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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-11-19 City Schools Liaison Committee Summary Minutes City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 1 SCHOOL/CITY LIAISON COMMITTEE PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CITY OF PALO ALTO DATE: November 19, 2015 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF November 19, 2015 Opening The School/City Committee held a special meeting in the District Conference Room A at 25 Churchill Avenue, Palo Alto. The meeting was called to order at 8:04 a.m. * All handouts can be viewed in the Business Services Office, 25 Churchill Avenue. 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 October 14, 2015, minutes were approved. Oral Communications There were no requests for public comment. District/City Emergency Preparedness The City’s Office of Emergency Services Director Ken Dueker reported they have daily collaboration with the schools through the School Resource Officers DuJuan Green and Ben Lee. The Palo Alto/Stanford Citizen Corps Council and the Emergency Services Council had a meeting yesterday where they discussed ways of doing more with the District and the possibility of using District facilities to recover from a large scale disaster. The District’s Maintenance Manager Ron Ellis indicated it was a very productive and informative meeting. The big thing that came out of that meeting was best practices and lessons learned. The City’s Emergency Services Coordinator Nathan Rainey reported that about two years ago the Office of Emergency Services and part of the public safety team started to look at how they could better manage the critical infrastructure across the City, this includes all facilities that are important for how they provide services, and how the City at large organizes itself. They started working on creating a system that will allow them to integrate floor plans onto a map view that allows them to see at a greater level the sites of interest. They started with the schools because they are very tangible and an important resource to the community. Since they already have a partnership with the District, it made sense to start building this system around the schools. A long term vision is to be able to replicate what they are doing with the schools with other infrastructure sites so they may improve their collection of databases and information on the different facilities. Rainey demonstrated an example of a campus map to the Committee and pointed out the system can pull up the location of the fire hydrants. The application will be available on a mobile device. They are still working through the safety features they are trying to capture. They are conferring with District staff on what they would like to see on the maps like the evacuation areas, the locations of AEDs, the emergency supply sheds, and medical office. Dueker stated all public schools are in the system and they are also adding some private schools. They had paper plans before but now they can update the plans and have the most current information. DuBois asked if the information is secure. Rainey stated that as they start adding sensitive information, they will begin to lockdown that information. They are looking at having a password protected site. Ellis added they are looking at that now in terms of what should be publicized and City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 2 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF November 19, 2015 what should not be. Dueker explained the information is not on a live site and the demo today required a log in. The District’s Risk Management Supervisor Victoria Geen-Lew presented on the following slides: -How do we collaborate? -Utility Safety, Safety Detective Kit for Kids, Gas Meter Shut-off Demo -Palo Alto OES Emergency Services Volunteer -Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital -How do we collaborate? -Health & Safety -Benefits of Collaboration -What is PAUSD doing? -Future Efforts Under Consideration Townsend asked if there is communication with PTA Council on emergency preparedness events and services. Geen-Lew stated she will look into it. Geen-Lew reported the City and District put together an Emergency Preparedness Safety Fair on October 18 at Addison Elementary. There was good community attendance. They had several emergency preparedness and safety demonstrations by local agencies. Townsend asked if gas leaks are an issue throughout the City. Geen-Lew answered it is part of the earthquake preparedness. They want to educate the community on how to shut off their gas in the event they would smell a gas leak. Geen-Lew and Lee partnered as project advisors with the Girl Scouts to put together a website and a video on code red awareness in a kid friendly way (elementary level) that is not scary to prepare students in case of an incident. The video is at the State for final approval. Another partnered effort they have been working on is health and safety and it has to do with dogs on campus. They had a lot of complaints from parents about their children tracking in dog feces into the classroom so they are working with Bob Beacom, Palo Alto Police and Cody Macartney, Animal Control Services on finding a solution. They placed new signage across the schools, handed out notices, and worked on joint communication to the community. They also handed out examples of a real citation to bring awareness. Ellis mentioned they implemented the pilot program and their goal was not to make it punitive but informative. They worked with Palo Alto Police to a have a uniformed patrol person approach a person with a dog off a leash and inform them of the rules. Their goal is to try to curb the behavior pattern. Townsend asked what is being done at Jordan. Ellis said Jordan, Addison, Hays, Duveneck had the most of evidence of dogs off their