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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-28 Work Session Item#1. Meridian City Council Work Session July 28, 2020. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:33 p.m., Tuesday, July 28, 2020, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Treg Bernt, Jessica Perreault, Brad Hoaglun and Liz Strader. Also present: Chris Johnson, Adrienne Weatherly, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Miranda Carson, Tracy Basterrechea, Joe Bongiorno and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Liz Strader _X_ Joe Borton _X_ Brad Hoaglun _X_Treg Bernt X Jessica Perreault _X Luke Cavener _X_ Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, I will call this meeting to order. For the record it is Tuesday, July 28, at 4:33 p.m. We will begin this workshop with roll call attendance. Item 2: Adoption of Agenda Simison: Item 2 is adoption of the agenda. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I move that we adopt the agenda as -- as published. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Simison: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. Is there any discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Item 3: Consent Agenda [Action Item] A. Final Plat for Allmon Subdivision (H-2020-0071) by Dean Waite, Todd Campbell Construction, Inc., Located at 5875 and 5885 N. Locust Grove Rd. Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 2 of 20 B. Final Plat for Hill's Century Farm North No. 2 (H-2020-0077) by Kody Daffer, Brighton Development, Inc., Generally Located on the East Side of S. Eagle Rd., South of E. Amity Rd. C. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Sagewood West Subdivision (H-2020-0038) by Southpoint Estates, LLC, Located at 1335 W. Overland Rd. D. Acceptance Agreement between City of Meridian and Daniel Borup for Completed Public Artwork "All In-Another Day at the Office" E. Approval of Sole Source Purchase of Airprex Sidestream Phosphorus Removal Equipment From CNP/Centrisys in the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $2,123,380 F. Stipulation to Resolve Protest Between the Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District and the City of Meridian Regarding Water Rights for Fuller Park (Application Permit No. 63-34883) G. Resolution No. 20-2218: A Resolution Approving Adoption of the Community Development Block Grant Program Year 2020 Action Plan and Submission to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development; Authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to Execute and Attest the Same on Behalf of the City of Meridian; and Providing an Effective Date H. Resolution No. 20-2219: Accepting " All In-Another Day at the Office" Artwork at Fire Station 6 I. City Financial Report - June 2020 J. AP Invoices for Payment - 07/29/20 - $731,843.95 Simison: Item No. 3 is the Consent Agenda. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda, for the Mayor to sign and for the Clerk to attest. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 3- 20 Simison: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Item 4. Items Moved From the Consent Agenda [Action Item] Simison: There are no items moved from the Consent Agenda. Item 5: Department / Commission Reports [Action Item] A. Community Development: School District Coordination Strategy Simison: So, we will move this on to Item 5-A, Department Report from Community Development on School District coordination strategy and I will turn this over to Mr. Hood. Johnson: Mr. Hood, there is no microphone. Hood: Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I am going to let our newest employee in Community Development speak here in just a minute, but Miranda Carson has been with us for a couple of weeks now and wanted to just do a quick introduction before we get to the agenda topic at hand today. No pressure on Miranda, but she really is the perfect candidate for this position. So, with her -- her background -- and I will let her maybe talk a little bit more about herself, but with her background once working for the West Ada School District and doing transportation for them and, then, transit most recently in Florida, that really checks both of the big boxes that we were looking for in this position to be the transportation and school district coordinator. So -- I'm almost done. Thank you, though. So, I think with that I'm really impressed and I think you will be, too, in short order. You're -- she's got a good I think draft plan that she's going to share with you now, butjust hope you extend a warm welcome to her and with that I will turn it over to Miranda. Simison: Welcome, Miranda. Warm welcome per Caleb's request. And we will turn it over to you. Carson: Turn on the video. Okay. Oh. Can you hear me on the mic? Okay. Okay. So, let me get the coordination plan up that I had sent out. So, as Caleb said, I have worked for the West Ada School District. My career has been mostly in school planning and transportation planning. I worked for the Shelby County Schools in Memphis, Tennessee, which was the 14th largest school district in the country at the time, and, then, I worked here for the West Ada School District doing people transportation and, then, also school planning and we moved out to Florida and I pursued some career learning in public transit, so that was fun at Broward County. It's a very large county with a very extensive route system. So, learned some public transit out there. And, then, decided that we wanted to be back in the Treasure Valley, that this was a place that we wanted to call home. So, we Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 4- 20 are back now with no plans to ever leave again and just going to jump right into the coordination plan. I sent it out. I don't plan to read through it word for