for Pueblo East we'll see though the Eagles this is 19 it just gets up and goes home boy they're not I mean they they were down big in the first half they came right back with two touchdowns late and they scored one early in this half the DC sees defense now they're going to be challenged they've been challenged all night by the way that they've had to spread the field they've done a terrific job but 10:40 left here in the fourth quarter and big lead for discovery Canyon they've got to keep this offense at bay Joe Padula came in late for the Eagles he spread out to the right trying to get up the middle look again Luke and Radha not enough space is Discovery Canyon just closes quickly and who else in there but gauge Clausen right up the middle just plays the quarterback keep stays back wraps the quarterback up and puts him down engaged class and he had a great first half he was causing all sorts of problems for Pueblo East back in the backfield and there he stays back and makes the tackle and jarana still in the shotgun pressured again by Clausen has to throw this one away if he throws it at the feet of Braden Harding it'll be third down and again good pressure the same guy Clausen up the middle and forcing Andrada to go out to his left which makes it very difficult the right-handed quarterback everybody everything is moving to his left he's got to square the shoulders up to make that throw just didn't have time to do it and the path ends up hitting the deck 39 so Andrada looks at the Thunder defense again as the crowd goes crazy here for discovery Canyon and drought of looks throws deep got a man down there with some speed but it's over his head Marvin London junior couldn't come down with it and that'll be fourth down and the Eagles have to punt again and you could see the arm strength there by Andrada how far he threw that ball about 50 yards in the air and Marvin London junior he can run he was out in front but the ball had to be released a little too soon ends up falling to the ground and fourth and long now for the Eagles I would let you know Caden Bowman is the punter for the Eagles he spun it three times tonight three times more than they have all season coming into this game but he's got some speed too I'll bet he's got the green light to tuck it and go if discovery Canyon backs off on this one let's see what happens I have to play it safe on here for the Thunder yep he's gonna kick it out of there it's a little bit high and it's nice caught taking down and here cometh under right back the other way breaking tackles and getting down inside the 50 yard line there's another look at it yeah mate rose on that plane well he made the first guy miss that's so hard to do as the punt returner you got to focus on the ball make the catch you got a guy running full-speed at you he secures the ball makes a little sidestep and picks up about 12 15 yards on the return brings it out to the 45 at least so 946 left a 27-point lead Zack Anderson is still in the huddle you wonder when Shawn Mitchell might put some reserves in there but the first teamers come out again you got pike you got any Anderson passion is back in there as well as number 34 Christian call he'll be he'll play the right side wing back the Anderson under center call will get the pitch first chance tonight to show some Running Room gets down inside the 45 yard line for a gain of about two nice move here and a good open field tackle again by Pueblo East that was Cesar Rivas Medina and an opportunity here with the big lead in that fourth quarter get a couple of new guys into the game that that haven't seen as much action to the players that that are in there that are started for DCC they've gotten a lot of touches tonight so getting a get a few new guys into the game passion and motion takes the pitch cuts it up inside dives down inside the 45 yard line but not much doing there it's gonna be third down for discovery Kade yeah just a little toss sweep a lot of white jerseys out on the edge but I was watching the play clock run down good job by Anderson a two-year starter at quarterback a veteran guy back there just managing the situation snap that ball with about two left on the clock and you just want to keep that clock moving having a big lead 8:40 left here in the fourth on to the field number 35 Nick Monahan called his number earlier today the senior he's in the game and he'll lineup as the full-back and Anderson gonna roll to his left got a man now feels perfect pass and a catch Christian call comes down with that one first down Thunder well I just had his first carry runs a nice route but when I look at the pass here a great look at Zach Anderson turns squares up and puts it right on the money that's a tough pass to defend a little drag coming from the far side all the actions moving to the left you throw behind the defenders to call in the middle of the field first down for the Thunder everyone else was looking at Monahan who is the further receiver on the left first damn Thunder keeps that clock rolling Anderson again under center Estela will take the pitch a little bit of room stutter step nice strips by one tackle and then goes down to about the 25 yard line it's gonna be second down call it three picks up about seven on the play and stays inbounds it's really easy when you're going into that boundary to to take that whole play out of bounds instead he cut it back up in he knew he was gonna take a hit but he kept that clock rolling Zach Anderson getting some instructions the coaching staff takes his time coming back out 13 12 on the play clock and that's exactly what the Thunder want to do just run this thing down yeah Anderson running with call he's gonna keep it himself and he will not get the first down gonna be third down but Anderson well away or two maybe with some younger guys in the game doesn't want to maybe force them to make a catch so he's just gonna eat that ball if he has it absolutely he's carried the ball tonight 14 times 92 yards rushing tonight for the quarterback again the leading rusher for DCC is their fullback Marshall pike he's got 172 on the evening grant for Waller checks in now for discovery Canyon Anderson looking up top throws it out nice wide open moving with the football down inside the 10 yard line keep that clock rolling and that was drool estelle what a great play call right there la Stella just sneaks out of the backfield absolutely wide open nice little touch pass to drop it in but I tell you the play calling from this this DCC team tonight has been fantastic and we've called out a couple of their coaches Matt Jane's the offensive line coach what a terrific job he has done with this group they have absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage tonight so the Thunder lines it up first and goal at the 9 yard line Anderson under center brings it to the left he'll keep it and go down inside further closer to that five-yard line there's another look at it good job by Anderson again just protecting the football not making that pitch which he very easily could have you had the running back out there he tucks it up inside and picks up a few yards on the play second and goal to 6th Sam Watson brings the play in I'm gonna guess it's a running play I would bet it is we've talked a lot about the run game tonight for the Thunder but how about the passing game tonight they came into this game they'd completed 9 passes all season tonight 5 completions to 5 different receivers and all five of those have gone for first downs Anderson pitches and it's on the ground Webb Louis is there so is the Thunder a couple of East players saying they have it the official douve into that pile just like everybody else we'll see who has it and Pueblo East is saying they have it and that's the first mistake the Thunder have really made all night it really is and again when you're pitching the ball around like that you just lose control of the of the ball the pitch ends up on the ground and everybody piles in on that and the Eagles come out with it want to make a correction we've given the offensive coordinator named Ben Braddock is the offensive coordinator making the calls for this DCC team they've done a terrific job tonight Ryback Ryback I can't read Ben Berbick Verbeck thanks to Dan Lord hinking yeah still Reebok rebuy Oh we'll get it right eventually our apologies Ben at least you know they're winning so that's right get your name wrong when it's wow the past by Andrada falls to the ground he had bowmen open as probably east trying to score some late touchdowns Dan Lord hinking he's producing us he's laughing at us in Jamaica doing everything it's gotta be late in Jamaica doesn't it I don't know ahead of us were being told by the great Rob Parrish yes great incomplete pass trying going for Marvin London junior it's pablo east looking two feet right in the eyes tonight before 43 left and this one boy for DCC if you're gonna have a mistake and you're gonna have a turnover in the game you have it with less than five minutes left it's inside the 5-yard line Puebla East is pinned back and they've got to do something quickly to get some points on the board back to pass again going deep got a man long a junior can't get it there it's gonna be fourth down and you've got a pump here don't you yeah I would think so they they just keep taking shots down the field and you you have to in this situation and it does look like the putt team is coming on for puebla least Kayden Bowman will go back to punt this one and we'll see if discovery can you can't just run out the end of this clock and walk out of here with a big victory Nate rose and Ethan Hall back for DCC as they have been all night Bowman rides it out of their Hall nice move gets it around the corner he's at the 30 and pushed out of bounds by a host of eagles over there but Ethan Hall did a good job returning that one really did a great job getting underneath it first of all to catch this and then advances it up the field makes a nice move right away and picks up about 15 yards on the return early in this game the first punt of the game that pueblos East had that rugby style end-over-end kick it kind of flipped the field they gained a lot of field position after that though DCC stepped up they made the catch and didn't allow that ball to bounce down and in this case great job of getting good field position for the Thunder they will take over right about the 26 yard line of Pueblo East and down on the sidelines Connor Clancy number two is warming up I wonder if they're gonna give him a kick if they happen to get another touchdown he might get let's someone else do it and also into the game Logan Moore at quarterback for discovery Canyon gives it off to Monahan up the middle lots of room down inside the 15 to the 14 yard line first down thunder and again great blocking up front Monahan doing what marshal pike has done all night takes that inside handoff moves the chains once again 11 yard run on the play from on a hand like to thank the elect the illustrious Robert M Parrish for coming near our years and let us know there was a new quarterback in the game more under senators gives right to mana handing a little bit of a fight for the ball there Monaghan wanted to keep it he goes up the middle for a few more yards for the Thunder you know these backups they want to score absolutely that's exactly I was going to say they they get a chance to get into a - a game situation they want to show their coaches what they can do they've been playing behind some really good players with the the Kevin passions Marshall Pike's Monteleone zloz Talos now you get some young guys that get in there and they they want to show what they can do is we have about three and a half minutes left in this one correction Jonah Isaacson is the other number four for discovery Canyon my bad a when were the first one I saw Jonah Isaacson you need quarterback nice pitch on the outside turning the corner and getting close to pay dirt that was Kevin Frye number 20 for the Thunder well a nice job good pitch there with the left hand hard to do when you're going to your till you're offside and when nearly gets in the end zone on that play Christian call actually running back on that play captain fry the wing back on the opposite side a lot of new numbers new faces getting into the game a lot of screw-ups by mr.
