School Liaison Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good afternoon to, everyone. We had a somewhat of a packed house here. This might be the most audience members we've ever had for a school liaison subcommittee meeting. It is Thursday no, wait, today is August 4. This is the wrong day on this agenda here. Today is Monday, August 4. We're going to convene this meeting at 04:40 p. M, only ten minutes late, not bad. Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Certainly. That's very high. All right. City of Fresno subcommittee members, Member Vang? Present. Member Richardson?

Here.

Chair Esparza?

Present.

We have a quorum with the City of Fresno members. And other subcommittee members in attendance, Fresno Unified School District, Member Rosas?

Jonathan Rosas, present.

Thank you very much. And for all of you on the dais, there is a button and your microphone. Push that, light will go green and you will be live. And from Fresno Unified School District member Islas, not present. And from the State Center College Community District, member, Parra, not present. FCOE, Doctor. Clyde, not present. Central Unified School District, Khan? Not present. Clovis Unified School District, Member Hashimoto?

Present.

Thank you. Member Olivier? Present. Thank you. And from Sanger, instead of Member Philippi, we are we do have Member Yang. Present. Thank you very much. All right. We do have a quorum.

All right. Thank you, Clerk. Next, we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. If you can, please stand. Trustee Joynas de Rosas, would you lead us

in the

Pledge of Allegiance? All right. Fantastic. Next, we'll move on to approving the agenda. Clerk, are there any changes or items removed from the agenda?

I have had no items removed to the agenda, and there are no changes.

Okay. I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll make a

motion. Motion by Councilmember Vang.

Second. Oh, and so the voting members, there's a note that we will read in just a second. But the members who are approving the minutes and the agenda will be the Fresno Subcommittee, which consists of Chair Esparza, Member Vang and Member Richardson. So motions and seconds for this part of the meeting would come from those members.

Second. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any opposition to the approval of the agenda? Seeing none, our agenda is now official and approved. We do need to also approve the minutes for the January 23 special meeting from 2023. I'll entertain a motion for approval of these minutes. I'll make a motion.

And I might note there is a change that should be read into the record for approval along with this.

I should have asked you on that one, yes. Okay. What is the change for the minutes here?

So as I just noted, the members who approved the agenda and the minutes are the Fresno subcommittee members and the minutes reflect the entire body that was present at that meeting. So instead of reading seven approved, it should be two.

Okay. Thank you. And for the record, Clerk, who are those two members?

Those members were members Esparza and member Arias.

Thank you.

Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

I'll second.

All

right. Any opposition? Seeing none, the minutes are approved. At this point, I'm going go ahead and open up to public comments, if that's right with everybody. So again, welcome.

This is our school liaison subcommittee. We have a lively agenda. The purpose of this committee is to bring together our school districts within the City Of Fresno that overlap the City Of Fresno to discuss the different overlapping concerns and issues between the city organization school districts. So I want to thank all of the different districts that are represented here today for taking the time to be here at City Hall and to discuss some of these important issues. So that is the meetings I to be clear for the public.

And at this point, I will invite any member of the public who would like to speak on any item on the agenda. You will have three minutes. So I don't do we have any yellow cards out today, Clerk? Okay. There's no yellow cards today. So it's a little less formal, but we'll still follow procedure.

I have received no yellow cards. We do have the yellow

cards We do have yellow cards. Either way, card or no card, please come on down. Welcome.

Hello. So I wanted to speak on the unhoused children that we have in the streets of Fresno today, right now, as we're all sitting here in this nice AC, they're outside starving, hungry, thirsty. And I'm looking at a lot of people up here right now. They got really deep pockets for the money that you guys get sitting in the positions that you are. And I don't see any of you utilizing that on our children that are still up in the streets.

It's well enough, I know, that we're working on it, but we're always working on it. I think decreasing child homelessness by 100 children is not enough. We have far more than 500 children registered through all the school districts and probably more that are experiencing homelessness in the shelters, out on the streets. They go into transitional and rapid rehousing. We think it's amazing.

It's not it's only six months, and then they're gonna be right back on the streets. We have a lot of kids right now that are joining gangs because you guys can't get them off the streets fast enough. We don't have enough affordable housing. We don't have enough shelters. I don't see the school I really think the school should be responsible for creating safe places, such as you guys have all these big empty lots behind your school. How come nobody's thought about putting some tiny homes or some modules back there for the kids that are homeless that go

to your

school? It's not enough that when we have some schools with washers and dryers, they all should have washers and dryers. And they should all have extra transportation for the children that can't get back to the motels. Because not only one organization taking the kids back and forth is enough. We need more. We need more nutrition sitting home with these kids. We used to have a program after school. The kids that would go home hungry used to be able to pick up lunch, a healthy lunch, and go to school go home, and then have a little bit of extra for snacks. What happened to that? Why are we not doing that?

Why are we working for the school and saying that we care about the children, but yet I'm seeing the children that you guys claim to care about on the streets tonight? So if any one of you guys have donations you want to give for water, maybe send them over to, you know, a park, give them zoo passes. We got to have something for these kids to do during the day. We can't just say we're working on it. And then what about cooling centers? Can we use your schools for cooling and warming centers for the children? Do you guys not talk back, like, city council? Do you guys not answer?

We we we abide by roughly the same procedures.

Same procedures, but you're allowed to. You just choose not to. Right?

Not necessarily, but you direct your comments at me.

Okay. So anyways, far as that, I don't see you spending any of your hard earned money either. I would like to see more people like you guys spending your money on going out there and actually doing for the children. I'm tired of seeing them. Next time, I'm going to be showing up people's houses protesting with these children that are homeless. You all have very amazing, beautiful homes. So I'm just saying that if you don't want them on your block, on your street, then please help out. Start utilizing your funds.

Thank you. Any further public comments by anyone in the chamber? Going once, going twice, any again, this is public comments for any item on the agenda. Okay. Seeing none, we're going go ahead and close the public comments portion. I'll bring it back up here. Before we do begin the discussion items, we'll provide an opportunity for any the members here on the dais, if they'd like to have anything to report sort of outside the discussion parameters.

Okay. Councillor Bergstrom? So not a whole bunch to report, but a couple of comments. This is the first time I've sat on this body, and I'm very excited to be here. A couple of things that I'm actively following up on, are the moves that we made as soon as we came into office on the city council, particularly as pertains to our participation with the, parks department in expanding our free swim lessons to kids so they don't have to pay for it.

They can go get those free swim lessons, and they can go to the pools and enjoy themselves for free. And the second part is how liaising with our district, which covers both Fresno and Clovis Unified, was an active participant in both recruiting of lifeguards. We can get more staff out there to make sure the kids are safe and taken care of during these swim lessons, but also reaching into their facilities, as was kinda mentioned during the public comment, and make sure those facilities are not just open in Fresno Unified, but that will bring Clovis into that loop as well. So the kids who are closer to those, be it Clovis West or whatever else, also have access to those facilities as well, right? It's not fair just to stifle that to one part. So looking forward to following up and seeing how we can kind of bridge that gap between the two school districts as we take care of one whole city.

All right. Thank you, Councilmember Richardson. Trustee Johnson Rosas?

And I don't know if there will be a part in this agenda to discuss,

but

topics for the next agenda or the putting together of the next agenda and the frequency of these meetings, I think that we need to set a schedule, a regular schedule for having these meetings and a collaborative process by which we come up with the agenda. I think that would help make these meetings productive. Thank you.

Sure thing. Clerk, I'm going to assume that's probably not something we can discuss today. It's not agenda is a regular schedule. Or is that something we could get into logistically? Next meeting, okay.

And just as a follow-up, if I could understand a little bit more as to the change in committee structure and voting and approval and all of that, How

Certainly. And just as a high level, that wasn't a change. That's exactly how it was last year at the or the 2023 meeting. There are it's the Fresno City Council subcommittee. There's the Fresno Unified subcommittee, there's the Sanger Unified subcommittee, they're all individual subcommittees. As the attorneys and I were looking at the act which created the subcommittees, it doesn't create a larger body when we have this joint meeting. And I will be proposing some updates to the act that will allow the other member other subcommittees to vote at this annual joint meeting. But this is how it was done at the last meeting as well.

Understood. Thank you.

So less of a change, more of just a clarification, if you will. Okay. Great suggestion. Any other members have any additional comments or reports to provide? Council Member Vang? Yes. Thank

you very much, School Liaison Subcommittee President Esparza. Good evening, members of the public. Welcome to the first, I guess, School Liaison Subcommittee after I believe a twenty point five year hiatus. And at the last time this subcommittee convened, I was wearing a different hat. I was a representative for Sangay Unified School District and I want to welcome my former colleagues to this committee.

I'm looking forward to collaboration with Sangay Unified, Clovis Unified and Fresno Unified. And I represent District 5 which is Southeast Fresno and I have both three school districts within District 5. And I have also Roosevelt High, Sunnyside High and Sanger West High School within my district. So I'm looking forward to collaborating and working with these representatives from the school districts and also State Center Community College also is represented here in the subcommittee. So I'm looking forward to working with the school districts and State Center Community College. Thank you.

Okay. Sorry about that. I can see there was one person punched up, but clerk does not show their name at all. Little glitch, okay, a little glitch, we'll get that taken care of. Any further comments, reports? Clint, no, you're good? All right, perfect. Next time, next one. All right, great. We'll move on to our discussion items.

Again, I do want to thank all different agencies. And additionally, see staff and superintendents scattered around the chamber today. I appreciate the time they're taking as well to be here as well as our city staff as well. So we'll take on discussion item A. We have two or we have three kind of main categories and then some sub sub items.

So first and foremost, one of the things that's really top of mind for all of us in our entire community at large is homelessness. Discussion item A, We have our sub items, student and family homelessness and also the impact on campuses. So I know this is something that we've had a number of discussions with different school districts with regarding the issues they're experiencing. So I will we don't I don't have necessarily a formal kind of way we're going conduct this. But if given that this is not working, this the Punch Up system, I will sort of look around and I'll recognize speakers sort of one by one.

Apologies if I don't get it exactly in order, but our button is not functioning today. So with respect to sort of student family homelessness, we here at the city, we do want to receive your input, hear what's going on each respective district.

I can kick it off. I think we discussed this at the last meeting, if I'm recalling correctly. We do still have populations well, this is more the impact on campuses. I can discuss a little bit about student family homelessness. We still of course have students and families that are experiencing homelessness.

We've had some investments towards the end of the fiscal year. We invested in some housing for some of our families, but are willing and open to looking at partnerships, additional partnerships that may present themselves to look at how we can better serve our families. We have a system of supports, social workers and mental health and counselors, as I'm sure my colleagues at the other districts have as well. And so connecting those services with any services that this housing and other services that the city may be providing, I think if we can have some coordination of services, that's always the challenge, but can double the impact. So it also goes a little bit with the agenda item about future growth, both ours and the city's, understanding where the city is planning to put affordable housing or a housing specifically targeted for our homeless population would be helpful for us to know because those kids will be enrolling in our school district.

And having that information as much in advance would allow us to plan to allocate our resources most effectively. And then I can talk about the impact in a little bit as well.

Okay. I'll add Member Ishimoto and then Council Member Richardson.

All right. Thank you. In terms of foster care and homelessness in Clovis Unified, again addressing not only is it homelessness but quite often it goes with food insecurities as well. So addressing those two, we continue to partner with the Fresno County Foster Care Network Improvement Community, NIC for short, where we are teaming up with other partners, other school districts to determine what resources are available here in the county and share the ideas that individual school districts knowing that collaboration is key. This would be the, I believe, second or third year in which we're kicking off in September.

And again, I believe every school district has their social workers on-site to assist with mental wellness as well as Columbus Unified has developed a program to assist all students at any time to address those needs. We recognize that it is a three prong to address it in terms of meeting The children have to have their basic needs met before academics and learning can occur. One is to ensure that they attend, right, to be at school, and they're attending so they are fed the food security, so that's provided at the at the school sites. And then as well as the homelessness issue of that is definitely not only a district wide, we recognize it as a city slash county slash statewide issue.

