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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-08-20 City Schools Liaison Committee Summary MinutesCity/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 1 SCHOOL/CITY LIAISON COMMITTEE PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CITY OF PALO ALTO DATE: August 20, 2015 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 20, 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 8:05 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 Godfrey, Board Member Cathy Mak, Chief Business Officer City of Palo Alto Representatives: Pat Burt, Council Member Tom DuBois, Council Member Khashayar Alaee, Senior Management Analyst Approval of Minutes The June 11, 2015, minutes were approved. Oral Communications Jennifer Cameron is a parent with children at Addison. She is the VP of Safety and Education on the PTA. There are 70 teachers and staff including part-time/parent volunteers at Addison and there is not enough parking so what could be done about the City parking permits. DuBois suggested all teachers should apply for the City parking permits. Alaee stated he and Mak have discussed the issue and will be setting up a meeting soon with the District and the City’s transportation staff. They will hopefully have a solution by the end of the month. Jessica Sullivan is the Transportation Supervisor for the City of Palo Alto. Cameron stated the other issue is a safety issue and it is the dogs on campus. There are feces all over the lawn in the morning that the custodian has to clean up every morning before school starts. Dogs that are off their leash have approached the children in AKC and scared them; another dog went into the staff room and stole teacher lunch; other dogs were seen peeing in the sandbox. Mak asked that Cameron get in touch with her and they can meet regarding this matter. Mak stated they have updated all the signs at all the school sites that clearly state to keep dogs on a leash and to pick up after their dogs or they will be fined. Perhaps they can work with PAPD on this. Townsend asked Mak to do an update in a weekly report to the Board on this subject. Review of Recent City Council/PAUSD Board Meetings The District Board and City Council were on break so there were no reports. District/City Technology Update The City’s Chief Information Officer Jonathan Reichental presented on the following slides: -Palo Alto IT Strategy Progress FY13-FY16 -Agenda -Who We Are… -Motivation for Strategy -Strategy Summary -11.7 MM –Annual Operating Expenses (FY14) -By the Numbers: 32 IT Staff; 300 Technology Solutions; 9326 Service Desk Tickets Solved -Projects by Status: 109 completed, 43 in progress, and 18 planned (FY14) -Vision -Mission City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 2 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 20, 2015 -Goal: Deploy Digital City Capabilities -Open Data Portal Reichental reported the City implemented a three year strategy that began in 2013 to 2016; they will continue some of core components for another year. Reichental explained that information security is the number one national threat to the country. If he were to give it a rating, it would be low because they are not at a great place in all aspects. The City of Palo Alto was named the number one digital city in America two years ago for a City of their size. Last year they were rated second. They have 32 IT staff members and over 300 active computer systems that they service. They have been using contractors more so that they can increase their skill set when they need it and reduce it when they do not. Townsend asked if Reichental was part of the new City website project and where are they now with that. Reichental stated the City moved from an unpopular website to a new website. They took the beta approach so the old web page was still running while the new one was running. Once they addressed all the feedback they received, they removed the old website. Burt asked Reitchental to explain the community’s role in the new City’s website project. Reitchental stated they had a group of ten people representing the community. The group met every two months and provided feedback on everything from accessibility to navigation, and search categories right up until launch. Reitchental reported that about 2000 members of the community have downloaded the new application PaloAlto311. This gives them the ability to report all sorts of issues to City Hall from a pothole on the street to a sprinkler head that is broken. Townsend asked if the issues reported get distributed depending on the issue. Reitchental answered yes, it is sent to the right department and the community member receives updates until the issue is resolved. Townsend asked who the City’s Chief Communications Officer is. Reitchental said it is Claudia Keith and Lon Peterson is the Communications Manager. The District’s Chief Technology Officer Derek Moore presented on the following slides: -Discussion Items -Maker Studio -PAUSD.org -Mobile Friendly -Board Meetings -Website Next Steps -Schoology -Two Systems -The Calendar -Workload Planning -iConnect Moore reported the Palo Alto Police Department works closely with the District on thefts. Moore spoke about Barron Park’s