is school though we've really started to analyze that and I don't want a dr.
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Baca or anyone else to think that I'm saying get rid of computers at school or anything but we've really tried to analyze like what are the benefits in this given thing for screen time right then but usually it's about an hour to two out yes you know we you know what our staff it was her question was what is our policy when we're asking kids to put phones away but then the adults maybe aren't doing that and our staff I was so proud of them because they made that commitment on their own they just said that the teachers that really drove this said we want we feel like if we're gonna ask kids to do this that we need to do it too and there's some exceptions like our set you know we had someone who had a parent that was ill recently and he came to me and he said just you know if you ever walked in my room you see my phone and I you know I told my kids that I need to be on call and so we want to be reasonable about that but we even talked to our kids we told them that hey we're gonna model this too and put our phones away and it's been hard because I use my phone a lot for email and stuff as I'm bouncing around school but I am really careful now not to pull it out if I'm in a hallway or or or visible with kids stuff but that's a hard one again we have to model that behavior yes uh-huh yeah well I think that that's important that what you said at the end is the most critical thing right work we're trying to manage that because the last thing you want to do is just control all of it it's almost like in education we would call it scaffolding where we were putting those supports in place and we're we're taking those things away as necessary or fading those supports if you will because we ultimately want them to be able to manage that right like for me I don't know if this was right or wrong but going into our daughter's freshman year we did allow her to have snapchat and again we have parent controls and we have some other stuff and we really monitor that but when my wife and I talked about it we kind of made the decision what hey like someday she's gonna have this and so it's better maybe for us to kind of manage it or whatever but we didn't do it when she was in fifth grade you know like you have to figure that out and for every kid it's different and I think that I will say definitely there are more positive things for online experiences but what they will do the experts say is 60 to 90 minutes before shutting screens down because it starts to affect sleep so even even if it's a positive thing the screen time can mess with like melatonin levels and some other things I'm not a scientist but that's what I've heard and so I would I would guard against that but I think what you're doing in terms of watching her and letting her manage that responsibly until you have to step in is probably a wise thing all right one more minute yes yeah that is a more passive yeah and you know that's not something that that I'm a real expert in but they definitely you know what you're doing versus playing fortnight very day very different in terms of what's going on in the brain or whatever so yeah you definitely want to differentiate those things I think the big thing that they talk about is is that 60 to 90 minutes before bedtime you know really just trying to avoid it but you're exactly right all right well I think that's all we have time for thank you so much for letting me come tonight and talk to you and as I said they're gonna get those resources up on that website I would encourage you to find that the one at the top was the one thing I didn't address tonight if you've never watched the TED talk by Angela Duckworth called grit I do talk about that sometimes but that is an incredible thing to view and her book is awesome too but I hope you get out there and you're working hard to prepare your child for the road thanks for coming tonight appreciate it [Applause]
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good morning big Hollow today is March 5th 2020 it is the 123rd day of school and this is WB AG news I'm Madison and I'm mrs. Shiller today's selection of a bicycle bite green beans carrot sticks strawberries and milk tomorrow for breakfast there will be mini french toast sticks fresh grapes fruit apples and milk yes we have been celebrating birthdays Giovanni do you do Leon - Leon and we and I are Dion please go to the office to pick out a birthday book yesterday's fun fat question was what popular candy claims that you can taste the rainbow and the answer is skills the winner is Mariah - Mariah - xo7 come to the office to pick out your prize today's fun fact question is if something more solar powered wear with the energy come from remember to write your answer neatly and include your name and class we have a special announcement tomorrow is boutiques and hand a wear green and now we will observe a brief period of silence to reflect on the activities anticipated activities of the day I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I pledge to be a bh star whether I'm at school or travel far I pledge to be safe in every way take responsibility during work and play I will be respectful and all I do and be a star the whole way through have a thrilling Thursday remember the only way to have friends to be one thanks for watching bye
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good evening I would like to call to order the meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission we're going to begin with the roll call mr. Hoopoe Alyson buck absent Deborah mexica here Jonah Colby here Colleen Crowley here David Esau here John cutter ski here Mary defaults here Sophie girl Peggy we're we're Leonard you have a quorum excellent so if we need to do anything this evening we have the quorum to do it so as you can see I'm in an unusual seat this evening in that Alyson buck our normal chair is off this evening and so please everyone on the Commission keep me honest and moving forward and in the right direction there you have permission to do that there we go we're going to start with approval of the agenda has everyone had the opportunity to review the agenda do I have a motion for the agenda Colleen do I have a second John discussion and or adjustments all right seeing none all those in favor of accepting the agenda as written be an excellent any opposed abstain all right the agenda is approved we now move to public commentary is anyone here for public commentary this evening all right we see a fine and number of people out here that I assume are fulfilling their government or civics responsibilities is that correct excellent all right make sure you get your agendas signed appropriately at the end down there before the end of the meeting and welcome yes welcome oh yeah welcome all right so do we have any presentations this evening all right no presentations we now move on to approval of the minutes can I have a motion to Jonah a second John discussion or adjustments I assume everyone's had the opportunity to review the minutes all right hearing no changes or adjustments all in favor of approving the minutes of the February 6 2020 meeting say aye opposed abstain thank you I'm I love somebody who knows their their rules order okay we now move on to report from the chair I want to start off by pointing out the exhibit that is at the back of the room this will be mark McKay and at this time I'd like to ask CTN if they could show us the exhibit that's here in the council chambers this is set of mana prints that are among the rotating gallery exhibits that are here in the council chambers I encourage anyone in the community who is in this building to please come up and view the art that's here on a rotating basis and also much of the public art that we actually encourage and promote is some is in this building others of our buildings and by all means go to a website to check out where you can see the entirety of our Holdings as catalogued recently by our intrepid staff thank you so much could you say again the name of the artist I missed that it is Mark McKay all right thank you so much I have no other report this evening we do not have any new business does anyone want to bring forward any new business at this time under old business we are going to review the CIP enhancements in part with our new commissioners so I've asked David and he can ask anybody else that he would like to have help with this to sort of review the CIP process with our newest commissioners I think it will be a good review for some of our older commissioners as well because the ins and outs of this process can be a little tricky and we also have a report that we did not receive that we were scheduled to receive at our last meeting but I don't think we covered is that correct that's why we didn't cover it we were supposed to but we didn't so anyway David would you like to walk us through the CIP process a little bit answer any questions we might have and also review any of the previous documents that we have not today CIP stands for capital improvements plan which is one of the the main jobs of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission is making recommendations to City Council for projects which could be enhanced with public art through the capital improvements process the city reviews its capital improvements plan on an annual basis it varies some years or a major year some years are a very minor review mostly just a few minor adjustments or a few additions of things that come up virginal II the capital improvements plan is an interesting thing I have been aware of it for years because of my work as an architect and it has effects on projects that I work on particularly relating the street repairs and your projects and things like that projects are put in the capital improvements plan when someone decides that they should be addressed at some point future.there this is only for major projects not very minor renovations sometimes they can live on the capital improvements plan for decades before they're actually address depending on how urgent they are and where the funding what funding is