Absolutely. Councilmember Richardson?

Sure. So obviously, every city and county knows that this is one of the biggest issues they have. So to bring in the school districts, we've got some opportunities. But as was mentioned before, just we're working on it is not enough. And I think there are some short term solutions that we can look into. So looking at short term solutions, when I was going through school in Clovis Unified, my parents weren't able to pick up take us to school in the morning, weren't able to pick us up based on their jobs. So we had campus club. So what I'm curious about are a couple of things. One is the campus club programs that are provided both Fresno, Clovis, Sanger, I'd imagine Central has I think everyone has campus club. Right?

It exists before school and after school. They're able to provide you with breakfast and then snacks after your regularly issued lunch at noontime. I'd be curious to learn how much of that money comes from the school district itself, if any of that is grant funded, and if there's any expansion or any pursuit of more grants to fund that. Because if I'm not mistaken, Campus Club costs money, And I believe you can even get fined if you pick up the kids late or whatever else. At least that's the way it used to be for us.

If that is not free, if there's a way we can look into or even with a partnership with the city or county to, you know, petition the state or to go after more grant funding for campus club to make it free for those kids that come in before school, free for them to stay after school, and hopefully, as member Hashimoto mentioned, provide some nutrition, maybe some extra academic help for those kids who were there afterward. I think that's something that exists now, that a small expansion of that program might be a little bit more effective, a little quicker, and have a big difference while we continue to work on the larger term solutions, if that makes sense. If anyone can answer kind of how Campus Club works. And the second thing in addition to that is I've heard some limitations, specifically from Clovis Unified when it comes to expanding bus routing, whether it's just what the shortfall not the shortfall, but what is the limiting factor when it comes to buses. Say there were 10 new routes that were proposed, would the shortfall be funding, would it be buses, would it be infrastructure, man hours, drivers, just kind of what that limiting factor is, something that we can kind of focus our efforts on improving that one aspect and lift our ceiling a little bit, if anyone wants to speak to those.

For Fresno Unified, all after school programs are completely free and there's no wait list.

Yes, just to get clarification. Is there a charge in any of the districts? Think they all are free.

Wasn't free for us back in the day. My parents would be penalized if they can pick us up late.

Preschool is definitely free, TK and preschool. And then extended learning, I believe that's I know there's a shortage, it's always impacted, but it's the fee I thought it was waived.

No. It's my understanding there's no charge to parents for campus club after school activities, and the Clovis Unified is only hampered by the fact that it's difficult to staff. So we're constantly in a hiring process to identify people and hire them and bring them on board to provide enough staff to deal with the sheer amount of students. So there are some students who are wait listed for campus club, but the district administration is working too. It's an ongoing issue and it's all year, every year they're working to make sure that that facility that that program is staffed up.

Okay. Thank you. And Sanger, do you have any updates with respect to those questions?

Yes. In regards to homelessness, right now at Sanger Unified, we have approximately 192 students are identified as McKinley Vento homeless students. And right now at Sanger, we have a care team that works to assist and support our students, including social workers and counselors. Rocio Guerrero works to coordinate those services with the city and the county services through our Neighborhood Resource Center. But we're always looking forward to increase collaboration.

And we are also part of the NIC group. Now in terms of the after school program, we do have a free after school program that goes till 6PM. Right now, currently, we have about 4,000 students and it's still growing. And that's all funded through the expanded learning funds from the state. And they do also offer a snack before 6PM as well.

I think one of the things about having this committee is that with schools, we are definitely able to work with families, identify families that are having struggles, be it with living with permanent residents or with food in securities and we can address it at the school site. And then bring forth what are some of the what we can identify as the broader issues.

The common thread between the school districts and the City Of Fresno and the City Of Clovis is that your students are our students, your parents are our constituents And that collaboration between city and school districts is vital because if your students are successful, then our residents are successful as well.

And

so having that understanding is that the resources that we have, if we can combine the resources, that's great. I just wanted to touch upon the after school programs by Clovis Unified, Fresen Unified and San Diego Unified. The terminology of the programs are termed differently, but the methodology and the requirements are very similar. Additionally, the Boys and Girls Club have after school programs, which lasts until 7PM. And so if your school programs ends around five or 05:30 and there's that additional one or two hours where the parents are going to pick up the students, again, the resources in your school district, in this case in District 5, the Boys and Girls Club by Cedar and Butler is open until seven And so, Lane Pound Elementary School across from Cedar and Sequoia Middle School across from Cedar.

Those students after their after school program is finished around 05:30, they can transition come over to Boys and Girls Club and continue to have supervised at safe places. And I believe there is a Boys and Girls Club in the city of Sanger. I do not know their actual hours of operation, but it's a great idea to tap into other resources in terms of keeping our students safe after the termination or at the ending of the respective school programs in your district.

Thank you. So when you say transition or move over, what does that look like for the kids? Is that busing? Is that transportation? Is that put on your feet ease and just walk there?

There is no transportation by the school district or by Boys and Girls Club. It's within walking distance and students can walk over and it will be like another after school program run by the Boys and Girls Club. So you have to look at which Boys and Girls Club facility has that so called after school program and what kind of programs are available. But I know that the ones at Cedar and Butler, they're open until seven to receive students who are if they do attend our program ends around five or 05:30. So there's that additional one hour and thirty minutes where the students can be in a safe space.

And if the parents cannot pick them up, then they can go after go to that safe space.

Okay. Thank you for the updates from each district. In terms of actionables, I think I've heard a little bit about maybe a desire for more information sharing. In terms of urban planning, data, and I'm not sure how much data is shared actually between the city and each district. Phil, I'm going to single you out.

I'm not sure if do you know if there is any sort of formal nexus of data between the city and the school districts that goes one way or both ways at all? Sure. Chair Esparza, Phil Skyes, Director of our Planning and Development Department over our affordable housing development and homeless response. We've participated recently in the last few months in a meeting with Fresno Unified School District and the Housing Authority and the Fresno Teachers Association actually around this home. I assume you're referring Trustee Rosas to the pilot that you all are looking at.

And so we've had conversations about that. Not so much really at all with Sengen Unified. Clovis Unified has been a district that has, you know, highlighted where there have been some challenges where we as a city have been able to respond. But I think there is, as identified by this committee, an opportunity to share more information. Okay. Yes. That might be able to that might be one of our top line actionables, just some start there, right? Just sort of getting on the same page and districts have a reach sometimes that we don't and vice versa and vice versa. Thank you for the clarification. Appreciate it.

Member Olivia.

Okay. I wanted to address the issue of fees in Columbus Unified School District as they relate to extended learning or campus club and Council Member Richardson, turns out we were both right. There are 17 schools in Clovis Unified that are no cost, those are all of our Title I schools. 18 of them are fee based, but any student at those schools who is low income gets to attend for free, taxpayer funded. In fact, Clovis Unified, this board lowered the fees for those who need it and are unable to afford it within the last year.

So we're doing what we have to do out there to be responsive. It's also probably important to mention and note that 48% of Clovis Unified students live in the city of Fresno. So it's often a misconception that Clovis Unified is a provincial clicky and an affluent place. 48% of students come from Fresno. I think 48% of students are I think the district is just on the threshold of becoming a title one district across the entire district.

Clovis Unified is diverse. We're proud of our diversity of economic background, socioeconomic background, and and it's a it's a it's a changing district. And so it's incumbent upon us at the board to be cognizant of that, be aware of that and then be able to respond to it and make it happen. The district is growing so much. We're opening a new high school.

We're opening a new intermediate school this fall. We just opened a new elementary school in a new area and those schools are going to fill up too. So we have a lot of work to do, but the district is changing and the board is very committed to being responsive to the any shifts in the students who attend our schools and make sure that their needs are addressed. So thanks for bringing it up and I was able to get clarification on that. Thank you, council member.

Yeah, council member Richardson.

So based on that, I think that kind of leads into our data share conversation too, because if we're aware of, you know, a 100 kids at this school or whatever who were in dire financial straits with their family, that is there any sort of limit? Do we know on the legality or privacy laws as far as the school district sharing that with the city or vice versa? Because it seems like we're we're kind of stovepiping it. I feel like those title one school schools, we should, as the city, have the information from those to be able to get more accurate counts. It's kind of like the pit every year. If you don't go out and find out the size and the scope of the problem, then how are you supposed to realistically address it?

I'm not an attorney, but I would assume even if there were some kind of barrier at the staff level that we could either through Board policies or legislation here build that pipeline. I think we just have to formalize it through some kind of MOU. I think at worse, it's probably easier than that. I don't know for sure. But that's a question for our attorneys. And then I'm sure the each district will have their counsel weigh in. But I think beginning of a conversation and long as it's written by the attorneys, there's got to be a way, I'm sure there's a way.

Just for clarification, it's the data but not necessarily the individuals or family information that's being requested, am I correct? Yes.

Well, mean, may be some value to that if well, number one, it really only be families, students within the city's boundaries, right? So that's kind of one parameter. But I mean, I might suggest there might be some value if we're trying to get them housed, right, or connect them to our resources. That may not require any data sharing. I mean, it might be less formal than that. But that's where my mind was at. So but if it's just pure data, I mean, we'll take what we can get.

That's what I was thinking was be the data that we're trying to collect maybe by ZIP code or areas and then also like the number of family members and the ages, of course, of the children, right, but not necessarily identifying which family or the names.

Sure. Beginning. Yes. Or at least not without permission.

Right. Right.

At least not without permission.

I mean based on what Member Vang said as well, if we knew that whatever XYZ elementary school had 150 kids there who were significantly below the AMI and they needed some sort of after school resource, that would help us from the city level even if we didn't have names, be able to maybe help with the planning and get something like a Boys and Girls Club or like some sort of safe after school space in that area. It wouldn't matter what your face looked like, what your last name was, it would be open to that area. It's targeting it to the demographic in the area. Sure.

Okay. Any final thoughts on the sub item, Council Member Bing?

Yes. In terms of the numbers that were presented tonight, Senga Unified, you mentioned that there are 192 students who are classified as homeless. To give perspective, how many students are enrolled in Senga Unified?

At the moment, over 13,000.

Okay. So that's very small percentage. Thank you.

Okay. Any final thoughts on the first sub item?

Can we point that as an action item to get at least talk with the city attorney's office and maybe get some drafting of an MOU or some sort of policy for data sharing with this new school year kicking up with the school districts to be able to assist Assistant Director Sky over there with his number crunching and our ability to plan appropriately?

Yes, don't think we have the ability to make that a formal vote here, but I think there's a direction we've gone. Yes, we can do direction according to Clerk. So that direction will be to engage our city attorney's office on what program might look like, data sharing between our agency and our respective school districts. And hopefully create some more actionables from that from those points of contact and turn those into tangible benefits for these families that are experiencing housing insecurity and or homelessness. So we'll move on down to the second sub item under homelessness, the impact on campuses.

The first sub item was with respect to our students and families, and our students and families do belong on our campuses. I think the impact on campuses is probably more with respect to reference or folks who don't have a relationship to their campuses. This is an issue I've heard from a few different trustees about across several districts here within the city. So again, I'll look to our I will look to our school districts to kind of give us a status update on if this is still happening, what the situation has been, whether there's any data that you have with respect to the impact on campuses.

And yes, this an ongoing continual issue, and we appreciate our relationship with PD when we appreciate our relationship with PD that when our staff and our school sites call, that people do show up and we are given some deference given the population that we serve. So we appreciate PD in handling this. We had some notes from our school district, and one of the concerns recently brought up at Adams Elementary, you know, still having people come on. So we continually face homeless individuals and other people coming on campus, wandering on campus, doing things that they're not supposed to be doing on all of our school sites. It's it's just a continual thing that we're we're facing.

