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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-09-21 City Schools Liaison Committee Agenda PacketBIG CREEK ELEMENTARY Palo Alto Unified School District Melissa Baten Caswell, Board Member, Chair Ken Dauber, Board Member City of Palo Alto Liz Kniss, Council Member Eric Filseth, Council Member Staff Cathy Mak, District, Chief Business Officer, Staff Liaison Rob de Geus, Community Services Director, Staff Liaison 1. Oral Communications 2. Approval of Minutes – August 17, 2017 3. Review of Recent City Council/PAUSD Board Meetings 4. Discussion and Update about Changes to VTA Bus Routes, Palo Alto Shuttle and Stanford’s Marguerite 5. Update on District Enrollment 6. Review of Upcoming Agenda Items School/City Liaison Committee Meeting Thursday, September 21, 2017 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM Palo Alto Unified School District Conference Room A 25 Churchill Ave School/City Liaison Committee Special Meeting Agenda City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 1 SCHOOL/CITY LIAISON COMMITTEE PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CITY OF PALO ALTO DATE: August 17, 2017 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 17, 2017 Opening The School/City Committee held a special meeting in the District Conference Room A at 25 Churchill Ave, Palo Alto. The meeting was called to order at 8:09 a.m. * All handouts can be viewed in the Business Services Office 25 Churchill Ave. Palo Alto Unified School District Representatives: Melissa Baten Caswell, Board Member, Committee Chair (Absent) Ken Dauber, Board Member (Absent) Todd Collins, Board Member (Substitute for Caswell) Cathy Mak, Chief Business Officer City of Palo Alto Representatives: Liz Kniss, Council Member Eric Filseth, Council Member Khashayar Alaee, Senior Management Analyst Oral Communications Alison Cormack wanted to remind the City and District the Cubberley Request for Proposals is coming in September. The weekend weekly article stated they had 6,000 visitors at Cubberley. This is just a reminder that every month that goes by they have many more people using that space. She knows Council members are keenly aware of the need for more community center space given what is going on and the plans people have in the neighborhoods. She is reminding them of this incredible opportunity and would like to keep it moving forward. Penny Ellson worked with the District over the summer on bell time coordination. In the process, she learned of Senate Bill 328 that has already passed on August 23 to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for consideration. SB328 requires all secondary schools to start at 8:30 a.m. or later. Currently, the earliest start time for secondary schools is 8:10 a.m. and the latest is Gunn at 8:25 a.m. It is important to understand the peak hour for traffic starts at 8:30 a.m. so it has always been their objective to keep the kids out of that rush for safety. She believes most of Council and the Board has received letters from her on this. She informed the District of Mayor Scharf mobilizing the City’s lobbyist on this. She also spoke to Council member Kniss about connecting her with the California League of Cities. The City has drafted a letter to the bill sponsor that she has not yet seen. City Transportation Official Josh Mello confirmed the letter is being circulated among City staff. She had drafted some proposed language so the City and District could either request a delay to give time to study the transportation impact, cost, and safety impact or proposed some amendment language that will serve Palo Alto’s need. Kniss asked if this is a requirement. Ellson said she reads it as it is a requirement. Kniss confirmed with Ellson the bell times will stay as is for this school year. Ellson said yes. This would affect schedules for 2019-2020. The District did an expansion environmental impact report for Terman and Gunn but they are not in compliance with the mitigation plans as far as bell time schedules but this could trump those mitigation plans. Collins will mention it to Superintendent McGee so they can get a lobbyist on this. Kniss said if the Senate already voted, then an amendment will be the only option. Approval of Minutes – April 20, 2017 MOTION: The May 18, 2017, meeting minutes were approved. Collins abstained since he did not attend the May 18, 2017, meeting. Review of Recent City Council/PAUSD Board Meetings City Council: Kniss reported a southern City shuttle was identified but there is no funding planned for this. They have asked Valley Transportation Authority for some money. District: Collins said they adopted priorities and most were rollovers from the previous Board meeting City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 2 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 17, 2017 list. Kniss asked about the enrollment report. Mak mentioned it will be on a September or October Board meeting. Collins confirmed with Mak the enrollment is substantially flat. Mak said yes, they are not seeing much growth. Collins added there is a decrease at the elementary level and an increase at the high school level. It has been the case in the past few years that the middle schools were full to the brim but that bubble is now moving into the high schools so the high schools are full to the brim and that will be the case for the next three years. They are already seeing a reduction at the middle schools. Kniss asked what the enrollment is at the high schools. Mak stated they are at 2050-2080 and it will go up about 100 students every year. Discussion and Update About Safe Routes to School Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Coordinator Rosy Mesterhazy presented on the partnership with the District, the PTA, and City with the following slides: -2017 Safe Routes to School Program Highlights -Challenges and Opportunities -Background Five-Year Plan Development -3-Step Visioning Process -We identified roles and areas of overlap -Forming the foundation of the SRTS five-year plan -Goal 1: Educating students and parents -Goal 2: Establishing a SRTS Policy -Goal 3: 138 trainings were delivered PreK-12, to law enforcement, and the community. The free holiday lights program distributed 300 bike lights/educational insert on winter bicycling safety -Goal 4: Developing a communications plan to expand Palo Alto SRTS online presence. Additional educational material has been developed. -Goal 5: Evaluate the program regularly and use the data to improve SRTS -Goal 6: Engineer safer routes to school and vehicle reduction -Goal 7: Further integrate SRTS into the Palo Alto