HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-05-26 City Schools Liaison Committee Summary MinutesPage 1 of 42 May 26, 2016
City School Liaison Minutes
BIG CREEK ELEMENTARY
Special Meeting
May 26, 2016
The City School Liaison Committee Special meeting met in the Community
Meeting Room on this date at 8:02 A.M, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto,
California.
Present: City of Palo Alto
Tom DuBois, Council Member, Committee Chair
Khashayar “Cash” Alaee, City Manager’s Office
Palo Alto Unified School District
Terry Godfrey, Vice President
Melissa Baten Caswell, Board Member
Cathy Mak, District Chief Business Officer
Absent: Cory Wolbach, Council Member
Oral Communications
None.
Agenda Items
1. Approval of Minutes - April 26, 2016.
Chair DuBois: I guess the first thing is approval of Minutes.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I make a Motion we approve the Minutes.
Chair DuBois: Do we have a second? I'll second.
MOTION: Board Member Baten-Caswell moved, seconded by Chair DuBois
that the City School Liaison Committee approve the Minutes from April 26,
2016.
Chair DuBois: All in favor.
MOTION PASSED: 3-0 Wolbach absent
City/School Liaison Committee Minutes
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2. Review of Recent City Council/PAUSD Board Meetings.
Chair DuBois: The next item is review of recent Council and Palo Alto
Unified School District (PAUSD) School Board (Board) meetings. Do you
want me to go first?
Board Member Godfrey: Did we have a School Board meeting last week? I
can barely remember it.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We have a couple of things that have been
decided lately that were of interest to the community. We are moving
kindergarten end times—actually this is of interest. We need to probably
talk about whether it has any traffic impacts. We moved forward with full-
day kindergarten across the School Board District (District). That will
change the end of school time for almost every school. Some schools—we
have two schools that already have a basic—one has full-day and one
basically does. What else did we approve? We approved our union
contracts, so we are giving salary increases across our different groups and
across our non-union groups as well. What else did we decide? We're
reducing class sizes. We are investing almost $2 million to reduce class
sizes. We are investing in a bunch of new programs as well. This is nice
that we have some surplus this year to do that. Feel free to jump in if I'm
missing something.
Board Member Godfrey: While not necessarily pertinent to City business,
you may have heard about the Advanced Placement (AP) test fumble at
Gunn High School. A lot of the kids are retaking their AP tests, because
there was a mistake in administration. That's being remedied with new AP
tests in the next couple of days. We're going this afternoon to do an ice
cream social with them with Rick's Ice Cream.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Which the kids asked for. We said, "Is there
anything else we can do?” Obviously we feel terrible. We're horribly sorry.
Is there anything we can do? Amazingly they thought ice cream would be a
winner, which I just don't ...
Board Member Godfrey: We're going to scoop ice cream.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: This is when you know you have kids.
Board Member Godfrey: Yeah, that's it exactly.
Chair DuBois: There are new proctors or ...
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: There's a five-point plan that the
Superintendent is putting in place, which starts with the fact that not only
are we going to be training proctors better, but we're going to be monitoring
this from the District Office. Where these tests were basically handled on
site, now they're going to be trained, and there's going to be a process.
That's all going to be run from the District Office.
Board Member Godfrey: The proctors will take a sabbatical or (inaudible)
they won't do the same thing. It won't be the same people every year.
That sometimes leads to (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Sometimes that creates issues. I think the
other thing to know here is that the Superintendent talked to the College
Board, and they have no intent to go back in time and look at prior years.
Chair DuBois: This wasn't a change in the way tests were deployed.
Potentially it was just (inaudible)?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We don't know. Honestly, we don't know.
That would be a huge undertaking. Since they're not going to be going back
in time, we're going forward with this.
Board Member Godfrey: Part of the issue was the seating (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: There are either three or four kids from Palo
Alto High School (PALY) who took the tests at Gunn High School (Gunn).
They will also get an ice cream social with the Gunn kids. No one's happy
about what happened but, I think, there are a couple of things (crosstalk) is
that the administration (crosstalk) everybody now.
Chair DuBois: There's actually money to both do the salaries and decrease
the class sizes?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yes.
Board Member Godfrey: Yes.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yes, there is.
Board Member Godfrey: Hard to believe.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The newspaper has not necessarily covered
that accurately. The new Performing Arts Center at PALY has opened, and
there were three soft launch events. I invited the Council to ...
Chair DuBois: Thanks for the invitation. I couldn't make it (inaudible).
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: It is so fabulous there. There is not going to
be another event before the fall that's a school event, obviously because
school's closing. If there are Council Members that would like a tour, I
would like to make sure we can figure out how to arrange that.
Board Member Godfrey: That's fabulous.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's not just going into a regular theater. There's stuff in it. During the concert they did—actually they did it during
the theater production and also during the band concert. They did this thing
where they turned off the acoustics; they turned off all the microphones.
They played or talked or did whatever they were doing, and then they
turned them back on. The difference in acoustics was unbelievable. There
are just some things that you might not—if you're not a theater person,
somebody would have to point out to you. That's why I think a tour would
make sense.
Chair DuBois: I saw the swim teams did very well. I sometimes I wonder
if—there's a lot going on in the schools. The City should celebrate some of
these things sometimes.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We announced it at the School Board
meeting, all the swim team successes. It's always nice when things like
that. When we have a Board packet, we have staff and student successes in
the front of them.
Chair DuBois: I don't think we do that.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We should figure out a way how to extract
that piece out and make sure you guys get that.
Board Member Godfrey: (crosstalk)
Board Member Baten-Caswell: There's some great things.
Board Member Godfrey: (Crosstalk) Board meeting, this one we had the
Math Olympiad winner for the whole United States (U.S.), a sophomore at
PALY. Sophomore.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: And very humble. He came up and...
Board Member Godfrey: Super humble.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: You would never...
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Board Member Godfrey: He said that in my spare time, I like to work on
problems.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I just like to think about them.
Board Member Godfrey: (Crosstalk) I just like to think about problems in
my spare time.
Chair DuBois: Sometimes the Mayor can give a Proclamation, but we can't do it all the time. It's like the things...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: This is why you sort of have to look at the
whole thing and decide what you would like to give a Proclamation about.
Were you going to talk about the other...
Board Member Godfrey: The other one is—we have a math modeling team
at PALY. For two years in a row, two years running, they're going to the
world championships for math modeling. Last year they went to Hong Kong;
this year they're going to Germany. It's great. I don't know if companies
put those questions in, but they're very real-life questions.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: You share the questions, because that's...
Board Member Godfrey: The question they had to do was how do you figure
out how to insure prize money at athletic events. We're going to give you
$100,000 if you get a hole in one or we're going to give you $250,000 if you
break a world record. How do you do that?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It was an insurance problem. They actually
had to figure out how do you insure that.
Board Member Godfrey: It's an insurance problem. How do you figure out
how to insure those things?
Chair DuBois: Then they'll (inaudible) for it?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yeah. There was another problem. What
was the other problem? It was about road rage and how do you set up road
systems so that road rage is less likely.
Board Member Godfrey: They sort of get locked together for a couple of
days, and they just work on the problem.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: They basically have to take a story problem
and turn it into the math one.
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Board Member Godfrey: A model.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The model that they're going to—they
actually created a computer model for the road rage thing and also for the
insurance one. What's interesting about this is the four kids last year were
juniors. Most schools, when you see these kind of teams, it's seniors.
Board Member Godfrey: We had a good success, two successes.
Chair DuBois: That'd be great to get that successes thing, but if there is
ever something that just seems so (inaudible), bring it to our attention.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Winning the Math Olympiad for the world—
for the U.S., that's pretty...
