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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-05-17 City Schools Liaison Committee Summary MinutesPage 1 of 9 Special Meeting May 17, 2018 Chairperson Holman called the meeting to order at 8:06 A.M. in the Community Meeting Room, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. Present: City of Palo Alto Representatives Karen Holman, Council Member, Committee Chair Eric Filseth, Vice Mayor Rob de Geus, Deputy City Manager, Staff Liaison Palo Alto Unified School District Representatives Todd Collins, Board Member Ken Dauber, Board Member, Board President Robert Golton, Bond Program Manager Absent: Oral Communications Lee Lippert on behalf of Palo Alto Stanford Heritage (PAST) congratulated Committee Members on the 100 Year Anniversary of Palo Alto High School. The proposed solar project could detrimentally impact the historic setting and diminish the visual quality of the original Palo Alto High School structure. There were suitable alternatives to the proposed strategy. Ken Horowitz remarked that the City Council would likely hear polling results in a few weeks. He thought the response to a sugar-sweetened beverage tax would be positive. The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and Sutter Health supported a soda tax. Minutes Approval 2. Approval of Minutes from the April 19, 2018 Meeting. MOTION: Council Member Filseth moved, seconded by Board Member Dauber to approve the minutes as presented. MOTION PASSED: 4-0 City/School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Final Sense Minutes FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 2 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 3. Review Recent City Council / PAUSD Board Meetings. Chair Holman requested a list of topics be provided to Committee Members prior to the meeting. Rob de Geus, Deputy City Manager, explained that the item was typically a conversation and sharing of recent events. Chair Holman felt a list of topics would help the public understand the topics for discussion and help the Committee Members prepare for the meeting. Board Member Dauber reported the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Board of Education (Board) would hear the solar project on Tuesday. Robert Golton, Bond Program Manager, advised that solar panels were proposed for six school campuses. The Board previously approved moving forward with the project; however, the placement of some panels at Palo Alto High School became an issue. PAUSD staff would make a recommendation to the Board in the future. Board Member Dauber did not have any definitive action to report. Chair Holman asked if the Board continued to apprise the Landscape Committee of the issue. Mr. Golton answered yes. The Landscape Committee and the Facilities Planning Committee at Palo Alto High School had been heavily involved in the discussions. Chair Holman inquired whether the committees had been apprised of the Tuesday meeting. Mr. Golton would ensure they were notified. 4. City and District Comments and Announcements. Chair Holman announced the Council Finance Committee met two full days to review the proposed City Budget. Council Member Filseth reported the Finance Committee did not discuss funding for Cubberley Community Center. The proposed Budget totaled $210 million. The Finance Committee requested the City Manager reduce the $8 million pension liability by half and accrue the remaining half to unfunded pension liability. Otherwise, the Finance Committee did not make major changes to the proposed Budget. The City's initial poll for revenue- raising measures indicated significant support for a 2-percent increase in the FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 3 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) and solid support for a small increase in the Documentary Transfer Tax. A second more detailed poll was underway. There was little support for a 1/4¢ sales tax increase. Chair Holman added that polling results did not show support for a parcel tax. Rob de Geus, Deputy City Manager, advised that the City Manager had requested the spreadsheet showing the City's financial support of Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) be updated. There could be discussions between the City and the PAUSD Board of Education (Board) regarding those contributions. Chair Holman remarked on comments made in the past regarding more cost sharing between the City and PAUSD. Mr. de Geus indicated the Finance Committee wanted to understand the cost of the contributions. Chair Holman inquired whether the spreadsheet of City contributions had been updated. Mr. de Geus did not have it today. On May 23, the Finance Committee would discuss the City's contributions to PAUSD. Board Member Collins looked forward to receiving the information. It was useful to see the ways the City and PAUSD worked together. He did not consider them contributions to PAUSD as much as contributions to the community. He wished to ensure the public recognized that the City was not issuing checks to PAUSD. Board Member Dauber explained that the Board's polling and possible steps around revenue concerned capital improvements. The Board did not expect to increase its operating revenues. Council Member Filseth remarked that the City's efforts to raise revenue were focused on capital improvements. Board Member Collins believed the Board was looking to improve its cooperation with the City in an effort to serve the community. Chair Holman suggested the Board was not fully aware of all the things the City provided PAUSD. She requested an update of PAUSD polling. Robert Golton, Bond Program Manager, reported PAUSD staff presented polling results to the Board in April. Polling indicated approximately 64 FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 4 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 percent support for either a $375 million bond or a $475 million bond. In 2008, the Board approved a bond in the amount of $378 million when the identified need totaled $750 million. The bond was successful in funding landmark changes and improvements to schools. Based on polling and a list of projects, the Board authorized staff to proceed with a resolution to place a measure on the November ballot. Council Member Filseth noted the Council selected a working group for the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan. Chair Holman requested a printed list of the working group members. Mr. de Geus would provide one before the meeting ended. Board Member Collins provided Walk and Roll Maps for Barron Park Elementary School and Terman Middle School. The Barron Park map depicted