journal it's a good look at Kevin Fry number 20 Jonah Isaacson brings him up the junior backup quarterback ooh thrown for a loss on that play was Isaacson yeah that's a case right there you got to get those pads down he he came around and you get in inside there's a lot of big bodies inside he was standing straight up and probably thought he could walk into the endzone from the one and I was hit pretty hard taken down on the play Payton Raymond comes into the game he'll split out to the right we'll see if John Isaacson can get it done this time he cuts it inside he gets the touchdown Jonah Isaacson the junior quarterback from DCC gets on the board yeah good job he faked it to the full-back and just walks right in right over the right guard nice job of getting in to the endzone 51 points on the board for discovery Canyon tonight they certainly have made a statement the 3rd ranked team in 3a in the state of Colorado and they put up 51 on the team came in ranked number four absolutely and a team that why they came into this game Pueblo East three and one overall their only loss was 2a for a team that's receiving votes in the national polls that's Pueblo East but an absolute statement tonight by the Thunder the kick is up and good by Connor Clancy yeah just a good is like there is Garret Anderson sure did always good to see those young guys get a chance into the game another look at the touchdown there's Isakson cutting it up inside scores the touchdown now 52 210 discovery canyon just sorry just yeah to look at all the insects in the air out here district 20 stadium up in the sky beautiful fall evening here in Colorado Springs 228 left I've got a few insects here in the booth as well everybody on this side of the field is celebrating the fans the students the insects everybody's getting into it that's what I thought that's what it was yeah there's a serious celebration of the insects maybe the illustrious Parrish can show us one people at home probably watching this you're going what's wrong with this crazy announcer guy he can't get a name right and now he's talking about insects but I'm serious if you see around the lights in this stadium they are incredible we're having enough trouble seeing from up here we can't read the scoreboard we can't see the numbers and trust me I can't see the numbers on the insects either those are even tougher Karen Anderson back in the game he will kick off 228 left and I'm guessing this is gonna be a touchback day I would bet it is it's his foot into it oh he caught it now the last time he caught it like that the official let him go but not this time it's a touchback for early Mondragon I don't know if that's by design or that's the lake that he has there's a great job look at all the the insects we have a fan down in front of us that was just taking a picture up into those lights and my partner here Brian Germans scraping out of his eyes as they're everywhere right now insects all over the place as pueblos east steps to the line of scrimmage first and 10 from their own 20 ant errata excuse me that's the new quarterback for Pueblo East as well and he connects up field to Harding and they'll be in a two-minute offense with a new quarterback and nearly up all that was nearly intercepted that was that was Monahan that nearly stepped in front of that ball the new quarterback into the game that is Jack Hauser yep thank you I did get an insect in the Idaho up the middle nice running and look it out on the outside and he could go and we'll go all the way for a touchdown that is orly Mondragon and Pueblo East just like that is scored boy would have burst a speed by Mondragon coming around the end and we'll take a look at inside play the play was designed to go left Mondragon a nice job puts his foot in the ground cuts it back and just outruns everybody inside the pylon we'll get a look as you've runs right into your screen Mondragon with the touchdown for Pueblo East Timothy T Sara Torre with a nice shot from the end zone I'm not kidding it's hazardous here in the booth I think I want to right in the eye so they go for two Helzer the quarterback hands it off up the middle Mondragon they think he's in the officials say no DCC thwarts the two-point conversion and now the only thing I want to know is if the Eagles are gonna kick the onside kick we'll see what they do here a good job by the the interior line right there by the thunder of just shutting down that two-point conversion and we'll get a there's a good look at the Thunder team as they gather getting ready for the kickoff 52:24 right now Thunder lead looks like the Thunder are gonna put their hands team out there they will expect the onside kick the east Eagles don't want to give up that easily 52:24 come back out of the question probably most probably but the Eagles are gonna continue to fight you look back the last three games this discovery Canyon team they have scored points they beat pueblos south of very good teams state champions from a year ago or so 42 41 in overtime two weeks ago last week the Thunder scored 52 in a win on the road at a holy family so this is a team that's used to scoring a lot of points and they're doing so once again right now a hundred and four points in two weeks for Shaun Mitchell's team and it will be an onside kick for pueblos east punches it forward the hands are there and a good catch great job by the Thunder preparing for that coming down with the football and now all they got to do is run out the clock and it was Isaacson out there on the hands team that made the catch no I wouldn't you have him out there he's got good hands right he's your quarterback he's out there he fields that was a nice kick go by pueblos ease so many times you see those those onside kicks they either fire out of bounds or they stay on the ground that got that nice high balance on the second hop gave his team a chance to make a play but again tonight it's been all Thunder and it was so right there as their offense comes out for the final 155 of this one Sion Freeman did a great job with that onside kick so now we'll see the Thunder rule take some knees and try and run out this clock Isaacson does the honors I just saw Zach Anderson come over and give a nice hug to the offensive coordinator and Bree Bach as we have it right this time yeah finally well what a great job they did tonight offensively though the the offensive line the play calling you you got to hand it to this discovery Canyon team the way they played again this is number three against number four and it was an absolute blowout for the Thunder certainly was the clock play clock now down to 12 I can't do math that quickly Dave now let's bug in my eye so they can run the clock out we're operating in the dark up here we shut the lights out to try to keep the bugs away we're in the dark a lot though aren't we bro yeah especially when it comes to the proper names apologize for anyone who's offended tonight don't mean to it's a good look at brie Bach on the sidelines he's swatting bugs to the illustrious Rob Parrish telling me that I'm wrong again Tyler Gonzalez was the coach you saw in that last shot I was waiting for a text from Jamaica clock still running this should be the last time Isakson takes a knee does so and that's gonna do it the Thunder fans cheer confirmation on Tyler Gonzalez from Dan Lord Incan it's getting late in Jamaica he needs to hit the hay and we eat to to but a great game Dave discovery Canyon comes in and great sportsmanship both teams gonna meet shake hands at at midfield but what an effort tonight as discovery can you really ran away with this one after that first Pueblo East Webb Louise possession turned out to be a turnover well really was Brian you wonder how much we talked about through the broadcast Kane Medrano the the leading receiver leading rusher for this Pueblo east team he was out a senior was out with an injury not able to play tonight you wonder how that had on this Eagle team but certainly a credit to the Thunder what they got done tonight a great job for Shawn Mitchell and his team as they run their record of five and OH Pueblo East Falls to three and to the Thunder come over and get some cheers and that'll do it for our broadcast discovery Canyon wins it 52 to 24 we'll see if that's good enough to maybe move up to number one in the 3s standings stay tuned thanks for watching for our entire crew on the cameras Vincent Greco Tim's territory Tom Paul Marcus Rodriguez the illustrious Robert Parish in the truck along with that a Parker run of the replay machine Adam Drake doing everything in between for my broadcast partner Dave Tyler I'm Brian German thanks for watching we'll see you next time on xx TV you
[Music] good evening my name is Sally Allen and I am a member of the League of Women Voters of the annaroo area I welcome you to tonight's forum featuring candidates for the anaerobic schools Board of Education the cats will be on the ballot in the general election on Tuesday November 6th we are broadcasting from the studio's of CTN in Ann Arbor the League of Women Voters is pleased to sponsor these forums the league is a nonpartisan civic organization that encourages informed and active participation of all citizens in government the Lea works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and seeks to strengthen and broaden knowledge about our form of government and democracy while the league does not support candidates or parties we do take stands on issues we have studied one of the leaks most important goals is to assist voters in making informed choices at the polls and thus we bring you tonight's program our moderator this evening is Carolyn Madden who will explain the format and get us started Carolyn okay so there were four open seats for the Ann Arbor School Board and we began the night with the first forum with before incumbent in our public school board members and now we will have a second forum with four four candidates I would think of the names one candidate cannot be here tonight so let me just introduce our candidates from left to right is Rebecca Lazarus Lazarus yeah Suzanne Perkins and Brian Johnson and Lucas Cole is our candidate who was not able to be here tonight okay so each candidate will have an opening statement of up to one minute each candidate will have a closing statement of up to 90 seconds and in between I will be asking questions which came from the Ann Arbor community at appropriate times the timers will hold up their paddles with the amount of time remaining yes and 90 and for each of the questions as well so the timer's will hold up their paddles the amount of time remaining the thirty-second paddle will be up and then finally a stop sign and please stop when indicated so that we all have an equal opportunity to hear all of you the order of speaking was determined by a drawing before we began and League members who will help us with the timing are Randy Friedman to my immediate left and then Miriam Shaw thank you very much and now we're ready for our opening statements miss Lazarus would you please begin your opening statement one minute hello my name is Rebecca Lazarus and I want to say thank you to the League of Women Voters and CTN for hosting this great forum tonight I'm so excited to be running for Ann Arbor School Board I'm a mother of two children who attend Ann Arbor schools I'm a business consultant with a degree from the University of Michigan and I have a diverse business background that has for the past several years I've been managing multi-million dollar real estate development projects I believe that there's an opportunity and a need for our district to have better transparency so our board can be more responsive and more progressive in how we support our students teachers and principals we can do better I look forward to your comment your questions thank you very much miss Perkins thank you thank you my name is dr.
