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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-09-21 City Schools Liaison Committee Summary MinutesPage 1 of 7 City School Liaison Committee Regular Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/21/2023 Regular Meeting September 21, 2023 The City-School Liaison Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Community Meeting Room at 8:32 A.M. Present: City of Palo Alto Representatives Julie Lythcott-Haims, Chair Pat Burt, Council Member (via teleconference) Chantal Cotton-Gaines, Deputy City Manager Palo Alto Unified School District Representatives Todd Collins, Board Member Shounak Dharap, Board Member Carolyn Chow, Chief Business Officer CALL TO ORDER Chair Julie Lythcott-Haims called the meeting to order at 8:32 A.M. Administrative Associate III Christine Prior took roll. Chair Lythcott Haims acknowledged that everyone had read the reports of two recent accidents involving school children on bicycles being hit by motor vehicles in the City. She stated the matter would be addressed in the City update agenda as Item C. She noted that the City sends respects and compassion to those injured and their loved ones. REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Open Forum/Public Communications 1. Tim Heilig talked about Ohlone Elementary School. He presented a picture of a child that nearly got hit by a car on the sidewalk. He felt the rolling curb was too shallow, the drivers are distracted and there are very young children walking/riding inches from the cars. He suggested making the curb a vertical curb, extending the posts and adding portable posts. B. Approval of Minutes City/School Liaison Committee Summary Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 7 City School Liaison Committee Regular Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/21/2023 MOTION: Board Member Collins moved, seconded by Board Member Dharap to approve minutes from the April 20, 2023, meeting. MOTION PASSED: 4-0 C. City and District Reports Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton-Gaines announced that City Council would be discussing Cubberley at its October 16 meeting. City Council had something said in a closed session and it was decided to bring that as a public item and she wanted to be sure the public was aware. She addressed the safety concerns at the local schools that the Transportation Safety Meeting, the Police Department, Transportation Office, member of school district and parent volunteers would be having a meeting September 28 at 10 a.m. to discuss recommendations related to recent incidents. Chief Transportation Official Philip Kamhi stated the City School Transportation Safety Committee has an item concerning Escondido agendized for the meeting on September 28. They have been meeting with PAUSD Staff to review a Crossing Guard Warrant Study to determine if a crossing guard is warranted. In addition to the meeting on September 28, an additional meeting is in the works to be scheduled on October 12 in the evening regarding Escondido only. Public Comment 1. Melissa Oliveira on behalf of (5): Julia Kaltschmidt, William Thurston, Sachiko Bussey, Amie Franconi, Allison Quick. Ms. Oliveira is the parent of a child that was hit on Friday, September 8 at Escondido. She gave context on the accident. She believed having a crossing guard placed in the area would have prevented the accident. She advocated for a comprehensive overhaul to the traffic safety and calming measures on behalf of her son and the greater Escondido Community. She felt it was inconceivable to have the main entrance on an artery of Stanford Avenue. The school will not be opening until 7:50 or 7:55 so there are children spilling into the road because they cannot get into the school. They have done outreach and communication to Palo Alto and Stanford University and there are serious gaps in safety for Escondido. She presented a slide outlining parties they believe responsible for the requests outlined. They ask all stakeholders from the district, the City of Palo Alto and Stanford to come together to provide thoughtful measures to create a safer elementary school. 2. Joe Oliveira, father of child hit on September 8, stated Stanford Avenue has an overwhelming amount of traffic on a daily basis and he echoed Ms. Oliveira’s comments. Page 3 of 7 City School Liaison Committee Regular Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/21/2023 3. Jill Paldi, Escondido Elementary School PTA President, spoke on behalf of the executive board and association membership. She commented that in addition to there being no crossing guards, the traffic calming and safety standards were outdated and inconsistent as compared to other PAUSD schools. The main entrance has been moved to Stanford Avenue due to construction resulting in most of the foot and bike traffic being diverted to that entrance further impacting the crosswalks at the intersection of Stanford and Escondido Road. She asked for re-examination of the main entrance in addition to requesting crossing guards, traffic lights, crossing signal audits and traffic calming and safety measures. 4. Julia Murphy Chatorian, PTA volunteer, witnessed the child being struck on September 8. She stated the problem was inconsistent traffic lights. She felt there should be a clear ingress/egress of bike and pedestrian pathways. She proposed that Stanford Avenue become a true bike route eliminating the parking on the south side and making bike paths wider, divided and green. 5. Sampson Shen, Escondido parent, expressed concern about the safety of the intersection at Escondido Road and Stanford Avenue. He discussed the inconsistency of the crosswalk light and asked that it be repaired. 