available sometimes they go on the capital improvements plan is kind of a wish list thing with no real expectation that they might ever happen which includes some of the ones that we have recommended for enhancement particularly potentially railroad stations and things like that that have had some strong support from some council members and some strong opposition and very little funding available so far at least the way that the process works that the the capital improvements plan is put together through through Craig's division at the at the city usually toward the end of the year around December it starts going through a public review process and we get a copy of it it will have all the projects in it that are scheduled for the capital improvements plan and projected costs which you can be expected to change dramatically depending on how a project involves but with some kind of preliminary estimate often there's very little knowledge yet of what the actual project will entail because they haven't been planned out no work has been done on them they've only been realized that a plant that a project is needed for some reason for the city so the the capital improvements plan will evolve from year to year costs will change decisions will you know directions will change so projects will drop off and and move up in time and things like that depending on how urgent they are so when we recommend a project for enhancement with public art it if approved by the City Council which it has been in the recent past for a number of them then that enhancement about gets added to the budget in the capital improvements plan so that when a project actually moves to fruition then that budget is factored into the overall budget for the project it doesn't mean that a piece of public art will ever appear necessarily because sometimes we're recommending enhancements to projects that may not happen again the railroad stations are an example that you know if they happen of course we would want a piece of public art in them if they don't happen there's not going to be a piece of public art standing there waiting for a train station to be built around it we have generally and I have chaired the committee since or the the work group since I joined the public art Commission a couple years ago I think of my background as an architect is somewhat helpful and understanding the parameters of the project and I've tried to take a fairly practical view of it we're not looking to provide public art enhancement for sewer repairs or underground kind of work or even necessarily road repairs where there's no obvious place for public art we're looking for buildings you're more prominent locations streetscapes in the downtown area or one that it looks like we may be talking about a little later tonight that was on our most recent list for enhancement so places where the public art will be seen where it has some obvious relationship to the quality of life in the area where that project is done sometimes that gets a little complicated because we have some other goals we a week most of the public art that's around and in the city is in the downtown area because that's where visitors are and that's where lots of things happen and there's visible public work being done but we have at least one recommendation for enhancement on our list which is a cluster of work in a neighborhood in the southeast part of Ann Arbor where there's just a bunch of work planned at some point in the future on roads and utilities and all of that where it would be nice to get some public art out into a community out into a neighborhood that wouldn't necessarily have that available to them most of the time there are also some items like there's an annual budget for parks work that we have recommended enhancement for that would also get some public art out into the rest of the city we have a goal of trying to get art not just in the downtown area but all over the city if we can if it makes sense with the projects that are done and art and parks are an area where people are out there having fun they're there they're walking around with they're walking their dogs or sir playing or something like that where they have time to stop and see the art where it may make sense to have some so we have tried to make reasonable distinctions about where it's appropriate to have a public art and it seems like the City Council for the most part has supported that so what you have in front of you to discuss tonight is there there are two things here there's a brief memo to the City Council which is our annual obligation to report to them on the latest capital improvements plan about any public are any public art enhancements that we would recommend based on the changes from the previous CIP and then the other thing you have is basically a summary report of the past recommendations that have happened at least in the time that I'm familiar with through our work group and and where those things stand some things that move forward some things we're trying to track down why they haven't moved forward most of the projects just haven't happened yet whether they do or not we don't know but they just haven't gotten moved up fast enough in the CIP to actually move forward to have a public art piece come with them so the recommendation this time is a very short one because this was a very minor year for the the CIP there were a few new projects there were a few of minor adjustments with viewing budgets and timing and things but really nothing that struck us as a new project that merited addition or enhancement with public art all of our previous enhancements still stand although there are projects as you can see on the summary list there are projects that have fallen off entirely so they were on and approved for enhancement at one point and they're no longer in the CIP and that's just the nature of the game and for commissioners who are looking for these documents they were distributed in a previous packet and so can be found online it was sent out that we should bring them if we could and if you're I want to review them either now or later you can go back to the previous packet David could pass his copy to you as well thank you Colleen has been on the committee with me is there anything you want to it I have a couple of questions if I could sure how how is there any requirement about how it should be solicited for example what I mean is is it expected or required that should be an open call for art or is it commissioned by the developer or is there part of the budget to help artists who have an idea but haven't experienced building a larger piece or just how does it work there's nothing relating to any of that in the CIP enhancement process the CIP work group has taken on there a couple other responsibilities that we are given in you know all the chartering documents that form this commission that require us to make recommendations for how art is selected and and how that whole process works so there are other documents for that and we should probably be bringing those back to you soon for renewal I don't know that there would be any changes because we haven't had any experiences that would cause us to recommend changing them recently but there are some recommendations I don't know that there's anything right now about working with artists who don't have experience in public art it's a little bit of a tricky situation because obviously this is something we're asking the city to continue on and maintained for decades into the future so the maintenance and durability are a significant concern that's why I was wondering whether there was any way where artists could be partnered with I do know somewhere some way of manufacturing what they want to make so if they for example would make a maquette for a sculpture whether that could be scaled up without having to put the whole requirement on the artist but rather making it a an idea plus a manufacturer to see what I mean because otherwise you cut out a great many people who would have nice ideas but we'll never break into the public art it's fair because you can't do it unless you've done it in you yeah well and Craig you wanted to add something to this you had said developers all of our art is done on city projects there are not developers involved in it and generally more recently our budgets have been relatively modest yeah there we have a separate work group which we'll be hearing from tonight that relates to privately funded public art for public for developers but that's not part of the CIP work groups commission to deal with alright I'd like the only thing I was gonna add we in terms of we are supposed to give a recommendation for a funding amount we have generally used the 1% as kind of a target gen unless we have some reason to think otherwise sometimes projects are so big that 1% seems like overkill and we don't have a lot of experience with how much these are going to cost so it's it's yes shot in the dark which it was about what some of the CB numbers are as well I think sometimes and actually probably some of the other project numbers as well when it's in the early phases I'm gonna call on John is there anyone down here that would like to okay thank you I'd like to add a little background and complement David I think he understated his role in all of this the background is that in 2008 the Council passed a percent for art ordinance which set aside one percent of every single capital improvement plan project and it pooled that money the city and the art commission was challenged because of staff and a number of other things that that program was scaled back and it was made voluntary so that no longer was 1% of the money set aside or pooled it was voluntarily decided project by project whether art would be included that happened in 2013 at that time the art ordinance was changed and the art commission was tasked with identifying reviewing first of all annually all of those municipal projects and identifying the potential in those projects and what David and Colleen in and his work group did I was actually monumental because they developed criteria and processes for doing that so that it was comparable data decision-making it was huge and it