Board Member Godfrey: That's big stuff.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: For a sophomore, that's huge. That's bigger
than going to CCS. Although, there's a lot more kids going to California
Interscholastic Federation (CIF), Central Coast Section (CCS). Actually the
fact that the PALY team went to CCS with no pool is sort of amazing.
Chair DuBois: A lot of time over at Gunn.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: What?
Chair DuBois: A lot of time in the Gunn pool this year.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The Gunn people could say that. They're
spending a lot of time on buses is what's really happening.
Chair DuBois: Thanks for that update. I was trying to go through some of
our recent meetings. We've had a lot of issues that don't necessarily impact
the schools. We did pass Residential Preferential Parking (RPP), and we're
trying to do both Evergreen and South Park together.
Board Member Godfrey: Southgate.
Chair DuBois: Southgate.
Board Member Godfrey: South Park's a show.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It might feel like South Park, but it's...
Chair DuBois: We're going to (crosstalk) a small town in Colorado. I expect
that to happen. It'll take several months.
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Board Member Godfrey: That's great.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: On that point, I guess we didn't bring this
up. Is it 56 or 58 spots opened up at PALY with the opening of the
performing arts centers?
Board Member Godfrey: Cathy's like, "Don't ask me that question."
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The staff re-jiggered ...
Board Member Godfrey: (crosstalk) spaces opened at PALY.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: ... or reallocated permits based on that.
There should be a lot of people that were parking at Southgate that have
permits now.
Chair DuBois: Good. We've talked about, a year or two ago, if there's a
way to look at how PALY issues those student permits, next fall would be the
right time with the new permit restrictions coming in. We also approved the
concept plans for several bike plans, mostly in south Palo Alto. The entire
length of Bryant is getting refreshed, but Ross Road and—I'm trying to
remember the name of the road that goes along Greer Park and past
Ohlone.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Colorado?
Board Member Godfrey: Amarillo.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Amarillo.
Chair DuBois: Yes, Amarillo. There's actually some really nice
reconfigurations right around Ohlone in terms of where the crosswalks are
and things.
Board Member Godfrey: That's good. (Inaudible)
Chair DuBois: There was a lot of discussion about removing parking. I think
they're going to relook at some of those locations, particularly around Greer
Park, which can have high peak times with soccer and baseball and stuff.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: If the parking situation around Ohlone or any
school is going to change letting us know in advance is important (crosstalk)
going to be great.
Chair DuBois: I don't think parking changed there. Around the park at
certain places, I think, and Ross Road, they were looking to slow down traffic
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with bulb-outs and things which remove parking spots. They're adding some
roundabouts which also remove parking on the corners of streets. That's the
kind of parking we're losing. It's not...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's not near any schools that you know of,
will that create a reduction in spaces around a school?
Chair DuBois: I can't think of any.
Board Member Godfrey: Reducing the parking at corners is great, though.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's much safer for people.
Board Member Godfrey: It really helps visibility.
Chair DuBois: We also had a discussion about the Comprehensive Plan
(Comp. Plan) you might have read about and the scenarios that we're
looking at. We did end up adding two scenarios. One of those scenarios had
a lot more housing which would impact the schools. Those are coming back
in early June with more definition and final approval.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Where would we go to see those proposals?
Chair DuBois: I just said they're not really even finalized yet. They'll be
coming back in June.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We wouldn't see them before June.
Chair DuBois: Right. I think it was targeting 6,000 housing units by either
2020 or 2030. I think it's 2030.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: This is like the Housing Element where
you've just given permission for those to be...
Chair DuBois: Yes.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: There's not actually plans and developers
and all those kind of things.
Chair DuBois: The City doesn't build houses; we just approve the plans.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: You could if you wanted, but (inaudible).
That'd be outside of your scope.
Chair DuBois: Right. That's just something to be aware of (inaudible)
launch.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: We talked about the bike thing last week,
last time, about the Bike Stealing Program. Not program, but the...
Board Member Godfrey: It probably is a program; it's just not our program.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I just wanted to say that Dennis Burns and I
had a long conversation and talked about having a three-element plan to
work on this. An element that would include communication out to students and parents about what you do if your bike is stolen and how to protect
against that, but also what to do if it happens. Working with the school to
help the school—it's not clear whether Gunn really has a problem, but PALY
clearly does. Working with the administration so they don't feel completely
responsible, and also he has a personal plan to do some things with public
safety that he thinks might make a difference. I just was thrilled, first of all,
that he got back to us and, second of all, that he was willing to talk about
that kind of thing.
Board Member Godfrey: Did you guys do some Safe Routes to School thing
at City Council?
Chair DuBois: Yeah. I think it was tied to that same meeting where we
talked about the bike routes. Wasn't it?
Khashayar Alaee, Management Analyst: That was a—I forget the year. I
want to say 10-year celebration or anniversary.
Board Member Godfrey: That sounds right. Yeah, probably 10 years.
Chair DuBois: Yeah. It was recognition; it wasn't a discussion.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Was it a Resolution to recognize the 10 year?
Maybe we should do something as well.
Mr. Alaee: It was (inaudible) and also Kathy Durham retired. There was a
Resolution for that.
Board Member Godfrey: Maybe we should.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I actually have a write-up from Kathy that
she emailed me. I didn't really understand how it fit in, but now I do.
Chair DuBois: On the bike theft, was there any discussion about cameras or
anything?
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's been discussed. The problem is
they've seen some of these, and that hasn't helped. That's going to be part
of it.
Chair DuBois: If you've (crosstalk) to say everyone's present.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Just for that reason, there needs to be
multitier—the administration at PALY was under the impression that it was completely their responsibility, and they don't have enough supervisory
people to be everywhere at all times. It was, I think, nice to know that
there's going to be some cooperation.
Board Member Godfrey: On a related note, Du Juan Green, the kids picked
him as one of the diploma hander-outers for (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Which is a big honor. They only pick a few
people to do that.
Board Member Godfrey: It's high touch on campus.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Almost always it's a staff person. It's very
unusual for it not to be somebody that works for PAUSD.
Chair DuBois: Very nice. Not a Council meeting thing, but we had the Jane
Lathrop Stanford Middle School (JLS) exit interviews, and (crosstalk) good
combination of...
Board Member Godfrey: That's a good break.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Those are so fun, aren't they?
Chair DuBois: Yeah. I think quite a few City people, several police officers
participated.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Your Fire Department Chief was there. It
was very impressive how many people come for that.
Chair DuBois: It's really fun.
Board Member Godfrey: The kids are amazing. They're amazingly
impressive. Have you ever done them, Cash? They're just amazing.
Chair DuBois: You interview these eighth graders who are graduating
middle school, and they come in prepared to answer a bunch of questions
and show you stuff they worked on.
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Mr. Alaee: That sounds fun.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: They dress up (inaudible) professional thing.
Board Member Godfrey: They dress up. The come in there in an interview
suit. You only spend 15 minutes with them, but they practice all the
questions. (Crosstalk) stuff to show you, and they tell you about their
journey over their year. You're like, "You went (crosstalk)."
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Sometimes they bring three-dimensional
things like race cars they've built and...
Board Member Godfrey: Clocks.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: ... clocks. Someone brought a cello to one of
my interviews, and then played it.
Chair DuBois: I had a girl play violin. It was good. One last thing. We had
a Rail Committee meeting yesterday. Caltrain is planning some small
changes to all the grade crossings.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: What kind of changes?
Chair DuBois: It's restriping, moving some of the places where cars can
park between the tracks on Alma, adding a median so that cars cannot try to
drive around gates...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's a good idea.
Chair DuBois: ... and adding quad gates, four gates instead of two.
Board Member Godfrey: Any discussion about grade separation? Did you
see the article yesterday that there was seven deaths in five days?
Chair DuBois: There's a lot of discussion.
Board Member Godfrey: Seven deaths in five days on the tracks.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Where did you see that article?
