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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/26/2015 Team SpringfieldTEA MINUTES JOINT ELECTED OFFICIALS' MEETING Monday, January 26, 2015 6:00 – 8:00 pm Springfield Public Schools Board Room 525 Mill Street Springfield, Oregon 97477 The TEAM Springfield Joint Elected Officials' meeting hosted by the Springfield Public Schools was held on Monday, January 26, 2015, in the Board Room of the District Office, 525 Mill Street, Springfield, Oregon. ATTENDANCE: City of Springfield: Mayor Christine Lundberg; Councilors Sheri Moore, Joe Pishioneri, Dave Ralston, Sean VanGordon, and Marilee Woodrow. Absent was Hillary Wylie. City Manager Gino Grimaldi, and Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery. Springfield Public Schools: Board Members Nancy Bigley, Laurie Adams, Sandra Boyst, Al King, and Jonathan Light. Superintendent Hertica Martin and Assistant Superintendent Sue Rieke -Smith. Absent—none. Staff Members: Devon Ashbridge, Karen Lewis, and Tom Lindly, Springfield Utility Board: Board Members Ken Boyst, Tom Draggoo, Pat Riggs -Henson, and David Willis. Absent was Virginia Lauritsen. General Manager Jeff Nelson. Willamalane Park and Recreation District: Board Members Denise Bean, Lee Beyer, Greg James, and Gary Ross. Absent was Ann Ballew. Superintendent Bob Keefer, and Deputy Superintendent Seve Ghose. Prior to the meeting, from 5:30 – 6:00 pm, the JEOs participated in a dinner and social. CALL TO ORDER / WELCOME / INTRODUCTIONS Springfield Public Schools Board Chair Nancy Bigley called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm and welcomed everyone to TEAM Springfield's Joint Elected Officials' Meeting. Those present introduced themselves, said how long they had lived in Springfield and how long they had served on their City Council and Boards. A Partnership Between the City of Springfield, Springfield Public Schools, Willamalane, and Springfield Utility Board TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 2 1. UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGING SPRINGFIELD AND AGENCY HIGHLIGHTS Ms. Bigley provided a framework for the meeting. She explained this was an opportunity for each agency to offer information about what was happening at the agencies in the context of Understanding Changing Springfield. A. Springfield Public Schools: Demographic Data and Bond Update Board Chair Bigley directed those present to a document, entitled Springfield Schools— Who Are We? She said as the Springfield community grew and changed, the schools did as well. Springfield Public Schools (SPS) continued to become more diverse related to student ethnicity and race, native language, religious affiliations and cultural backgrounds. SPS students and parents in the district speak fifteen languages. In 2004-2005, 87.7 percent of SPS students were white, and in 2014-2015, 67.9 percent of SPS students were white. She reviewed the information on the handout. The number of Hispanic and multi-ethnic students had doubled in ten years and many of the 6.1 percent of the English language learners were from Spanish speaking households. She said SPS must be ready to grow and change with its students to be able to support them as they learned in order to reach the SPS's vision of Every Student a Graduate Prepared for a Bright and Successful Future. Staff did not reflect the student population, with only 4.8 percent of the staff a race or ethnicity other than white. SPS served students with varying levels of ability, with 14 percent of whom had been identified with a learning disability and 4.4 percent of whom had been identified as talented and gifted. Over one million meals were served to students last year, due in part to 66 percent of students qualifying for free and reduced price meals. Students were bussed over 1,024,421 miles last year to 18 schools and 563 classrooms. In June 2014, 641 students, including two National Merit Scholarship Winners and four National Merit Commended Scholars, graduated from SPS high schools. 2014 graduates received more than $8 million in scholarships. The graduation rates were trending in the right direction over the last 5 years with the four year completer rate at 69 percent for 2013. Additionally, drop out rates were below the State average for overall (3.67 percent) and (3.59 percent) for underserved students. It was the Board's responsibility to launch the students with everything they needed to be successful and keep the community strong. She noted in the recent past, over 200 students were referred out of SPS for special needs, but now there were only 44 special needs students referred out of the District. This was due to the opportunities provided in the District, including Gateways High School and the SPS charter schools, to serve SPS students. Superintendent Martin directed those present to a document entitled Equity and Diversity Efforts. The Teacher Pathways Program was designed to identify and recruit community members and/or staff with diverse cultural, ethnic and/or racial backgrounds in the teaching profession in collaboration with the Teach Oregon and Teaching with a Purpose Institute --Oregon Leadership Network. Ms. Rieke -Smith stated the Teachers Pathway program was meant to support and train community members and staff who indicated an interest in teaching and represented the student body diversity. The program was part of Teach Oregon grant through Chalkboard Oregon. Nine SPS staff members were provided tuition support and licensure guidance through completion of either a bachelors or masters degree in a "Pay It forward -Pay