Reader

mike you probably wouldn't you know if you're you're already juggling you might not be able to make that but we could at least get input from the public and then you know you will summarize it and share it with the board all right anybody who couldn't do it do that at 5 30 to 6 by zoom then we break and then you can start the kps schedule what do you think would that work for people yeah i'm okay with that that's fine good savvy joy okay yep all right good that's what we'll do let's let's work us let's work a special meeting at 5 30 on the next wednesday okay we'll do all right thank you sorry sorry to take the end of your thing are there any other questions for dr burrell while we've got him on the on his superintendent's report dr burrell i just thought it might be helpful i know you explained to us about this morning with the late call with the delay and then the closing if you wanted to speak on that for anyone for the public i thought that might be helpful yeah yeah just just quickly um you know for anybody you know that might be under the impression you know we were not paying attention um like like many of us in the state especially in this area we had rapidly changing conditions um we started at 4 15 i started having conversations with james doctor um from dpw literally he's in the truck so he knows the conditions on the ground we had those conversations um parks and rec was working with mr caldwell i was working with mr post we were you know on top of everything at about 5 45 we including the neighboring superintendents we were all in touch we all were agreeing that a delay was likely not necessary based on forecasts and everything we were hearing from our so forth and around 615 is the 625 range everything absolutely changed and we all started to scramble to get at least a two hour delay in um by that time uh that 6 25 6 30 time uh some of our high school buses are already rolling and uh bus companies shared approximately 50 students from the high school had been picked up on various buses and once we made the call they obviously went right back to the run right back to the house thankfully we had no student driver issues things were early enough we didn't have any family driving uh incidents there was a few families that had showed up and dropped kids off mr bolland kept an eye on those kids he happened to be in the office quite early uh on on wednesday and uh we did unfortunately have four or five staff uh accidents or fender benders um and took it was taken they were in the middle of especially our high school people i mean our folks you know they come from quite a distance some of them and they were on the road um and uh one story uh someone on the 25 highway connector park before you get into trumbull in monroe um actually was you know doing about 50 miles an hour and it just switched to ice and they spun out one of our staff members so it happened quickly um and uh thankfully we didn't have you know everything turned out okay um but we do apologize for any inconvenience to families and um you know we're up to 4 15 we're paying attention we're doing our best with this with just uh john we eventually cancelled all together and i think you told me that was because uh there was not enough staff who could make it to the schools is that so yeah so so while we already had we're going to be short staffed a lot of i think a lot of us you know there's a lot of dynamics at play a lot of us are overhearing in the media all these different closing because of staffing shortages due to quarantines and isolations because of covid we're not immune to that except you know the incredible dedication of our staff and the creativity of our administration to make sure things are caught so we were already going to be short staffed but we were covering things to make sure we can open school for our kids that's the the most important piece and then on top of it we start having staff members stuck in traffic i mean their stories of it taking three hours to get up that route 25 from from down the shoreline up to brookfield or to get dean dean renda himself was left the house at six o'clock this morning coming from west hartford and ended up stuck on 84 in uh waterbury at 7 15 i was talking to him he was only there it was really a crawl everywhere so bob that thanks for bringing that up that's the other piece we couldn't get staff in even if they were safe in their car they were they were locked up on the on the highways so uh amy thanks for the opportunity to say something about that so i hope people understand you know it wasn't for lack of planning and lack of effort it really snuck up on us and here's a reason besides the extra sleep for thinking about the the high school students and having two tiers instead of three for buses and moving the start time a little bit later because our high school starts so early i mean you're talking you have to back things up to 6 a.m for the high school folks and 5 30 for some of our staff that come from far away they leave their houses so um that's why we always i mean i always make the call by about 5 15 a.m i want to give everybody as much notice as possible this was something just just got away from us yep and it wasn't just us either i mean i saw not just neighboring districts but all over the state this was happening thank you okay okay any other questions for dr pearl okay let's move on to uh committee reports um so first up is the finance and there's two finance committee reports i guess you could put those together rosa yeah um so on 12 13 we had our regular meeting our regular meeting in december we went through the check registers over a thousand dollars there's nothing of note there then we went through the november financial report we are currently running still a surplus right now it's around 110 000 and that's due mostly to savings in leaves and vacancies but it's offset somewhat by increases in special education tuition then we reviewed a document that we will now kind of put together in the package um with our financial report something called emerging issues and that'll basically just highlight significant items that may impact our budget in either direction but have not become part of the accounting yet so it's kind of giving us little headlights on on some upcoming issues we discussed the winterization of the whisk in your wall which is now completed so that cost was around twenty thousand dollars and it was paid for by our operating budget so we have an ongoing agreement with the board of finance to run these large expenses um unexpectedly uh have those run through our operating budget with the understanding that should we have you know that shortfall at the end of the year that will they'll be there to help us out rather than cause you know spending freezes or reductions so we're keeping an eye on some of those things and that's another thing that that emerging issues document is going to help us out with we discussed the bus rfp which was posted online last month and the bids are going to be opened on the 14th of this month then we discussed the 2223 budget um and some questions that ken had answered from board members and um just that everybody's aware that document is still up and live and you can add to it and see what everybody else has asked and ken's question or answers as well and then we discuss the revised rpsr worksheet which has some shifts it shifts around some of the items so that it smooths out some of the transition a lot of those items that we are paying for with the arbester are now starting to transition into our operating budget so to smooth some of those shifts out so we don't have quite as large of a cliff in a few years um we shifted some things around so we went over that as well on 12 20 we had a special meeting but that was cancelled due to lack of a quorum um and actually the one the special meeting we just recently had is actually not on our agenda for tonight for discussion so that's it but we're continuing but we're continuing but we're just we're plugging along on the budget yep yeah okay any questions for rosa i was just going to add that um the whisk and near wall is nearly complete we dan told us tonight that there's still a little bit more to be done okay who who does the emerging issues document rosa uh so that'll be ken mostly um putting that document together so that the board has some idea of things that are coming down the road um so that we don't hear about them you know at the moment they're happening and then the process for moving our esser investments into the operating budget is that something that we're going to see line items or or is that yeah yeah there are actually already some of those in the 22-23 budget so yep we have to approve those in the budget submission right so that's part of our review so okay yeah we don't move them into the budget unless we approve it right right okay any other questions all right let's move on so next is uh policy and communications okay uh we met on wednesday december 15.

um the first topic we discussed was a request from a local girl scout troop asking us to waive the fee that they pay when they use the building for their meetings and we had somewhat of a lengthy discussion about this ken brought a report to the meeting showing how much we charge for building use uh you know for non-school groups and how often the building was the buildings were used for those types of meetings and um you know we we we would love to to be able to say that anyone can use the buildings especially for kids activities um whenever they're available but we sort of got into a lengthy discussion about well is the building open and are custodians needed and how much time does the custodian need to clean up after groups are there and what are the fees covering so we had a lot of questions and ken was going to go back and do a little bit more research for us so we we tabled any decision until our next meeting pending some more information we also talked about the cabe policy audit and a very very large stack of policies that's sitting here on my desk to review um we decided we agreed that next time we meet we're going to start you know diving in to the first uh few policies that we don't currently have that are mandated um and you know just just keep chipping away at that it's it's a big project but we're excited to be diving into it and then the last topic of discussion was really um what we're going to be talking about a little bit later about policy number six 6563 regarding school library media so um i won't go to into too much detail about that because we will get to it later but um rosa attended the meeting and she brought some recommendations about what to add to policy 6563 since we don't currently have a policy for how the board handles reconsideration of school library materials so as i said we'll get into more detail on that later and i think that was it okay any questions for debbie okay um next on the list actually as a committee report is actually the minutes of the board retreat um so actually we probably should actually have that in a different category so i'm just going to make a motion that the board approved the minutes uh for the board retreat on 12 21 a second okay so it's been moved and seconded any discussion all in favor okay passes unanimously okay good so that's it for uh uh committee reports uh next up is our consent agenda okay i will make a motion that the board approved the items on the consent agenda which are resignations new hires and transfers second open second any discussion yeah just like thank you bob i'd like to just send uh you know we've already recognized uh mrs lavroshano but i'd really like to just send a congratulations and a thank you for almost a quarter century of service from uh for uh from over at huckleberry uh he's been a great worker and uh he will be sorely missed he's leaving us soon and just make sure he knows how much we think of him so thank you tasman any other discussion all in uh all in favor all right any opposed okay hearing none that's unanimous um we're moving along guys i just i don't know if it's a microphone issue i'm not hearing sharon or seeing her is she the sharing voting oh okay yeah voting yeah okay oh if you're not going to be on the video sharon you got to speak up when we vote okay okay thanks thank you thank you for pointing that out that appreciate that okay so new business uh we're back to you debbie on uh the discussion of policy number 6563 can we read the motion yep i will move that the board approve policy number 6563 school library media for a first reading as recommended by the policy and communication subcommittee do i have a second second okay so it's moved in second and so debbie let me turn it over to you and let you kind of talk us through you know what we have here okay so um as you know there was a request at huckleberry school to remove a book from the huckleberry library that um [Music] the petitioner believes is not age appropriate for for the huckleberry school students um there is a policy there is a procedure in place for how the reconsideration of those materials are to take place at the building level um the board has a policy outlining how school library media is selected um and how the collection is maintained and that's the policy 6563 that we have in our packet what we don't have is a policy for how the board addresses sort of an appeal that happens at the building level so if you know in this case um a special committee was formed at huckleberry to evaluate the request and uh the committee decided voted unanimously to retain the book keep the book in their library and so then the matter was forwarded to the board for consideration and because we don't have a policy on how to handle that um i rosa i think had referred it to the cape committee to um make a decision and cape asked that that a formal policy be written so um at our last meeting as i just reported rosa attended the meeting and after doing extensive research with um other district policies and as well as well as the american library association rosa put together some suggested language that we all agreed should be included in policy 6563 and much of that language is pretty much lifted from our regulation which is also attached 6563 regulation so it's really it's really just you know syncing up the regulation with the policy or vice versa syncing up the policy with the regulation and making it consistent with the steps that are um the steps that they go through at the building level when they um have a request for reconsideration and as i said the steps are consistent with what um the american library association recommends for um dealing with challenges of library material so the suggested language is attached to the policy and it really would just be another section added into that policy the way it's currently written so the the one that's titled 6563 is the existing policy and then the one that's titled appeals to challenge library materials is what would be indented into that i got that right okay um all right so um all right so let me just start if there's any questions for debbie on the process they've been through so far okay um the uh the normal process that we have adopted is to approve this for a first read tonight and take a month to um uh to review that come back you know send questions back to the policy committee in the interim and then come back for a final vote and we would probably do that at the beginning of february meeting we have in the past we've waived that timeline is there any strong feeling of it on anybody's part to waive that timeline and approve this immediately or should we take the time and give us all a chance to review it normally i would say you know let's try to expedite this so that we could have an answer for the parent however um because the cape committee is going to be so um busy with their january meeting i honestly don't think it's going to be an agenda item until february anyways so yeah all right well then let's take the time and i this is a this is these are always sensitive matters so i think it's good that we all take the time and read it so debbie when would you need input from us all what year before your next meeting i presume yeah and i uh i just have a date in front of me in two weeks next meeting is the 19th yeah two weeks two weeks from today so i would suggest then that uh input get to debbie by before that meeting right or at least the day before that meeting so that they can pull it together and uh look at all of our inputs on that um and uh and uh debbie i had i did have a question does the brookfield public library have a policy around this we do and uh if you looked at that one as part of your review here yeah it's roughly basically the same as the policy that the committee followed at huckleberry okay um both of them were really derived from the american library association i just would love to make sure that within brookfield we do it consistently right you know and i talked to our chairman of the um the brookfield library board and i had a chance to talk and she's offered any support that they can give right as a as a library board if we need it so and i appreciate that so and they are also reviewing their policy on this matter right to make sure it's current with the american library association that's exactly what uh what she told me so um so that's if there's help needed we should we through me or directly debbie you know all those folks right we should reach out and i also just wanted to add that in everyone's review process it might be helpful to reference another one of our existing policies which is 6161 and that's instructional material and within that policy there is guidance for challenged instructional material and that's where the majority of this language came from so a lot of the language that is being proposed for addition into 6563 already exists in our own policies so it just might be a good reference if you want to go back and forth between the two okay good thank you all right so what the vote tonight is to approve it as a first read which means we're accepting it into the process and we will do a final vote on it at our uh early february meeting um so unless there's any further discussion okay all in favor of accepting it as a first read vote hi hi any opposed okay it has been passed as a first read so thank you debbie um so if i can just have comments by tuesday the 18th that would be great thank you um okay um no we're moving wait that's it for new business uh old business the we had tabled the uh board of education uh cape and finance subcommittee meeting dates so there's a motion here yep i will move that the board continue its discussion and approve the cape and finance subcommittee meeting dates as discussed and tabled at the december 15th quarterback meeting okay so um at that meeting um we had two we had kind of we'd approved all the committee uh makeups and we'd approve the dates on all but these two committees um i think uh rosa we've pretty much settled we're going to keep the the time on the um finance committee as recommended yes that's correct okay and that's because in the end there weren't any other than one meeting which we i think we agreed that we would move it to a later time if it was a conflict of joy and and we'll just do that on a case by case basis okay and how about uh kate uh i uh i tried my best to move um bob sorry we didn't get a second on my motion oh i'm sorry i second thank you thank you thank you very much i was moving right in man um so okay and kate uh we're gonna keep it wednesdays and uh but we're gonna move the time from 5 45 to 6 10.