So recent incident at Adams, I got couple of texts not too long ago at our newest campus, Southeast High School, Farber, happening as well. I have actually some pictures on my phone of a homeless individual taking their pants down. So there's just these these happenings, and it's it's a safety concern for our students not only on the campus to and from school. And so appreciate again our PD, but it's still an ongoing concern that we're having to deal with.

And trustee, when you said on campuses, I mean, they've gone into past the point where anyone unauthorized should not have gone past?

Yes, it happens on a regular basis. Roosevelt Campus, was walking, I'm going to say a month ago when I saw someone climbing the fence. So fences aren't necessarily a deterrent. They just they cut holes in fences. Our maintenance department are constantly patching up fences.

They're accessing the water from the sprinklers using spaces in between portables. I don't know if my colleagues at other districts are experiencing the same type of thing, but we we do have our landscaping crews that have gone around campus before our kids show up just trying to make sure that it's safe for kids to show up because several items have been found that would not be safe for kids to find.

I have someone punched up an invisible person because the screen does not work. That's you. Councilman Bergerton.

I would have a question and thank you so much to our law enforcement friends for joining us. A couple of questions about the Fresno Unified SRO program. Clovis Unified, I know they they run shop a little differently over there, but just kind of some quick questions. So the one school in my district that I've heard the most about, and I've been to every single school in District 6 and talked with all the principals and heard all their complaints, the one that I've heard the the closest complaint to this sub item is Kasner. And Kasner, their issues, sure, during the school year, they have some problems with the impact on the campuses from the homeless population.

The police response during the year has been absolutely fine. But my question is during the summer, the SROs, is there can you just explain a little bit the process to which we acquire the SRO support? Is it only while students are there? Are they kind of roaming around? If you can speak to that, Chief, I'd

appreciate it. We were just talking about the contract today. It's 90% the school covers, and usually the officers are only gone for a very few days at a time before we provide coverage. When an officer is gone for a short period to include the summer, they call it zone coverage. The sergeants, I have three SRO sergeants will help cover that school. The other nearby student resource officers can help cover that school. So the schools all year are pretty much covered.

I

won't pretend to know all the sports analogies, but we rarely have a school that's not covered, and that's basically because it's a contractual obligation, and we can only be gone a few days here and there.

If you had any recommendations, I'd I'd be happy to hear them. Specifically, the issue with them, one, Kasner is one of the schools that still has lockers that are used by the students. And during the summer when the lockers are empty, lockers are often broken into. Mhmm. Whether items like like member Jonathan Rosos was speaking about earlier that wouldn't be safe for kids to find or maybe it's just a, you know, a hiding spot form or food whatever. Yeah. The lockers are one issue. And the second one, unfortunately and and confusingly, is the dumpsters. Being that not a lot of trash is being put in the dumpsters over the summer and the maintenance is a pretty predictable schedule, those have often found themselves becoming not only places to hide stuff, but for people to hide as well.

Yeah. Encourage businesses and schools alike to keep sure to keep those enclosures locked because they are very attractive to folks looking for a place to seek shelter. But the other thing is with Casner, it is a Fresno it's a Clovis Unified School, so they have their own police that particular campus. So I'm speaking to Fresno Unified, Sanger Unified, and Central Unified that we police primarily.

Would you know and I I understand I'm kinda asking a little bit out of class here, no pun intended. If Clovis has a similar summer policing policy to the Fresno SRO program with the zone coverage?

Well, they they have their own police department, so it's more of a full time for them, but I don't know particularly. Let me see. Sergeant Alvarado works closely with them. Can you speak to that?

You know, for specifics, I don't know what their schedule looks like during the summer, but I do know that as we collaborate and work with the different districts that we have contracts with, we've gone and helped out Clovis Unified with different instances and situations they have as well. So there is that communication that goes on.

And then before I before I let you guys go, chair Esparza, if we could just make sure I'm sure we do. But if we could really encourage the attendance of Clovis Unified's police entity, their police organism to to come join us here. Feel like it would help at least District 6 and probably the eastern part of the other ones answer some questions. The second thing, and I understand this is this is a little bit less pertaining to homelessness, but it is still impact on campuses. And if this isn't the appropriate time, we can come back to it.

Absolutely. But I would like to know with what we're able to share with the public if we were able to kind of hone in and find the root cause of the threats that have been made to specifically one school in my district, Clovis West, in the past. If there was a trend, if we got people, if if we don't see it happening again, if it's something that's likely to recur. And I know that it it included some entities that are above city, municipal, police departments. So I understand there could be some discretionary information withholding there.

One of the first things we do is try to determine if those threats are coming from somewhere locally, and on that particular case, we determined they were not. And then the trail breadcrumbs eventually led overseas and I believe the FBI stepped in on that. So no particular reason I think that we ever developed that I can remember that that school was targeted, but it was I remember responding there and it was multiple times over a short period of time. But, I can tell you this, that when we do get school threats, it's a big deal. It's not just another call for us. I mean, all the way up the chain of command pretty much is notified, and it's a quick response. And it's not just necessarily the school officer, detectives get involved right away to make sure they're looking at those digital bread crumbs as well to follow the trail.

Yes, we can get into that more down in the we've kind of veered a little bit, mean, obviously our school resource officers are definitely a key component in addressing the impact on our campuses. With respect to what you brought up with the SROs, I mean, even with the SROs, we provide them, I believe, only to middle and high schools.

Correct.

And so I wanted to just a question for Trustee Jonas and Rosas. The examples you've all given have been from elementary schools where we don't have assigned SRO to the campus. Are we seeing the same level of activity with respect to the high school and middle schools? Or is this primarily at elementary where we don't have that specifically assigned coverage?

So a couple different things. I gave a couple examples, Roosevelt and Farber Bean High Schools. But they're not just happening during school hours, it's happening after hours when SROs wouldn't necessarily be present. So having SROs at all 114 sites would be difficult. And as you know, council member Esparza, it's been difficult to sometimes get all the staffing of the officers at all of our sites, which has been it's a great it's been a great partnership, but our expansion has been slow because of recruiting efforts on the city side.

So an additional adding an additional 60 officers would potentially be a challenge. So that's on the elementary side, although it's not something that is out of the line of question. We do have and I'm blanking on the name, chaplains. We have police chaplains at our elementary schools. But even if we were to have an additional 60 or so school resources officers to cover the elementary schools, it still wouldn't address the entirety of the problem after school, before school, during summer hours, or even on on the route to and from school. I

first want to thank Chief Casto. Hello.

Of course.

Hello. And the Fresno Police Department for helping Clovis Unified School District with the swatting issues that we have had, especially at Clovis West High School. And I know that that's what you were talking about when when we worked together. Now Clovis Unified is unique in this area because Clovis Unified has its own police department of 16 very highly trained sworn officers, and we do collaborate with Fresno PD on a on a daily basis if need be. And so our police department does a very good job, and and Fresno is there to backstop us in case there are ever any problems. But, yeah, thank you very much for the the help on on the issue at Clovis West. Was it last year, the year before?

It's since I was a captain. It's been

couple of two years ago. It's still fresh in our minds on the board over there. So thanks again, City of Fresno, for all the work that you did on that one. And as far as the the situation at Kastner, yeah, they're they've done a number of interventions over there, including, you know, locking the the what you would think would have to be done to to combat homelessness and and vandalism that ends up costing taxpayers money and and conveys a message to kids that their their school doesn't matter or their because it's not being kept up and security and safety isn't being addressed. So we're we're working with with a number by implementing a number of interventions to to keep that site secure, and those problems are known and are being are known of and being dealt with.

But thanks again for for being our backstop.

Of course. That and just a moment of education, the memorandum of understanding between Fresno PD and the Clovis Unified Schools within the city is if it's a major crime, then we we will come in and assist and investigate on that, like something like the school threats. Thank

you, Chief. Anyone have other questions for the Chief?

To emphasize or to clarify, as the Clovis Police Department, not just the SRO, but they are sworn trained police officers. So they're trained to be available, and to handle situations. If it needs to be escalating, it's not just with the Clovis PD, but it's also our friends at Fresno Yes. PD as

We work well together. They have a good chief.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Trustee Hashimoto, how many sworn officers does the department have there internally? Out of curiosity, I don't know a whole lot about it. 16. 16, sizable. Thank you.

Trustee Vang?

For the impact for St. Jude Unified is just really supporting our students. We don't really have any issues. And if we do have an issue that comes up, we usually have Fresno PD and Sanger PD response immediately and rapidly. So we haven't had any issues there. We're really appreciative of our Fresno SROs and they've been extremely responsive and we have a great working relationship.

Thank you, Trustee Yang. Any further updates, comments, reports with respect to impact on campuses on the sub item?

One last comment. I'd like to dig in a little more and find out if we can get some information on which campuses specifically. If we can get like a wrap up of the SROs from both school districts would be great because they're both in the city, of which campuses have gotten which calls. So if we can get a stack up of, hey, these are our problem campuses. These ones constantly have the police showing up. We've got impacts here. We've got people camping out at this one. We've got things being broken into there. I think targeting our solution, targeting our response, it's going to be a lot more effective than trying to put a big blanket solution on places that might not even have the issue. So if we've got four or five places we can focus on, maybe we can reach out with cooling centers or food distribution centers or whatever else apart, of course, from the campus.

But we can kind of target our solutions and the resources for people in the areas where we're seeing it via the schools that they need it the most. Sure. Chief Casto,

I don't know if you were able to if you had heard Councilmember Richardson's request, but with respect to I mean, just the data aggregation of producing kind of a report of where we're seeing most of these incidents happen in relation to a school campus, is that data that'd be easily retrievable?

I wish I could say yes, but it's retrievable. It takes us a bit to mine for that type of information and then map it as well, but something that we could do.

Is that something that with the start of this new school year, maybe we can begin and then toward the end of this calendar year in

It December was so we can for incidents with homeless individuals?

Correct. Not just any call out there, but if we could kind of start getting some numbers that, hey, you know, Awani and Tahippity and this school and whatever else, they get the most calls, you know, on the blotter that have to do with homeless impact, we could kind of start being more strategic with where we're implementing our resources.

Yes. We can start that. I'm glad you said it now because it will take us a little bit to capture that, get programs built and queries built, we can do that.

Appreciate that.

And then did you I wasn't privy to all the details, but we can we'll need to do like a radius or something so we can discuss that later what you're looking for within the school, half mile, whatever you want.

Yes, half mile might even be too generous. Mean, I think we're looking to kind of hone in on again the direct impact to campuses.

And adjacent to the school, yes, we'll figure out a way to somehow quantify that for the mapping process.

Have an opinion that if elementary school XYZ has more homeless impact there and we're seeing that during the school year, then there are probably some people there who need some resources. And if all the best thing they have to reach out to is the school site for one reason or another, maybe we can be more tactical with implementing resources at that area It to help them

makes good sense. Okay, we can do that. So consider that in progress.

Thank you. And again, the radius, mean, shouldn't be too, too large. Make sure we keep the campuses. Councillor Mervain?

Thank you. We've been talking about data and data leads to best practice. I do not know that 48% of Clovis and Vice students live in the City Of Fresno. That is a number that is surprising to me. Picking on that, I know that this Sanger Unified has students in the City Of Sanger obviously and some are in the City Of Clovis and some are in the City Of Fresno.

To Trustee Yang representing Senga Unified, do you know approximately what percentage of Senga Unified students of the 13,000 in the district resides in the City Of Fresno?

40% reside in the City Of Fresno approximately.

Again, that is also a number that if you don't know, it is almost shocking that 40% of the 13,000 students from San Diego Unified lives in the City Of Fresno. And so again going back to what I stated earlier, collaboration between the city and the respective school districts is important. Your students are our clients, constituents and your parents are our constituents. So thank you very much for that number.

All right. Thank you. So we've got another data actionable here. And I think as we flush out these conversations, it provides an opportunity for us at the following subcommittee meeting to agenda as more specific components of these conversations and really kind of dig into them. So I appreciate the flow of the conversation and everyone sharing their updates. Any last and final comments, reports, questions for staff on the impact on campuses? All right, thank you. Yes, Trustee Ishomoto.