It Back" model. Two African-American candidates had completed the program and were TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 3 teaching at Guy Lee Elementary School (GLES) and Thurston Middle School (TMS). Additionally, three bilingual Hispanic candidates would graduate in December 2015. Ms. Rieke -Smith said the Oregon Leadership Network was a consortium of over 20 school districts across the State that were committed to looking at equity issues within the schools. The Teaching With a Purpose Institute was a pull out institute that built capacity in district and community staff to develop and implement policies that ensured equal access to quality instruction and equity of academic outcome for all students, regardless of race, culture or gender identity. Oregon Senate Bill (SB) 103 addressed equity in instruction and outcome; SB 735 addressed hiring diversity; and, SB 739 addressed instructional materials, how to consider all students and how well materials facilitated teachers reaching all students. The SPS staff team was working to ensure District policies complied with State legislation. Ms. Rieke -Smith stated the Dual Immersion and Indian Education Pedagogy grants would help the District comply with SB 103, SB 735 and SB 739. In response to Mr. Ralston, Ms. Rieke -Smith said the SPS dual immersion program was not specific to Spanish and the model used would work regardless of the students' first language. Students' proficiency in a second language was accelerated by connecting it to the students' first language. Her experience at the Salem-Keizer School District demonstrated that by placing children into bi-literacy models, learning in both their first language and English, students moved to English proficiency more quickly than in an English only model. She added that the bi-lingual students tended to outperform single language children on State assessments and other assessment across the District because it built neural networks in the children's brains that helped them be more facile in their learning and understanding of the world. Ms. Bigley noted the District successfully passed a bond measure in November 2014 thanks to everyone in the room. Mr. Lindly said the bond would impact every student in SPS. He reviewed several projects that would be undertaken with the new funding. The middle school educational specification process would apply to Hamlin Middle School (HMS) as well as the other middle schools in the District. The review process included reviewing the needs of the schools and forwarding those needs to the architect who would design facilities that met the District's instructional needs. The review committee, consisting of approximately 30 people, had participated in several activities, including: middle schooler for a day; a tour of three PortlandNancouver schools by several committee members to get ideas for creating a STEAM school at HMS; and review of new school designs to give the committee ideas for SPS school design. The committee had hosted five community engagement opportunities. A one day sustainability and systems workshop and a three day programming workshop would be held to identify what the buildings needed and where various functions should be located. The Request for Proposals (RFP) for the architect for HMS would be released on February 10, 2015, and a contract would be awarded around April 20, 2015. Groundbreaking would occur in May 2015 and occupancy would occur in August 2017 in anticipation of opening the school for the 2017-2018 school year. Several architects were working on the design phase for all of the classroom additions, with occupancy scheduled TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 4 for December 2015. He commended John Saraceno for his efforts on the construction projects. Staff was working on minor capital improvement projects, which would take place over three years, such as: the Thurston High School (THS) stadium and cover; THS gymnasium siding; Page Elementary School parking lot remodel; Americans with Disability Act (ADA) projects including asphalt repair; and, replacement of all classroom door locks. Technology improvements was a six year project that would provide wireless in every building, and update and add new testing and lab computers. In response to Ms. Woodrow, Mr. Lindly said the ALICE Training (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) was not part of the bond and would be paid for with General Fund dollars. Ms. Lundberg said she had received an email from a voter who said the voters were not often thanked for what they did. She had seen the sign at HMS that said "Thank you School Board", which the Board deserved. She thought a thank you to the voters would be appreciated. Superintendent Martin stated thank you postcards to all Springfield voters were at the Post Office. Ms. Bigley added all school reader boards had carried a thank you message after the election. Mr. Lindly said posters would be displayed at all schools so parents could see what projects where planned for individual buildings and when they would be done. Ms. Adams opined the "Thank You School Board" signs were part of January being national School Board Recognition Month. B. City of Springfield: Glenwood, Conference Center, and Other Updates Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery offered a PowerPoint presentation entitled Glenwood Riverfront Opportunities. He reviewed the proposals under consideration by the City for road and infrastructure improvements, housing, parks and a possible hotel/conference center development for the area. In response to Mr. King, Mr. Towery