Suzanne Perkins I also want to thank the league and CTN I am a education neuroscientist I have a PhD in educational psychology and I'm running for school board because I felt that I brought a unique perspective of having a background in educational policy in educational science I am a graduate of the anti-v public schools I left after graduating from Pioneer High School and I went to Massachusetts where I did my doctor where I did my master's work then taught in special ed with some of the most vulnerable kids came back here for my PhD and both my kids are Ann Arbor public school graduates oh good evening I'm Bryan Johnson I want to thank the League of Women Voters and CTN as well I wanted to just let you know that I'm proudest of the fact that I'm the father of two kids one at Patton Gill and one at Tappan and the husband of a teacher a schoolteacher I have a master's in business administration from the University of Michigan I'm also a pioneer high school graduate in a Forsyth middle school and Abbott elementary school graduate as well I currently work at the Business School where I do admissions for the masters and business program specifically focused on recruiting underrepresented minorities I was one of the first to graduate from my from my neighborhood pine lake on the west side here in Ann Arbor I wasn't the last but what I do know is after about 30 years we're still having a lot of the same issues the same types of kids that grew up around me are still struggling to to get some of the education outcomes that I was able to achieve and that's why I want to be on the school board I think I bring a unique perspective to that and I'm excited to talk a little bit more about it okay now we'll begin our first question I'll begin with you miss Lasser so your the challenges and you are facing four incumbent board members for a seat on the board what issue or issues prompted you to seek this office at this time and how would you accomplish your goals I ran two years ago and one of the things that I ran on back then was I felt that outsourcing had degraded the quality of our classrooms and busing services our food services and the maintenance of our buildings and grounds these contracts are coming up for reconsideration and I don't really feel that these services have been improved much as leaders in our educational system we need to provide the very best quality services that possibly can be provided to our students and teachers if we can't do that then we need to have the board reconsider possibly different ways of bringing those services back in-house the security my children get on the bus we don't know who the bus driver is there's no familiarity of who these people are and the custodial services some of our schools aren't well maintained these need to be addressed miss Perkins okay thank you I'm running for school board primarily because I'm interested in making sure that the school board has policies that are research-based the school board is in charge of making policy decisions for the anti verticals and directing the superintendent to follow through with policy decisions I want those to be research-based particularly in terms of closing the achievement gap which has been an ongoing problem in Ann Arbor for as long as I can remember we need to pull data from the schools and the various programs that we have intended to close the achievement gap and see whether they're working if they're not working we need to make changes to those programs to make sure they're those to make sure that we are actually closing the achievement gap I have been an advocate for later school start time for adolescents the CDC recommends that no school should start before 8:30 it's been about six years since they made that recommendation and we have we are not fully following it I think it's a very important policy that we need to follow because it helps with mental health it helps with achievement and it helps with physical health we're one of only four states in the country that treats 17 year olds as adults in the judicial system and we really need to look at our policies in terms of the school to Prison Pipeline the inequality in the way that we bring kids into the school to Prison Pipeline and thank you mr.
Johnson Thanks so I've been a resident of the Ann Arbor area for a long time I've been back for about 12 years and what that's allowed me to do is to talk to a lot of people who are citizens of Ann Arbor and who have their children in schools or who work in the schools and what over time as I was working with different parent groups to either save the the tuition based preschool or when I served as the president of the district-wide black parent support group I noticed the way that the district was working with its parents and with the with the teachers and even principals and there's there's a lot of concern I think on the surface our school district looks like it's doing a great job but if you really start to ask the people that are on the ground they actually see these things happening there's a growing concern and a lack of trust in the board a few reasons for that is for instance the teachers feel like they're being silenced like they can't speak up like they can't be a part of the solution as we talk about these big issues we need everybody working towards those things and when you have a school board that hires a union-busting law firm it's very difficult for your teachers to feel like they're vested in the in your child's education or that they're not seen as the as the bad person and we understand the impact that that has that teacher performance has on our students so that's one thing other thing is you know I've seen my mother was in the district-wide black parent support group as well and we've seen this achievement these achievement issues happen based on ethnicity and income for too long and I'd like to come in and really look at some new innovative ways to change that thank you okay our next question and begin with you miss Perkins decades ago Michigan consistently ranked among the top five states in funding for schools alongside Maryland and Massachusetts most recently Michigan is ranked 34th in education funding nationally so as a trustee what newer next steps can Ann Arbor Public Schools implement to effectively advocate for additional state funding for for K through 12 education well I'm hopeful that we will get some changes in Lansing that will make a big difference we have seen cuts of I think it's like 1.2 billion dollars because we've had the we've had funding from the K through 12 the school Aid Fund we've had higher ed funding funding taken out of that and so it's been reduced it's also you know various ways in which there's been sort of a death by a million cuts of trying to remove tax money from the school Aid Fund so it's a really big issue and something that has to be solved at Lansing by and large it's very difficult for us in Ann Arbor to get more funding in terms of the budget here I would really like to try to make sure that we put our emphasis on personnel instead of on things like utilities and bussing I would like to work with the city to try to get a bus line that goes from skyline straight down Stadium all the way out to Ypsilanti and back so more kids can take the public bus to the high schools so that we have less buses and work on initiatives to green the schools which would help with the the cost of the cost of heating and electricity for the building I think there's also an argument to be made for moving administration into the buildings so what I would do is I think we we all understand that there are funding issues in Lansing and a lot of that needs to be changed by lobbying Congress in Lansing to return some of the funds that have been diverted from K through 12 back into K through 12 and and I think one way to do that is really to energize our public our politics is local I think one thing that the board needs to do is be more visible to be more into our communities and one thing that we're doing as we as we canvas is talking about voting in general and really getting more people involved in the process if we can do that and get and get more kind of boots on the ground with that I think that we can impact things in Lansing I also think that we need to make more partnerships with other school districts that are that are at neighboring I think if you talk to someone on the if C school board for example I think sometimes there there is a bit of a of a push and pull between the districts and I think we really need to work with them to lobby together and look at our area and how we can we can help to to begin to to lobby Congress as I said to fun or to return some of that money back yes I have to concur with my colleague over here mr.
Johnson the problem does lie because the funding comes from Lansing that hopefully in this next election people will get out and vote for to change Lansing out some of the policies that they that some of the governors want to implement will definitely help all the school districts in the area with early education so that we can catch these children early on when they're fresh they're ready to learn and get quality preschools for all students in this area not only ours but everywhere in Michigan I think that as a district we're a large district where I think the fifth largest district in the state of Michigan we need to be out there public standing up being strong getting other districts locally and working together trying to partner with them so that we can stand up to Lansing show that we're tired of all of this top-down push on our districts we need to take our district back and I think that working with our teachers making our vision our long-term vision as to how we're doing this how we're trying to fight for them so they have more latitude in the classroom I think will encourage the parents and the students to stand behind the board and the district and the administration to get these things to put the pressure on Lansing ok thank you very much and the next question will begin with you mr.
