001school year. >> All right. >> Know how I feel. >> I'd like to call to order the joint work session with the Gladstone City Council and the Gladstone School Board for Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025 at 5:32 p.m. Welcome everybody. We are going to start out with um introductions and so can we start over there with just tell us name and your role please. Uh, Maria Mitchell, city councelor, C2, Vanessa Hugabby, city council. >> Uh, Charu of West School Board. >> Garlington, city council. >> Andrew Levante, school board and city council. >> School board vice chair. >> Michael Milch, mayor. >> Donna Diggs, um, school board chair. Jennifer Zamora, board secretary. >> Charlene Patter, superintendent of the school district. >> Uh Jackie Beex, city administrator, Gladstone. Stacy Monree, school board member. Gabrielle Love, Gladstone City Council.
002Nicole English and Gladstone school board. >> Excellent. >> And we have uh Steph with Ivan is over here. Ivan Lee, director of operations and Kyle in the chair for technology. All right, we are going to start out with u a tour here of Cracksburg. And so Jeremy, >> sure. And we thought we'd just the perfect opportunity to see uh the food pantry which is just closing for the day uh just down the hall here and it's been open now for three weeks. And so Alex has volunteered to stay for a few minutes and answer any questions. wanted you to see that operation today was uh pretty beautiful in that parking was very limited. We had food pantry patrons. We had robotics, kids at robotics, baseball practices going on, youth basketball practices going on. And I
003saw that number I saw numbers that started with an eight today, remaining 80 uh different car loads of people showing up for the food. So, it was just a bustling. There were even a few disc golfers, right? So, I just had a lot of smile on my face. Everybody was intermingling in a really nice way. We'll just take a walk down there. First of all, I want to show you hardly anything. I love you. Such a big Everybody likes food. There's like six in the so >> at school. >> By the time they get they get hot and sweaty at the first recess. >> Yeah. goes in here. So, we'll do like one. So, um we have some pizza for you. Uh and and that's first stop our next our next tour is right here.
004>> So, we're just going to welcome you to go have some pizza and um in there. I'll just tell you a little bit about that space and you can explore these other two spaces. >> Yeah. Did you get a stroke benefit? >> No. Lo, so I haven't had Oh, there you go. >> I quite like Portland pizza. Yeah, >> that was an East Coast. >> Yeah. >> Are we coming back out? Sure. >> Come on. >> Okay. Okay. live stream. >> I've been tuning in. >> Oh, I thought it awesome. I'm >> Yeah, I was wondering as he's >> true. >> Yeah, he won't like >> I'm gonna get >> sweat sweat. I can't imagine. Thank you. >> I don't know what the rules are on that little controversial controversial question. Should you put pineapple
005I don't think so. >> I don't know. >> Maybe >> Jackie, you spend a lot of time in Hawaii. You feel like pulling that Hawaiian pizza is appropriate or >> I feel like Taco Bell is not really but big on spam and >> I have spam >> Kalúa pork or starts at 5:30 and 7. >> So, I guess by way of uh touring as you have have some conversation, break some bread. Uh and then I as as you finish up, I just welcome you to pop into these three sets of double classrooms. Historically were I think it at one point in time there were fifth graders on this campus of five through eight >> and then it became this what's known what was known as the sixth grade pod. Um we've reconfigured uh we'll talk
006a little bit about the bond and and facilities in general in a little bit. But part of the dream uh for the bond which did not obviously did not pass was that we would bring more CTE uh career technical education experiences to our middle schoolers so that they would be more engaged, attend better. Uh, and we know that students when they get to the high school level when they're involved in a CT program of study, they're significantly more likely to graduate. And so our vision is to start that conversation with kids earlier. Not that they need to lock in to anything, but that they start to get a sense of what high school might be like that they might start to attach to what kind of a a pathway they'd like to be on for
007a career. And so what we've done is these are the these collapsible walls allow us to expand the space. And so in here it's a room. This is a steam lab. So science, technology, engineering, arts, uh mathematics. And so you'll see 3D printers on the walls there. Um most of this grant funded over the la last several years, but we've just been pretty cramped um in what we offer. Robotics is not in here. robotics lab is still it's the last remaining thing in one of our portables. Two of our portables actually out here in here we've got a I call it like a exercise studio. So PE classes can come in here gives students an experience some experience with light weights starting to understand their body starting to give middle school appropriate uh equipment very