basically said we're just not sitting around saying well that would be neat so as David alluded to he makes a pass through all of them and identifies if this is buried in the ground there's probably no way that we're going to attach art to it if it's not going to be visible so he has gone through a number of criteria that's applied through I think two or three passes data and and that's just to identify the projects that might have potential and then the committee sets and suggests the potential for each of those projects depending on the size the location the visibility all of those kinds of things and it's all based on this criterion process that's very open so we can go back and say this is why these recommendations were made that's proved effective with council they basically said you know you're just not throwing darts at these projects you're actually thinking them through that's what David and his work group is doing in regards to when a project is selected for public art that this was imagined the percent for art was imagined to be incorporated in the design in other words it was custom-made art it was commissioned art it was an art that was setting in someone's studio which is just fine the U of M does this and purchases and places at some place which is just fine this was intended to be unique and specially designed to the project what and that's why David and his team gets involved early on so that the designer knows well a group of people have thought this through and identified potential and they've identified a budget so whether it's a thousand dollar public art that's not that big but if it is nine hundred thousand that means it's big so there's there's a way in which the designer helps the designer understand what this body has recommended once that occurs on major projects that the because we have no staff what we have done is outsourced the selection process to a cultural organization the Art Alliance the Art Center are two that to mine and those groups form a task force we enter into a contract we sort of oversee the contract and the contract lists exactly what's expected they form a task force that's widely representative of the community and they determine the parameters of this and come about a description of what this artwork should be and that then is put out an 8 RFQ is put out so artists that feel qualified submit their work and then from those that group usually this is the way it usually happens from that group several are selected usually three maybe four maybe only two but usually three and those would be the top three that were rated from a a jury the jury isn't necessarily the task force and the jury sort of goes through all of the rfqs that come in and the top three are given a stipend to basically create a mock at an example and then that along with a narrative is submitted and the jury and a number of outreaches public comments are entertained and the consultant the Art Center the the Art Alliance sort of pulls together all of this and comes up with the best possible selections and recommends one that recommendation comes to us that we then review it and either approve that recommendation or not we usually do because we trust our consultants and that that recommendation passes on to City Council and City Council is the last person to to visit this and make the decision is that there are a lot of cesses that could be used in the selection and I think that you know some have been done that way some have been done other ways but generally there's a you know like any of these kind of processes it would be a way of winnowing down a lot of options to just a few a lot of them have gone through a public voting process which is something the city has really like to do with anything that where they can just to get public input and get the public interested in what's going on in the city so that's been a big factor in what we work on and we have been very strongly insistent that if there is going to be a public selection process that should be the last step in the process the public vote is the one that picks the winner it doesn't go through that to winnow it down and then have a bunch of experts decide and correct me if I'm wrong David and I know you will so so it's the purview of the CIP working group to to have to start a process or say that there will be a process but that process as you said can be different depending on whether it's contracted out whether it's an in-house smaller thing whether it's public or some combination of jurying I mean it's that there needs to be a process but that process can be any number of things depending on the particular project is that correct that's correct and and basically our responsibility is for the most part complete once that group once the list of recommendations goes to City Council and is approved after that it's up to the staff that are managing the project whether we ever hear about it again we try to we'd like to we have recommendations for how that process should go or at least some parameters for how that process should go but we have very little say at that point and and we when we when it comes back to us for a vote we have made very clear that all we're voting on is whether has followed our recommendations for the process we're not making artistic judgments whether we want to or not that's not we have not felt that as our place other questions or any other comments about this process this was very helpful to me David and to walk us through it all the way through really has sort of laid out what we can expect from this process in the future and what we can't expect from the process in the future and that's actually sometimes even more helpful than knowing what to expect from the process in the future so all right and one thing we can't expect from the process is for Colleen to be involved much beyond yes be nice to have someone besides me okay and yes we will be of course adding new commissioners perhaps not as good as the old but certainly a good replacement work their way up yes they'll work their way up to that and we will also be account or assigning new people to the CIP prioritize no okay okay we move on now to reports from staff and we have a number of reports I don't know if this is gonna be Vinita or Craig or a tag team so excellent so probably a tape team great so one of you please start us off we needed you on discuss the first item of the public address system I'm just nope making know that Olivia is no longer here and that she was a real significant part of getting a lot of these things started we already had an inventory it needed quite a bit of work her ability to go through the inventory updated put in the templates for us to use created the public art tour and from there we've used that inventory for a lot of other things it's a lot of work but she did a really good job I'm hoping to get her back she is working on a degree she wants to be a curator so departure is reflective of the city policy on temporary workers where they cannot work continuous 12 months they have to have a break in service and that is what is occurring right now right because as was indicated before it's not that there is no staff associated with us obviously we have excellent staff but capacity in for that staff to do some of the extra or needed work for the Commission is something that Olivia really brought to the group and so it's our expectation that such capacity will indeed be needed in the future so I just wanted to reinforce that on Mike that this is indeed a break in service but not a break in the need for that additional capacity correct can somebody just note the website and tour again I feel like this is a good information public art session right now and so maybe for our audience here and all the people watching at home absolutely so I do either if you want to just speak briefly to the website and the online inventory that is available yeah you you can make sure the mic is pulled up on the city of Ann Arbor web page if you go to the departments and go to the public art administration area you'll see a public art web page at the top of the public art webpage the first item that you should see is the public art tour it will show the front of the city hall building here on here on street there's an arrow down that allows you to click and once you start clicking it goes through a total of 20 26 27 pieces of public art throughout the city of Ann Arbor there's a mapping system it gives you a brief description and it also gives you the artist information and the date of install and the idiot's version of that which we need to describe she did a very good job of it but when this idiot goes to the city of webpage I just go to the search box and type in public art and let me take me right there without all the clicks something that wouldn't have happened previously David I was just gonna say obvious I don't believe Olivia's here or maybe listening but she did a wonderful job on the stuff she did as far as I'm concerned and I want to thank her for it snaps for Olivia okay all right the next item from staff is the DD a public art projects having engaged the DDA we have made significant strides with the DDA understanding about public art in beginning to engage it in their projects where we have had a history of not getting them to consider public art not intentionally they just weren't in tuned to it aware of it and with the staffs work with DDA they are getting into into it and they are engaging earlier in their projects to consider art and for those who might not know what the DDA is the Downtown Development which is a quasi independent body that invests tax increment money into infrastructure in the downtown they are the folks that are redoing probably the most significant project that people could relate to right now is the re construction of this sidewalks streetscape along here on street that is a DDA project it is not a city project excellent so so they are considering these projects and David you wanted to come in on this yeah you will note in the the CIP summary report that there are a number of projects where the City Council has approved recommendations for enhancement to DDA projects because they appear in the CIP