said staff had talked with developers who had been interested with student housing in Glenwood. The housing identified in the plan was workforce housing because one identified project was a Housing and Community Services Agency (HACSA) development. Developers who initially showed interested in student housing determined the market was saturated and they were not willing to make the investment. Two roundabouts which provided access to McVay Highway functioned as full intersections, providing transit access, through access east and west, southerly access to the McVay Highway and northerly access into the riverfront property and into the two bridges. Responding to Ms. Adams, Mr. Towery defined workforce housing as low and moderate income housing, similar to the Royal Building or a St. Vincent de Paul development. Because they knew there was an expectation of commercial development, they wanted to TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 5 create an opportunity for people who worked in the commercial developments to live in the neighborhood. In response to Mr. James, Mr. Towery said the need for two park blocks had been identified by City and Willamalane Park and Recreation District (WPRD) staff. Access along the river would be additional open space. There was an expectation that the park along the river would serve a dual purpose and help treat stormwater from the water that would run off the increased hard surface areas in Glenwood. There had been no negative feedback from developers that the area dedicated to parks was inaccurate. Mr. Keefer said the role of WPRD was to design parks to fit the neighborhoods. Mr. Towery added the two park blocks shown in the plans were approximately the same size and shape, but surrounded with different zoning, which would be reflected in the design of the parks. Responding to Ms. Adams, Mr. Towery said the proposed Glenwood housing was in the Eugene 4-J School District. In response to Ms. Bean, Mr. Towery said the park design included a pedestrian and bike path to connect the area to downtown Springfield. He opined State and federal resources would be available to leverage funding for a bicycle/pedestrian bridge across the river. Mr. King asserted this was the crown jewel for Springfield and opined the sites would be high end properties for upscale restaurants and retail that would serve as a tourist magnet. The community needed low income housing but it was a mismatch to put low income housing in the middle of Springfield's newest and likely most expensive development. Mr. Towery said the development would consist of a housing mix that reflected the housing mix in the entire community. While there may be some low income housing, the developer was also anticipating multi -story, moderate and high income housing in the area. Mr. Ross said he had worked with Metropolitan Affordable Housing and St. Vincent de Paul on housing in Eugene. The housing that went up looked like and was built like high end housing, but it was rent capped. He said if the development was managed right, it would be a good fit for the neighborhood. The businesses that would be going into that area would be an attraction for a quality workforce and new businesses would know that workers could walk to work. This was the right step and reflected the community which had pockets of relative wealth and pockets of people who were less well-off living next to each other. Mr. Towery said there was a fair amount of low-income housing, primarily mobile home park housing, in Glenwood. Staff expected most of those park residents would be displaced during the next 5 to 20 years, and the City wanted to be responsive to those needs to ensure there was housing in the neighborhood that would allow current Glenwood residents to continue living in the neighborhood. Mr. Towery said he had nothing specific about the proposed conference center. The City continued to work with the developers who were still committed to moving forward with their project. TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 6 C. Springfield Utility Board: Current Trends in Energy and Other Utility Costs Ms. Riggs -Henson directed those present to two documents entitled Pape Property— Vicinity Map and Pape Property—Glenwood. She said SUB had looked for property for years to construct a sub -station, knowing it would eventually need to expand to Glenwood. SUB recently identified 10 acres of Pape property in Glenwood for a substation. SUB was accessing the site and anticipated closing on the property in April 2015. The property was outside of Phase 1 of the Glenwood Refinement Plan. It would be four or five years before construction began at the site. This would allow the SUB Board to be proactive to provide needed service. Ms. Riggs -Henson offered a PowerPoint presentation entitled Seismic Analysis of Various Structures—Reservoir Evaluation. She said it was important for water to be available to the community in the event of an earthquake. Four of the eight reservoirs did not meet the seismic code: Kelly Butte, built in 1959; South 57th No. 2, built in 1965; South 70th, built in 1970; and South Hills, built in 1982. The repairs would consist of work on the sites to meet seismic codes or rebuilding the reservoirs. The cost of completing repairs or rebuilding the sites ranged from $8,495,000 to $9,060,000. In response to Ms. Adams, Mr. Nelson said SUB was increasing capital spending on the water side, doubling it for the next ten years, and increasing capital spending by 50 percent on the electric side. The total cost for seismic upgrades on the water side was