008little actual equipment u but just an exercise space. And then if you toured with us at all last year, you know that the the wood shop, the kind of nent wood shop was in the what's now the food pantry, one of those classrooms. So now we've been able to expand that and that's probably the most robust space. So as you finish up, please do pop into each of the three and check out what they've got going. Able to u spread kids out uh more be just a safer environment. So kind of a classroom environment over here and then actual saws and things, woodwork over here. Uh they also have there's a series of uh a series of modules that students work through. So like basic electricity, everything from that to drywall to I don't know
009there's about seven or eight different modules that we kind of weave children through. And it only really gets spun right about now when they've when they've finished up with all the safety uh proving that they're that they know how to use the equipment safely enough. But that's the design. And then um that can be very loose. You just welcome you to wander through each of the three spaces. Then we'll come back here and check back. Does the um at one point there we voted on something that had to do with lottery funds and trades in the school. What does that look like? >> Uh are you talking about measure 98 the um wasn't lottery funds but measure 98 came through about seven years ago. Is it around that time frame? >> I know I thought
010it was newer than that but okay. >> So there are two different funding mechanisms. most of it has been concentrated at the high school level. Measure 98 was the first that's also known as high school success and so those those funds are uh specifically for high schools and eighth graders. Uh so some of those funds have been used to purchase equipment here. Uh the other would be the the um student investment account that that operates through the corporate activities tax and um some that's mostly staffing for us. >> And then I saw that in your report that you guys were short on the outdoor school funds >> and I'm a firm believer in outdoor school. Um, but >> I thought that there was also some money there from something that we had voted on at
011one time. >> You're exactly right about 10 years ago. So, prior to 10 years ago, outdoor school was entirely self financed, right? Just fundraised. That's kind of the sixth graders would spend all year fundraising for this. And the spirit of that law was that in perpetuity all all outdoor school experiences across Oregon would be free. And at the 11th hour of this last leg that fund was reduced by about 20%. Um it hit districts in different some a little less some a little more hit us and uh our sixth graders are outdoor school right now. Um this will be their third night over there. And uh in order to make that happen, the education foundation uh decided to make a a generous donation kind of over to bridge for two years, assuming the legislaturator is
012going to get their act back together and and fund what they said they were going to fund. But they helped us bridge the gap for this to be needed. >> Even though that was supposed to come from what funds? Uh I don't I can't >> I thought they were sure assured funds. >> I that that is everything I had ever been told as well. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> that program is administered by Oregon State University Extension Program. >> Okay. >> They they hold the grant for everyone in the state, but um some districts have canceled it, shortened it. Um we were pretty committed. We were already well on our way. Families had just purchased school supplies. They had just maybe bought new clothes. Uh so to ask them to to very little notice because
013we were in the fall to to spend even more money on that. Um some people were able to and uh some families even donated uh for one or more additional children to things. So we kind of did a a menu approach this year. >> You don't always have control over when it's scheduled for this particular school. So sometime I can I can remember kids going in like February. >> We prefer to go in the springtime. >> Yeah. vertical, but it's been great weather this great weather. >> And is it on the coast or in the mountains or uh we've always been on the coast. This year we're sort of halfway to the coast. I shouldn't say always, but a couple years ago we went to the mountains. >> So, uh come take a peek. >>
014It's the It's called >> a city. >> It's what? >> It's a city. >> Yeah. >> Facility. Excited. Great. >> But she was there with a bunch of people. Oh yeah. Anybody watching? >> Yeah. >> These bully chairs on these. >> I know. >> Yeah. This is not >> well. >> Yeah, >> we went to McGrder. >> That's where we just got to hold on to them. FYI, but yeah on our cell phone, >> huh? >> No, she was just walking when she did it and she's on her phone and just absolutely biffed. >> It wasn't cancelled. No, I was about it out of my chair. How you doing? >> Summer, but I had a long day. >> I understand. >> But no complaints. Nobody wants anyone else. >> I'm always here to complain. I