leash. All these sites responded well to the changes but they hope they continue to abide by the rules. Geen-Lew is working with Adam Howard, Community Services to determine a way of jointly using the fields safely. Burt asked about school restroom hours? Ellis answered that during the week the restrooms are open from 2:30 – 10 p.m. They are currently working with the City to try to have someone come out to open the restrooms on the weekends. Burt asked if they open all restrooms or only those adjacent to the fields. Ellis said only those adjacent to the fields. Geen-Lew stated collaboration with the City allows them to have a unified and coordinated response for all school sites. They also have the ability to share resources and ideas. They had a joint training with Palo Alto Police on school violence and active shooter training that was funded by Homeland Security. All school sites and the District office have been trained on lockdown. Townsend asked if the City does this training. Dueker said they do it with City staff, Google daycare, hospitals, and City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 3 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF November 19, 2015 clinics. Burt asked if they now have lockdown capabilities for all the schools. Ellis stated they have an initiative where they are going through all the school sites to ensure they have all that they need. They are now doing a third sweep of the sites and providing them with anything that is missing. Burt asked if the District is providing the financial resources necessary to implement all these things and the assurance that they are being implemented district-wide. Mak answered yes. Geen-Lew reported they have annual code red training, bi-annual district-wide disaster drill, and annual CPR/AED training. AED units are installed at every school site and they also have portable AED units. There is ongoing emergency team training, annual summer maintenance of radio equipment, annual inventory of emergency supply sheds, and Go-Kits (classroom backpacks) in every classroom. Burt stated the City has a block preparedness program but does not recall hearing about a school boundary orientated consolidation. They have these in neighborhoods connected with an elementary or middle schools so have they done an integration to make those resources available. Dueker pointed out that their emergency services volunteer program has been upgraded to an emergency preparedness block program and they have also been extending it into the business neighborhood. They do have the neighborhood coordinators introduce themselves with the school principals. Rainey stated that at this point they do not have a strong connection with the schools. They are trying to figure out how to integrate with these other community resources to neighborhood functions. They do not want to overwhelm the neighborhood teams with more than what they signed up for. Burt believes that reaching out to the schools will bring in a whole new wave of volunteers with the PTA. Burt asked if they have an evacuation plan and have they coordinated with the schools on how to respond in the event of flooding with El Nino on the San Francisquito Creek area. One elementary school is in the middle of the danger zone. Dueker answered they have taught some classes at the request of the school principal or a student group. The issue is it is hard to gain a lot of traction with student volunteers but as a result of this, FEMA nominated two Gunn students for FEMA Youth Council. A current student Divakar Saini and his sister came up with a program by the name of “Masters of Disasters” and it uses high school students to teach safety preparedness tips in an accessible non-threatening way to students seven to eleven years old. By having teens teach it to younger folks has been very effective and nationally recognized. The point on how can they do more is well taken. The schools have their own evacuation and emergency plans. He is a big fan of preplanning but also flexibility. The fact that they can communicate live on radio gives them high flexibility. Burt encouraged they target Duveneck as soon as possible and differently from how they are trying to handle district-wide. Ellis stated that prevention and preparedness is what they are currently working on. They have been cleaning gutters, down spouts, roofs, trimming all trees, and down into the drains. He also reached out to the Deputy Director of Public Works to find out what they are doing and their planning so they have a very robust program. However, they do not know what the magnitude will be so they are having these discussions and they are working on their preparedness and prevention. Burt mentioned that he has been on the San Francisquito Creek Flood Control Agency for seven years and all the storm draining measures are great but the real threat is the creek overflowing and none of those measures are going to deal with that. He believes there needs to be some real measures around the creek area. The final dimension is to have an evacuation plan involving the schools. Geen-Lew mentioned they do have pre-designated sites for shelter and evacuation plans. Gunn High School being one of them. If a disaster were to happen, they have resources available and supplies at every school site. District/City Sustainability Programs & Services The District’s Energy Specialist Rebecca Navarro presented on the following slides: -Pledge to do more going forward -The whole-school sustainability framework -End of contracted Cenergistic program: How did we do? City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 4 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF November 19, 2015 -ZWC Program CPA partnership -Green Team Advisory: Sites, Unite! – January 2016 -Drought Response – Turf Conversion Program -Living classroom program -Energy Star Navarro reported they have