Board Member Godfrey: I got it in—I'll forward it (crosstalk) what
newspaper it was.
Chair DuBois: If there's any way you guys have time and can apply
pressure. The first part of the meeting was with the High Speed Rail
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Authority (HSR). We are basically arguing that they need to help us with
grade separations.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: When is the meeting? You'd like us to come
and provide pressure?
Chair DuBois: They're ongoing. They're doing the start of the
environmental review. There's community meetings scheduled. There's going to be a working group set up. It's for the entire San Francisco to
Gilroy segment. It's not Palo Alto specific.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: If there are particular meetings that they're
particularly going to talk about grade separations, if you could let us know in
advance, because it's not just School District people that would be helpful.
It would be Health Care Alliance for Response to Adolescent Depression
(HEARD) Alliance people, Project Safety Net.
Board Member Godfrey: (Crosstalk) Project Safety Net.
Chair DuBois: They don't necessarily want to talk about grade separations.
Board Member Godfrey: I'm sure they don't.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It won't be agendized.
Chair DuBois: Right now they're having public comments. If the School
District wanted to provide comments about what should be evaluated in the
Environmental Impact Report (EIR), like grade separation, that would be
useful.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Can we get a—how do we find out when
these meetings are?
Mr. Alaee: We can get it from staff, and then we can send it to you and
Cathy.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think that would be helpful.
Board Member Godfrey: Do you know if Project Safety Net is putting in a—if
they're making a concerted effort to—they're probably the best entity to
review it.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: To be speaking for us or for our community
actually.
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Chair DuBois: The deadline for the Notice of Preparation is June 6th, so it's
coming up pretty quick. For that, you can submit a letter.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think there's some people that will hold
more weight than others.
Board Member Godfrey: Yeah, but I think we should pursue it (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We want to make sure that we get that information to those people.
Chair DuBois: Obviously it's a very expensive project. They've committed a
lot of money to southern California, to dealing with grade separations. Here,
it feels like, because they're using the Caltrain corridor, they're trying to do
very little and claim that really it's up to Caltrain. Nobody's taking
responsibility.
Board Member Godfrey: It's something we know works.
Chair DuBois: I guess that'll be it for that item.
NO ACTION TAKEN
3. Update on City-wide & District Construction Activity for Summer 2016.
Chair DuBois: Item Number Three, update on Citywide and District
construction. Do you want to kick it off?
Khashayar Alaee, Management Analyst: Peter Pirnejad is here, our Director of
Development Services.
Board Member Godfrey: You get to sit through all of our meeting stuff. Sorry
about that.
Peter Pirnejad, Development Services Director: No, no. Feel free to grab one
and pass it around. There's more here than you need.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Say your name again. I'm sorry.
Mr. Pirnejad: Pirnejad. As the Director of Development Services, I manage
all of the permitted activity, all the—these are ministerial-type permits that
are plan checked and issued and inspected. Nothing that's being planned,
everything that's been approved and ready for the actual formal plans to be
reviewed, permits to be issued and inspections to be had. This is physical
construction that's going on around the City. This newsletter is distributed
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monthly, and it's available on our website, if you'd like to get them
electronically, as well as a list of all the previous months are online as well.
Board Member Godfrey: I get it every month. I am one of your (inaudible).
Mr. Pirnejad: That's the best way to get a sense of where we are. I'll just
highlight a few of these projects. The first, right here across the street, 240
Hamilton. This developer, first time being a developer, a large property owner in Palo Alto, but developing a commercial office building for the first
time, 17,500 square feet, four-story, mixed-use. It's very typical of the type
of buildings you're going to see in Palo Alto, mixed use with commercial,
residential, possibly retail commercial on the first floor. Another project over
at the Ronald McDonald House. If you haven't already seen it, it's 500 El
Camino Real, right next to the Stanford Shopping Center. We're really excited
about this three-story building, 51,000-plus square feet, to house children and
their families that are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Actually—we'll come back to that. You can go
through it, but I think we may want to (crosstalk) more.
Chair DuBois: Peter, what gets listed on here? I see a single-family home.
Mr. Pirnejad: It's only large—usually large, extensive projects. Typically we
don't put single-family homes on here. It's usually commercial buildings.
Chair DuBois: It's 1501 California.
Mr. Alaee: Page 509 at the bottom.
Mr. Pirnejad: This is a large single-family development, that's why. It's 68
new homes, 116,000 square feet of condo buildings.
Board Member Godfrey: Is this the Stanford Project?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: This is the Stanford project.
Mr. Pirnejad: (Crosstalk) project.
Mr. Alaee: It must have been—the "Two" should be "One," it seems like. The
one above and then the one below.
Board Member Godfrey: They're one big property (crosstalk).
Mr. Alaee: I think Tom was looking at that.
Chair DuBois: Yeah, I was.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: You thought it was one single-family home.
That's why...
Mr. Pirnejad: Yeah, sorry. The picture's actually...
Mr. Alaee: You're like that's a pretty big home to make this newsletter.
Mr. Pirnejad: That's on the next page. I think the...
Cathy Mak, District Chief Business Officer: (Inaudible) the other is called University Terrace.
Board Member Godfrey: University Terrace, you're right. Sorry.
Mr. Pirnejad: No worries. I'm here to answer questions. This is pretty self-
explanatory (crosstalk.)
Board Member Godfrey: Cathy was saying this 1501 is Below Market Rate
(BMR) housing. Is that right?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: No.
Mr. Pirnejad: No, no, no.
Board Member Godfrey: (Crosstalk.)
Board Member Baten-Caswell: This is faculty housing.
Board Member Godfrey: No, no. University Terrace is faculty housing. I
thought a California Avenue address...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I thought all the California Avenue addresses
were faculty.
Mr. Pirnejad: I believe it's age-restricted housing.
Board Member Godfrey: Age-restricted. I'm going on the map to see
(crosstalk) in California (crosstalk).
Mr. Pirnejad: I have to check with Planning on the site, but (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: This is part of Stanford, so this is not new for
us. Whatever it is, it's (crosstalk) various parts of the Stanford thing.
Mr. Pirnejad: This was part of the Mayfield agreement that was part of the
soccer fields.
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Chair DuBois: I believe there's two. Isn't there one along El Camino that's
more affordable?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Right. That is the apartments.
Board Member Godfrey: Yes. Right by the Wells Fargo there.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: They can't control that to be just Stanford
people. Pretty much anyone can apply for that.
Mr. Pirnejad: Obviously we have the Stanford Shopping Center undergoing a
lot of renovation, 130,000 square feet in the former Bloomingdale's site at the
Stanford Shopping Center. Some other (inaudible) along that site. Again,
what we list in here are projects that are under construction as well as
projects in plan check.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Are any of these projects the City's actually
doing it for City office space and things like that?
Chair DuBois: That was the next question. Do we have any update on Public
Works?
Mr. Pirnejad: I don't know if we added Capital Improvement Program (CIP)
projects; I don't think we did. That would come from Public Works. What we
tried to capture is private development. Just so there's not any confusion.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think it would be really helpful for us to know
what Public Works projects are being done as well.
Mr. Pirnejad: Like street work projects in the right-of-way?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yeah, actually that would—we haven't even
asked for that. That would be an additional ask. I do think the street works
would be helpful from a—particularly near schools.
Mr. Pirnejad: I would think what would be helpful is anything that affects the
public right-of-way, so that's commuters, pedestrians, bicyclists. This is
actually one of the things, Tom, that was on our City Council Priorities. With
the loss of Richard Hackmann, who was the project manager on that, that
project has lost a home. What we were trying to do is develop—there's off-
the-shelf products that help manage and provide public awareness around
every street project. Whether it's Utilities replacing a water main, Public
Works resurfacing a street, private development stubbing out a gas line, it
would be recorded and be visible.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: I can't tell you how helpful that would be,
particularly for the principals to know if they're ripping up a street in front of
their place or on the main thoroughfare where people are dropping off.