but the City Council has very little control over the funding or the management of those projects and the DDA has been wonderfully supportive of public art and and everything that happens art wise in the downtown in many different ways so I don't want to bad-mouth them in any way but they have they are working with a very small staff they're managing a lot of big projects and it's been a challenge for them to figure out how to work in the public art and they're very willing to do it they've been very willing to do it we just haven't quite found that way to get that get it started and I very much appreciate Craig and Bonita having those discussions to try to move that along because it's something that we've wanted to try to figure out for a while and the last item from staff report is the Allen Creek project a has actually broken ground and is going forward this project is mostly federal and grant money involved in it there is federal emergency management money FEMA there is it's state money from transportation assistance and I know I'm missing another source of federal money involved in it so there is very limited funding opportunities to use project money as part because the feds have a a requirement that the money not going to art it goes into of what you're building that all being said there is an opportunity to do some art within the project the space for it is a free-standing piece is limp would be limited much of what we're building is being built on somebody else's property through easements and Vinita is prompting me to remind folks to go to the inclusion in their in their packet and it shows the planned view of the project in two locations where there has been walls identified as potential sites to do murals on if you turn the page over the one site the mural site would be between four and eight feet tall and 70 feet long the desire would be to do something that stormwater related or it needs to be stormwater related because we are using we are proposing to use stormwater money for this art the difficulty we have is relatively short time span to identify the art in put it in obviously if it's a mural that goes there you can't paint it into the walls built in right now the contract for the wall has it being coated with an anti graffiti coating and so we would be trying to work the timing that we could get the wall barrel belt get it properly cured put the mural on it and then coat it with the project funds if we can do that what's the hopeful timeline for that as I said the project is already kicked off it will be complete the project will be completed this construction season the actual crossing of the railroad I'm looking at Vinita I don't remember if it's July or August okay we have a 28 our window to build the tunnel underneath the road and if you could use the Mike Vanina I know you don't like the Mike the other piece of that is that brian says depending on how we call for art on this whether it's a mural or some other type of art that goes there rfp RFQ if we know and have selected an artist they can hold that area and then and have the artist come back in is ready what we're saying is not put the anti graffiti coating down on the wall yes glowing it appropriately and after the arts install coating it David do you wanted to get in in this yeah I have comments on everything tonight I is everyone even familiar with what we're talking about here what this project is I think it would be good if we take a stab at it if you want okay behind Depot Street approximately the extension of fourth just to the west of the existing railroad Station there will be a pathway constructed to their to the edge of the railroad embankment running to the west until you reach the old trestle that is there in the back of the elevated building at that point there will be a tunnel built underneath the railroad berm and the primary function of the tunnel is relief of floodwaters that the berm holds back and that has been the opportunity that presented the opportunity to expand the tunnel to allow pedestrian crossing underneath the railroad and then proceeding to the near the river turning to the west building a bridge across the Allen Creek and continuing to the west this will allow access to the border-to-border trail in the riverfront which right now was cut off by the railroad crossing that railroad as a pedestrian you are committing a federal trespass and this is hopefully a way to allow our citizens to be illegal other questions presumably animals might make use of it - oh I suspect so all right a Jonah just said two quick questions one David just to clarify that this project is not in CIP correct that's correct it is not because when it first appeared in the CIP it was entirely federal funding and we were told that no part of that could go to to enhancement for art but it is a project that Allison last year so debated a grant report it was obvious to everyone that this really needed art it was going to be too dark tunnels under the under the railroad berm so it desperately calls for something but there we had no way to fund it so unfortunately we did not get that grant so it's wonderful that there it's it appears that there's a second chance here for sure it's it is limited money but I think it's an opportunity we have to we have to seize I agree so being that we have a second chance at it although it's a limited amount of funds are we in a position to perhaps make a motion that we do call for submissions for potential art for this potentially yes I think that that is the question that is before us is that what does this body need to do to help move this project forward we understand that the turnaround time for a call for art would be quick we know that sometimes those calls are handled in-house by our engineers or by others working with this project so if it's a question of us saying yes go and do that engineers or other staff then that's one thing if there is some other role that we should be playing in either develop helping to develop the call or in soliciting artists or in sending this out in social media there are a number of things that we might do so that being said with the limited amount of money we have staff has looked at this and said we're not going to use an outside organization to manage the call for art and proceed with the project we would northern consume the funds that are available just in doing that so our desire is to do it internal with existing staff however probably leaning on some members of the art commission who have experience in murals and call for art the help staff get through the process and move the project long so the answer to your question is we would be seeking your support for us to go ahead and proceed internal excellent um Jonah just to echo that I do think it's a great opportunity and although it is a limited time frame I think we have all kind of experienced and voiced that when we do have opportunities to do this it's it's important to seize it and especially because there is albeit small some funding available for this so I'm full support of it or making a motion to recommend it just without being able to absolutely pledges the desire would be used the funding that's available all for the art and not the management of the project John to tie in with what Jonah has said would it be appropriate then to go on record with emotion from this body Jonah did you have some language in mind and before we do before we do that I just want to make it clear that we're looking for a motion of support for this but also I want to generally pull the group to say that there is general agreement that if we are asked as individual commissioners to help with this call that we will make ourselves available to do so it's that I mean we don't want to leave the city without our expertise if they actually want it so we will certainly work and coordinate with city staff to get some of our expertise there if they request it madam chair I like the language of what you just said could you shape it into a motion that we could consider I move that we recommend that the city move forward with all due haste using staff to create a call for art for the Allen Creek improvement project and that they make themselves fully they avail themselves fully of the expertise on this mission forthwith here here so discussion so one one of the items that we put forth in the process for the CIP was that once a project moved forward there would be a champion from the Arts Commission that would be involved and get involved in so so whatever method the city chose to pursue the that champion from this group from this body would attend those meetings or get you know be there and then that person would assist in reporting back so that's great was there a process for such a champion or was it volunteer I think we assumed it would be as a volunteer a stepped-up sort of thing all right so we could actually move forward with the motion and then we could entertain either volunteers from the table that could be tapped and also for those that are not here this evening make sure that they are aware of that opportunity I wonder if there's a way to also try and get an individual from the engineering side of the project or the architectural side of the project to have some sort of communications method with with the call for our people in May and the actual project project so that they know who they're talking to and what's happening and it's not two completely separate make that happen but I think we could call for our people who do you mean so so that whoever is creating the the opportunity of the artist and the artist themselves have some channel of communication with the people building building the tunnel so that it's not so that there is communication between them of some kind be it sparked historically there has been very tight communication between the project manager I think back to the stadium wall and my earrings involvement and other pieces of art we've installed as projects in this case Brian's was bouzouki who is the project manager and he will be intimately involved in the call for her in a project good I'd like to accept what I heard was perhaps a friendly amendment to encourage the city to work closely with