word, but I do want to highlight some things in it and, then, open up for any discussion that you have about items you might want added or clarified in the plan. This is a working draft, so there are -- there is a lot of room for us to make changes as a team to this plan and, then, going forward. So, kind of a three step approach going into this plan. The first was mostly just a data collection. I reviewed the meeting that you had with the school board in February. Reviewed the video from that meeting. Took a lot of notes about the kinds of things that you were discussing, questions that seemed to still be hanging out in the air after that meeting, questions you had asked or maybe they had asked that I didn't feel were fully covered during that meeting or in this document. I also got a list of questions from Councilman Bernt that are in this document as well. So, I'm just going to start off by -- let's talk about the basic roles and duties. Obviously, for Meridian's side of this we are just talking about the development -- city development and, then, the West Ada School District, obviously, has a lot of duties, but we will mostly just be coordinating with them on a school facility planning. Am I not close enough? Sorry. Bernt: I can hear Miranda just fine. Carson: Okay. So, the program capacity and the optimal design capacity. The West Ada School Board is reviewing an attendance zone policy tonight that will further clarify those definitions. Bernt: I think I jinxed it, Mr. Mayor. As soon as -- she was perfect up until I said that and, then, it went away. I apologize. Carson: Can you hear me now? Okay. I feel like I'm back in a commercial. Can you hear me now. So, the program capacity and optimal design capacity, the West Ada School Board -- Simison: Okay. So, I don't know what we did. If we can -- it's kind of funny. We were having a hard time hearing in the room, but apparently she was perfect for you all. Just one second. Carson: Can you hear me now? Simison: Councilman Bernt? Bernt: All good. Carson: Okay. I think we accidentally unplugged it, so -- so, the program capacity and the optimal design capacity, those are school district definitions. You can't hear me again? Bernt: No. Not hearing you. I'm sorry. This system is so tricky. Carson: Can you hear me better with the mic scooted away? Okay. Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 5 of 20 Bernt: That was fine. Carson: Okay. So, the program capacity and optimal design capacity, those are school district terms that they use to talk about how many students can fit in a building. Those terms are in an attendance zone policy and they are voting on a revision for that -- or reviewing a revision for that policy tonight. The West Ada School Board is reviewing that. So, those definitions will be updated when the school board has voted on and reviewed that policy and put it into place. But the program capacity is talking about -- so -- well, let me start with the optimal design capacity is talking about when a -- when the architect designs the building this is how many kids he says are going to be in it. Generally, for example, an elementary school would be between 650 and 750 students. The program capacity is how many students can actually fit in that school. That's talking about -- they have a special needs program that can't fit 24 kids, so now their program capacity is down 12 kids and that just goes on as they add programs. The program capacity will change based on how many different types of classes they have. So, just wanted to clarify that, because you will see some documents that come out that say this school has a 650 student capacity. That's not the actual classroom capacity, that's the optimal design capacity. So, the student generation rate -- there is a lot of talk about how many kids will this development drum up. So, that's the student generation rate. It's the student per residential unit. The West Ada School District historically has used .8 students per residential unit. So, if a neighborhood has 200 plats or if a preliminary plat has 200 residential units in it, they would say 200 by .8, that's how many students we are going to have. So, just to double check that, I went through and checked census data for the City of Meridian for 2014 to 2018 and it does feel like that's a good number to hold to. It's not necessarily students that will be at the West Ada School District, but it is school aged students. So, those students may go to one of the charters, they may go to West Ada, they may go through online or homeschool, but that .8 is a good number to use for school aged students. Simison: Miranda, I don't know if you want questions as we go through this -- Carson: You can ask questions as we go. Simison: So, I know one of the things that I have heard come up is -- does this take into consideration or how would you apply this if it's a senior only community or planned to be a senior only community. Does West Ada apply that ratio amongst -- dispersing that throughout all the homes in the district and just takes out X or how would we treat that or how would you envision -- envision that through this process? Carson: So, that's a great question. So, Mr. Mayor, going down to the next one, the West Ada Attendance Area Committee. When they look at those numbers they do have a formula on a massive spreadsheet that will say how many students they believe will be there based on the number of residential units, but, then, they actually go into the neighborhoods and say this neighborhood is 55 and up. There won't be any students living in it, so they will take those out. So, on the master-- like formulas that are run it will show students, but they -- if they know it's a 55 and up generally they would go in and Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 6- 20 take those out if that's in the code that