015try to stop at least after he was at many high >> the weather me anyways. Yeah. I mean I >> is going to be >> Yeah. driving beautiful and it was like I was not in a good mood this morning. I got to my office by 5 and I had to go somewhere and I was full of driving at 7:22 and I'm like all right >> breathe. >> Yep. We got this. This is knock it out because >> what? >> Yeah. That'll which would be like stuck in an office. >> What is that gonna be? >> Absolutely. >> Tell you all about it. I don't want to steal guys ever want teens in the community tournament. That is how you suck them in. October flew by. I'm just kind of pumped and I probably surgery
016in January and then I done so like much better. >> It's been a double I'm sure >> never would have guessed. >> Oh um mayor has a couple questions regarding some some what they actually do in that room over there. Well deadlifts in there. Yeah. Jeremiah, go through an exercise routine right now. >> Come over and blow up some steam. I'm like, can we get some treadmill? >> Yeah. >> I'm like, >> wellness. It's all about wellness. Jeremiah Har. Okay, that's why there's two. >> My Donald doesn't listen to any of my suggestions. So I'm like, okay, you should do where >> she's here, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I need to get better at reverse psychology or something just just because I suggested it's a no. when you get older, you know, like just
017some little baseball. >> Yeah, it was never my strength and this day I'm working with somebody or whatever pass me this like >> I just walk like we don't have the key. just enough flavor in >> and I'm like well She lost something. >> Yeah, >> I thought about often times I can definitely skills there and it just it's a it's become entertaining to me to see just how things go off the rails like I mean I was working on something the other day and I had it all I felt really good about myself because I had everything set up I was more organized I was five steps ahead I'm like this is good and I'm like all right time to drill and I'm like >> oh this is one of those like fancy star
018drills like where's my bed and there I am like looking All right. >> Oh, yeah. So, >> like I just put the door like literally I did a door knob with just the wrong way. So, I'm looking at like this is not how it's supposed to go in. Oliver is not like me doing it. >> Yeah, it's it's been really interesting having something like that. like he's doing the work, but like >> I'm Does it have the right >> some people go to RA? when I put things together. That's my reason or something. >> Oh, yeah. I know >> it's so sticky. So the the final part of the school district presentation tonight is just a preview of we are hosting um I mentioned that the um the bond was not successful and we're still
019in the in the phase of collecting the why behind that. Um, and we definitely have theories about why that was, but what was clear was that Gladstone voters cared. Uh, voter turnout in Clackmus County was something like 20% and in Gladstone it was a highest 30%. So, people really did come out to vote in a May election. Uh, and and we got a free poll said no thank you. So, um, we are going to be hosting a uh question and answer information session on November 18th. >> I'm almost certified November 18th at high school >> and uh I want I'm trying to build that event around authentic engagement with cloud voters uh not only those who are supporters of of financing school needs but two questions you think might come up in question doesn't have
020any question that state you know voters were confused about or can you clarify about the 2006 heard a lot about the 2006 so I just thought we just school teacher brought you some index cards. If you don't have a pencil, I've got one for you. >> Of course. Sure. >> And that is what I'll do as we kind of collect those. But our our goal tonight isn't to uh answer these questions is just to get the awareness out there this event. Hopefully you can tell your friends and neighbors who might be interested to attend and uh to give us a little bit of head start on what we might be addressing on that >> Wilsonville is one school district and they have one He had one. >> I ran into the the mayor of um
021West who lives very close to a middle school there and the last time talk about the bond that we were going for here in Glas. Um, but I noticed on social media a lot of the similar kinds of questions about how money has been used in the past and what it was spent on and and why money that's been allocated does, you know, why the problems weren't solved with the money we voted on the last time. So very much a repeat of the kinds of things that we saw uh people wondering about and thinking about. So um and that's a district though where the city and the school have had some real conflicts over some particular pieces of property and development of certain things. They don't have that cohesive relationship. I'm sure they don't meet
022with each other, you know, three or four times a year like we do. So, um I I feel for the leadership of both their school district and their city on trying to uh do what need I think this is a great exercise because the kinds of things that people were asking last time is why isn't the money you get from the state enough to operate to to to do these buildings? um why why are you laying off teachers and then asking us for money? All these fish groups are going to be asked very much the same questions based on people's insufficient amount of information about some issues. So this is a great exercise because I think it will help you to um prepare to answer those kinds of questions. Thank you. I got some mail
