AUSD/City Council Subcommittee Meeting
Draft Minutes
9/28/23
Start - 2:02 pm
Via - Zoom (recorded)
1 Call to Order/General Introduction
Heather Little, AUSD Board of Education, President
Jennifer Williams, AUSD Board of Education, Trustee and Chair of the Meeting Tracy Jensen, Council Member
Tony Daysog, Council Member
Present:
• Heather Little, President, Board of Education (AUSD)
• Jennifer Williams, Trustee, Board of Education (AUSD) • Tracy Jensen, Council Member, (City)
• Tony Daysog, Council Member, (City)
• Jennifer Ott, City Manager (City)
• Nishant Joshi, Chief, Alameda Police Department (City) • Amy Wooldridge, Assistant City Manager, (City)
• Lisa Foster, Senior Transportation Coordinator (City) • Officer McMullen, Alameda Police Department (City)
• Pasquale Scuderi, Superintendent (AUSD)
• Kirsten Zazo, Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services (AUSD) • Shariq Khan, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services (AUSD) • Susan Davis, Senior Manager of Community Affairs (AUSD) • Jodi McCarthy, Coordinator of Student Services (AUSD) • Kerri Lonergan, Senior Executive Assistant (AUSD)
• Talia Kotovsky, Student Board Member (Alameda High School) • Lianna Lau, Student Board Member (ASTI)
2 Minutes – Minutes of the May 16, 2023 City/School Subcommittee meeting were considered for approval.
Motion to approve minutes of May 16, 2023 Meeting with a correction to City Council Member Tracy Jensen’s name.
Heather Little moves/Tony Daysog seconds
Vote: Jennifer Williams: Yes
Heather Little: Yes
Tracy Jensen: Yes
Tony Daysog: Yes
Approval of Minutes passes 4-0
3 Oral Communication Non-Agenda (Public Comment)
There were no public comments under this agenda item.
4 City/Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Issues
4-A: Update on Day and Serving McKinney Vento Students (City/AUSD)
Jodi McCarthy from AUSD presented; we have 62 students who are enrolled who are getting homeless services. Six (6) families are getting housing from City. Twelve (12) families are in hotels, three (3) families are in shelters, Six (6) families in RVs or cars.
One (1) family is at Village of Love, thirty-five (35) families are doubled up or staying with friends or family.
We are seeing more students now who have been evicted due to the moratorium on evictions being over.
Subcommittee members remarked that the Alameda County Office of Education Superintendent said the way the City of Alameda and Alameda Unified School District work together is not the norm in other areas. She further stated residents of Alameda benefit from the collaboration between the two agencies.
A City Council member asked if a family is evicted from their residence does AUSD get a notice letting them know?
Ms. McCarthy stated AUSD does not get an official notice, but we have a strong working relationship with Operation Dignity, and they let us know, along with school site personnel, who are trained on what to look for – coming late, etc., and they let me know to engage parent/guardian to offer help and resources.
4-B: Renewal of Alameda Unified School District Parcel Tax Measure (AUSD):
Superintendent Scuderi let Subcommittee members know he and Parcel Tax Campaign Lead, Gretchen Hoff Varner, have presented to half of all AUSD school sites on what the parcel tax funds and what would have to be looked at for reductions if the parcel tax campaign failed.
Superintendent S cuderi explained to Subcommittee members what it means to be a Basic Aid District – districts who can fund the minimum funding for their students through
local property taxes that are greater than the minimum guaranteed on a per-student basis through the LCFF calculation. These are school districts who are very wealthy.
Superintendent Scuderi also explained to the Subcommittee what Concentration Districts are. Concentration districts are districts where 50 percent (50%) of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, are homeless /foster youth, or are English Language Learners. These students are also classified as “unduplicated” students. There is significant supplemental funding that flows into these districts. Districts our size like San Leandro and San Lorenzo who get millions more from the state than we get.
Superintendent Scuderi explained if AUSD does not renew the parcel tax measures, we would have a combined loss of approximately $24 million a year. He stated that AUSD is dependent on our community to fund our schools due to the fact that we are not funded like districts who have more students who qualify for unduplicated services.
Superintendent Scuderi explained that this is compounded by the fact that we are having a very hard time finding staff – teachers, school nurses, principals, and this is not helped by the fact that we are not able to pay our staff at the same rate as our neighboring school districts.
Subcommittee members discussed how real the possibility is of the District losing approximately $24 million a year. Board of Educatio n President Heather Little stated it would be a “doomsday” situation for AUSD if the parcel tax renewal does not pass. AUSD would have to consider school closures, salary roll backs, cutting Advanced Placement classes and athletic programming. Board President Little stated AUSD needs everyone in the City to partner with us.