Johnson Ann Arbor is a town characterized by both privilege and need with one in four students coming from poverty one in ten coming from a home where English is not the first language spoken and one in ten with needs documented on an individual education plan in what specific ways will you lead as a trustee to ensure that all students are learning to their highest potential and so that we continue to reduce disparities in achievement outcomes traditionally underserved groups of students this is a great question and one that's really close to my heart I really what I understand about education is that when you look at educational disparities between students that have resources and those that don't there's a large percentage of what a large percentage of that disparity is because of things outside of the classroom if when you tend to look at even the highest performing students they're they're not necessarily performing higher because of what they're doing in the classroom they're spending extra time outside they have extra resources be it tutoring or SAT prep or enrichment programs and one thing that I love about Ann Arbor is we have that already in our community I've worked with a program called Kappa League where we took you know young black men and we did mentoring as a lower-income black person growing up here I never saw doctors and lawyers but they are here and so I do think that the way that the district can actually help is to start thinking about education a little bit more holistically thinking about how things happen outside the classroom and outside of the school so having someone that partners with these community organizations that bring them in we talk about wraparound services but you know where is the proactive action being taken to reach out to these wraparound services how our teachers being equipped to understand when students need these types of services in the connect them to them and I think one way we can do that is to hire people full time that that identify these resources that we have in this wonderful city of ours and start to connect those students to those resources so that they're better off overall that was a long question okay well yeah okay happy to read it again in our bure is a town characterized by both privilege and need and with one in four students coming from poverty one in ten coming from a home where English is not the first language spoken and one in ten with needs documented on an individual education plan so in what specific ways will you lead as a trustee to ensure that all students are learning to the highest potential so that we continue to reduce disparities and achievement outcomes across traditionally underserved groups of students I think first and foremost I feel that we as the board would need to reach out to the community and listen to what the community is asking for I feel like I've met with many families and they just don't feel like they have anyone to talk to they don't know where to turn it's very frustrating and some of these ideas we've got a rich community are our second largest student population are Asian Americans we should reach out to the this community and I would like to be one of those people who step out and actually reach out to them they have they come from many different countries that have very advanced educational systems that have working solutions that we could bring in to our schools and actually start implementing some of them on a pilot program basis several wives several and even husbands are on h4 visas they can't work but they are willing to help and volunteer in the schools and I'd like to reach out to them to have after-school tutoring programs that we could implement in the various elementary schools and even a Milla and high school so I think we have resources it's just we need to be able to know where they are reach out to the community and be innovative in how we use those resources thank you well this is the issue that I ran on that's the one that is closest to my heart I when I was a teacher in Massachusetts I as I said earlier I was a special ed teacher and I taught kids with emotional and behavioral disorders they came they were the most vulnerable kids they came from very high poverty backgrounds most of them had been abused and neglected and most my work as an academic follows working with very vulnerable kids the things that you need to do in order to close the achievement gap are you need to identify kids really early see where they are behind in terms of you know all social functioning reading math functioning all of those things you do need wraparound services you need services where people can go into the home and for a wealthy district as you said we are on a wealthy community we don't really have those kinds of services to any great extent the starting school later is actually but Joan to be really important for most vulnerable kids because it's so important for academic achievement and for mental health and we need to really pay attention to whether or not we are diverting kids into disciplinary practices who are on IEP s or who are low-income because that starts out a tracking very early on okay thank you very much okay the next question we'll begin with miss Lazarus in the Ann Arbor Public Schools our 34 physical properties which represent a significant community investment average 65 years of age and like many public organizations in Michigan consistent renewal of instance infrastructure excuse me was deferred during a decade of reductions in state funding can you describe the steps already in progress to catch up and keep up with physical property needs in the district as a trustee what steps would you explore adding to this body of work to ensure updated high functioning and fishing and efficient school buildings this is a long one to serve our students today and into the future one of the things we just recently passed a bond or not a bond a millage increase to address those shortcomings in our budget so we do have some funds to work with however as a board member I would like to understand and I even actually worked on that millage campaign to get the word out to the community to vote for it I'm not one who likes to raise my taxes but I see the need for our buildings and the infrastructure these are our assets that the best assets that our district has our teachers are our best asset but these are buildings that I know people have loved and they have wonderful fond memories of these buildings and how they went through school and but some of them are very old and we have to reevaluate exactly are these buildings and the cost of real remodeling them is it the best use of this these funds maybe there's other options we have a lot of land that we can actually build upon new very green and more efficient buildings and development is something that I have a little bit of background in but we should look at that as a possibility to use these funds so it's it's important to keep these made the maintenance of these buildings up and I think we should look at how we use them a little closer thank you inefficiency in the buildings is one of the biggest budget items it really it's just a continuing reaching from the budget and we do have many old buildings in Ann Arbor across the state I've talked to Gretchen Whitner Whitmer about an idea that I have about a one-time plan to green buildings across the state green the school buildings across the state I don't know if anything will come up at I've also talked to various people at our at our state and state legislature here we have in the past used millage money for things like improving the windows and the insulation and buildings we need to continue to do that because as long as our our infrastructure is crumbling we're wasting money all the time and it is something that we could try to invest in things like solar and you know that all the these buildings have huge roofs on them and DTE has a certain number of soul who raised that they are supposed to put across the state and having them on top of our buildings would be a good way to reduce eventually the cost of running those buildings thank you yeah so with any issue I think that you need to understand the problem first and I do know that the that the board has is in the process of a facilities assessment so I would really look at what that facilities assessment says first and foremost I would look at fixing the things that that are safety hazards and that need to be fixed right away my daughter the daughters go to school and in our Republic schools and when I went to curriculum night it was so hot I can't I can't believe that they go to school there every day so you know some of those things where we're talking about cooling and really improving that environment for them in the short term I think we should definitely look at but I also think that we need to look longer term one thing that we've been doing is we have been passing these villages but they they do tend to be kind of stopgap sits when we need the money we ask for it but I'd like to see a more long-term plan to develop either new construction or it's funny Rebecca mentioned buildings in fond memories we are talking about I told her I've met my wife and see Hall of pioneers so I don't want to destroy Pioneer High School of course but but I do think that we do need to look at you know ways to renovate or to or to rebuild or to do new construction so that we we meet a balance we do need to talk to our community to see you know what what they would like to do I was here around the skyline construction and I saw a lot of the the the passionate out cries around that so I think that that needs to be managed but we definitely have crumbling infrastructure and after a while you can't keep putting a bandaid on it you need to look at something more long-term okay thank you very much the next question we begin with you miss Perkins school safety school safety is always uppermost and parents Minds these days so do you support the district's current policies on school safety and why or why not it's it's a great question for today a lot of us are wearing black today because because it's a way to say that we believe survivors of sexual assault sexual assault happens the bubble for that is starting around 14 years of age until the early 20s and we need to I think we need to have greater programming around helping teaching kids what is you know where it is okay to touch and not touch bodies and to have safe places for people to report I think that we have done we're really lucky in Ann Arbor because we have a very diverse we have a very diverse group of people and we do generally treat each other with a great deal of kindness we have in the past had a gap in how we discipline people where as I said before that the kids who are on IEP is kids who are low-income are more likely to be disciplined and to sent in to the track where they end up in the school to Prison Pipeline so we need to look at more restorative justice practices and we need to really work with kids finding out what places in their schools are safe by finding out from them if there are bathrooms that are unsafe etc I'm great um so I think that or one of the things that our district has been plagued with is suicides in the last couple years we've seen suicide attempts and suicide skyrocket and they've really rocked our our schools and I think that you know that's one that's one kind of symptom of the fact that we need to double down on mental health in investment and directing those funds where they need to go one of my biggest concerns is when I see when I see school shootings and you know typically those are the kids who really you know they don't necessarily have IBS they don't necessarily they're kind of under the radar and I think as we're looking at helping specific kids there a lot that get left out and and as we're always kind of focusing on you know shrinking budgets in the bottom line from a fiscal standpoint a lot of these these children who when I was in school we had you know school counselors that were there that weren't just people that that worked on on your class schedule but people that could actually look at your mental health and and that's one of those things that I really think that we should double down on I think there was some some an increase in funding for mental health but some of that went to like additional principals and and and Dean's for four specific schools and while that's great you know I think that you know I'd feel more comfortable if we were doing something that more directly work with kids and in their their mental health and you know letting helping teachers to understand how to direct them to those resources safety in the schools it's it's really sad that we live in a time where our children have to come home and tell us that they did an active shooter drill today and my daughter told me that she she she sat in the bathtub with pillows over her unfortunately I don't think that that's really gonna save her from something as an active shooter I think we need to push back on our legislation to do something about gun violence and our schools should not allow any guns in our schools or around our schools and our district has been forthright in fighting that so that's a great thing I think that it also comes down to kids need to feel safe in that they know who they're dealing with the adults we tell our children about stranger danger but if they're getting if people who are working in the schools are different every a very other month or every couple of months and they don't get to know these people the bus drivers the custodial services it's very sad that they don't know who these people are so they're not sure who these individuals are so they don't have that security feeling that they can go to all these adults and know that they're going to be safe so I think we really need to look at who our children are being exposed to in this the district and in their schools thank you next question again mr.