023this morning. this morning as murdering. Come on. You say that was another pretty good sound. Yes. >> Yeah. We didn't put that in the glass. That's not supposed >> Oh, no. I get need these could be things we've heard previously but not necessarily what's in our brains as I think that you as a body uh members of the body are particularly well for you to give voice to what you hear While you're writing, I'll tell you about I know that Jackie can fill me in on the details, but one of the things that grew out of our regular cadence of calibration and coordination between the city and the school district is that there's a great event that's happening tomorrow in the city and we've got some high school thespians who are going to be making
024an appearance at that that event and um just seemed to work out pretty well because our our fall play is coming up. I hate Shakespeare. So >> yeah, so it's called the Clackamus Cities Dinner and all of the cities in Clackamus County take turns hosting and it's for all of the elected officials on their city councils, the county commissioners, metro. Well, it's Gladstone's turn to host and tomorrow it'll be at the community center. And as part of that, you always do like a 20 minute presentation. So, we're very excited because no other city has done this before, but students from drama department are going to come and uh do an act or a scene for us. And we're very excited to have that partnership. >> We hopefully drum up a little business for the theater
025department, too. >> Tickets are on sale. on November 9th, November 7th, and 9th. >> Will Will there be tickets on sale tomorrow? >> Absolutely. >> You can get You can bet there will always be a QR code available. >> I like it. give up your card. I had something else that somebody had said. >> We have those that work from school. >> The pencil erasers on every other pencil are horrible. So, you have to buy it. Oh, >> there's the >> pencil. >> Yeah. >> Are we writing anything else this evening or >> No, that's all right. I don't want to steal some youngster pencil. >> How honest of you? >> You know, they're hard to come by for students. Sometimes seem to lose them easily. Donna's just going to pick out a few to
026read aloud and give kind of a flavor for what >> All right. [Music] >> All right. Uh, what is the bond money actually going towards? And why can't you list out the projects and estimated costs? I'm just going to read like one off of each card. That's all right. Um, uh, how much how much will this cost is a question. Will this raise my taxes? And what is the same or different about this bond than the last bond? And uh I don't I don't have kids in the schools. This doesn't matter to me. Um why do you need a new roof? Didn't you replace it in the last bond? Doesn't the state give you enough money? We don't know what the last bond covered. So why do you need more money? How many square foot
027of the roof was replaced with the last bond? And what is the accountability if the bond passes? Where did all the money go for the last bond? You haven't paid uh paid off the previous bond. So why should we give you more money? >> Are you sure you want to do this on it? Yes, I know. >> Uh I think voters were concerned about the cost and what it was allocated for from what I saw. Um how much are my taxes going to increase? Um how bad is the school district debt for PERS? Which school is in the worst shape? And why doesn't the bookshelf and the pantry pay rent? The clothes closet. Uh what are the most critical needs for the bond that requires more money? Uh how will they increase my taxes? Why
028is it so expensive? I know a guy that would do it for a lot. >> Uh why don't we just consolidate schools? Um it's a dying district, so why bother? And uh was the money approved in 2006 spent in the ways that the district said that it that it would be spent? And can districtown owned land and buildings be used in a way that generates revenue? >> I think those are uh a wonderful cross-section of the things I hear regularly. So you nailed it. A+ on your assignment class. Thank you very much. >> And I'll see you on the 18th. I do hope that as many of you are able to attend can. I want to ask Jackie, did you tell me recently that you are on one of those committees that does oversight of
029a bond that's been approved? >> Yeah, and that's what I was going to share. So, Clackamus Community College bond passed and they've asked me to be on their accountability committee. And so, basically, we're going to meet every quarter and they're going to show where they've spent the money on which projects. So, that might be something that that we would want to consider in Gladston as well. It is for sure. That's for sure. As tempted as I am to uh start to answer all those questions, I will hold my peace. >> I was just thinking as you read that, I think we all have the same friends because they are I've heard almost every one of those and I think they're all valid questions. You know, when you talk about spending taxpayers money, we owe them