approximately $10 million over ten years. The total cost for water capital improvements was approximately $4 million a year for ten years. This included replacing transmission lines and upgrades to facilities. Mr. Beyer asserted SUB's utility costs were significantly less for both water and electrical service than other area utilities. Mr. King added funding for utilities generally came from the federal government rather than the State of Oregon. In response to Mr. Light, Mr. Nelson said Rainbow Water District and SUB worked collaboratively because they had connected systems and a purchase agreement for water, although they had independent sources. Mr. Nelson said SUB had forecasted rate increases of 9.9 percent for the next four years. Mr. Nelson shared that Ray Madoona, SUB Water and Electric Director, was retiring next year after serving SUB for over 40 years. Mr. Nelson noted there had been an issue at the Dorris Ranch parking lot related to installation of SUB transmission lines over the parking lot. He appreciated the cooperation of the WPRD staff on those projects. Additionally, underground facilities were installed at the entrance to Dorris Ranch to provide higher voltage service for future development at Dorris Ranch. He also appreciated the collaboration of the SPS staff when easements were cut out at TMS for a water transmission line for the planned water treatment facility for the McKenzie River water source. City of Springfield staff had cooperated with SUB on the McVay Highway and sewer facilities. TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 7 D. Willamalane Park and Recreation District: Update on Bond Measure and Programs Superintendent Bob Keefer introduced Vince Martorello, WPRD Planning and Development Manager, to provide the bond update. Mr. Martorello offered a PowerPoint presentation entitled Bond Project Update. He reviewed the following projects: Mill Race Path; Quartz Park; Gamebird Community Garden; Pacific Park; Willamalane Center Sports Fields; Splash! at Lively Park Energy Upgrades; Thurston Hills Natural Area; and upcoming projects. Mr. Keefer said each of the TEAM Springfield agencies had their own goals, and the agencies experienced ups and downs. However, when TEAM Springfield agencies worked together, they got things done for the community, which did not happen everywhere. He distributed a fact sheet about WPRD, which provided Fast Facts about the District and information about WPRD facilities, programs and special events. He reviewed the District's Key Programs, 2014, and explained how kids could participate in those programs at free or reduced rates, and included reduced Lane Transit District bus passes. Key Programs also provided programs for seniors. Ms. Boyst thanked Mr. Keefer for partnering with SPS and supporting after school sports activities for kids. Mr. Keefer said approximately 1,100 kids participated annually in the after school sports activities. 3. ELECTED OFFICIALS COMMENTS Chair Bigley called for comments from the elected officials. Ms. Adams thought it was cool that there were people in every area who were interested, committed and anxious to do the right thing for Springfield, to serve the community and the constituents. She knew she could count on knowing that the people sitting across from her were working hard and doing the right thing for the people of Springfield. Mr. Beyer was always amazed that TEAM Springfield worked together, which you did not see in many other communities. It was often forgotten that whether people were school tax payers, or city tax payers or rate payers, they were the same people and those costs were coming out of their checkbooks. The staff of the agencies had figured out that by working together, they were giving the citizens good value for their tax and rate dollars. Mr. Draggoo said it was important for TEAM Springfield to understand how SUB financed their operations. If TEAM Springfield did not understand that, the public would not understand that. People expected the lights to come on when they flipped the light switch and water to come out when they turned the faucet. People wanted their utilities to work. Redundancy on the electrical side and water seismic issues were important to SUB. The SUB Board had always chosen to finance projects as they moved forward rather than with bond financing. The Board had looked at bond financing and Bob Fondren, SUB chief financial officer, had studied the issue. Every year, people asked why SUB did not borrow money, and why their rates were being increased. Mr. Draggoo said borrowed money had to be paid for, and did not make sense to borrow cheap money at 3.5 percent if it would not be spent for ten years and invested at .5 percent. The Board would TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 8 consider borrowing money on a long term basis for a significant capital outlay. When rates were raised, people needed to understand that the increases were not used to pay higher salaries or pay higher rates to the Bonneville Power Administration, but to cover needed capital improvements. The Board had the option of borrowing money for capital improvements and pass the costs onto ratepayers, or pay for capital improvements on a pay as you go basis, and not have the interest costs. SUB had no outside debt. SPS was very, very cool, and there was not a better park district in the world than WPRD. He was happy to have been part of the SUB Board and serving on it had been a great opportunity. He planned to retire shortly and would not be able to maintain a regular meeting schedule. He did not understand why every community in