Mr. Pirnejad: Not to burst the bubble on that, but it's a project that we've
identified as a high priority, but the person that we had earmarked to do it
has left the City. We're trying to find a new home for it. It's one of the multiple projects that's on our wish list. It just doesn't have a Project
Manager yet. It's something ...
Mr. Alaee: It becomes a little—it's a big project, because you have Utilities
Department running projects ...
Mr. Pirnejad: All the time.
Mr. Alaee: ... You have Public Works running projects, and then you have
private developers running projects. The coordination and getting the
information loaded. To credit Peter, he's done a great job of getting the
departments to all start to use one software system. Believe it or not, we still
have multiple different databases and software systems and stuff.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: There's no one—forget about the fancy
database. There's not one place where it's recorded these are all the
projects?
Mr. Pirnejad: No.
Mr. Alaee: Unfortunately not. A long time ago we were hoping to maybe
have a cone or "work happening here" on our website, where you could click
that button and then boom, all the projects would come up. It's a capacity
issue. We have to do the work, but then report out on the work. The
departments do it very well for each project. If we're going to go dig up a
street, we'd notice that street very well and the impact of neighborhood.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: You do—are the schools included in that
information?
Mr. Alaee: Yeah, yeah. Anytime ...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It seems like sometimes people are surprised.
Mr. Pirnejad: I think what happens is if Utilities or Public Works is affecting a
right-of-way, they'll notice everybody within 300 feet or 500 feet of that
impacted area. What they don't do is notify people that are just commuting
through that section of road, because they don't know who those people are.
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What we're hoping to do is develop an app where the contractor actually
doing the work the week before he goes out will say, "I'm about to start work
on Waverley from here to here, and it's going to affect this side of the road for
this long." Then, it becomes publicly visible.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: You did let us know that Churchill was going
to be impacted way more than a week in advance. That was important because it's a major corridor into Palo Alto High School (PALY), into the
District Office, and to Stanford. If there are any other projects like that that
you just know about, that would probably good for us to know in advance. A
week is not enough time for us to really do anything except for worry.
Mr. Pirnejad: Understood.
Chair DuBois: What are the conditions for private developers to close streets?
Mr. Pirnejad: Private developers out of the range of types of work that affects
the public right-of-way are probably under the most rigorous review process.
What they have to go through is they submit an application of how they're
going to affect the right-of-way and for how long. They get a specific permit
to disrupt the right-of-way for a specific period of time. Then, they have to
have a logistics plan associated with it. If they're going to take up a lane and
it's going to affect something like newsstands, bus stops, handicap ramps or
anything along those lines, they have to replace those and relocate those
things so that it doesn't affect congestion or pedestrians, cyclists or
(crosstalk).
Chair DuBois: Do they have to convince you that they need that space?
Mr. Pirnejad: Yeah.
Chair DuBois: You try to say, "Can you do it without that space?"
Mr. Pirnejad: Yes, yes. The Public Works Department reviews the application,
tries to minimize the impact, reduce the number of lanes impacted, reduce
the amount of time it's impacted. Then, it gets reviewed by Transportation in
Hillary's department, Planning and Community Environment (PCE). Once the
traffic operation and the actual logistics plan is approved, then they're issued
the permit, and they can start closing down the lanes. That sort of thing
happens well in advance. It's planned out; it's reviewed. All they ...
Chair DuBois: Do they have to pay an impact fee?
Mr. Pirnejad: They pay a fee. Yeah, they pay a fee.
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Chair DuBois: For every day that it's closed?
Mr. Pirnejad: Yeah. They pay a fee per day, and they pay a fee for the
permit. I'm not sure exactly what that is. On the other side, when you have
the Utilities Department replace a water line or a gas line or you have Public
Works repair a storm drain, whether it's an emergency and they just show up
and do it or it's part of the CIP, Capital Improvement Program, that's been planned years in advance or it's just routine maintenance, those things don't
go through level of review. They don't have to have an operations plan or any
kind of plan associated with how long and how far we have to go to negate
the impacts. That's something that we may want to consider going forward,
especially at minimum reporting it so it's visible on some shared website
where people can see that the street's going to be impacted. The common
misunderstanding or myth is that private development is causing all the
problems, but it's actually not. The majority of impacts to the street are
because we're replacing lines, fixing lines, changing things that have nothing
to do with private development.
Board Member Godfrey: When we know to notify people, is that the cards
that come?
Mr. Pirnejad: Yeah.
Board Member Godfrey: Is there a way to have—sorry, Siri loves to just go
on (inaudible) watch her. Is there a way to say we're going to notice the
people who live along Charleston because they live on Charleston (inaudible)
adding particular schools to the—tag them in the database as being interested
in that neighborhood? I'm not exactly sure I'm saying this right, but ...
Mr. Alaee: I understand.
Board Member Godfrey: I understand that you probably have a
neighborhood—you probably have a database and there's flags for where
those people live. Having the schools included in many of those different
neighborhoods ...
Mr. Alaee: That's a great idea.
Board Member Godfrey: ...so that if it's a really common thoroughfare, they
get notified automatically.
Mr. Alaee: Correct. That's a great idea.
Board Member Godfrey: That way it just happens, because they're flagged
appropriately.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: What we could do is we could give you our
boundary map, so that you could see what—not that there aren't some
overflow people that come in from other places, but if you could see the
boundary map. To Terry's point earlier with our commuter schools, there are
certain things that they need to know.
Board Member Godfrey: Especially the high schools.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I don't know if it's—I'm thinking...
Board Member Godfrey: Ohlone Elementary School. Ohlone's another one.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Ohlone. If something was going on Louis, if it
wasn't within that area that you're talking about, the 300 feet or whatever it
is. If something happens on Louis, that basically changes their commute in
for almost everybody.
Mr. Alaee: Let me just ask a quick question. The boundary maps, these are
the boundaries of the homes feeding into that school? That would be great.
Board Member Godfrey: If that was useful or just a way to look...
Mr. Alaee: I think that would be really useful.
Board Member Godfrey: ... sit down and look at the community map and say
this is an important commute. Could you flag Ohlone as needing to know
when that...
Mr. Alaee: Yeah. What our departments do is they'll use the Geographic
Information System (GIS) Operating System to put a pinpoint on the project
address and that circle or radius just (inaudible). Depending on what format
the boundary map is, honestly we could take it and load it into our GIS
system. As soon as they do a pin plot on that, they can then pull that into
(crosstalk).
Board Member Godfrey: Some way to have it be automatic would be probably
...
Mr. Alaee: That would be great. How often do the boundary maps change
though?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Hopefully we change them very few times.
There's only a few things that really stresses people out more than anything
else is the boundaries (crosstalk).
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Mr. Alaee: I think if we do get the file and we do load it in our software
system, then someone just has to remember on both sides that if the
boundary maps change, let us (crosstalk).
Mr. Pirnejad: (Crosstalk) electronic version of that.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's so few times, that you would know.
Board Member Godfrey: (Crosstalk) it's so infrequently, and they change so sort of—it's negligible.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The corridor part going into Ohlone, that won't
be in the map system. How (inaudible) we'd need to—for the commute
schools, maybe we need to identify what those major corridors are into that
school. We only have a couple of schools like that.
Chair DuBois: I think you should also think about, if you did the entire
boundary, you're probably going to get noticed all the time. This is just a
single (inaudible) issue of what was relevant.
Board Member Godfrey: It is probably worth a conversation. If it's Louis
Road, it's this school. If it's Charleston Road, it's that school. That sort of
thing. Just somehow if we set it up to automatically apply them, then you
don't have to think about it.