Because there was a changing of the guards, maybe one of them, it would be helpful to have the agenda in advance with the questions that are going to be addressed as best as possible or the topics so that at least I will be better prepared with the data.

Yes, we will as Trustee Johnson and Rosas had requested, try to pursue go down a path where we have some predictability and scheduling and a collaborative process. We do all the work within the parameters of the Brown Act. This committee is subject to that. So to the best of our ability, I think we'll do that, but we may be restricted to a degree.

If I may, I'd like to add on this another action item. I'd love to know what our schools and maybe our principals could do or what Fresno Unified could do from RPD's perspective to better address? Is there something that we're neglecting to do to address this situation on our end? So best practice that maybe PD knows or something that would be helpful for them, information about an incident or something that maybe we're overlooking when we're reporting incidents, stuff like that. So if there's any tips that would be useful for us, it'd be great if we had that information.

Sure. And I think I do believe there's probably a longer list than this, but I know just for one example, PD will provide training to some of the school staff upon requests. Chief or Deputy Chief, what are some of the I know if campus asks for help, I mean, I know there's a way to get an officer out there and they'll coordinate something. But what are the parameters of those trainings?

This expert right here. Sorry. Don't go out of So so you want trainings for as far as as far as what exactly?

Well, no. My my general question was so the trustee had asked about, you know, if we can compile some recommendations for them based on your experience dealing with these issues. If there's anything they could be doing better, we could ask them to do and they would do it just to improve the issue, reduce call for service. And I had mentioned that I was vaguely aware of a training program you provide to the campuses upon request, but I wasn't sure about what the parameters of those safety trainings were.

Yeah. So we do several trainings, a lot of them kind of dealing with just interaction with individuals, de escalation components, protocols, things of that nature. But we also do stuff as far as swaddings, how to do trainings for school safety, how to do lockdown trainings, things of that nature, see something, say something for students. But we definitely can get with school sites that are struggling with components of safety related to homelessness, and the SROs usually collaborate with the admin on there and see what they need to do. Some of the things we look to do is kind of do a sliding scale for start time for officers.

If they're seeing an issue of homelessness earlier in the day, we ask them to start a little bit earlier, come in a little earlier. That way, the plant coordinator doesn't have to the one chasing them off. Can do contacts there with the officer. The SRO then can assess to see if there's any resources necessary. We work very closely with our homeless assistance response team and we can coordinate to them to come out and offer those assistance to those individuals.

That sounds very helpful. That sounds like a great start.

Yes. Thank you.

And that might be the nexus for those recommendations. But not on a campus scale, perhaps on a larger kind of bureaucratic scale, if you will. Council Mervain? Okay. All right.

I think we're going to move on now to our second category. That took us one hour exactly. Just so the beginning logistics in that and then and but homelessness, obviously, is a very big issue for our community. So moving into the infrastructure and safety in and around schools, we've kind of touched on the safety component to a degree. They want to provide as this first sub item, council funding and legislative updates.

Just very briefly, this is primarily well, some of it's from my district and some of it's citywide. But just for the public record and for informational purposes to the trustees who joined us. In my district, we've allocated about $100,000 just to help repaint the school crosswalks at D7 elementary middle schools. We've had kind of a variety of different neighborhood repaving and sidewalk installations for safer travel to schools across District 7, specifically another couple $100,000 for safe routes to school near Yosemite Middle School down in District 7. Citywide and this is sort of larger blanket, 131,000,000 for street maintenance, traffic signal projects, pedestrian trails, bike facilities and rehabilitation.

We've got another we've got about 1,500 more affordable housing units under construction in the pipeline for 2026. We are continuing to fund our Eviction Protection Program funding to try and prevent folks from becoming homeless. Quite a few different I've got a long list here, but just some examples of different investments that in a way all of it does relate back, right? I mean, the candid policy in a vacuum. Trustee Levy, do have a question or a comment?

Thank you, Councilmember Esparza. What you just said, I want to say thank you to you for what you're doing in your district. It really is the most critical thing that municipal services company, also known as a city, can do. When I was on this city council, it was one of the things I was very passionate about, but now four years after leaving office, I became a school board member, and it offered me opportunity to see it from the other side. So, and this kind of goes along with what item number two, the safe routes to schools, but I'll say it anyway.

When I was on this, on the council, I represented a very district that was socio economically struggling a little bit. There were some affluent areas, but for the most part, I think when I was there, the median household income was $28,000 a year. So they were having a tough time. And so some of the schools that served that particular area were struggling as well. And I know that the school board members were all very interested in, you know, we're responsible for them when they leave their house until they get to us.

But that's where we have to partner together. But when they get to us, we're trying to provide a safe safe learning environment, we're trying to teach them, we're trying to address their nutrition, and get them home at the end of the day. But if you think about a student, a little girl or a little boy leaving home, and maybe maybe home life isn't so great. Right? Student goes out in the morning, Tuesday morning has to go to school, passes a dirt lot, and there's maybe garbage on the dirt lot.

Maybe there's homeless vagrancy on on the way to school. Maybe gets chased by a stray dog. Maybe steps on a needle, right, on the sidewalk. Maybe trips on a sidewalk that's like this, like crooked teeth. Right?

I know we have them because we have an older infrastructure in the city of So it may be subconscious. This child may not say, oh, well, my community does not value me because the route that I take to school is an absolute disaster and it's running a gauntlet, and I could get hurt or sick or killed on my way to school. It doesn't The child doesn't know that, but it's subconscious, where the child says, gosh, I had to run away from pit bulls today because there's an animal control problem in the city, and I tripped, and I tore my dress because the sidewalk isn't fixed. And there was a scary homeless person that chased me today. Subconsciously, what you're telling the the children is that you're not valued.

You don't have value. And so when I hear a council member talk about the work that he's done in his district and this council is trying to do in the city, every time you do a tree trim, sidewalk, curb, paint a crosswalk, every time you do something like that, you are serving children and you're conveying to children that that they are worth it. So I I as someone who's seen it from both sides, I just wanted to to thank this council and encourage them to continue to work on infrastructure because there are kids using those sidewalks every day, using those crosswalks every day, being harassed by homeless and and other criminal element every day. So every time police department goes out, rests one of these people, every time the the street sweeper comes by, you are conveying to our children who are just trying to get to school that day, you're conveying to them that they are valued. And so I wanted to thank you for that.

I wanted to encourage continued work on infrastructure and and getting kids to school safely. That way when they get there, they're in a place where they can learn, they're ready to learn, and they feel safe. So continue to work on infrastructure. If there's anything we can do at Clovis Unified to to help with that, and I'll probably punch up one more time, and then I swear to God I'll shut up. But if there's anything that we can do to be a resource for you, please just let us know because we do appreciate your support. We've got schools in Tarpey, we've got schools in Pinedale, we've got we overlap again an awful lot. So thank you for the work that you do, and I want to encourage you to continue to do it because it does make a difference. Whether they know it or not, it makes a difference.

Yes. Thank you, my predecessor, for those comments. You've sat on both sides. I came from a school board before I sat here. So I've seen it from both sides as well.

Wait, are you saying there's infrastructure problems in District 7 on day one when you got here? I thought I fixed all that. I handed I handed you a perfect district, Nelson Wow.

Is there is there I wish Georgiana White was here so she could ring her her bell for false statements, but no. No. All you had on me was some wisdom and some tums, I think it was. And just a couple of last those are some of the investments, but just a couple of last kind of policy updates. As most people are aware, if you open your eyes and look around the news or a newspaper, we have a new smoke shop ordinance coming into effect here in the City Of Fresno.

And with respect to our discussion here, it adds location restrictions, plus smoke shops cannot operate within 1,000 feet of school, park, daycare or youth facility, all of these are deemed sensitive areas. And it limits our smoke shops to seven per council district as a baseline. So I think that will have an impact as it gets implemented over the next year, one years point or so, we continue to see a positive impact across these different neighborhoods and these school releases where some of these are located. And that's recent. But as something that's more long standing, we also have through our code enforcement division, school area team code enforcement, SAT, school area team.

And the school area team focuses on proactive code enforcement, specifically around school zones, the target blight, unsafe conditions and just neighborhoods deterioration overall. So that is a kind of proactive program we have going on and there and then they spend several weeks. We have Code, is Code still here in the room with us? Staff? I think they stepped out.

But spend several weeks at minimum within a certain neighborhood, it's all based around our school campuses. So hopefully, you've all experienced them kind of coming and overlapping in your areas. I know they're certainly around my district. But just as a couple of relevant points, one of our longstanding policies and then

a new a forthcoming one that I

hope will help with safety, as you pointed out.

One of the things that it actually works, and thank you for that, we saw at Pinedale last year. That's right. We had a smoke shop, a liquor store, and a motel at Blackstone, and Pinedale Elementary was right behind there. We had the issues with homeless coming on campus, syringes found on campus, rubbish found on campus, and and homeless individuals that were scaring kids at at the at on campus. We actually had a parent group called stand stand in the gap, who turned up parents, uncles, grandparents, different family members, community members who actually came out to stand in the gap between Blackstone and the school site.

So parents got involved, Clovis Unified got involved, our police department got involved, Fresno and then the city council of Fresno got involved as well. And led by member Carbassi and member Arias, as well as Esparza, the rest of the city council, they got that smoke shop shut down. Code enforcement was was there. They shut it down. And now that that problem at that school has abated maybe 90%. It's like a completely different situation out at Pinedale Elementary. And this is one of those schools that is in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area that needs a little bit extra. The kids who live in Pinedale need a little bit extra. That's exactly what happened. So that's a program that worked.

I've seen it work in real time, and it was done quickly, and it was very, very effective what what you did. And I know that code enforcement worked with the owners of the liquor store to go in there and say, hey, you know, who are you selling to? What are you selling in here? And they changed the complete landscape around that school. Now there are are still some challenges that have to be addressed over there, but the reality is is that the city of Fresno was Johnny on the spot for for our district and for the the constituency that lives there. So I just wanted to say thank you

to

you.

We're gonna put you in a commercial for I know. Right? For You

and your colleagues, and especially council member Carbassi, who's very, very responsive. But it was a collaboration between the parents, the city council, Fresno Police Department, thank you chief again, and and Clovis Unified. And all these four entities came together, and they they solved that problem. And so, you know, we we talk about these issues, and I know that we have good school site councils in the districts. We have schools people, parents on school sites and PTCs and groups that are interested. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. It's a silly cliche.

Well, which what we hope with this legislation to replicate that across across the city.

100%. So thank you for your work on that council and and your efforts on that.

But it does

take all those entities to come together and we did have a situation where we had the outcome everyone was looking for. But thank you for that.

Very well said. I'll put you in a PSA commercial telling everybody how great the new smoke shop ordinances. Thank you. That was good. Councilmember Vang, I think you had punched that? Who had punched that? Yes, it's myself. Councilmember Richardson, sorry.

Sorry, commercial break during our podcast here. All right. A couple of quick things. So Fresno Unified from District 6. So McCartall Elementary repaved Sierra, repaved Fresno, Eaton Elementary repaved a bunch of those streets around Millbrook to include improvements on Millbrook between Herndon and Sierra to help those kids out. McCardell as well, we've had some issues, to be honest with you, with the maintenance of the trees around the outside of the campus coming over into the private residences. A lot of the folks over there have owned their homes since, like, the late sixties, and they're getting old. And they're having trouble trimming their own trees. City won't do it. It's school district property.

So the more we can work together and be collaborative, we will let you know every time that we hear from one of our constituents if it's one of Clovis Unified, what we've done, we got as soon as we came into office and started meeting with all these principals, found out a couple spots that were hotspots, they had problems. Mountain View Elementary School, right over by my house, they just had the Avalon Commons area put in on the Northwest Corner Of Chestnut And Alluvial, Fantastic. Fantastic place. Affordable housing for people in the city who now have affordable housing in a lovely community in Clovis Unified. It's a no bus school. The kids can walk to Mountain View. It's great, except the cars are driving too fast. So we went out there, put up radar speed. This isn't a a Nick advertisement just to update you on the things that have been going on in your school district. Radar speed signs are put in.