a single, walking-only route from the North Ventura neighborhood along El Camino Real to Barron Park Elementary School. While the North Ventura neighborhood was not shown on the Terman Middle School map, the map gave a sense of the distance and the commute between the two. The maps underscored the challenges of providing access to schools for the North Ventura neighborhood. Mr. Golton had emailed Committee Members information regarding capacity and utilization of schools. The numbers were compiled in August 2017 during the master planning effort. Declining enrollment allowed classrooms to be used for other purposes, such as maker spaces and wellness centers. The new master plan would propose the space required for elementary schools be increased, which would reduce the capacity of the schools. Council Member Filseth asked if the master plan would anticipate new schools or expansion of existing schools. Mr. Golton stated in general the master plan did not anticipate additional schools. Board Member Collins indicated the Board had consciously not forecast enrollment beyond a few years because of the unknown amount of future housing development in Palo Alto. In the meantime, the Board was preserving its options by retaining real property and leased facilities. At the current time, the Board was not planning for more or fewer schools. Generally, the capacity of individual schools would decrease slightly under the project because of the preservation of space for non-class activities. FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 5 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 Council Member Filseth commented that the Board could maintain capacity and implement new activities by building another story onto schools. Board Member Collins advised that the Board had built some two-story buildings at elementary schools to expand capacity. However, the ability to add floors was limited by site space. The community valued playground space, and the Board attempted to maintain equal playground space per child across schools. Density was an important factor in social and emotional development and the learning environment. Chair Holman emphasized that the Board was preserving land. A fundraising option proposed to the City Council was to sell a couple of parcels of real property. 5. Safe Routes to School. Sylvia Star-Lack, Safe Routes to School Coordinator, applauded the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Board of Education (Board) for naming a school in honor of a bicycle advocate. The partnership of the City, PAUSD, and the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) had garnered recognition for contributing to Palo Alto's Healthy City status, refined a five-year plan, and coordinated or provided 169 educational trainings to students and parents. Herbert Hoover Elementary School experienced a 10 percent increase in walking, biking, riding a scooter, and skateboarding to school over the prior year and a 9 percent decrease in single-occupancy-vehicle commuting. Lucille M. Nixon Elementary School experienced a 3-percent decrease in single-occupancy-vehicle commuting, a 5-percent increase in the number of bikes parked on campus, and a doubling of students riding the bus and carpooling. The goal of the program's five-year plan was to grow and sustain community-wide support. The work of the program grew from widely held community values that had been codified in the City's Comprehensive Plan, Sustainability Plan, and Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan. A goal of the partnership was to increase community awareness of the many resources, education programs, and encouragement opportunities available to address transportation safety questions. Each year, the partnership reviewed the five-year plan to ensure it remained responsive to community needs. A key strategy for the coming year was expansion of safety education into high schools to encourage students to make safer choices when traveling independently. The partnership utilized education and outreach tools to serve the needs of traditionally under- resourced and under-represented communities as well as to respond to growing community concerns about both student and adult transportation safety behaviors. Staff piloted a walking field trip program for second graders at Addison Elementary School and designed a fifth grade physical FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 6 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 education lesson to demonstrate usage of a roundabout. An all-school assembly pilot program at Palo Verde Elementary School provided a lesson on use of the new roundabout on Ross Road. Information on use of new facilities would be added to all third through eighth-grade in-school bicycle education safety curriculum activities. After concerns regarding inappropriate bicycle behavior near Terman Middle School were expressed to the City/School Traffic Safety Committee, a green bike box was installed at the intersection in August 2017. Education and training occurred, and the crossing guard subsequently reported virtually no wrong-way riding on the street or sidewalk. Information gathered at rotating school site assessments formed the basis of City roadway designs. Council Member Filseth noted a few parents continued to consider the restriping near Terman Middle School dangerous. He asked if Staff considered it dangerous. Ms. Star-Lack responded no. Council Member Filseth inquired whether the crossing guard had observed inappropriate bicyclist behaviors. Ms. Star-Lack indicated the infrastructure improvement had greatly decreased the crossing guard's need to correct behaviors. Chair Holman inquired regarding the parents' belief that the bike box was unsafe. Council Member Filseth suggested the counterintuitive layout was the cause of parents' concerns. Ms. Star-Lack reported the Safe Routes to School team facilitated the donation of bikes and helmets in response to an accident in which an East Palo Alto student bicyclist was injured. Staff would support a student- developed Walk and Roll Map for East Palo Alto students. Staff had initiated train-the-trainer curriculum development for English as a second language (ESL) classes, held two walk-abouts for Walk and Roll Map production, and identified a Safe Routes to School Champion for Greendell. A community survey was underway for the Greendell/Cubberley campus to identify active transportation challenges. To increase outreach to the Chinese-speaking community, City Staff hosted an outreach table at the Chinese New Year Festival and partnered with native Chinese speakers to disseminate Safe Routes to School