For the month of December, AAPS BOE Meetings are being held via Zoom. The meeting aired on Zoom and on Xfinity Channel 18. The district typically posts the recording split into segments the day after the meeting or Xfinity Channel 18 will often replay it. The agenda for tonight’s meeting is available online.
Note: Our family schedule this year does not make live blogging the meetings easy this year. This year’s meetings have been more routine than in 2020-2021. So, I will be recording the meetings on Channel 18 and blogging them as my schedule allows on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
Note: I forgot to set the recording for tonight’s meeting. I only started it around 7:20 and missed the beginning of the meeting.
Call to Order
Roll Call
Based on who I see and hear in the meeting and who voted on various items
Present: Kelly, Querijero, Johnson, Gaynor, Lazarus, Baskett, DuPree,
Other Attendees: Swift, Cluley,
Agenda
The Agenda is available on Board Docs. This is the approved agenda and will include any updates and results of any votes.
Motioned by Kelly, Seconded by Querijero. Unanimously approved
Public Commentary
As is our practice, we do not cover public commentary. There were only 2 comments tonight. All of the comments are available on BoardDocs. Both comments were from doctors expressing concern about student’s mental health.
Clarifications
I joined after the clarifications
Board Committee Reports
The Bond Committee and Performance Committee were on the agenda to provide reports. I joined after these reports and will add later if I can.
Superintendent Update
I believe my recording started after a video that the Superintendent shared and some trustee commentary was shared.
The meeting picks up with Trustee Johnson:
Johnson: I’ll echo Lazarus and Baskett about how beautiful the video was about students enjoying in person learning and adapting to create the environment. The spirit is still there in a stressful situation.
I do want to call out one comment you made about if you’re vaccinated you’re not required to quarantine. Just to clarify that is if you are vaccinated and in contact with someone, you don’t have to quarantine. If you’re vaccinated and test positive, you still have to quarantine.
Swift: Correct. Thank you. I should also qualify this is why I call it a draft and share with you before sharing with the community. I’ll also add if you’re vaccinated and have been a close contact and not experiencing symptoms.
Fall 2021 Annual Student Enrollment Report
Swift: We’re being joined by members of our research and enrollment team. You’ll recognize Ms Linden and we’re joined by Dan Berger and Meghan Jellema Assistant Directors for Student Accounting & Research Services.
We reviewed yesterday with Performance committee. We’ll be going back to complete the class size report which will be forthcoming early next year. And we’ll also share the 4 supporting documents. This will include school by school reports.
In talking with trustees, we were all remarking on our enrollment and doing what we could to keep class sizes at reasonable levels and to serve students within our schools and not have enrollment increase dramatically. That is where we are. We’ll look at schools of choice enrollment, student mobility – as a university town we have people moving in and out. This is a head count of students. I know the finance committee receives number, that’s a different number – a full-time equivalent count. This is looking student by student.
Note: The presentation can be accessed on Board Docs here.
In keeping with state reporting, these are Y5-12. We add in preschool students, which are counted a bit differently. Our Y5-12 is 17,027 plus 384 preschool for a total of 17,411.
Looking over time, we saw a drop of 2.17% – 377 students from Fall 2020 to Fall 2021. Mr Berger & his team did an analysis of AAPS vs Michigan enrollment and then AAPS vs WISD.
Berger: We were trying to look at our numbers and see if our trends are unique to AAPS or more global. I pulled data on the state as a whole and also on WISD. Over the last 18 years, Michigan enrollment has decreased by 16.1%, Ann Arbor has increased by 4.4%. Compared to WISD, they have seen a 4.5% decrease vs the 4.4% AAPS increase. This is particularly interesting, Ann Arbor is 35-40% of the county enrollment and are included in the county.
Swift: Slide 7 is a focus on the three levels. The difference of 2% from Fall 202o to Fall 2021 is held up across the levels (1.8% at elementary and 3.2% at middle). Slide 8 is kindergarten enrollment vs birth rate. The 2009 birth year is extrapolated to 2015 Y5/K
Berger: Again, these are on two scales. I added 5 years to birth rate numbers to extrapolate to years enrolling in school. From 2014-2021 , our enrollment increased by 7.3$% while birthrate dropped by 3.2%.