Mr. Alaee: We can get our staff the data, and then we can also tell them the
intent. I'm sure they're in tune with the traffic flows as well. If not, our
Transportation Division is (crosstalk).
Board Member Godfrey: I'm sure they are. (Crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Certainly your school traffic safety people
know that (crosstalk).
Mr. Alaee: Exactly.
Board Member Godfrey: Plenty of people pay attention to that.
Mr. Alaee: I get the overall gist and goal.
Chair DuBois: In terms of capital improvements, I don't know of anything
that's starting this year. We have Public Safety/Police Building in the
California Avenue (Cal. Ave.) area. We want to build a garage before we
start on the police building.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: A garage for...
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Chair DuBois: For the merchant area.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: For the merchant area. Do you have any idea
where that might be going?
Chair DuBois: Yeah. It's the surface lots on Sherman and Cal. Ave. One of
those will be a garage, and one of those will become a police station
hopefully. That's the plan. The other one is the bike bridge over Highway 101 (101).
Board Member Godfrey: It's back.
Chair DuBois: It's still pretty pricey.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: What's the price right now?
Chair DuBois: Thirteen million plus some optional stuff. I think construction
would be done in 2020. We have a pretty big capital improvement project
list. Again, I can't think of anything that's going to be immediate or anything.
There's a lot of planning going on.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Is there any work to sort of re-jigger the ins
and outs on Embarcadero with the lights there and the mess that it is pretty
much all the time? I know there's a lot of different—there's Stanford; there's
Town and Country; there's PALY. There's a lot of stuff.
Board Member Godfrey: I thought there was some changes in the light
timing. Do you mean...
Chair DuBois: They worked on that, Town and Country.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's still pretty awful.
Chair DuBois: A lot of traffic.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Is there any—there's nothing in the works
there, any changes?
Board Member Godfrey: You probably know we had a kid hit there a couple of
weeks ago.
Chair DuBois: (Crosstalk.)
Mr. Alaee: We heard that. Let me check. I thought there was something
coming up, but I don't know if it's done or not.
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Chair DuBois: I was checking in on that. I thought they did it.
Mr. Alaee: Let me (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I drive it every day, so I can tell you it's still—
it doesn't feel different. It might be different; it just doesn't feel that
different.
Board Member Godfrey: I don't (inaudible). I try and stay away from there. I usually have to go (inaudible).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I know Stanford's involved. There's a lot of
pieces to that.
Chair DuBois: We have a couple of other people. I don't know if you guys
want to introduce yourselves. Are you here to talk about school construction
projects?
Laura Larsen, School District Bond Program: Hi. I could do that. Do you
want to do that now or do you want to...
Phil Mast, Guest: I'm Phil Mast, and I'm just here to listen.
Chair DuBois: Welcome.
Ms. Larsen: I'm Laura Larsen. I've been working with the Palo Alto Unified
School District (District) on their bond program almost eight years now, since
basically the beginning of this last bond. (Inaudible) come up here to talk
about this summer's school projects that we have going on. I'd say a big
chunk of them are over at Gunn High School. We have a lot of things
happening at Gunn this summer, mostly in preparation for the construction of
the central building project, kind of in the middle of campus. Right now, we're
going to be getting that site ready for construction to start in the fall. We
have to move some interim (inaudible) for some of the programs. They're
going to be losing their home right now, and put them into their interim
space. We're doing that work. Moving the portable to make way for
construction access at that place. Moving custodial sheds and things like that
to another location because they're also in the location. Also, the painting
project is going on at Gunn. That is going to be going on, and the entire
campus is impacted there. At PALY...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Wait, wait. Just going back to Gunn. If you
guys, Spangenberg is going to be closed. Is it one year or two years?
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Ms. Larsen: We want to keep it down for one year from start of construction.
We would like to open it back up after the first year and only get access—we'll
still be working on the two-story portion, but we want to have Spangenberg
(crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: They will be—for the one year when it's
closed, they will be doing their theater stuff over at PALY.
Ms. Larsen: Yeah. We're going to keep the little theater open for programs
on schools (inaudible) every day, so they'll (inaudible) the little theater. The
productions and things like that will (inaudible) PALY. We hope to only keep
them down for one year, so we can give them access back into Spangenberg
while we still finish up the two-story (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's important because Spangenberg gets
rented out quite a bunch for community activities. I don't know if the City
every rents it out, but I know that community groups do. You should just be
aware of that.
Chair DuBois: Are you guys demo'ing the music buildings this summer?
Ms. Larsen: Not this summer. We'll make the interim housing for music
programs, music and choir programs, get them into their new location, and
then we're going to do haz mat abatement on all the buildings that are to be
demo'ed, and then we'll demo the buildings at the start of construction.
Hazmat will happen probably before that. That may be late summer, early
fall, and then construction and demo would start in the fall sometime.
Chair DuBois: Are you going to lose parking and bike racks?
Ms. Larsen: No. We'll lose one area of bike racks, but we're working with the
campus on relocating to some areas. With the central building project going
where it's at, to build that we have to close a corridor where a lot of the kids
would normally walk through. We're looking at strategically placing bike racks
around that area and locations. We're working with the campus on that.
Chair DuBois: Are they not going to lose any parking?
Ms. Larsen: No parking is going to be changing. I think it's like four spots
where people are ad hoc parking near the food service areas. They've been
parking there a little bit, but we'll take down those few spots. The fence line
isn't changing from what's there right now. We're going to follow that
(inaudible) around.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: We won't have the community that lives right
next to Gunn show up to complain?
Ms. Larsen: No, I hope not. We're not really losing any parking there at all.
We'll work with the campus on the bike parking and access for that. We've
been meeting with the Traffic Safety Committee quite often and informing
them. We're searching and really trying to place bike racks and things like that. Moving on to PALY. Now that the theater's going to be wrapping up,
we'll be finishing off, getting them moved in with some of the equipment and
furnishings and things like that over the summer. The gym will still be going
on pretty gangbusters until—that one hopefully will be done next year
(inaudible).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: How many parking spaces open up once the
gym is complete?
Ms. Larsen: Just a few that are around the area. There's still the few parking
spots that were made right where the fence line is at, the construction area,
but it wasn't really adding any parking right in front of the gym area where
the blacktops used to be, where some cars have parked there before. What
will happen is when we can get all the construction workers off the site, it
opens up some of the parking back onto (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Do you know how many spots that is?
Ms. Larsen: I don't know off the top of my head. I know we worked out with
the campus X amount of cars or workers on the campus and then off the
campus as well.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The reason I'm asking that is because we did
have community members here at the last meeting who were...
Ms. Larsen: It's a tough spot right now.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Right now obviously we can't change that, but
when it's over...
Ms. Larsen: We can (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: ... making sure, being very clear about what
additional spaces we'll have. I think that might make them feel better.
Ms. Larsen: I can put an inquiry in. I can (inaudible) email (inaudible).
Ms. Mak: Do you know how many spots we have (inaudible) done?
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: Is it 56 or 58?
Ms. Larsen: It was like 56 spots, and then it was opening up the back area
too, where the construction trailers were at, where we had the general
contractor and the IOR's trailers parking. That was in a parking spot. That
staff parking is reopened too. It's helped out quite a bit in that area. I think
56 in that one little area, but then an additional—I think it's 16 now staff members can park in that back area where the trailers were at. (Crosstalk)
some of the (inaudible).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: How do we get that communication back out
to the South Park community, that those spots...
Board Member Godfrey: Southgate. (Crosstalk) South Park forever more.