give me the the 10 minute mulligan there okay all right so with those adjustments um uh all in favor of approving the uh subcommittee schedule as uh and as the motion reads sharon okay and the opposed all right we're good to go there um strategic planning steering committee i'll move that the board continue its discussion and approve the membership of the strategic planning steering committee as discussed at the december 15th board of education meeting second well it's moved and seconded um the the issue the reason we tabled it is that we had four members who raised their hands and said we'd all love to participate and uh i floated a note out to those members today with a recommendation mike i didn't hear back from you you probably stuck in your mail there after a busy day but what i would recommend is that we put uh two uh full-time members and two alternate members on this uh um on this committee uh that debbie and i would be the full-time members and mike and joy be alternate members and attend as their schedule allows um and the reason for that is that at least at the beginning when we have the consultant coming in from the uh from cave um there'll probably be daytime meetings and so what i've asked john is if he would be willing to get us some good headlights on what those meeting times were because joy you know and being in the classroom and mike with a full schedule um we would love to have i doubt we'll ever have all four of us but this is a way that i could keep us all in the in the process and then if we ever have a situation where all four of us would want to attend i'll just deal with that on a case-by-case basis um so if that's okay two regular and two alternate members if that's okay with everybody bob can i suggest that i just be the alternate i would be fine that would be fine i mean if it's okay yeah just so just so there's like a hey there's a solid three here and if this way it gives a little bit more flexibility for you or dead okay i would be okay with that all right let's do it that way then fine with that okay so three members uh debbie uh joy and myself and alternate member of mike is everyone okay all right all in favor aye all right any opposed all right we're done with that um and then one last item is a review of the superintendent's proposed budget um the action here is to continue our discussion um and i'll just remind everybody that at our next meeting is when we vote on the budget right so this is our our chance to catch up with dr barrel on any open discussions from the last time and any updates from mr post on things we've learned and then if there's any items we want the administration to bring in uh it's time to speak up so that they can get it organized for our next meeting we've had some two good discussions on these things already so i uh um i just will say that up front um dr barrel um are there any general items of update you want to give i think maybe we ought to talk a little bit about the health costs yeah i was i was going to say bob uh for for you and the and maybe rosa whoever like to chat a little bit about it and certainly ken can talk directly to it we based on our estimate for the insurance the health insurance increase uh along with the town because we're in the connecticut partnership plan together um the state has contacted us in the the there's a new estimate where we really are recommended to lower what we thought the increase was going to be so i could certainly you know if you would like to weigh in bob since the finance committee or i could ask ken to give a little bit of detail it's really going to help us out in the budget you know it's going to reduce our operational costs so be good to share ken would you like to share a little bit there he is sure but we started out using an estimate of a seven percent increase and that was based on the uh increase that the actuaries were using in our opeb valuation uh which is other post-employment benefits um they estimated they were using six and a half percent in their um uh projections and working with the the town controller mrs marion we thought we'd be a little conservative and add a half a percent on that which is the same thing we did last year uh so we put in our models we put seven percent and then we found out from the state that uh they were going to be using some of the the coronavirus relief money into the partnership plan and it would help us keep the increases lower so i emailed the person at the state and shockingly normally they they don't give you any information this early in the process they came back and suggested it could lower our increase by up to four percent so again working with mrs marion we thought being a little conservative we'll we'll lower our estimate by three percent so i put into my model four percent and obviously that's not in the budget that you've seen so far so we'll have to come back with a new version for you uh that decreases our budget ask by about 164 000 which is about 0.35 of the budget so it brings the increase down from 4.24 to about 3.89 that's good news and last year we had a big benefit to our budget fund health costs as well it was actually bigger than that um yes and i think they said they would they would be able to give us firmer numbers by sometime in february okay which obviously is after the board of bed votes on the budget but it's not too late to make adjustments thank you ken you're welcome so that was really you know the big substantive news in terms of operational costs was very helpful to us um if i may just just a little reminder from the december 15th meeting uh the principles presented on any of their uh new requests that would be kind of investment requests people might recall from center school we talked about the addition of some secretarial time in the summer as well as the um kindergarten uh paraprofessionals in lieu of an additional section of kindergarten to support um mrs diamond gave a report on that and we entered into discussion mrs lavrochano from huckleberry talked about the same thing with the additional secretarial support in the summer but also the um uh math interventionist and some off-setting adjustments she was planning for in personnel to make the ask the the financial part of the ask on that position less um and mr renda uh came forward with the specifics on uh some office staff support in summer that he could use uh we went into that in great detail it's a really good conversation there mrs holly our uh curriculum leader for world language and english language learners talked about the need for a bilingual program and shared a few slides on that so that was something those were the those were the key areas that were additional ass kind of beyond inflationary uh costs or beyond um anything that might have been phased in through our vesser um uh and those kind of things or status quo those were the new pieces um the board then after the conversation um i was asked on december 15th if we could have a little kind of a strategic conversation and a goal-oriented plan of where technology is going while technology has not inc we have not asked for an increase in the technology budget as it is in terms of status quo um in a significant amount we've asked for a total of eighteen thousand dollars more than what the current budget is so there's not a major ask in terms of increasing the technology budget for next year um one of the the five big goals for my buzz budget presentation in our how we set up our annual budget process is technology in a digital learning environment and how we support that so i asked mr conklin our now very sung hero to um put a couple of slides together for us and share uh kind of big picture uh where we're going with technology where we've been and kind of how he's building for technology and some of the work he's done not only with all the the staff and the nuts and bolts uh directly under him but with uh our technology integrator dr ruby necessaries our teachers you know everything around construction as well um as infrastructure so eric um this is the time uh i think unless bob or rosa you want to share anything else we can put we can share eric's slides and he can talk a little bit about technology tonight okay all right eric the floor is yours sir okay thank you dr burrow um so yeah as john had mentioned um i wanted to um in alignment with um dr burrell's budget presentation wanted to kind of give some detail over um how my budget ties in with the strategic plan um and and talk about kind of um a little more um as we've talked about in the um in the past a little more of the story behind the numbers that you have in the uh in the budget binder um that have been been presented um and so i will do that right now um so i kind of went over and uh through each goal so this is the overall goal provide the technology infrastructure that effectively supports student success in a digital learning environment um i i thought it was important for the board to know here and for the public to know that that eighty percent of the overall proposed technology budget um is actually for existing software and support renewals um these are the renewals that just keep business operations running um and and then continue the use of student support tools um i listed some examples here um i won't read every single one but but things like um you know our internet access our fiber connectivity between the buildings um being able to use munis for our financial and hr and payroll um you know as well as powerschool um and and uh then some of our student resources include um you know st math lexia ixl um classlink for a single sign-on solution so um you know 80 of the budget alone goes right to just keeping our existing services going um maintain support for digital curricular tools necessary for blended personalized teaching and learning um and again this is a little bit repetitive here um but here's here's some of our big ticket items um that we constantly renew um tools that we continue to evaluate that we pull reports on that we know are benefiting our students um and that we want to continue to use um to support instruction um and support students overall um so um you can see some of my examples here class link um single sign-on what this does is this brings all of our tools and resources together into one location um for our students to be able to with one click access that program so they go to classlink they can get to st math lexia ixl news ela and everything that you see down here um some of these you may have remembered recent budgets um st math is is our new math initiative um lexia ixl and news ela um we all got as a direct result of of supporting students during a remote learning um but we've obviously seen the benefits of that both remote and in person to support instruction um our result our rosetta stone software to support our non-english speaking students um for the higher grades naviance college preparation um and then of course for our teaching teachers um our curriculum development management platform that are that are all within the budget um continue advancing integration of technology and resources into daily instruction um this includes providing chromebooks um for students devices for staff to be able to use the tools and resources that i had mentioned in the previous slides along with that there's also maintaining our internet maintaining our wireless infrastructure and our network as we continue to increase the number of devices that are used simultaneously as well as support the idea of students bringing their own devices in every day our new technology integrator has been working very closely with the technology department um in providing support um additional tools and training um you know for staff um that that we just can't always do so she um jackie whiting she goes throughout the district and works with supports teachers in integration of technology um throughout instruction we support with um however we can with existing tools with existing devices and then she had also recently proposed the um the new ask which is in the budget uh request for approximately six thousand dollars i have that number over here um but the wii video subscription um a tool that teachers can use with students um uh to do individual and collaborative um video production um this um allows students to engage through video crew by creating videos um you know as part of their lessons um it's shown to increase student engagement um a lot watching youtube videos and and resources such as that um and then we also had really thought that something that um cles is getting is a tv studio um and this would be a great tool for students of any age to use um when it comes to video production and a great way to start getting that use of that new tv studio as soon as the school opens and i'll be meeting with the construction company soon about um what all the technology is going to look like in the building including that studio um continue to invest in chromebooks towards the completion of our one-to-one device initiative um chromebooks um have are being used in and out of the classroom more than ever um we know that now um by the district providing devices um we ensure that all of our students have devices available to them um to use in the classroom every day um students don't necessarily have to carry them back and forth especially our little kindergartners and first graders who have enough going on in their backpacks right now um so to have a device in the classroom ready for them to use um is very easy very beneficial when the district owns the device we get to manage it we get to put better controls over it make it easier for them to log in obviously and i say here better network safety and security when we manage and control the devices we've seen the chromebook availability has a direct impact on the use and benefits of some of the tools that i mentioned earlier when the chromebooks are available students can use lexia ixl and all those programs more and more um and um you know like any device chromebooks have a life cycle um google supports a device that's released for five years um we try to get as many devices as we can to five years but we deal with damages malfunctions um devices that do go end of life um and we um we we do try to use them as far as we can past end of life but like any device once it's end of life it no longer receives updates um it no longer receives security patches um and therefore the longer we use it the more we risk any um cyber security issues and concerns which is becoming more and more of a concern every day we use technology um so that's just something we have to pay attention to as well um we do uh we do repair devices as quickly as we can based on uh time availability and delivery resources um so we try to repair devices that are physically damaged in-house um a a for sometimes a quicker turnaround and b to uh to be more cost effective in um in repairs um upgrading of classroom presentation um and digital integration technology um the implementation at wiscons we do have a few classrooms left at the high school um that have kind of trickled in since um um our proposed budget um the uh some of the music rooms uh we uh we have the um um some of the business uh classrooms um some classrooms that used to be computer labs but are now uh classrooms um that we wanna complete um but then aim to uh be able to do one full grade at wisconier this year um obviously taking account for the fact that fifth grade will be leaving um we're looking to obviously do six seven and eight um and uh we will um start with one grade next year and then move on um you know this is all to replace ceiling projectors um where the lamps go the lamps break um they're not always reliable um as led is um led is also more energy efficient there's newer features in the boards that allow for multiple touch wireless connectivity you know screen casting from laptops and devices and um allows for more interactive um work inside the classroom by both staff and and teachers i'm sorry by teachers and students um and then just an important note once whisking year is complete and cles opens um all the classrooms in the district will have uh led digital display boards installed which is uh very exciting and finally this one um is not only the the last bullet point that was on the goal but also um in response to a question deb debbie had asked about the look at the district looking at a new website um our website provides a lot of information but on the back end i will be completely honest it's not the most user-friendly solution for our staff um and even even for our tech department to um to quickly and regularly update the information in there um and we know how important having up-to-date reliable and readily available information is on the website um so we're looking for something that um more staff can can easily do on their own there are now laws both state and federal that require district websites to be for um to be ada compliant you'll notice that on our district website there is a little um button um a little wheelchair button that that's the ada compliance that tool is going away um in october of 2022 um so we want to make sure we have a solution that is fully ada compliant and does meet those laws there are penalties if we don't um some of the websites that we're looking at and evaluating uh provide universal communication so right now let me use this morning as an example when we had to do the two hour delay um and the snow call uh we had to um post that notification on facebook separately do a message on school messenger contact all the news stations and separately do it on the website uh and then dr vero went and put it on his twitter um as he always does um what a lot of the new websites do is allow with one posting one click to update all of these platforms um and and make for one seamless communication um across all of our platforms and all of our media for parents and staff and members of the community to get access to um and then with this we can also reorganize the website to make sure that the most important and relevant information is available for users um and then um we are very interested um in implementing and bringing forward a mobile app um and and most of the companies that uh provide websites to schools now um it's sometimes it's an additional cost sometimes it's included um we'll look at that as we evaluate um but to introduce a mobile app we know that's that's the apps is a way that a lot of people receive their content through notifications um just being on the phone i i can tell you a number of people that don't even have a computer they just do everything on their phone um and so it's a great way to share information with with the public um and then something else i wanted to share that that we do um is free tools available to the district um there's a lot of tools and resources out there that we get either at a lower cost or at no cost because we're education um and so you know i i do did want to share that that um whether it's the technology department evaluating or um evaluating with the curriculum team or anything like that we we do look for um services and benefits that are provided to us sometimes it works out great um and sometimes you get what you pay for um but we we actually can sometimes use free tools for evaluations um and pilot programs to determine if it's something that works um and is it something that works but we need a little more so just some some examples of things we look at and continue to look at all of our google services um that that we currently use um when we actually log into the chromebooks and all the devices are provided to school districts at no cost we're looking currently at implementing securely which um recently just just announced a partnership with the connecticut education network which is our internet provider and at no cost to the district it allows us to web filter student google accounts from any device in any location not just inside of the school microsoft office 365 is a resource provided to districts at no cost so web-based versions of office just like google docs and google drive and then also students and staff can download a free copy of office on their machines our technology help desk system is an open source software open source is just is software that was built and available and free to the public at no cost under what's called an open source software license um and finally um and i do have a link to it there um when i share this presentation um we uh we are taking on um we are working with the state initiative called go open connect connecticut um which is for open education resources um basically it's tools resources materials programs um i could go on and on that um and the database is um is massive you can look for anything and it's any presentations or any of this stuff that has been provided um by teachers for teachers um by companies for education or anything like that um and and provided at no cost um through an open source license um a lot of great material can be found on that um you know so we do look for um these tools and resources before we um we start looking into the uh into the budget um so in terms of strategic plan and um some storytelling that's all i had for tonight i'm happy to answer any questions thank you so much eric really appreciate you putting that together i hope that's very helpful for the board and demonstrate the detail that goes into all the planning yeah well speaking of detail do we have in our packets the numbers that go with that storyline we i believe we we have everything in there right eric you can you don't have to walk through it tonight necessarily but it's in the details here's how much we're spending on chromebooks last year so much this year how many are we doing uh what are we spending on software packages uh what are we spending on proposing to spend on the website you know that level of detail and then how does it come what do we spend money on in the current year i mean we have a story we have to tell and i'm not sure i've seen that so yeah we have all that information we can put that together easy enough the comparison for you so and this was actually one of the questions that i had on on the the budget questions document was last year we got um similar to what we got for each of the schools we got a technology department like breakdown where we saw the past two years of actuals we saw you know and we could tie that out to what was actually in our budget book so we could because i know you know technology spread out all over in various line items so that was like a nice way that we could see and i believe we had one for the business department and a few others that i don't we didn't see this year yeah we do have all of those you know i can send them to the board yeah yep uh yeah i was just gonna say the same thing i have the detailed copy of each line item as each piece of software whether it's a renewal or or the new asks um you know which also then includes the additional you know cost to implement a new website i have all that in in detail i'd be happy to to share that if it's not already in the budget binder and and and the uh and i for one would like to be able to compare it year on year right you know so that we can see what's in and what's out and how that's changing and uh and and quite frankly i'm looking at it from the point of view of what's a new investment that we're making versus what is kind of a continuation of a program like for example this new website it's a it's it's something that i think is a finance committee we have to aid out and we is that a new investment or is it just kind of a revamp of our existing website right that's uh depends probably how much money we're talking about so well yeah right and and um you know for for example um the uh our website annual cost is is just about i mean this year was 3 300 um you know we'll find out very soon i'm starting to reach out to companies again to get more exact numbers um as i did last year to make the adjustments um and uh i'm finding out just in some conversations with other providers that um the annual recurring costs are about that um they're just around that that under 5 but um you know the the ask would be to implement it there's obviously going to be a cost for that time to transfer all the data and all that so that's the ask is is the actual implementation process not the run not the run cost right exactly well that's the stuff i want to understand in more detail right absolutely that's what a budget presentation is about so yeah i i bob i asked eric to put together the the more of the strategic approach to it and i i thought i heard from the board on the 15th that it wasn't a nuts and bolts about numbers i wanted to hear more from a strategic perspective some of the things were going on it's both jobs okay that i thought i heard it differently so hey eric uh i i just had a question so you know thirty three hundred dollars uh i i do know how expensive to run a website uh you know it's it's a lot with licensing and hosting and there's a bunch of other things i pay for i don't quite understand but i'm told i need them um what is there any way we could have like a student-driven project to kind of cut down on some of the design cost and data costs or um even even some uh what am i thinking of just uh filler microphone term content content um uh you know i'm i'm that's a great idea um i'm i'm absolutely open to that you know the funny thing is it generally um to be completely honest i haven't changed website companies that often um um i know there's some districts that do it very frequently but i can tell you um just from conversation and and from the couple times we've done it you know the biggest cost is data migration um the biggest cost is transferring everything we have now on one to the other um they have to they have to move the data they have to work with the other company they have to format it to the way that they do it because everybody does things a little bit differently um you know and and one of the things i would look at to cut cost is generally that's done by the the quantity of content right well i'm not going to bring through everything that is there now we have stuff that's six and seven years old that's just not relevant anymore um and you know that's gonna help bring the cost down too and having students look and evaluate and clear things out or or or look at design is is a great opportunity for them to to learn how some of that process works so i'm all for that awesome i would let me just echo that we i'm on another board in town and we just rolled out our new website and we did it with wescon right the westcon students were always looking for projects uh that were ite or website-centric because that's what they were studying as you know how to do marketing and website creation and things like that so there's a there there was a we had got a great young man who did a lot of design work for us about how to you know how to lay out and uh and you you know they they taught themselves the tools and uh and they did most of the work and we were we as a group we spent time just focusing on content uh which was great i wrote that i wrote that down as well thank you um i might i might reach out to you and ask um um for any contacts at westcon that's a great idea too absolutely now we know the professor who runs the program so excellent yeah i can get you that information thank you any other questions for eric just one um something that just popped up when you were reading it didn't we finish the high school presentation things last year um yeah we um we we uh were we had done all of the classrooms um but uh through some conversation um there was some rooms that had become computer labs um that were computer labs that are no longer computer labs um and then we had some cases and situations where for example the um i don't know why i'm forgetting the name of the program the kitchen the the room the cooking um you know class they kind of um you know they they saw the boards in the other classrooms and kind of said oh i want that um i think that would be a great idea for the class and um you know i i want to make sure we have equal access to that digital presentation across the um those are those teachers um so these are mostly um like the non-core classes right so um so are those teachers given professional development in terms of how to utilize that kind of technology i mean it's just it's expensive technology if they're not going to use it to its full potential right oh yeah absolutely and um you know i mean everybody um is is and needs to be offered that professional development whether it's core or not um for that exact reason um it's not cheap technology to put in and um you know it's it's not it's disheartening to ever see us put something like that in and just be used as a glorified energy efficient projector right you know so um you know in fact our boards due to shipping and displays um there was a huge glass shortage which wasn't highly reported um back in the summer um that delayed our shipment of boards this year and we didn't get those installed until um you know the middle of november so and and now that mr bolland is back um i i want to work with him um and um mrs spencer the department head of um for english and social studies to work on professional development for those teachers um some of them have asked um and and we need to get going on that so um you know so that is we we have plans for professional development now um and and for ongoing as well um it's that's it's as important as putting the technology in is in in the classrooms is professional development is just as if not more important right to make sure it's getting used correctly and i mark you turn your camera and i don't know if you want to add anything no i think that's pretty accurate you know what the way eric stated it um you know i think you know at the end of the day certainly it's it's at the discretion of the administration to decide where we're going to put these boards and where we're not we really don't try to make it let it be up to the teachers um because then we want this here and that there and there's nothing wrong with that but functionality it's not their classroom because the it is the districts and the towns classroom they're using to as an instructional space so um there was a few lagging behind uh the the culinary teacher was using a just a kind of tv screen you know so she wasn't using um the actual smart technology in the pieces where it's touch screen is just a basic screen um which was suited her needs but then you know we really needed to get everybody on board the other thing is to eric's point um as we reclaim classrooms you know one of the great things that the board has been able to support is the addition of you know technology teachers but then like this year we have a new technology teacher but finding space for that person to work not just in the technology space but also in a classroom setting has been challenging so as we revamp our usage of computer space and change those rooms over to reclaim some classroom space it becomes a vacant area where it didn't have anything there so that's eric's got a really good and and the nice part about it um in terms of the the training piece um you know we're able to accomplish that um you know some in short short bursts we know that multiple hours of professional development sometimes becomes difficult but at the high school level um with our built-in plc's that we have the collaborative groups that work together particularly i think about the english department where there's three teams of three where they have some common time together we can actually do that and they can you know eric or other staff can go in and do some really timely in you know in person here's what your board looks like how it works um which is fantastic so that's that's just a little addition but eric's right on board with us yeah and the only thing i'll add is um is um you know we we don't hold boards or anything like that until we can do the training um you know so it's it it's you know just for example we put the boards in and some teachers said well you know um can i get some some lessons on how to use this and so we don't say to them yeah you know wait wait a month or two we're going to get some professional development meanwhile just leave the board there um you know our our tech our techs at each school but let's speak specifically about the high school um you know kathy calavito is fantastic about um going and spending time individually with that teacher um and and she's done it with a couple of them every year um but i know i know of a couple this year specifically in the fall that she worked with and so we do make sure that we work with our staff as a group and individually as we can okay any other questions for eric all right um dr bruhl any other topics you wanted to bring up this evening no didn't have any other topics bob um i know we have our regular finance committee meeting on monday next week but we'll also continue to discuss and flesh out and work through the questions as rosa brought up from the google doc at that meeting as well i would i think rosa we've got all the line items i've got questions in to ken and most of them many of them are answered already yeah and i think some of you have given questions into that google doc as well um ken is working to get answers to those so i would just urge everybody both to submit questions as you've been reviewing the budget um into that because it's proven to be a pretty effective method um and also read the answers of the ones he's already given um uh because i think it's a good communication tool so um can i ask a miscellaneous question so um i know la at our last meeting we talked about the school calendar is that i don't we didn't approve it at that meeting though right is that coming up again yeah i was asked at the last meeting to sit hold it for the 19th okay okay that's right yep thank you got it um okay um so look uh next meeting we gotta we have to vote on the budget um so what i think we ought to start with is that summary budget report that kind of showed the big drivers again um and can you can give us any updates including the health benefits but anything else that's come up through the finance committee reviews and we can maybe at the finance committee rosa we can kind of summarize you know places that we think we either ought to add or subtract right um and uh we should probably use that monday meeting to you know kind of have a strong recommendation uh but we ought to start with kind of here's the state of the art right um and then i think all of us need to come to the next board meeting with an opinion of do we approve it then as is do we what i would like to do is go through each of the investment items and make sure we have consensus on those um but then we ought to all come in with a view of the budget and the aggregate based on all the q's and a's and the finance committee reviews and everything else that we've done so i think it's uh it should be the primary agenda item at our uh at our 19th meeting so yeah and uh because we have to leave with a vote uh which i think is important if we don't get to a vote we're gonna have to have a special meeting sometime between the 19th and the end of the month okay any other questions on budget in general all right so with that we'll move on to uh the candlewood lake elementary school uh update bob can i get just one question and it's okay if there's another answer what is what is the feeling because you guys you guys talked to the the finance committee uh of you know so around four percent right now what's what's what's the number that feels better to them is there just like an overall not specific the board of finance hasn't made any statements whatsoever i they haven't really engaged but more importantly they've got an interesting thing going on because they have the whole revaluation happening and so trying to absorb what's happening to the denominator of the tax rate is going to take some time to sort out how that all plays out right are we growing or is the tax base growing shrinking what's happening to the tax rate it's actually going to be more complicated this year than in most years because at once every five years we reval all the properties and so the board of the board of finance will get all better signals on their point of view in through february i think so um as we review so we ought to bring in the budget that we believe is the right budget i just i just was like if there was an answer i was kind of i i've gotten no signals whatsoever i don't know if anybody else has we do have by the way eileen koch is on our uh finance attends our finance committee meetings and is sitting through and reviewing every one of these items along with us it's been very it's been a good partnership with both eileen and uh and marsha marion our town patrol are sitting with us so uh and we're getting positive feedback as we go through our reviews in general so all right that's that answers the question i just wanted to see if like hey are we in the same ballpark or we just like on different planets it feels like i don't think they know yet that's the point so oh fair enough yep i think it's positive that we're not doing crazy spending things but it's not uh it's not gonna be soup until it's soup this year fair enough all right so why don't we move on to the candle with like uh school project update so rosa yeah so there's um again the same kind of report that i gave last time there's not too much of an update um actually if you drive by the building is starting to look in the foreground a look a little bit different so i think since our last meeting we had the preschool walls kind of going up so those are the walls kind of closest so closest to the front of the building um gymnasium steel is starting to um come together so they're still building actually the structural walls of parts of the building so the building itself is broken out into a bunch of different lettered sections and they work on you know these sections uh one at a time and they just keep kind of rotating through um as you know the roofing material which is sort of the next step for the parts that are completed so far um the roofing material is delayed um until probably a couple more months from now and there's a couple other things that are actually delayed as well but nothing's really holding it up quite like the roofing material so so far we're still on track as much as they can project um as far out as they can project but yeah so things are just kind of moving along they're going to start to pick um you know colors and material for the outside pretty soon so some exciting stuff and if i could build on that rosa uh two things um eric is actually one of our goals after the new year was to get out there with the drone and get some updated video to share with the public and share with everyone so we're excited about that um in addition to that right before the break i was able to uh take a walk through with uh and i hadn't taken a walk through in quite a while with a construction manager and to your point i mean there's walls up everywhere foundations in it's uh it's really coming along um and then the other piece is um techdon eddie from tech town contacted me actually you know right right as we return this week and he's like get one more meeting in before february uh with principals to make sure we are on the same page with the final classroom furniture um in addition to that uh nursing any nursing materials phys ed materials otp team materials fire retardant very expensive type cabinets that we have that we want to move over um you know get ready for that as well you know what's moving over um which won't be that much but those key uh pieces of equipment that are also quite expensive we want to bring over with us so we're really excited about it and we're gonna get some dates on the calendar for that cool uh any questions for uh uh rosa or dr burrell okay thank you thank you um i did notice by the way when i was reading i watched i read the paper every day and i was reading the article about the new fairfield schools and the first thing in the article was they had roofing material delays and uh and they found a way to kind of bring them in and keep the project on on schedule but it's a much smaller project physically than ours so yeah yeah and i think a lot of renovate is new with that project as well but one other thing i do want to add mr checko i think we talked about it at the december 15th meaning uh roseair or i might have mentioned it um we're going to work with mr checkout and try to get maybe a saturday where we can look at a projection of some decent weather and uh get everybody who's interested from board of selectmen or to finance the board um to uh take a tour and a led walkthrough so we'll continue to work on trying to schedule that well i look forward to that okay so that brings us to public comment um i was just reviewing the sign ups in the um uh in the comment section and there's only one person signed up for public comment this evening elena lopez um or allison lopez i'm not sure if it's elena or allison but the um uh i just want to make a couple of comments before we start so um we will uh open it up for the public comment um it is limited to three minutes um uh we really do like to get public comment it's one of the ways we stay in touch with the community and the issues that people care about but um we do and we can talk about anything that's within the jurisdiction of the board um the only rules are quite frankly that we don't talk about personnel or individuals right it's uh um [Music] it's it's just it's inappropriate in the sorts of meetings to do that and we like to keep things civil and on point and uh and we'll move on so uh when i call you um just i need name and address so for the record so uh so our secretary can you know keep the minutes correct so with that is it allison or elena who would like to speak elena elena hi elena how are you hi oh thank you for sitting through our meeting this evening on the floor is yours um elena lopez nine summer pastor lane um i tried my best it may be three and a half minutes uh my eight-year-old daughter brought home a book from the school library that has been described by book critics as the coming-of-age graphic novel that discusses crushes kissing dating and romantic relationships of middle school students upon my research of this book i discovered it was recommended for 10 to 14 year olds with a scholastic book recommendation for grades five to nine the principle of huckleberry which houses grades two to four informed me that books of higher reading level are often kept in school libraries to challenge our readers i decided to read the entire book and i became even more confused as the reading for this book is not that advanced i naturally concluded the mature content in the book could be the only reason for its age rating huckleberry conducted a review of the book and not only did they conclude it is properly placed in the library the school library but it remains there without warning or restrictions i was puzzled how a comic book with more mature content and illustrations of teenagers sneaking off to kiss in a school basement for example could meet the criteria necessary for children as young as six and i further appealed to the board the board communicated to me a review would be done and a vote by the board would be held after watching the december board of education meeting i became increasingly concerned about the possibility of bias among some of the board members it seemed like minds were made up before anyone had the chance to read the book and before the committee had met these concerns prompted me to email the board to ensure an impartial review would actually take place while i have not heard yet from the board i did read a news times article titled should brookfield schools ban a book a parent is taking an argument to the school board i would like to take this opportunity to speak very clearly i am not asking the publisher to pull the book from print i am not asking retailers to not sell the book i am not asking for its removal from a public library i am asking that its unrestricted placement in an elementary school library which does not meet the age rating to be considered this article included comment from board members and then it incited comments on social media that drew completely false conclusions about me and my reasons for the review this is especially disheartening as i feel that i asked these questions in a courteous and professional manner and honored the proper channels i would have expected the same level of professionalism from the board and i do feel the course of action they took is meant to deter parents from asking questions and from speaking up it is particularly bothersome to read quotes from board members such as quote i think there are difficult and unique situations that are represented in books and it's not our job to shelter our children from those topics but rather to have discussion about them end quote i have in fact broached many of the topics in this book with my children but i've done it in a way that i have found to be age-appropriate while it is the board's job to ensure proper curriculum and content is reaching our students it is not their place to decide what and how we discuss quote difficult and unique situations end quote at home i genuinely feel the book is not appropriate for young elementary school students with the mature content of this book dealing with the dating life and relationships of teenagers can the board honestly say that second and third graders have the social emotional development to process all of the drama of this book as it is so appropriately titled especially when it's available without a warning and being read during school hours and not always being brought home for conversation furthermore i am concerned that if the board takes no action this book and others that deal with mature content may be accessible to kindergartners and first graders when our new school opens i hope a reasonable solution to this matter can be achieved and i do thank you all for your time thank you thank you very much i appreciate you taking the time to speak to us directly which is always helpful um and i appreciate that we are as you probably saw this evening we uh we're reviewing the policy and procedures for uh reviewing this type of material uh that draft um while we didn't show it on the screen tonight is available on the uh board of education website there was an attachment to the uh uh meeting agenda we will review that and then that will then guide the formal review of the board and and uh we will be impartial about it and and so i can assure you of that that's what we have to do as a board so thank you for speaking tonight so that's the only person we had signed up for public comment this evening um so um and thank you by the way for uh the members of the public who attended this evening it's great to see people come to our board meetings so um so with that we're at the end of our agenda and uh and without oh well i'm sorry end of our regular agenda we do need to talk about three main points so i was thinking we would start with dr burrell's covet update uh all the information that he shared uh then i thought we would um [Music] go talk about the school media policy that we discussed because there seems to be a lot of um questions about that in the community and then the third point would be the budget and eric's technology presentation sounds fine with me sounds good that's good all right good all right uh upcoming events all right pretty quiet the next few weeks we have some pto meetings all virtual center is tuesday the eleventh at seven o'clock huckleberry is wednesday the 19th at six o'clock and wisconier is wednesday the 19th at 9 15 and all schools have an early release next friday the 14th and are closed for martin luther king day on monday the 17th that is all i have okay thank you very much and so without uh without any concerns we're adjourned so thank you all for attending tonight and thank you for the members of the public for attending