Brand new crosswalk lit up. The kids have access. They can walk to a city park. They can walk to school. No problems with that. Same thing over on Lincoln. Over across Lincoln Elementary, further west on Alluvial, we've also got the radar speed signs put up, in addition to dedicated left hand turn phasing, both on Millbrook and Alluvial and Millbrook and Nees further up. We're still working on solutions to address the speeding problem around Fort Washington Elementary School just across from Clovis West. Heard from a lot of constituents over there. Ever since they closed off Teague, they found that the speeding has moved from the East Side over into the residential area on the West Side.

So picking up their kids and taking off is still an issue as far as that's concerned. We're still trying to address new creative integrated traffic system technology on Friant, which is right there by Valley Oak Elementary School up in the Northwest. Fugment Elementary School, we've got issues with some of the water quality that some of the residents are having there. Apparently, is some residual amounts of manganese in there where black stuff is coming out of the sinks and the faucets, messing up their water heaters, and it's no fun when you can't trust the water that's coming out

of a

spigot. Outside of that, we have a new development going in across the street from Riverview, just north of KidsCare. That will be residential. So traffic studies have been done. I talked to the principal.

Don't expect that's going to have any impact on the traffic in the mornings or the afternoons of that school. And the last one to confront was further south of that, and it's slipping out of my mind. So must not have been one of the more important ones. But our biggest partnership has been talking with these principals, finding out where speed, safety for the kids, especially the vehicles transiting has been an issue for them. And then within the course of finding that out, obviously, that's when we'll find out things like, you know, Kasner and the school facilities and increased quality of infrastructure around those. So Fresno and Clovis, those are only two we have. Sanger, sorry. You don't touch God's Country District 6. But just for you all, those are the updates from

the district.

Thank you, Councilmember Richardson. Yes, I think the only district that overlaps Sanger Unified is going to be our Southeast District and District 5. Council Member Vang, do you have any last comments on the council funding and legislative updates? I think we covered a lot of it.

Okay. I'm going to jump perhaps to the agenda two and even three and even four in this conversation. With regards to Safe Schools, Chief Castell, could you please step up to the podium again? Appreciate that. While you're walking up to the podium, within a week or two weeks, Central Unified, Fresno Unified, Clovis Unified, Sanger Unified students will go back to school.

And historically, during the first couple of days of school, I know that the local law jurisdiction will be very visible out there. What kind of plans does Fresno PD have in terms of being visible near school sites, whether it is elementary, junior high or high school for San Diego Unified, Central Unified, Fresno Unified. And my understanding is Clovis Unified have their own police forces, so I don't know what role you play in that. But I wanted to know what kind of procedures does Fresno PD have in place when the school starts Yes, for have the coming school Chief Fair.

He's our traffic commander, and we do have an operations plan every year. I'll let him tell you about it.

Thank you. Thank you for the question, councilmember, and thank you, everybody, for being here today. We really appreciate the opportunity to talk about traffic safety as we approach back to school. It will be a multiunit effort, including our traffic safety division, obviously, will lead the way with our motors that will be on scene. We'll also have traffic officers in vehicles as well besides motorcycles. And so let me impact as many of the schools as they can. There are approximately 100 schools in the city of Fresno, and we do not have a police officer for every one of those schools. So we're going play kind of a zone coverage and incorporate officers from our patrol division. We'll also be using officers from our fax unit and our homeless assistance response team. If they see a traffic violation during this period of time, they'll be engaged as well.

So it's really all hands on deck for uniform personnel during these very critical first couple of weeks in the year. Interestingly enough, every school wants increased traffic enforcement until we write a ticket to one of their staff. And then they don't want us around anymore. So, we don't take that personally, but we enforce the law evenly and fairly. We want to emphasize enforcement and also education and let people know about things like parking zones and times and those kinds of things that are critical to school operations. But that's definitely going to be our focus over the next several weeks, sir.

Thank you. And as a parent of one of the students who will be going to those schools in the next week put mind at ease. Thank you very much for that assurance. Really appreciate that. On the subject of Safe Rounds to School, again, we have students who perhaps are in the rural area walking to a campus that do not have street sidewalks.

And then I wanted to address one in particular because when I was out there talking to constituents, reminded me of their concerns for their child or students walking to campus. And I wanted to make a note that where I live, it's very close to Sanger West and it's close to Venture Creek Elementary School as well, which is part of Clovis Unified. And a few of the parents whom are who have students and those students are friends of my son as well. And so we have conversations first as parents and then they whisper in my ears, what can I do to put the safety component in place? And I just wanted to make an announcement with regards to Sangamo Unified.

I understand that in about two weeks' time, you will be opening your second comprehensive middle school, John F. Kennedy Middle School along with Sanger West. And there were a few parents who were concerned about walking their students walking home to those two sites. And they have the right to be concerned too and it is a legitimate concern. And so we were able to ask during our budget hearing to have $100,000 to go into paving a temporary sidewalk on the eastern perhaps on the Eastern side of Armstrong to Church and then from Church to Sanger West, right now it's just dirt patch.

And so when it rains, it becomes slippery and dangerous. And so in terms of safe routes as a City Council member, you hear directly from the constituents what their concerns are. And I want to thank the Mayor for listening to them as well to be able to provide the funding, we can put a temporary sidewalk. So when the students walk to JFK Middle School or St. Louis, they have a solid sidewalk from home to school to campus.

And again, this is not just one example of a parent's concern that we provide. We try to answer their concerns as much as possible. And also, I'm proud to say that a few weeks ago, this body, City Council, we approved $100,000,000 as part of the Mayor's pay now, pay later and that goes directly to improving the streets, sidewalks, etcetera. And today, the Mayor and I had a press conference along Cesar Chavez Boulevard and they will they're fixing Cesar Chavez Boulevard and particularly today from Chestnut to Maple, they're going to repave the whole stretch from Chestnut to Maple. Again, almost elementary school is near there, Lane Elementary School is near there.

And so the parents who drop the students will travel on a newer safer road and the students who walk to the schools will have a safer route to school. And so again, going back to the collaboration of city districts benefit the students and benefit our constituents. But thank you very much for assuring our Fresno residents that Fresno PD is on alert and they'll be very vigilant and be very visible when school begins for Clovis Unified, Senga Unified, Frasier Unified and Central Unified. Thank you very much, Chief. Thank you, sir.

And I also wanted to make an observation and make a note before I forget in the audience here tonight is Sanger Superintendent, Doctor. Dennis Miekmann is also here and Sanger Unified Board President, Felipe is here. And obviously Trustee Yang and Trustee Lopez Garcia from San Diego Unified is also here. If anybody on the dice who have questions for any of the people who I mentioned, I'm sure they'll be happy to step at the podium and answer questions with regards to San Diego Unified. But I do have, again, one question with regards to safe route to school.

There is a traffic light that is about to be in operation at the corner of Church And Fowler Avenue, again, going back to the educational complex, JFK Middle School and Sanger West. Now that traffic has been there for some time and Superintendent, Doctor. Dennis Whitman, I have been approached by parents in that area in terms of when that traffic light is going to be in operation. Is it going to be in operation before August 20, which is the date that Senga Unified will begin its first day of school. And I'm sure that Trustee Yang will have an answer for me as well, because I believe this is in your area.

You are correct.

So you probably got the same questions that I got as a City Council Member and parents concerned about when that traffic light is going to be in operation, do we have a timeline for that?

As of right now, there was a little hiccup and so it's getting addressed hopefully, the light will be working by the end of next week before school starts. And I know that I myself have children that are going to JFK middle school that will be impacted by that light. And so I too would like to see that light working by then. So hopefully, we'll have that light working by the end of next week if all goes well. But it also depends on the city's portion.

We're waiting for the city. The contractor could come out and check off the checklist and we're waiting for the city to be able to come out and do the inspection so that we will be able to have the traffic light working.

And for members of the public who are not aware of the complexity that goes into just having a traffic light signal built and operate, it takes several agencies involved. And in this case, Senga Unified is responsible for the build. The State of Fresno is responsible for making sure that all of the Ts are crossed and Is are dotted. And then there's a third jurisdiction that is involved and that is PG and E, make sure that there is power going to the grid here. And so it's just not one jurisdiction that has 100% control over a traffic light.

It's in this case three jurisdictions working together for the interest of safety and for the interest of the people who will cross, in this case the students who will cross the sidewalk on August 20 going to JFK Middle School and Sanger West. I'm hoping that it will be in operation before that day. Superintendent Wickman, do you have any comments on that? Will you please step up to the podium? Thank you, sir. This is Sangamo Unified Superintendent, Doctor. Dennis Wickman. And sir, thank you very much for being here to discuss. Welcome.

Are good? Okay. Our contractor is coming through. They're doing the punch list that we got back from the city. And so the next part, we hope to have that done by the end of next week. And as Mrs. Yang was saying, then the city coming out with public works and TSSLA, coming back out and then doing that certification. So hopefully, by the end of next week, we'll be calling for that inspection.

Okay. Looking forward to that call, sir. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. So we've kind of meshed the sub items, safe routes, SROs and together. Are there any other updates or comments on Fresn Unified?

I was waiting for safe routes because I have a bit of a dissertation.

We are here. Come on down.

Okay. Where do I start? I will start with non Southeast Fresno items first, and then I'll go into the things I'm a little more familiar with. So one from a constituent, a recent constituent call that I said I'd bring here, a resident near Del Mar had concerns about crossing Ashland Avenue. So we have a few avenues that are particular issues for safe routes to school when people are crossing Ashland being one of them.

And I would say Cedar being a major one. I'm very familiar with Cedar and all the schools on Cedar and people crossing Cedar. Kids, parents crossing Cedar being a a big thing. So but this one's particularly about Ashland. And things that a crosswalk with a light or at minimum a stop sign would be good around the school to cross Ashland, And it could be one of those temporary situations temporary situations where it's only during certain hours of operation, that kind of thing, or or something there for people to be able to cross because we know that even if there's a safe path of travel, people are gonna try to take the shortcuts.

Right? So something there and a Delmarza Elementary School. Okay. Calwa Calwa well, Calwa is in this. I'm sorry. Adams Adams always has that issue with the county. If you guys one side of the of the route to Adams is county. The other side is the city. Whatever you guys can do when you're talking about that that particular area when talking to the county would be appreciated because I know there's coordination that happens. We'll do our part with ensuring to try to get that infrastructure to Kawa.

It's in an industrial area. There's a lot of dogs, which I'll talk about as well. That's a passion of mine to get addressed, but Adams is also very, very unsafe. I've been asked to ask about the Southwest plan and some of the issues that could potentially be addressed, some of the Safe Routes to School issues that could potentially be addressed there. So if we could just get an update on that.

Okay. I'll talk more specifically about Cedar. So Cedar is a major corridor for a lot of educational institutions. And you've got not only do you have Fresno State, you've got Duncan, you've got McLean, you've got Roosevelt, and all the way down, you've got Vang Powell, you've got Sequoia, you've got Kaua. So you've got a lot of kids crossing kids and families crossing Cedar.

Specifically around Roosevelt, but maybe this could be something that works elsewhere. Near the fair, you have those gates that are in the middle of the median that prevent people from crossing in that prevent people from crossing to the fair in the middle of Cesar Chavez. Things like those physical barriers would prevent people from crossing at various places on Cedar, and I'm I'm assuming would be a lot less expensive than trying to reconfigure the street. So those physical metal gates, and you can make them stylized. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah. So if you put them in the median because you've got bushes there, and so it would force kids because they're not gonna jump four or five feet in the median. Force kids to go And I think that would be cost effective and could work at several of the schools.

You

Sorry. Would you mention again the streets that specifically you're thinking of?

Cedar. Just along the Cedar Quarter.

North to south. Between?