City Council Member Tracy Jensen told the Subcommittee that the parcel tax requires a 2/3 vote to pass.
Board Member Jennifer Will iams reminded the group that the recent bond measure AUSD passed only required a 50% passage rate, and it only passed by 150 votes.
Board President Little shared that at a recent Board of Education meeting, the Board made a decision to designate Board Member Jennifer Williams as AUSD’s Parcel Tax Liaison due to her vast experience working on several of the most recent parcel tax campaigns.
Board President Little informed the Subcommittee that ballot language for the Parcel Tax measure was being formulated , and that the language would be shared widely once available.
4-C: Wood Middle School Project Update (AUSD):
Shariq Khan, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, gave the Subcommittee an update on where we are with the Wood Middle School project. Mr. Khan explained that the last time we presented this, we had feedback from the City and Bike Walk Alameda, so we added a public bicycle stand at the request of Bike Walk Alameda.
Mr. Khan talked about different elements of the design and how the plans have been updated due to the feedback received from community partners.
Superintendent Scuderi remarked that if you’ve been to the campus, you can see that it is a very bad campus for school safety, so we are looking forward to these changes to keep our students safe.
Superintendent Scuderi explained the newly remodeled school will have two layers of fencing. During school hours all the gates will be closed, while after hours and weekends, the outer fences will be opened so the public can access City property and AUSD property is secured.
A City Counc il member asked how AUSD inte nded to address the bike path on Otis during school hours? Mr. Khan stated that some curb cuts will be necessary to make this plan work. There is some concern about student safety in that area when parents are dropping off and picking up students.
Amy Wooldridge, Assistant City Manager, stated t here is a lot of good work happening with AUSD and City departments to make sure we have student safety as a primary focus of the Wood Middle School project.
Mr. Khan shared that on October 24th we will have another presentation we will share with the Board , and we are asking the Board to take action to approve these plans in December 2023.
A City Council member stated that she has heard concerns from Alameda Little League about District property the League has historically used. Mr. Khan stated the primary goal is the betterment of students in AUSD and their educational experience. The secondary goal is that of a community partner. Mr. Khan explained that right now Little League rents two fields and the plan is to build another field at the back of the property.
There is some land that belongs to the City that we will need to use, and there is land that is the City’s property that AUSD has been used for over 100 years. There will need to be some approvals from City Council to use the land that is owned by the City. This is the property that will end up being a public parking lot (150 spaces) so that community members are not using parking spaces in neighborhoods.
4-D: Discussion on Student Mental Health Services (AUSD/City):
Kirsten Zazo, Assistant Superintendent , Educational Services gave Subcommittee members a report on how AUSD is supplying Mental Health Services to its students. She explained that the County stopped delivering EARMES services, so AUSD has contracted with EBAC and Alameda Family Services for higher level services. Ms. Zazo explained AUSD now needs to bill directly for services , but these two agencies can bill for MediCal related services. EBAC is an agency that serves students in non-public and public schools.
Ms. Zazo explained AUSD has about 97 students who qualify for these services. All services are provided on our campuses. When the County was providing services, some students got services with us, and some had to go outside the city. So now that all students are being served in our schools it is much better for students. ACOE is putting together a billing structure for us to help us bill for many aspects of mental health billing.
This will help us get the services and dollars to the students. We don’t have a funding source currently, so this will also help us get a funding source for students.
A Board member stat ed AUSD took a lot of our COVID dollars and we hired more counselors so that more students can be seen, but as these dollars fade out, we need these systems in place so we don’t lose momentum. The $250k the City contributed to these services is a huge part of keeping this going.
4-E: Update on Crossing Guard Program (City):
Alameda Police Department representatives Officers McMullen and Foster explained the origin of the crossing guard program in Alameda. The crossing guard program is a joint program that is run by the City of Alameda through a vendor. There were six (6) schools at the start of the year who had staffing issues. Alameda Police Department and AUSD staff stepped in to cover crossing guard areas that were vacant. There is one crossing that is not staffed at this time, and that is at Earhart School. Alameda Police would like City staff to check in with AUSD before school starts every year, so we know what we are facing.
Alameda Police Chief Joshi acknowledged the rough start of the year. Chief Joshi stated APD had a lot of movement with staff. Chief Joshi stated he will be the primary contact and Captain McMullen (oversees Community Resource Unit) will be the secondary contact. Chief Joshi stated w hen crossing guard positions are vacant there is a liability when AUSD staff directs traffic. There is no state mandate, so staff COULD direct traffic, but it is not ideal..
5: New Business:
There was no new business discussed.
6: Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned by Jennifer Williams at 2:538 pm (Zoom meeting was recorded to the cloud)
Respectively Submitted,
Kerri Lonergan
Senior Executive Assistant Alameda
Unified School District