Johnson how do you feel about the state legislating for proposed changes to Michigan's social studies curriculum so I think we're in an interesting time in our country in general where we're even you know facts have become debatable and historical facts have have become have become manipulated in a way to push political agendas and I think that that this the the proposals to change social studies is a symptom or an example of that and I think is really dangerous because as we especially start to look at kind of minority communities and we we seek to empower them or have them feel like they belong in in our history and in in our society and that they they can do well in school when you you start to sanitize some of the some of the things that have happened historically I think that works against them I also think that we we need to you know build on our on our rich history and when people start to change that it's it's just not helpful for our students so so I totally oppose it it is hyper partisan I think you know it's it's poisonous in a lot of ways and and and I don't agree with it at all I have to agree with my colleague down there it is it's it's terrible that that people are even trying to take people out of very like Helen Keller Hillary Clinton I mean this is this this is just going a bit too far and we have to stand up as a community and say enough Sanat stop and as a district we have to look at where we're purchasing our curriculum items from our textbooks where what states are authorizing these books we should ban any type of publisher that actually is encouraging these types of changes to our social studies curriculum I I just we have to stand up and we have to bond together with not only our district but other districts say because money talks and if you're not selling books and you're not selling textbooks they're gonna they're going to stop the education system has been the center of the culture wars for a very long time back when I was getting my masters in education which was embarrassingly a long time ago even then Texas had the biggest they do their textbooks for the entire state so they have the biggest sales of textbooks and they make decisions which is what Rebecca was talking about at the state level now they're talking about removing Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller but they've done it years and years and years they've removed Latinos they've removed african-americans they removed all these people from the curriculum and then it's the biggest buyer of textbooks so then everybody else is forced to use those textbooks it's happening very clearly in our state because obviously these are state ideas for changing our social social studies curriculum we that's where we really need to be standing up to Lansing we need to be at these at the legislative sessions we need to be talking to people we need to be there telling people that these are terrible ways to control education trying to take democracy and democratic values out of our social studies curriculum I mean it's just a poor on thank you very much we're just debating we think we have time for one more question and we'll start with you miss Lazarus what are your thoughts on Michigan's third grade reading law first implemented in 2017-18 how might you help improve the current district plan given the fact that Ann Arbor public school receives less state funding funding than other districts I I support reading I mean I think reading opens the door to the world for any kid any adult any child having the standard set is fine how we get there is another thing I think we need to encourage after-school tutoring to understand and allow our teachers to have more time to actually teach the children in the classroom and understand who these kids are where they are in their their education and their academic performance and try to not look at them as data through testing pretest post-test quizzes I mean I support testing however and when a teacher feels that it's necessary but our district has gone way beyond the testing requirements that our state requires us to implement I think that we need to catch kids young I've said that before in preschool have quality preschool education and allow our teachers latitude to be creative and make reading fun my son struggles with reading and it's it took us a long time to get him to love reading he loves it now but it took us a long time so every kids not there is every kid's different so you have to understand who you're teaching to okay so the grade reading law was I believe originally started by Adam Zemke and then if I'm correct he didn't vote for it in the end it was originally a bipartisan idea to try to make sure that kids are achieving appropriate reading skills by third grade and that is a totally laudable goal we do in fact need to know whether kids are able to read by third grade but it has become but the law itself is extremely punitive holding kids back holding kids back really never does anything it doesn't help anybody it does get into the issue of testing and over testing we have a lot of testing that's mandated by the state and much of it is inappropriately done from somebody who has a lot of education policy you know you don't test people in the fall and then not get the church back until April when it's useless for the teacher and the parent and the students that's a lot of that as state mandated but another thing that we can try - we can try to focus on is getting actually the results back early because if you do identify kids early you can do things like Reading Recovery to bring kids up to speed but that's where you want to be helping them and not punitive and the third grade reading law is unfortunately punitive sure I actually agree with Rebecca and Suzanne on all points I do believe that you know reading is important it's a it's an important building block on a lot of other skills just developing your cognitive ability of being able to read well is really important but it also starts to lead into academic and social and discipline issues - when a child can't read a lot of a lot of the behavioral issues are really to cover up the fact that the kid can't read and so so I do believe that by third grade there should be specific standards but I but I agree they shouldn't be punitive I have two children and one reads I mean one performs a little bit differently differently than the other it's very difficult to say that by this time this kid has to reach a certain standard or we're gonna hold them back holding them back starts to exacerbate the exact problems that I was talking about before now there's a stigma on them now they've now they've they've been held back and they watch their classmates go go farther so um so I I do believe that that it makes sense to you know not follow that standard and so the fact that we're getting less funding is great on that on that note because we're doing the right thing for our kids I think that you know teachers should be empowered to make the types of decisions to help those children get the additional support to catch up because to Rebecca's earlier point some kids it just takes them a little bit longer and you don't want to add additional pressure an additional stigma that's going to work against you as opposed to work for you so so I do that were kind of headed in the right direction there okay thank you very much responding to all the questions and now you each have we'll begin with you mr.
Johnson gave you the opportunity to have your closing statement also for 90 seconds so thank you so much again for this for this experience one of the first time I've been on a panel like this that's televised live so that's a bucket list item that can go ahead and mark off I just want to you know thank you for this opportunity I do believe that we live in a great district I owe my whole life to the teachers and the principals and one teacher that's actually sitting right next to you for helping me throughout my career I do believe though that that at a board level we need to set a vision for our district and if you look at what's been going on the board has done a great job at at approving budgets and keeping their head down and getting things done but you need a vision when you start to look over the last three decades at least we're dealing with a lot of the same issues that we were that we were faced with back then and the reason is that we that were not being innovative and I think that the great thing about our board is that it does change over about half of it changes over at any given time and we have the institutional knowledge but I think that we need more vision go on the website for the board and see what the goals are I look myself I couldn't really find very concrete goals or very aspirational goals and and that's one thing that I think that I bring to the table along with my two running mates I'm running with with two two people Lucas Cole and Rebecca Lazarus because we think that we need that critical mass to how to make those changes that need to be done so I hope you vote for me and vote for us in November and thank you very much again thank you yes thank you for allowing us to come here tonight it's been very interesting I hope you vote for me because I'm not a career politician I am here to try I seen some things and I see a growing dissatisfaction I in our teachers our teachers are our best asset in our district and we need to listen to them we need to empower the to make decisions critical classroom decisions to educate and to make a connection to our children make sure that they have those positive school memories that they can take with them for the rest of their lives I'd like to as a board member I'd like to actually sit and work with dr.