Swift: In looking at student race/ethnicity, we see a consistent diversity through 2019 to 2021. We also look at the trend by age group. The real trend we’ve seen is an increase in the time is the students in younger grades have a higher rate of reporting multi-ethnic group. I will note that the race/ethnicity information is self-reported at the time of enrollment. We also have Native American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Other represent less than 1% and are left off the slide but will be on the full chart.
In looking at student need groups, the size have remained surprisingly stable. 1 in 8 are special needs with an IEP (12%), 1 in 5 (21%) are in homes impacted by poverty, and 1 in 10 have a language other than English as the first language (10%) with about 72 languages spoken in the district.
As we’ve expanded Y5 and now have it in every elementary and K-8 school. Our Y5 and K are fairly consistent with last year. We hope to see a rebound as we move forward. We have not restored tot he level we had pre pandemic. As we turn to 2022, we’ll be doing Kindergarten roundups and signing students up for preschool and upping the recruitment effort. We want families to know Y5 and kinder are tremendous opportunity.
Our Washtenaw Educational Options consortium (WEOC) has participated in other programs to offer more options for students – Washtenaw International High School (WIHI), Early College Alliance with EMU, and Washtenaw Alliance for Virtual Education (WAVE). You can see over the last 5 years that the numbers have remained consistent. There are 220 students. These are AAPS students. They are fully funded and we contribute the amount to the consortia in order to offer the programs.
Students entering from within AAPS borders – new students who live in AAPS and it is 226. It is coming up from last year. It hasn’t been restored to higher numbers of previous years. We receive from charter, parochial/religious, private, home school/online.
Berger: This year we have a new area which is non public within district. This graph pulls from 2 pieces in powerschool. A code that tells us from a non-public entity and then a comment field that says where they came from. Using that we can usually say, charter, religious, homeschool. From last year’s data we don’t have that information. With everything else going on that wasn’t prioritized.
Swift: We have new Ann Arbor residents. 87 entering from within the county and on the right, a synopsis of students entering from outside the county. With 665 entering from outside the county, almost every area has increased this year. The out of country is different – both those who moved from outside the country with graduate program, visiting scholars and exchange student program. I’d like to ask Ms Jellema who joined us from UM. She previously worked at UM admissions. I’ve asked her to share a bit of what she saw on out of country as it relates to UM.
Jellema: The figures represent a return to “normality” in terms of immigration data. Over the past 2 years we saw significant difficulties for students and families migrating here – closures of consulates, inability to process visas. As consulates are reopening, we are seeing a resurgence.
Swift: About our student exchange programs, we will continue to keep an eye on the ability to place international students and are optimistic that as we approach fall 2022 we can revive those programs.
There are 752 new students from new Ann Arbor residents. Second highest in last 6 years.
School of choice is pretty consistent with past years – 408 students. It was more intricate as superintendents across the county worked together to uphold students who moved via COVID. You know we can’t prioritize any students, but we didn’t take care to grant releases when necessary and to maintain a student’s school. There are 124 students were previously enrolled in AAPS but moved out of district. They could continue to keep school consistent via school of choice.
Consistent with past years, about 89% who are residents of AAPS or non-resident children of employees.
For departures, we are looking through the pandemic. The exits of 920 students. AA is a highly mobile community. This is the lowest in recent years. The out of US moves is lower and even out of state is lower.
One highlight of the past year is our virtual programming. The A2 Live is synchronous program of 341. That is the size of an elementary school. There are an additional 120 in A2Virtual+ asynchronous. There are 123 part time 5th graders in A2 Virtual+ which represents the students engaged in math class beyond 5th grade level. In 6-8 grade virtual was added this past year. The virtual full time at secondary is about 107. There are 608 part time A2 Virtual to lessen daily schedules, to accelerate, for credit recovery. I also hear from students of IEP using it to review their learning. In total 1299 students are using some virtual learning.