whoever is selected for this commission and that they keep regular communications open and throughout the project is that amenable to you my second so just add that to the motion any other discussion all right so we have been motion it's been moved and seconded all in favor of adopting this motion at this time please say so by saying aye opposed abstain all right it passes please move forthwith to getting a call-out and we look forward now to any are there any volunteers who would like to work on this project at this time and if you are shy and don't want to raise your hand at this moment you can also contact Allison or me after the meeting to put your name in the Hat for that so anyone like to volunteer Jonah excellent all right that volunteer position or positions remains open and we'll continue to do so until we get that the meeting set so thank you so much John all right look what else is on this agenda I believe at this point we are moving on to the reports from workgroups and I think we want to just go down the list I'm going to let the CIP off the hook because we received plenty open report from them but let us start with business owners and developers oh yeah actually did I don't think we actually voted on approving this recommendation to City Council so we should do that oh let's do that when we get to you so let's start with the developers and then we'll move on to that with your report developers yes thank you madam chair you should all have our report and if basically we met to consider reviving what was called the golden Pete rush award and this was award that was given by the city to citizens businesses organizations to encourage art in public places it was a really important award both from the City Council and from the recipients and you see a list of those organizations that that were selected in the past primarily it was identifying collaborative ventures and for art so the more people that were involved in a project this seemed to rate higher and in in the groups rating they also gave lifetime achievements we met and we believe that we should revive that that it would encourage what we're doing private development so this and we felt that a private a separate work group be established to take our recommendations that you can see in the report and I'd be more than happy to talk about why we recommended those and maybe that would be a useful discussion and after that discussion then I would make a motion to form this work group however I understand the chair might have an idea of pushing the placing this work in an existing work group so could I first entertain any questions that you might have regarding this report our criteria our reasoning a jury any any questions and while you're considering those before we move on at your place this evening there Vanita was tasked with finding some swag this award in the past we have these buttons in front of us that we actually think may have been part of an advocacy effort exactly for the percent for art program but at John seed there is a small silver box and I've also passes around that also has the golden paintbrush pin that apparently was bestowed as well I also had the opportunity to be in Cary town shortly after a conversation around the golden paintbrush and saw their award prominently displayed in the stairwell of the of their first floor and so this is indeed a an award that was proudly accepted and proudly given and so with that I'm gonna open the floor up to questions and comments anyone think it's a good idea a bad idea an idea I think it's a fantastic idea and I'm very glad to see that it's being revived because I think it's a it's a really useful way to draw people's attention to the fact that there is public art and that the public art Commission is engaged with people are making out in the city and I just think it's good publicity all around and it's a nice way to recognize people who've been working away without necessarily having that kind of public recognition so I think it's all around great thing as you could say Mary and I were at the meeting with John where we kind of came up with us John did 90% of the work of course but but I strongly support excellent and strongly support the 90% of the work yes that's not true but let me just make it concise is that what we imagined is that there be an online forum and anybody from inside the city outside the city from Germany anywhere could recommend a project within the city limits that that project would then be evaluated by a jury and the jury wouldn't it would be kind of a rotating jury so one year it might be the Dean of the art school along with the mayor along with a business person a student and evaluating all of these ranking these and making a decision we thought that two to three golden paintbrushes be awarded every year if someone didn't get a paintbrush one year they could be folded into next year so that the that we thought that we should consider including someone from the media possibly on on the jury and maybe an artist maybe other folks we also imagined that maybe someone on the Art Commission would receive this award which is why we wanted the jury to not be our commissioners and that we felt that it probably should be focused on art projects particularly collaborative projects and then each of the individuals that made up a role and have the artist the the funding source the the building where it was and that's what passed Awards did they they tried to pull together a variety of folks that and demonstrate the collaboration but we just glossed over it and I think that that was appropriate I think that it's good that you have thought a little bit about sort of what that process might look like who might be on the jury you know however I think that the next step will be to develop the criteria because as we look over these projects I would say that you know some of them many of them are collaborative they often appear to have be recognizing things that have already happened which is another which is great I mean that a lot of these are events or installations that were developed by somebody and then is are now recognized for the important role that they're playing such as you know festive fools or the movement of the yeah Jack and the Beanstalk mosaic which is what Carytown won its award for a preservation of public art as it as it were so I think that the next step will be to develop that criteria develop that process bring it back to the Commission for approval and then the question comes up is who will do that work right so you had suggested that perhaps this work could be done by another workgroup we have already ten work groups and nine commissioners so I'm actually wondering if this work could not be embedded in an existing work group moving forward and when I look at what we have here special projects might be a place for this donations and our placement might be a place for this or even where it's emerged from but and I don't want to take this work away from you John especially since you did 90 percent of it but I'm just saying but I'm wondering if people have an idea about where this might best be placed versus creating yet again an another work group if it is the will of the Commission to create another work group by all means but I would like us to explore whether or not there is a place like special projects or donations or someplace else that might actually fit the bill and so you're all on at least six of these work groups where would you where might you recommend that it go since I chair special projects let's kind of put that aside it is a special project it's quite possible that it could be a sub of the development work group if my two other colleagues on the work group David is loaded up I'm loaded up Mary is loaded up however if my two other colleagues might want a co-chair or Sophie would you like to take this on I mean and I would say that one other place and again we're all on 12 working groups here one other place it could go is and does it take even say this it could go to policy and governance because it is a new policy or program of the group but it's not attacked again that's stretching I think and again special projects ends up with David and I so and Sophie so that special projects perhaps I perhaps Sophie could spearhead this effort would you like to spearhead it Sophie yes I mean I I think that that's that's entirely possible I would need a lot of help because I don't know where to begin but assuming that I would get a lot of help then yes for sure then that's acceptable to special project however I would like before is there anyone else learning to do another that would okay and would you like to join I would love to join me okay many I will so why don't and if for nothing else just for this particular project yeah you know and however you would like to do it so special projects will take on that golden paintbrush award and why don't you make that a motion I move that the golden paintbrush Award be refined in the special projects workgroup excellent is there a second did we just put this back into play oh we didn't we yeah well I think what we were voting to do is place its development in the working group we would then have that recommendation and that process come back to the Commission for full ratification but Everett's point I think yeah are we all in agreement let us back this up then do we have a motion to move forward with the exploration and development of the golden paintbrush award as has been recommended I believe you've recommended it from the business owners and development developers group we have a I propose what you just said so you move yeah all right is there a second David any discussion all in favor aye opposed abstain I'm chair I make the motion to place the golden paintbrush award under the purview of the special projects group do I have a second allene discussion all in favor aye opposed abstain all right it passes so we expect at a future meeting that we will be receiving an outline criteria timeline potentially for this as well as anything else that you think might serve us and Sophie thank you so much for taking on the leadership but chanal do 90 percent of worksheets out there madam chair yes um I