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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-02-26 City Schools Liaison Committee Summary MinutesSCHOOL/CITY LIAISON COMMITTEE PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CITY OF PALO ALTO DATE: February 26, 2015 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF February 26, 2015 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 8:35 a.m. * All handouts can be viewed in the Business Services Office 25 Churchill Ave. Palo Alto Unified School District Representatives: Camille Townsend, Board Member, Committee Chair Terry Godffrey, Board Member Cathy Mak, Chief Business Officer City of Palo Alto Representatives: Pat Burt, Council Member Tom DuBois, Council Member Khashayar Alaee, Assistant City Manager Approval of Minutes – December 18, 2014 MOTION: The December 18, 2014, meeting minutes were received and approved 4-0. Oral Communications No oral communications. Introductions Eric Filseth, City Council Tom DuBios, City Council Pat Burt, City Council Camille Townsend, Board of Education Terry Godffrey, Board of Education Khashayar Alaee, City Manager’s Office Cathy Mak, District Chief Business Officer Charge of the Committee Townsend said the Committee is not a decision making body, it is an informational body that tries to find ways to collaborate on information that is important to both governmental bodies. Burt said in addition to the Committee being informational, it is also advisory to their respective bodies. The opportunity is to hold substantive discussion but not be the decision making body, but return with recommendations for actions by those bodies. He said at a recent meeting they talked about their respective Committees, their agendas for the year, and how they wanted to distribute functions. Under this subject, one area that had unanimous concurrence was the interest in this Committee being the body to discuss and return to Council with recommendations on issues where they have a strong City School relationship. Godffrey said she believed the Committee’s purpose is to share information on joint interests, discussing whether progress is being made, and what could be asked of staff to advance on these topics. DuBois said there was pretty strong interest from the Council to have staff on this Committee to focus on key issues and come back with recommendations to Council and the Board to move things forward, in addition to information sharing. Godffrey asked Council to give an example of what that would look like. Burt said for example, they had a Cubberley Committee. As they were going into a deep dive on Cubberley, they made the decision to have an ad hoc committee of representatives there but they are City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 1 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF February 26, 2015 not going to have that ad hoc committee and it becomes largely an orphan and it has to go to one of their other standing committees. It would go to their Policies and Services Committee or Finance Committee; or potentially is it more naturally in a City School Liaison Committee. As they look at Cubberley going forward, the intention is to create a joint planning committee. The Committee would not be doing the planning, they would have updates from staff and talk about when the launch is and if they need to go back to their respective bodies and give them an update and perhaps make a recommendation. They would like this to be in addition to being informational, to have it be the forum for discussions about areas where they have common interests. Townsend said she feels very uncomfortable with being fully advisory and making this very formal without getting a full agenda from the rest of the Board. This would not prevent the City to do what they need to with the City Council. Maybe as they go through future agendas they work this through and can keep these suggestions in mind. She knows that some of things they discuss are routine but not routine because every year is different and these are very important to both bodies. She said maybe as they go through these they will get a better flavor and both feel comfortable with what they see their roles to be. Meeting Dates The Committee dates for meetings: April 2 April 23 May 14 June 11 (Tentative meeting) August September 17 October 15 November 19 December 17 All meetings will take place at the District office for 2015. Townsend suggested talking later about having a meeting at one of the school sites with a tour of new construction. The Committee agreed to move the time of the meetings to 8 – 9:30 a.m. Review of Recent City Council/PAUSD Board Meetings City Update: DuBois said they had their Council Retreat where they set priorities for year. Areas Council has particular focus on were: -The Built Environment (mobile transportation, parking, movability) -Infrastructure Strategy Implementation -Healthy City and Healthy Community -Completion of the comprehensive plan update with a decreased focus from Council DuBois said priorities are areas Council wants to have particular focus on. Burt added that up until a year and a half ago, they had an undefined notion of what a priority was and what they had was a mix of priorities and core values. They made changes to try to keep their priorities ideally to three. A time horizon of particular focus not to exceed three years; the priority would receive special attention during this time period. When they adopted this new definition and new set of priorities, they had a parallel intention to create a set of core values and that ball was dropped. This is one of the things they will be taking on at the Policy and Services Committee. DuBois said the City Satisfaction Survey came out. The ability to break apart some of the data will be available in a couple of months. He said Council approved the Maybell and Mitchell Avenue bike plan changes. There will be an open house at the Main library. They had the City address which was well attended. City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 2 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF February 26, 2015 District Update: Godffrey said they have the renewal of the parcel tax. They launched the Enrollment Management Advisory Group process looking for members for the group. The group will focus on the need for more school sites. They spend the last couple of weeks on the WASC reports; the two high schools are going through their accreditation process. The Board approved a mandarin immersion pilot at Jordan Middle School. The Board discussed the second interim budget report. They talked about social media strategies. The District has is not on social media. The communications team and IT team came to talk about what that might look like. They are working on getting the District on Facebook and Twitter. Burt asked about the initiative to expand the bus service for VTP students. He shared that they currently have a bus service that is funded by the City of East Palo Alto that is part of the Palo Alto shuttle that only goes as far as the University train station. He has raised the issue with the City Manager of whether they should explore if this service could help serve those students This would not necessarily be instead of the District’s initiative but in addition. They could make minor modifications to help serve those students and it might be a cost effective way to extend something that exists already. Townsend asked who coordinates this? Burt said this is out of their transportation department and they just brought on an interim Transportation Director so he is not sure who will take the lead on this but if there is an interest, they could go back and follow-up. Townsend said absolutely, the District representative on this is Judy Argumedo. Burst said they do need to engage with the City of East Palo Alto. DuBois said they are looking at recruiting and retaining City staff and it is becoming more of a challenge so he would like an agenda to include the possibility for Palo Alto City staff to have their students attend Palo Alto schools. Suggested Future Agendas -Ventura site for childcare -School sites and land use -Transportation -Cubberley Joint Planning Committee update -Shared facilities and functions -Summer school -Bike routes -Number of youth psychiatric beds in the County -Libraries -Youth facilities available after school hours District Parcel Tax Renewal Mak presented on the Renewal of the Parcel Tax slides: -The Current Parcel Tax -Programs the Current Parcel Tax Funds -Voter Opinion Survey: Key Findings -Proposed 2015 Parcel Tax Measure -Why the increase? -$120 investment to support struggling students -$120 investment in STEAM -PAUSD May 5, 2015 Parcel Tax Timeline DuBois asked about whether it was discussed to separate the increase and the renewal? Mak said yes, that is why they did the survey to get a feel for the level of support and they are also going out a City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 3 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF February 26, 2015 year early. Townsend said the survey revealed a high level of support for the renewal of the parcel tax. DuBois asked what has been the biggest challenge? Townsend said justifying what the money is for and the need for it. People get this perception since the state passed the last education improvement; it is the revenue limit school districts that are receiving it under the LCFF (Local Control Funding Formula). Basic Aid districts are receiving more and more cuts and relying more on their local revenue. Townsend said the kick-off would take place Friday night for the renewal of the parcel tax. DuBois asked about senior exemptions? Mak said the senior exemption is available. SSI and SSDI are also categories that can be included in the exemptions. The District will be including all three categories as qualifying for the exemption. Future Meetings and Agendas The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 2, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. at the District office. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 10:07 a.m. City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 4