Several of you asked if we could touch on the number of virtual students who have returned in November and the number anticipating a return at the next crossing in mid-January. About 66 returned to in school learning at the end of November. 41 more are planning to return in mid-January. A great question the trustees have asked is how many are going the other way from in person to virtual. There were 28 elementary joining virtual village and 9 more projected for January of 2022.
The size of Virtual Village elementary is the size of a large AAPS elementary school.
IB enrollment at Mitchell, Scarlett, and Huron. They are currently in their first 5 year re-authorization process. The IB enrollment has remained strong, consistent, and stable.
A2 STEAM enrollment has been strong. We are doing our best at every school to keep classes reasonably sized, so they have come down a bit.
We always value our diversity and status as an international community. We do believe the international enrollment will return. We’re keeping to see ongoing COVID impact. Mobility incoming and outgoing continues. We are looking at space needs especially where we made commitments to add seats in NE, south and southwest as they grow. We’re excited about the possibility of universal preschool and other programs to make sure we meet the space needs going forward. We have a housing and development report and will continue to update and evaluate that.
There are some signs of strength in AAPS. There have been some changes in this time.Newly enrolled AAPS is second highest increase in last 6 years. We see more enrolling from within and beyond the county. Overall departures is lowest in 6 years, but in part is due to less students moving out of state or country. Virtual programs serve about 7.6% of AAPS students. The virtual programs have served the purpose they were designed for. I’m proud of those offerings. Many districts cut those virtual programs, but we maintained them.
Trustee Questions
Kelly: I started with a long list of questions in the first slide, but by the end of the presentation, I just have a few.
Last year we noticed that a lot of little kids weren’t going to school. Parents just said it’s not right this year. I was expecting to see those return. Is my suspicion right, that we’ll see a bubble.
Berger: We looked for it and did not see a big increase from K to 1st grade. As of right now I don’t have evidence to support.
Kelly: They may have self-selected out.
Berger: We’re also still in the pandemic.
Kelly: With our international students, we look like just more than 1/2 of pre-pandemic. Do we expect that to change in the future.
Swift: I was pleasantly surprised. I feared it would remain at last year’s low level.
Jellema: This number also doesn’t include any exchange students. We don’t get to see those. Hopefully those collaborations can return.
Kelly: The small decrease we did have, is it spread out or patterns of where it was?
Swift: It was pretty much spread out with middle school being a bit higher. Which trustees you will recall in the before times middle school always had a bit more of a turnover.
Linden: There are a few elementary that serve higher number of international students because of their location and we saw a pattern there as well.
Swift: When we share those charts every year, I will post a note that folks shouldn’t draw conclusions about swings at particular schools. We know some schools have higher enrollment among international families.
Kelly: I know you said we’re not necessarily comparing to others. I appreciate trend vs state over time. That’s going to cause issues in the state over time beyond just education. The decrease in the ISD over those years surprised me. Our growth didn’t surprise me because I’ve seen it the last few year. When we look at a tighter focus years, I had a hard time with the scale. Can you help me see 19/20/21 picture of those trends? Not just state/ISD, but also to our peers – similarly matched districts.
Swift: We absolutely will. This date isn’t published at the state level yet. We can’t until some point in 2022 around spring see district by district comparison. I am noting for all of us that we are particularly interested in all that.
Kelly: I know when we looked at it, we lost a bunch, but we lost less than other parts of the state.
Querijero: I have a question and will reference a few slides. On number 11 with the graphic that 1/8 are categorized as special needs, 1/5 in poverty, and 1/10 with another language primarily spoken at home. I’m curious whether these trends have changed in time, and if we have the same information in 17 and 20 with what categories the arrivals and departures fall into. When we add students or lose students, which kinds of students are they.
Swift: The trend over time of those groups you will see in support documents and I think it is worth noting to bring that into the presentation. In my mind it has remained consistent. Poverty has been consistent in 20-25%. Some of us worry that with universal free lunch families might not be focused on signing paperwork. Our suspicion is that poverty rate will likely increase. The one area that has grown over time is English as a second language.
Linden: Every year the English Language Learner group grows. We saw an increase after state identified new students int his group. Each year we do add more to that mix. To Dr Swift’s point about students reaching poverty, I think we hit 51% in the country. We know free lunch is offered to every student and motivation to complete paperwork probably went down. We think when free lunch ends, we will see an increase.