just wanted to check on the development workgroup on the history did you put that together John there is one project missing because the University of Michigan Hospital murals were awarded a golden paintbrush and Moto e tile works and U of M gifts of art or recipients of that and I don't know what year that was but it's somewhere in there so my apologies that's okay well I think I think this was not an easy list to pull together is that not correct correct I took the urine reports from our archives so it's not suggested it's complete and thank you for mentioning it how whatever route we might want to add that because this document then will become a part of our official record and it will be nice to be able to reflect back on that so if you can find it I can I will pull up the info and send it and another note if anyone has received a golden paintbrush award and thinks that we've left them off the list by all means get in touch with us so all right great CIP David okay so we have this very brief recommendation in front of you which is basically to have there are no additional projects that we would recommend for CIP enhancement for public art based on the CIP being a minor update assume you've read this or we can accept the paraphrase knowing that we have received that document previously is there a second I'll second Colleen any discussion all in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed abstain all right thank you David any additional business for CIP this evening No all right thank you Communications and public outreach we have a chair here for that that might be Allison all right I see no report so we're gonna move on to donations at our placement I can tell you there is no report on that this evening fundraising any report all right Leadership Forum I do have a report the Leadership Forum working group met just the other day I think it was wow really just the other day earlier this week on Tuesday and we have been moving forward with the recommendation that was approved by the Commission last year to create a Friends of group an advocacy group a key communicators group who we can think of as both a way to outreach into the community about the work of the public art Commission as well as the important pieces that are coming forward to call attention to that but also to have them reflect back what they might be hearing in the community about public art about our work and about how we can do that work better so we have met to develop a an initial list of those in the community who we think might be interested in being on such a commission and it will be a very small undertaking for those that we ask if it's an hour a month that would be surprising there will be a single sort of networking event or two but we think at least a single networking event that we will hold to bring these important community people together and we will also take the opportunity to use them in focus groups and to solicit information around questions that we might have that might come up periodically but we are moving forward and we'll come back to this group probably at the next meeting with a recommendation on how we might move forward in identifying and inviting those in the community that might be interested in serving on this forum so we also look forward to any of your suggestions for those that you think might be interested in interacting with this commission in that way so are there any questions at this time all right oh there's a question do you have a timeline for which you would like recommendations or is there an event that may be well we are looking toward June to bring this community together for the first time I'm as a docent at the University of Michigan Museum of Art I would imagine that there might be some docents who would be interested in being involved so I could pass on the message if you tell me exactly what to ask them we certainly are looking to at least in this initial group tap into the University of Michigan as well if we think about it there are so many facets of our community everything from neighborhood associations to business people in the business community to those at the University who are in the arts or in other community outreach and so we certainly would be interested in hearing from you if there is somebody who might especially be good at this kind of community networking that we're looking toward where it's not just expertise in the arts but its expertise with our community and the way that they want to interact with their environment through public art yeah just for clarification the docents are not officially affiliated with university they're people who are bringing the community in to look at the art so I feel like they might be many absolutely a little bit more about that thank you yeah I just want to point out that this is also an initiative that the Arts Alliance is doing right now bringing together business partnership with people that are not on their board so I think it's it's a common thread between arts organizations trying to create unity in our community so I think that they're a great resource as well absolutely and they are indeed on the list of those that we will tap moving forward anything else all right that ends the Leadership Forum report nominating and Membership Committee I think I have a report on that as well we have been given access to the applications for those that were interested in filling our August colleagues position and we moved up the timeline for review as we were told that there was actually an earlier deadline for trying to identify someone we might recommend for appointment we would recommend people to the the way the process works is we recommend people to the mayor who then puts them forward after review to City Council for appointment to this body so we have a little bit more review to do but we plan to close the review up for at least this application period shortly and we will reopen that application after we finished this cycle for our next commissioner in our next cycle Benita do you want to add anything to that all right so some of you have spoken to me and Allison offline about those that might get in a final bit of application and if they have done so recently we will be able to consider them in this next round but we are looking to finish up our review in the next week or two so alright any questions about that all right policy and governance I'm also on that committee because of course we're all on six different committees and we have no report on that at this time special projects no report at this time youth outreach yeah we have a couple of updates do you want to start with the voting esteemed art commissioners staff and our audience just want to remind everybody in particular for some of our values whom you may be high school students perhaps there's a contest being held right now if you use the interwebs and look up the I voted sticker design contest this is something you might be familiar with see people get stickers when they vote or whatnot it has like a flag on it or a check mark or doing something much more creative here in the city of Ann Arbor from City Clerk's office and there's three categories of ages who can participate there's a elementary school age as so that's a K through six and then there's a grade seven through 12 and then a more general category for any Ann Arbor resident can submit a design for that sticker and there will be a a jury deciding on the winners whatnot there are prizes for those who win cash money and I think it's a great way to not only get people involved in public art but as well as raising awareness about voting and you may have heard about elections happening soon this November so there's actually one on Tuesday but this sticker will be for the November election the deadline for this is March 31st so get your submissions into the City Clerk's office and I've been working a little bit in collaboration with folks at the neutral zone to get some submissions as well as some of our public and our public schools art teachers as well and please spread the word submit some entries if you like and I hope everybody can participate and and did you mention when the deadline March 31st for this one so three weeks so we have it we have a little more of an update as well so the youth art committee has been meeting pretty regularly for this last year trying to find ways to engage our youth population which could be high school age could be all the way up to 24 25 in public art in our city and we've been brainstorming an idea that will just kind of unfold this evening and then elaborate on in the future it occurred to really draw on this 20 year plus relationship that I've been building with the Ann Arbor railroad in fact the anavar L Road underpass murals of the late 90s were recipients of the golden paintbrush award and it's been kind of a legacy to keep these murals rotating and the anavar railroad has been very supportive and thankful to the artists and the initiatives that have gone into keeping some of these under passes changing over so we are looking to do another round of murals in the Ann Arbor area on the under passes there are actually 10 canvases but we will be looking at four and then we'll be looking at doing some restoration of a couple of projects that are existing and really loved so we will be creating an application process for young people we already have quite a few business owners willing to throw in some dollars so as soon as we get a proposal packet together we will hit the streets with that and so I encourage any youth here and the audience if you if this interests you to come chat with me at the end because I'd like to bring some youth on to our committee for that as well wow that is super exciting so questions comments it's the mural on the railroad underpass by the YMCA one of the ones you're talking about yes yeah that's really impressive yes that's been painted by Matt Nesbitt any other questions or comments again it's super great I think this is a neat opportunity for the public art Commission to get really behind some action especially with our young people this will also hopefully involve neutral zone and tree town murals great all right okay as we have