you can keep things on task i'm sure alan will pop in here um but uh heather if you could start by um i guess we'll do uh call call to order and uh and um you know just remind folks that it it would be uh wonderful we could uh end by nine o'clock um and kick things off uh right in 2022 and uh with that we will go ahead and do a roll call uh heather could you call the roll sure and then i would also like to ask people just to introduce yourselves slightly you know just a little bit just tell us a little bit about yourselves because we do have our new member council member lisa dish um so who you are um where you're at that's part of real call where you're calling in from in terms of jurisdiction and then maybe a little bit of trivia something about yourself so we can start with oh stephen is gone jennifer cornell hi everyone um president jennifer cornell i'm here in ann arbor michigan um i am senior vice president of marketing communications and events for a local non-profit um ann arbor spark and um i have four kids two cats and one dog a little bit trivia and a little bit about myself thank you um alan haber he's not here yet um but i'm sure he'll be joining a little later sarah hammersman garen ann arbor i'm elisa and i know each other and i can't think of anything interesting about myself i always tell people like i have twins but she knows that um i grew up in michigan and left for 17 years before i came back to raise my family in ann arbor oh you didn't know there you go yeah welcome back thanks all right jeffrey kenny oh hi i'm jeff henny from ann arbor present uh i have three kids and uh four grandkids and i'm a professor at cleary university and i used to be a director of technology medic biomedical technology transfer at university of michigan all right uh camilla hi present in ann arbor michigan i am a second year urban planning grad student at u of m and i have one cat you're on the home stretch right the semester yeah i graduated may oh congratulations very exciting thank you uh rita mitchell hi i'm rita mitchell i'm here in ann arbor and um i have a long history of being a cross-country skier so i attempt to be tolerant of cold and i have two cats alice ralph was ralph attending from ann arbor michigan washington county michigan since we're talking about weather and geography i grew up mostly in oklahoma and went to college in wisconsin and thought i was going to freeze to death in my freshman year finally you realize that you don't buy your wisconsin winter coat in oklahoma so i came back for winter term and got myself a wisconsin coat and had my skates uh my ice skates sent from oklahoma which had been on a shelf for probably eight years because not much ice skating in oklahoma and uh survived and then i became a college textbook publishing rep [Music] and traveled most of the wood well the upper midwest um as a representative for a college textbook company now not known because it everything got collapsed in that industry went back to school became an architect and i've been in ann arbor since so i've been involved with the tree line and other civic and civic activities great thank you frank wilhelm hi i've been in ann arbor since uh i think 1968 i went to school at eastern and uh back then you could travel west on washington leave ypsilanti go into the country and then begin to enter enter ann arbor that's no longer possible i went from eastern to becoming a high school history teacher and geography teacher at dexter high school um i'm enjoying staying in touch because of facebook and so on with a number of my former students are who are entering their their eighth decade of life i'm barely ahead of them in age um and i uh segued it's a whole story which i won't give you a segue from teaching to becoming uh the executive director of the historical society of michigan for eight years and then uh transitions to what is now the ross school of business in 1980 and spent 30 years there as assistant well eventually i had many titles assistant dean for development and alumni relations retired 12 years ago thank you frank i mean i'm in ann arbor in the fifth ward oh yeah thank you adam uh adam zemke here in ann arbor um uh let's see here i will join the uh uh camilla with the the one cat club um she although i'm definitely confident that she has us not uh the other way around um and uh but um but uh you know grew up here in ann arbor um i've been involved in politics for about a decade uh and um you know care about uh seeing this project come to fruition um and outside of that uh my day job i have a couple of day jobs i um run a uh education policy coalition called launch michigan that is comprised of business educators and philanthropists focused on improving equity in public education and then a few years ago i got the uh bright idea maybe bright idea of uh getting involved in the multimodal transportation business and founded a scooter uh moped store here in ann arbor and that's been a fun adventure um definitely an adventure uh at some time and um but um you know just pleased to be here and be involved in the community great all right councilmember briggs i assume you two know each other but a pretty sure a bit of trivia for the restaurants fairly well yeah so um erica bakes here in ann arbor um let's see some trivia that might be new to all of you um i my more exotic travels occurred when i was before the age of five i lived in morocco and kuwait um and if we want to talk about cold spots morocco was one of them our family moved because we didn't have heat in the house so we came back to came back to indiana moved to move to morocco or moved to kuwait um and then slightly different climate and then ended up here in ann arbor where my dad was pursuing a phd when i was five and council member dish there we go my unmute just wouldn't work um so i am the representative for ward one in ann arbor i'm also a political science professor at the university of michigan which is a job that i just adore as much as i am enjoying council as well um and i'm teaching a class this semester on uh really democratic politics and we are going to read a bunch of cool stuff some of it by dead people but some of it by live people and then we are going to culminate in doing a two case studies one on the flint water crisis and one on the great lakes water compact diversion decision for waukesha wisconsin and you would think that one is an example of government failing and the other is an example of you know a smart sustainable compact succeeding but i would argue that the flint crisis was a better success for democratic politics given what the citizens were able to accomplish than the waukesha diversion which should not have happened and will enable sprawl and enables suburbs that prevent multi-family housing from being built in them it provides them with water from my lake so i am and i hope the students come out perfectly indoctrinated great work and here's alan haber alan we're just going around doing introductions since we have a new member uh you're the last one so if you thank you i had my usual trouble getting through the zoom and rita is my savior and thank you rita for sending me again the link i'm allen hebron and ann arbor and uh hello lisa hello everyone uh i'm intimately connected with this project since 2009 when i first spoke that the center of the city should be developed as a community commons uh fostering a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world and if i bet we're getting there so i look forward to this meeting heather you're up last oh me oh gosh um oh i'm heather seiferth i'm a planner uh in the systems planning division at the city so which is different than the planning department um my focus is on community engagement but i do specialty projects like this like the tree line as well as center of the city and other random projects i get pulled into to do project management for my background is actually collaboration and planning the first uh big job that i had out of school was working for an agency and helping jurisdictions get along with each other so township cities and villages get over past disputes and work on whatever planning project that they wanted to do and so traveled around the state doing that and then since then i've done work with clean energy i've worked in the private sector for a little bit and then um here i am at the city working on a variety of things well i could say just a little bit more because i was really brief i see these are wider introductions uh i've been i yeah i began the university of michigan in 1954 and became a political activist in that first year which i have been uh ever since initiating the group called the students for a democratic society in 1959 i was part of the war on poverty when i went to the school of social work and got grant for the university of michigan and worked in the willow village area around the obama factory i've lived in california i lived in california for 25 years after i spent a year at the institute for policy studies in washington d.c and i'm particularly i when i read peter linebaugh's writing on the commons i began to see the commons is really the critical question in so many movements and struggles all around the world that the enclosure of commonly pooled resources or the commonwealth by corporations or the government is really the struggle and here we have an opportunity to provide a a model for the self-management of the resources both a bit of land and also the talent of the community so this is a long development for me and and i hope i was part of the center of the city task force and while at the beginning people were very hesitant to this idea by the end there was an educational process and people saw this comments there's really something to it and i hope that all of us here will see similarly that there's a profound idea of how resources are managed more than just what is the uh where there are benches and stages and things like that thank you thanks ellen i also just noticed that i had re paused the recording for the zoom this is actually being recorded by ctn and being aired live by ctn so it is being recorded i do a zoom recording as a backup so i'm going to resume that recording in progress all right there we go all right well thank you uh thanks everyone welcome council member dish it's wonderful to have another council member here so um we'll go ahead and start with the approval of the agenda um any amendments to the agenda this evening all right can we get a motion to approve them any second very good all right uh all in favor say aye raise your hand any opposed all right motion carries um we'll go into the approval of the minutes from uh the last time heather uh had posted those on legistar for us any uh questions regarding the minutes from uh last i guess the last meeting of last year can we get a motion to approve moved by councilman briggs any uh second all right by jen all in favor say aye aye aye you opposed okay um and uh we'll go into public comment uh heather do we have any members of the public we do we have three people that joined us tonight and one person has their hand up so i will um it's the person with the phone number ending in 326 i'm allowing you to talk welcome welcome you should be able to speak now again that's the person with hi this is uh jeff crockett calling and i some of you first of all i want to thank lisa for as a first ward constituent i'm very pleased that lisa has joined this committee i've already talked to her about the commons and the garden but i'm speaking tonight oh just just a brief word about myself for the people don't know me i recently concluded a 47-year career in education my focus was on assistive technology my real interest though was in developing educational communities and uh community uh and educational community engagement so when i retired uh getting i started to get into the commons and i thought wow this is just the natural fit i just sort of love this so uh some of you already know that i was involved in starting a community garden we called ourselves the green team with about 25 people who spent the summer building this garden many of you've probably seen it but in the process of that i realized it was important to collect data and to create a presentation so i created a powerpoint presentation which i previously distributed to you all and i realized that the importance of a powerpoint because seeing is believing text just doesn't really do it you have to see to understand really is going on so at the conclusion of the growing season i connected with alan and odile haver realizing that the best way to chronicle the activity of the the commons as a whole was through a powerpoint presentation so i believe alan through heather probably communicated or passed along a 53 slide presentation i hope you have an opportunity to look at that if you haven't already probably the most important slide on that presentation is number four which has to do with the contributors and you'll see a wide range of contributors we had probably close to 30 individuals who at various points got involved in the garden but not only that in the planning of the various events we documented 450 hours just in the garden alone i would estimate that we at least spent 200 more volunteer hours in developing these five events which i felt were very successful but we took pictures just to show you what it was like and there's a difference between describing it and being there and sort of seeing it so i hope you sort of take a close look uh one of the things i want to point out with what i realized through the activation of the uh commons was how much local businesses you know can benefit so for example we had jerusalem garden factory printing window one photography big city smallwood bakery treetown murals b-square design studios etude scooter ankara jewel holidays restaurant archer's farm stop and margolis nursery not only participated but we advertised and promoted them and this is sort of following the lead of what plymouth has done with their kellogg commons because they regularly promote local businesses and this is a real strong incentive for us to activate the garden but beyond the promotion of local businesses we learned that you can do a whole bunch of different activities including fundraising demonstrations supporting non-profits interestingly enough painting chalk drawing entertainment the open mic was particularly interesting because in this age of social media where a lot of people don't participate this provides an opportunity for people who aren't on social media to engage and speak their minds to other people and community discussions all of which by the way are on a space which is handicapped accessible and you don't have to shut down streets when you have uh events on the commons like you do in other places you can have events on the commons and keep the city streets running the last thing i want to mention is that there's a great website that it's about public it's um a project for public spaces and if you google that you will get to the website and this is a non-profit group which has explored developing public spaces for many many years and they've listed this one document 11 principles for creating community places and i would like to highlight number six which is start with the petunias lighter quicker cheaper the complexity of public spaces is such that you cannot expect to do everything right initially the best spaces experiment with short-term improvements that can be tested and refined over many years elements such as seating outdoor cafes public art striping of crossword crosswalks and pedestrian havens community gardens and murals are examples of improvement that can be accomplished in a very short time and i would appreciate if you could keep that in mind as you look in the next steps certainly go for the request for information but you can certainly check this document out for a lot of other wonderful ideas and how to get started thank you very much for your time thank you jeff all right and our next person is robert black and i forgot to start timing but we do need to remember that comments need to be cut to three minutes so robert here we go you should be able to talk i have it heather thank you um hello again and happy 2022 we look forward to new goals and actions this year for ann arbor central park and civic center commons i'd like to address agenda item number eight tonight design process draft rfi review this version too is a good progress from your previous version one a key change being where you highlight all the land parcels noted in proposition a liberty plaza surface of library lane parking structure library lane and kempfos i also applaud the reference and link to the center of the city task force report i suggest here however that there is more work to do in researching this report and harvesting the most important takeaways from that report this important groundwork will aid professionals in tailoring their responses to the rfi and may also prove to be a more efficient use of limited public and private funds the last paragraph of section one history references the fifth recommendation of the task force authorize initial planning for the development of the public spaces on the center of the city block this is an important step yet the task force noted necessary priorities before goal number five for example goal number two schedule regular meetings of a center of the city block partners group this is an important step and can be done informally at first to build awareness and assess potential interest in the immediate neighbors of the block i'm glad to see that your agenda item 7b this evening we'll talk about that goal number three approve ground level parking on the library lot structure and begin efforts to redesign as an active public space the first part of this goal is already being addressed the second part the activating part has been inspiringly done through the past year as you just heard from my colleague jeff crockett by the committed volunteers of the initiating committee working in collaboration with your efforts a recent powerpoint as jeff described shows the many successful events this group did to activate the commons in and goal number four authorized initial planning of the long-term development of the center of the city block as a priority under the city's master plan this goal is paramount to the foundation of a complete rfi work that would pay dividends in soliciting potential professionals and could be accomplished in one or more facilitated working sessions they would knit together the current thinking on critical planning elements such as ann arbor's comprehensive plan the ann arbor sustainability framework plan 820 and much more this need not be a daunting task for each of you are guided by a shared desire to create a central park and civic center commons for ann arbor a vision that is forming into a more defined reality at each of your successive meetings you would not be here if you didn't have such a commitment thank you for this and have a productive meeting tonight all right thank you oh and mr dehoni is here so let's welcome him he's coming in now and i see one other person um who has called in but has not raised their hand so if you would like to raise your hand and speak please go ahead and do that and welcome mr dahony thank you thank you welcome okay i think that's it for public comment all right um in that case we'll move on to member news and updates uh i think alan you uh had some information you wanted to share here yeah well i have several i do i was part of putting together this powerpoint on the history of what the initiating committee has done in the course of the year and i do hope you'll give it all a good read um i am in the slide 20 and 41 uh we had participation from native american people and have developed the sense beyond the land acknowledgement that we generally give in any public program recognizing that before ourselves and our antecedents here this land was uh occupied by the pottawatomie people who were displaced in the 1820s and forced military march away and so the idea is percolating to see how the ann arbor community could extend a invitation to return if there be established a a community from the pottawattamie people here in ann arbor particularly besides just the justice of the matter that the indigenous cultures have a great sense of how the commons actually works and even more important importantly have a cultural experience of sustainability and resilience in terms of the cultural and environmental stress and that is something that we and everyone needs to deal with so i make that announcement that these conversations are going on between ourselves and people of the original people here and anyone interested in participating in that development i do hope you'll be in touch with me and i'm hoping that we will have some uh gathering for martin luther king day on the monday the 17th later in the afternoon there are lots of things going on but it's very important in some sense that this center of the city be a place for the important holidays and celebrations and consciousness-raising events have their location yes in the center of the city so i think that's what was on my mind i did send forward a number of edits toward the uh request for information that i wasn't there actually i tell you they all come up as they come up okay any questions at all for alan all right thank you allen um and you obviously did a 10 or send that document as well um i started looking through it but i haven't finished yet so um it will come an agenda at agenda time absolutely so we'll move on to the working group updates then um first one up is the comparable communities and i know that we had some discussion uh before uh before the uh christmas holiday at least and i don't know frank or rita or sarah would like to talk a little bit about the latest uh i can also add some things as well but i i was not in attendance on the visit and uh so i wanted to see if there's anybody else wanted to wanted to comment um i guess i have a question whether whether we're gonna take a quick look at our field report from the detroit visit and uh i think myself and rita and alice can all uh comment about this but we've just i think we've established a very uh rich uh connection with the detroit of the downtown detroit partnership this is a 100 year old business uh organization that has partnered with the city and they really manage and and uh and help with the design and development and improvement of uh a number of downtown detroit parks and uh on the 10th of december we are blessed with a a pretty nice day in detroit and uh alice ralph arena mitchell and myself were able to make the trip and to walk uh and visit uh five separate downtown parks and i i guess we'll just um well there was one thing that struck me as we got on the ground there that um a number of these parks uh although they show up on augustus woodward's 1805 plan after the devastating fire that destroyed most of detroit we got ahead of chicago with our fire and a whole new plan was developed and these plots of land were there in the the early design but they in the early 20th century they they got co-opted by motorized transportation and they became uh public transit uh transfer points uh and so the it's only in the last uh 15 to 20 years that a number of these parks have been reclaimed as open spaces uh in detroit um if you could scroll a bit uh um this is a picture of grand circus park which is the largest of the parks by far that we visited um and it is probably the most uh passive of parks it doesn't have uh standing regular daily activities that we're aware of but they it it is close to important public venues like comerica park and the orchestra hall and and not really too far from uh ford field either so it it does serve as a venue uh for opening days and uh for baseball etc um i just want to point out one part of it that the that semi that circle that we're looking at there is actually an elevated space and it's really easy to sit on it it's like an incorporated bench just pretty nice um and this you don't you can't really tell but there's a little dog park there as well that's right on the left i believe and uh am i am i correct that this is the one that's on top of the parkings that's great we don't want to leave that out that's right thank you that's right and so look look at those trees the the park predated the underground parking and then was put back together after the underground structure was placed there i think initially in the 1950s so it uh but it's a good example for us to study and understand um i think we can move on to capital park i believe is next this by far is the smallest park we visited it's about i believe this is about a half a half an acre and again it was uh well it its history is that the first state capital of the territory of michigan and the first very first years of statehood um was uh on this site the building was destroyed by fire but it's also the burial ground of our first governor steven st mason who was became governor of the territory at the age of 23 or something like that it was unbelievable but it uh this was redeveloped uh with a funding of 1.1 million from the detroit uh downtown development authority uh in the early 2000s and has really been a spark to rejuvenate the adjoining neighborhood uh it's very enclosed uh with you know relatively tall buildings just really adjacent as you can see here and those poles there are permanently placed uh umbrellas to protect against the weather and uh i think we are all kind of envious of that i wonder how we could do that on the library lot um so there there are activities there um maybe moving on to campus marshes that it's kind of the this is in some ways the jewel of the downtown parks it's quite small 1.2 acres these smaller parks are really comparable in many ways to the size of the top of the library lot it has a full not a full-size ice rink but one that's larger than grant than uh rockefeller center they're proud to say um and there's a four seasons restaurant on the site and uh major events uh for example you can see the uh the christmas tree in the background here uh which attracts uh they say 75 to 100 000 people for the lighting of that tree so this is a real hub of activity uh in the downtown i'd like to mention also that uh there is an in-ground uh performance platform that uh is integrated with the sidewalk around the skating rink and it can be elevated as a performance space right yeah there's a lot of flexibility i've been on this site when it's just um pre-pandemic i guess just shoulder to shoulder with people involved in multiple activities including the ice rink and so on immediately adjacent to it is cadillac square park i mean you don't really realize you're leaving one and entering another cadillac square park is i think i'm right 360 feet long and only 60 feet wide there's basically a corridor with small but uh effectively used uh portable buildings which are removed in the summer but uh they are uh they house a small startup business and so jen i thought about you immediately that uh gee we could have some some business startups right here on the center of the city um and then there's this large it's called cadillac lodge this large indoor space that hosts a variety of activities i didn't actually get in there but i think it did cozy it was it's giant and cozy at the same time it has multiple seating areas with big comfy chairs it was heated there's a coffee bar here there's some other food in the back and this was a huge tent just hey frank and frank can i jump in for a second too like i know that there are businesses um retail businesses in town who have actually gone to the pop-ups for campus marches so local businesses so um rock paper scissors for instance like i know that they have done a pop-up in campus marshes um and so i think that that we could even draw from the local business community to to source some you know best practices or whatever to activate the space in that way so thanks for letting me add that yeah that would be a a great way to keep uh the space active in the in the winter months i guess i mean maybe more than that but i think these are brought in like in november and taken out in in uh you know early spring uh and then brought and then brought back uh the following year at least that's their their method of operating yeah i i i think jen makes a good point these are more likely more aptly described as pop-ups rather than startups yeah thank you that's good it could be both actually sure and then finally uh beacon park uh sorry for the page separation there um this is different because uh dte energy uh started this park on their on their property and it's uh managed by the detroit the downtown detroit partnership david cowan's group um and it's uh it's very open and airy but there is also an indoor facility for the winter months a lot of activity much of it directed towards children there is a four seasons two-story restaurant on the site which we don't have pictured here it's kind of in back of that where that person is standing taking that picture and that's the temporary in well maybe it's permanent they i think they bring up pull up the sides uh in better weather maybe that is a permanent structure i don't recall i don't remember yeah yeah i think it is i've been there at multiple points throughout here yeah yeah it looks more permanent but they considered this this uh swinging bell to be an art installation that it came from australia i believe and was brought in for the holiday season here um yeah so there was music and lights associated with moving on the swing it's kind of cool not permanent unfortunately right we'll see what comes next right i also want to point out that this site is where i remember most of it may be available elsewhere this this area had multiple places to charge phones there was wi-fi available um it was it was welcoming that way and we were told that people during the pandemic have come out and worked here you know as outdoor space um just a couple concluding uh observations and uh well here it is i didn't know that was it was going to show on here um you know it's clear that the business community through the downtown detroit partnership and other other means are very committed and active financially and otherwise to the success of these downtown parks and open spaces detroit has really knitted together a cooperative arrangement with the city the dda etc and you you look for comparables and and hope that in ann arbor over over the coming months and years that we can begin to share a vision uh that all will want to participate in and uh it's pretty clear that uh this is working well in detroit uh this this partnership really um is well honed and well organized and uh they really touch on all the essential services that this kind of endeavor would need so uh we i we will continue to be in touch with detroit uh david cowan is uh interested he has family out in ann arbor he'd like to come in and walk our site and share his ideas on the ground with us about how we might proceed forward frank i'll hop in just for a short comment about uh another important partner that we need to look at is parks detroit does work with their parks department too right and and we need to make sure that we that is you know that we are not that we are at least accounting for the major participants yeah thank you for catching that absolutely um just a quick quick update we are uh going to be meeting by zoom with uh paul sincock who's city manager for the city of plymouth a week from today rita and i've had a preliminary conversation with him earlier in the fall and that's a very different organization much smaller community of real focus on kellogg park in their downtown area and the city manager is mr de honey still on their uh their whole effort uh to manage uh kellogg uh park and uh events that spill out into the downtown are are handled right out of the city manager's office and i don't know getting to know paul sincock you'll find that this this gentleman really thrives on events he he likes to call plymouth disneyland north uh because of all the events that uh happened there uh during the year so this will be a i think a useful experience in interchange but very different from what we've had and uh we we also would like to at some point uh down the road in the near future uh talk to uh uh mr de honey uh about his experiences as city manager in cities like cincinnati and other locations and what he might bring from his experience experiences there to what we're trying to accomplish here so we look forward to that as well uh rita could you it would i think it would actually be good if there are other comments made perfect thank you um any questions at all for alice or rita or frank but i think the one thing that i think is is really maybe a model for us to consider about this particular example is that there aren't permanent structures and which we know is a huge hurdle and really an unlikely challenge for us to be able to overcome on this space you know we know that you know puncturing the roof of the parking garage and all these other things really causes a lot of um strife versus having a pop-up having these sorts of things it allows the flexibility it invites some sort of creativity and almost a community involvement in it um which i think sort of bridges the we want to park we want a commons we want etc to to kind of blend in a really um more authentic way and organic way than what we've considered in the past so i i love this example because i just i think that you know when we look at businesses community nonprofits etc you know it just has a whole flavor of um inclusiveness that some of the other ideas from either a budget standpoint or um a utility standpoint have have really lacked so this this to me seems like an exciting comparable for us to consider thank you other questions at all question of how the uh programming is actually organized on in these various places how do community groups get access to do it and uh who does the calendaring what's the sort of on-site management process is that alan almost all of that is um is through the downtown detroit partnership they have a staff of about 20 or 30 people who organize hundreds of events and hundreds of groups who put who need need to use the spaces so that's the answer they have staff and they have money through the downtown business department whatever their name is downtown detroit partnership i think thank you in plymouth uh again it's uh it's it seems like a quite an organized process through the city manager's office where um they're capable of sitting down with an organization who wants to have an event and they work out a budget and the costs uh and the city uh attempts i think with a good degree of success to help support the maintenance and ongoing uh operation of the parks through uh the uh sponsorship fees for for events i i don't know the details but uh it seemed like there was quite a well-established process in plymouth through the city of manager's office well we had with an earlier city manager mr dahona you should know there was a request to the initiating committee the library green conservancy the uh the community activists could you take on the calendaring and that responsibility because it was too much of a hassle within the administrator's office or if there was more going on than just was handled by the occasional projects through the community services what would could the community itself take on that management and it does not seem that either in plymouth or detroit uh that has been done i was wondering also in terms of other communities whether any look will be taken to stratford in ontario which had a similar kind of parking lot that turned into a very vital location and also uh cummins indiana columbus indiana where the commons corporation sort of may be in the same form as maybe kellogg that functioned in plymouth gave a big impetus to the community developments there so are there other cities that you are looking on beyond the plymouth and detroit both of which and thank you very much these great so i really appreciate what you've dug up but are you still digging out there we are we're going to be digging for a little while alan for sure and i i know you mentioned uh stratford i think in the december meeting and i did look up uh some uh information there as well um and i i we are going to be digging for a while with a few more options this is just the first i'd like to just point out a couple of things as well that um with respect to the things that we saw in those spaces um the chairs were very often freestanding anybody could move them around than the tables um and they were just out we asked about the potential for um those things disappearing and they said they lose maybe two chairs a year they do have staff who sort of patrolled the area they have eyes on the park but it really had a very relaxed feeling that was was very comfortable rita or frank or alice do you want to just touch on on how they handle i think they do have a really neat way they interact with the community members there that doesn't feel like a law enforcement based uh feels very open do you want to touch on that a little bit i thought that was a very important characteristic yes it's a i think it's from one of my understanding of the budget which is incomplete it's it's a major part of their budget that they hire people from the community to be part of their ambassador group and um i haven't seen a printed job description but these are people who are uh eyes on the park they're there to engage with people in the park if if for example if i show up and i want to know where the grand river is they'll you know they'll help direct someone from out of town um but uh they're the first level of uh i wouldn't use the cert the term security i'm not sure what the right term is if if something is just beginning to become a problem uh they i think are trained to uh observe and maybe uh engage a bit but if they sense something's really getting out of control then they'll ask for more help um but they're also kind of have a i will say a kind of a custodial function and uh we met a couple of these employees and uh it had a very very easy feeling to it um these people are obviously uh well trained and understand their role and uh it's it's a major uh force of people to cover these parks uh they had pride sorry for interrupting frank but they definitely had pride of of their job and their place one of them in particular said i just love this particular park and it was in the grand circus being on on adam's street i think it is adam's avenue it was really um it was really nice to see the way this group of people interacted all of them yeah yeah and i'll add that they sort of acted like a mobile kiosk system they were they had had carts that had clean up things and also um information about resources whether it was uh social needs or um tourist needs or whatever and they just reminded me i mean i just harkened back just now to going to greece and you went to the kiosk for everything you know everything and it was kind of like that they knew they knew the usual people and then they could help the the visitors as well and they had printed material and they had the ability to communicate with other uh forces like the police or um whoever needed to you know even i'm sure they are prepared for uh health emergencies as well but at least to call in for help so it was it was a very it felt like there was a friend in need you know there was a friend indeed in that uh at a return and they were quite quite um identifiable as well with yellow vests and their little carts with full of some kind of helpful stuff where's the pay scale i don't know you don't know we talked about ambassadors in the commons it seems like a good idea local people with their eyes open yeah i might take might take two instead of 200 but remember who else does sorry council member braids oh yeah erica please um yeah erica you're muted yeah try again thank you so much for that uh for the presentation i think it was really interesting to hear more about the this partnership and kind of how it's playing out across different parks and um also the additional information about the sort of the ambassadors that are working i think that's an interesting piece that might be able to we might want to dig into a little bit more just to um explore the idea the masters downtown in general i think that might be an interesting idea to carry forward um i was just observing that it's um if we were getting to the tail end of this conversation um it's eight o'clock and i know we already approved the agenda um but i was wondering if there might be like general um willingness to move agenda item eight before seven just so we have a full discussion of the rfi process because i felt like that might be longer and i feel like that might be we just wanna make sure we get the full conversation there since we're trying to end by nine if that was amenable folks were available to that i think that'd be a great idea folks are comfortable with it yep okay um any questions at all before we wrap up on 7a and then we'll we'll jump forward i would like to mention that um the ambassador program that brings up brings to mind the need we have for something like that in helping to resolve the issues around liberty plaza and i think that's that's a very tight thread right there between those between the difficult issues we have and the way those kinds of issues have been resolved in other places absolutely some communication with the school of social work whether it is feasible to have a a intern assigned in the on the commons somebody with a little training to keep their eyes open about what our problems a field placement no no answer is that yet requires a local organization that wants to do the supervisor well i uh any other final questions for alice or rita or frank jeff has this handoff oh uh sorry who does jeff yes well i just i didn't i don't really so much have a question as to i want to strongly uh support jennifer's perspective on modularity and temporary structures and so forth i think that's uh there's a lot of creative things that can be done with that and that's the direction that it's the future and the world changes a lot and needs their multiple needs in our community and and having a uh flexible and modular approach to organizing this uh will be very responsive to that and then the technologies exist to do some terrific things with that all right well unless there's uh anything else we will jump ahead per councilman briggs suggestion um and then heather do you want to present the rfi um and i know you've been collecting feedback so yeah and i'll bring that up in just a second and i'll do some live editing of that but just to help everybody remember because i know that my brain needs to be refreshed you know what happened at the last meeting it just seemed so long ago a lifetime ago but what we talked about with the edits last time was not just emphasizing the library a lot but talk about all the public spaces in there so that's one change that i made um organizing project goals into category so you can see that i did that um add other transportation options such as tunnels or even skyway so that's mentioned in there include a mention of the gardens um talk a little bit of the the function of a civic center so there's a brief statement in there and we can look over that and talk about that a little bit more add some language about having a sustainable legacy so that's been included and again i'll we'll go through this in detail but i just kind of want to give the review of the feedback that you provided last time in the changes that i did make one request that i did not make was add information about street conversions because that's not set yet there is talk about converting um fifth and division to two-way streets um but that's not definite there's going to be a study that will be happening in 2024 but if there are any changes that's not going to happen until 2026 and again that's not definite i don't want to put anything um about that in there until we really know the direction of it um there was another request about putting language in there about potentially moving the elevator enclosure and the ramps and the feedback that i received is there's not really room to move those around that that causes a big big whole thing under underground that it would be very very very costly very difficult to move any of those features around so as it stands right now people do not want to entertain moving those features i had more deep there was another request about adding more detail about we what we know about water and electricity i actually don't have all the detail about liberty plaza and some of the other areas um and i would say in this since this is an rfi we're requesting information we don't really need to go into that level of detail about where every single water spigot is and you know an electricity electrical outlet so that that's my opinion that we don't necessarily need that in there um we had a request about adding more info about kent house and liberty plaza and i did include that add more groups to the people that we are wanting to reach out to so i included the ride housing commission tree line main street association state street association kerrytown an equitable ann arbor land trust and then i did have a question about deadline that's not in there yet but i would imagine that this would be on the streets for about a month that would give places time to really think through this and work it into the workload to respond to it but we can talk through that if you want a shorter time or a longer time i see um alice's hand is up if you want to jump in there before while i'm bringing up the actual document yeah a couple of things real quick if i could just ask heather uh could you explain uh because we have councilmember dish here uh exactly why you went with the rfi and kind of where we're at in the process yes yes i can definitely go over that so uh what we're looking to do and you might recall that council had authorized forty thousand dollars to do a design process for the site um originally we had talked about doing an rfp a request for proposal but because we don't have all the funding in place we thought that and we meaning staff thought that it would be better to do a request for information because that's less cumbersome on consulting firms to put something like that together and that would give us the information that we need to put together a robust more detailed rfp so what we're looking for generally with this rfi is a process that they would propose and what general costs would be not going into detail hour by hour you know how much it would cost but generally what what would the process cost in their mind so that way we can put a request out there or know how much funding we really we really need for this perfect thank you sorry again go ahead um am i on did you say okay um oh yeah a couple of things almost lost my train of thought as you described all that stuff but who are we still on yeah um the people did not want to entertain the idea of using the structure that is there that doesn't people who people and um also i mean that kind of wrinkles with me because um i know for a fact that there are speculative structures within the overall structure that are intended to be used for something and i think we need to count those as assets for repurposing if nothing else such as the elevator which was also speculative to serve a much taller building by reconstructing that in that location perhaps but these are not fixed ideas at this point um and never were like the cutouts in the foundations and so forth and the foundation itself which is reinforced in a certain area i think those things could be quite determining in a very exciting new creative repurposing of those existing structures without increasing costs or ruining warranties or anything like that so and i'd also like to keep in mind there's a time period for the debt structure to be removed so you know a lot of these things that we're avoiding are really not worth avoiding we want to make sure that you know for instance if we decided to build a permanent structure we'd want to kind of consider what's there to build on uh so i i didn't like the idea that people don't want to entertain changes to the structure because they did when they built it and that'll i'll end with this it's not um not entertaining changes to the entire structure then you know for example the breakaway panels that which you've talked about um that's something that we can maybe work with which might provide walkways or tunnels or something like that it's just moving the elevator shaft and moving the ramps that is viewed and by day i mean the dta dda and the city um who own the structure um don't feel like those can be moved well still they built it for that very very in that very way i mean and they complained about not being able to use that those things but we're not talking about removing them we're talking about repurposing them um well i don't know about repurposing that that's not how i frame the question when i i asked the question of whether the ramps could be moving the elevator shaft be moved okay and then frank i see your hand is up yes uh i would just like to second alice's point i i think we want to have as quote-unquote clean a sheet of paper as possible to imagine what the possibilities are here and my impression was that that central exit entrance area um and maybe even the positioning of the elevator but i'm just focusing on the the ramp that leads down and leads up for people going in and out of the structure i don't i i think it's uh i don't think the word is premature to rule out any any adjustment of that uh entrance area which i think was primarily to serve uh the high-rise that hasn't uh hasn't come about so i it i just wish that the city could be a little more open and imaginative it may be at the end of the day nothing will change but unless we have more flexibility on what the possibilities might be we may be closing ourselves off from some exciting opportunities down the road rita um okay uh well and since we're on that topic the um the way i see the ramp is like can we even just close it off you don't have to necessarily move it um but maybe there's a way to temporarily um cover it over um or use it as access for storage or something our experience in detroit showed that they needed storage for many of those things that they place in and out of of the area so um i think i'm saying something in support of flexibility thanks thanks um it sounds like there's some debate around this it seems like um this might be something that might you know be more important for the next phase of the project too like this is the rfi that's going out i don't know if we need to get incredibly detailed about this site in to that degree i mean i think this can those issues could still be explored even in the next phase once we understand exactly how much how much this process of engagement is really going to design gonna it's gonna be my suggestion and then the one piece that i um i noticed you didn't include but i was um thought maybe there was a reason you didn't um or maybe it was just um uh just you know slipped off the notes page kind of creating a um a limit like a dollar figure uh a proposed dollar figure you know that wasn't within the document and i was wondering if there was a reason that that wasn't included in here or if there was a way to you know if you had any additional thoughts about that heather oh um yeah i apologize when we talked about that last time and and you requested or you or anybody else requested putting in a dollar limit my thinking was that we wanted to find what people thought this would cost you know that would help us with an rfp but if we want to put a limitation to it then you know we can certainly do that i personally would i think we could end up with really grand proposals about engagement process around this and i would be at least interested to find out you know what what's you know what type of projects proposals could we get for 80 to 100 000 and then you know maybe maybe a category about you know what what's not included in that what could you do for more than that you know what would what are you cutting out in that process or is you know is feedback you know are we are we shooting too low when we suggest something like that so no i'll just add in a couple of points here as well uh if i can i think i do think that some type of uh you know range around the uh cost is probably helpful um you know i think that uh you know we certainly do not want something that uh comes back that we really fall in love with that is uh you know out of the realm of reasonable um but uh so i think some type of range maybe that that allows for um for some um for some more grandiose visioning um you know that doesn't cap us too much but but also gives any vendors looking at the uh the uh rfi you know a somewhat of a degree of what we're looking at so what is the range that you would propose not more expertise not available throw back on you but um on this than i do i mean i i think we were talking you know we originally said 70 i don't know how um how um you know solid of a number that is and then i think we have gone up to say maybe realistically that's too low and and we'll be over a hundred but i think that top we had sort of really talked about was like 140 um and thought that and that does feel a little ambitious to me even so maybe somewhere that's the high end uh and but i i'm throwing out numbers they're not necessarily educated um and you know i i heard i did want to just chime in into on the previous topic um you know i do feel like the blank canvas is really important um you know in the uh you know either in the rfi or the rfp process i know that when i've uh looked at doing things where we have to really test uh test the limits of things you know if we if we artificially limit ourselves to a degree too much then then we can really um we really take some potentially neat ideas off the table not to say that that you know the structure would be altered for sure or that we even decide we want to go down that route but certainly eliminate ourselves from the start i think is not really a good way to go about it so i guess that sort of vision is what i have around this range too uh yeah and i would i would say so the pushback is the the idea of like altering you know what's below the surface and how that would be really make a lot of changes how expensive that would be to change to the parking structure and that there's not the thinking at least this is the feedback that i received is that there's just not enough room to move those things around um so i i my feeling is if if it really cannot be moved or we're not willing to move it um then you know i don't want to go down that route of designing with that in mind that being said i guess i'll put it to mr tahoni and sorry to put you on the spot but maybe you can um you know kind of ask you know the dda and have conversations internally about what we are willing to do so maybe we can come back to this group next time with a definitive answer like yes or no maybe maybe we can think about moving it um because the last thing i want to do is put out an rfi or an rfp and say we we can do something then ultimately we can't like i don't want us to go through you know several hundreds of thousands of dollars of doing a design process um only to get a design in the end that we can't do or we're not willing to do that the language the language we're using is getting more and more confusing because i thought this was an rfi and are we talking about the cost of putting out the rfi no it's not going to cost to put the rfi out and it'll ultimately be an rfp so an rfi will feed into you know what we get back the information will feed into an rfc so uh we're and i think there is someone in the room so to speak who uh i think i'm almost quoting that we don't want to um define our projects or our improvements by what we can get or what what we think we can spend we need to define them by our values and um i also you also said you're getting feedback who are you getting feedback from so that we understand why we can't uh can't leave off the limits it's interesting to me if we're doing if we're requesting information to actually get information that would help us define the project uh the scope of the design work that we want to take we're not asking these people to design something no but but we're also not telling them what we want so i i think this is a conundrum at this point and we need to really resolve this and then i i don't have the answer myself at this point so yeah one way is that we just don't even include the language about the ramps and the elevator shaft and then rfi because it's again you know we're only asking them for a design process like what they would propose so i don't know if we need to really continue worrying about this too much you know for the rfid we can continue to investigate um the people that i talked to are the dda staff and city staff um you know again if mr dahony might want to pursue this a little bit more and come back and see if there is a wiggle room right now what i've received back is there's not wiggle room um so um i i just received a note that mr de honey needs to step away for a moment um but i can talk i can carry this on with him a little bit further later on to see if we can get more definition around that i do want to say that i was impressed with uh the report of something that mr dahony said it was that we don't want to just um buy what we can get we want to know what we want and see how we can get it i'm sure i'm paraphrasing and and i think that's a really a solid premise upon which to proceed sure but we also need to put out the parameters and i see mr dahoney's hand is up so please go ahead oh you're muted thank you this is better yep uh the comments that i would make are [Music] we shouldn't let [Music] processes and procedures come before consensus around vision we we have not really said what we want and maybe we don't know what we want and maybe there's a difference of opinion on what we want but my experience in other places is we you have better results if you begin with a consensus around a vision of what you're trying to create and so the conversation around the built environment and move this ramp move that door you know drill a hole don't drill a hole should be secondary to a clearly coordinated vision around at the end of it we want this to be a place that does x number of things it's a gathering place it is a place that provides resources it's a place that provides activities it is a place that is programmed it's a place that offers cultural offerings knowing or having a deeper sense of what would be acceptable in terms of the activity level and um you know i'll share a brief example uh when we started developing the cincinnati waterfront it was 18 acres of dirt and we determined that we wanted it to become a 24 7 environment that had a residential component that had a nightlife to it that had a pad for a corporate tower that had a park at the waterfront and a streetscape that connected the stadiums from where the bengals and the reds play ball when we started we had nothing but once the vision was clear as to what we wanted it to be the processes that we implemented were all meant and designed to help execute the vision that had been decided and so [Music] asking a design firm to provide information is certainly appropriate but i do believe we need to get to a point somewhere down the road where we can clearly articulate what we want the center of the city to be and in my short few months here uh i've heard differing versions from different people about what that is and you know that's fine but at some point we've got to coalesce around here's where we're trying to go so what are the mechanisms that will enable us to get there and when we do processes and the price tag provides sticker shock then we start to either value engineer or adjust the vision to what we believe we can reasonably afford in cities where you see uh ambassadors or people that are in orange shirts or some kind of color who are out there uh connecting with the public um i've had those in multiple cities and they are paid for through the implementation of a bid a business improvement district so it's the property owners that have agreed to pay a little more in order to have the ambassadors out there so that you don't have to have a saturation of police officers out there and so it factors into [Music] uh signage and lighting and activities and a lot of communication among stakeholders so everyone is aware of what's coming in a very very strong volunteer component even if you have staff the cities that do it well have a strong volunteer component to help to implement the activities that they put on so whether it's festivals or concerts or whatever uh ann arbor is a lean organization dda is a lean organization we don't have the infrastruc internal infrastructure that other places do so we're going to have to supplement that with whether it's volunteers from the community at large from the university from wherever in order to pull off uh if in fact we are trying to strive for something that is a lot of activity a lot of day daytime activity and night time activity um or a service oriented environment where people who need help can come and hopefully find it and so i you can do a lot of things but the pieces do need to connect so if you want 24 7 night life that's not the same kind of place where people go to seek services this is a very different dynamic that can't mesh so i'll stop talking um i hope that made some sense and i appreciate the opportunity to uh share my thoughts thank you yeah i would say that this process at least how i've been thinking about it you know we kind of got so far with the center of the city task force which was meant to put forward a vision for what was wanted in the space and that this would be carrying that on along with putting actually a physical design to that vision so that this is meant to be um you know a process that gets at all of that you know we could scale it back and say we just really need a vision you know we need a process as step one to get consensus on a vision since we're not quite there yet and then we could go to step two and then say you know then put out an rfp for a design process for the physical manifestation of that vision basically rita and then jeff and camilla and then alan rita you're up thanks um i feel like the kinds of things that we're talking about right now um point to the need to be in touch with what we've been calling the block partners um it just feels key to have input from them on this phase of of our planning and so that's my plea you know it i feel like in some ways you've done some of that with connection connecting with the dda and with staff heather um but it's a start and we know we have a number of them so maybe maybe um maybe that's where the rfi will take us to connect with those those groups um but i feel like it's a missing part of the puzzle yeah again that's how i've been envisioning it you know we have the list of people like to me the important thing is the process of this is you know there would be um all these people would be engaged i mean it would be a large public engagement and you know that's that's part of the vision like we need the community involved and what the vision is um again we got you know to a certain point with the center of the city task force there was a lot of engagement with that and we have some things that rose to the surface which are listed in here um but as far as like a cohesive vision statement maybe we're just not there yet um in terms of like we want you know to be specific enough saying we want i don't know chairs and dining i mean i guess we do have that in there we want a play area so i i mean i you know i guess maybe we need to make a decision about like how how uh how much of a fine of a point on this do we want before we put an rfp out or if we're comfortable with that being part of the process like creating that vision so i think i had jeff and then camilla and then alan and then frank yes thank you very much um stahony for your your reviews i uh i'm very much uh in agreement that we've got to have a vision to drive excitement and interest and i've been saying that for a long time um what i'd be interested in hearing from you is whether you think what some cities have done across the country and across the world is organized like competitions with prizes and financial prizes for the community to propose or to suggest ideas um for a center of the city and the city civic center commons whether competition of that kind uh with a juried competition would would uh would sort of generate a lot more support and a lot a lot of engagement that that may not be there right now it kind of puts together the top down on the bottom up approach i feel it's a little bit top down right now i know we need to do it that way up to a point because it's you know we did the task force and uh sometimes it's very difficult to get you know lots of individual views you know through surveys and stuff like that but i've noticed that several cities have have put those competitions out there and gotten some exciting ideas and results and a lot of commitment from from the community as a result i was wondering if you had had some experience with that and what you thought of that i have certainly uh seen and been a part of uh some competitions um that have prizes attached to them to uh generate creativity from the community and so uh it can be as uh granular as you know here is a parcel of the footprint and what do you envision can go here it can involve naming things it can involve creating a theme for the area i think activities like that uh help with one transparency but also developing the groundswell of support that is essential uh for the end project to be successful you want the community to buy in and feel like regardless of where they live i have a stake in what happens in the center of the city i have an opportunity to participate in helping to make that happen and so a competition that has uh prizes typically cash prizes will bring out tit tends to bring out different kinds and different levels of participation for example you may have a group of students from eastern michigan that want to participate in a competition that has a prize attached to it you may have students from elsewhere or even uh if the prize is attractive enough you may generate all kinds of participation but it does take an effort to run those you do have to have a source to generate you know the prize and you do have to be clear on what are you asking people to submit camilla hi um so it feels like we're describing our dilemma as uh who came first the chicken or the egg do we do visioning first or do we start the rfi and rfp process and i just want to say that we've been visioning for years now and frankly with only a small percentage of the population and publishing an rfi doesn't mean that we're done with visioning with the community a key part of bringing in consultants is that consultants can lead community engagement workshops envisioning workshops with a broader um set of um residents so i'm in the camp to you know finalize this rfi and and soon published the rfp um i have less experience with rfis than other people on the call but i think it looks great so thank you heather and and other staff members for writing this um it's never going to be perfect so so let's just put this out and see what happens frank actually since our last meeting uh rita and i and and others uh on the committee and in the community have been kind of wrestling with questions very much in line with what we're wrestling with now and we've already touched on one uh or probably more than one but uh this engagement with the the block partners i think is absolutely crucial if uh and maybe it's a function of the of the you know the consultants uh but i i i question whether you're going to get longer term uh robust engagement uh and it should be started now to really get these black partners focused on on this issue and i feel that they they need to be integrated into this planning effort and the design effort if this is going to have ultimately have success in the longer term because we need their participation and buy-in and support and it just seems like we need to get started now and it may actually enhance the the professionally organized study with the consultant and it seems like uh liberty plaza might be kind of the the lightning rod here uh i think the block partners have a strong uh interest in in seeing a redesign and a reimagining of liberty plaza which can spread out over the entire uh public land on on the block um i'm under the impression there's a lot of data in the appendices of the task force report there are some key earlier reports i've been i haven't looked at but i've been told the 2013 parks and advisory downtown subcommittee report is important to look at for for data so i wonder if there's existing material that could be looked at now and uh and understood at a better level than we now have that understanding uh in anticipation of the of the consultants coming in there's this issue of really engaging with the dda and we need to we the council needs to be a direct part of this and understanding the the engineering limitations uh the structural limitations and and um possibilities more more on the possibility side of what what can happen above that structure and it seems appropriate to ask the dda to shoulder that and get that study going i don't know whether some visioning could take place before we get to the rfp but it seems like in a preliminary way at least we we the council would benefit from profession some professionally facilitated working sessions that would perhaps draw on some of this information from previous studies and have this council and and maybe it could be an expanded council plus i don't know that could begin to do do some visioning um rather soon in you know multiple sessions um anyhow that those are some thoughts that have occurred to us and in conversation with uh other members of this board the library green board and donors and uh just people in the community are interested in the these ideas seem to be surfacing and i'm i i think we offer these rita and i as a way to kind of move the process forward and and ensure we get the most beneficial uh studies that we'll pay for you know for professional consultants we want to be sure that we expand those funds in the in the most thoughtful and intelligent way possible so those are just some thoughts i have about what we might be doing in the shorter term in preparation for the rfp so real quick here i'd just like to jump in real quick so we're not talking about an rfp tonight right right we're talking about an rfi and i do i want a second what i think camilla was getting at here which is you know to the the comment that you made about sort of professional facilitation frank i actually think there's pretty broad agreement on the fact that that does need to happen but that would come as i understand it and i'm going to lean on heather in particular because she's a professional designer uh to to help us i mean to back that up i mean this is part the the items that are listed in this rfi the groups that have to be engaged with of which the top one is the council the commons um you know should be part of that that visioning and so as i see it what you're suggesting um is going to be taken care of as part of a professional process that is that is responded to by a potentially interested uh design firm here um and so i do think it is very important that we have a professional facilitator a professional group that guides this process but frankly that is exactly what we're doing in my opinion by going out for bid for or not going up for bid going out for a request for information um i don't know heather can you speak to maybe there's some confusion as to what we're trying to get at here well yeah i think there is confusion because i i think we all are everybody's saying that they want the same thing and um yes adam i completely agree with the way you stated it and the way camilla stated it that this that is the process that's what we're asking for is to refine the vision and then put put it on paper you know what does this physically look like because that is just something that we don't have yet um you know we we just kind of need it and it needs to be a public process because this is such a meaningful space for the community so i would i would hesitate for you know this group just to kind of do their own visioning or for us to do some sort of preliminary visioning stuff that select groups or select people and rather just put it out to a consultant you know professional team to begin this process and for it to have a consistent cadence to it a rhythm and you know that it's all building towards this ultimate kind of vision design you know vision statement and a vision design for the physical changes to the space well that's that's really smooth thank you um alan you've had your handle yes uh i uh our moving to this question is what postponed uh item 7b on the agenda which was looking at our relation with the block partners in our immediate outreach uh which we will get to next meeting and that is very important and i concur with frank that somehow quite apart from this request for him from further information it is harvesting the data that we have and the getting some evaluation from the city or the contractor uh to the structural limitations of the place or its structural capacities or what is needed to adapt yeah i put in the amendments to the thing to the draft this i look for uh an inspired design or alternative designs that i'm very interested if it were possible that the uh uh center ramp to the parking structure be uh decommissioned that i think it was sense that it is was for the building it's not going to be built there and maybe it is not necessary and the parking could as a parking lot underground parking lot function perfectly well with the entrance on fifth avenue and the exit on division street we should at least have some evaluation of that or attention to that as is that at all feasible in terms of how everyone analyzes parking structures and so on i've assumed that it's not feasible i've been interested in as a principle in the vision they were maximizing people's space and subordinating automobile space so i've been interested in a terrorist balcony over those [Music] ramps in the down down area that would increase people's space considerably and it could extend over library lane and that we need a a connection between liberty plaza and the library lane parking lot and that has to have either a bridge over uh the martin property or through the modern property and i think the efforts that stefan trendoff did to draw some of these alternatives is really as close as we have come to some vision of maximum utilization including extensive some civic center building which is at least engineeringly feasible over library lane that should be part of the exploration and having a sense of a indoor outdoor capacity and functions as would be in some sort of civic center building maybe that is subordinated or transferred to the library or to the martin company but at least in the design that should be the exploration of a civic center building over library lane not to minimize not to reduce the sun area that could be for people but to make use of maximum use of the area that we have in this public space and similarly the vision includes some sense of a relationship with the martin uh property in terms of how we interface with liberty plaza in the library line lot and a potential inclusion of the noble house and the carriage house into the overall commons design so all that is part of the vision and that should be what a what is explored in this request for more information what details more do we need and those were elements that i put into my list of [Music] amendments or improvements of the rfi but i don't know at 12 8 48 whether we're going to get to any of those you know numerous things with all these hands still up so everybody everybody wants to talk how good oh so real quick i'm just going to make a suggestion here because i do think uh i'd like to i'd like to start with the premise that it's i really do think it's going to be difficult for this group we've been at this for now a few months and i do think it is going to be difficult for us to move forward without some professional um professionals who who do this for a living guide in this process and uh so i do wanna i think that there are alan as you referenced you've submitted some amendments i have one as well um but i think it it is in our best interest for all the reasons that folks have stated up to this point tonight to move forward with an rfi we're not expending dollars um we are not choosing a proposal but we are asking for information from professionals who have uh frankly far more knowledge about this than i do at least and i'm willing to bet you know most folks here too and i i feel like we're going to tread water for a long time and go nowhere unless we unless we engage some professionals and so um you know i would if it's if it's okay with folks like you know obviously go beyond nine o'clock but i would like to to uh take us back to amending the document so that we can give heather some direction um and uh and uh then moving forward with a propos with this rfi establishing a time frame you know and and moving forward with it so that we can really answer the questions it does no harm to us by doing this can we go back to amendments that folks would like sorry ellen go ahead i just said you're internet unstable your sound disappeared i can't hear you i'm sorry um i was just gonna ask can we go back to amendments that folks would like to make to to the rfi i don't know if that's better if heather pulls it up or not um i have one but i i can go first if that's fine heather i think you had suggested this or maybe councilmember briggs had suggested this earlier regarding the site details i would just like to strike the the bullet point that talks about the elevator enclosure and ramp to the underground levels of structure which must stay in place we can just take that out i think it's best to be silent on it and that's really the only change that i have i'd like to reinforce uh that amendment or a second hit or whatever in that that would resolve some of the discussion as to what can and cannot be done when we don't know yet um so i'll third that and the in the uh the parking structure was originally designed to support a building yeah well i i i actually else i thought about that one too to be honest with you but i i actually think that's a good piece of information because there is that speaks to the structural nature of the parking structure um and i don't think that limits us at all okay i think erica has something to say yeah um i do but i don't i don't want to jump in line i do have a specific amendment i wanted to suggest um i do i agree i'd like to get this out um i if you could scroll up heather um there's one that jumps out of me i don't maybe it may be useful to vote on some of these rather than like discuss them at length um so i'm fine if there's not general agreement with this sorry i should have told you stop scrolling back down i'm not paying attention um project goals um the second bullet point where it says create and enhance multimodal transportation connections i know you were asked last time to add things in here to me this is the second bullet point in our design and it doesn't it doesn't resonate to me as like what came out of the center of the city design process i do think that one of the pieces that's important is just creating enhancing connections to from and within the block and if we just kept it simpler right now and instead of kind of creating visions of tunnels and skyways and it may end up very grand or it may end up with you know simple design connections between the process but if there would be support in just simplifying that bullet point to creating and enhancing multimodal or non-motorized transportation connections to from within the block um would there be support for um simplifying that bullet point i'm good with simplifying it i think it's a broader vision and better for this point process yes i agree okay wonderful thank you um and then because i love to argue with myself essentially if um i will leave it up to you heather um if you feel like it is limiting to put a dollar amount on this right now you know i'm i'm not going to feel strongly i'm just pragmatic and i don't want to end up with like a you know a proposal for her i don't know that it's limiting you know it's kind of right that balance which we're trying to meet with us between the pragmatic and you know like let's see what we can do with this um you know realistically you know how much is the city willing to spend on a process um so i don't think that's a bad thing to put a limit on it but i also do kind of wonder if maybe that does make us want to jump to an rfp and this is just me kind of thinking out loud because originally i thought you know one of the purposes of doing an rfi um versus an rfp was to get a better sense of what the cost was um but if we're going to you know kind of already just put our cards out of it there and say we're willing to do a design process up to a certain point then uh heather i i think that uh that's the you've just it articulated whether you meant to or not why we should not put a dollar amount on here that's what these professionals who look who put the rfi together they will figure out how much is how much is there to work with and how much it's going to take to do whatever they they're the ones that know the numbers uh of what they're going to be analyzing they'll they'll figure that out because they know something about it and that's what that's what i think and therefore you know well i didn't disagree with eric i'm fine with it being removed if it's if that's a key point point of information we can get out of the rfi process if there's a way to slightly refine it to you know you know provide some tiered cost i don't know yeah do you want me to leave it at that ask for tears yeah i think that's a that's actually a great way of threading the needle i think to whatever yes because the professionals will know what they're talking about if they're any good well this is ann arbor we only get the best right but again i will i will refer to what mr duhone implied is we don't want to buy what we can get we want to tell them what we want to buy i know that i know there are a number of folks with their hands up i think sarah has had her hand up the longest uh wait and i keep changing what i'm going to say nothing wrong with that so now that we're talking through amendments um i guess this is a specifically an amendment and i think i'm still a little bit confused and like what an rfi is but this project goals section i guess i'm confused what exactly we're asking them to submit i think i'm i think i'm clear but then we get to the project goal section and everything we've been talking you know the design and inspire design we're not actually asking them to give us a design though right i'm just wondering if like this project goals are these horror projects like it's just it's a little unclear to me like what do we need to be more clear i guess in the rfi like what we want these firms to be submitting because we don't want them to give us an inspired design that is just i don't know right but you know then right so the engagement part like in that design section or in that whatever project goal section too like you know there's that process like a design process these are sort of like our these are the things that we want i guess like a potential like full proposal to include maybe but this this piece like confuses me i guess just like how it's in there and i wouldn't want it to confuse design firms that are i think that under the category of design i think we should strike out that um go back down to the next page uh where at design you shouldn't even use the word design there is it's what i'm thinking it's too confusing what design of what um yeah and if this is if we're not asked if we're just providing these project goals a sort of like background if like this is stuff that like sort of has come out of like all of these other endeavors like maybe there just needs to be a few sentences under project goals that sort of says like these are things that we've gathered through other processes that might help you you know in proposing a design process because i don't think we're asking yeah and maybe i'll just put in a clarifying sentence you know this all of that is under the background section and maybe that just needs to be made a little bit more clear so that word right there design under project goals is third well that that that was there because i was asked to put it in these into categories and i could take that out i think these categories out right um the problem with goal is that inspired design and this equip request for information is to contribute to an rfp that will do that right so here's the instructions at the bottom this is what we're asking of the consultants i wonder if that should be bumped up i could do that i mean this is following a template that we have well maybe it can just be like copy like it can be there but i don't know like as i'm reading through this i'm like why are we telling them all of these yeah yeah again the the idea behind maybe the maybe design is not the right word here but i do think when you know if you look at the the uh categories that heather chose you know she's very very clearly um you know speaking to like physical items you know trying to to build that vision uh please stop and and then the process and so and then implementation and so i don't know if design is the right word but i think it's you know it's it's clearly trying to differentiate like you know these are the elements of the things of the rfi that we're asking maybe if we ch would it i don't know if it would help to change design to program well i think we actually are i mean we are out of the our goal for this ultimately in the rfp is to get a design right i mean we do want to design at the end of that process i think one of the pieces i'm wondering if we're missing is we actually need to refine our vision a little bit to create this design but um yeah i think the program actually actually goes more in that direction than design does design is like a result we want a program a method is what we want you know well i think we've got a method process i almost think we it's like a sp it's a it's like a vision or maybe a vision uh a layout or or elements of uh physical elements it might be a better um i mean i don't know yeah that doesn't work with this for a long time like we could birds need this forever i just think like if if we just had like a few sentences before it even says design like it just says project goals and then there's all these categories i don't know just something to describe i don't know this there's so much in this background before you actually get to like what we want them to submit like i was sort of getting lost and the way that stuff is worded it's almost like we're asking them to do these things but we're not if that makes sense right you have to have something that has so many bullet points is a little bit real quick i i do think so a couple things i uh one um let's let's go back to the hands here so that we can not drive heather too crazy with jumping around um but but uh i i think just i i think actually sarah's suggestion is probably a really good way to resolve this because you know at some point we are going to have to ask for an rfp we're not doing that now um but that rfp will be around a design and so so putting some vision in the heads of the of potential design firms who could submit to that rfp around what we're trying to get at by by this bucket of bullet points here is actually not a bad idea um that does help them really think about what their what they're looking at um you know potentially for a future rfp and uh so i i think sarah's suggestion actually maybe is a good way to resolve this and what was my suggestion just like add a few clarifying sentences on like what they're doing clarifying introductory sentences what is the suggestion right here alan it's going right up on the screen okay that's all i had i'll take my hand down but i agree that i think we should just get this out there and like the sooner the better so whatever it takes for us to do this like you know without having to rehash this at the next meeting let's do it can you just end it with background information i mean that that's probably enough right there i mean the other thing is that you know just speaking to the point that we probably don't necessarily need all this detail in here um i think it is like if i were reading this like i like that kind of background information but if if it is confusing if you're reading it and thinking it's confusing like we can take all of this out and just have these bullet points like an inspired design you know like a community supported design so i actually really i mean i think there are a lot of there's a lot of thought that goes into the elements here and at least in my opinion they do help sort of paint you know they help create ideas and you know i just as uh so i'm actually not so sure i like the idea of taking them all out i don't want frankly taken out i want them improved i think at this point we're not going to conclude this discussion tonight i put forward a number of the proposal to go through an adjustable time i think we should consider the question what is that clarifying sentence and come back to this in an intermediate meeting or at the next meeting that i want to have the proposals that i made about uh four season building and uh connections between liberty plaza and so on and library lot and so on included or specifically said no but i think they should all be included if you say well include everything all my little suggestions that was fine then i'll say pass it all real quick yep understood alan so why don't we actually pull up the because he you did make a number of suggestions let's pull those up and and take a look at them and just make sure they're addressed because i do think it is important that we get through this even if we stick around a little bit more tonight and that way we can get it out in the field we're gonna have a window of time afterwards and it would definitely be nice to get a response to this thing so let's let's let's power through if folks are okay with it and take a look at allen's suggestions if heather can put them up there i don't have them and i've neatly typed them out so somebody can put them up and i can go through what what each one is together so first i made some suggestion in the history um in the first paragraph that the inclusion of the liberty of the specific elements is not really listed in the charter and should be put into parentheses in the next paragraph giving the history for the decade for decades this question yes came for but it came to a head not with the prospect of misuse development but with putting forward of a uh request for for proposals that's when it came to a head when there was actually different questions on the table it had been a long-standing question and so i would reverse the uh the group interested multi-use and uh and on the other hand the group interested in the park in the other order the primary the first interest was in replacing the lost central square when the courthouse was torn down in the 50s that was a long-term interest unsatisfied it occurred in every one of the [Music] working groups that looked at this only the multi-fact building only came forward when it be when the rfp came out and then there was an actual proposal let's let's just split the apple on this and just take this sentence out um and that way it seems the story is good story and just do it a little more accurately it's not controversial with understanding facts okay well i i think it would be it would be in everybody's best interest to try and uh because it's actually uh less relevant to the rfi itself you know i think it would be in everybody's best interest to focus uh i i want to get to the points in your suggestion we can cut it all out okay let's we'll just work on cutting that out and then um i do think we need a nice little history in that form that is accurate we don't have to debate it now okay all right sounds good so we'll work on uh amending that sentence that that takes out the portion that that is the coming to a head um and then uh let's keep going down uh you guys take out that paragraph uh well i think we want to have the pro we'll work yeah we'll work that all right okay uh let's let's keep going then um oh here we are i'll just note that that's language from the task force report um so that's where that came from but you want me to take that just to be clear because i'm not sure what we're removing yeah i would say one of my numbers through the first line where are we so i i let's let how about this uh so heather let's just take out the came to a head with the uh in the second paragraph uh came to head with the prospect of misuse developmental librarian outside maybe just uh questions remain about the future of the city's uh the block city-owned land and then we'll just take out the next sentence in the recent years the question came to a head with the prospect uh just take out that sentence call it good and maybe take out everything about ultimately this led to proposal a yeah all right that's fine yeah we'll we'll strike a balance of this section i think alan if if it's okay with you we can work this this wording out in the histories absolutely i don't think there's any difference there so let's go to the actual elements that deal with the the rfi elements that we make sure we capture that others may have opinions on here um i think that starts with the project goals is that right item two okay calls yes so i would suggest that looking for information that we might have alternative design design enough and inspire design or alternative designs just leave it be open because there is one there is one design that's been floating around and i don't know why nobody just says that's the best design but there must be an alternative design that people have in mind rather than the one that stefan drew off so what stefan drew out is certainly going to be one of the designs considered then maybe there's another one i don't know what it is nobody has shown me a picture of it how about i i don't think it's speaking to you know i think it's uh speaking to the the point between behind an inspired design is speaking to a vision that that this rfi process would would uh submit to we could say you know inspired designs if we want to say plural um you know there's nothing wrong with that i don't think okay strong for the engineering realities okay so why don't we just change that to inspired designs are you fine with grounded and engineering realities yeah okay all right keep going then um i don't i don't i don't know what you're asking them to do is is when you when you talk about um engineering realities are you ex telling them to uh reign us in or are you talking you know i think that they should know what the engineering realities are when they do the design if the desi if the design is like grand circus park to put on 10 feet of dirt then that requires a reinforcement of the existing roof and some recognition of what that might cost so people say their limitations are well we can do without exceeding the limitation if the vision says well we want more tree then what is that going to cost and some they could figure that figure that out as to looking at the engineering drawings how much can that roof structure support and if we want to put more weight on it in a diverse way rather than on the pillar post what would that require yeah so i i i think let's just leave that language and if folks are comfortable with it i do think it it doesn't limit us but it does speak to you know a pragmatism um [Music] okay the next one is is the more i'm most concerned about is to one of the things that should include is a four season indoor outdoor civic center building or the functions of touch as well as outdoor central park function okay that was discussed the last time around and i thought that it was uh put in there that something about civic center indoor functions and so i offered some uh simple language okay i would um yeah i'd like to weigh in on that i mean i would be hesitant to say that this the final design design should definitely include that i don't mind the the you know the idea that we might be exploring that within the design process you know as an element but i want to be careful about suggesting that the final design is going to have a civic center building because i think that is a that's a that maybe should have the design process and in the engagement of the block partners and the community well it's an open question but it does seem that there are four season functions likely in a civic center building it may be that these four season functions will defer will be absorbed in a building and public space that the martins court create or in a reconfiguration of the new library or in a new building and it could be also the inclusion in terms of some social service the inclusion of the noble house and some deal with the martin company that they're quite open to from my understanding so all those sorts of things are part of the potential design could we could we add in some language to it speaks to what erica was getting at which is you know could include um and uh because i i am in the same spot i'm not so sure that anybody's decided this is definitely going to be there but could include this and then i feel like that's the same way with the second item you get there could include a water fountain feature um that just be like in that second bullet under design when all these things are detailed out like that proposes ways for the sunny of center city to do i don't know how we would say it but it's like those are they're like all considerations that we've talked about i'm really confused why we're being so specific on this because we're not asking this rfi we're asking them to design a process to do this later we're not asking that like these should just be sort of like broad examples at this point i just don't think we need to like get down to this level of detail in this specific rfi and to give you the background the detail that was included are the top things that came out of the center of the city task force process so the the things that came out of that were the seating and tables and after play area water feature feasible you know so that's why those things were listed there yeah those are things that people generally we'd seem to have general agreement in the community about those things yeah potentially include a year-round civic center building i mean i add that in there but that's that's why those other items are there so people understand that background i hope i can just interject that um [Music] um oh lost my dream of thought never mind uh heather i think the language you just utilized i think that's a fair compromise with what allen had suggested could include a potential year-round civic center building okay what's wrong with that uh could you scroll down a little bit into the process area uh sure thank you um meaningful to maximum feasible here i was in the war on poverty maximum feasible participation was a turn to reinforce not critical what is what does that mean alan what does maximum musical mean to you participation it means as close to everyone as you can get yeah i don't support the inclusion of that language um not because i don't want to see that element but i do know that what's going to cause you know what is going community engagement is what is going to um those are the costs that are going to drive up this proposal and we obviously can't have everybody in the community for um well we don't know what we can have but the ideal should at least be to maintain when we talked about community engagement at least maintain a standard as the war on poverty put forward and having worked in that and that's a language that i would say would be normally part of such a thing meaningful you can say meaningful and then we can say well that's anyhow you don't want it you don't want it okay uh i wanted to put in in terms of the phasing a recognition of 2024 is the ann arbor bicentennial and in the staging of however they see this unfolding over time that is a focal point if there's a building to be built or a bridge to be made or something something in that process should culminate on that timeline i think we should have that as part of our recognition of what we are dealing with is that a problem i'm good with that about the dda site details mentioned in the dda district yes it's also a midtown a character district i'm not exactly sure what that is but looking over all the districts of town this is in a sort of there's a midtown character too and as long as we're identifying districts i think that maybe that language would be useful that's why i included that alan real quick uh do you you know the midtown character the dda is a defined area um that you know adding a midtown character district is not something that currently exists and so at least to my knowledge um i'm not so sure we need to add that in i saw it in the plan okay maybe i missed that is that actually in there heather in the test course report no um i'm not sure i don't know that people would know that it would what that would mean um i'm not sure what the midtown character district is myself to be honest unless you're talking about the zoning district uh rather than looking at the dda districts i read some of the districts of ann arbor oh i see yeah i don't know that i don't know that i consulted you know like it would it would make them do leg work to understand what that even means so i don't know that it would be helpful and there was a midtown district which is sort of in this area where we are in a number of different neighborhoods and then there was moving down packard another district it's not important okay i wanted to include as the relevant participants there the credit union and the inter-cooperative council uh jerusalem garden the noble house and carriage houses historic buildings and note that there are other pacific buildings and music and the apartment houses and the space of the space also includes library lane and the ramps whatever we do with them and whenever we are speaking usually the spoke of the library lot and we have been cautioned or desire to speak of it as a library lane lot so i wish that language would just be corrected and then i added two other sections there was a section on the liberty plaza and the different parts i added library lane to look at the walkability and landscaping of that is a pretty dry and to look at the potential of an elevated terrace and to look at the potential of a civic center construction building and those are potentials i wish they would be looked at and then i added another section of potential connections and how we would actually interface with the first martin building and with the library building existing or future and to project across the street to the new housing on the y lot and the blake bus terminal from a new library there could be a second a bridge over the avenue anyhow that is part of design stefan had some view of that in his drawings ellen we don't actually have jurisdiction over that though you know i mean well just say we're trying to envision design you know we how do we interface with our neighbors there and what is the potential and difficulties of closing the west end of library lane for large events which is what was designed but now there is a convenience of the bus company that goes through there and so that can't be done uh but that is something that we should request information about so so real quick on just looking at this um library lane subsection here you know i i guess i'm just going to ask you you know when it comes to the library lot or library lane lot i'm fine with getting the language corrected here um you know our is there any reason um why we just can't include the library lane in you know library lot and library lane or library lane lot and library lane and just take care of having to create another section and um because library lane is a dose is a street and these are both elements that look at how can we build over that street to increase people's space and subordinate the automobile which is an implicit principle you know we want this as monster people and as little to the cars yeah i tend to think we're you know i appreciate all the extra effort you put in on this alan i'm i'm a little worried that we're i think heather's done i think we're we have the potential of overloading this this this document a little bit and um i think heather's done a nice job of trying to integrate what we've said at the last meeting um but i think it gives folks a pretty good sense of what the space is and and what we're what you know we're really trying to get to the design process and there's a lot that's going to come after this but i don't you know it looks pretty good right i know at the last meeting i brought up a recognition of a potential civic center building and i didn't see it here so i'm making a little explicit yeah i i i think the question that we need to have a helper help us look at is the connection between liberty plaza and the library lane lot and that intersects with the first martin company and that recognition that we've got to get into what are the options the commercial arcade through the martin company that they seemed interested in when it first was presented that that hasn't been reinforced is a pretty interesting idea and whatever our information people should be looking at and look at that it seems like those things are appropriate in what we're looking for information otherwise they'll should come to us and say so what are we looking at with these people why don't we put out maximum information of what we offer yeah ellen so i'm going to just make a quick suggestion here i i'll i think we should just take your your library lane section here and i think we just put it in i don't see any harm in doing that it is part of the block um and then i do think you know adding a point because we have talked a lot about the importance of connecting liberty plaza and uh and the other parcels maybe adding a point i'm not sure where it goes best maybe it goes under the block uh section around the connection points you know at you know the desires to connect the elements together um i think i would caution if if you're saying take this whole library lane section you know the potential for an elevated terrace over the ramps and bridge connection between liberty plaza library lean lot and the potential for civic center building constriction over heard a lot library lane i don't know that just feels pretty prescriptive that's that's a fair point why don't we just take the first the first section and you know get yeah and be a little broader is there any objection to that okay so heather if you could put in just the library lane subsection and then that first line and then add at a point in the block subsection around connecting the parcels together um so you know the description of the different areas the public spaces um on the land are just our descriptions um that's a fair point yeah so that's that just gives background i just don't have you know there wasn't a lot of information that i had about librarian you know i could say that it's a public lane i guess you know in the description area but i can put you know in the design section or for changing that to program section yep i think that makes sense yeah that makes i think i go i know where you're getting what you're you'll add a connection point into the design section and then just enumerate that the library lane is one of the parcels under the site details that sounds good just suggest that you note that library lane is not a public road it's a private street and that's only a classification in terms of engineering so if they're looking at the width of this street is under under the usual size of think as long as it's called out as a feature uh given that we're just talking about site details that's probably fine i think i think the point that alan getting at and just enumerating that does exist there actually that does make sense to me and he's called out is a feature in the uh first part for the last line of the first paragraph it is library lane parking structure in library lane it is yep and there is a view you may not share it and it may need to have professional dickering with but the library lane airspace is potential people's face that should be developed and can be developed as part of the commons how it is done requires some inspiration some of it might be a building some of it might be a deck some of it might be the western opening to the new martin building it will improve the quality of their space but that is all potential in this and somebody who is looking at a design process and a design vision should know where things are at now if there are any other ideas that should be put in you know that's what we want to stimulate a potential bidder for this you know to actually be thinking about what's going on i feel like we've crossed way past rfi and into almost rfp territory this is awfully this feels so prescriptive and so we've gone off of what this purpose is in my opinion and i i mean no offense it just i feel like we've gone way beyond what we should in this document and for its intended purpose as to what i understood the intended purpose to be so real quick okay if we get heather if you could pull up the document just and take a look at the changes that we're making here i do think that you know pulling pulling up allen's list you could certainly get that impression gem but i don't actually think that that's what we're we're adding in here um yeah i haven't added a whole lot to it so i i mean i'm just kind of keeping notes at the end right now um so adding recognizing 2024 the ann arbor bicentennial library lane lodge not erd library yeah not library lot so changing that and then i did add um you know something towards the end of design improve walkability and landscaping along library lane so that's what i have so far but i mean i i do i know what jennifer is saying because i do feel like if we just kind of like this could go on forever where we're including detail after detail detail and then adding you know like these partners like how along this part this is just supposed to be like a sampling of people yeah you know like i don't know that we want to just keep adding to this again this is just supposed to give people consultants a a sense of you know the history of the background what we're generally looking for to come up with a very general process again we're not asking them for a proposal but just kind of give it help them get a sense of what a process would be to help us do design so i i think that i mean alan given what uh heather just listed off i mean um you know it obviously does not correct all the wording that you had asked about but it i think it does speak to a lot of the elements that you had asked to include all right well if somebody comes forward to uh you know bid on this uh i obviously have the opportunity to tell them what there was left out of this that they should know about absolutely not sort of wasted my time and looking through this and how to make a better document that is more instructive but to a potential bidder who might give us information that we need i would like in the list of organizations the initiating committee to be identified as i said as recognized by the city council as a on the ground a partner in this development and i provided some texts for that and i wish there would be a reference to the city council resolution that recognized the initiating committee and our community commons initiating committee uh i mean i know i made far too much of this and it's on the which is uh you know an abusive and so i'm satisfied with whatever is put out there and whoever bids on it i'll have plenty of opportunity to say what i think is relevant presuming that they're not going into the positive but they will actually deal with these people yep that sounds good [Music] are there uh are there any um are there any other amendments for the rfi uh i would like to ask if a companion references are expected to be every expected to be available to the responders to the rfi such as the task force report which i think includes a lot of the things that alan is you know looking for it this is really i i'm with jen this is really kind of ballooned into a very detailed and somewhat prescriptive uh you know you must include every uh you know all of these things including engineering realities you know it's just it it's their j it's their profession it's their and that to to be informed and if we give them some of the major documents they'll go from there and everybody wants to make it their own so the respondents will try to make it unique in their interpretation i i just think we're going way beyond their they'll stop reading who's going to want to respond to this so i i do think though that uh you know i mean just respectfully to the original draft i actually don't think we've added very much to this tonight in terms of you know we made some maybe key changes that folks wanted to see but i don't know that we've added a lot of material here um you know is there a reference uh heather to the yeah center of the city report there it is right there so i i mean i think that point is pretty well that's the that's the task force so do they have do they have access to it yep they should should be a public document right there i don't i don't know why you wouldn't just list the access to these reports if they just a link yeah it's linked right here in the blue yeah but i i mean just just eliminate all that verbage and let them you know look at it i well never mind whatever you want to do any other any other points yep i just want to add one small thing that as far as like the the groups to be consulted if we could just like leave that sort of open-ended um because there are others you know um so instead of you know we have this whole very specific list but there are a few others and i'll spare us a listing of what i've thought of but you know let's leave that door open like such as do you want to yes such as yeah such as would expand it a little perfect um well the statement here it says it is critical for this effort to have an equitable engagement approach that is highly inclusive of members of our community that have historically had limited participation in decision-making processes keeping this in mind as a central tenant to and top priority of the engagement process the engagement process must also include the following interested and affected parties so it's you know it's not limiting it's it's just like originally this was just meant to list you know kind of the partners that we saw and it ended up expanding a little bit further than that right so the first paragraph to me sort of speaks to people who might be more casual users and i'm thinking of like the liberty plaza people who use liberty plaza i feel like they're described in that first paragraph and then there are the other more established groups um so i hope that the engagement will include um regular users of liberty plaza in some way um but let's leave the door open that's i want to say yeah i i almost think that uh your description rita is actually covered in that first sentence though um you know that when we reference uh highly inconclusive members of the community have been historically had limited participation decision making process i mean if you want to add in user including current users no i know i'm thinking that that is inclusive of that so but i'm thinking so there are still others you know so i'll just say one the martin building includes the center for a continuing education of women you know so that's another kind of block partner so there is so let's just leave the door open okay so um and maybe that's just including start the list including maybe maybe uh maybe heather go back up to that last sentence on that first part there you go right here there's such as such including at least the following interested and affected parties include must include at least the following interested thanks yep no problem any other any other points okay you do are you raising your hand oh not at this time and i won't get too i i'd like to say something at the end i guess for next agenda definitely so do we need to vote on this to put out the should i put a mission forward yeah i think we should i do do you want to put a deadline on what they are when they are we want the respondent back um i will leave that up i'd like heather maybe to just suggest when that's an appropriate date would be um well probably a month after it goes out is what i would suggest just to give consultants plenty of time to respond that sounds good to me i move that i'll go with that too are we developing a list of consultants to contact are we putting it out generally what are we doing it goes out generally we have a board that our all of our rfps you know things like this go out on and i can send you a link to that if that's helpful so you can see what that looks like sounds good uh heather heather uh erica did you make a motion then officially yes do we have a second second okay uh there's motion on the floor to put forward the rfi um you know uh with a few of the history wording changes and the suggestions that heather uh looked at if there's folks are okay with it heather and i can talk offline make sure that gets done and then but the motion is to put it out after that's done um and uh it's been seconded uh all in favor say aye hi any opposed okay sounds good it goes out thank you uh thank you everyone um if if it is okay with folks uh can we table uh the items and i am in uh agenda item seven to the next meeting we're gonna come up they're gonna come up again anyways and so that way we can we can advance into um any next agenda items i think you had wanted to voice something there uh alice in the public comments yeah i i do have when you say table do you mean put it on the next agenda is that what you mean yeah yeah the items uh in agenda item seven should be on every uh meeting agenda certainly and in that respect i wanted to mention a couple of things we might think about for the next agenda is whether it's whether the timing is right or not to consider expanding the members of this commission to include the major block partners like the ann arbor district library the um have them listed dda parks you know have somebody on on from those three at least have somebody so i have them on there we have we even have two people from two different organizations do we need two people from these organizations we could make room for including a few of the major institutional block partners which we really need to engage with um because we don't get a chance to otherwise so if we could have them be part of this process instead of being just bystanders i think that would be better um that's something to consider for the next agenda whether we want to expand or re-um distribute our seats on this board um [Music] i think that would also help engage the public and have them understand it would be a broader be a way of broadcasting within the general thing um and also that kind of applies to funding more people will have different ideas about funding than public funding and private funding as well so if we um if we look at that as not relying on those we know but uh relying on those everybody knows you know get more input in that i think we should that's where that i'd like to consider the inclusion of these public entities as well as maybe another like i don't know i don't think we could get the ann arbor area community foundation to put somebody on this commission but but um maybe somebody adjacent to that we kind of need to build our commission with more knowledge more broadly i think and so those are two things about engagement and and money i think that we can talk about within these items on item seven but i would like to have them specifically called out like it's that expansion of the board does it does allow us to do our ordinance does allow for that um to add more seats maybe it's time to do it no i mean the resolution that created this you know prescribed um the number and people that would be involved um i think that and the bylaws the bylaws that have been adopted by city council yeah i don't think that's correct maybe i'd be glad to be corrected if i'm incorrect but i i believe it said foundation you know to be formed as such and that other seats not to be exclusive additional seats sorry to interrupt alice i think heather's correct but i think you know we could certainly discuss oh yeah and it has to because the bylaws that have been adopted and approved by council reinforces what was originally stated about who are the members and then the amount the number of people that are on this board well then there would be a recommendation that would go back to city council from this body you as a body cannot change it it would be recommended to city council okay well then we should consider the recommendation i think so that would be one thing as a sub point on in one of the in the uh seven maybe seven d e or something i really think we should think about the impact we could have if we added more diverse seats substituted that's fine any other uh final appointments for the next agenda before we move into public comment then we could we could uh give consideration to when we expect our annual advice to the city council to be delivered or discussed we have our obvious the one obligation we have is to advise the city council annually we began meeting in may we were formed earlier than that when do we have to do this and how do we bring it about to be what we would like it to be we could talk about uh the delivery on the next agenda yep absolutely put on the next agenda okay any other points all right in that case let's move in a public comment heather do we have any members of the public here robert luck and thank you all you guys are amazing to listen to and to watch your process unfold it is not easy and you reach the good consensus tonight in passing the rfi so congratulations i think you're going to learn a lot by doing that and things will come to you that you don't now see and i'm really glad that you stepped into that space so thank you for that um i was looking back at my notes from april 1st 2021 and much of those discussions from that meeting and the prior one and subsequent ones have been a lot about this same stuff you're talking about i would suggest you may have been able to save yourself some time by just referencing the work that was done before in the hundreds and hundreds of hours the 12 people on the task force heather was there alan was there and many many many many public meetings if you look at page page seven let me just see here of that task force there's a vision if you look at page 26 urban spaces preferences like balance of fountains prominent sculpture grassy and paved areas prominent trees these all came out of that task force and they were done a long time ago february 2020.