Berger: In terms of deeper analysis, that is not something we have done on arrivals. I have all the student numbers on entrances and exits and can pull the demographic information.
Querijero: I just thought you might have seen it.
DuPree: Thank you for all the work in the presentation. My question is about identifying students living in poverty and many use free and reduced lunch. Are there other ways to identify?
Swift: There are many ways we observe. For purposes of student count and reporting mechanism, the mechanism is through free and reduced lunch. You questions hows that isn’t always a perfect indicator.
Linden: To get a reliable number in district reporting, the free and reduced lunch is the most reliable. But each school has mechanisms to support in ways that the free and reduced lunch doesn’t capture. Families can also self-report needs and access tools – food, clothing, pay to play reduced fees, Rec & Ed scholarships, etc.
Berger: The free and reduced lunch is pretty much the standard for federal, state, and educational research because it is standard.
Swift: I would also add the community centers as a way to connect.
Baskett: I think regarding that we have to note the consistency of the measurement. We know with elevated education and income poverty is subjective. But free and reduced lunch is consistent. We know families at community centers who don’t meet the free/reduced lunch threshold, but are in need. We do see a drop-off as kids get older and don’t want to be identified that way. Students get a part time job so they don’t have to be identified that way.
DuPree: One quick question on school of choice enrollment on slide 18. It notes 284 come in via School of Choice. Do we know how far out of the district? Are they right at the edge or further out?
Swift; That’s really on an individual by individual basis. We don’t have a scattergram of where they come from.
Berger: By law, it has to be an ISD that touches our ISD. We do have the addresses, but we don’t look at it.
Johnson: So slide 16
Swift; In county vs out of county. You can kind of get at that here. These are moving in from inside the county.
Berger: Slide 19 does show 9.6% in county SOC vs 1.7% out of county SOC.
Johnson: I have a couple. Slide 22 I missed what the light blue 55 was in 6th grade A2 Live Online.
Swift: This is a bit tricky and I should have handled it better.
Berger: 6th is usually considered with secondary, but because of the age of vaccination the A2 Live was expanded to 6th grade since those were mostly not 12 yet. They’re also included int eh first column and counted there, but shown.
Swift: We added that late in the summer based on parent request who was concerned about unvaccinated 6th graders. It served 2 sections – 55 students.
Johnson: Slide 15 I had a hard time understanding. With those arriving from within AAPS attendance boundaries and arriving from. Can you give an example especially with this other public schools and why it was 4 in 2015.
Swfit: That’s a student from a family that joins AAPS not as a new resident of Ann Arbor.
Johnson: So they’ve been living here and attending another type of school. Finally, on slide 7 I’m trying to interpret. As I look across, there are ups and downs depending on level. As I see 2020 and 2021 there are slight drops. It’s hard with different levels broken out. Do we feel it is abnormal trend? Am I interpreting it wrong?
Swift; It’s surprising to me what remains consistent. When we get the cohort data sheet, that’s the data I love to lay beside this. So it will show a year where a class was bigger and you’ll see it work all the way through the system. I loved the question from Kelly about whether we’ll see a COVID bubble.
Annual Capital Program Report
We appreciate at the last 2021 meeting bringing you the capital improvement program report. Iw ant to thank our community for their support. As we wrap up, we reflect back to November 2019 when the community supported the bond that fall. We will be grateful for what that means in transforming our community. And a year ago in December 202o we received 3 presentations on work devising the phase one plan of the bond. We got community engagement on the plan and it was approved last December.
Now in 2021, we bring the first annual report on the capital program. Ms Osisnski will display a quick slide with what we promised our community. We set out to focus on transforming student learning and teachers/staff work experience in 4 areas including Teaching & Learning, Sustainability, Safety.
Last year was Phase One, Year One. It is impacting every building across the district. We take the responsibility to be strong stewards of these funds. You’ll see some highlights. These are all things our community has asked for and students need- air conditioning, solar, expansion of classrooms in some areas, LED lights, more preschool.