I believe no special presentations this evening we're going to move to any announcements that anyone would like to make for the public good this is a round robin and i'm going to start at the end with Mary and we'll just move down the line it's fine if you don't have anything but if you do this was a great time to do some announcements and if you want me to come back to you okay yes the applications for Westside our top which is a little kind of art fair come walk on the west side of Ann Arbor which happens in May so it'd be May 17th so applications for that of just opened so if anyone's interested in either being an artist in West Side art up or being a host of an artist because we host artists and garages and on porches and things like that so anybody on the west side sort of roughly the old West Side area or anyone who would like to come from outside and take part is welcome to go to the website which is West Side Art hop calm excellent I have no announcements this evening I have announcement marches youth art month hopefully everyone's noticed all the great art downtown and I just felt I would be a miss if I didn't talk about all the different organizations that have supported us this year we had a budget of over eight thousand dollars which we were pretty excited about the groups that supported youth art month are the Ann Arbor Public Schools the end of our Art Center the Arts Alliance the Main Street area Association the a number Area Community Foundation the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs the University of Michigan Credit Union the Community Action Network the National Endowment for the Arts and destination inner gur so thank you to all of our supporters [Applause] thank you alright so that is the end of our agenda for this evening do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting so John second second Jonah any discussion all in favor of a journey in the meeting at this time please signify that by saying aye aye anyone opposed anyone abstain with that we are adjourned you
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good evening big Hollow today is March 6 March 6th 2020 it is 124th day school this is the baby news I'm Madison and I'm Jane today for lunch there we chicken strips tater tots light red peppers blueberries cookie ah cookie and milk tomorrow better be cinnamon buns don't eat banana apple juice and milk we have some friends celebrating birthdays Anthony hey Emilio and Patrick as celebrating birthdays this weekend Beckett gia Diane dia dia panel purva as Sofia s and Bethany P please go to the office to granny bird favor yesterday's fun that question what it's something solar power where does the energy come from the into it's the Sun the winner is is kind of to Smith come to the office to pick out your prize today's funders that question is and the movie The Little Mermaid what kind of animal is a sufficient Sebastian it's addiction remember division neatly and name in class and now we will sign up to be of them I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I like to be a be H star whether I'm at school or travel far I pledge to be safe in every way take responsibility during work and play I will be respectful and all I do and be a star the whole day through remember kindness comes every day everywhere thanks for watching bye
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[Music] yes somebody probably met somebody who met somebody we got it okay good evening I will call the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order please stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag we have everyone except for Jen here tonight and our first agenda item is board recognition so I'll hand that over to you talk - thank you mrs. Fernandes so March is Board of Education Appreciation Month and on behalf of the entire Brookfield Public Schools we'd like to extend a congratulations and a thank you for all that the board does I say it every single year multiple times not just on this evening that in in small-town America and especially our system in Connecticut the elected positions of Board of Education elected volunteer positions are the hardest in terms of the difficulty in the commitment of time and and frankly the responsibility you all have so I we just thank you we really appreciate you and I just want to extend our best wishes for all you do and let's keep on doing it together thank you very much thank you and Rosa do you want to introduce part of this do want to introduce Michelle so tonight actually we have dr.
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Michelle and riku who is the chair of the new Town Board of Education and she has something that she would like to share with us so yeah good evening I'm glad to be able to contribute to this celebration good evening superintendent Brio chair Fernandes and board members of the Brookfield Board of Education first I'd like to take care of some business that cave has us do and that is to present you with a certificate of membership to the cave maybe to Rosa so the cave organization helps support Boards of Education around the state and so that's just a certificate to indicate that cabe supports you and welcomed you into the organization so I'm really here on behalf of cabe to recognize the efforts of the Brookfield public schools and to present you with two awards with these awards capes goal is to identify and honor the hard work of people in the school districts for their continuing efforts to communicate effectively in order to receive these Bonnie B Kearney Awards of Excellence for educational communications entries must meet all of the following criteria they must have a clarity of message image and consistency they must be readable have good editing graphics type format presentation design and a value of expenditure so I'm very happy to present the Brooke Brookfield Board of Education with these two awards for excellence for educational communication the first one is the category for special project in audio-visual it's the Board of Education Chairman's video for the new school the video is developed to provide the community with information outlining the rationale and vision for the new school project let's see if I can get these there we go and the second one is in the category of computer generated projects the new school project website the website provides information regarding the new school project by archiving information communications updates from the construction of a new kindergarten through grade five Elementary School in Brookfield [Music] take it out of the wrapper so I just wanted to say congratulations to you all on your good hard work at communicating and keeping the public informed and it's all really good work and cabe would like to extend their appreciation for all you do for our students around the state and especially in Brookfield so congratulations thanks for coming Michele thank you very much was the voice of that project oh so anyway so that first award I do want to publicly thank our former chair Colette Sturm she was the voice for that video that is recognized with that first award and of course we share all of these accolades with our administration who has been phenomenal with communicating the message and working tirelessly for this new school project so thank you and thank you thank you thank you Michelle we should also mention that unrelated to the communication working on our start times committee Michelle and some of her team came in from Newtown and actually shared their experiences with us so it's been a nice partnership between the communities so thank you for that as well yeah I really appreciate it thank you thanks yeah thank you yeah thank you and then I also have to share with you we've had these displayed because they weren't the formal actual winners but we had three honorable mentions for communications as part of the the Bonnie B Kearney Awards of Excellence in communication one was for social media another for our going green project that our own Lisa Grambling is the facilitator of and also for our continued work on the newsletters the brookfield broadcast so I'll pass those around as well so you can see those certificates and then we display these at the central office it's great it really is nice that's a nice problem to have [Applause] he's a really nice all set all set thank you so very much for coming and we appreciate it we can move on to public comment and there is no one signed up so unless I don't see anyone else here would like to speak probably so hi everyone good evening so I'm just gonna kind of detail some events that we've already had and are going to have in March so I'll start in Chronicle chronological order so actually today we celebrated national inclusion day and our word campaign day at BHS so basically the athletic advisory and Best Buddies they help spread the word in the cafeteria there is a large poster that everyone signed in support of inclusivity and actually I like to read the announcement that was shared today like in school so it goes brookfield high school BHS BHS athletic advisory and best buddies are proud to have joined the National inclusion and our word campaign today BHS needs your support for it spread the word inclusion campaign to help take a stand against discriminatory words and actions to create a more inclusive world we can create a more accepting world by working to integrate individuals with intellectual disabilities into realms of society from which they are excluded a lack of inclusion has become a hurtful norm to millions of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities their families and their friends please take the pledge today to spread the word of inclusion during the lunches also please think about doing the penguin pledge plunge at Candlewood Lake on March 15th to raise money for our unified sports and Special Olympics Connecticut remember today and every day to respect the unique abilities of everyone and spread the word of inclusion so bring you here so you guys are conviction yes this is our poster that's so many students sign today sure we got we always honor you stand here and yeah maybe it's written yesterday in front of mr.
