1 AUSD / Alameda City Council
Subcommittee Meeting
Draft Minutes
10/19/22
4:00 pm
Zoom (recorded)
Call to Order/General Introduction
• Chair of the meeting Heather Little, AUSD Board of Education, Vice President • Jennifer Williams, AUSD Board of Education, President • John Knox White, City Councilmember
• Tony Daysog, City Councilmember
Present:
• Heather Little, Vice President Board of Education (AUSD) • Jennifer Williams, President, Board of Education (AUSD) • Pasquale Scuderi, Superintendent (AUSD)
• Shariq Khan, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services (AUSD) • Kirsten Zazo, Assistant Superintendent, Education Services (AUSD) • Susan Davis, Senior Manager of Community Affairs (AUSD) • John Knox White, Councilmember, (City)
• Tony Daysog, Councilmember (City)
• Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director (City)
• Nishant Joshi, Police Chief (City)
• Lisa Foster, Senior Transportation Coordinator, (City)
Minutes
A. Motion to approve minutes of August 17, 2022 Meeting:
John Knox White moves / Tony Daysog seconds
Vote:
Jennifer Williams: Abstain
Heather Little: Yes
John Knox White: Yes
Tony Daysog: Yes
Approval of Minutes passes 3-1-0
Oral Communication Non-Agenda (Public Comment)
Public comment from Vicki Sedlak lauding the City of Alameda for their Smart City Plan – which targets Digital Divide, Equitable Internet and that they are hosting a Bouncing for Broadband this coming Saturday at City Hall West.
She also wanted to recognize ARPD Sports Program at Alameda Point Gym – this fall recreational sports have gone way smoother than years prior. 2 City/Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Issues
4-A Swim Center Update
a. Emma Hood Swim Center Rebuild
Shariq Khan, AUSD Assistant Superintendent, Business Services gave the Subcommittee an update regarding the soil analysis at the school site. They will be meeting with a structural engineer to determine if the current building on the site can be modernized or if it needs to be demolished. In two to three weeks, they will be meeting with an architect. He confirmed they are still hopeful to be targeting January 2024 as potential ground breaking.
b. City Aquatic Center
Amy Wooldridge, Alameda Park and Recreation Division Director provided an update on the City Aquatic Center. At the October 18, 2022 City Council meeting, Council approved that the Aquatic Center be built on the Western side of Jean Sweeney Park. They approved 50% financing from the Unassigned General Fund Reserve. The balance will be financed.
Staff has been assigned additional work on financing options.
Jennifer Williams claimed she was very excited about the pool and offered her thanks and appreciation to John Knox White and Tony Daysog for their work on finding a centralized location for the pool and getting it to this stage of the planning process.
4-B: Update on School Safety Protocols
Superintendent Scuderi gave a brief update on the recent safety drill. He was very impressed with the timing and reaction to the active shooter threat scenario.
Chief Joshi observed the response plan. He said that Jennifer Williams and Superintendent Scuderi should be commended with the plan and preparedness of the drill.
Following the drill, staff came back together to assess how the drill went and what they could do to improve it in the future.
Assistant Superintendent Kristen Zazo reported that this drill was the 1 st piece for the first
part of the year and that the 2nd piece will be a table top drill where information will be thrown at the participants to test what their reaction will be. They are hoping that AFD and APD, community members and partners will be able to collaborate and participate.
Superintendent Scuderi reported that school safety and mental health are something that the school takes very seriously.
John Know White thanks the AUSD staff and the City for putting on a well-designed drill that would help create some muscle memories for the students without traumatizing them.
3 Jennifer Williams mentioned that they could not have done this with out the Police Department and provided accolades to Kristen Zazo for an outstanding job.
Heather Little was appreciative how thoughtful the District office was in providing insight to the drill and also wanted to extend her thanks to Police Chief Joshi.
4-C Draft Active Transportation Plan
Andrew Thomas, Planning Building and Transportation Plan Director for the City of Alameda provided a brief update on the Draft Active Transportation Plan. The focus of the plan is on bicycling, walking, scooters, skates, etc. The plan is out for community review and comment until October 23
rd.
They hope the Plan will help the City see what Transportation will look like over the next 8 years, specifically Chapter 8 – 2030 Structure Plan lists specific projects, addressing climate friendly modes of transportation. Safety is a huge component of the plan.
Lisa Foster Se nior Transportation Coordinator for the City of Alameda talked about how they are getting the word out about the plan. The department has attended 46 public events in the last three years. She thanked Susan Davis , AUSD's Senior Manager of Community Affairs, for getting the word out via newsletter and newspaper.
Heather Little was thrilled with the Transportation Plan. While participating in the International Bike and Walk to School event for the 8
th grade – she’d see students getting
dropped off via car , and she would ask them why they didn’t use a different mode of transportation and often heard the response that their parents felt it wasn’t safe.
Jennifer Williams said she was grateful to the City and the City Council for the Plan, and thanked Susan Davis for getting the word out.
4-D Update on City’s Safe Streets Projects
Lisa Foster reviewed the attached presentation.
Andrew Thomas gave a brief update on Grand Street. The final plan goes back to City Council in November.
John Knox White thanked Andrew Thomas and Lisa Foster for the Transportation Plan and the Safe Streets Program report.
4-E Discussion of incentivizing Accessory Dwelling Units for School District Employees
Jennifer Williams opened the conversation with asking the committee about what they could possibly do to help get ADU’s built to house AUSD teachers. Whether the City could offer some type of tax break or create a program where landlords rent to teachers at a reduced market rate.
Andrew Thomas responded that the permitt ing process has improved dramatically for 4 ADU’s. He said in 2017 they were doing about 20 per year. Last year they processed 78 permits but it is tailoring off for this year.
He feels that the home owners get their permits and then they realize how expensive it is to actually build an ADU and it doesn’t get built because they can’t afford it.
The PBT Department are also looking at different ways to help get ADU’s built. One idea was to partner with an organization called Tiny Homes, where the permit process could be pre-approved at a fraction of the cost. The department was also looking into how people can get financing for these ADU’s. It’s a money issue, not a permit issue.
There was discussion about the loan part coming from State or Federal level.
Mr. Scuderi said that he received a report from UCLA and Berkeley that talked about Workforce Housing Ideas. He said he could send the report to anyone interested.
Tony Daysog thanked Jennifer Williams for bringing this item to the table.
5. New Business
Tony Daysog pointed out that this was John Knox White’s last meeting on the committee.
He wanted to thank him for his pool partnership. He said that he does a great job, has good energy and is very thoughtful.
Many other committee members offered their thanks and appreciation to John Knox White also.
6. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned by Heather Little at 4:50 pm (Zoom meeting was recorded to the cloud)
Respectively Submitted,
Jodi Owens
Executive Assistant
City of Alameda