one two two i'm going to turn off the camera right now while i'm you know while back on oh there we go everyone good um i'd like to call to order the january 6 2020 clifton board of education reorganization meeting and we'll start with a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence please 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 gibberish the next order of business is the administering the oath the elected board members um we're just going to go in alphabetical order and congratulations to ms basford uh miss danny and mr paris so we're going to start with miss basford going in athletic order raise your right hand aye judith bafford bye judith basford do you solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states that i will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of new jersey and the constitution of the state of new jersey and that i will bear true faith and i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the united states and to the governments established in the united states and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so only god so help me god i judith bastard aye judith basford do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that i possess the qualifications prescribed by law that i possess the qualifications disbrot described by law for the office of member of the board of education for the office of member of the board of education and that i am not disqualified and i am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to and that i am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs rs 19 colon 4-1 19 colon 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction conviction of a crime nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in or an offense listed in njs njs 18a 188 12-1 12-1 and that i will faithfully then i will faithfully impartially and justly impart impartially and just perform all the duties of that office perform all duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me god so help me god congratulations thank you next miss lucy danny will be having um mayor and zaldi be uh swearing her in tonight ready lucy yeah good i state your name i lucy danny do solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states that i will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of new jersey and the constitution of the state of new jersey and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government's established and to the government's established in the united states in the united states and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me god so help me god i state your name i lucy danny do soundly swear do solemnly swear that i possess the qualifications prescribed that i possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of a member of the board of education by law for the office of member of the board of education and that i am not disqualified as a voter and that i am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs 194-1 um pursuant to rs 19 4-4 19 colon 4-1 nor disqualified nor disqualified because the conviction of a crime or offense due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in the njs a listed in njs 18a 12-1 and that i will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me god so help me god congratulations lucy thanks and next i'll be swearing in mr paris you raise your right hand i allen paris hi alan parish do you solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states that i will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of new jersey and the constitution of the state of new jersey and that all i will bear true faith that i will bear true faith and allegiance to to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the united states and to the government's established in the united states and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me god so help me god i island paris hi helen parish do solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that i possess the qualifications that i possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education and that i am not disqualified and i am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to as a voter pursuant to rs 19 4-1 rs 194-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a 12-1 or offense listed in njs 18 a 12-1 and that i i will faithfully and that i will faithfully and partially and partially and justly perform all the duties and justly perform all the duties of that office of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me god so help me god congratulations [Applause] next i'll ask the assistant business board secretary to vote for a roll call please mr abu drabo here mr awad here miss bassford here ms beltran yeah mr canova here mr daley here dr danny dr danny she's saying here oh sorry sorry i was i'm saying here but i was muted sorry mr paris mr smith here we have a quorum next agenda item if i could ask our superintendent dr robertosi to read our mission statement thank you mr usee the mission of the clifton public school district in an open and reciprocal community partnership is to provide all students with a quality education develop to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world next i'll read the um reading of the open public meeting statement the new jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time in place thereof posted at the city clerk's office clifton public library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv in the local press on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy zero one six eight next order of business can i call for nominations for the president of the board of education for the 2020 school year mr chair can i nominate jim smith miss lucy i nominate joking over are there any more nominations i will close nominations then um i i left a piece of paper in front of you if you can sign who you're voting for per our policy and sign it and i'll walk around and collect them and if the the two board members miss danny and miss beltran if you could please type into the google meet which only the people in can see so it is private and i will be reading the votes aloud as well per our policy i'll just read them in the order i have i received them mr abedrabo voted for mr smith mr smith voted for himself mr smith mr awad voted for mr smith miss basford voted for joe conova mr paris voted for mr canova mr daly voted for mr smith mr canova voted for mr canova miss beltran voted for mr kenova and miss danny voted for mr smith so with a vote of five to four mr smith has a majority vote and is elected president for the year of 2022 okay we next we'll open uh nominations for the office of vice president mr president uh first of all congratulations second of all i'd like to nominate mr jim daly okay no to mr daley any other nominations from the floor mr smith i would like to nominate for vice president dana beltran okay dana beltran are there any other nominations from the floor say none motion uh to close nominations mr abu drabo okay same thing if you take your ballots and hand them to uh all right mr president i receive the votes i will tally them mr abadrabo voted for mr daily mr awad voted for mr daly mr smith voted for mr daly ms basford voted for miss beltran mr paris voted for mr daly mr daley voted for himself mr canova voted for miss beltran miss belfrand voted for herself and miss dr danny voted for mr daily on a vote to six to three mr daley has been elected with a majority for vice president for the school year of [Applause] okay well next we'll move on to reading of the school board member code of ethics bylaw0142 okay school board members shall abide by the following code of ethics for school board members i will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the state board of education and court orders pertaining to schools desire changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures b i will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race creed sex or social standing c i will confine my board action to policy making planning and appraisal and i will keep to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them d i will carry out my responsibilities not to administer the schools but rather with my fellow board members to see that they are well run e i will recognize that authority rests with the board of education and will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board f i will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interests or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or for the game of friends gi will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly injure individual individuals or the schools in all other matters i will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community for its school h i will vote to appoint the best qualified personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer i i will support and protect school personnel in proper performance of their duties and jay i will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution okay all board members were asked to uh to sign their code of ethics and hand it into the business administrator all right next order of business uh number nine we have the um reading of the school board excuse me reading of the um so where's number 10 uh reading of the min of the meetings the designation of our meetings for the year okay do i have a motion motion post your mind miss bassford second by mr daley discussion seeing none vocal mr abhidrabo yes mr awad yes miss basford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes dr danny yes mr paris yes vice president daley yes president smith yes motion carries all right next we have a selection of delegates and committee appointments and i'll leave those open as of now except for the last one there which is a member board of directors to the northern region educational service commission and dr robertosi will be appointed today all right next we have the superintendent's report dr robitosi thank you mr president congratulations to our newly sworn in board member mr paris mr paris i look forward to working with you for the betterment of our children here in clifton um i know you're here for the right reasons and i'm really happy to have you congratulations to ms basford on her 11th year as a clifton board of education member it's amazing it's really incredible always always know that your heart is in the right place so uh congratulations to you uh mrs basford and dr danny on the screen there congratulations to you right now you're our only educator well not really because mr paris has a teaching certificate but you're one of our teachers on the board of ed and and i think that you always bring a a good perspective when we're talking about certain issues so congratulations to you on another term and i believe this is also your 11th year yeah so congratulations time flies uh congratulations also mr smith on getting elected the president for another year look forward to your leadership and mr daley as vice president i don't think you're going to have to do much mr smith will take you i hope so okay good evening to all of our commissioners and members of the community who are here tonight and watching live happy new year happy and healthy new year to everyone this is the first time we've been able to be together since our last meeting on december 9th and a lot of people have the misconception that when we reopen schools on january 3rd that that decision was made by the board of education and i just want the public to know and i know the board of education members know this that we can only act the board can only act when they are at an official meeting and when there is board action to act upon so the decision to open schools on january 3rd in lieu of a virtual complete virtual option for the district was made by me and me alone for better or worse it's a decision that is is my burden so i know some of our board members took criticism it wasn't their call we are not allowed in between meetings to even talk board business if there are more than five of us in a room on a text message strand or in an email now i can talk to each one individually about certain business but i can't even take a poll on if we were to open schools and we were to vote on it how would you vote so i'm happy to discuss that tonight with any of the board members who might have questions about school opening but i want to give you a quick overview of why that decision was made and kind of where we stand today first i firmly believe that our children need to be in school in person for their overwhelm overall well-being my my time's up already for their overall well-being i know covet is surging i know it's ravaging um the entire country thankfully this new version omicron has been a milder version for many people especially for those who have been vaccinated even for those who are unvaccinated has been a milder version and we've struggled this week to keep our schools open because many of our staff members have tested positive for covet or have immediate family members who've tested positive but to those who are able to show up our teachers once again never fail to impress me never fail to go above and beyond and the ones that couldn't be here it's not their fault they're sick or they're quarantining but the ones who are able to show up once again went above and beyond in what is considered um you know one of the most difficult times there ever was to be a teacher so i want to thank our staff for showing up this week and keeping our schools open i've been in close contact with lori lalama the president of c the cea and although we have some differences of opinion on whether or not schools should have been virtual we can have an open and honest conversation and i respect that and i appreciate that and i appreciate the point of view of the many staff members who would have preferred or felt that it was safer for us to make this district virtual for a short period of time a couple weeks or three weeks like other districts in the state did but i'm also thankful to those teachers who sent me messages of support saying we support your decision we know it was a very difficult decision and we believe schools need to be open because we believe that we can keep our kids safe and i believe that too i believe we can still keep our children safe and our staff safe despite covet 19 surging throughout the community there has been some but little in school transmission through our contact tracing i can't say that there hasn't been any that would be untruthful but there is much less transmission in schools than in many other places that are open in this country and the fact that the first thing people want to do is shut down schools when walmart's open supermarkets are open everybody can go out publicly and go to restaurants and they can go to new year's eve parties and they can go to family gatherings but when it comes to school we have to shut down school i'm sorry i'm philosophically in disagreement with that and although my philosophical disagreement is very strong i understand there's also a practicality to it right and the practical thing is i can open a school if i don't have enough staff and that happened at school 13 this week they opened today i'm thankful to report school 13 open today but i could not open an elementary school with 18 teachers out i've been begging for substitutes for months by the way we're paying 250 dollars a day for substitute teachers if you feel like you can come and make a difference with children here's your chance so while i have physical philosophical differences and philosophical beliefs that schools need to be open because it is best for kids there are practical things and i'm going to do everything i can to keep our schools open but i'm going on record tonight that there may be a time where i have no choice to shut down a school but that decision is not going to be made on a district-wide basis it's going to be made on a school-by-school basis just because i had to shut school 13 down and go virtual doesn't mean i have to shut school 5 down difficult decisions it is absolutely the worst time to be a superintendent in the state of new jersey there is zero guidance from the new jersey department of education other than the decision is left up to the local districts in fact i am not permitted to give a virtual option to our students upon parent request when our schools are open according to the jersey department of education i can only give a virtual option when a student's quarantining or testing positive or an entire class is quarantining or entire school is quarantining or entire district is shut down due to the number of cases i'm not permitted to do it so i heard the parents when i said school was opening january third when i opened up my email and had over 300 emails from various staff parents community members with legitimate concerns please give us a remote option and how do i say i can so i reviewed our board of education policies and i spoke to some board members and i said we have this home instruction policy and there's some leeway in there that gives me the authority to provide a home instruction option and so i did that for those parents who didn't feel it was safe and ultimately that is a parent's choice but then i provided that home instruction option and parents some parents are upset that it's not a full virtual i get it but i'm i'm barely able to offer this home instruction option i was hoping by today the state would have come to their senses and given us that full virtual option but they haven't so i have to be able to do whatever i can for the clifton community to do my best and sometimes my best i'm sorry isn't just good enough it's not good enough some other quick reasons why schools are open and i intend to keep them open as long as i can academically many of our children fell behind and they still haven't caught up and the students who fell behind were most often our most vulnerable students our special education students our low-income students we do a disservice to them by not having schools open many children and teenagers are experiencing mental health problems the american academy of pediatrics recently declared a national state of emergency in children's mental health this is not fox news versus cnn this is the american academy of pediatrics says that there is a national state of emergency in children's mental health we see it we see it every day students going out for psych evaluations students cutting students attempting suicide suicide attempts have risen slightly among adolescent boys but surprisingly sharply among adolescent girls the number of er emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts by 12 to 17 year old girls rose 51 percent from early 2019 to 2021.