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Beldon and mrs. Fernandes and there's a delay so you have to go to lecture longer there you go hey there you go mr. Poole and oh thank you thank you Martin so that's something very special that happened today that I wanted to share also on March 27th we have our junior prom so that's again at the Ethan Allen hotel and so student council is having their preparations for that which is great and then March 31st is our st. Baldrick's Foundation fundraiser in the BHS cafeteria from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
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so this fundraiser is very close to my heart I've gone very close to at the past couple years especially as a peer counselor I'm like very heavily involved in it and we're really trying to make it big this year we're trying to reach out to every business possible or we just went out to the middle school yesterday to prevent sorry to present to their student council and their peer counseling so they can put up posters around the school we're getting the Brookfield Fire and Police Department again to have a competition so basically like the team that doesn't raise the most money will have their heads shaved which is what happened last June is really fun chick-fil-a comes as usual they send their cow in they sponsor us we're trying to have different school teams compete we're trying to have different sports teams sign up to shave their heads so I'm very excited for that event and like really looking forward to it so in terms of March that's what's going on it's great any questions it's exciting thank you Thanks possible up next we have written correspondence sherry Styron offski shared an opinion letter Ron Jaffe wrote regarding the attitudes and behavior survey Melissa Jaeger wrote regarding the budget Pete Peterson wrote regarding a program for schools on distracted driving and Jill and Jean ropey AK wrote regarding fourth grade curriculum okay thank you we can move to the approval of Board minutes I'll make a motion that the board approved the minutes listed below is recommended from the regular meeting February 19th twenty twenty second superintendent's update all right thank you mrs. Fernandez I have two items formerly on my update and then I realized there was something else I wanted to share the first one is we had our for the first time ever in Brookfield the Connecticut school finance project visited us last I think it was last Monday night and Erica Haines put on a very nice presentation I think was quite informative there was a number of folks from the community came out I think outside of some of the elected officials we probably had 15 to 20 guests there and everybody left I think feeling much more informed than they were before on how between the federal government down through the state government into the local government how education is funded so that was a great project and having those folks in the other piece I wanted to share is regarding coronavirus everybody's hearing about this on the news and I know that I shared with the board the letter I had sent to the families last week I just wanted to go over a couple of things that we continue to do here in terms of our vigilance some of you may have seen in the Brookfield patch there was an article that was either out last night or this morning I spoke with a reporter from the patch and shared some of those things and I thought he did an excellent job capturing what what we're doing in terms of remaining clean and being proactive so number one I had a letter that I sent out last week with appropriate links and guidance and so forth to reassure families that were on top of things but at the same time here are some precautions you can take and here some information for you in terms of the CDC Connecticut Public Health Department etc the department has met with mr.
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Dunn last week and we went through some of the preparedness activities that we need to be involved in and the town does have a pandemic flu plan and so that's certainly being modified for coronavirus and that kind of a thing the Board of Education in the in the school administration really isn't involved in that because if there is that situation where the schools have to be closed down we wouldn't be here the schools would be closed down and people would be quarantined however the buildings are always available and BHS is a shelter so if that was a need we would obviously be involved in that all depending on the situation we also work with dr. Sullivan our health director and our consulting physician dr. Ferrara in addition to that I have a call scheduled tomorrow with caps so the western Connecticut superintendent group my group that I'm the chairman of here on this end of the state we're talking with dr.
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Rabinowitz from caps who today met with the Commissioner of Education some folks from the Connecticut health department to see if there's any updates for us we're gonna try to get a weekly call calling a regularly scheduled call at least during the next couple of weeks to make sure we're on top of things and then finally literally at 4:47 this afternoon dr.
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Ferrara our consulting physician sent me an update on how the school principals are to handle students who are just coming back from being out of the country at affected countries such as China Japan Iran Korea in Italy and so there's a little bit more of a protocol there than we had before we didn't have direction and so encouraging the the children and their parents to go to the pediatrician to get formal clearance and a note before we could admit them back to school so those are the kinds of things we're working on in addition to that our custodial team is you know the the surface cleaning getting at the doorknobs making sure the you know priority of trash being emptied hit the doorknobs hit the surfaces those kinds of things door handles in the like and so those those are the things we're working on I don't know if anybody has any questions on that just being extra vigilant while business as usual I was quoted is that in the paper while it is business as usual where what's not usual is how quote you know much we're paying attention to this and being proactive Montse how are how are students viewing this are they being vigilant and careful about washing your hands and things like that I mean I would hope so it's definitely been a topic of discussion I think among students I think we're all wondering you know is school gonna be shut down and how far has it spread in general though I think people are like they are washing their hands I would hope more regularly so that's good hmm okay yeah that's good thank you and then I had oh wait no it's gonna say hopefully they're using hand sanitizers that the girls that's right yeah thanks to those Girl Scouts that's for sure yep which wasn't resented what's the truth number we have to we have to do a shout out what was the true memory it's a five I should anyway look at me thank those Girl Scouts that was a great project one of them is the next-door neighbor so I will make sure he's passed out I'll pass it on from the board and don't shake your hand do the elbow touch okay any other questions oh and then I had one more thing Rosa yeah was I just wanted to mention that the ruler as all of you know we're using that as our SEL tool hosted in New Haven this week their first ever annual conference the the first one and it's a national conference and dr. ruby was able to attend that so we're looking forward when she comes back and she let's share what she's learned there and some of the other opportunities that might be coming up because of our involvement with ruler and you know such a great relationship now with Yale and dr.
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Brackett so I wanted to make sure you all know about that that's great that's all I have okay up next we have some committee reports and facilities is first okay so we had a special meeting on the 19th of February mr. koala update us on many projects most exciting one the high school generator is on and working that's the high school generator is on and working the middle school generator has been ordered to be here in about twelve weeks we're continuing with the paving it's upcoming at the high school the driveway curbing at the athletic entrance and its upcoming at the middle school so this is phase two at the middle school so there was 240,000 set in the budget and it'll cost one night one hundred ninety two thousand seven hundred so we'll be able to just pay more until we can't go any further so we're looking to add a turning lane up to the street and it doesn't have to be pre engineered so we can use the specs that we have so that's exciting news for all parents that exit during the crowd at times at whisking here we will have a right-hand turn lane that goes up the hill so for buses or cars or whatever that's gonna make it a lot better for everybody so it's actually very exciting very exciting the high school HVAC controls so we're gonna have a bi reporting it's gonna be taking place over April break for phase one or looking to standardize our systems with a new school with skinnier because we're currently working with five operating systems for four buildings so a building management systems coming in and they're gonna do a really comprehensive reporting during April great couple we're updated on staffing there's still three open positions add a custodian at with skinnier add a head custodian at the high school and a night custodian to split between buildings and also a maintenance mechanic so we have we're in the process of interviewing interviewing for the day head custodian thigh school and we have some quality applicants for maintenance mechanic so that's looking up we discussed the locker room project and we invited Tecton architects to our next meeting we spoke with Eddie from Tecton to get more clarity on the cost estimates and discuss available options we're looking to do a presentation for the board at our April 1st meeting presentation to have more further discussions about how to proceed so look forward to that and mr.
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