Swift to figure out I think she does a great job I think she's tireless in her duties as superintendent but I feel like the board needs to give her some directive as to how they want the school district to run so I am stepping up I hope other people in coming elections will also step up because I think we need to have unique and very fresh perspectives come to the board so we have different opinions of how to run the school and make it the best in the in the community thank you I want to thank you as well for this experience it's been really interesting I'm running for school board because I feel like I bring a unique perspective as being an educational policy person I would like there to be research-based policy that we are then continuing to check the data on we have ongoing problems like the achievement gap and the school to Prison Pipeline and we don't always keep up with trying to see whether we're making a dent in those problems and improving them from time to time I think it's extremely important one of the reasons that I got involved is that I went to school board meetings and I saw the some level of anger and upset between teachers and parents and I think that it's important that we include all stakeholders in decision-making I've been on the policy committee trying to decide whether we're going to do later school start times I think it's really helpful for the board to direct those those committees by giving them deadlines by giving them Robles because those can go on and on without really taking seriously it's the parents the teachers who are in the room they don't become working meetings anymore so I'm running for school board because I think I bring a diverse perspective that nobody else brings my name is Suzanne Perkins and I hope you vote for me one mistake the last time too so well I'm sorry get your time set the league thanks the candidates for participating in tonight's forum to those who contribute questions and to CTN for making the program possible these forms will be rebroadcast on channel 17 a number of times between now and the election they are also available undemanding under computer or smartphone go to our website lwv and arbor org and look for the link to the programs and please urge your friends and fellow residents to watch these forums to for additional nonpartisan information on candidates and ballot issues go to vote for one one org the league's voter resource guide covering local state and federal candidates and the current current proposals that will appear on your ballot and please don't forget to vote November 6th thank you [Music] you
[Music] good evening my name is Trudy Adams and I am a member of the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor area I welcome you to tonight's forum featuring candidates for Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners districts 8 & 9 the candidates will be on the ballot in the general election on Tuesday November 6 2018 we are broadcasting from the studio's of CTN in Ann Arbor the League of Women Voters is pleased to sponsor these forums the league is a nonpartisan civic and political organization that encourages informed and active participation of all citizens in government the league works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and seeks to strengthen and broaden knowledge about our form of government and democracy well the league does not support candidates or parties we do take stands on issues we have studied one of the league's most important goals is to assist voters in making informed choices at the polls and thus we bring you tonight's program our moderator this evening is Diana neering who will explain the format and get us started Diana thank you Judy the first thing I want to do is introduce our candidates from district 8 is Jason Morgan and from district 9 is Katie stop Katie Scott Jeff galantine from district 8 was invited and so was Stuart berry from district 9 but they were unable to attend tonight the format is as following each candidate will have an open opening statement of up to one minute each candidate will have a closing statement of 90 seconds I will ask questions that have been submitted from the Washington County community and I will read the questions only once each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond the timers will hold up their pallets indicate pedals indicating the remaining time and finally a stop sign please stop when indicated so that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate the order of speaking was determined by drawing before we began and the candidates are seated in the order of the numbers they drew we're going to keep it very simple tonight and the opening statement will start with candidate number one as well the first question and the closing statement and my timers tonight are Nancy Johnson and Paige silence we will hear from Jason Morgan Morgan his opening statement Jason thank you so much so as mentioned my name is Jason Morgan and I'm running for re-election to the Washington County Board of Commissioners I'm running for re-election for the same reasons that I ran in the first place I love our community I wanted to give back we have an amazing community here in Washington County and I'm proud to represent a district primarily made up of Ann Arbor but many people they ask what a County Commissioner does and much of our work is behind-the-scenes much of it is unnoticed the primary focus of what a County Commissioner does is serve people in in the ways that you wouldn't otherwise see through human services Public Safety ensuring that our roads are plowed in the out County and ensuring that people are provided a basic social safety net around housing and food support and many of the things that you really don't see until they touch your life so I'm proud to be running for election and excited to be with you all tonight thank you so much thank you so first I just want to say thank you to the League of Women Voters and to CTN for this vital service that they're providing to the community we live in the information age but it can be harder than ever to find the right information that we want to make our decisions and so I'm sure I speak on behalf of all Washington County residents for with a gratitude for this service so as you heard my name is Katie Scott I am an intensive care nurse and everyday I advocate for my patients and their families I'm also an active member of my nurses union both on the state and local level so I thereby advocate for my entire profession in patients across the state now I'm eager to serve Washington County residents also especially district 9 by hoping to earn your vote to serve you on the Board of Commissioners I believe in transparency and ethics and government creating health justice across the county and putting working families first in order to make Washtenaw County a diverse and open place for all people to live so I'm eager to earn your vote on November 6th and thank you again Thank You Katie the first question that I'm going to ask is specific to your district so in your answer and think about your district we were going to start with mr.
[Music] good evening my name is Trudy Adams and I am a member of the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor area I welcome you to tonight's forum featuring candidates for Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners districts 2 & 7 the candidates will be on the ballot in the general election on Tuesday November 6th 2018 we are broadcasting from the studio's of CTN in Ann Arbor the League of Women Voters is pleased to sponsor these forums the league is a nonpartisan civic organization that encourages informed and active participation of all citizens in our government the league works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and seeks to strengthen and broaden knowledge about our form of government and democracy while the league does not support candidates or parties we do take stands on issues we have studied one of the league's most important goals is to assist voters and making informed choices at the polls and thus we bring you tonight's program our moderator this evening is Diane neering who will explain the format format and get us started thanks Trudy it's my honor the first thing to do is introduce the candidates the first candidate is Kevin Jardine he is running in district 2 the next candidate is sue shank she is also running in district 2 and Andy lebar number 3 is running in district 7 Joe Marin re was invited but was unable to come tonight he is also on the ballot for district 7 the format will be as follows each candidate will have an opening statement of up to one minute each candidate will have a closing statement of up to 90 seconds I will ask the question once and these questions have been submitted by the community of the Washtenaw County community each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond the timers Ellen Lafferty and Chris some Samhita thank you sorry Chris our timers for this evening they will be holding up their petals indicating the remaining time and then at the end of the time they will hold up a stop sign and I'm asking the candidates to please stop when indicated so that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate the order of the speaker was determined by a drawing before we began and the candidates are seated in order of that draw we're going to keep things simple an opening statement we'll start with candidate number one the first question will also be candidate number one and the closing statement will be candidate number one and there is a very good logic behind this which I will try not to explain to you right I am going to ask Kevin the first question for each candidate will be I'm asking specifically about your district and the rest of the questions will be countywide questions so mr.
[Music] good evening today is Wednesday September 26 2018 I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order if we could all please rise for the president's pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God [Music] okay we have six of our seven board members tonight Easter that's unable to make it first on our agenda is public comment there's no one signed up is there anyone here in the public that would like to speak okay moving on we have a student representative report and a big warm welcome to madeline o'connor our new student representative for the year we are very happy to have you here hi everyone for those of you who don't know me my name is Mattie O'Conner and I'm the new student representative for the square I'm a senior and I play sports at the school and I'm involved in many clubs so I generally have a very good idea of what's going on with the students right now most of the clubs and the students are focused on one of the biggest weeks of the year which is spirit week which includes the pep rally homecoming carnival and of course the football game most of our clubs are working on booths fundraisers at the carnival and as well as other ways to raise money for the beginning of the school year tomorrow throughout the day we will be having our annual club fair for the underclassmen and more specifically the freshmen who can get a sense of ways to get involved at our school and in the community student council is hard at work with our spirit week planning which includes coming up with themes for each of the days as well as the pep rally where all of the sports teams will compete against each other in fun games and serves the purpose of getting everyone excited for that night's football game some of our other clubs will be participating in the town's rakin bake as a way to help some people in Brookfield and earn some community service hours as well and for the whole student body we must recently had our student council officer elections or multiple students in each grade ran for positions in order to make a difference in our school overall the students in the high school are very busy this fall whether it be with club sports or even just school in general thank you question when is the carnival in homecoming Oh Friday October 12th October 12th thank you okay hey mister if I might I just want to say a couple nice things about Maddie that we should all know is that not only she in the National Honor Society and excellent student all-around wonderful young person she was also an all-state swimmer in part of our state championship girls swim team so you know I think it's important for people to know she's a very high achiever and a hard worker congratulations on your success happy to have you here hey next we have written correspondence Howard Lasser regarding the proposed building project and Praveen tokus regarding sports facilities thank you minutes recommend a motion that the board approved the minutes listed below is recommended special meeting on September 5th 2018 and regular meeting on September 5th 2018 second any discussion regarding the minutes okay all in favor aye opposed superintendents update thanks mrs.
Morgan what are the main and unique challenges facing your district within this county if you are reelected how will you plan to address these challenges the the main district the main the main challenge of my district is sort of the intersection between the city of Ann Arbor and Washington County the city provides many great services and they they work very closely with the county but the one area where we we work together very close to that we need to do more work on is around affordable housing I think everybody in Washington County knows that it's hard to be poor in Ann Arbor it's hard to make ends meet when rent is very high and the cost of living is much higher and that's an area where the county and the city in particular are trying to invest in affordable housing so one of the most recent things that we did as a Board of Commissioners is invest in affordable housing through the Platt Road project which will provide 50 units of affordable housing for 99 years which is something that is is unique and different than any other affordable housing project we've seen in a while on this area and above that above and beyond that is this project will be environmentally sustainable and have just this phenomenal way of ensuring that we provide meaningful affordable housing for those who are most in need and for the longest period of time we can so that's one of the big challenges there are many transportation being a key factor as well so one of my priorities has been working with ata and our other communities as well to improve accessibility to be able to get to Ann Arbor and to get Deb Salani and Chelsea and Dexter in all parts of our county so there isn't necessarily one particular issue that just touches my district I'd say it touches the entire county as a whole thank you miss cat so I live in district 9 and district 9 is primarily the west side of Ann Arbor so like Jason really looking at majority of my district in Ann Arbor City we in district 9 are increasingly affected by the Gelman plume that is definitely something that people are interested in district 9 and so that will be something we'll have to look at at the county the county has already party to the lawsuit but we need to be talking especially in district 9 to people about the EPA Superfund and what we can do with that we also have a issue in my area with affordable housing too so I bought my house 10 years ago and now 10 years later it would be unaffordable for me as a working professional as a nurse and what we need to do is address affordable housing so that people who work in our community can also afford to live in our community I love living in Ann Arbor I have a son who just started middle school and he loves Ann Arbor too he wants to stay in Ann Arbor which might be a short-lived desire of his but for now that's what he wants and I want to keep an arbor someplace where he can come back to and he can stay and live and have that housing be affordable for him and his future family as well we also have to deal with transportation issues and how people are getting around the county and finding their way to those jobs that hopefully they have in place as well so a number of issues specific to my district and it's exciting to think about being able to work at those on the county level and address issues across the whole county as well thank you I guess I your the next question any better or not the commissioners are elected from separate districts but are also responsible for decisions that affect the entire county in what ways do the priorities of your districts constituents differ from those countywide issues what ways do they overlap and when priorities differ what is your process in making a decision so that's a really big question to answer in a minute so I'll try to the salient points of that so there's always a tension in some ways between thinking about what the district wants and what things happen at the county level but I think you have to think about what drives your motivation to represent people in the first place I feel really confident that the people in district 9 have some of the same values that I do and that what we're looking for is are things like social equity and health justice across the county and that people in district 9 would support that on a county level to be able to represent both my district and the county you have to develop relationships with other people in the county the other commissioners on the county you have to work as a team you have to work in concert with each other I think that it's important that we pay attention to everything in the county one of the ideas I've had to think about fostering relationships is sometimes taking those meetings that we have is the County Commission that are a mile from my house so that's really fantastic for me but it would be really interesting to pull some of those meetings into different parts of the county to try to get other people involved take them out to Dexter take them to epsilon II so those communities there can access those meetings and become involved more clearly too and have their voices heard at the county level yeah I think as Katie will articulated it is is hard to sometimes separate you know your districts issues from the rest of the county because we do represent the county as a whole and many of us particularly running you know in our districts are are people who believe in social justice and equity and trying to ensure that we are were lifting everybody up and so one of the biggest initiatives that we've passed at the county over the last couple years was an equity policy that Katie was very supportive of and and has been fantastic about but that our job is going to be to implement that equity policy over the next couple years so what that means is that when we're making funding decisions we're not thinking just about our districts we're not thinking just about the city we live in we're thinking about the county as a whole and looking at where the hardest-hit not just cities or municipalities but census tracts so really narrowing in based on data based on they call the opportunity index that you can really look at you know what are the health disparities life expectancy asperities it's it's absurd that we are one of the most segregated communities in the in the state and one of the most segregated counties in the in the nation actually around the different parts of a county and how our people are doing so even though we represent districts in Ann Arbor we're going to be trying to help you know census tracts Whitmore Lake epsilon E and rural parts of the county as well as our own districts to ensure that we're focusing our efforts and helping those who need the most help because it's not just blood equality at this point it's about equity and putting the additional resources where it's really needed so I we have a lot of work to do and I'm excited to do that Thank You mr.