transportation element and across City departmental functions -New direction and moving forward Kniss asked if there is a program for students that cannot afford a bike. Mesterhazy said this year, as part of their holiday lights program in conjunction with Barron Park Elementary, they donated about 13 bikes to the District so about two bikes per elementary school. They also have the Gunn recycle program which provides repaired bikes to Gunn students, headed by Math Teacher Tony Smith. Last year, they gave out about 30 bikes. Kniss asked if kids coming from East Menlo Park and East Palo Alto are biking. Mesterhazy said data indicates they are the transit riders but it does not mean some are not biking or walking recreationally. There are some families from East Palo Alto that bike. Ellson mentioned Gunn High School is subsidizing bus passes for students who need them. Mesterhazy added they also have a very robust helmet giveaway program and a bike mobile at the beginning of year that offers free bike repairs and tune-ups. Kniss asked if they know why some kids do not ride. Mesterhazy said they view it as a growth area especially at the elementary schools; they try to address those areas with education. Collins asked if there are any restrictions on students riding electric bikes. Mello said California law breaks electric bikes into three classes: young people can only ride the first class which are low speed but cannot ride two or three or just three. Class one is the only one allowed in the bike lane. Kniss asked if kids tend to choose electric vs. a regular bike. Collins believes they do not but maybe for kids that are going a long distance. He believes electric bikes can be a substitute for a car. Collins pointed out the Netherlands has a divided road for bike lanes, is that something that will come to Palo Alto. Mello said the Charleston/Arastradero project will include separated bike ways. The Meadow Drive will also have two separated bike ways more Dutch style. They are currently City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 3 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 17, 2017 constructing a Dutch style intersection at Middlefield/Embarcadero Road by Walter Hays Elementary. Discussion and Update on City and PAUSD Construction Updates Alaee distributed a list of current City projects. Collins asked if there were any they would like to specifically speak to. Mello mentioned the neighborhood traffic safety and bicycle boulevard project; it will be seven miles of bicycle boulevards and it will be a one year project all over the entire City. Primarily constructing traffic circles, curb extensions, signs, and markings. It is going to impact a lot of neighborhoods. The contractor will hire a public information officer to reach out to the neighborhoods so they are aware of the upcoming projects. Collins suggested the public information officer contact the school secretary so the information is relayed to the parents but also find the safe routes to school coordinator at the schools will help to communicate the information. Mello said they will work with their team to make sure that happens. fs3/Hodges Program Manager Lori Larson reported on District construction projects: -Gunn Central Building project: They took down the RC building, the old music building, and some of Spangenberg as they are doing an extension there. -Paly Library project: Over the summer they relocated a lot of the departments on campus to clear out the library. They are in the middle of demolition of the library. -New Paly Athletic Center is now open. -Addison Elementary is a donor funded project. It is at the design stage and their appointment for the Division of the State Architect is on September 5. -Hoover Elementary schematic design is scheduled to come to the Board in September. -El Carmelo, Hays, and Escondido elementary conceptual designs for the three multi-purpose projects will come back to the Board in September. Collins mentioned the District’s Property Subcommittee discussed passing another bond soon as the current bond is close to its end. It has not been discussed at the Board level yet but it was discussed and generally accepted by the Property Subcommittee. They are looking at the November 2018 ballot. Collins added that another project the Board did approve and they are moving forward with is the Magical Bridge style at Addison Elementary. They are committed to doing this for all the schools. Kniss asked if the funding for this project is private. Collins said the Addison project is one hundred percent donor funded. They will be applying for one of the County’s magic fund grant. The estimated cost of magical bridge style playground at Addison is $600,000. Collins mentioned they will move forward with an update of the District’s Master Plan. Larson said they have met with the all the principals and gathering neighborhood committees to start meeting in September. Kniss asked how these school buildings compare to the buildings in their surrounding areas. Larson said all new construction is fitting in nicely, bringing old buildings up to date with State standards and educational standards. Kniss asked if they see any movement away from the standard classroom as with Nixon Elementary. Larson said Nixon was different and they did not see it working initially but they do see it working now. The teachers would really like to have the flexible space so they can rearrange the classroom to accommodate their students throughout the year. They moved away from that with this bond but it will be a good approach for the next bond. Collins has heard the elementary schools would like more flex space. It was actually written into the District’s bylaws. They are hearing from the teachers that they would like two flex rooms. Kniss mentioned she would like to hear more about the underlying philosophy of the various schools, specifically the choice schools. Alaee said they will discuss about placing this topic on a future Committee agenda. City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 4 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 17, 2017 Future Meetings and Agendas The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 21, 2017. The agenda includes:  Discussion and update about changes to VTA bus routes, Palo Alto Shuttle and Stanford’s Marguerite  Discussion and update on District Enrollment The October 17, 2017, meeting agenda tentatively includes:  Discussion regarding Middle School Athletics  Discussion regarding Shared Use of Playing Fields, Playground Space, Gyms, and Facilities (bus parking) Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:36 a.m.