030the answers. Period. How do we get people to believe the answers though I think is a important >> that's a great >> we get all the information we want but if the baseline is that they don't that there's distrust and they just don't believe it then how do we bridge that gap I wonder >> well >> I heard some uh I read some comments online people talking about um the city's effort to annex into the clin fire district and one people one person made a general comment about how, you know, somehow the money is going to filter into businesses owned by elected officials and that's, you know, and that's why they're promoting it. And I get thinking about the elected officials that we have and you own a business, but you're almost the exception. uh
031because it's it's we are not a place where our elected officials are the kinds of people that could be steering money to their to themselves in any realistic way. But it's it's a public attitude out there. And again, if you talk about why don't people believe, it's because they tend to believe that most elected officials are somehow corrupt. Um and you can see evidence of that at certain levels of government. I won't go any further than that, but um it's something we have to fight. And I think it's something we need to um it it's important for people to know us well enough to know that, you know, we serve on a school board because we care about education, because we're teachers or principles or uh you know, people that uh want a welleducated um
032uh you know, technical worst workforce. and academic workforce and we serve on city council because we want our city to be a better place and more welcoming to all people and not because there's some way that we could somehow benefit personally. But if that's a perception of the public, we need to to fight it in some way to, you know, to to have them know us for who we are and what we care about. Well, I think it's e and going back to what you say about perception also is there's not been a year that I've been on council even more than once a year that somebody says, "So now, how much now do you guys get paid to do this?" >> Yes. >> I I've been asked one time about how much the school
033district uh you're not counselors, you're schoolboard school board members. How much do school board members get paid? Nothing. I got two slices of pizza. >> You know, I maybe in our next newsletter the headline reads, "Nobody gets paid." >> You know, um so again, it's still that question of it only takes one person for somebody to say, "Hey, I heard." And it's the wrong information. And how do you get it back to the right information? We're in a climate that really does not u well what we learned from being in the food pantry, people are having a hard time paying their bills for everything. And we're going to soon see uh medical bills and and the cost of food and the availability of food and lower costs all making people's lives much more difficult. And
034with between that climate and then the sense that there's corruption at at some level of politics, those are things we have to push back against to be the altruistic, you know, want the best for the community uh groups that we are trying to be. Um so it's hard. I feel sorry for other districts even like I I look at them and I think oh well, you know, they're wealthy. They support schools. They're where they are because they had good educations. And yet you see similar kinds of comments. Our tax you're taxing us out of this community. We can't afford to live here anymore. Same things we heard here. So um it's a hard time. It's it's a challenge and I'm glad you're being very proactive about how you address that with people. Well, my my
035one one of my reflections coming out of the out of last May was there were a lot of questions about related to the 2006 bond that we didn't have ready answers for and for certain we needed to be able to answer those questions. Um I also didn't feel like we got as much engagement as we wanted and as much face to face conversation as we wanted. So those are two of the things that I'm reflected on and um hopefully this is the the path toward that. So with that, >> let's let's about some some fun things. And uh what I wanted to share is that Jeremiah and I have a very good relationship, but we often we have commonalities that we're trying to achieve. And the one thing that we both agree is we will
036never compete against what the school's trying to accomplish and what the cities. We we complement each other. Um, you know, we have a a levy out there right now, but there's nothing to for the school because we don't want people to ever go, well, do I choose between the school bond or the fire levy for city services. So, we have a good relationship. Part of that is us learning how can we help with things that maybe students need. So, we have the old library and we told the voters that if it passes, we're going to do a very comprehensive community engagement process to figure out what we're going to do at that site. And we're in the middle of that process. We got over 200 surveys with some really indepth information on it. Uh the