Jardine Oh an opening statement sorry thank you that's why Trudy's here we will have opening statements first mr. Jardine your opening statement yes thank you very much I'd like to start by thanking the League of Women Voters and also CTN for hosting this event my name is Kevin Jardine and I'm running for County Commissioner district 2 the district in corporate encompasses generally just the the north side of the county I've been a lifelong resident of Washtenaw County and graduated from high school at Ann Arbor here on high school best high school here and you know a lot of things have been concerning me about about the community about various aspects of it and my parents have always told me from a young age and so as my church that you need to get involved a community you need to give back and that's why I got into politics to begin with was to to serve and to give back to my community and hopefully as your next County Commissioner I can fulfill that role in community thank you miss shake hi my name is sue Schenk and I'm running for County Commissioner in district 2 I'm running for County Commissioner because I love Washtenaw County I love the quality of life that we enjoy here and I want to do everything that I can to promote and protect that quality of life I have been working to preserve open space and farmland for many years and will continue to do so in capacity as Washington County Commissioner I will work very hard and have actually begun working very hard to make sure that all the people of our district and County have the resources they need I will promote small businesses I will be accessible and accountable and I will work hard for you I'm an attorney with a degree in resource policy and analysis and I've served as a Northfield Township Trustee I've served on the board of the Huron River watershed Council I chair the Washtenaw County agricultural lands preservation advisory committee I chair my Township land preservation committee I participate in my Historical Society and I will continue working hard for you as a Washington County Commissioner Thank You mr.
term I'll be very brief this evening how I'm going to defer the majority of my time to our four principals who be reporting on their 1718 school implementation plans and and also to mr. Caldwell who will be sharing some of the summer facilities work that went on I did want to introduce mrs. Annie Bertie who is my intern this year she is working on her superintendent certification through Central Connecticut and will be with us for the year in attending meetings and Ann is currently the principal in Newtown at the Reid school so she's been with us for a couple of meetings already with the administrative team and and we're glad to have her in welcome Anne welcome and that's all I have okay moving on to subcommittee reports we have facilities okay so the money to replace the high school air conditioning and heating in the auditorium is in place Steve Don is granted permission for the reallocation of the 2015-2016 capital improvement projects funds to be used for this project and there are sufficient funds left over to cover all the costs I'd like to thank everybody who's worked so hard to fast-track the rooftop units in the auditorium for this and then and having the insight to go and look at the using it from the capital for 2015-16 because it's really been a help and it's really going to be a great benefit to the high well alright finance and so we had a our Finance Committee meeting on September 11th it was we talked about a number of different things first of all the results from the prior year there unaudited at this point but mister post recommended as reported to us that it's gonna we're gonna actually under run by approximately one hundred and ninety thousand dollars so we actually had a very active discussion with the town controller about how to clear up a couple of things like that old thirty thousand dollar balance that we saw on the audit and a couple of others and I can do you have any updates on whether we're gonna do any of that or is it still ahead of us still ahead of us still ahead of us so we've kind of teed up a couple of areas and of call so discussed whether we're gonna pursue an on lapsing fund proposal with the with the Board of Finance so that we could use it to help with my classroom raw libraries in particular and that also was ahead of us because that kind of comes along at the time of the audit so we'll have that'll be an ongoing discussion in the next couple of months the audit actually won't start until December January correct given the availability of the auditor so that's the final final results are ahead of us a little bit we also looked at the the current spending and you know to say the truth August is a you have the report in your in your packet and August is always awkward because you got that first month and you really have no trend to speak of the one thing that we did here though is that we've had some unexpected turnover of teaching staff here over the summer and that actually yields some some amount of savings and mr.
Morgan question number three it is dealing with the Platt Road project but you both have already mentioned but it it's a little more detailed so we're going to ask you to get a little more into the weeds and mr. Morgan you will have an average nose is considering the authorization of to purchase purchase agreements for the county's property and plant road which is in district seven one with thrive collaborative and the other with Avalon housing the proposal is to develop the site for residential housing which will include some low income residential housing thrive has proposed to purchase nine acres of this site for 104 $1,200,000 which is well below market rate what's your position concerning the sale of this property for that amount and what impact do you think you will have on countywide you know have on Tony wide yeah this is a particularly interesting issue because it's a well in some respects it was a very easy vote we just passed a through where our Ways and Means Committee which is essentially our Budget Committee last week and next week we will have a final vote on this project it's easy in the respect that it is a a project that looks beyond twenty years it looks to 99 years of affordable housing and we're providing a more meaningful affordable housing for people than we've ever done in our community so these these units will be affordable down to 30% AMI which is sort of the lowest level of portable housing and the hardest to get in Ann Arbor in particular because of the cost of land this project also includes all these environmental components it will have five hundred does the the amount doesn't really matter it will include solar a substantial amount of solar energy to power these homes and it will all be electric this entire development which does mean a lot but the other really really important component of this is that this was developed through conversations in that neighborhood and in the community that's right near my house to figure out how do we get residents from being concerned about this not just being a park but being a some sort of you know development that comes in and interrupts and change the culture of the neighborhood this is a really amazing opportunity to really blend those two wants from the community so we're providing meaningful mixed income housing that's done in a really smart and an amazing way but also getting some level of benefit to the community as a whole thank you that's a short answer so I'm sorry I can't explain it that's okay well it's a short period of time this guy it's really hard to do this in a minute so I think like Jason I think that the Viridian project is really exciting I have been waiting for a final decision on how they're going to address that Platt Road project as people have been calling it so the new project working with thrive and I believe Avalon builders also is really exciting it's true that the purchase price of 1.2 million is lower than the market value but it has come up from the original purchase price and the impact on the community as a whole is going to be felt so having it be below the purchase price but know what good is going to come from this community it's a mixed-use community as Jason said with those 30 those 50 units set aside for affordable housing some of which will be for that 30% of ami is fantastic another really exciting thing about the Viridian project is as Jason also said that that zero energy that they're going to have there so using the solar energy really working how you are coming up with environmental and green solutions and creating affordable housing at the same time is exciting it's going to be a model not only for the state but for the country I think that Washington County is really showing its leadership I am very excited to think about being elected and getting to be part of this project going forward thank you Miss Scott question number four comes to you first miss cot the Washington County Road Commission is a semi-autonomous entity which is governed by the Board of Commissioners and important in appointed by the Board of Commissioners it's a three member mission the term for one of the Commission seats is expiring in 2018 what qualities do you think a road commissioner should have and when the Road Commission makes controversial decisions which it does from time to time what role does the County Board have in addressing the constituents concerns with the Commission's decisions so the Road Commission I mean roads are clearly an issue for all campaigns this year in 2018 I think that when I think about the person that should be on the Road Commission coming up first of all I think we probably should expand the number of people on that Road Commission right now I think it's three and you probably should have more people there's an interesting intersection with the roads and the county together that limits some of our ability to play the role that I think we should entirely play in the county government but somebody going on to that Commission has to be somebody who is clever and nimble and intelligent and has subject matter expertise in this area I was talking about this before and I said I have a friend who is an engineer and he's either a concrete or cement engineer and he assures me they're very different but I don't know the difference so somebody on the Road Commission should know the difference between that they we should have diverse representation there and somebody who is really willing to think about the utilitarian nature of our roads but also some of those roads and the natural beauty that they have in our community so think about those things back and forth and absolutely the Road Commission the road commissioners should be accountable to the public there is there is a lack of accountability that I see right now with the road commissioners and we need to think about how to make that more accessible to people and have that accountability be there thank you yeah absolutely I would agree with many of the comments that Katie suggested there I think we've had a road commission that has done a really good job for a long time the fact that we've we