Ms. Larsen: Right now, we're working on the parking lot area, because we
had more construction on the theater there. We had to restripe to make
access around. Now we're working on implementing it back into—now that
we have that extra drop-off zone and parking near the theater, we're looking
at the work around that area. For the quantity of spots, we're going to do a
full quantity check of how many parking stalls we have (inaudible) get that
information back out to (inaudible).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think the communication to the community
"we have lost this much during construction. We have gained this back." Just
very clear. It's a pretty important piece of communication based on last
meeting.
Ms. Mak: I'll talk to Bob (inaudible) getting that back out to you.
Ms. Larsen: We'll get that information to Bob (inaudible).
Chair DuBois: Any other elementaries or middle schools?
Ms. Larsen: Elementaries are being—all the elementaries, middle schools, but
most of the majority of it is painting work with the elementary schools and
then the middle schools. We also have some concrete work. Some of the
areas, they were just doing some maintenance on smaller projects, so they're
a little bit faster. Just summertime projects. Fairmeadow, I have (inaudible)
Fairmeadow, Escondido, Hoover, Palo Verde, El Carmello, Duveneck have
some concrete, asphalt, painting (inaudible).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Are you asking this because you're wondering
if the fields are going to be impacted for summer programs?
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Chair DuBois: I was just curious where construction was going on. Most of
the major construction has been completed from the bonds but the
elementaries and middle schools.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We have $60 million that we just released for
elementary school programs. That's...
Ms. Larsen: That's new. We're just going to start that planning coming up. Right now we're doing the planning for Addison Elementary School with the
donor-funded design portion. Tonight we have a community meeting for the
neighborhood around Addison. Hope it's heavily attended. The follow-up with
the last advisory meeting. (Inaudible) to come back to the Board likely in
August. That's for Addison. Right now the elementary schools, we're not
performing any construction. Addison is the only one that's planning, and
then we'll start the planning again for the other elementary schools moving
forward. (Inaudible). The middle schools, they're pretty much—they're done
(inaudible) right now or the major work is (inaudible).
Chair DuBois: We had the—I don't know what we called the event where Max
and Jim signed the compact on Cubberley to start a design, really starting to
plan for what's going to happen with Cubberley. Is there any of the bond
money tied to Cubberley? Is there any funding for construction?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Not at the current time. It's not as if it
couldn't be, but we've just allocated to the elementary schools. I have to say
that at the last meeting when Jim was going through his priorities and he said
Cubberley was off the priority list, that was...
Chair DuBois: I didn't recall that.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Or it was below the line. He said something
about his priorities. Maybe go back to the Minutes and take a look at that.
Chair DuBois: We have four years left of the five years. I think we're all
trying to work towards figuring out what to do with Cubberley and kick that
process off.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Our direction to Max was to sit down with Jim
and talk about the needs on both sides, so that we could then start a process.
I am not aware that that conversation has completed.
Mr. Alaee: The City and the School District signed that covenant, right?
Several months ago.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yeah.
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Mr. Alaee: I think there's a working group and folks are meeting. We can get
a status update. Just real quick; I don't mean to shift the conversation away
from the School District. Peter does have to leave at 9:00. I don't know if
there's—if there aren't any other City questions, we can maybe let him go.
Board Member Godfrey: I don't have any other questions.
Chair DuBois: Thanks for coming.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Thank you. This is helpful.
Mr. Alaee: Thanks so much.
Chair DuBois: Laura, thank you too.
Ms. Larsen: I don't have anything on (inaudible).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I don't see it in the Minutes, so maybe he said
this at a different place, but that...
Board Member Godfrey: I don't remember that.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I was surprised.
Board Member Godfrey: (Crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Maybe I didn't get it from here.
Chair DuBois: I've talked to him multiple times. Again, I think there's a
working group and there's some discussion about kicking off a design process.
Mr. Alaee: Correct. I believe the Community Services is looking at potentially
bringing an idea or some sort of (inaudible) that's similar to an idea that can
help with the design (inaudible) process. I haven't been a part of the
conversations, but I can touch base with him and get an update on where
things are from the City's end. I'll get back with Cathy.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I don't think we've had an update from Max
recently on this.
Ms. Mak: The group had met at least a couple of times now. The last
meeting was several months ago.
Mr. Alaee: I know on our end, we're just about to start on year-end wrap-up
and Budget. A lot of people are focused on that. We've lost several people in
our budget office. It's a time-intensive process.
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Chair DuBois: Anything else on this item?
Board Member Godfrey: I don't think so. Thank you.
Chair DuBois: Thank you.
NO ACTION TAKEN
4. Review Upcoming Calendar and Agendas.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Is a lot of the—you keep mentioning people that you've lost. Is this more than typical or is it just sort of how business
goes?
Khashayar Alaee, Management Analyst: I think it's a little bit unusual. The
economy's doing good, so there's other jobs out there. Also, the housing
costs are just significant in the Bay Area. It's important for our employees,
and then the commutes are just horrendous for folks. It's a competitive
market in government. Other agencies out there are actively recruiting. I
think the baby boomer retirement is coming upon us. I think all those are all
the factors. I'm trying to make sure the televisions (TV) are on, because I
want to show you guys this. We're going to talk about the schedule for next
month.
Board Member Godfrey: These are pretty impressive TVs.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: A lot of TVs.
Chair DuBois: Thank you for coming. I didn't—you're (inaudible) the public.
Did you want to mention anything?
Phil Mast: No, I'm just listening pretty much. Thanks.
Board Member Godfrey: We're pretty casual, so if you have questions. A
little less formal than going to a City Council or School Board meeting. You
seemed to know your way around, so I thought (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: What's the electronics in the front? What's
that represent? In the front when you come in, what is the electronic
screens?
Chair DuBois: That a piece of interactive art. People can put in ideas on the
web and news and things, and they pop up.
Board Member Godfrey: (Inaudible).
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Chair DuBois: I think you can—I don't know if you send it to Twitter. There's
a way you can...
Board Member Godfrey: How do you do it, Cash? I want to send stuff there.
Mr. Alaee: It's actually—there's an application (app.) you have. I want to say
it's...
Board Member Godfrey: Tell me which app. it is. I've many app.’s (crosstalk).
Mr. Alaee: You just open it up on your website. I'm sorry. It's not an app.;
it's...
Board Member Godfrey: It's not the Palo Alto 311. It's not Our Palo Alto. It's
not the—you guys are like an app. machine.
Mr. Alaee: What is it? I'll have to look it up. You can also go to that TV right
there...
Board Member Godfrey: You get this stuff set up. I'm going to go check it
out. We're going to do this.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I'm sorry I distracted her. It was probably not
a good idea. I've just been staring at it for the whole meeting.
Mr. Alaee: I don't know why the TVs aren't coming up.
Chair DuBois: Did you have a lot to show or can we talk about it?
Mr. Alaee: For June, what we tentatively have is the middle school athletics
program. I don't know what that's—if we can do that in June.
Cathy Mak, District Chief Business Officer: I know the two lawyers have been
talking. After that, then staff and attorney can come talk about the needs
from both sides. (Inaudible).
Mr. Alaee: Our meeting's tentatively scheduled for June 16.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We have an issue with that. I thought we had
brought that—isn't that when our offsite is?
Board Member Godfrey: No.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: When's our offsite?
Board Member Godfrey: Our offsite is...
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: No, it's early in that week. Never mind.
Board Member Godfrey: Our offsite is Monday and Tuesday of that week.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We don't have an issue with that. Never
mind.
Mr. Alaee: I just realized I have an issue with that, not that I need to be
here. I know that Jim and I will not be here that day. Is there a way we could target another date? Is the 23rd too late for your ...
Ms. Mak: What day is that?
Mr. Alaee: The 23rd is the following Thursday.
Chair DuBois: Thursday.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's a Thursday, the following Thursday.
Board Member Godfrey: We have a Board meeting the 21st, right? We're
likely to be in town. I'm not leaving town right away.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I'm not leaving town; I'll be in town. The
people that need to present for this, are they going to be around?