[Music] do [Music] do [Music] you [Music] do [Music] so [Music] i'd like to call this meeting to order pursuant to the open public's meeting act adequate public notice has been given by the secretary of the sham township board of education in the following matter posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the board of education office mailing written notice to the burlington county times and to the career post following written notice with the municipal clerk of the esham township the next item on the agenda is the um the announcement of the official the official election results um joe fizzicarro received ten thousand five hundred and sixty-five votes niche captain received 900 9621 votes jamie lee received 286 votes teresa varone received 126 votes john jenks received 117 votes anthony butch received 101 votes k.d patel received 99 votes melissa fleming received 91 votes sandy's student received 17 votes then it was personal choice of 548 votes the three uh winning big board seats were joe fizzakara denise canton and jamie lee at this time i'm going to ask casey gifford the board associate to come forward and administer the oath of office right [Music] true faith and allegiance [Music] that i possess the qualifications prescribed by law do not possess the complications prescribed by law for the office and member of the board of education the office of the member reporter education and i am not disqualified as a murderer for the statute and i must qualify in order to pursue a reception nor does qualified use conviction of a crime uh and uh [Applause] [Music] um [Music] board of education and i am not disqualified as a voter that i'm not disqualified nor does follow-up and that i will faithfully and partially and just leave perform all duties in that office [Applause] do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united in new states through the constitution of the state of new jersey and i will american faith and that i will bear true faith and to the government's establishment in the united states and to the government's establishment [Music] qualifications your qualifications for the office of a member of the board of education for the office to member of the board of education and that i am not disqualified as a voter statute and i am not disqualified nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime you're just qualified as commissioners or effects for defense listed at all listen home and that i will faithfully and partially address me and i will and personally and justly perform all duties oh [Applause] at this time it will take a roll call mrs cappello here mrs everhart here mr fizzycarrow here mr campin here mrs knoll here mr lanzalotta here miss lay here mr meagan here mrs ryan here we have a quorum everybody please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it god stands with liberty and justice for all all right at this time i will accept nominations for board president mr secretary i would like to nominate leah ryan for the position of president i will send that nomination okay hearing no other nominations i'll close nominations for board president at this time and on behalf of the board of education since there's only one nomination i will cast a anonymous vote for leah ryan as president of board of education [Applause] i thank you everyone i will now open the floor to nominations for the office of board vice president i'd like to nominate aneesh catherine for vice president second i will send you that nomination all right mister we lost mr megan but there was a first and a second i think that closes nominations since there was only one person nominated for vice president nath canton on behalf of the board of education i will cast the anonymous ballot for anita canton as vice president of board of education [Applause] thank you i forgot everything thank you would you like to come over here thank you this meeting will now be open to the public reference agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person anyone for a public comment okay seeing them close public comment at this time make a resolution to re-adopt a written curriculum of the eastern township school district on file in the office of the director of curriculum and instruction for the 2022 calendar year all curriculum is aligned with the required new jersey student learning standards and is listed as followed i do can i we have a motion to approve 3.1 through 3.7 so a motion by mrs knoll second mrs everhart roll call please um questions or comments first questions or comments from the board seeing none we'll call please mrs capela yes this is everhart yes mr fizzicaro yes mr catherine yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes miss lee mr megan he's not there mrs ryan yes motion carries item 4-1 old new business seeing no old business and new business 4.2 is the resolution to amend the long-range faculty plan any questions or comments from the board okay motion to approve 4.1 and 4.2 mr fizzakero second miss capela didn't i say that yeah it's supposed to be after you oh questions or comments seeing none we'll call please mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes mr vizzakara yes mr canton yes mrs noel yes mr lancelata yes miss lee yes mr megan mrs ryan yes motion carries 5.1 any items of interest from the board that they would like to discuss miss everhart i would like to say congratulations to the new president and vice president welcome good job good luck anyone else seeing none including closed 5.1 and at this point we're at 6.1 motion to adjourn i'm sorry madam president yes um the 5.1 i think also is for the public as well oh okay great thank you no problem the meeting will now be open to the public reference any items of interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person any public comment from the audience okay seeing none i'd like to close public comment okay this point motion to adjourn mr fizzy caro miss everhart second famous everhart all those in favor aye thank you meeting adjourned [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