the country did not have a collaborative group like TEAM Springfield. Ms. Riggs -Henson said having the City of Springfield involved with TEAM Springfield and having such a partnership provided resources for working on issues that impacted most or all of the TEAM Springfield agencies. Ms. Bean was impressed with the turnout at tonight's meeting. Her first TEAM Springfield meeting set the tone for her in when she arrived in the community and enabled her to feel comfortable when approaching agency representatives. Ms. Adams said she recently attended meeting of the TEAM Springfield CEO/CAO representatives. She had raised a concern and was wondering why that concern had not been addressed. She questioned what the agencies were doing to promote diversity and equity in the community, and what the agencies were doing to help all community members feel safe and welcomed in the community. There were people in the community who were trying to stir things up, and put flyers on cars at the schools in October and November. She felt TEAM Springfield needed to address diversity and lead the conversation for the community. Mr. Ross said this issue needed a big discussion and was not a discussion for a one or two hour meeting. It required thoughtful planning to ensure it was done properly and carefully and with respect for the various communities. He was not the person to make those decisions because he was not a person of color, who had been subjected to some of the things going on in the community. He had no frame of reference from which to work. He opined it was probably a TEAM Springfield issue, but it was not a TEAM Springfield issue that would be solved in a two hour meeting. Discussions needed to occur at the management levels of the various TEAM Springfield organizations, and between TEAM Springfield's CEOs/CAOs. Outside assistance was also needed. Ms. Riggs -Henson asked if there had been TEAM Springfield committees that could work on the issue and bring something back to the full TEAM. Ms. Bigley said it would be detrimental to have the conversation and then have the issue dropped. She agreed that the issue should go back to the CEOs/CAOs for discussion and moving the discussion forward. Mr. King said something had to happen at the CEO/CAO level and the issue had to be processed at the individual board levels. Mr. Beyer said some thought was needed on the desired outcome. Each agency tonight provided information on their individual efforts to support diversity. He did not want people to leave tonight TEAM Springfield Minutes January 26, 2015 Page 9 with the feeling that nothing was being done. It was difficult to address the stupidity that was displayed and it was difficult to take away someone's civil rights to say what they want to say. The City attempted to address the issue in the late 1980's when he was a member of the Springfield City Council. It had been a very negative experience for the entire community and had turned into a disaster. He would not want to go there again without some well thought out plans. It took the City and the community over a decade to get beyond the damage done through that process. Ms. Bigley said other communities had tackled this topic. She thought research on what those communities had done was needed. The community needed to identify the purpose for the discussions. She iterated her support of Mr. King's suggestion for the individual boards and CEOs/CAOs to process the issue and identify desired outcomes. She did not want the issue to be dropped but she did not know what the outcome should be. She suggested TEAM Springfield could agree it wanted unity and for Springfield to be a safe place. Ms. Adams suggested the issue be brought back to TEAM Springfield at its next meeting. Mr. Ross said the summer meeting had evolved into more of a social function rather than a business meeting. Staff and elected officials needed to decide what they wanted the summer meeting to look like. Mr. Light supported having the issue addressed at the individual CEO/CAO process and working at the individual board levels. Mr. Beyer was encouraged by the discussion. The elected officials and CEOs/CAOs needed to decide what outcomes they wanted. He noted at the youth level in SPS, diversity was happening. The group perhaps needed to promote understanding and appreciating other cultures. It may be important to have services to respond to the changing demographics. It would be difficult to change a community -wide attitude and difficult to adequately address. Ms. Riggs -Henson recalled TEAM Springfield conversations about bringing ethnic leadership into different elected or appointed leadership positions in the city. Mr. King said it was more realistic to look at a meaningful process that would take a couple of years. He wanted the TEAM Springfield members to exercise their policy brains and provide support for each other to be successful. Several years ago, the City of Springfield, led by Bob Keefer, went through a process to identify ways to improve diversity. He suggested staff who had worked on this process may be able to provide feedback from those sessions to see what came out of those sessions and what could be done to further the process. Chair Bigley iterated her desire for the CEOs/CAOs and individual board to continue the conversation. 4. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Bigley said the next TEAM Springfield meeting would take place in July 2015. The meeting was adjourned at 8:02 pm. Recorded by Linda Henry and Reviewed by Karen Lewis/Springfield Public Schools Christine L. Lundberg Mayor Attest: / Amy Sow City Recorder