037council was given that information. We decided to create an ad hoc committee. Nicole was appointed at our council meeting last week. Andrew and Andrew, uh, the offices of Andrew and Andrew, he will be our city council liaison and councelor Blau will also join if he's not there. But there's nine people. And the one thing when the mayor and I were going through the applications, people that we've never seen participate before with experience that should either be running for school board or city council. So, we're very excited to have them on there. We promised only three meetings October, November, little bit in December, but really in January. And what this group is going to do is they're going to take all the community engagement uh comments. Uh we had the building appraised. They're going to go
038through the appraisal. They're going to talk about the different uses and put a request for proposals together out to developers to see what kind of interest we get. Ultimately, they will make a recommendation to the city council. City council will take all of that information and then decide what they want to do with the building. So, we're very excited. I think our first meeting is going to be next week. We're working on that packet. Um, we've been spending a lot of time on Portland Avenue. That's our focus. We believe that whatever happens in this site is is going to help anchor with the library. You see the Arlington food carts at the other end, the parking lot. So, there's a lot of great things happening there. Well, I got a sneak peek of all the
039comments in community engagement before the council did. And there was a lot of information in there about we need more things for our teams to do. And so Michelle Pusso, who's our community center manager, and I sat down and we went through, we said, "You know what? We can do this at the community center. We just need to think differently about not being open from 8 to 4 Monday through Friday. It becomes a staffing issue for the city as well. But what we're going to do is what's called a teen takeover night and it's going to be a pilot project. And I gave some brochures to counselor over there and I'll hand these out. Um, but it's basically going to be for youth ages 13 through 18 to be able to come to the community
040center on a Saturday night. And we will have a site monitor, which is technically an adult there, but we don't want a whole bunch of oversight there. But there will be different activities available for them. Michelle's done a great job of kind of doing a proposal here. Um, she's going to see the dates that she highlighted in here and she wants the youth to kind of also have input on what they would like to see down there. But there could be games, um, there could be knitting, there's so many things, there's puzzles, there's movies. just kind of open it up for teens only, one night a week through the wintertime. We're going to track to see the interest. The city is willing to expand on that if we find out that there's really a need
041after hours or on the weekends for the the the teens to have a space there, but we don't feel like the old library property needs to be converted into a place for the teens. So, we're really trying to focus on the community center and making that happen there. So, the reason why I gave you a brochure is because um you guys are having a resource fair in November and Michelle has a booth there and she's going to be talking to all of the students about this program to try to get their interest in that. So, we're we're very excited and if any of you have ideas, um, please share with either myself or Michelle because we really do want to start expanding on the multi-generations that we're offering at the community center, >> getting it
042in the advertising of the middle school and the high school in their newsletters, too. or you know giving or getting the leadership groups at the high school to talk it up like the ASB they're really good about their social media advertising when they do event high school so if you got someone from ASB who would talk it up I think that it's one of those things that it's like if the right people it's mass right it's like you get a mass that will go it'll be super fun and then everyone's like you got to come the next time to get kids because I think it's amazing. I think it's fantastic. Um, we just got to convince them to try it. Sometimes they're teens are reluctant to try something for the first time. Um, I also
043uh I don't know if you remember that we had um a a member of the public come speak to us um about uh a place for um a support group for um teen suicide. >> Is that something maybe we could work into the community center as well? like I was going to talk to you about it, but maybe we can both >> Yeah. I mean, from a city perspective, making sure you have the right resources and counseling there. So, wouldn't it be city staff doing that, but making it a safe space for teens to go, I think that uh we we've also expanded on some of our classes, you'll see in here, youth painting that we're trying to encourage. And even just as much as having a school hangout during the week, we know we