good morning i'm kate and i'm elijah with your morning announcements for january 7th any boy interested in playing golf this year needs to attend a call out meeting in mr mize's room on monday at 11. this saturday come watch the film toilet paper soldiers by gchs alumni brady domingo it is free admission and show times are 7 o'clock 8 30 and 10 o'clock p.m at wolf theaters now to addison with the weather i'm madison with the weather today's high is 19 low of 6. tomorrow's high is 41 low of 13 and sunday's high is 41 low of 20. all back to your announcements are you a senior that has not ordered their cap and gown yet see badass to get information on how to order yours so you can be in the ceremony there will be an ffa meeting in mrs fry's room on wednesday january 12th at 11 a.m now to addison with lunch today's lunch is pepperoni calzone now back to your announcements start the year out stepping out of your comfort zone with a challenge that could earn you up to two hundred dollars the greensboro optimist club is hosting their annual speech contest february 22nd give a four to five minute speech on the topic of staying optimistic in challenging times application forms are in the office and all information can be found on the flyers hung up around the school for more information see mrs kolkmeier do you like music and hanging out with your friends then being in choir here at gchs is a great way to do both auditions for elite edition show choir and women's choir start on monday january 10th choose your favorite song to sing either by yourself or with a group of friends and audition for mrs simpson in the choir room you can schedule a time during your seminar lunch or after school email her with questions now to addison with the sports tonight we have boys basketball at connersville jv starts at 6.

if you look at page 27 you will find activities preferences survey like sit and talk or read a book or have live music or drink a drink at a cafe have public restroom those are all in there and then if you want anything about physical sketches look at appendix d norm tyler did some great work stefan trendoff has some things you already have a host of information in this task force that's gold for you and i'm glad you're referencing it in the rfi because you'll see that that the professionals are going to bring that right back to you so don't do any extra work that you don't have to do as my suggestion and then if you want to look up another example that i have given many times look at the kaiser center roof park in oakland california chad monfreda who's on the green team and used to work there and walk through that park every day it uh it has a lot of the things that you want to do here on top of a four-story five-story parking structure so that's another example along with the other things that alan mentioned and and your um you know comparative communities outreach and that's a powerful example you already have in front of you model those behaviors and we'll be doing well to consolidate our efforts and work more successfully together and i really want to echo mr de honey's comments which are right on in my opinion know what you want say it right up front don't put the history up front in the rfi say what you want i want an rfpii to help us build toward an rfp and design ideas tell them exactly what you want when you want it and what are the deliverables you'd like to see not just a letter but maybe some other things that says i want to design or i want to process you already have you could edit heather's list into these physical elements and into the qualitative principles there's sort of two things and then approach or method or process is almost all you need for this and then just get a lot of the words out of there keep the links simple and then watch what happens you're going to be amazed so congratulations good luck in the next meeting and i'll enjoy watching you from here on out thank you robert any other members of the public uh heather there is not excellent okay well uh is it possible we could get a motion for adjournment then i move all right moved and seconded all in favor say aye aye opposed excellent long meeting but good you all have a nice evening we'll talk soon i'm 52.

now i'm not saying that has all to do with shutting down schools there's a lot more to this pandemic than shutting down schools but the schools play a major role in a functioning society and whether or not what people think of the new york times i read an article the other day that's not their data but it comes from the nwea which is a respected educational organization saying data now suggests that many of the changes that we've made in schools to our school routines are of questionable value in controlling the viruses spread meaning a lot of things we're doing we don't even really know if they're working and some researchers are skeptical that school closures reduce covert cases at all in some cases school closures have caused more cases because students are gathering in other places other interventions like forcing students to sit apart from their friends at lunch may also have little benefit according to this article i read in the new york times and my own personal option we've been fighting this thing for two years we've been fighting this thing and we hit we haven't beaten it and it keeps coming back so at what point do we say we have to move on and i understand this is we're dealing with people's health too i get it it's a balancing act but i have to do what's best for kids so now on that statement you've heard me say i will always do what's best for kids so now here's the flip side of that the flip side of that is we follow the cdc guidance and the new jersey department of health guidance and anybody who's paying attention knows that that changes like most people change their underwear every day hopefully and over the break the cdc changed the quarantine guidance to five days and everybody said wow it's only five days now this is crazy and many people thought that was done just to appease big business for whatever the reason it was done and we were ready to implement that in our schools because that's the guidance we're going to implement what the cdc new jersey department of health tells us and the next day they come and says but it's not for schools it's for the general public it's not for school so you just continue what you're doing and before the break it was 14 days after the break it's 10 days so we call parents and it's very frustrating to parents and i get it i'm a father of four i've done it every one of my children have been quarantined at least once this year on different occasions either because of their own health or being a close contact so parents are frustrated we call the guidance is changed or the guidance is different than what we put in that very generic letter that i sent so i send home a letter and i say 10 days this 10 days this 10 days this but what people fail to realize is that i can't put every possible scenario that could happen in that letter people stop reading after the first sentence anyway there are so many variables that go into whether or not you're going to quarantine for 10 days or when your quarantine ends and you live in the same household and the next person's quarantine starts it's as frustrating to us as as it is to parents and i'm hoping that the guidance becomes clearer for everyone's sake and for more on that i'm going to ask my outstanding assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction janina kusalevis just to take a a couple minutes and expand on that janina thank you dr robertos good evening i'm just going to reinforce some of the key points that dr uh robert tosie already so passionately and eloquently explained this is a very complex situation the letter that we sent out was our general guidance for a typical case but the guidance as dr robertosi said did change over break household contacts went from a 14 to a 10.

tomorrow morning at 10 a.m we have a swim conference at home tomorrow we have girls basketball at home against franklin county jv starts at six and finally we have another boys basketball game at shelbyville tomorrow night jv starts at six now back to your announcements please follow greensburg safety on instagram to stay up to date with your community all human and social services students should report to their placement this week if you have any questions please see mrs allbrand have a great day and be sure to follow us on twitter snapchat and instagram at gchs pirates also be sure to listen to gtv radio on live365.com

regular quarantining for a brief moment looked like it might be five days we actually gave the five-day guidance to some people over break and had to immediately call back and say oh no not for schools each and every case is individual context tracing is individualized case by case and the most controversial being the household contact but it's very individualized based on individual living situations it can only be an individualized decision unfortunately and frustratingly it can go as long as 20 previously 24 days it's very very important when the contact tracer be it the nurse the principal or someone from the health department called to trace your case that they're given accurate information because the information that you are giving if someone's been tested if someone has symptoms if someone is positive when that started can change the duration of the quarantine longer or shorter so it's very important that we be accurate as for instruction as dr robertosi shared there is no option for virtual instruction simply by choice but we can if need be based on health reasons or another emergency that lasts for three or more days offer virtual options students that are quarantined by the district do receive a synchronous virtual option if they're quarantined for other reasons they receive an asynchronous option the short-term home instruction that was offered this past week for these next two weeks was a release valve it was to allow families with serious covet concerns families who were looking for a test waiting on a test result unsure waiting for a call back from a contact trace or simply waiting to report to the school it gave a release valve for our students to be able to safely stay at home and work asynchronously on home instruction while the situation of the health issues was worked out to reiterate are quarantining students now if you're in school and you get quarantined or you test positive now simply report to the school you do not need to apply for home instruction again we will notify you of your synchronous or asynchronous option we know it's very frustrating but the situation is very complex and individualized even the our own teachers in our classrooms currently we still have the shields at our desks because that has prevented some of our quarantines although some people don't like them currently we are still leaving our windows open to a degree there needs to be increased ventilation in our schools the referendum will resolve that in the future but that is going to take some time so this winter we're still keeping windows cracked we have air filters in multiple in every location so we're trying to layer our health and safety protections while also managing very complex and individualized cases while by the way regulations keep changing so i hope that that clarifies somewhat and we have a section on the website where you can click right on the home page covet information as soon as you click on that link there is a dated section in the left column right now it's dated most recently 1 5 of 22 and that's the most current guidance at the moment thank you so much thank you so much miss kusalevich so to our commissioners who any questions that you have tonight please feel free anything you're not sure about anything you have unresolved questions please don't hesitate to ask and i'll do my best to answer those questions uh but for the general public please please bear with us we we really are we're really trying our best in um in a really difficult situation and we would ask for everybody's patience and we would ask for everybody's cooperation to the best of your ability and finally mr smith i know as as president you will be creating new board committees soon i would just ask that i do need to have a student judiciary committee hearing a week from tonight so if as soon as possible if we can get that together so i can notify that's scheduled for next thursday night at 5 p.m thank you to our commissioners happy new year welcome back and congratulations mr president yeah just to follow up on uh the superintendent's uh outstanding presentation with miss khrusalevich as well i fully support the superintendent for many of the reasons he's outlined of his philosophical background there's no question in my mind at least that we're going to have this or some other um pandemic or or health issue on an ongoing basis in our world it's not just the united states it's not just clifton it's not just new jersey this is a worldwide phenomenon so if you go to the philosophy of a total shutdown you're shutting down the economy and that is going to be disastrous for our way of life and many others their way of life so you do need to take care of yourself and your family and be diligent about how you protect yourself i also come from a experience in terms of being a front line employee as they call them an essential employee i come in contact with thousands of public people on a daily basis so i've been doing that ever since this pandemic started and fortunately due to safeguards and other issues i've been almost 100 healthy throughout this time but everybody is different as we learned also from the pandemic so in general for our schools um i think we do need to be open we do need to have this and deal with it best we can and i don't think staying at home is the answer either for the educational and social reasons that the dr robertosi outlined so i'm fully supportive of the superintendent in in his uh effort to get our children educated to keep our balance of our human anatomy and and socialization that's so important for our society and particularly in educating our children so i and then i like to also thank all our students staff teachers and administration who've done such an outstanding job this is not an easy task i think everybody recognizes this no matter what what career you're in or what state of your life is in this is not an easy and something we cannot wave a magic wand and make it disappear this is going to be with us and we need to learn how to deal with it in the best way we can and again my support goes to you mr superintendent okay we'll move on to public recognition this portion of the media is open to the residents and non-residents of clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and are directly related to the operation of the clifton public school district residents and non-residents are requested if in person to sign the register provided for this purpose all speakers are asked to state their names municipality that they live in and subject matter before speaking comments are limited to five minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and their response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by the board members the board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments anyone wish to address the board just assume that i can be first i it is my first time it is the teacher in me yes you are absolutely right um i can start i don't know if there's like a okay okay thank you superintendent robert cozy and commissioners of the board of education my name is lori ann desimone and i reside at 12 donna drive both of my children attend clifton early learner academy on brighton road i stand before you this evening to ask for formal written documentation of the policy dr robitosi spoke of earlier regarding household contact for exposure to cobit 19.

