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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-12-14 City Schools Liaison Committee Summary MinutesPage 1 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 Special Meeting December 14, 2023 The City-School Liaison Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Community Meeting Room at 8:35 A.M. Present: City of Palo Alto Representatives Julie Lythcott-Haims, Chair Pat Burt, Council Member Ed Shikada, City Manager Chantal Cotton-Gaines, Deputy City Manager Palo Alto Unified School District Representatives Todd Collins, Board Member Don Austin, Superintendent Absent: Shounak Dharap, Board Member CALL TO ORDER Chair Lythcott-Haims REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. OPEN FORUM/PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC COMMENT: 1. Rika Yamamoto, Chairperson from Palo Alto CAC for Special Education, appreciated the partnership with the City of Palo Alto Recreational Team, who also partnered with the Magical Bridge Foundation to create a magical service for the young population with developmental disabilities. She wanted to see still more improvement in existing programs as it is important for Palo Alto to be a model for ADA and adopt formal inclusion policies to ensure all community members have equal opportunity to enjoy the benefit of parks and recreational programs. B. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION: Board Member Collins moved, seconded by Council Member Burt, to approve minutes from the November 16, 2023, meeting. City/School Liaison Committee Meeting Summary Minutes Page 2 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 MOTION PASSED: 3-0-1, Dharap absent C. CITY AND DISTRICT REPORTS PAUSD Superintendent Don Austin described adoption of families for the holiday season to try to take care of kids that might otherwise have a very different experience for the holidays. The most recent number for free childcare in the school district was 650 students, up from close to 0 four years ago. He reminded everyone that the holiday season is not fun for everybody and to be mindful that it can be a stressful time for some. Recently, a delegation from the Korean Department of Education visited to learn more about mental health efforts for staff and students. In the same week, about 30 superintendants and assistant superintendants visited to look at early literacy efforts and to learn more about how Palo Alto received results 2 years leading the state. There was an event at the Toyota in Sunnyvale, which is a partner in the innovation section of the PAUSD Promise, with talks from employees about athletics and also a visit from Jake Moody, the placekicker for the 49er's. With these events, three of the five PAUSD Promise priority goals were honored in the same week. City Manager Ed Shikada followed up on last meeting's discussion of Paths from Palo Alto event. Staff is starting the planning, with Kristen O'Kane leading on the City side. With respect to Cubberley, next Monday the Council will hold a closed session on the topic and the plan is to meet with District representatives soon thereafter. The Council's reorganization meeting will be Monday, January 8, selecting a new mayor and vice mayor, and committee assignments are expected later in January. The District will be hosting the City-School meetings next calendar year. The time frame for community input on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan was extended to December 31, with information at www.cityofpaloalto.org/bikepedplan. The Council recently discussed the annual community survey the City. There were a few questions related to education in Palo Alto, which were shared with Superintendant Austin. The first annual test of Palo Alto's emergency alert system will take place at noon today. Council Member Burt followed up on the City Manager's mention of the tool to comment on the Bike Ped Plan. He noted there is the ability to make specific geolocated notations on where there are gaps or problems. There has been an update on Safe Streets, which is a comprehensive approach the City is taking to have all modes have safer travel. Caltrans is proposing dedicated bike lanes throughout the length of the cities on much of the peninsula. Palo Alto has a different circumstance, with parallel routes a short distance from El Camino. Bike boulevards have their own safety and Page 3 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 lack of traffic signals, so it needs to be examined if it is the better approach for Palo Alto. The Council approved the Rental Registry so that all rental properties in the City will be inventoried, which will allow programs based upon real data in the future. Council gave follow-up direction on evaluating the opportunities for downtown surface parking lots to be used for affordable housing projects. There was a consultant study with two different affordable housing providers giving initial concept proposals. That has been somewhat narrowed to an initial focus on Lot T with the possibility of other lots in the downtowns in the future. Charities Housing has a very large housing project going through the approval system on El Camino and received $13M from the County on Measure A funds. That site is for extremely low and very low income individuals and families, which affects school population. Council Member Burt also noted that as part of the next submittal on the housing element, there was very significant upzoning in the stretch of the east side of El Camino from south of Palo Alto Square for several blocks. There are already proposals going through the process for many hundreds of housing units, which affects school populations. The City received $30M in federal grants for grade separations and needs to accelerate the attempt to narrow the preferred alternatives. Caltrain has been completing a study of where they need to reserve space for four tracks for a passing track section, which needs to be centered around a station. It looks like the area centered around the Cal Ave Station will be the preferred location. All of the grade separation issues affect the Safe Routes to School. There has been greater focus on the prospect of initially having a bike and pedestrian underpass under Caltrain ahead of reconstruction of the vehicular. A bike undercrossing would enable students who live there to go to schools on the east side of the tracks without any safety issues, as opposed to