over $2 million in utility savings, purely from behavioral change. It is about 17% reduction. The Zero Waste Champion Program is done in collaboration with the City. They just started this year and they have about 50% participation across the school sites to date. They are looking at ways to improve the three sort system (recycling, composting, and garbage) and have identified one District site person to check the bins for contamination. The Sustainable Schools Committee used to have monthly meetings to discuss sustainability issues across the District; the Committee Chair was Walt Hays. But starting in January 2016, they are going to roll out a Green Team Advisory which will be a way to acknowledge the great work being done by the site green teams and bring together the leaders of those groups once a month to learn from each other and talk about best practices. Navarro informed they have had an extensive drought response program. They reduced irrigation and replaced over 22,000 sq. ft. of lawn with native drought resistant plants. They only converted areas that had decorative grass. Ellis stated the lawn conversion helped them with the Governor’s mandate of water reduction and they are at about 30% reduction from their 2013 base line. They received rebates for the lawn conversion that are being used for trimming trees. Navarro explained the Living Classroom program is at five school sites. It is a program out of Los Altos and they only wanted to pilot at five elementary schools and grow and expand. They provide all the maintenance for this program. Godfrey asked if Fairmeadow combined this program with the lawn conversion. Navarro answered yes. PAUSD has been an energy star partner since 2011. They also went through an individual building certification process for all sites. As a result, they received the Mayor’s Green Business Award in 2012 and 2013. They have received eight individual building certifications and are expecting eight more so out of a total of 19 sites of which only 17 are certifiable, they are expecting 16 certifications. Godfrey asked about the photovoltaic project. Mak said they had several meetings with Walt Hays, and City staff members Lindsey Joy and Bruce Lesch. They will be taking a proposal to the Board to hire a consultant to do a feasibility study on solar panels. DuBois mentioned the message they are getting from businesses is that their composting is very high quality and if there is doubt, place it in recycling. Are they getting a different message? Navarro stated they are getting the same message but the challenge is the flow of school day. The lunch bell rings and students are trying to sort at the same time so things are placed in the wrong bins. Burt indicated that it seemed the Energy Specialist position is also involved with other District efforts and encouraged the District to think in next steps about what will be in the scope of the position of Energy Specialist and how to consolidate those initiatives. Burt mentioned the City has a carbon neutral electricity supply which does not make them a carbon neutral city because they eliminated the carbon content from electricity which now means natural gas, petroleum, and waste is on their energy footprint. They are beginning the process of putting together a plan to move them towards carbon neutrality and getting off petroleum and natural gas. Burt wanted to ensure that in the District’s radar are electric heat pumps and their advancement in City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Page 5 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF November 19, 2015 technology. Burt informed that on January 24, they will have their first City-wide sustainability summit at Mitchell Park. He believes youth can play an important role in the summit and they should come together in the coming weeks on a real collaboration. Townsend asked about the City Schools Challenge for Georgetown? Navarro said they are deep into it. They started on January 2015 and they could win some millions of dollars. Lesch has been very helpful and they are all part of the challenge together. Townsend suggested putting out a small blurb on the challenge. Review of Recent City Council/PAUSD Board Meetings City Update: Burt reported they had a large turnout at Policy Services Committee on what to do with the Bryant Street garage fund. This fund was created when the Bryant Street parking garage eliminated a downtown teen center. The retail space dollars from the gym space would go to teen programs. They are working on getting it back going. They have about $60,000 per year. At the last Council meeting they approved the renewal of the track watch program. It started with the funds coming out of the Stanford Health and Safety fund; Council committed the other half for Project Safety Net (PSN). At the time the funds were primarily for running PSN and expanding the programs. The track watch and the expanded fencing ended up being taken out of those funds as well. They do not believe that should be the case and would like to see the Stanford fund replenished for ongoing support of PSN. They hope to use some of the budget surplus from this year to do so. District Update: Godfrey mentioned the article in the Atlantic magazine on the Palo Alto community. They will be having an open PSN meeting this afternoon from 4-6 p.m. to discuss the article. Burt mentioned the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is coming and doing an evaluation. He is glad they are adding their resources but it seemed as if it was entirely a school initiated initiative. It needs to be a City and District collaboration. Townsend said Superintendent McGee is directing that effort and she will touch base with him. Future Meetings and Agendas The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. at the District office. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 a.m.