(Note this power point is not on Board Docs).
The Capital Improvement Program is a combination of Bond Fund, Sinking Fund, and Sinking Fund Repairs. The total investment is over $54 million.
Lauzzana: The bond focuses in:
- Teaching & Learning
- Safety, Health, & Well Being
- Environmental Sustainability
- Efficient & Effective Support Systems & Services
The overall Phase One Bond Plan breaks the district down into sectors. There are big projects at Scarlett, Tappan, and Community that have ongoing active projects.
Some of the work in the last year – boilers, duct work, plumbing, lights, all start with demolition and building back.
A big commitment was A/C in all buildings. Fall 2020 45% of square footage in 11 buildings was air-conditioned. As of this fall we added 3 more buildings and are up to 52%. By Fall 2022 we anticipate 24 buildings and 100% by Fall 2024.
A/C and thermal comfort is important for cognitive function and performance. Started projects at 6 elementary and completed at Dicken, Lakewood and Mitchell. Angell, Burns Park & Carpenter are close and waiting electrical service upgrades. Community HS third floor is operational and will finish summer 2022. Scarlett and Tappan also on target for Fall 2022. Community, Scarlett, and Tappan are extensive with new boilers, pumps, duct work.
Window shade replacements. We didn’t have to look hard for old shades. As we move through with A/C we are also replacing window shades. Now roller shades without multiple strings. Just a single dog chain pulley. Long lasting and commercial grade. They offer energy efficiency, security, teacher environmental control, and enhanced appearance.
Enhanced lighting in buildings. Student learning can increase by 21% in good vs poor learning environment. Visual acuity decreases and causes issues with reading and comprehension. LED lighting, dimming systems in classrooms, etc.
Utility upgrades are needed for some of the upgrades. Fire suppression sprinklers systems are being installed at Community, Scarlett, and Tappan that require a new water main from the city.
Rooftop solar arrays are completed at 5 locations – Bryant is in process with contract awarded and permitting begun. Two more are on second briefing today for Pioneer and Westerman. With these we will be at 6% of AAPS annual electric consumption. saving $180K a year. Other than DTE AAPS is largest owner of solar in the county.
Paving projects at Dicken (north lot) and Allen. Roof replacements at Huron (sections) and Bryant (nearly complete). Took care of emergency storm water repairs at Carpenter, Stormwater repairs at Thurston pond.
Eberwhite playground upgrade was completed. This wraps up district’s work and was a combination of school district allocation and fund raising at the community and state grant, they replaced with plastic lumber version. The community helped build it.
Scarlett Middle School exterior column stabilization and exterior masonry restoration at Tappan.
Minnick: Provides a financial update on the capital improvement program. The bond funds are generated by sale of bonds. The sinking funds come from tax levies.
For July-October 2021 this is part of the current fiscal year, but most of the work happens over the summer when students are not in the buildings. Total was $47.7 million, a significant investment in our facility. About 2/3 from the bond. Most of the bond costs are directed to construction and professional fees. Professional fees are for consultants – architects, project managers, etc. This includes planning for future projects as well. On the sinking fund, there are certain types of categories like roofing, athletic improvements, solar installations, etc. Before the bond, the sinking fund was used for capital improvements. In the first year of the bond, we funded these from the sinking fund.
The bond program was approved mid fiscal year last year. The fiscal year expenditures span the full year. $30.1 from the bond and $16.6 from the sinking fund. Plus $6 million in yearly sinking fund repairs that can’t be funded from the bond. That’s a total of $54.2 million investment.
Lauzzana: A preview of the 2022-2023 projects.
- Power conversion and A/C startup at Angell, Burns Park, & Caprenter
- Mechanical & Electrical improvements at Community, Scarlett, & Tappan, Clague, & Forsythe.