having to cross El Camino. Chair Lythcott-Haims wanted to include the link to the survey mentioned by the City Manager. She noted it was exciting to think about more housing in the north end at Lot T because Addison, Duveneck, and Walter Hays would be served by any developments that come forth. The City recently met to discuss whether to expand the Safe Parking Program as figuring out where RV dwellers and people who live in their cars will go is a concern. Staff was directed to consider an expansion of the MOVE Mountain View facility on Geng Road, which currently supports 12 dwellers and could conceivably expand to double that. Board Member Collins stated the School Board already has appointed new leadership; the president is Trustee Ladomirak and vice president is Trustee Segal, who will be in those positions for the next year. New committee assignments will happen at the first board meeting in January. A Cubberley Page 4 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 Committee was appointed, but he was unsure if the members would stay the same in January. He discussed the Palo Alto Promise, a high-level strategic plan. In the last five years, the number of goals and initiatives has been narrowed to no more than five, which rarely change. He explained they have found when you try to do a lot of things, you do most of them badly and do not make the kind of progress that you would hope or expect. The opposite approach was taken in order to focus on a narrow number of things: early literacy, equity and excellence, mental health and wellness, innovation, and serving and celebrating others. There will be an annual report, which the District will distribute to the City when available. Board Member Collins noted there was an enrollment update in mid November, showing enrollment was roughly flat. However, 100 students were added in transitional kindergarten, meaning enrollment went down by 100 in the rest of the population. He noted that first-grade enrollment is an accurate predictor of the twelfth-grade population, and the first-grade population has continued its 10-year downward trend at about 2% to 3% a year. The number one thing that changes the enrollment trajectory is new housing, particularly new housing that accommodates families. He clarified that it is not necessary to set housing policy in order to accommodate school location or enrollment and that it works the other way around. Whatever housing is built, the District is delighted to figure out how to school them. It is useful to have a clear heads up about where new housing is anticipated so the District can start thinking about where schools are aligned. One hallmark of Palo Alto schools is that when people build new neighborhoods, the School District tries to build new neighborhood schools. There has been a long relationship with Foothill College for the Middle College Program that has been capacity constrained as the population has grown. For this reason, the District will be expanding the program and adding a second program, College Now. Superintendant Austin explained that College Now is for kids who want to jump into college and separate from the high school experience. Both programs are through Foothill, which has provided an entire building with six classes and office space. There should be conversations about bus routes that can get there without transfers. Board Member Collins felt that conversation would be a good item for next year's agenda. The District has had the Middle College program for 25 years, but now as part of the innovation item under the Promise, PAUSD has invested resources and driven a new larger relationship to offer meaningfully differentiated opportunities for high school students. While branching away from the traditional kids at campuses, partnering with the City and County Page 5 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 will also serve the students well. He also thanked the City Manager and Staff for the work at Escondido. Council Member Burt was also interested in collaborating to work with VTA to strengthen the bus system in that corridor. Massive housing is planned to be built in that corridor, and Caltrain has announced its new service plan, which has fewer trains during peak hour at the main stations like University and an additional train at peak hour at lesser stations like Cal Ave and San Antonio and others. He questioned the reason for the increased enrollment in the TK program. Board Member Collins did not have the data on that but perceived that it was a new program that had been heavily promoted by the State and that most places around the state are seeing uptake in the program. Superintendant Austin added that expansion of the eligibility ages contributed. Council Member Burt noted that Caltrans and the Department of Finance have both projected, primarily as a result of declining birth rate, 0 or declining population out to 2060 instead of the previous 25% projected population growth. That could change in coming decades but is assuming housing growth. The studies also look at the shift in demographics and what proportion is younger versus older, and with an aging population, it is even worse for the school population. D. REPORT OUT FROM THE SUBCOMMITTEE RELATED TO THE COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN THE CITY AND PAUSD Council Member Burt detailed that this was a follow-up on the presentation on collaboration models. Beverly Hills has a master agreement between the City and School District, which was not felt to be the right fit here, but there is a need for a more systematic and strategic understanding of the overlaps that exist in the community. There was an effort to lay out a full matrix of all those different programs in different categories, the areas already deliberately collaborating, the areas with separate initiatives that may have commonalities and synergies, and identified gaps. He felt it was interesting to put all of these items together and see how many there were. He touched on some of the items in the various categories. He felt there was a question of whether the representatives for this body should recommend to their respective boards to adopt the concept of an ongoing and dynamic set of common initiatives and framework to work together more effectively, looking at things more strategically rather than piecemeal. Page 6 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 Board Member Collins gave an example of early