i've asked my children's building principal the supervisor of nursing and superintendent robert chosey and it has yet to be procured for me the clifton public schools website i checked it right now states to discuss with the school nurse i have not heard from my student from my children's school nurse regarding household contact for covid19 my husband and i both tested positive for coven 19 on the evening of december 23rd after he was exposed at work the entire family quarantined for 10 days as per cdc guidelines i plan to send both of my children to school on january 3rd because as an experienced educator in a neighboring district i believe it's integral for all students to receive traditional in-person learning if at all reasonably possible and i applaud and agree with you dr robertosi for keeping the school district open during this time i particularly think it's imperative for students receiving special education services like my son henry to be in school despite this i was informed that my children would not be able to return on january 3rd because the school district was requiring a 24-day isolation period for household contacts of covid19 like dr robert chozi said earlier this may be of questionable questionable value at actually stopping the spread of covid19 i was informed that i can test my children for covet 19 and if they tested positive the date of their system set could be used as the first day of their isolation period i tested both children my daughter tested positive on monday and was permitted to attend school on wednesday although this is in direct contra contradiction of every other correspondence i've ever received from the district regarding covid19 however it seems that it follows this 24-day household contact policy that i have yet to read myself my son tested negative on monday this may have been to the difficulty of swabbing the nose of a small child it may have been due to the fact that he is no longer infected with covin 19 i too tested negative although i was positive on a pcr test on december 23rd however according to the policy that i have yet to read myself it may also be because henry has not yet been infected with coven 19 despite having three family members that have tested positive for this highly contagious disease i was informed that my son would be excluded from school until january 18th i was also informed that henry is not eligible for a fully virtual option because the contact of covid did not come from the school district i was informed that he can test on january 10 and return to school on january 13th with a negative test although rosely was permitted in school with a positive test and now henry must test negative to return to school counting the holidays recess my son who has cerebral palsy and a global developmental delay due to a rare genetic disorder who has started therapy services at the age of nine months old due to his severe developmental delays and presently receives physical occupational and speech services in a self-contained multiple disability special education classroom will have been out of school for a minimum of 20 days i'm sure anyone with any experience with children could agree that this could be potential potentially detrimental to his already delayed development if not in complete violation of his iep i simply would like to peruse the policy that exclu is excluding a child that is one of the most vulnerable population like dr robertosi said earlier from in-person learning for myself i also urge you to meet with the department of health and certified medical professionals on the necessity of this policy i have not been able to find the documentation myself from a reliable source despite all my searching it also seems that it is in direct contradiction of your mission statement that says you are trying to create literate lifelong learners which is impossible if students are not in school if covet is 19 is extremely contagious how is it that a household contact may not be exposed to it until 10 days or more after their family members originally came home with it i continue to look forward to reading and fully understanding this policy that the clifton public school district is adhering to and i thank you for permitting to permitting me to speak before you tonight thank you thank you good evening tom whittles president of clifton against substance abuse i want to start by congratulating the three board members that were sworn in tonight mr paris good luck to you um miss danny good luck to you and miss basford good luck to you i want to start by saying you you know was telling that this year's election there were nine people running we didn't have the one two three wave as everybody always talks about we had mr paris number three miss danny number seven miss password number nine during the election process people came after miss basford pretty hot and heavy they were throwing a lot of mud out there once again miss bassford was the number one vote getter it just goes to show you that the citizens of clifton are smart enough to see through all the stupidity and nonsense they voted for lucy danny who's an educator as dr robitazi had pointed out earlier mr paris a newcomer who has an education degree and miss basford who has given her heart and soul to the students of this district for the 11 years plus that she served as a member of casa as a member of the you know the the special educations praise things along those lines so it just goes to show that the citizens of clifton are smart enough to step outside of the stupidity and vote for people that they feel are best for the students mr robitazi i don't uh you you gotta you got a tough seat there is no doubt about that because you are never gonna be able to make everybody happy um but good luck and and and you've been doing yeoman's job with it i i do believe that i i talk to our health officers pretty frequently here in clifton and i know you do as well because we speak about it um you got a tough tough job and you're doing you're doing a good job 2021 was a tough year for for but you handled it really really well um a couple of couple of other positive things that came out of 2021 of course was you got your referendum passed um football team did well a lot of the sports teams did well football teammates to the state championship those are all positive let's talk about the negative there are still right now down in the state department of education and trenton ethics charges that have been filed against board members here in the city of clifton i know of two right now we'll see where they go there was a motion to dismiss was denied was denied at some level we're waiting we're waiting to hear what happens next down there but that will be the legacy of the leadership of this current board um and on the last note if pulling a move by filing harassment charges against me and that's exactly what it was a move is a way of keeping me quiet it's not going to work it's not going to work i made it very very clear back in june that i will continue this until mr abu drabba resigns his position on the board and i'm not going away i'm not going away and every time mr abu drabba was up for something whether it's a board seat council seat assembly seat i will produce the tape where he admitted to endangering the welfare of the children i have the newspaper articles there's a whole bunch in the back but anybody wants to read them there's two there's one that was written when i filed the complaint and it was written in a newspaper called the jewish link by a board of education commissioner out of englewood new jersey and there may be more so i'm not going away i've made it clear i've made it clear to the board president mr robitazi you and i have spoken about it i'm just making it very very clear that that's the the positive stuff you got some negative stuff that needs to be cleaned up as well have a good night good evening everybody mark brunsiak holly street clifton i want to wish everybody a happy and new year and i want to congratulate miss basford miss danny mr paris on their uh election wins and they're swearing in today it was a very uh tough battle and i want to thank all my supporters as well and um i just want to let everybody know that i'm not going anywhere and i want to commend dr robert tosie for the tough decision and correct decision that he made to keep the school's option open and to at least give an option for asynchronous learning is it perfect no it's not and we've been asking you know the legislator has to give an option to those at the board level to make an option to have a remote option we've been asking for this for a long time to no avail even this sounds like it was very difficult to do and for two weeks and uh just like he said it's it's it's not good and he is not the only one that feels that way even governor murphy has repeatedly stated remote instruction hurts student learning the schools need to do everything they do to stay open and over the 600 school districts in new jersey as of this past tuesday less than 30 had mo have moved to the virtual option that's one half of one percent due to the covet 19 surge and um i want to thank miss amy keloje for writing this very good article in the clifton times and uh explaining thoroughly what it was and i want to give a shout out to to uh donna popowicz as well who thoroughly explain to many of the parents in this district where asynchronous learning is that option because a lot of parents thought it was it was a full remote option that is not indeed the case and we will continue so i'm asking this board to please contact the representatives the assembly people in our district the state senators i mean the only the only commissioner here that i've publicly heard stated talking to lawmakers is miss basford herself so i i hope the rest of you can contact mr giblin and uh whoever the state senators are over here as well in our district because this is sorely needed for those parents that are very concerned about their kids get an option and uh i'm sure the parents would be quite relieved those that are very concerned about it but it comes at a cost piggybacking again as to what dr robertozi said i think we we had the same article so we sucked some of the wind out of my time tonight and and the the name of the article from the new york times is no way to grow up and the lead is for the past two years americans have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults by mr david leon leonhardt and it wasn't only the american academy of pediatrics but even the washington post has described how much increase in violence there has been and it's not just what happens at home it's a combination of things too and if you think these mandates are helping anybody psychologically they are absolutely not and it's especially devastating for the same people that dr robert tosie described before it's the most at risk minorities the poor these are the people most at risk this is not normal this is almost going on two years and this is what we're asking people are double and triple vast and they're still getting infected okay and uh i don't think it's going away so you do the best you can that's what we're asking for everybody and um lot of schools still haven't returned to normal lunchtime extracurricular activity assemblies school trips parent-teacher conferences it's still virtual as far as i'm aware of what's the long-term effects of this what are the kids going to say what are you going to say sorry you didn't have to get you didn't get a real graduation have a first kiss and if it wasn't for this man over here how many sports would have been played last year either that was a tough decision to make while we were full while a lot of a lot of schools were full remote so thank god for that as well and we'll know in a few years thank you for your time and god bless america have a good night everybody uh tommy keith for twin nelson street i really just came here for one thing to tell dr robert tosie thank you for keeping schools open both my children uh dustin goes to school five my daughter alice goes to the early learning school on brighton road they both love school they both are doing great and they did not want to stay home when i read that email that you sent about school's opening they it was like chris this morning all over again they were so excited and i thank you so much for that it's very hard decision but it was the right decision it was the correct decision for many points that have already been made i'll skip why because they've already been said um there are two other points i want to make we get these emails from school when we get a contact and they give this big scary paragraph oh cohen 19 and blah blah blah scientific and now you've got a quarantine or or proper notifications it's just there to scare you how about an email maybe weekly bi-weekly hey look your school guess what out of fifteen hundred kids four hundred uh fourteen hundred and ninety-eight kids are covered free something with positivity to counteract that negative email that everyone dreads myself included so that would be a cool point if that could happen and um that's really it i really appreciate you giving the option to everyone to try to make everyone happy it shows that you're trying to do the right thing and it's really important to me because it's important to my kids and i appreciate keeping schools open thank you very much good evening to everyone my name is lori lalama and i'm the president of the cea dr robertosi thank you it was a difficult christmas break working and talking back and forth now the idea is to keep everybody safe and that was the main thing and and to come up with ideas and solutions and even though sometimes we don't agree but we still work out so i just want people to understand that all right so i have a few concerns that i'd like to address the board i believe that the district needs more full-time custodians there aren't enough on staff especially going through covid for the last two years which i'm sure will not be ending anytime soon i asked my magic 8 ball and it said yes definitely they do their sorry they do the regular routine cleaning but they have no time to get to the cove cleaning and this is an issue we realize that is due to the shortage of staff as well as being quarantined or coveted positive i have been hearing concerns throughout the district and i want to make sure that everyone understands i'm not throwing the custodians under the bus but reiterating the importance of hiring more full-time custodians due to how large our district is as well as the amount of people that attend and work here i believe that the sr2 funds would help the staff has been asking for clean safe buildings since we've returned in september this is a recommendation from the abundance of workshops i have taken from the new jersey work environmental council and meeting with other custodians at pcea events and at the njea delegate assembly next idea i've received many emails from the staff regarding yesterday's ic condition and why wasn't a delayed opening called stuff some staff members feel that their lives were endangered and safety was compromised could you please explain this and how does the district make the decision to either decide on delayed opening or closing schools during inclement weather next one some parents are not following protocols and this has the staff extremely concerned i want to make sure that people understand that the kids come to school to learn and we are not babysitters so if your child is sick please keep them home because it just spreads to other kids and to faculty members and they don't want to bring it home either to their family and their friends in some of the buildings there's a issue with nurses and we know because they're sick staff members have been sending the sick students to the main office and they've been returning back to the classrooms so if something could be checked there i would appreciate it and i just want to wish everybody a happy and healthy new year and i hope everybody has a great evening thank you anyone wants to address the board samantha basford clifton new jersey um you know dr robertosi when you were talking about mental health rates of you know [Music] young students young professionals older people i think everyone mentally is being highly affected through the pandemic there are things going on it made me really think of how do peers support their peers right because there's only a certain amount of counselors there's only a certain amount of teachers not everyone is going to tell their teacher their counselor whoever that they're in crisis right and some people don't know what a crisis looks like internally especially if you come from a household where you know your background and your family does not let you express those mental health because it's not something that culturally may be accepted right we have those barriers as well [Music] so although i'm not technically an educator because my degree is in education but i have a lot of experience in higher education and something that i thought that would be great for your students is to get mental health first aid i've had a lot of college students do it 18 19 20 year olds just asking the question ask persuade refer right that's qpr that's if someone is thinking of hurting themselves endangering themselves a lot of times students don't know how to sit with anxious thoughts adults don't know how to sit with anxious thoughts it's okay to be uncomfortable and that's something that i think even anyone from any age struggles with and i think you know although we have covet and there's education and learning teaching those skills and teaching [Music] you know understanding how to reflect on your feelings and how to ask i think maybe the earlier generation can a little bit ask because it's normalized and social media tick tock and stuff like that but not everybody has that social skill set either right you see students with autism may ruminate on having ideation because once the thought hits them that's all they can think about but they don't really want to do something it's just scary to have the thought i think that's a skill set that doesn't get taught a lot i think a lot of students come to the university setting not understand that skill set so i've talked about diversity in the past and how to implement that into the school system but i do think you know mental health education is something especially at such a large district like we have and it's very easy to get lost in the mosh pit um that was a joke but i think that's something that um can be really really helpful especially when you can get lost really easy um the second thing i want to bring up today is you know mr whittles was right with talking about um great things that happened the past year tough things that have happened the past year and you know i really didn't want to get up to the mic i really been trying um you know some girls take out the earrings i pull up my hair if you understand that reference you know how i feel right now um but you know mr smith i hope as the president again that you are watching for conduct on the board i'm sorry it's very distracting mr awada mr abudrabo we're talking when other people are talking it's very distracting for a person like me who is very used to having eyes all around the room because i have to and you specifically do when the women talk and i'm not trying to say that you're being gender specific and you can shake your head you're doing it to me now as i'm speaking to you and it's very rude it is very rude and so you're commenting back and you're not supposed to comment back correct right keep the comments so why don't we give my my three second time back right but that's what it seems like i'm telling you about perception right if i'm sitting here and i'm saying this is my perception this is how i'm seeing it and if someone just because yes my name is basford but i'm here as someone's daughter today not as the commissioner's person that was the moment for my mother who living in my household through the the post on facebook that you have slandered her calling her a thief saying that she has stolen money and i'm not saying specifically you i didn't say who and making faces while she's doing is very hurtful to me you both have daughters how would you feel if you were having your moment and your daughter's watching you keith password clifton new jersey first of all i'd like to congratulate miss danny mr paris and my wife on your election good luck i'd like to uh thank the other people who ran and put your time into this you know i've been around a long time with these meetings and that and i look up there there's probably only one other person who knows jim smith better than me longer is jim daly and i watch these meetings for many years and i watch what goes on and i listen and i put everything together through through many years as mr whittle said his ethics charge is still going on jim you realize this is the most ethics charges this board ever had the most and you could go back many years okay another thing too i said always whatever goes on the board here it's board business it's board business but when it comes over to my closet my family it's another thing and some people don't understand that okay my door was right there's two people the maker made accusations that she stole money from school five pta whatever and money from casa they said they have the proof well if the complaint goes civil you better come up with that proof because if you don't my lawyer gets 500 an hour and i'm going to have that part of the suit till that he gets reimbursed okay this is a dirty election dirty why all sudden nine people run this year but in 2020 three years get a pass without anybody running you know why because she didn't want her on the board but i hope you like tom little said the people spoke they know this woman didn't start 11 years ago on this board she started 28 years ago with this school system mr smith like i'm saying watch what goes on on your board here i watch a board member a couple of meetings ago leave the meeting and go sit with the band parents meeting okay i was out in the hallway talking to a special ed parent who had a problem who's supposed to regulate that me somebody here no you're the president mr smith you're supposed to regulate it than that you want to get ahead with this board i have no promise of daily being vice president i have no problem you being president but it's time to pull this board together because you're going to ruin this city with this kind of board nonsense going on you know what happened on this board back in june is unfortunate but a lot of these i see a fist pumping bringing coffee this and that do you realize they stole from the taxpayers they stole from the children they ruined something that's been going on for so many years here with casa and that stuff fist pump let me tell you something it was me i'd say get away from me okay or invite him to to a party to se well to celebrate her uh hopefully that a board member would have got on in that stuff jim this is not like you and i'm being honest i street i talk straight forward to you you know you want to get on this board okay and you got on this board and i'll leave it at that right now but i'm gonna tell you something jim like tommy said he's not going away i'm not going away either if i have to write ethic charges i'll keep on writing ethic charges if there's violations with opmah open public meetings act i will file them too you guys will need a file box the time i get done so jim i'm asking you please strain this stuff out thank you anyone else wish to address the board seeing none motion to close motion closed by miss bassford second by mr avadrabo okay we'll move on to uh education uh administration we have ea uh one to approve our professional services so to move my mister uh wad oh you i'm sorry officer second by mr awad discussion roll call mr abbey drabo mr awad yes miss baspar yes miss beltran is miss beltran are you still available yes mr canova yes dr danny yes mr paris yes vice president daley yes president smith yes motion carries okay next we have personnel we have p1 substitute appointments so moved by mr abu dhabi second by mr awad any discussion scene non-roll call mr abu drabba mr awad yes miss basford yes miss beltran yeah mr canova yes dr danny yes mr paris yes vice president daley yes and president smith yes okay motion to adjourn some move by mr abdrabbo second by mr awad any objection meaning is adjourned thank you all for coming

high school class of 2020 hall of fame joining penny high school principal mr brian reeves our hall of fame was established in 1985 to allow those athletes to be considered to be among the very best of their era high school classes 2020 will be the eighth group added to the hall these 16 athletes and coaches will be joining the already elected 51 members tonight we will honor the final five members of the hall of fame trent point unfortunately will join us tonight when he lives in peoria arizona where he was a 2008 graduate of columbia high school he was a two-sport athlete in basketball and baseball he went on to star at baylor university and played professionally in the minor leagues he currently is the bullpen coach for the seattle mariners congratulations trent blank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] still lives in columbia with her husband brady and son brooks she is a physical therapist at sscn health physical therapy torrey is a 2011 graduate of columbia high school where she was a three sport athlete in cross-country basketball and stockton she went on to start collegiately at southeast missouri state university in soccer congratulations corey murray [Applause] with his significant other dr jamie fosu he is currently the district sales manager for yamaha golf car company and he is a 2004 graduate of columbia high school where he played golf he went on to star at mississippi state university and is an active member of the pga tour congratulations andy thank you josh miller josh currently resides in columbia and works for paylocity as an edi analyst he was a 2007 graduate of chs playing baseball josh went on a star at eastern illinois university who played professionally for six years after being drafted by the colorado rocks congratulations josh [Applause] savannah apparently lives in hawaii with her husband michael and son elliot she is a pharmaceutical business sales savannah was a 2013 graduate of columbia high school where she earned 12 varsity letters playing volleyball basketball and softball congratulations to savannah [Applause] let's give another round of applause [Applause] you

communication arts technology is a three-year program of study that focuses on video and film production television news broadcast journalism narrative film and electronic media the classroom area of communication arts has 15 computers equipped with the adobe suite of software students in communication arts produce a weekly newscast which involves gathering stories taking a camera crew to various locations in the school editing news packages and then putting them all together in the studio students also study script writing and storyboarding and cover school events such as prom fashion show mr kate may tech and tech scott talent students will also learn advanced movie making techniques and study the history of cinema first year students in communication arts study the basics including getting familiar with audio and video equipment and learning basic editing skills second year students will study journalism and broadcast news production students in their second year get to work on the school's weekly newscast cat tv news third year students are involved with project-based work these students will also prepare for and take a test to receive their adobe associate certificate communication arts students are involved with many activities including skillsusa and the 10-day film challenge students also go on class trips to new york city and philadelphia to visit museums and television studios communication arts technology offers an exciting opportunity to explore the world of television and film production