044do close I believe at 4:30, but if kids need a place to go after school, they can still come down and do puzzles and with the other generations there. But um this is the start of us thinking about how can we really engage our youth. >> Are we serving? There's going to be food and then >> and what's interesting is Broer Pizza is like the top donor for this and we've got a kitchen at the community center so we can >> you know put them in the oven and uh yes we've already got don donations lined up for this. So there it's costneutral to the city because our site monitors are typically volunteers. But if we find that this is working, then we're willing to shift our resources to continue it. >> I I think
045it's wonderful. You know, high school kids, we got often most often have community and they've got times cars. Uh but the middle the middle grades are really forgotten about for a lot of families struggle to provide the the level of structure but also the kinds of freedom that kids want and crave at that age. And so for our 13 14 15 year olds I in particular I'm really excited that this will be an avenue of predictable avenue of recreation fun especially when it gets dark and wet out. >> Yes. >> Thank you. And you had asked uh what if someone wants to bring a date that doesn't live in Gladstone, but that's great. Yeah, we however we can help people have a safe space to be at, that's that's fine. We're not going to be
046checking IDs when people come through the door. Um but we also don't want it to turn into a place for parents just to drop their kids off because there's not going to be that supervised oversight that they might be expecting. So, >> can I ask what the uh So, like on the teen takeover nights, those are Saturday nights from 6:00 to 10:00. >> Yes. >> And are those like themed or is it just kind of like a free space for like anyone who shows up? Kind of drives what the programming is. >> For the first one, she will have things going on in different rooms. But what she's hoping is that the teens will start theming what they would like to have there as well, so that she's not having to think of well what
047they might want to do there. It says kickoff is the 10th and then the 24th is let's grow glow crazy. So she's got a couple themes and then I think but the idea that like getting input >> have you tried anything like this before? >> Not since I've been here. >> Not in the last 10 years. Some of you know that in another lifetime be before I did this, I uh got my degree in religious education and worked in churches, did a lot of youth ministry. And one of the things I'll double down on what Stacy said. Um sometimes in in doing programs for this age group um they're very sensitive to kind of looking around and seeing who else is there and see and what asking is this really the place to be you
048know based on the numbers that are there and who is there and you can really shape a program by um >> the ones who are in attendance and participating. If it's just totally random, it may not match up with who people want to be with. But if somehow uh you know the the key club at the high school or a group, a recognized group somewhere that that already has a little bit of a cohesion and connection with each other to take a role in helping that happen. I think it can kind of get you that critical mass that you need to to have people think, oh, I want to come back to this. This is really something that's good. And um you know and and you were say what was the phrase you used in
049the gym there? The combination of sweetness and awkwardness. Uh you know that's not me though. No, you know um the if that middle school age group is the one that really is missing out on opportunities like this and we want to reach them. Everybody who works in this building knows it's a very challenging time of life. And when you read on on social media, people say, "What do you think about our schools?" Oh, Cracksburg is awful. My kids had a terrible time. Your kids had a terrible time because they were in middle school. And that's the time when life is just terrible. So to to really support that age group, I think is is a great great way to uh you know, a great way to be involved and be supportive of the district. uh
050to have those kids just have a little bit more connection, develop a little bit social skills, and put that sweetness that's inherent in them uh you know, to good use. Well, in the spirit of that, Mr. Mayor, I'm going to decline my daughter's my eighth grade daughter's request for more time on Netflix. >> You'll hear about it later. >> All right. Um, we have gone through everything on our agenda. Is there anything else for the good of the order or anything? Mayor, Superintendent Patter, >> thank you all for coming to spend spend an evening at the middle school. >> Thank you. >> And I just I want to say thank you to Jeremiah and Jackie. Like our city I think is just so fortunate to have both of you like this spearheading all these programs.
051It just it when I when I you know get to talk about Gladstone, it always kind of ends up coming around to the the the leadership and I just people see what you're doing and just really appreciate >> very much >> and quite honestly that's how you build the trust back in the >> people see what you and it slowly builds back. Thank you. And it's just developing connections with people and >> building trucks as a as a council and as a All right, we are going to adjourn at 6:48. Thank you all for coming.