barely thought about the road commission in this community until recently is a testament to the the really phenomenal work they've done for many years in particular we have our four year Road millage right now that they're implementing that's they've been implementing and the design and the structure of transparency around that Road Commission to say exactly where the dollars are going to go exactly what projects we're going to do before they're done and to actually note for the public like this this project is funded by Washington County residents is a true testament to the work on the other hand we have a lot of room for improvement and so the particularly around environmental challenges and and sort of our natural beauty of our roads I would love to see us look at more of a an official tree policy like some other counties have we don't actually have one of those in Washington County so we don't have a designated manner in which we handle trees along the roadway certainly there are their arguments to say that we have needed a certain amount of footage along the roadway to provide safety for for drivers and you know snowy conditions things like that but there's also a balance there we see a very different clear difference in the way we handle roads in Ann Arbor versus the out County because the community tends to be very vocal in Ann Arbor around trees in particular I would like to see some of that sentiment shared countywide so we can ensure that we're having it a beautiful entire County as a whole and a lot of that rests with the Road Commission thank you mister um question number five comes to you again the board is in the process of creating a Washtenaw County Youth Commission in partnership with the neutral zone and corner health do you support this partnership and what do you think the Commission's role should be and how do you anticipate working with them I'm so glad that you asked I was actually very very proud to lead this effort on the County Board of Commissioners to not only eventually hopefully create a Youth Commission but to do something that's even more unique we allocated funding in partnership with the neutral zone and corner health to spend a year facilitating a dialogue run by the neutral zone and corner health because they know more about working with youth than any of us ever will that's just what they do every day so they're facilitating a year-long dialogue with young people so that young people will create a Youth Commission and present a proposal to us at the board of commissioners at the end of this year-long process which i think is the only true way to have a Youth Commission that represents youth they need to be involved in not just you know input but actually creating this phenomenal thing that I hope will be a permanent installment in our County so we have young people at the table we're hearing their voices were empowering them to be engaged in local government which heck if they want to just show up I'm happy but I think we'll find some really exciting people who are passionate about this work and actually we have will be reviewing applications on Friday and I'm part of that process we have 49 applicants for what we're 10 and hopefully maybe end up 15 positions on this task force to create a Youth Commission for 49 young people that are completely diverse in demographics where they live we've searched for every part of the county because the hope of this Youth Commission is that we have young people from in Arbor Ypsilanti Western Washington County the rural parts of the county young people from every part of our community so I'm very very excited about this thank you Scott so I'm really excited about this too when I first heard about the Youth Commission I wanted to know if my son could do it who is 11 and who has a keen political mind he's just a little bit too young to do it right now but I know how engaged he be indifferent issues not only nationally but locally and it's exciting to think about there are kids in the community who want to be engaged and giving them this opportunity to do it I think that when you bring young people together from these diverse backgrounds at this point in their lives you're really going to foster a new spirit of creativity and problem-solving when they have the opportunity to be together and not in their isolated communities of where they are that's a really exciting part of this happening these young people talking to each other I cannot believe there were 49 applicants for these ten spots it's really exciting I think that we have a lot to listen to with the young people in this country right now and and that we're doing this on the county level and engaging them and listening to these voices sometimes that are really wise behind their ears and that are thinking in different and creative ways it's very exciting I absolutely support it and I think that the commissioners role is to continue thinking about how we fund that program and how we mentor these young people who are interested in how government works going forward thank you miss Kat okay we've come to the end of the questions and so it's time for statement and as I mentioned it's 90 seconds and mr.
lebar hi there my name is Andy lebar I am the incumbent County Commissioner for district seven I want to thank the League of Women Voters for holding these forums and for the sober approachable way you do it I appreciate that I've had the honor to represent district seven since I was elected in 2012 and began serving in 2013 this is now my third two-year term on the board and I've been privileged these last two years to serve as chair of the board of the Washington County Board of Commissioners my district is the east side of Ann Arbor District seven primarily on the board I try and focus largely on human service issues as well as the county's fiscal picture generally and try always to be an advocate for my district and a voice for my district to the county rather than a voice to the county back to the district I'm excited to be here tonight and thank you again for hosting the forum thank you and now we will go to the first question and this is going to be district specific questions mr.
post is at the final report at the next meeting about how much that actually yes but it will help us quite frankly we're over running a little bit on special education inspiration and were under running a little bit on special education costs so and but other and other than that there wasn't a lot to report on here in the month biggest worry we have budget wise is the Medicaid reimbursement because we had budget and a hundred thousand dollars and there's a lot of meetings coming up where we're continuing to communicate to parents and hopefully that will get a little more momentum than we saw at the end of last year hard hard to really build momentum in that area but that may we may end up having spent the under run that we might see on salaries because we're not going to get the Medicaid reimbursement so we also talked about the the BHS rooftop unit and we've got that facilities community in order to do that and we had a long discussion about sales tax a member of the public had brought forward some had some input and advice from his experiences on sales tax and we had a very I think effective conversation about situations where that the schools may need to be charging sales tax it's not very many of them but where we do it mr.
Morgan um yeah get the first opportunity thank you so as I mentioned earlier I'm I'm a county commissioner because I love I love this community and I'm so honored to serve and I'm a county commissioner because our residents and my constituents elected me but I also say that that my true inspiration to be in public service dates back to when I was 13 years old when I was 13 I was diagnosed with something called Becker's muscular dystrophy muster just B is a neuromuscular disease it impacts your arms your legs your heart most importantly and I was told that I'd lose my ability to walk sometime my mid-20s and to make things worse the life expectancy for Becker's muscular dystrophy is 42 years old I'm doing very well I'm 29 now and I feel very healthy and very happy and very proud to be doing what I'm but when I learned about this diagnosis when I was a kid I at some point realized that the thing that really inspires me to keep going every day is the ability to help people and just serve and to do something for others and to make a positive difference in the world we as elected officials have that ability and it's up to us as to how we choose to use that so we can use our ability to empower young people we can use our ability to empower those who are most in need in our community and to give them the tools they need to try and succeed and to have a life that they are proud of so I'm here because it's the thing that inspires me to get up in the morning and I'm so honored to be running again and I'm so honored to be next to Katie and excited about so many amazing candidates running for this office this year thank you so I can't believe that our time is up already and that questions are done I want to just echo my statements earlier about my thanks to the League of Women Voters CTN to people watching and to all the other candidates Jason here with me and any candidate who's running in these elections in 2018 it's a scary thing to get up and decide that you're going to run for government and have that scrutiny and and go knock on people's doors who you don't know but every one of us who's doing it is doing it because we believe that we can be a voice to try to make things better in the world I am a nurse so every day when I go to work I advocate for people at the bedside I came this evening from negotiations from trying to get a new nursing contract why I'm all in red for red for labor and so advocating for people and speaking up for my community is something that I do and it was something I thought how can I take this skill that I have in advocating for people and do more for my community and that inspired me to think about running for this board position I'm really excited to serve with people who are on the board like Jason hommes who will hopefully be reelected and other members of that board I think that the work that the board is doing now is exciting I am eager to earn your vote going forward and thank you once again for having us thank you Miss Scott thank you the league thanks the candidates for participating in tonight's forum to those who contributed questions and to CTN for making this program possible these forums will be rebroadcast on channel 19 a number of times between now and the election they are also available on demand for streaming on your computer and smartphones go to our website l WV Ann Arbor org and look for the link to the programs please urge friends and fellow residents to watch these forums too for additional nonpartisan information on candidates and ballot issues go to vote for one one org the league's voter resource guide covering local state and federal candidates and current proposals that will appear on your ballot information is available please educate yourself and be sure to vote November 6th [Music] [Applause] [Music] you