Maker Studio where students gather, create, invent, and learn. Students program robots to move around in an obstacle course. They learn the application of technology and learning. They also incorporate Legos. City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 3 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 20, 2015 Moore mentioned the new District website that was launched last week. The most important part of this project was going from static content to dynamic content. They have only moved 70% content over to the new website and they are working as fast as possible to move the remaining 30%. The content is mobile friendly. DuBois asked if there is any discussion about moving textbooks on tablet. Moore said they are getting there. It does have a lot to do with what curriculum they choose and what that looks like. Godffrey mentioned most students have textbooks at home and at school. DuBois asked if there have been any request to look at using a virtual reality in the classroom. Moore said they do have a Minecraft server in some of the classrooms. DuBois asked if the IT department is responsible for consistency throughout the schools. Moore answered yes, it is a struggle but they are trying to pull some things back and do them in a more coordinated fashion. The individuality of every school’s culture is important but some things make more sense to do centrally. Burt stated it might be valuable for the District to survey students on how much they would value Citywide Wi-Fi. It is his intuition that the parent community is more focused on what is going on with the schools. Their older citizens and professionals turn more to what is happening at the City. Burt indicated there may be value in the District promoting the PaloAlto311 app so when they have issues that are City related, parents know the channel to communicate with the City. Burt said they have the Mitchell Park Community Center and the Teen Center and frankly, they are poorly utilized to date. They need to figure out what the teens would really value there. The schools have opportunity to communicate with the teens who are not already engaged at the Teen Center. He believes they need to utilize the school communication to figure out how that space would be more widely utilized. Burt asked whether the Enrollment Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) was aware of the capacity issue for programs like the Maker Studio at Barron Park. Moore answered yes, it is definitely a part of the conversation at the EMAC meetings. District/City Budget Update The City’s Director of Management and Budget Walter Rossmann presented on the following slides: -Citywide Expenditures -FY 2016 Proposed Capital Budget -Budget Overview -General Fund Status -Citywide Position Changes -Council Priorities Rossmann pointed out their Citywide budget is $563.6 million and budget information is available online. Rossmann reported this is the first year Council approved $126 million infrastructure plan. The City maintains 18.7% in reserves throughout the year. The City Council priorities included infrastructure funding, extended library hours, parking and transportation, code enforcement, Healthy City/Healthy Community, recreation and special events position, airport operations manager, and Project Safety Net. The District’s Chief Business Officer Cathy Mak presented on the following slides: -Budget Development/Financial Reporting Calendar for the 2015-16 & 2016-17 Budget City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 4 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF August 20, 2015 -2015-16 Proposed Budget -2015-16 Revenue Sources -Change in Property Tax Revenue Amount and Percentage -Revenue Trends -Use of General Funds 2015-16 Mak reported the District has a 10% reserve policy. Based on feedback from the Board they have added two study sessions. The first one will be in October where they will provide updates and detailed information on the budget and the outlook. They will also discuss budget priorities for the next school year. The second study session in February, they will continue to take direction from the Board and hold discussions with the leadership team and stakeholders, and discuss how they will allocate funds for next year. The District’s general fund budget is $207 million in income and expenditures. They have $6.5 million in surplus funds but in June, the Board allocated $6 million for potential new schools. The County Assessor’s office reports the assessment growth this year for Palo Alto is over 10% so property tax value will be 1-1.5% lower than the assessment since they need to reserve money for refunds. They expect the current property tax growth to be a little bit better than the past couple of years. The State revenue has dropped from $17 to $15 million but they are finally funding adult education; the District is receiving $1.2 million. The community support funds have increased. Mak said in summary the outlook for this year and next year looks really good. Future Meetings and Agendas Due to schedule conflicts, the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 16, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. at the District office. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:36 a.m.