Thanks for having us and thanks Diana for giving that back story am am I able to share screen? Yes. Okay let me see if I can um do this okay um can you all see this? >> Yes we can. Okay or not okay so um we Chris and I are artists we collaborate together we've been collaborating together for about a year we both have our independent practices that have lasted long beyond that but we have been working on a series of colorful flowers that are inspired by shapes and forms of native plants to our region of Michigan and um we have been working on prototypes so they're a little bit of sculpture they have dimension and it's been important to us to socialize these flowers and to bring them out in public and invite people to engage with them hold them give feedback and on one of those really warm days when it was still February and probably shouldn't have been that warm we went around downtown and just nobody said no to holding a flower and playing with them and so it was just a nice way to think about bringing nature and color and art into daily life.
Gelato. A new gelato store opened in town, and the line was around the block. Gelato. >> Pens down. Reveal your responses. Everybody got it? All right. For your second word, spell phosphorescent. It's an adjective. Phosphorescent. Emitting light without combustion or perceptible heat. Phosphorescent. The phosphorescent plankton made the waves glow as they crashed on the beach. Phosphorescent. Pens down. Reveal your response. I think it's right. Yeah. Nicely done. For your third word, spell sycophant or sycophant. It's a noun. A person who uses flattery to win favor from individuals wielding influence. >> [snorts] >> Sycophant or sycophant. The office workers had enough with the actions of the sycophant, clearly trying to get on the good side of the boss. Sycophant or sycophant. We got one out here. Teams ready? For your fourth word, spell mademoiselle. It's a noun. Mademoiselle. A young unmarried French girl or woman, usually used as a title equivalent to miss.
I mean, I've I've been on the board long enough to remember all of the years we have talked about needing to do this for the families that don't have afterchool care for kids that need an expanded um opportunity for support both academically and socially. So, when you started um naming off the expansions and things, we talked about grants. While you talked about grants, can you explain the process for how we go about finding and then securing these grants? >> Yes. So, our funding sources right now, we have two different funding sources. The first one is expanded learning opportunities program and that's a formula based um funding source. So, we don't actually apply for that. Every district in California um is offered that and our um allocation is based on how many unduplicated students that we have. So, homeless, foster, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and English language learners.
And we went for a walk over to this Owen Best and chatted with Diana, who I've worked with before in her shop and done workshops. And she was just immediately really excited about bringing flowers into her space. So, we started to think about different ideas that we could activate the space with some sculptural elements embedded within what will soon be a nice lush native plant garden there. It's just a sad snowy day for kind of mocking this up. And then we're working on proposing and figuring out what concerns might exist for sidewalk paint. We did a fun project in Whitmore Lake. And what we loved about sidewalk paint is that immediately turned the sidewalk into a little bit of a play space for people of all ages, but especially kids. We did one design where there were lily pads and kids could jump and it just turned into a sidewalk into a play space in a very simple way.
Mademoiselle Laurent was a new third grade teacher in a small suburb of Paris. Mademoiselle. Pens down. No, that's down. That's not good. That's not right. It wasn't right. Yep. Yep. Four teams. Teams ready? Judges ready? Spell colic. It's a noun. Colic. A condition characterized by acute spasmodic abdominal pain. Colic. The pediatrician prescribed a dose of medicine and recommended food options to help with the baby's colic. Colic. Everybody got it? For your sixth word, spell plagiarism. It's a noun. Plagiarism. Literary theft. Plagiarism. The use of AI is making instances of plagiarism rise in students' work and teachers are taking notice. Plagiarism. Everybody got it? Judges good? Or are we waiting? We're good. Okay. For your seventh word, spell cataclysmic. It's an adjective. Cataclysmic. Relating to or denoting a violent natural event. Cataclysmic. The cataclysmic earthquake devastated the small seaside community. Cataclysmic. All set? For your eighth word, we're ready.
Uh, that is the bulk of our funding. Um, the ACES grant, which we have for 10 out of our 12 elementary sites, we apply for that funding every three years. Um, so we initially applied for those six schools in 2004. We applied for Emma and LCC most years in between then and now. Um, and then we got those four schools um, this year, but it's on a three-year cycle. So, U. Michelle Bunch and I rewrite that every three years. our grant writer. >> So, we know when it's going to expire, what the sunset period is for the three years, and so we're out looking for recharging that grant uh process. Um if >> can I comment on that? A lot of the renewal has to do with our attendance and if we're meeting our attendance goals. So, we've never lost that grant because we've always met our attendance goals.