Mr. Alaee: It would actually give us another week. If we can't do middle
school athletics, the other item that's tentative is the discussion about the
local tax on business. I don't know if we could potentially do that. I don't
know what's going with the TVs. The other items we had remaining were an
update on the Comprehensive Plan and teacher housing, safe rides and traffic
around schools. That usually comes up in the fall. Sustainability programs,
we usually do that annually. The Cubberley planning process, Ventura lease,
strategies for increased early childhood services and childcare.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Given the new kindergarten plan, I think it
would be helpful to have—what were you going to report on the childcare
situation?
Mr. Alaee: I think we still needed to circle back with staff and firm up what
that was. I missed the first meeting of the year, February, where we kind of
created these items. I don't know who brought it up or what the intent was
around that subject.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: For the City arrangement with the childcare
providers and our arrangement, I don't know if we need to get a report on
what's changing. What do you think, Terry?
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Board Member Godfrey: It seems like we should.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It seems like we should, and it seems like we
should before school starts. I'm almost thinking that if we could do that and
the fields thing, maybe that's too much to do.
Mr. Alaee: What would be the intent of the conversation? To talk about how
the kindergarten...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: If there's any gotcha's—yeah. With the
kindergarten changing, is there anything that we need to talk about before
the school year starts? It seems like we get surprised by things regularly.
Chair DuBois: With the kindergarten changing to the afterschool, I forget
what they're called. Are you guys planning on...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The hours will change, because there are
some number of kindergarteners that go to afterschool at Palo Alto
Community Child Care (PACCC).
Chair DuBois: The City runs those or who runs those?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We have an arrangement, and you guys have
an arrangement too. I just don't know the parameters of both arrangements.
Ms. Mak: The City contracts with PACCC. They have a new provider at Nixon,
Kids Choice, starting in July.
Chair DuBois: They're going to see a change in demand potentially.
Ms. Mak: Right. We have been—PACCC is aware about the potential
changing kindergarten, because we have been (crosstalk).
Chair DuBois: They have a new director too. That might be a good one.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think there are going to be some probably
surprises here, and it'll be good to get them out on the table early, so that
we're not running into them as school starts.
Chair DuBois: That's very specific. When I brought this one up, I think I was
also just interested in talking about childcare supply in general.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Which is probably another very important
thing for us to talk about, because we've been in short supply.
Board Member Godfrey: The on/off indicator was the issue.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: Maybe we could split that in half.
Chair DuBois: I don't know...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Who were you hoping would present for the
childcare supply?
Chair DuBois: I don't know. Does the School District have any programs for
early childhood education?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We do have a whole early childhood education
program that kind of goes out of Greendell.
Board Member Godfrey: Out of Greendell, yeah.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's...
Chair DuBois: It's not expanding or changing?
Board Member Godfrey: It's not really changing.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's not changing, no. If anything, the only
change would be if the population for Transitional Kindergarten (TK) changes,
which we have not seen any reason for that to change. If anything, it's been
a little bit declining.
Chair DuBois: We all see this demand, but there's no programs (inaudible)
expand supply.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I thought you were going to talk about the
afterschool need, which is also a big demand that's not fully ... I don't know
who is the person who would give the report, because I don't know that
there's a person that sort of looks at that in macro.
Ms. Mak: PACCC has done some survey and study in that a year ago.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Is PACCC the right—it seems to me that if this
is a policy question, are we providing enough childcare across the City to meet
demand, then there needs to be somebody that can look at it at the macro
level. Maybe PACCC is the best we have, but they're a very specific provider.
Ms. Mak: We've been working with Minka with the City, and she ...
Board Member Godfrey: I was just going to say it seems like Human Services
is the department in the City that does that.
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Ms. Mak: (crosstalk) appropriate person to present.
Mr. Alaee: I think what maybe we can do is invite PACCC, invite Minka ...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's what you were thinking about the policy
area around this. Right?
Chair DuBois: Yeah, for both organizations.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's way more than just early childcare. Actually there's a whole big group doing early childhood analysis across the
county that a lot of people from the School District are a part of. We get a
report on that too, but it's a different thing. That's just early childcare; that's
not—that's early education, not childcare for older students.
Chair DuBois: I was thinking more younger. There's somebody from the
County who could come?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: There's a group. Who's the head of that group
with Sharon Keplinger? I could find out who that is. As a matter fact, I just
got an invitation to something they're doing. There's somebody that's in
charge of that. We can invite them too.
Board Member Godfrey: I don't recall seeing that invitation.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think it was just sent to me as a person.
Board Member Godfrey: It doesn't strike me.
Chair DuBois: Cash, could you scroll up? Do you have our (inaudible)?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's not a School District initiative. It's a Santa
Clara County (County) initiative. I don't even know if it's sponsored by the
County or it's sponsored by a nonprofit that's trying to push something
forward. I think it actually might be.
Board Member Godfrey: Local tax on business and transportation?
Mr. Alaee: Local tax on business for ... Maybe what we can do is potentially
maybe invite PACCC, invite Minka, have a conversation about what PACCC's
previous research provided and insights, Minka's view. Maybe as Board
Members and Council Members, we can start to talk about the framing of the
issue, and then take it from there.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I'd like somebody from the District who's
going to be running the kindergarten program and the logistics around it to
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talk about that as well. Probably someone in Barbara's group, I guess. I
don't know.
Ms. Mak: Either Barbara or Holly. Also, I'll invite Dawn because she's
working very closely (inaudible) TK.
Chair DuBois: It sounds like it should be split up into two items. There's the
change in kindergarten and afterschool care, and then I'd like to, if we can, get the right people, early education and childcare facilities.
Mr. Alaee: We would frame it as ...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Capacity, early education and childcare
capacity versus need, something like that.
Mr. Alaee: It'd be discussion about—I'm sorry, one more time. Early
childhood ...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Early education and childcare capacity and
needs.
Chair DuBois: That could be Palo Alto Child Care and potentially somebody
from the County that you were talking about.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I don't know that the County government—
there may be some nonprofit. I don't know that that conversation has to
happen in June. I think the kindergarten one does, though.
Mr. Alaee: Basically what's that discussion about?
Chair DuBois: We could do them together.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It would be great if we ...
Mr. Alaee: What's the title or what would be the ...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Discussion of—impacts of new kindergarten
program.
Chair DuBois: All-day kindergarten.
Mr. Alaee: Schedule?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yeah, schedule. This is not just on childcare.
It's also is the traffic impacts. I think we do need to have this conversation
before—just think of every August we get a call from someone in the City who
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is upset that we didn't have this conversation before we changed the hours
and traffic patterns.
Board Member Godfrey: How about the Epi-Aid? Is that ...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We won't have that until late in June, I heard
yesterday. We should do that in August.
Mr. Alaee: This one? Is it Center for Disease Control (CDC) Epi-Aid?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yeah. That won't be ready until the end of
June.
Mr. Alaee: We can talk in June about that.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Actually it won't be the final report.
Board Member Godfrey: It's just the draft, right?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: It's just the draft. I actually think—I don't
know, depending on when we see the report, whether it's enough to talk
about or not.
Chair DuBois: Again, if middle schools is ready, I'd like to keep it in June. We
have to balance it (crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: The middle school athletics, yeah. I think so.
Mr. Alaee: Are those three items really heavy?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think it might be. I'm thinking the middle
one is the one that could be...
Mr. Alaee: Moved down.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: ... moved own.
Chair DuBois: Or shorter. I think we could be efficient.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think we could end up having a very long
discussion about the middle one.