All of it. There's an education Duncan Fresno State, McLean, Roosevelt. So Roosevelt being high school, and then you've got Bang Powell and Sequoia being really close to each other across the the street being that the boys and girls club. There's a lot of across there's a lot of traffic there that's kind of unsafe and people crossing. So, ideally and I don't know if a traffic study needs to be done to this, but I've thought about closing that street in between the schools so that the when the kids are coming so there's Pang Pao is on one side of the street, in a tiny street, and there's Cedar.

There's a stream between the two schools. If close the entrance potentially could make it safer. So it had to be a study that the city would have to do, and it would require coordination, but it could be an idea because people are turning into that street. Would it complicate drop off and stuff for parents? Yes. But I think it could make it safer. And so I'm sure people would have ideas about it, but I think it could be an idea to be studied. Down to Kaua, that's with the now with the new United Health Centers building there. There's increased traffic. There's that Bank of America.

That stretch of road is just it's in really poor condition. There's a lot of truck traffic and all that kind of stuff going on around there. So the road in general just needs to be upgraded, but there's a lot of families crossing Cedar there. There's really almost no protection. I would encourage you guys to just kind of go and look it out.

People are crossing that that part, and it's pretty dangerous. And so you it was mentioned those radar. It could be just high visibility crosswalks. It could be any kind of infrastructure improvements that could just improve the safety and remind people, hey, there are kids here. On that note, know a lot of people mention crossing guards, and so I'm going to mention crossing guards here.

We would want as many of people to volunteer to be crossing guards as possible. We don't have enough people volunteering to be crossing guards. There's a stipend. So yes, we love crossing guards, we just don't have enough people volunteering for those positions. So that's why we don't have crossing guards everywhere, because I get asked that all the time.

So that's CEDAR. So talked about Kawa. We too so Kaua, yes, improved the light, and the and the crosswalk there could be something to to look at. We too have sidewalk and spotlight issues stoplight issues. Farber has been waiting for the stoplight to be on, and I think there's been a couple of accidents there already right in front of the school.

Just people are confused, they see a stop sign a stoplight and they don't anyway, they don't know what to do about it. And so there's increased traffic with not only the high school there, but also all the additional offices and people there. So having that stoplight actually work would be great. I know that that's been a challenge, I want to advocate for that, moving up the priority as a safe route to school. I want to also offer that our team is always ready and available to pursue grants with the city for this infrastructure, and we're always we're not just wanting to come and point out problems.

We want to work towards solutions together. So whenever you or your teams come up with things that are coming out for funding, we'd love to partner and see how we can work on things together because we understand that funding sometimes is an issue. So I want to propose on the sidewalk. Just let's try to think creatively because we've always been told when we develop new schools, for example, Herrera is still waiting for sidewalks to connect to Herrera, and it's been a few years. And kids have to cross through fields to get to Herrera, and we're always told that we have to wait for development to happen to get those sidewalks.

And I I would challenge us to think a little creatively, and maybe we can partner the city and and the school districts, and maybe we fund some of the sidewalks ahead of time and then make the developers pay for it after. Because having kids constantly go through mud in all parts of the city is not is not good. And so I know it becomes a strain on resources, so it can't be done for every situation. But when it comes to schools, particularly elementary schools, it should be a priority. And so I don't know if there's a way to just think creatively on how we can not have to wait for development to happen because usually schools come and then the development might come maybe years after.

So just a thought on, let's think outside the box of how we've always been doing things because, I mean, there's a lot of schools in Southeast Fresno that do not have sidewalks. So thank you.

As I alluded earlier, the students are the district students and also the City of Fresno students. The parents are their parents as well as our parents. Trustee Janosas Rosas, thank you very much for that information. I am going on to my one hundred tenth day, I believe on the dais here. And what I have done so far is listen to the constituents and the people who represent those constituents, school board members, whether it is Senga Unified or Clovis Unified with Venture Creek Elementary or Sanger Unified, again, Fresno Unified.

To piggyback on what you said about Cedar Avenue, those are great ideas. I represent the Cedar Corridor from South Of Tulare to Kawa. And I will look into any safety apparatus or ideas that we can implement to make it safer for the students at Roosevelt High, the students at Van Pao Elementary, the students at Sequoia Middle School and the students at Kawawa Elementary to go from home who have to cross Cedar Avenue to their respective schools. Cedar Avenue travels north south and extends all the way beyond the Herndon Corridor. And I just wanted to note that the high schools that sits along the Cedar Avenue corridor starting the South with Roosevelt and then Duncan, McLean and then Hoover.

Again, the idea of having some physical barrier in the median of this two lane, sometimes people do fifty, sixty travel fifty, sixty miles per hour, It's a great idea. Unfortunately, it may be too late for one of the students who attended Hoover High School a couple of years ago. He was killed crossing Cedar Avenue, going from school to home. And the idea of something that is very in terms of the overall expense of putting safety is very cheap, very simple. And it has to be something that the council members and the school districts working together to put that in place to prevent another life, another students from being killed because there was no safety apparatus or no deterrent in place.

And so I'm looking forward to next year when the budget comes around, so we can ask the Mayor to perhaps give us additional funding to look at what public safety apparatus we can put in place to make sure that our students who travel from home to school and from school to home safer than it is already. And the Cedar Corridor is, again, one area that is of concern. And hearing from elected officials who represent those areas and if better to hearing from constituents who live right there and they see on a daily basis the students who cross these streets, not only Cedar Avenue, but other two, three lane corridors in the city of Fresno. What their concerns are, the same safety concerns in Southeast Fresno parents are the same in Northeast, Northwest and Southwest parents. And so this is not just a portion of the city's concern, but it's a citywide concern.

And so thank you very much for bringing up the concerns along Cedar Avenue. I know that we can't do this overnight, but having that conversation and hearing the concerns of elected officials who represent that area and hopefully down the road, I'll have more opportunities to go along that area and talk to parents to see if what else besides putting barriers in the medium to minimize the danger to our students. And so I want to thank again the trustees who are here and the city has a responsibility to make sure that their residents are as safe as possible. And this is going to be, I hope, with the subcommittee an ongoing basis. And as we meet and we talk and we share concerns, I think we can be a better city and we can be a better school districts whether it is San Diego Unified, Clovis Unified, Fresno Unified or not here tonight, Centurion Unified.

Thank you.

Thank you. I think I'm going to move on down to and actually before I do, Trustee Jonas and Rosas, if you wouldn't mind, we did my office was taking diligent notes about your long list there, which is it's we'd love to have a copy of that at some point, if you have that kind of itemized and are able to share it with my office. If everyone's okay with that, then we move down to the last sub item in this category, new campuses and future growth. Is everyone okay with that? Any last final thoughts? Councilmember Richardson, I know you you want to lead this conversation, please.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Really quickly, Mr. Superintendent, if you wouldn't mind joining us up the podium real quick.

Thank you, sir, for being here. Question for you. A school teaches syllabus out of whatever book. Name the name the subject. We'll call it science. Alright. So the 2024 science book comes out. 2025, they get a new book. Mhmm. What is the policy? What happens with all the 2024 books?

So the state actually is the one that really kind of dictates that adoption cycle. And so as the state comes through and they set the standards that go through, that's when we go through our adoption cycle. Until it follows the state. So typically, it's not going to be 2024 something happens and then 2025 a new one comes out. We have time for it. So we plan for those. And then in Sanger Unified, we go through a process of an adoption, where we work with our labor partners and our teachers to go through so they can preview the new curriculum that's coming on. And they can help us and guide us through what's that what next textbook we're going to do.

That's fantastic. And the new books, I understand they get adopted. Specifically asking about the old books. Every five years or whatever else, what happens to the old books?

We we go through a process, where we will either recycle those or I'll I to recycle them. I would have to go and check to see exactly what that process is.

Now that recycling and and the only reason I'm singling you out is because you were the superintendent who showed up tonight, this is not targeting By

by the way, thank you for singling me out as superintendent. But yeah. Kidding.

You're welcome. I I I just want you're you're my you're the subject matter expert here. It's the only reason. And I understand this is not coming down on you. I just wanna understand the state's policy. And you're probably I mean, you're dressed the smartest. You gotta be the smartest guy as far as this is concerned. With the old books and the recycling them, is that a like, physically, they need to be physically recycled or those books can be taken and I mean, I'd imagine the changes year to year if it's like anything when I was in school, minor changes, kind of updates to some wording, maybe some new pictures, maybe some updated terminology. But the structure of the books doesn't change significantly. That you hear that?

Not necessarily because when they're going through and they're adopting new standards, those are substantial changes. They're not requiring textbooks for minor changes coming through. It's substantial changes that come through to the standards.

Are there specific entities who have to receive these books to be recycled? Or is that literally we're taking you to a recycling

No, would have to check to what our process is. We have a process that we go through.

Okay. And the reason I bring this up is there are some very, very small private educational institutions, not just like a a nice fancy private school where you send your kids for $20,000 a year, but I'm talking just a small kind of mom and pop educational enterprise that are opening up, and it is a significant financial burden for them to try to acquire. And if they're trying to maintain any sort of district or state standards, it's hard for them to acquire the books, thereby raising the price on all the students too, which at some point can be financially insurmountable.

Yes. The new textbook adoption is extremely expensive. Yes.

And I understand that there are limitations. The state puts restrictions on where those books can go, meaning they can't go to another school, especially if they're trying to maintain that standard. What I would be interested in looking into is to see if any of these schools who would be grateful to have a 2006 copy of something, if there's any way the city can come in or any sort of local entity, act as, an intermediary and receive these expired books meant to be recycled from any school district in the area. And then the city, since we have fewer restrictions given the state educational code because we don't abide by it, if the city then would be able to have the purview to distribute these books for low or no cost to private entities who would want that?

So my I I would have to look into that. I can give you an answer at this point.

Okay. I don't require any homework. Far be it for me to ask for that. We I'll look into that. I just wanted to know kind of what that recycling process look like because I think it would kind of lower some financial barriers for some Sure. Yes, absolutely. Thank you very much for sharing your expertise, sir.

All right. Love to get an update on new and forthcoming campuses from each district. We'll start over here with Sanger.

Currently, are in the process of a new elementary school that's going to be north of Temperance And Church. And then we also have JFK that's opening up in two weeks. That's a brand new seventh, eighth grade middle school. It used to be all high school only. So this is going to be middle school and high school together for the first time.

Okay. And then the first campus you mentioned that was elementary school?

Yes. That's elementary school called Temperance Elementary School. It's going be North Of Temperance on Church.

It's the elementary school on

Temperance. Sorry.

Oh,

haven't named it. Sorry. So it's actually North Of Temperance, and it's West Of Church. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. What's happening in Columbus Unified with respect to new campuses?

We are proud to be opening up very shortly the Terry Bradley Educational Center with Clovis South. It's located at Clinton And Locan. It will be a seventh, eighth and ninth grade school for this coming year, and then of course we add another grade level each year. And in terms of and just to piggyback in in concerns, for the school year, school starts in Clovis on August 18. A reminder to everyone in the city to stay focused on driving.

There's, you know, new electric scooters and bikes. They travel very quickly. And then also near the high schools, many 16 year olds got their license over the summer. So again, being very careful at all schools.

I I appreciate that. My my baby brother is one of those Clovis Unified students who got his license this summer, so incoming.

Incoming. Incoming.

And just a little footnote to what Wilma had to say. So the the Terry Bradley Educational Complex encompasses Ambassador Philip Sanchez Intermediate School, and then Clovis the new Clovis South High School. So we're building two schools out there in the the big complex. Oh, yeah. Clovis South. It's the Longhorns. Right? Yeah.

Yeah.

We're really excited about it. It's a a major investment out there. And also thanks to City of Fresno. This is in the the Southeast growth part of of town that developed it's SADA. Right? Okay. So back in my day, it was SAGA and you guys changed it.

We changed one of the letters.

You're council member Richardson, but we're really excited about the the this year.

How about in over in Fresno Unified?