thank you for being here with us for our january 2022 board meeting happy new year to everybody uh i have to do say i'm a little disappointed in the coach dr smith uh all right so i go on record that i am a little disappointed that we're not going to be in the playoffs thank you for being here we do have a fairly short but a very important meeting for us tonight as we start the new year again we on behalf of the board thank you for all the work that we've done we look forward for a strong second half we've come out at halftime hopefully everybody got plenty of rest and we are going to uh march into a championship here so uh in the theme of george and alabama play tonight we are going to march into a championship so football theme tonight so so right so so we'll call the meeting to order our first item of business of course is our reorg and for the public we will go through the positions that are available and we will confirm nominate and confirm all our officers for 2022 for yeah for the year of 2022 okay our first office and as the past president i'm just sharing the uh reorg tonight our first office we will open up the floor for our president keep in mind for the public any board member only board members can either nominate or self-nominate for positions after that is done we'll close that slate we'll close that position we'll go to the next so at this time any self-nomination or nomination for our president of the board i would like to nominate reginald mcgregor as president of our board for the next term i second that right you can second that okay any other nomination and i do accept we will close the floor for our president position being unopposed i do accept the position for the record all those in favor of me being the president registered mcgregor being president for upcoming year please signify by saying aye aye and impose the same motion carries thank you now we will open up the floor for chef nomination nominations for our vice president i'll nominate wendy mustin for vice president second i would accept the nomination seeing there are no other nominations of self nominations for the record all those in favor of miss wendy mustang serving as vice president please signify by saying aye aye and oppose the same motion carries thank you congratulations madam president now we open up the floor for our secretary position chef nominations or nominations i nominate crystal puckett for secretary second um yeah i'm going to go ahead and accept that thank you [Laughter] let's check him out sorry with yeah other nomination or second nominations or secretary all those in favor of miss crystal parker serving the secretary please signify by saying aye aye aye aye opposed the same motion carries thank you miss puckett as far as the appointment of our financial leadership positions do we go on the record demoto we just just a simple appointment okay perfect record for the record our officers for our financial leadership mr michael shrees our cpat financial officer purchasing agent and treasurer of the district is megan dickerson deputy treasurer and miss renee hall assistant deputy treasurer assuming you accept our appointment mr trees he has no choice [Laughter] we are in good hands thank you for your financial leadership board appointments committee members we will appoint for our lawrence township foundation ms wendy mustin thank you it's dick freechie yay name yes i'm actually an elected member of the foundation board so i serve on the board regardless okay i know it gets confusing so i just want to make sure for the record ms mustang you will be our liaison to the board for our foundation even though we do have mr mr frieza on that board as well thank you for your services lawrence parks and recreation is amy norman yes sir i accept thank you and then what we've done in the past for the liaison to the indiana school board association since we all get the information but miss crystal parker i'd like for you to go on a record and serve as our liaison to our indiana school board association yes it's you then our superintendent appointed committee members dr smith that's not an appointment for mr fridgey to continue to work with dr harshbarger who was assigned to that mr friji i would hope that you would continue in that role for the 20-20 year 2022 year and then let me just speak on legislative because legislative is such a large area that sometimes goes on notice but all of the board members are involved directly with our legislative committee that includes i'm not pertaining to but meeting with legislators on a regular basis especially when we're in session as we are right now thank you dr smith this concludes our reorg for our upcoming year congratulations to all those who are playing appointed and all those serving as our officers for the upcoming year thank you thank you okay on top information items blue ribbon facility update sisters you're on deck mr president dr smith members of the board i will try to substitute for roger on this and hopefully i'll do him proud by what i want to do first off as lc work continues within the boiler room as you can see in the pictures there the outside's being buttoned up and they're starting inside from the top floor down with their finishes and here's some pictures of some of that some additional interior work they've done there and they've started on phase 1b you can see there on the left they're putting the floor in and doing some block work on the right ln they're starting to finish up the outside getting ready to put on the finishing touches and putting the windows in there to button it up that's the new connection from the old to the new that they're working on and they've started the front new entrance and it'll be buttoned up soon and then here's some more additional interior work they're doing there the ln pool the precast concrete finally arrived as you can see the walls going up there to enclose that and then they can start inside to get the pool part dug out and then at transportation the final thing they really need to do inside is putting the loft in above the some of the back in the work area to store some equipment you can see their picture from the side and that's it just so you know on bells or fall creek valley and lacc their chiller work continues so we'll be ready for when the warm season gets here any questions or comments or mr streets regarding our blue ribbon update is there any i know we all got the email about the flooding that took place on our in the south and i know when you're doing renovation construction it's it's it can happen was it a lawrence township or something we didn't do something what's the facts on that dr nesbit give the board a one minute caption of and we've already shared but we'll go ahead and put it on the public put it on the record for everybody just so that the public will understand uh the gravity of a construction situation versus something normally that we deal with sure uh thank you dr smith and president members of the board we did have uh flooding um we had a fire alarm that alerted us to the issue and that happens when the sprinkler system if it starts flowing then we get a fire alarm wind notification so we dispatched one of our employees to investigate it he found the room flooding um the room is the very edge of the construction area it hadn't been insulated appropriately not a lt issue but a construction issue and that room was too cold and that caused those pipes to burst so the sprinkler system let loose and it filled that room about two feet of water and then we had to get into the room of course to address it and then that flooded that south end of the building about down to the auditorium did not get into the auditorium um we immediately contacted your remediation company we were there late saturday night early and most of the day sunday to to clean it up um students back in session today we have five classrooms they're displaced today and tomorrow they'll be back the only room that we are not going to get back into it all will be that room that initiated the flooding we had planned to demolish it during spring break so we're just moving that demo up because it's pretty well demoed as it is you know we just need to tear everything out so so all in all we feel pretty good about it um we're doing air quality test um we did those before we brought students back and we'll continue to do those and just keep moving around the students and we feel pretty good about consider the situation about what we're able to do any questions um you said that room was too cold so have temperature issues and some of the rooms have been resolved somewhat with uh with temporary equipment yeah it has and we brought in additional contractors um oh probably about six weeks ago to help with those specifically on both high school projects we have a we have a contractor each location the district is contracted just to deal with climate and to make sure our students and teachers are comfortable thank you any other questions we can help out with thank you sir thank your entire team for your attention to that and thank you for updating the community on the efforts that were made to make sure that we are fully operational and things are in place thank you safety and help update dr harshmark mr president members of the board dr smith bring to you tonight the safety and health report we've had a few things taking place in the last two weeks that are certainly significant to review tonight just looking at our numbers we've seen about a 50 increase in terms of positivity rate the good news if there is any is that today we're taking steps instead of leaps so we may be getting to see just a little bit of a plane off there we hope anyway that's really about 15 percent higher than when we pivoted before and went to um went to electronics our instruction and so i think it's important to note that we're growing through this pandemic and learning how we can keep schools open we did take a bit of a hit in our student attendance down 85 percent from 91 and our staff held for the last two weeks or last week at we're watching the federal vaccination mandate as it moves through the supreme court right now as of now we haven't been directed that way but we're continuing to put together contingency planning if that does come to pass house bill 1001 is one that we're also watching right now it's on a fast track and so we're paying attention to any type of vaccination mandate as far as the vaccination partnership our next one is coming up february 3rd we'll have one again on february 24th so that is our next round focused on our five to 17 year olds and then lastly as i'm sure you're aware the cdc did update its k-12 guidance some key takeaways which we we've already been aware of but the last one i'd like to focus on just a little bit in terms of um giving you information around the isolation and quarantine periods being changed so if we can go ahead so here's a broken out a little bit more here to be able to see what exactly the new guidance means the isolation goes down from 10 days to 5 wearing a mask those additional five days for symptomatic close contacts again going down to five days from 10 from the onset of symptoms it's recommended that an antigen test be taken at day five if it's positive obviously you have to quarantine the rest of those days if it's negative you return to work you're going to return regardless but that is a recommendation asymptomatic close contacts again can report to school and work extracurricular activities continue asymptomatic and unvaccinated quarantine five days down from ten so those are the the major pieces of that update from the cdc just a couple graphs to illustrate just what's happening with the omnicron effect as you can see here um we we were going along fairly well with what was last year compared to this year until just last week and within just about two and a half weeks we've spiked above 30 percent in our positivity to break it down by age group in the next slide you can see that our winners are still college students and adults 25 to around 50 55 years old are showing the most growth our school-aged children are still holding their own yes we have seen more quarantining last week than we've seen previous in december but that was to be expected with omnichrome looking at it more local you can see overall for the teachers staff and students same kind of thing that you saw in the county and the state the nation and the world we were mirroring last year with it being a little bit better until we hit this omnicron effect our numbers have gone up and they are they are larger we gained 285 last week in terms of quarantine with students so that was highly impactful obviously you saw that in the attendance data as well um quarantine started off low this this last week and planed right back up but we're hoping to see that plane off and start to drop in in the next several days and into next week fourth grade fifth grade mainly fourth sixth and and eighth grade um or seventh grade excuse me our major climbs there's still less than a percent of the student body but nevertheless it is interesting to see that those grade levels are the ones that are the highest and we're most affected recently and then just as recommendations just as it did before in december we want to continue with our targeted vaccination clinics have been highly successful over 800 participants have gone through that process with us and then the cover 19 testing will begin again this week starts tomorrow we'll run two days this week and next while we train new technicians and then we'll be running our regular three days coming up within two weeks continuing with our layered protocols and the mass mandate and then finally the implementation of cdc guidance which we've already really done and we're now off and running with that and then lastly tonight just an update on the sr3 grant and to do that i'm going to pass it over to mr notre so as recipients of federal funds the esther 3 grant specifically we're required once every six months to provide an update in a public meeting on our status for in-person learning and so we do that at the beginning of every semester and as you know we're committed to in-person learning and so we've listed for your review with all the mitigation strategies that we're using to ensure that we are able to offer in-person learning to our community but as a recipient of the federal funds we receive 29 million dollars in sr3 and so this is honoring that commitment in a public setting to provide this information questions or comments uh pertaining to our safety and health update i have a question for clarification um there was a message through parent square concerning elcs and just to clarify preschool these students will be required to to these students will be required to do a 10-day quarantine isolation if i if identified as a closed contact to someone who has tested positive and in our policy it says that um that they must quarantine for five days from the onset of symptoms and the anagen testing [Music] is needed on the day five so if positive then they have to isolate for the full 10 days via the parent square what's the are they having to isolate for the 10 days if positive or just in general if they're in close contact yeah let me clear that up a little bit i actually checked on that right before and i think i put in here that it could be a little bit longer in the elc's because in the preschool they have naps and naps are on the unmasked and so that that pushes forward the back to a 10-day and then we have a lot of kids that are mask they don't wear a mask they're because of a special need and so that puts us in that same place if you cannot have the mass mandate in place full force then you're going to still be in a longer uh quarantine up to 10 days okay thank you i was just wanting that to be put on record i had questions about it thank you great question yeah any other questions or comments on our safety and health updates i i just had a quick question about that um so the gravity clinic is open correct for testing uh here at the lecc it is okay we did have a staffing issue that caused us to close for the last week there before or during break we should be reopened tomorrow and we'll be running tuesday thursday this week and then we should get back to our regular schedule next week okay um dr harsh parker i do think we need to give a point of clarification it's not we we're serving as the location who is over gravity is the state health department right and we are a site and location force so we benefit from location but we don't run the clinic the clinic is run by the state of indiana it is yeah okay so we just want to make sure everybody understands that we're just fortunate lauren lawrence township to have a location yeah to whom is it open the entire community yeah good question it is this week only will be just lawrence community as as they bring a second person on then we'll be back to the full community so it's just really more of a training issue right now thank you and i did have a second question well i have a comment that's a great resource to have as a as a parent if a student starts to have symptoms would it be advised then that they come to the gravity location or do the school nurses have access to rapid tests individually at the school locations the nurses do not okay but they are referring to our site okay or for the testing we don't we don't want people that may be infected to come into the schools yes okay i just wanted to like i guess talk out the process absolutely that happens in an individual school okay dr smith said that's a real luxury for us to have so close and for our parents to be able to access yes that's great thank you any other questions or comments and for the record show our time parents just asking questions for clarification some of the emails in fact you answered one of the questions up there for me pertaining to a parent was asking will we open up the clinic and get the testing site again i thought well thank you yeah we will that's what we do yeah so publicly can you tell us where in the building that's located if people drive to our building where will they find that so they come around the back side and at the very back here on on this side of the building okay um they're able to stay in their car on the south side there because that and our technicians go out meet them in the parking lot do that testing there thank you it is a drive-through yeah it's good i have a i have a question concerning the sports aspect um a student that tests positive um they're to isolate for the 10 10 days so forth um are they able to return to sports or do they need to have a negative pcr no it's it's the five days it's the same rules it's the same rule as applies to school for athletics okay okay so there are no special or separate rules we need to make sure parents understand it that's what the same exact rules as it would be if they were in school for athletics so they're one in the same okay just wanted to clarify so thank you again i think that's all the ones that i've been getting from happy to do so it's been a lot of change you know the questions are comments from the board thank you dr harshbarger just to remind us the board we are definitely committed to keeping our schools open so any questions that parents might have to make sure we can keep our students in school we want to make sure we get those answered any as i always say when people don't have answers they feel in their own blanks and all of a sudden so so we want to continue to encourage our community to ask questions and always make contact to your building leaders uh but if you do have questions get those tools and we'll get those answers okay thank you john well done sir ward on to our action item tonight approval of our personnel report good evening president mcgregor dr smith and members of the board i would like to recommend that we approve the personnel report as presented second it has been moved in property second to approve our personnel report the first one of january of 2022 as submitted questions or comments all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye aye aye and oppose the same motion carries thank you we do have on tonight board come as administrators i know it's beginning of the year any i'll just open up any comment from any board i just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year we're two years into the pandemic and it was very encouraging yesterday to attend the opening for the elc's construction is still moving along and kids are in school so i feel like this is just a great positive sign and i'm thankful for everyone in the district again for their hard work thank you mr friji no comments you know i would like to thank our all of our students it's been almost two years now and they have been wearing a mask eight hours a day it's very difficult for me to want to wear a mask for two hours straight and i haven't been certainly been in the position where i had to have had to wear my mask for hours on end it's very difficult and it's uncomfortable and our kiddos are troopers so thanks to our students for that thank you it's crystal they said it all a second dr smith board thank you for attending the dedication of our two early learning centers yesterday you were on the post working so the public will know that and then also remind the community that on january 23rd we will dedicate four more buildings we'll bring our elementary team dr brown this lapland will do the other two elc's as we'll do those building dedications on that day it'll be sunday afternoon as we bring those to closure so that's all i have to say and happy new years to everyone welcome back thank you board thank you dr smith or just around our next meeting will be on monday january 24th there will be a seven o'clock board meeting we will have a full agenda for that meeting so thank you oh that's that's that is true that's already been published be able to play posted that yeah so we'll do executive session at six o'clock on on that day as well thank you for your time tonight we will get ready to go home so if there are any other items we'll take a motion to adjourn so moved second by consent we are adjourned thank you all be safe tonight thank you

cause all right let me get something over here [Music] all right where's my reading materials i don't have the uh oh so you just want me to bang together when you go from there well i guess you have to because it's real first okay cool okay this is the reorganization meeting of the boundary court of education the opening public meetings the new jersey open public meetings law is of this meeting to be posted in the in the board office at the battle park high school maxwell failed to determine down brook sparrow cleveland southbound record regime any person who has requested individual notices [Music] the results of the election as given to us by the summit county clerk's office michelle defazio for a three-year term [Music] i is your name is you know do you sign up to affirm that i will support the constitution of the disease in the constitution of the state of new jersey and i and [Music] do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of new jersey and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the united states and this state under the authority of the people so help me god thank you okay i lisa gazino do you solemnly swear that i possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education and that i am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs 4-1 nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed in the njs 18a 12-1 and that i will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me back welcome thank you [Music] is [Music] is there any discussion right here willing to accept uh i am not i will gladly stay at the vice president role and help mr januzzi in in the transition but my current schedule just doesn't allow well first of all [Music] one two three [Music] mr um one vote [Music] vice president reorganization of 1 10 22 r1 through 312.

[Music] [Applause] i'm nate and i'm nick and you're watching cat tv news if you have any unused gift cards please drop in the entertainment room room 119 to be turned into guitar picks for the class seniors are you interested in possibly joining the us military our next asvab exam will be on january 19th in the computer lab room 105 at 8 am the exam is free if you are interested please see miss yahara in the guidance office or email her at our yahara kate maytech.com [Applause] in sports news today there is going to be a home swim beat versus mainland and a home basketball game against buna thursday the girls take on cumberland regional at home in a four o'clock game the cape may county library is hosting paying for college without going broke live on zoom tomorrow january 12th at 7 pm this webinar introduces little-known financial strategies parents can use to reduce college costs improve admissions chances and increase scholarship opportunities to register go to cmclibrary.org or go to the events calendar and look for january 12th in events save the date of friday february 11th the class of 2022 is having a comedy fundraiser at the harbor square theater in stone harbor tickets are 25 and the show starts at 9 pm all proceeds benefit the junior senior prom that's all for today i'm nate and i'm nick and we'll see you next time on cat tv news [Music] [Applause] [Music]

yes ma'am president uh ms duncan here mr guthrie here mr hoffman is absent currently mr president miss robertson here uh dr dooley here dr kibble [Music] miss duncan aye ms robertson aye mr president can you please join me in the president 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 right the first item is discussion nomination and vote for governing board president for 2022 who is discussable i know we had some little bit of talk about this and january and there was some concern about that and i do um so i'd like to see the board that we could set up a new way to do the election um instead of doing the push draw where we thought a name order if there's more than one nominee for either office um i will start the president do that and go to clerk we'll take any names that are available and my thought was it could be an outboard and a vote and we both various the most votes for that so we're in a single vote so correct so out of all of the nominees we would do president i think we should be president first do the nominees for president whoever is nominated then we use the board vote if it's one or two or three candidates and is so just add you can nominate by secret ballot but the vote has to be out loud so it has to be mrs robertson says yes or no yeah that's what's going to be that's probably more in this case not yes or no the name of the of the candidate right you can speak about the name of the candidate and then everybody puts a name on paper but then when that nominee comes up the actual vote whether to yes or no that has to do well he had two candidates using 20's example myself and eric and those are the two candidates so when it came time for the election could you just say eric instead of bringing erica first and then um i think right well yeah you could do that it's not it's not like an agenda motion where you have to you have to make a motion and then second it's a vote so it can be done it's almost done out loud then that's fun i think what everybody was hoping to do was where if we so if there was more than one candidate being nominated where they're all basically voted on the same time instead of just going down the list so i think we've got to say bonnie and myself and i like the idea we just start okay one at a time [Applause] i think we're more likely to get what we all want that way rather than like guessing how the books could go because they're both okay um but i think once you go through it and we more likely will have a candidate but if it is a tie i mean it's a tie we'll have to we'll we'll figure it out [Music] maybe shouldn't be under regular circumstances they're all five boulders mathematically we shouldn't there's always no extensions so in the likelihood there was a tie and there was um nobody was wanting to step down nobody wanted to change their way or whatever should we have some sort of whoever had the longest term on the board or or something like that that that i mean just in case that happened you know where i've come from yeah oh yeah it's probably never happened but if we don't have an idea it will happen right right so yes and then you would have a remote and then if that's still resulted in a tie then you would have some other way to determine based on the candidate based on the organ on the board and two votes and then go to the options either or you could put the names in a patent pull yeah i actually almost like that you know why because there could be a situation where you purposely create a tie so the person with the most seniority gets nominated the old fashioned favorite what's going on if there's two times okay and i'm fine with that rounding okay so what we're talking about okay right yeah i'm not sure which method i prefer resolving let me go over um so i know it's not possible this year but in future years wouldn't make more sense to have the nomination at the end of december well you can't do that because yeah and then through the vote for officers in december said ready in january meaningful anymore um one thing i'd like to point out is nominations don't require a second secondary card for action items yeah um but it's not required and you can self-nominate and that's traditional yeah all right so we've got that settled down do vote nominate discuss vote remote if necessary and coin toss target okay oh oh you were still thinking about the tiebreaker are you still there no no no no wonder if anybody actually has a coin do you want to call for now yes are you ready um i i will be taking uh nominations for the president of the board for 2012.

president the only other person we know we think might be here is amanda eamon and charlene diaz was going to participate via google meets um right now we don't think she's on but she may join us so starting in the front row if you would introduce yourselves and your school to mr burgess that would be great kelly and mrs sunrise sunrise resource here and michelle sharp rage fifth grade can moss next door as well third grade morgan instructional coach i'm expected to be left [Music] yeah okay so just be sure you speak loudly so that anybody who happens to be participating elsewhere can uh hear what you're saying [Applause] all right um so i'm gonna since this is really just me collecting input at this point um when when our when our policy first went back to the committee originally the first time uh there was a couple changes that's where the red comes in um and then there was a couple recommendations from the board um and then we got one more in green um but my question from this was to the tattoos so that's why i wanted to know because it's still very vague um that was me personally um i don't think if i'm correct dr stewart that was that was the only other question right yeah i think uh if i remember correctly for a bit you had the comments about it being big the other board members thought it was somewhat big so but they were okay with any of the other things and i thought you were too at but that's what we asked to go back to them with um i'm just not missing one correct okay so did you guys get a chance to talk mrs diaz is on looking now she can [Music] so what if we for you're just talking about tattoos right everything else i don't think there was any other issues the board had because you have the clothing which promotes alcoholic beverages tobacco or the use of controlled substances and then clothing that contains profanity vulgarity nudity and depicts violence and is sexual in nature by words or symbols can we change the word clothing to tattoos and have that be acceptable because i think that's kind of what we did to begin with was kind of take what they said were designing and put it under the tattoos but not quite yeah right we didn't feel that it needed to be that detailed because exactly but you know if you're thinking my my issue i have in tattoos is a personal issue that i have with tattoos but in that same thought process you also have a different age gap when you've got this we're basically telling students the way i see this is children who are kindergarten first second third grade they see a tattoo on somebody they highly respect they go home talk about that tattoo mom and dad now we started a conversation we really didn't need to start so we're opening a door yeah for a conversation that shouldn't be there as children get older they understand a little bit more but if i was my kids were in kindergarten they came home and said oh miss hall has a butterfly on her ankle i want to tattoo a butterfly on my ankle now i got another conversation i'm having with with my feelings on tattoos telling to my five-year-old kid about why i don't want her getting a tattoo so we're putting a situation on children i feel in this situation this shouldn't be there and so that's the reason the policy was in place to begin with so can i tell you like because i've had my ankle tattoo for as long as i've been in the district pretty much um me covering that in the 125 degree weather when i wear my capri brings more attention than if i were just like to let it go the kids today you want to know how many kindergarteners come to school with tattoos on them that we have to take off because they're on the face they're on their arms they're all over their body a lot of them yeah so i don't think that my flowers on my ankle are really going to cause a huge problem when the majority of our population now and the parents have them and they're seen everywhere that child is going to see those same tattoos when they go to walmart or whether they but the relationship with someone with walmart is not the same with the relationship they will have with you but what about their parents their relationship with their parents and that conversation has already been done you know what i'm saying but that parent has already dealt with that in their family setting and the majority of them have tattoos okay i i don't know if that's a fair statement that a majority of people have surveyed so i've met the parents yeah um i was just gonna say i i mean i understand corey in regards to kids having questions about things but i i don't know who was just speaking but um they do see that all the time and yet you're right it says you know different situation if they see somebody in walmart with a tattoo and versus their teacher but i think that's one of those things where teachers can be professional and say notice my personal voice or whatever you know they want to say to that student and and you know move on with the lesson that they should be teaching you know and and if parents are concerned about tattoos and then that should be a conversation parents should be having with their children it should be something that you want to avoid i think you really need to have that conversation and like i said older children i understand that but when you're five dealing with five-year-old six-year-olds they don't comprehend a lot of that stuff like talking about walmart so we like last week i don't know recently we're at walmart my daughter's five and close to school at sunrise and she asked if she saw a man in a wheelchair and they he has the amputee or i don't know i don't know what situation was and i'm like mom out loud why is that guy in a wheelchair you know like they're so curious and as a parent yeah there's times i'm like oh that's a little uncomfortable but i mean yeah there and curious and i mean they just personally i mean i have tattoos i don't care about them but if i had a different opinion which had one different opinions this is the situation you know it is what it is you're going to see it we're going to be exposed they're very serious yes these data have changed in the last 20 years about like the stigma on your tattoos yeah and it's not now it's total girls and bikers that have tattoos so yeah can i volunteer a little bit yeah i would think that first place it's illegal for a child to have a tattoo before they're 16 years of age about the parental consent at 16 i think you're going to have a bigger fight for a type 2 than you are with a 5 year old i i don't think it i think if it was anything to be in passing i think you understand the tattoo to begin with but a 16 year old is going to fight your tooth and nail and i want to talk about high school students in brawl there that that would be one but i don't see where a five-year-old there's i just don't really see how i i mean i don't teach kindergarten i teach six fifth graders i don't think the focus is long enough to really care i don't even know if they remember they saw tattoo by the time they got home but if they did it you did have to have a conversation that's just one of the many things as a parent you have to tell your kid well my personal feeling is this or that pro or con but the quick solution of that is you can't happen until you're 16 years of age so there's really no discussion to be had you can discuss philosophy on tattoo but i don't think a five-year-old's going to want to discuss the philosophy of how that seemed bad in whatever way um versus how they feel about it i don't feel like feel like they're going to be that strong be curious and passing what is a tattoo is it permanent well guess what it's put on with a lot of needles and it hurts that would probably end the five-year-old's walk for attention remember that you just got yeah well you know that the only pretty colors i have there's five needles stabbing me every second you know i think that would probably quell that conversation i could tell you somebody that has like a full arm tattoo and it's flowers and birds and things like that she has to cover it up and every time she comes in why do you have that on your arm why are you wearing that so they have to have a conversation about her tattoos because she's not going to lie to them about why she's wearing it and she has to do it in 120 degree heat or higher where it's you know she's going to get overheated and things like that so that's the safety is concerned and even to pig back if i can um like in my class if my i'm wearing a sweater and it like peeks through they're like your tattoo show you better cover it up like they know either way it's a distraction so it's not distraction but they see it either way so it's a conversation to be happy with mine will never seem any catches on me but today i had a little girl from behind her fake ones you know whatever they call them behind your ear one handed across their fingers when these are resource kids so they're and it is our generation my old lady generation okay as a rebel you did or whatever you wanted um i go to swim exercise next door and there's the 85 year olds going to get fresh tattoos so it's it's art now it's not like we said the stigma of i don't know and it doesn't change how we teach what we see oh no i never said it any of that it's just one more it's just one more thing that you know instead of me having to wear jeans so the kids don't comment on my wrap that i wear on it you know wear jeans and it's 125 and i'm not doing parent pickups because i can't you know show my flowers from hawaii on my ankle you know but you're also seeing two extremes here you're talking about a flower on your ankle compared to a full sleep tattoo okay is there a limit to how much ink or art or tattoo in the show i don't know so where does it stop so you get somebody that has it where do we have somebody all the way to the face do we have no regrets across their throat where where does it stop you know that's there's a lot of police patterson she said well mike's in the military and like look at the military policies i'm sure there's like an officer policy and uh [Music] like i don't know which one but there's like no one on tattoos you can have one neck tattoo and it can only be an inch but i think it was for like the girls who have like the behind the ears like a little neck tattoo so they can only be so big like even the military which still has limits it does but they don't have there's you can't you can have a million times or a hundred tattoos but they can't go past your wrist bone you can have them on your hands you can have the ring finger like your tattoo of your wedding whatever so you can do almost anything and their limits are um no sexism no sexist racist extremists um tattoos yeah everything on that clothing one would have to there also has to be limits even the military like you said there's no head there's no head no ears no face like they have those yeah and that's what i said there has to be liberals [Music] a regular [Music] i worked in private industry my entire life until i started teaching eight years ago and they don't allow any tattoos to show so this isn't and that's automotive so this isn't you know so it's not just it's not just this it's a cut to the classroom with all this other business but no it's no tattoo showing and we're 120 degree weather and if you're gonna go work there you will cover your tattoos so it's you know beliefs and policies but even when i wasn't in my family business of tucson working automotive was the same way if you had tattoos you were longstanding and a few years ago warranty was they all had to be covered but if you go to a hospital in vegas it's not you know it so it's both ways depending on where you are but there needs to be limits i'm not going to hire a lawyer you would hold limits on it nothing above the collar bone no face tattoos um and then what it says for the clothing when it comes to the to the sleeves though it should be a content thing not a quantity thing well we're covering content with with the clothing with the clothing no no no but i was talking you were mentioning specifically if i have 407 tattoos but they're not adjoining or connected versus one sleeve you know that's me you've got four tattoos that aren't connecting your normal clothing or covering probably 350.

welcome to this evening's board meeting it is january 2022 believe it or not here we are i've said this over and over in many many meetings in the last week january 2022 or 2022 the year of possibilities we're going to make them happen with that if you would let's stand and have the pledge of please united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right if we could have a motion to adopt to mike's agenda as kind of assuming no one wants to take anything okay don't find me perfect we have a motion on the floor a second second all in favor aye so much all right so moving along let's have call to the public and we do have two different speakers this evening first is rachel hornby thank you that's what we have here yes please uh my name is rachelle oh i'm sorry i'm so sorry all the time um i am the drafting teacher at cheeto valley high school so first of all i want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity it's been a great blessing to be able to teach this it's been kind of challenging um but with that being said the students are doing great um i applied for a grant through with a county the y.c and was approved and so what i'm doing with the students is um i've asked for equipment we're going to measure all the buildings on campus possibly this building too depending on time constraints um and i'm going to have all of the students work as groups on different buildings measure the buildings and then draw those in the program that i'm using which is revit and they'll have a 3d model of the campus the teacher last year had the students draw topography for the area so my hope is in the end we can take those buildings and incorporate them with the project that they did last year and put them all in one project so that's up here this week um so we're getting the equipment and we're going to start measuring this week so can you tell them where you normally teach from i'm from tucson arizona i teach at the community college down in tucson so um luckily um you know because of covid we had to switch our teaching to online couple semesters ago which was a great blessing when i was approached with this class because i kind of already went through a lot of the challenges of teaching online at the college and we kind of had a plan in motion that really helped um teaching this class so you know it kind of set me up for success so is this class a four day week class then yes monday through thursday perfect all month long or or is part of it virtual i i heard you say i'm up here this week so so um i've been fortunate enough that the school has offered that i can come up a few times through the year so i came up before school started and got the classroom set up and kind of gave them some guidance on there and i wanted to see the room and give them some guidance on what i wanted on there and to be successful for the students to be successful then i came in september which was a surprise i didn't let the students know i was here i set up like i was teaching virtually in the hotel and then told them i had to go to take care of something and then came into the classroom which was shockingly kind of like we're like so um i'm fortunate this week that i don't start teaching at the college until next week so i have this week free so i opted to come up this week and then the students will be taking um a industry standard exam and revit later on in this towards the end of the semester so i'd like to come up again to kind of help them um get prepared to take that test and i'm confident that the majority of them are going to have that certificate drafting is there and dear to my heart my brother was a 40-year teacher at high school level so oh that's awesome thank you i have watched i've observed in the class and been in there it is it actually works very very well the kids are getting individualized attention i can hear her talking to the kids i can see them responding she can see all their screens it's not the most ideal situation but it is drafting two and so the kids are pretty familiar and comfortable but it's amazing it was amazing for me when i was in there how engaged the students are so and i try to thank you so much i've tried a few things there's a program where we can put them in a virtual classroom so none of them can hear me except for like i drag myself into a room and the students can't hear me unless they drag themselves into the room so i can meet with them individually without the rest of the class um hearing what's going on so i've just kind of figured out some things as well and it's it's it's ran much smoother than we anticipated but it's it's great so i think the students are happy to have me here today though just a couple quick questions one sounds i heard about you doing this before the year started and i'm glad it's working well now you're teaching second level drafting right second paragraph yes now we still have an on in-person first year drafting course so it's to my understanding that um the professor that taught it before is no longer teaching it so they needed the students to be able to get through the second year um so correct so i was approached to see if i could help them get through the second year of drafting so unfortunately peter we are we are posting again to see if we can find somebody in person next year for the whole program just to let you know super yeah as you know that's kind of close for sure anything i can do to help with that too i'm running a much different program than the teacher did before um so whoever comes in next if they need any help or anything then i'm more than welcome or are they willing to help them i feel good i don't want to go on with this this is fascinating uh doing an online graphic driving course when they're when they're sending their final work project products to you are they pdf and so you actually have them permanently so you can evaluate them or this have to be all done live um they are sending me pdfs so instead of really like an office how an office would be they said the pdfs i do red lines they correct their red lines they send them back i send it back to them they correct them you know it's the process just like you do in an office with that being said they also submit their revit files um through like a google right so if there's an issue i can pull it up and figure it out or sometimes when we're in class they need to ask a question i can download their file they can have it up i can have it up and we can be next to each other and i can say okay well you need to click on this click on that so that's really impressive i think i'm saying you're so amazing and how much was your credit for how much oh 500.