6. Angie Evans, parent at Duveneck and Escondido, has seen a vast difference between bike and pedestrian safety for those schools. She echoed the comments of Mr. and Ms. Oliviera. She expressed that this is an opportunity to envision how housing is spread out and build a transportation plan around it. 7. Kara Baker (Zoom), former Walk and Roll Chair at Escondido, observed that the limited number of open gates in the morning caused a lot of congestion. Other gates could be opened to alleviate that congestion. She felt the sidewalk in front of the school was too narrow and that the bike lane was awkward to navigate. She requested the consideration of opening additional access points into the school. She also believed it would be important to allow students to enter the campus before 7:55 a.m. 8. Audrey Smith (Zoom), reiterated what Ms. Baker said about the entrances on campus. She described her frustration being a commuter in that area and felt the area was confusing. She believed having only two entrances and having them on a major thoroughfare discouraged walking or biking access. She reiterated the inconsistent light patterns and thought a flashing light along with emphasis that it is not a four-way stop would be helpful. She noted that the agenda log-in access for City Council was a broken link. 9. Crys (Zoom), parent in Palo Alto, was shocked at the lack of understanding of what resources exist for a parallel emergency process and felt that should be researched. Page 4 of 7 City School Liaison Committee Regular Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/21/2023 10. Ali Boehm (Zoom), Escondido parent, expressed shock at the lack of anyone monitoring the intersection during the days after the accident. She stated there was no time for a study or meetings and action needed to be taken immediately. 11. Lakesha Phillips Marshall, Escondido parent, stated the gates need to be opened sooner. She believed this needed to be a priority. 12. Adi Greif (Zoom) stated parking along the street was less hectic than going through the drive-thru. Making it safer would help with traffic decongestion and help free up time for parents who work. 13. Rachaell Mondino (Zoom) stated that the school had sent out messages encouraging families to walk or bike to campus due to lack of parking and a congested drop-off circle. The lack of dedicated bike lanes created chaos. She felt action needed to be taken immediately. 14. Verdere C. Philpot, Escondido parent, asked for some clarity on the process of monitoring and getting the ball rolling in getting crossing guards. He expressed the urgency of the matter. 15. Sibyl Diver (Zoom), Stanford teacher and Escondido parent, expressed urgency of taking strong precautionary measures immediately as new students were moving in who are just learning the area. She found it unsettling that there was no public communication about what was being done. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines reminded everyone of the meeting on September 28 at 10 a.m. near Escondido and they would be getting the word out on the location soon. Mr. Kamhi added they were coordinating with the school district and Stanford on the location because it would be virtual and in-person. Information about the meeting and how to participate could be obtained from saferoutes@paloalto.org. Council Member Pat Burt stated there were certain things to be done in near-term but others were medium and longer-term. He felt there was expectation that some of the medium and longer-term things could happen quicker than what was possible. He felt bureaucratic barriers needed to be pushed aside to make the near-term things happen quicker. He wanted an update on what Staff believed it would take to get crossing guards there in the near-term. He suggested the parent volunteers helping monitor the situation in the near-term might be an option until they can get a crossing guard. He was interested in hearing from District Staff on whether location and opening times to the entrance to the school due to construction could be addressed in the immediate term. He was aware during COVID there were students that did not get the normal Walk and Roll training the Safe Routes to School program had done. They needed to make sure the new students were getting help adjusting to the new environment. Page 5 of 7 City School Liaison Committee Regular Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/21/2023 City Manager Ed Shikada stated all the comments and perspectives brought light to the issues. He felt it was premature to be able to describe the specifics of what actions could be taken. It was important that the City and District be in sync on the actions taken. Staff was already evaluating options and coordinating with District on next steps. He had been in conversation with Superintendent Austin as well as Mr. Kamhi had been in touch with the principal and Eric Bloom in terms of the ongoing construction and with Police Chief Andrew Binder. They were poised to be able to take action quickly and requested the ability to ensure coordination among the parties and their next steps. He noted they had been responding to all the emails received with the information on the upcoming meeting. Mr. Kamhi noted that Stanford was involved in a site visit that was done the previous day with PAUSD and the Safe Routes Staff and they are coordinating on this although not necessarily directly related to the intersection. They are working with PD who would manage the crossing guard contract on next steps. They have asked their consultant to stop current work to do a warrant study. Board Member Shounak Dharap assured that everyone there was committed