We just opened Farber. So we have some plans that are not in the immediate future for an Aviation Academy at the Chandler Airport. So we appreciate the City of Fresno working with us on that. It's still a couple of years down the road.

When council member Chavez was here, he'd always talk about landing the plane. So maybe we can we can make him director or something.

One day.

One day. Yeah. We have actual pilot. Okay. So Mr. Chavez used to land figurative planes. Our new Councilor Richardson lands actual planes. Actual planes. That's pretty good. Councilor Mervain, do you have a or Trustee Yang, do you have a

Oh, I forgot to add one more point for Sengyo Unified, which is a milestone that we're very proud of. We are opening our dual language at Lone Star. So we'll be having the Hmong dual language that's opening up in two weeks as well. So that's really exciting that we're happy to have that there. All thanks to previous board member trustee Vang here, who was the big push for that. But we're excited to have that campus as a dual language.

I cannot take the credit. The credit goes to our staff and in particular, Superintendent Dennis Wiegmann. He came in and he launched that program. So I'm looking forward to the Mondo Immersion First Day on August 20 at Lone Star Elementary School. Trustees Olivier and Hashimoto, you mentioned Clovis South's mascot is the Longhorn. What is the mascot of the middle school? Has it been named?

I think it's the same. It's the same.

Just like Timberwolves? Yes. Okay. Yes. And to be fair, Trustee Yang, JFK is going to open in two weeks' time. What is their mascot?

The Stingers.

Okay. Thank you. So

on the city end in terms of future growth, I mean, we've been grappling with a couple of big land use policies. We have yet to take yet to formally pass. One of those items has been a text amendment to make it more easy to convert office zone properties into housing. The other one was mentioned already, SADA, Southeast Development Area. And so we've been grappling with that internally as well.

Again, no final decisions have been made on any of that. But obviously, there's going to be a tremendous impact, especially to Clovis and Sanger regardless of what the city decides to do. So specifically for SADA, the mayor's or the mayor and or administration's recommendation has been to pursue only South Seyda at this at this time, the southern portion and leave kind of Central And Northern Seyda alone for now. So I know we've heard there's been a lot of discussion about what the future impact might be in decades down the road. But in the near future, the only recommendation right now, at least from the administrative side, is the pursuit of South Sata.

So what the council will do, I couldn't say at this point. But those are discussions that are in progress that will certainly impact future growth. And then the text amendment as well and what happens there and those components that are passed will just affect development generally, primarily within existing city boundaries. That's probably more with respect to the impact on Fresno Unified more than anything. Council members, any other updates I missed?

I just kind of want to put those two big. I don't think we shouldn't discuss them at length, but I just wanted to put on the radar for the trustees, that potential impact. Okay. All right. Any last or final thoughts on new campuses of future growth? Future growth, yes. Future growth, yes.

So this is less future geographical growth. But as we've seen over the summer and in this last school year, there's an increase in the in kids who are growing up and trusted by their parents who take these e bikes to school. I'm wondering if there's a way we can work with PD between the police department and the schools to come up with some sort of registration system for these. As of now, there's no need or requirement to register these. So one, it's a little bit hard to chase down the accountability for the parent and the kid.

But secondly, if they get it taken from them and it gets impounded, there's no way to get that back because you can't prove that you owned it. So I'm thinking there's a potential partnership there between PD, the city and the school districts to, as these kids ride them to school, make sure that if you're riding an unregistered e bike to school that we work with them to fix that. Is there any way that we can work through either the SROs or traffic to do something along those lines, sir?

There's some significant legal challenges with that councilman and the fact that those e bikes are literally illegal to operate on highways. And it would be very difficult for the police department to take a position where we would license those vehicles because they don't meet the criteria to be on the road legally. So we're in a tough position. We know they're out there. We know they're all over the place.

And we know that there's kids riding them beyond their capabilities. The difficulty we have in that is it's very difficult for us to come in and endorse and say they're okay to ride when it's actually illegal for them to operate anywhere other than private property. So that's an issue with the vehicle code. I know they're dealing with this at the state level, but it would be very difficult for the police department or this council to step in and say and legitimize that use of the e bike given the current law.

I understand it's it's ill advisable and potentially legally hazy as well trying to endorse something that is unendorsable and illegal. The informational graphic that was handed out that we have from traffic shows guidelines that are to be adopted when you're using an ebike. Things like helmets, things like sidewalk versus street versus bike lane and things of that nature. Is there any legal or acceptable method under which someone could operate one of these e bikes to and from a school?

Let me check with our legal counsel on that because that's an issue we're exploring right now. And I also believe they're trying to address that at the state level in California because it is a challenge. We know that they're out there and they're just not regulated properly at this point.

Okay. Working with DMV as a city is just about as much fun as working with DMV as an individual. So I know there is some that's probably not the right way to go about it. But just like I spoke with our our parks director about solving a parking issue that we had, if we have to institute a little bit of guerrilla warfare here, and even if it's something like the program we had with the registration of catalytic converters or, hey, we're just gonna make a database that if you would like, we will etch a number associated name with it and this can just be our own little internal Fresno registry that way if it gets impounded, mom and dad can get it back and ground you appropriately. But just some way to track and kind of add accountability here. Feel like there's a gap there.

I think it's worth explaining, sir. Absolutely.

All righty. I appreciate that. We'll reach out to our district captain in District 6 and coordinate with traffic and hopefully loop you in to, again, operate within the bounds of the law, take the counsel of our legal aid, but maybe close the loop and earn some accountability here. Thank you, sir.

Look forward to it. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, council member. Any further discussion under the infrastructure and safety in around schools category? Trustee?

In terms of growth, there has been like some surprises like we didn't realize there was 48 of our students living in Fresno Unified. So just for clarification, the boundaries, it's basically any area North Of Herndon between West and Willow. So the West is our boundary going this way, North Of Herndon, and then it is East Of Willow, which is then close unified. It's a very large backwards L.

Sure. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah. But a good chunk of that is very densely populated City Of Fresno neighborhoods, absolutely, on the eastern part of the city as well. All right.

We'll move down to our last and final category for the evening, green and spacesjoint use. And we have one sub item under this, so we can discuss generally the green and blue spaces and joint use. But the one sub item is coordination with our parks department here at the city. Our parks department is here if folks have questions. Our Director, Erin Aguirre, is here as well.

So I will open the floor for discussion on green spaces, blue spaces, joint use, MOUs, and any coordination we'd like to see with our parks or any further coordination we'd to see with our parks department. Trustee?

Also have quite a bit of comments on this item. Maybe I'll keep it short and just offer some opportunities for collaboration. Two things. Swim. If we can extend the season, open it up sooner, and have more evening swims evening swim lessons, I think the hours just need to be a little more accessible.

The registration was difficult. And so I'll just I'll talk from personal experience, and then I'll offer we we I know you we have an agreement. And at least for the Fresno Unified kids, it might be an opportunity for Parks and Fresno Unified to work together to do the swimming lessons registrations with our camp registration. That way, it's in one system. I know it might not work for everything.

It wouldn't eliminate your separate system, but it might be easier for parents to utilize one system for the lessons that Fresno Unified has. And that way, they're not having to navigate three or four different systems. The same I would say for Camp Fresno. If that could all be integrated, all the things available to kids that are within Fresno Unified, that would be great. Easier for parents to navigate, and we already pay for a system that has that tracking.

I don't know if there's a way to just make it easier because I'll say it's just kind of hard to register with the parks thing. I I called, and people were really nice and everything like that. But, anyway, the registration for swim. Also, thirty minutes is just really hard for a swim lesson. So just some ideas on on on on the swim.

For the parks, so as I mentioned, we have we, Fresno Unified, has after school programs that run until six. It would be great if parks, instead of having the same after school program hours, maybe you have three or four hours on Saturday and three or four hours on Sundays. That way, you're doing a different thing at a different time that parents might need support or or child care or whatever. Same amount of resources, same amount of funding, but it's not after school when at least within the boundaries of Fresno Unified, kids already have an after school option. So you're not duplicating because I can't imagine, and I'd be interested in seeing the numbers of participation Because since we went to universal after school, there's no wait list.

You know, parents can just leave their kid at school. They don't have to transport their kid anywhere. So I would wonder about utilization at some of the community centers. And so if they could switch them to either maybe it's a later time during the day. I don't know if that's workable, but at least the weekends might be a might be a time when a parent might need, you know, three or four hours, whatever.

That and organized activities, not arts and crafts and, you know, like more of an organized structure like activity. Hey, we're going to do basketball for something more organized that kids can go and do that's more active. So those would be my suggestions of like trying to coordinate, at least I'll say for Fresno Unified, so that we're not duplicating the same hours for the same population, but rather trying to enhance the availability of a place where a kid particularly since we're talking about our homeless population, place where a kid can feel safe and do something, we're expanding the number of hours where that's available. So kept it short.

Director, a couple of questions. We have Erin Aguirre here, who heads our Parks Department. So to we'll start from top to bottom. There's only a couple of issues. With respect to the swim lessons and our system there, It's all to be clear, is it all consolidated between the city and the district or are these are these at all separate?

We collaborate afternoon or good evening, Aaron and good Gary, Parks Director. We collaborate with Fresno Unified before the season starts. We do offer swim lessons at Fresno Unified School District pool sites as well as City of Fresno pool sites. So it's kind of a joint effort. We work with Fresno Unified early in the year to kind of outline pull hours, pull time, a lot of coordination with the various schools with water polo. So trying to get enough pull time for those lessons and recreation swimming as we can.

Yes. So the it's all consolidated, it's my understanding. As an FUSD parent, when they registered, it's through Inplay, that's the vendor, I believe, they used to register some lessons. Is that correct?

The City of Fresno's registration.

This year,

we did it a little different. We worked with Fresno Unified and we actually used the in place system I think you're referring to. And we have ours and Shelby McNabb, my Assistant Director worked closely with Ms. Connie Chaw on that. And I understand next year might have some additional changes with the software, but yes, so this year was our first year working in the in play system and our typical rec track system that we utilize in the City Of Fresno.

So there's two different

This year there was, yes.

There were okay, there was two, okay.

Correct.

I see. So we're working on consolidation of the

think years before we ran everything through our rec track system, I think that simplified it, but being good partners with Fresno Unified, we try to go that way. And I think we've some lessons learned through that process that we'll fine tune for next year.

Yes. We I mean, obviously, we share the most overlap with Fresno Unified. But what about city residents and other parts that are not overlapping with Fresn Unified that they would go straight through the city website then?

Most of them have come through our rec track system. We just offered another round of swim lessons. And I think most of those went through rec track this second session that started.

Okay. Okay. So that is the frustration you're expressing with primarily with the red track? Okay. And not having that portion consolidated. So we've consolidated the lessons, we just haven't consolidated the sign up system.

Yes. And I think that's our goal is to make it as easy as possible for the parents. I don't think they care what system they're using, whether it's in play or rec track, they want to sign their youth up for swim lessons and or camps.

Okay. All right. So we're making progress, it sounds like? Yes.

Okay. And let me just as I said, don't want to just complain. I'm offering whatever way we can collaborate because I know, especially for our low income parents, as soon as it becomes difficult and there's a barrier or because I'm also looking at the in place system and how complicated it is and so seeing how on our end I know Connie's on it, etcetera, trying every year to make it easier and more user friendly. But I know, for example, if you have various opportunities for the same group of kids, parents get confused. And so whatever we can do on our end to make sure that kids are maximizing the opportunities available and it could be cost saving as well.

Right. And think we recognize that too as a department. Early on, lobby of Dickey Youth Center where we have our admin building was full of parents trying to sign kids up because they couldn't work through the rec track system. So we've gone through some upgrades. We've eliminated that and we're going through another round of upgrades with rec track again to try to make it as easy as possible, not just for camps and lessons, but reserving courts as well out in our parks.

Okay, great. Any other questions or comments from the Director? We have Councilmember Vang.