So, we just like to think about ways to activate um spaces in ways that are relatively easy and just invite some fun and play. And I know that there may be future plans for sculpture park. So, we were thinking about these as somewhat ephemeral. They sidewalk paint will have some wear and tear, but we felt that even if this lasts for a year or 2 years with a little bit of touch-up, that's still a significant amount of time, especially if you think of someone who's 6 years old, like 2 years is a long time and we like to emphasize that. This maybe isn't forever, like 10 years, but it's significant to make this area a play space and inviting for people of all ages and think about all of generations coming together and utilizing this space. So, we just wanted to share a little bit about our ideas, our practice, and thank you for having us here and just for us to hear some context of how you all are thinking about bringing art into Ann Arbor.
Judges ready? For your eighth word, spell claustrophobic. It's an adjective. Having an extreme or irrational fear of confined spaces. Claustrophobic. He had to take the stairs instead of instead of the elevator because he was claustrophobic. Pens down. Nice job, teams. For your ninth ninth word, spell abatis. It's a noun. Abatis. A tidal gate or dam to prevent the overflow of water into marshland. Abatis. The Army Corps of Engineers designed the abatis to protect the habitat of the endangered waterfowl. Abatis. We'll just have it We'll have a time. Just note Just note it. Yeah. Just note that. The teams that just went out on abatis. No, no, yours you're you You got it wrong, but you're still in. Those Yeah. Yeah. Two teams went out. Yeah. All right. So, how many teams left? Two teams left. All right. For your 10th word, spell succedaneum. It's a noun.
>> Ah, yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Because, you know, as a board member, one of the things that we worry about is continuing funding for these wonderful things that our our folks develop and we can see them working and we can see the results and then we don't have any money to continue it. Um, so that's that's why my questions I'm always concerned about being able to continue the funding. Um, and as the state budget possibly shrinks because of declining enrollments and things, that's my interest is that we anticipate the need for continuing to grow these programs and then continuing to fund and and thank you for, you know, cards support for this for for the community, for the kids, you know, because that's what we need. Okay, I'm done. >> I have a question. Um, what is the process? Uh, uh, is this available to everyone and is there a waiting list?
I don't know Krista if you have anything you want to add. I tried to be kind of quick in sharing the high-level. Yeah, thank you so much for having us. I feel like Avery covered everything super well, so nothing else to add. Well, this is extremely exciting and really aligns, I think, with the kinds of projects that our our future grant will support. I mean, the I don't think the ephemeral quality of it um is something we should shy away from. I think that it also just invites more rotation of art in the space, more excitement around creating things and workshops that could spin off of that. So, if you're patient with us in terms of funding, you know, we're hoping to launch this granting program in 2027. But before then, if you're able to secure your own private funds, would this be something that parks would be involved in?
A substitute, especially for a medicine or drug. Succedaneum. Many parents were relieved to hear that succedaneum for the over the only EpiPen currently available will soon be on the market. Succedaneum. All right, we need Both got it wrong, but we need to have them spell it right for the winner. So, we're going to continue on. Teams ready? For your 11th word, spell Scheherazadian. It's an adjective. Strangely fabulous. Scheherazadian. He couldn't take his eyes off the Scheherazadian coat that she was wearing. Scheherazadian. >> [cheering] >> Did the Vowels get it? Ah. All right. For your The 12th word, spell psittacine. It's an adjective. Psittacine. Of or relating to parrots. Psittacine. The baby was fascinated with psittacine feathers. Psittacine. So close. All right. For your next word, try to spell Rijsttafel. It's a noun. An Indonesian meal consisting of rice and a variety of accompanying dishes. Rijsttafel.
Is there a priority process? What does that look like? >> Yeah. So, it is available to everyone. We are currently in the lottery. So we each year we start with enrollment and so then there is a lottery period that we have to abide by per egg code in our our rules and then from there we fill the spaces but I think if you're in program you have first priority to return and we also prioritize our homeless and foster youth >> homeless foster. Oh, prioritize homeless foster. Is that because a lot of the funding is based on our unduplicated count? >> Uh, yes. And it's Ed code to do that. >> Also, um I guess what percentage um like how many how many students are um looking to fill these these positions or how many are not are we not able to meet their need? >> So, we kind of this year it we're we're trying out homework heroes because it gives us another avenue.
Anybody out there have ideas of what department of the city this could partner with if they if they had their own funding? For approvals and whatnot? DDA, streets and parks. Yeah, another potential avenue could be sustainability. I know that our sustainability has a few grants. Maybe there is some avenue where we can explore public art installation that is also sustainable. Some other municipalities have had success with with some creative ways to implement solar panels, charging stations, stuff of that nature, but I know that this our sustainability team has a few grants out there. Besides that, have you guys identified any potential funding source at this time or is it are we still very at the preliminary stage? So, we I did have a quick meeting with the DDA last week. I talked to Amber Miller and Maura Thompson to see if this would be something that the elevate program would be interested in funding.