to making sure they move forward quickly. He stated the next step was the Traffic Safety meeting and encouraged people to show up. Board Member Todd Collins asked PAUSD Chief Business Officer Carolyn Chow to talk about the process with the District, at the site and proposals made sooner rather than later and how that might be addressed withing the District context. PAUSD Chief Business Officer Carolyn Chow confirmed the gates open at 7:50 in the morning and school starts at 8:10. This arose from the pandemic when they did not want people to congregate prior to the start of school. It remains in place largely due to a supervision issue. Something that could be addressed right away would be opening the gates and having parents acknowledge that the gates would be open to minimize large gatherings and crowds of students gathering along the sidewalk and to have them on campus in an area that moves them to a safer zone off the sidewalk and street away from traffic. She could not speak to what time they can have supervision for the students arriving early. They met the day prior with people to address moving forward with a safer process for students coming to and from school. She thought it was important to get this process started to make things safer for all parents, student, staff and people traveling in the Community. Mr. Collins stated that the Community desired some kind of short-term answer to address a clear and present issue. He acknowledged it is hard for government agencies to do this. He felt this was a time to try to find an expedient approach to address the need in short-term to give time to find the longer-term approaches. He opined that it was the principal’s job to make sure the site meets the needs of the school community and children. He urged the community to keep talking to Principal Crane. He understood the complicated issues with opening the other gates. He urged the City to see if there was an expedient process that could address the immediate need. Page 6 of 7 City School Liaison Committee Regular Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/21/2023 Chair Lythcott-Haims added her son is an aide at Hoover and was running a Bike Rodeo spot teaching third graders to use bikes safely. She agreed that there are longer processes afoot but that the interest in following procedures that take time should not preclude them from acting in the immediate moment. The City of Palo Alto has the contract with crossing guards. A study is needed to determine why Escondido does not have a crossing guard but it is clear there is an immediate need to ensure children and parents that the intersection is safe. She was struck by the fact that the following Monday after the accident there was no physical manifestation representing the knowledge that something tragic had taken place. An immediate gesture needed to be in place until the long-term could be addressed. She did not believe the Committee could direct Staff to do something right now so she requested that the immediate short-term solution of whether a human being could be at the intersection to enable safer crossing would be urgently studied. She imagined Council would be willing to entertain an augmentation to their contract with crossing guards for the short or immediate-term to bring someone there. She wanted to know how much study had to go into the question of somebody being needed there now until a longer-term solution could be studied. Council Member Burt asked if there is a need to study whether a crossing guard is needed at that location. He wanted to understand Staff’s perspective at that point in time on the need. He echoed Chair Lythcott-Haims thoughts that the Council would support supplemental funding but stated it did not have to go through the Council. He felt they could make Staff-level decisions on that kind of supplemental funding. There was the question of how quickly could the agency they contract with add the crossing guard. It was his thought that the people attending the meeting would like to have a clear understanding of the perspective at that point in time and what actions were being taken on the crossing guard aspect. Mr. Shikada answered the Staff had attempted to identify both the resource availability as well as options as to who would staff it. At that point, he would not assume there were people on contract and available that could actually do it if they made the determination that a crossing guard was the appropriate way to handle it. He agreed that from a funding perspective it could be figured out on an interim basis but the resource and availability was the open question. He pointed out that because this was not agendized it crossed their typical ability to engage in conversation but given the specific question, he responded. Mr. Kamhi noted that PD manages the crossing guards and they have been asked to look into this. They expect to have more information for the meeting the next week where there would be an agendized item to discuss this. Mr. Shikada picked up on Council Member Burt’s suggestion of having parents out there before and after school was an interest in the near-term until resources could be identified and he felt the City would be happy to support that. Mr. Collins suggested having a sign-up sheet for parent volunteers for the short-term until the City could move forward. Page 7 of 7 City School Liaison Committee Regular Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/21/2023 Chair Lythcott-Haims suggested tabling the remainder of Item C and carry over Item D until the next month. D. Memorandum-Summary of Beverly Hills Model-September 2023 F. Future Business ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 10:01 a.m.