materials translated into Mandarin. The City also produced the first Walk and Roll Map in Spanish. Transportation safety mascots were available to Safe Routes to School partners to use in education and encouragement events. Staff organized an all-day Ross Road bicycle FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 7 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 boulevard orientation event. Staff was working to produce public service announcements and other outreach tools. Classroom tally data was gathered by PAUSD teachers and entered online. The active transportation mode share was holding steady at all school levels compared to 2017. Numbers for middle school active transportation modes reached 77 percent. An area of potential growth was use of the family car for school commutes. Improved infrastructure could increase high school biking rates at each campus. Board Member Dauber commented that a comparison of multiyear bike data with enrollment data could show declining enrollment with increasing mode share. Ms. Star-Lack indicated since 2003 the Terman Middle School bike mode share had grown on average 1 percent per year. Board Member Collins noted the enrollment at Terman Middle School was quite a bit lower than enrollment at the other two middle schools. Ms. Star-Lack recognized Safe Routes to School Champions who offered robust education and encouragement programming. New directions for growth included enhancing community understanding of the goals and strategies of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan; supporting new infrastructure projects; supporting PTA volunteer recruitment; assisting with the upcoming PAUSD bike parking grant; developing a Greendell/Cubberley Walk and Roll Map; increasing traffic enforcement; celebrating the renaming of Terman Middle School; and completing site assessments. Five-year plan objectives for the 2018-2019 school year were exploring optional and compulsory high school education programs; developing a PAUSD Safe Routes to School policy; completing two site assessments with updated Walk and Roll Maps; and developing a PAUSD parent survey. To support the partnership, the Board should proceed with drafting a Safe Routes to School policy and exploring its role in coordinating or supporting current and expanded educational programming. City Staff anticipated holding conversations with PAUSD staff concerning reductions in single-occupancy- vehicle trips by PAUSD employees. Council Member Filseth commented that the data showed a slight decline over the past few years. Ms. Star-Lack believed more data was needed. Rosie Mesterhazy, Safe Routes to School Coordinator, clarified that the travel data reflected a 0.17 percent increase in alternative modes overall. At the current times, the program was sustaining numbers. FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 8 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 Council Member Filseth questioned whether students were utilizing Uber and Lyft for school commutes. Ms. Mesterhazy stated micro mobility and car sharing had been increasing. Data for the upcoming school year would include those counts. Board Member Collins was proud of the Safe Routes to School accomplishments. Changing behaviors in such a fundamental way was amazing. He would not be surprised if the enrollment bubble impacted transportation behavior. Parking capacity in the right locations on campuses was important to students and could affect data. Board Member Dauber concurred with prior comments. Chair Holman requested possible reasons for the data spikes in 1985 and 2012. Ms. Star-Lack explained that the elimination of school buses probably affected the data. Ms. Mesterhazy added that the community concern about stranger danger likely was another possible cause. The Palo Alto data mirrored data from across the country. Chair Holman inquired about the number of Staff working on Safe Routes to School. Ms. Mesterhazy responded three part-time employees totaling two full-time equivalents. Ms. Star-Lack advised that PAUSD staff and PTA volunteers contributed to handling the workload. 6. Cubberley Master Plan Update. Rob de Geus, Deputy City Manager, reported the City and Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) had negotiated a contract with a consultant. The contract would be presented to the City Council for approval on June 4. The cost of the contract had increased from an estimated $415,000 cost to approximately $665,000 because of environmental work and community outreach. The cost would be split 50/50 between the City and PAUSD. The environmental work and planning work would be performed by different consultants. Chair Holman concurred with the use of different consultants. FINAL SENSE MINUTES Page 9 of 9 Special City School Liaison Committee Meeting Final Sense Minutes: 5/17/2018 Mr. de Geus reminded Committee Members that the goal was to complete the Master Plan by the end of calendar year 2019. Robert Golton, Bond Program Manager, advised that PAUSD Staff had received the cost sharing agreement and the contract. PAUSD's attorney had committed to providing changes to the City by the end of the week. Mr. de Geus provided the list of participants in the North Ventura working group. A camera system would replace guards for monitoring Caltrain tracks. The use of cameras and guards would overlap for three months to ensure cameras were operational. City Staff was awaiting a meeting with the landscape committee regarding an easement for bike improvements on Churchill. Board Member Collins inquired whether the crosswalk at Castilleja could be separated from the project. Mr. de Geus indicated constructing the project piecemeal was not ideal. However, the City would separate the crosswalk if necessary. 7. Future Meetings and Agendas. Rob de Geus, Deputy City Manager, provided a list of meeting dates and items for discussion. Items for the June agenda included cost sharing for services. Board Member Collins suggested Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) identify a list of its contributions as well. Mr. de Geus would work with PAUSD Staff to identify contributions from both the City and PAUSD. Board Member Dauber requested a future agenda item focusing on the process for master planning the Cubberley Community Center site. Mr. de Geus inquired about the form of the agenda item for PAUSD Board of Education (Board) and City Council updates. Chair Holman wanted the item to reflect but not be limited to important topics discussed by the Board and Council. Board Member Dauber concurred. Board Member Collins concurred. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 9:36 A.M.