Mr. Alaee: Why don't we leave these three, and then let's see what happens
with middle school athletics. If middle schools athletics can make it, we'll
move Number Two out or maybe to the third item, and then if we get to it, we
get to it. If we don't, we don't. My only concern would be inviting a lot of
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staff for the item. Let's play it by ear and let us see what we—let's talk to
staff. These sound good. Does the 23rd sound okay to change it to?
Board Member Godfrey: Let me check (inaudible).
Chair DuBois: That works for me.
Board Member Godfrey: I signed up for that.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think the most important thing is if we're going to be able to get the presenters at that time.
Board Member Godfrey: The National Basketball Association (NBA) draft's
that day. I don't know if I can...
Chair DuBois: I'm glad you have that in your calendar. Do we want to just
sketch in August?
Mr. Alaee: Sure. What would you guys like to do in August?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: What did I just say that we need? Let's see if
we can do the Epi-Aid.
Chair DuBois: If we're going to do the Epi-Aid, then that's probably a good
time to just do Project Safety Net and teen programs.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think that would be good.
Board Member Godfrey: (Crosstalk).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Actually the guy who's in charge of Bryant
Street Garage gave a presentation yesterday at the Project Safety Net
meeting.
Chair DuBois: Do you guys both go to that?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I don't always go. Somebody invited me
because of what was on the (crosstalk).
Board Member Godfrey: I always go, and I didn't go yesterday.
Chair DuBois: I know Cory goes. I'm probably...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Cory was there yesterday.
Chair DuBois: I'm probably the only one that's not up on Project Safety Net.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think that the Bryant Street Garage is a teen
program that's pretty interesting. It seems like only very few people know
about it.
Chair DuBois: We talked about it last year in this group.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We did and somehow didn't get the word out
very well.
Mr. Alaee: Usually I know that there's some talk about having a safe rides
decision. We talked about bringing that safe ride presentation. Usually in
August, September, we do the annual discussion about safe rides. Maybe
what we can do is do that, the safe rides, traffic. You guys want to try to do
that in August or September?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I've asked before in prior years to do it in
August, and they've never been ready. It's better to get it earlier in case
there's anything we have to address.
Mr. Alaee: We'll aim for August. We might want to tentatively put the
discussion about the tax in August as well. I know that we're going to be
doing another round of polling. I believe that...
Chair DuBois: I'm not sure. We can put it there. I'm not sure how—I don't
know how you guys feel about it. I'm not sure that's a big topic for us
necessarily. If we have other things ...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I feel like you gave us a report on what you
were proposing and your plan. Now, it's really are you going to do it or not.
Mr. Alaee: We can delete it?
Board Member Godfrey: I think so. From my perspective, you can.
Chair DuBois: Just leave it on deck.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Could you give it in the Board meeting?
Chair DuBois: I think teacher housing would be a good one to talk about.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: We don't have—maybe we need to frame it.
We don't have a plan right now on what we're doing about it. We just know
it's a problem, and we could talk about why it's a problem and how it's
impacting us. You guys could talk about how the cost of housing is impacting
the City. Honestly, if we're going to solve this, it's going to need to be a
regional solve. Regional could be the City region.
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Chair DuBois: We could talk about potential solutions. It might be a good
kind of working group to start it here before it goes to our bodies. There's
some private companies that are looking at funding incentives to let groups of
employees purchase housing.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: There is one right now that's been a place
actually for a while for teachers, but it doesn't appear that it's good enough to make the difference.
Chair DuBois: I've had some people in the community approach me about
private citizens aligning with teachers to buy houses where there would be
shared ownership.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That seems like the special loans that I can't
remember what the organization is.
Chair DuBois: There's a lot of creative ideas out there. I think it'd be worth a
discussion.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think that would be great, as long as you're
not looking to us for what's our plan for teacher housing, because we're not at
that place.
Chair DuBois: I'm actually looking for this group to maybe be a little bit
ahead of the plan, not just sharing the information. There's something...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think in that topic maybe talking about what
the impact has been on us and the impact on you as well would be important.
Chair DuBois: We're hearing retention of employees is critical.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Maybe just augment that topic to be...
Mr. Alaee: Maybe public service housing or something?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Teacher and public service potential...
Board Member Godfrey: Public employee.
Chair DuBois: On the Safe Routes, I don't think we ever—would we also do
kind of a bike plan update as part of that?
Mr. Alaee: (Inaudible).
Chair DuBois: We've been talking about traffic a lot.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: Traffic's been an issue for us in this area.
Mr. Alaee: I'll just put traffic. It works better.
Chair DuBois: That seems like a...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: (Inaudible) have strategies for increased early
childhood services, childcare. It seems like that's...
Mr. Alaee: Part of the top?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Yeah.
Mr. Alaee: Take this out?
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think you can take that out.
Mr. Alaee: What was school age programs? What was the...
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think it's part of planning this agenda out.
Mr. Alaee: (Inaudible).
Chair DuBois: I think it's the middle school athletics.
Mr. Alaee: I'll take that out.
Chair DuBois: We usually have Community Services come and talk about all
the programs (inaudible).
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's more than just athletics.
Chair DuBois: Yes, that is.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That includes everything. Maybe you can put
that back in.
Mr. Alaee: Do you want me to just re-title it like Community Services update?
Chair DuBois: Yeah.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: There's usually some sort of discussion around
the library program that I maybe ... Library Services.
Chair DuBois: Do you guys want to do that? Do you feel a need for it?
That's generally an update.
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Board Member Baten-Caswell: I don't know. Are you making any changes to
anything?
Chair DuBois: I don't think so.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: What I've found with this is that—although,
you'd think they'd be talking all the time, it forces the school library groups to
talk to the City library groups about the services for Kindergarten (K) through 12. Maybe it's a quick update.
Chair DuBois: Good. I think we've got enough for next time.
Mr. Alaee: Will, you and I will sync about June. Did we say the 23rd works?
Board Member Godfrey: The 23rd works for me.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That works for me as well. Cathy was going to
check in with the...
Mr. Alaee: Staff.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: ...staff.
Mr. Alaee: When does everybody go on break? Staff doesn't get a break.
Ms. Mak: We probably will stay until the end of the month.
Board Member Godfrey: We have a Board meeting that week, on the 21st.
They're likely to be around unless they're all flying the coop the next morning.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Usually once a year we share our enrollment
forecasts. When do we usually do that?
Ms. Mak: The forecast ...
Board Member Godfrey: I don't think we—did we do it last year?
Ms. Mak: Yeah. We might have done it—yeah, we did it ...
Mr. Alaee: We did it in the fall.
Ms. Mak: ... after we received the report from the DI.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: After the 11th day. With the DI, okay. Maybe
at the end of the year we do it.
Ms. Mak: Like December.
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Mr. Alaee: I'll add it to the bottom of the list.
Ms. Mak: The 11th day enrollment that can be a very quick report, because
it's just reporting our numbers. It shouldn't be more than (inaudible).
Chair DuBois: If we time it right, we could do probably the Comprehensive
Plan (Comp. Plan) Update, the enrollment update.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: On the school impacts, maybe she...
Mr. Alaee: I'll just kind of highlight these to be together.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: I think you might—no, I wouldn't put them
together. We could do the enrollment report—we're going to have to wait
until we have the DI report. We could just give an—she could give a very
quick update, what does it look like in terms of this. It doesn't give us the
future look. The future look is more of a...
Chair DuBois: I was saying why not wait and do the future look with the
housing future look in the City.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: That's fine. Maybe we just touch on it in a
Board update. I think you'll want to know. If we have declining enrollment, I
think that's something you want to know.
Mr. Alaee: We can flesh out the remainder of the meetings in the future.
Board Member Godfrey: That sounds pretty good.
Board Member Baten-Caswell: Thank you.
Mr. Alaee: Thank you all.
Chair DuBois: Meeting adjourned.
NO ACTION TAKEN
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 A.M.