childhood childcare and education as an area that could be integrated more effectively or intentionally than it has been in Palo Alto. He agreed that having a framework to actively revisit these things on a more regular basis would identify opportunities for better collaboration. He noted there is outstanding collaboration today that is largely invisible to the community and wanted to bring that more in the light and get elected officials more involved. He believed that both organizations and the constituents would be better served with some type of partnership. Chair Lythcott-Haims commented on the item of diversity, equity, and inclusion. She noted that the City and School District are separate governmental entities largely representing the same community and there is an opportunity to come together to inform one another on the communication side and have conversations around speaking with a shared voice or speaking informed by the voice of the other entity. The community would benefit from those conversations even if they do not result in common language. She agreed the mechanism had not yet been hammered out and wondered what the framework was. If the Committee were to recommend adoption of the framework to the respective bodies, there is currently gap in how to articulate what the framework is and how it differs from present practices. Council Member Burt was receptive to thoughts on how to better frame it. He stated there are aspects of the programs that are not captured on the list. He described the importance of pre-K to ensure that students enter K through 12 with comparable foundations and ways the City can complement that and ensure all students have access to the same initiatives and programs. The gaps become more apparent upon digging into these categories. Board Member Collins stated the Staff often has experience at other districts and other cities and was interested to ask Staff it they have ideas about how to structure this kind of collaboration. Superintendent Austin commented on the earlier conversation about narrowing of focus. He suggested that, rather than reviewing the entire list as a whole, identifying a focus area and going really deep on that between the City and School District might have a better chance of success. He added that he had initial confusion on what this was trying to accomplish and whether it was something to be carried by the elected officials or turned over to Staff. Page 7 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 Council Member Burt added that he welcomed Staff looking at what should already be on the list that was not captured. He stated that not all of these areas need to be partnerships except to recognize that there is not a gap in the community because the District is doing one thing and the City another. City Manager Shikada added that in starting with an awareness of the activities, one step could be to identify by what criteria things would be on the list because it could be an endless and somewhat debatable list. He suggested the Committee identify the criteria and Staff would then identify the list itself to serve the purpose of awareness. He questioned whether the outcome justified the effort as there are already robust interrelationships as well as parallel activities in many areas. Chair Lythcott-Haims underscored the question of whether the outcome was worth the effort. She stated she was struck, as a newcomer in the conversation, that there were a number of documents on these topics, synergies, overlaps, etc., already created and this was the latest iteration. She felt the structure that ought to eventuate from this effort was a sortable spreadsheet with columns for gaps/overlaps and how pressing the issue is in the community. City Manger Shikada felt Staff could take a fairly broad shot at that and return for the Committee's reaction. Council Member Burt gave the example of addressing the teen suicide crisis and related youth mental health issues, which went through a couple stages. Initially, with Project Safety Net, it was predominantly a City-led initiative, but the District now has developed different programs, which the City has been less aware of. There was no discussion about the respective roles and plans in these areas. It might not have changed the programs but would have changed the understanding of both bodies and of the broader community of what was being accomplished. Not looking at it systematically leads to the continued ad hoc structure, and the lack of an institutional record to build off of diminishes the opportunities and strength of these efforts. Board Member Collins reiterated Dr. Austin's suggestion to pilot something and see if it was possible to execute on it. He felt that made a lot of sense and gave something concrete to model behavior on. He also mentioned Council Member Burt's suggestion of going through the framework and identifying things and developing institutional records. He felt if the Committee was interested, they could start either of those things, taking on a single issue or going through the whole framework, in these meetings. He noted everyone is hesitant to create more work for themselves and hesitant Page 8 of 8 City School Liaison Committee Special Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/14/2023 about how it will go but that this Committee is probably more convinced than anyone else about this idea and could try doing it to see if there is anything to promote to others. Council Member Burt stated some of these categories have update meetings once a year, such as Safe Routes to School. These major categories could be topic areas throughout the year for this meeting, for example a meeting around sustainability programs to share information. There would be a lot of collaboration and communication opportunities. Those meetings would not start off with known actions; they would be for sharing programs. Then natural synergies often emerge. E. FUTURE BUSINESS Chair Lythcott-Haims stated it was conceivable there would be different members on the Committee in January and noted that she would put forth a request to remain on this board in order for this conversation to continue. She requested to put this topic of hammering out the framework as a result of this conversation on the next meeting's agenda. Council Member Burt added that the framework should be used for consideration of agenda items for the year. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 10:05 A.M.