When the visiting dignitaries arrived, he served a rijsttafel to impress them. Rijsttafel. There's a J in there. >> [laughter] >> All right, that's all the championship words I have. So, we're going to a tiebreaker round. And for those the the two teams that went out in third place, we're going to do a run-off tiebreaker for the third place team after we get to crown the winner, okay? So, be prepared for a run-off for third. All right. They get a little easier now. For your first tiebreaker word, spell faux. It's an adjective. Faux. Artificial or imitation, fake. Faux. We would have had to start this We would have to start now. It would have been confusing, too. F A U X. All right. For your second word, spell akaryote. It's a noun. Akaryote. A cell lacking a nucleus. Akaryote. A bacterial cell is an example of an akaryote because it does not have a nucleus like plant and animal cells.
So we are able to offer one challenge we had before was blast had requirements for attendance and so that didn't adhere to every family's needs. So that the addition of the homework heroes now we have a little bit more flex in the program. There's not a day requirement. However, it only goes to four o'clock. And so you can be on the list for blast and attending homework heroes and then waiting for a a spot. I think our our biggest challenge is a weight list and it's constantly trying to just staff and grow out evenly across the district where we see and we know right now and continually hear from our families is TK and K is is a big priority. However, they have a different ratio than our our first through fifth grade. So, we're we're accommodating that which takes a little bit more staff to get in place before we can open another section of it.
This is kind of like what we're doing with you right now, just very casually talking through it. And they asked us to put together a proposal of some small actionable items to present to them to see if they would could have budget to take this on. And that would just entail like we kind of are thinking about this whole project as baby steps, like starting small and kind of building as the years go on. But it could be as easy as getting the the flowers put on posts into the garden beds. Like that's a very simple actionable thing that we could do relatively soon. So, kind of just in the initial works of talking about this, but we have gone to the DDA and then we're coming to you just to kind of get feedback and talk more about it as well. Yeah. Um I'm seeing other hands raised, so John.
Akaryote. Pens down. Did the Vowels get it? >> [cheering] [applause] [cheering] >> Congratulations, Vowels, for first place. And congratulations to the Beasts for second place. We're going to now going to have a run-off for third place with the two teams that went out together. Which What were those teams? Raise your hand. Put one Put one flag up. The other The other two teams can take your flags down just so we're not confused. Yeah. We know you're first and second. All right. Tiebreaker A. Yeah. All right. Our first run-off word is megahertz. It's a noun. Megahertz. A unit of frequency equal to 1 million cycles per second. Megahertz. Did they get it? Both teams Both teams got it? Are they both got Okay. For your second word, spell Evanescent. It's an adjective. Vanishing, fading away, or fleeting. Evanescent. We would have missed the evanescent moment if not for the photographer's speed and skill.
I >> is staffing the greatest challenge then at this point in time. >> Yeah, >> I had a question about uh TK and K. So with BLAST um the program goes until six. So what does that look like for those little four and five year olds staying until six? >> So they don't have an attendance requirement. So they can be picked up any time from when school gets out until six o'clock. >> Um but they do take a rest time. A lot of times they fall asleep anywhere. Um >> I was gonna say, >> yeah, but we usually talk to the parent if we if they want us to let them sleep or not. Um but they do take a rest time. They do a lot more just recess and play every activities are not super structured. They're if they are they're no more than 10 minutes.
That's just a quick First, I want to applaud what you're doing. Avery, Diana, and Krista, this is exactly what we were hoping for is we can't really do anything but facilitate ideas that come from the community and it's perfect. A couple of things. I I love the idea of it being temporary. So, installation is a hot sort of public art now rather than a permanent place and it can evolve. So, I would encourage you to make a part of it a rotating space, a rotating art gallery, however you want to kind of incorporate. The city understands what that means. I would also encourage you to speak with the Hands-On Museum. This This is a perfect sort of thing for them and it's right up Ann Street. I mean, it's right it's right along right with there. They they've got all kinds of kids. It could be a stop on the way to that.
Evanescent. >> [cheering] >> Do we have a winner? The [applause] The Permanent Records third place? All right, congratulations teams. We have the vowels first place, the beasts second place, and the permanent records in third. >> [applause] [cheering] >> With the hippies fourth and Lexicon Legends fifth. Thank you all for coming. We'll see you next year and please be on the lookout for the the teacher grant application that will be coming via your email. For the winning teams, please come forward for a photo opportunity. And thank you everyone for sticking around. Tie breaker A, where did