- A/C Upgrades: Bach, Eberwhite, Pittsfield, and Wines
- Theater Rigging Upgrades at Huron, Pioneer, Forsythe, Slauson, & Tappan (previously approved but supply chain issues)
- Parking patch & repair at Logan, Pattengill, Pittsfield, & Wines
- Elevator upgrades at Community, Slauson, Tappan
- Roofing at King, Mitchell, Pioneer, Pattengill, and Westerman
- Roof Solar at Pioneer and Westerman
- Outdoor Learning Environments at sTEAM, Abbott, Haisley, Lawton, and Thurston
- Stormwater at Lawton and Skyline
- Skyline siding
- Transportation building’s fuel system
- Major projects in planning at Mitchell & Pathways
There have been community engagement sessions in the last year. Several around sustainability and also reached out to parent groups.
Paving and concrete are both intensive from carbon emission. We’ve been working on lower embodied carbon and have partnered with MDOT. We can use recycled asphalt in base coat to decrease environment impact. We’ve also pioneered using low carbon concrete. We piloted at Dicken & Allen and will be monitoring.
We’ve stepped up recycling of materials being torn out. Over 100 tons of steel were recycled. Recycled a semi-trailer of ceiling tiles and they turn into new ceiling tiles.
We have 4 electric buses in service that were subsidized by settlement dollars to state of Michigan. We’re learning a lot and plan to implement using vehicle to grid and vehicle to building. We could pull energy from buses to supplement the grid and then go back to the buses.
We have a geothermal heating/cooling at Skyline. It’s a horizontal and in bidding process at Clague and Forsythe geothermal which will be a vertical system. That will move to all electric with a small natural gas backup – 90-95% by geothermal and natural gas for extreme cold like polar vortex. Economically it makes more sense to have natural gas backup than a larger geothermal.
Outdoor learning enhancements included playgrounds the last few years. Now, how to have academic opportunities outside for reading, nature studies, science, and more. It’s not a large capital expense but can have a big impact.
Environmental Sustainability task force is in process of developing a plan with monthly meetings. District has posted a new position for Director of Environmental Sustainability.
They’ve built a website – https://a2schoolsbond.org/.
Swift: As we promised the committee, we will report to the board each December and in January will mail out a summary to all households in AAPS community.
Trustee Questions
Baskett: I have no questions, but to say thank you. I love the presentation. I know it was long but our community put faith in us to give us the money. People are right on how we are doing it and awarding our our contracts. Ms Minnick I love where you outlined the buckets I think it was slide 42. If I have one suggestion, if we could highlight our partners by category. Maybe not for presentations, but for reference if someone asks. Always love the pictures it’s amazing how we can destroy something and put it back together.
Lazarus: I just want to piggyback on what Trustee Baskett said. I know it was long, but we did a ton of work this year. This is much more than we’ve done in quite some time. It’s wonderful we can tend to the facilities and improve the learning environment for our students and staff to work in. The pandemic set us back a bit on the bond process, but we’re moving and are ready to keep working and deliver to the community exactly what we promised them.
Johnson: I want to thank trustee Nelson and Mitchell who served on iterations of the bond committee.
Second Briefing
Note: We did not take notes on first briefings as that meeting did not air properly
There were no changes since the first briefings.
Consent Agenda
Approve:
- AN-2066 Civil Engineering Services
- AN 2067 2022 Roof Repair / Replacement: King Elementary, Mitchell Elementary, Pattengill Elementary, Pioneer High School, Westerman Preschool
- AN-2068: Rooftop Solar Array Installations: Pioneer High School and Westerman Preschool
- AN-2069: Pioneer High School Theater Seating: Purchase and Installation
- AN-2070: Technology Refresh: Infrastructure Storage Solution
- Minutes of the December 8, 2021 Regular Meeting
Moved by Gaynor. Seconded by DuPree. No discussion. Unanimously passed
Board Action
The board reviewed for approval the proposed board meeting schedule for January-June 2022
Moved by Querijero, seconded by Lazarus. No discussion. Unanimously passed
Items for Agenda Planning
Querijero: I’d like to have discussion on OERs – Open Educational Resources – for both cost savings and development for our staff.
Items from the Board
Querijero: Announcement for Saturday, December 18 at 4p Moms Demand Action are gathering. (Sorry, his connection was not good. I’ll get the information and add it)
Adjourn
Motioned by Querijero. Seconded by Baskett. No discussion. Meeting adjourned at 9:47p