Director, Gary, thank you very much for being here tonight. Just a few questions. How many swimming pools are owned by the City of Fresno?

I think we're at 10 swimming pools, nine or 10 swimming pools. And those are throughout the various council districts.

Okay. And with regards to having an MOU or contract with school districts, do the city have a contract with other school districts who represent here tonight besides Fresno Unified?

Currently, just Fresno Unified, but this year we did collaborate with Clovis Unified. And I think that could be something that we explore for hopefully future years.

Again, going back to the number that 48% of Clovis Unified students are in the City Of Fresno, about 40% of Sangat Unified students are in the City Of Fresno, and we can get the number with Central Unified. I'm sure the number is very high up there. And if we can expand to be inclusive extend the opportunity to these other three school districts to have their students the opportunity to take advantage of city facilities like Spring and Post, that would be great. I'm looking forward to again having that opportunity to expand beyond Fresno Unified. On the issue or the item of green space, I want to thank the school districts for opening their campuses for our citizens to play and to enjoy.

In particular where I live, there is a tremendous lack of green space in Southeast restaurant, particularly at the eastern part of Southeast restaurant. And so I've seen a lot of students go into Fanchard Creek Elementary in particular day in and day out, evening after evening to utilize that green space as their park. And so I want to thank, I know that Central Unified has schools that are open to the public and students utilize that, but in particular from what I've observed Clovis Unified. Thank you very much for that opportunity. I'm sure other sites in Clovis and other sites in Fresno and St.

Edgar as well for opening their grass area of their sites. So your students and our constituents can go there and enjoy that green space. Again, Southeast Resident is lacking quite a bit of green space in comparison to other parts of the city. Director Geary, I want to touch upon the 49 acre park that is being built as we speak right now. That's on, I believe, Peach Avenue between Butler and Church.

So it's right where the railroad track is. And so that is a 49 acre park that is being developed in three phases. Phase one is in the books. We have break ground and there's tractors, again, digging up dirt. And very soon next week, we will have an opportunity to announce the naming of that park officially.

City Council Member will have an opportunity to name that 49 acre park. And I have made a suggestion to call that the Southeast Resident Sports Complex because that is not only a park in terms of a tranquility place where people can go and enjoy, but there will be several soccer fields, grass and astroturf. I believe there are six or seven planned soccer fields as part of this 49 acre complex. And there is a cricket field as well, astroturf. There's a baseball field.

There's tennis. There's outdoor basketball. And so again, it comprises of several sports that make up this 49 acre park. And I believe there is a community garden that is in the works as well. And so we're not only getting a tranquility place, a community garden, we're getting sports complex.

And what was missing in the original plan before I came to Cedar Hall was a gym. And I suggested that if we do have space and I believe we do to incorporate an indoor gym where we can have indoor basketball, indoor volleyball and other indoor sports including the use of that gym as a community center where perhaps elders can go in and play bingo when it's not being used as basketballvolleyball other sports. And so I want to thank the Mayor again for allocating $165,000 into the feasibility, the drawing of having a gym being incorporated into Phase two of this 49 acre park. And when you talk about 49 acres, I mean, it's not the size of Woodward Park, it's not the size of Roating, but in Southeast Resino, that is huge. And I don't think we will have another opportunity in Southeast Resonant to have a 49 acre parksports complextranquility space.

And so it is extremely important that when we are in the process of developing of a planning that we incorporate and be inclusive as much as possible and having again listening to constituents from January through April when we talk about green space that is one of their priorities. And now that we have an actual opportunity to provide and build and come to fruition the components that goes into developing this green space. And so it would add a huge percentage to the green space, not only to the city, but in particular Southeast Fresno. And if I miss anything in terms of the sports complex, obviously, Director Aguirre, please chime in and fill in this space. But that's my comments.

And I'm looking forward to the next council meeting and to officially present to the community the naming of this 49 acre park. And if I miss anything, by all means, please add to my comments, sir.

No, Councilman, I think you got it all. I don't think you missed a single element in that, so thank you.

The completion of Phase one, do we have a timeline?

So I think we're looking at early twenty twenty six. As you mentioned, all of those amenities bearing any unforeseen with construction, you never know. But right now, everything seems to be moving. And yes, absolutely, we're excited to have our first ever synthetic sports field here with lights. And it just so happens to be in Southeast, a neighborhood I grew up in. And happy to see it and I'm excited for the community.

Yes, as well as I do. And I believe there are playgrounds, swing slides as well?

Correct. There will be a tot lot for the young children with the rubberized surfacing with shade sails to protect them from these hot days.

Is there any amenities that I failed to mention? I think we covered almost

all them. I think you covered them all. Are some additional potential ad alternates. I think there's a potential for a splash pad funding would be obviously a commitment we would need to secure. But yes, we packed a lot into this 49 acres.

And as you mentioned, it is dissected by the railroad line, is that California alignment. So the southern portion is about 28 acres in total and the remaining 21 would be on the north side, which would include more of the passive recreation. You mentioned the community gardens, walking trails, exercise stations And the southern would be more of the recreation activities, cricket, the soccer, baseball and of course, field hockey, basketball and the other amenities. But that's how it will be divided recreation versus a passive park. But it's a major park, 49 acres in comparison, the regional sports complex out in Southwest is about 110 acres.

So just under half of that size, which is a significant increase to our parks inventory and will make a huge difference in not just Southeast, but the entire City Of Fresno.

I agree. And the railroad track is the dividing line between the tranquility part of that 49 acre park and then on the southern end of that is athletic fields. And so it is one big 49 acre, but if you look at it, north of that has its own theme and south of the railroad track has its own theme.

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

That's all I have. Thank you.

All right. Does anybody have anyone else have questions or on Parks? Councilmember Richardson.

Director Geary, good evening now. Are there is there any situation under which one of the school districts would reserve a parks facility?

Can you say it again?

I'm sorry. Yes. Parks facilities are reservable by the general public. Correct. Does that ever happen that any entity from one of the school districts reserves parks I

believe Clovis Unified, we're working with Fresno Unified, potentially Ewing Elementary on Carozza Park, which is off of all of just east of Chestnut. So there are times where we do work with the school districts on events, track meets. For Ewing Elementary, for instance, this was going to be for their softball team. So again, just trying to work with the assets around the schools.

Got it. To include Woodward Park for some of the school races and things like that? That's correct. Do we charge the school districts the same that we charge the general public for those reservations?

For the Woodward Park, the track meet you're referring to, there's an agreement the city has with Clovis Unified. I believe that just got renewed. I'd have to go back and look at the fees to see what we charge. But typically, we would charge through our master fee schedule. But again, on that special track meet, I'm not sure what the negotiated terms were.

Do we make any significant amount of money on charging the school districts who are already providing services for using the city's parks?

Master fee schedule, if we go down that road, not really. Master fee schedule, for instance, I'll give you an example of a soccer field, it's $25 for a four hour reservation. So not really making a whole lot of money there. But again, I think in some cases our regional parks where some of that money is made is probably on parking. But as far as our assets, a lot. Okay.

Chair and City Clerk, I'd be interested looking forward. Obviously, it require an amendment to the master fee schedule. But I'd like to look into some sort of reciprocity between the school districts and the city as far as reserving facilities to provide services to the people who already live in both of those jurisdictions. I know Clovis Unified doesn't charge for the reservation of their facilities, and we use that because schools are cultural centers. Like it or not, love it, hate it, doesn't matter.

People know how to get to the school where their kid goes to school. So it's a great place to hold meetings. It's a great place to hold events outdoors. Fresno Unified, the city, Sanger Central, parks, I'd love to work something out in the master fee schedule where it is gentlemanly when it comes to or I guess ladylike when it comes to the mutual reservation of facilities for us to benefit from something that's already in both of our jurisdictions. I think it would just make sense and stop taxpayers payers from having to pay something that they're already paying for, if that makes sense.

It does. Because oftentimes when we have these big capital projects, we are tapping into the elementaries or junior highs to utilize cafeterias to get that community, get their input and get their involvement.

There any input from anyone on the school districts or is there anything to add on that note?

I think immediately, it just comes up the maintenance and like who's going to clean up, the janitorial, all those. I think logistically, immediately, that's where my head goes. So and in terms of reciprocity, because we have quite few agreements in terms of green space and pool space, whereby those agreements and that treatment is because we were providing the pools and the green space and we are providing services in return, right? So there's that that give and that take. And so, for example, our pools require a lot of maintenance, and it's it's a huge cost center for us.

And so when we're providing an amenity to the public, that's an additional cost that comes to us that is wear and tear that then comes out of our students. And so, it's all taxpayer dollars, but at the same time, it's it just has to be in a way that's equitable between the jurisdictions, right? And so I think of it in a logistics perspective because I'm always thinking about how does this impact and what are the ripple effects. And so, for example, we might hold one meeting at a community center, and there may be 30 events at our pool. And so that has all kinds of other implications.

So I'm sure lawyers and staff and all the incredible professional people that work at the city and the district can at the various districts can figure out something that works for everybody and reduces the bureaucracy and any of the barriers. So I'll leave it in their hands.

Okay, then Director, City Clerk, Chair, any school district that wanted to have a memorandum of understanding, I'd be interested in pursuing that with them, obviously, pending an adjustment to the master fee schedule for that.

I just want to add one thank you for the opening up the parks to Clovis Unified. Member Yang, I'm glad that you're enjoying the schools. And I just wanna add that all our schools in Clovis Unified, it's open to the public. So and it's it's built in a community. So the schools often are where families may come to have a picnic, and that's why we were talking earlier about safety, making sure that our maintenance is there early in the morning to clean up.

So we are always open to working together, but it may not be at the level that you might think just because of the community schools that we built and we truly don't close it off whether it be we had a conversation about swimming pools, it's open to the community to be able to serve lunches to the children during the summer and all that. But definitely we know that there's an open door policy.

Yeah, and we appreciate that policy. Have a couple of Clovis Unified, I'll call parks. For the most part, the community believes they're City of Fresno parks, right, we get the calls for Bob Belcher and Keith Heist. While they're Clovis Unified, work with you all to have that joint agreement to open up for green space. So we appreciate that partnership with you all.

It just makes sense. And just like Member Richardson was saying, they are our taxpayers and they are our students and families. Everyone can use it.

Thank you.

All right, folks. We're coming up on two point five hours. I know, I mean, you're politicians, we can go another four hours, I'm sure. Your second wins?

Motion to extend the meeting.

Oh, Is there a vice chair? Someone take over? Well, I appreciated the very thorough discussion. If there are are there any sort of last and final thoughts either on this topic or altogether? Anybody would like to share?

My perpetual topic about dogs.

It needs to be GenDyed for the next meeting.

Yes. Okay.

I just want to thank Ed for being here.

Okay.

Is this the time to say good night and say my final Yes.

But like thirty seconds.

Like Jerry Springer's final thought? Thirty seconds. Yes, sir. No. I I think that I'm really happy to be a part of of this committee, and I think that this meeting will turn out to be a a very productive course of action for us to be on.

And I don't necessarily know if there's going to be policy outcome, and I don't necessarily know what what's actually going to come of this. But I I do believe that it's very positive that we're here sitting with you. We're talking about problems in our communities, we're talking about how to solve these problems and work collaboratively, and we've learned about how many pools there are, and we've learned about open space, and we've learned about law enforcement, and that you repainted those crosswalks and you're I mean, this is information exchange and and relationship building that I think, you know, we may not come out with some kind of policy document and something we do here may not be binding that's gonna change the course of education in our community. But the reality is is that the fact that we're all sitting here together, exchanging information, exchanging ideas, getting to know one another, I think it's very positive, and I'm looking forward to the the the next to this series of meetings. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Same here. I'm a newbie, but it's been a collaborative collaborative and exciting to be a part of this And it's for our community and student safety and their student achievements and for their families as well. So I look forward to future meetings.

Great. All right. We'll go ahead and adjourn at two hours and twenty nine minutes. Good work, everybody. I appreciate your time. We'll see you at the next one.