students aren't allowed to live there. So, are there any other questions on the terminology before I go down to the initial questions? Just some other clarification about how long it takes to open new schools. What the city priority service areas are. And, then, we will talk about the absorption rate a little bit further down the document. But what that is is we really need to determine from the time we make preliminary plats to the times that the neighborhood is fully built out and occupied, what does that timeline look like and it will vary based on the developments and we will talk about that more, but that's what that absorption rate is referring to. Simison: Sorry, Miranda, one more question on the common terminology. Is the West Ada Attendance Area Committee a new standing committee? Carson: It is not. The West Ada -- Simison: Does it currently exist? Carson: -- Area Committee has been going on -- as long as I was there they had the committee and I believe it was going on long before I got there. So, it is a committee of parents. It's two WAC staff and 12 parents. They take those parents and the staff members and they break them into two subgroups. Those two subgroups go into separate rooms and they sit down with all the data and they come up with the plan. So, first they explained to them what their goals are and those goals are listed here. Students not being bounced. Making sure schools have the right capacity. Those kinds of things. And, then, they go into their subgroups and they sit down and come up with their own plans. Two separate plans. Then both of those committees come back together and look at their plans and discuss the pros and cons of each one and it's -- they decide together what they like from each plan and they kind of mold them together and, then, they vote. Simison: So, I was on a -- one of the committees, but I guess the question is more along the lines of -- to my knowledge it's not a standing set committee, it's put together each time they want to go through this process? Carson: It is. Yes. Simison: And there is variations to it that they modify as they see, because we have got about 40 members in our committee, instead of 14, so -- but to your knowledge it's not a set standing committee that's -- it fluctuates who is on it and who is not on it. Carson: Right. It does fluctuate. So, depending on which schools will be affected --which schools they think will be affected when they set out to do an attendance area committee, they go out to those schools and get support from parents -- and I shouldn't say support, because there might be people that are opposed to changing boundaries as well. But they go out and get parents that want to be involved and, then, they, essentially, just draw names of which of those parents. Because they don't have --they can't have a committee of 40 people, they can't have a committee of 20. Fourteen seems to be a golden number. So, they try to get an elementary parent, a middle school parent, a high school parent. Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page , - 20 They do their best to represent several geographic areas and, then, after that it's kind of at random who ends up on the committee. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Yes, Councilman Bernt. Bernt: It's not too good. Strader: It's every other word. Simison: Every other word. Can you hear me right now? Carson: Can you hear me better if I take the mask off? Bernt: I'm not sure what you are doing, Miranda. Cavener: Maybe, Mr. Mayor, if Miranda is able to maybe try a different station. One of the different sitting areas or a different microphone. Simison: Yeah. We are going to go into the other room. Bernt: She can sit in your seat. It sounds like your microphone is working. Just kidding. Simison: She can have my seat anytime. Carson: Do you hear me better at this microphone? Bernt: Yes. Carson: Okay. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Yes, Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: While we are on the subject of attendance areas, question for Miranda. So, are there new committees created -- it sounds like there is new committees created every time there is an attendance area change for any specific attendance area, but there aren't committees existing for all attendance areas all the time, it's just kind of as needed; is that right? Carson: Yes. So, at this point they are changing attendance areas every school year. Occasionally there will be minor changes during the year that don't necessarily warrant a committee, but every school year they do put together a new committee based on the areas they think will be affected. Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 8- 20 Perreault: Mr. Mayor, a follow up. Simison: Yes, Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Is there just one -- I guess my question is is there just one committee or is there a different committee for every attendance area? Carson: There is one committee that looks at the school district as a whole and they break into two subcommittees and make their own plan and, then, come back together. So, moving on from the common terminology, unless there was any further questions. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: So, it looks like they are having a pretty important meeting maybe today. So, guess maybe just a request that if the policy on how they set their attendance areas changes or there is any kind of material update for you to circle back and, then, I guess would be curious if we can -- how we will be treating the emergency -- what they -- what they call emergency capacity, which is the, you know, like portables and stuff that's not maybe part of the original plan. Carson: Is that question for you, Mr. Mayor, or for -- Simison: I think it's a general comment right now, but if it's something you would like to address -- Carson: So, I did see that they are reviewing the emergency attendance -- or emergency enrollment, but at this point without them having approved anything yet I think we would be a little early on making any decisions about how to move forward with that. Once their board approves that I will definitely let the Council know, so that we can move forward if we want to incorporate that in any of our plans. So, on to the initial question. The first list of questions was based on the questions that were sent to me from the Mayor that were questions that the Council had. So, the current districtwide capacity for West Ada schools -- the West Ada School District is also looking at the facility plan tonight. They make a ten year facility plan. In the past they haven't made that plan every single year at this point they have said that they do plan to update it every single year. So, it's a ten year facility plan based on what they think their growth will be. That will be approved tonight and, then, we -- or it may not be approved tonight, but that will be reviewed tonight and, then, once it's approved we can answer those -- I can answer those questions better about what their current districtwide capacity is. I do want to note, though, that the districtwide capacity -- or the individual school capacities do change like we talked about with programs and on -- that goes into the next question as well. The projected districtwide capacity for each school year, those change on a yearly basis. Sometimes they change during the school year based on programs that are added or taken out for students needs. So, the attendance area committee does update the capacity at the Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 9- 20 schools that they need to adjust, but there is no running list of capacity that's updated on a consistent basis. So, we can look at the program capacity at one set time, but we won't be getting any kind of updated list of what the program -- the functional program capacity is as they change. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: So, would it be -- I'm just curious like a little bit about what you are kind of envisioning. Would it be possible to get like a snapshot before the beginning of each school year with kind of what was in place and we will work off of those numbers for -- for the next year and add our own projected growth and, then, we will work off of that, and, then, the next year perhaps they give us an update on their program. Is that kind of what you are thinking? Just curious what you are sort of -- how you are planning to like work through that. Carson: I did -- I should mention I did meet with them. I -- it was either my first or my second week here I believe. I met with the team that does the school planning, the staff over there, and I did ask them about this and I was told that they don't have a list of program capacity. The only time they look at the program capacity is when an attendance area needs to be changed. So, if they are looking at North Meridian, for example, and they want to see what schools there need to move kids to, that's when they would run -- do a run through of what programs are at that school, how many students they currently have. They would call the principal and talk about what programs, what classes are being used what ways. But those classroom usage decisions come more down to a principal level, so there is no districtwide list that shows the functional program capacity for each school. So, it's not something that we could get an update every year, because it doesn't exist. Simison: And, Council Woman Strader, at least from my conversations it was conveyed to me by the district this is why the number that they plan on just going off as the districtwide capacity number for each school and did not want to get into a determination -- especially because there could be -- they can move programs from school to school based upon capacity in areas if they so choose to. But to Miranda's point, trying to -- for us to try to -- to understand the impacts of what goes on in each school and making planning decisions is probably at a level of detail that does not make a lot of sense would be my suggestion. Carson: So, just to give a little bit of an outline for that, one of my roles at the school district was to sit down with program directors or program leaders and determine their specific school programs and what schools they would be at and it was -- you know, sometimes I would meet with three or four different people and have three or four hour meetings with each one to make sure that we had the right boundaries for their specific program and, then, as the students came in those might change two or three more times Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page ——20 during the school year, because those special programs are the kids that have -- tend to be more mobile or turnover more often. Strader: Mr. Mayor, it's fading out a little bit. I do have a follow-up question. Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I get that that that's really fluid. I think what I'm trying to wrap my head around and what I'm hoping we could try to get would be some kind of a concept based on classroom size orjust something as a snapshot in time. It's in their own interest to provide us with something even if it's really high level. The reason is, as they have pointed out, like the physical building occupancy is not the same as -- as overcrowding from a classroom perspective and a school program perspective. So, I just -- I wish they could provide us with something, even if it changed, because, otherwise, I just feel like the data is sort of misleading and we are not getting a full picture. I guess that's just my feedback. I -- I wish we could get some -- something, even if it moved. I feel like that would be more helpful. Carson: I think at this point the most we would be able to get is a partial list. So, when they are looking at these six schools to change boundaries, they would make some kind of capacity list for those six schools and that may not be updated again for three or four years if they don't change those boundaries again. So, we could ask for the program capacities for the ones they are looking at, but it won't be a full list. If that's something you are interested in, though, I can pursue getting that partial list. Simison: Well -- and, Miranda, I guess the other question that I didn't see -- or I skimmed over is portables. You know, I think -- you know, I can only speak to Sienna where my son goes. They have got two portables on site. They also have the GT programs, which pull from all over the district. You know, so you have those varying elements and so that -- that always skews what the number is at the school versus who is actually there and what else they might have on that. So, some of that is, obviously, district prerogative for -- they will move stuff in as those needs ebb and flow. Do you feel like there is any reason we should be taking that -- the use of portables into the decision making process back to Council level for specific schools? Carson: So, portables are not considered at all in their program capacity or in their optimal design capacity. That is something that is in the emergency capacity. So, because portables are not permanent structures they don't count those when they are making those decisions. Simison: But they are obviously used -- Carson: They are used. And, then, also to give you an example as you spoke, the GT program when you have got kids moving in and out, if they have got one classroom that uses 20 kids at the beginning -- for the first half of the day, for example, for kindergarten, Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 11 —20 they have got a classroom that's going to use 20 kids the first half of the day and 20 kids the second half of the day, the capacity for that classroom is 40 kids. Simison: Where is that on a school district number so far? Carson: So, moving on to the additional capital projects. This will also be in the facility plan when that is approved. The -- there was a question regarding the time frame for when the beginning and end of construction is, so the school district does make their facility plan and they have a plan for when they want those buildings to be -- to be built and to be occupied, but a lot of that becomes -- it's based on the actual funding that's available. So, for example, if they go out for a bond and the bond fails, the timeline changes drastically. If they make a decision about whether they are going to cut funding other places or whether they are going to not build the school and wait until a bond does pass, so we can ask for the planned timeline, but I did just want that disclaimer there that that plan timeline can change drastically depending on what funding is available, because Idaho does have such a volatile funding for education compared to other states. So, looking at how many students are expected to join in the near term and a long term, that question is a very large formulaic type answer. So, I have put in the student generation rate. As we talked about earlier, the student generation rate is how many students will live in X -- this number of houses. So, for the school as a whole it's .8 students per house and, then, in the next question down you will see how many it is for elementary, middle, and high school as that question was asked as well. So, if you are just looking at a development that has 200 residential units in it, you can say at some point it will have this number of students. The .8 times 200. The X factor in determining this is how quickly will that neighborhood actually be built. We -- I sat down with Brian McClure today, the other comprehensive planner, to look at some preliminary plats and discuss that how fast will the neighborhood be built factor and he showed me one that's been platted out for ten years and, then, he showed me another that was platted out and pretty much built out within a couple of years. So, really determining that absorption rate is a very large question and that's something that I'm going to work through, but I don't have an answer for you today. So, I'm looking at American Community Survey data and census data, looking at COMPASS data, our data, the school district's data, so there is a lot that comes into play with that. So, for now you can look at the student generation rate, but, again, just the disclaimer that that doesn't mean that in year one of that development there will be .8 students per house. It means that when the development is built out there will be .8 students per house. Are there any questions about that student generation rate? Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor and Miranda, just -- I guess what complicates that even further is we know what's going on in Meridian, but for -- the impacts to this school district are very large. You have got other communities that are growing and their rates of growth and developments that are approved even in Ada county that -- that impact that number. So, we might think we are doing well for their formula, but yet the numbers are going to be Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 12 of 20 skewed, because other communities might be just really pushing out major developments. A 2,000 unit community could --you know, development could really really skew those numbers. So, this really is a little complicated, isn't it? Carson: It is. It is very complicated. And that is why the attendance area committee has their role, because they have to sit down and really hammer through those numbers and I am grateful that I did serve on that committee before I came to work here, because I do feel like I have a good understanding of it, but even with that understanding there is still that X factor and even the attendance area committee has that X factor. We know these houses are coming, but how fast are they coming. I don't think it's a question that we will ever have a black and white answer on a page for. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: So, Miranda, thank you for all of this, by the way. It's really good to see all of this on paper. As you know we have had a lot of conversations about -- about these -- these concerns over numerous different public hearings. So, it's good to have this all down in one location. I'm curious on -- with your history in the district and the conversations that you have had since you have been here, have there been any discussions about changing school designs for capacity? So, obviously, we live in an area that's still spread out and kind of somewhat rural, but you have schools in bigger cities and in other areas that are using their school capacity more wisely. They have, you know, full high schools and full middle schools on ten acres, instead of 40 acres or 60 acres. I'm curious if -- if you don't have information on that if -- if it's something that you might be able to follow up with the district on and see how often -- or if ever that they analyze that, so that we could maybe be more efficient with space and that translates really into not only additional capacity, but cost savings for the district and whatnot. So, that's the sort of a bigger broader question that you may or may not be able to answer today and that's okay. I wanted to put that out there as something for us to -- to be considering. And so -- yeah. I will leave that at that. I have some more thoughts, but I will wait until the end. Carson: So, talking about the -- the capacity of the buildings, I did ask that question and did they plan to build bigger elementary schools, three story high schools, to combat some of this growth and they did say that -- I believe it was -- I know at least one, possibly both of their upcoming elementary schools they do have a design capacity of 750 students, rather than 650 students. So, they are already starting to build the schools a little bit bigger. So, Sienna Elementary, for example, is a 750 student school, because when it was designed it was designed for grades K through eight and now they are seeing that that is very helpful to have that. They are also going ahead and putting in elementary schools as a standard -- or, I'm sorry, preschool classes as a standard in their elementary schools. One of the program capacity issues has been that not every school can house preschool students and that does drastically change the program capacity. But you need -- you know, for tiny people you need tiny equipment. So, you have to build those Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 13 of 20 classrooms for the tiny humans and so now they are building preschool classrooms into their elementary schools to help with that program capacity. So, we know there is going to be those preschool students. You know, as a state we are doing better screening those kids and getting them into early intervention. So, let's go ahead and build the classrooms in the schools for them. So, they are taking those steps to make the elementary schools larger. I did also ask about high schools. Could we go up to three story high schools, because we currently do two story high schools, and they said that they had at one point reviewed three story high schools, they had kind of reviewed some standards and some design plans. There is another school somewhere in the state that has a plan that they had reviewed as a three story school, but it's not something that ever got off the ground in West Ada. I'm not sure why we didn't talk at length about it. But they decided as a district at that time that three story was not the way they wanted to go. So, at this point they still do plan to have two -- you know, two story high schools that do take up 55 to 60 acres and on that new schools list on the common terminology it does outline how many acres they hope to have per-- per school level. Are there any other questions about how many students are going to be coming in? Student regeneration rate. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. I was just wondering if -- one thing that stuck out to me and I think we may have received an e-mail about it just earlier today, but in one recent application there was a -- we didn't hear it firsthand, but there was a comment that West Ada projects students to be absorbed from like approved developments over a ten year time period and I was just curious if -- if we are going to be sort of validating that and maybe using our own projections just based on the phasing of developments that --that we know about or how -- how we are going to go about sort of picking a good absorption rate for future development. Ten years just seemed like a really long time frame to me. Simison: The short answer is yes. You know, that will be part of what we look at. I think we all have some ideas about what we can do and look at, but even if you can get an average for certain attendance zones on what the absorption rates are, whether that's for high school, middle school, elementary to apply, but I have got some ideas. I haven't shared them yet with Miranda. I'm sure other people have ideas. But, yes, we need to -- that's important for us and we have the data that can prove or disprove a ten year rate. Strader: Thanks. Carson: So, moving on there was some questions regarding whether the city should have a representative on the school board. I did change that question here in the document, because thinking about what the school board's role is going back to that roles question, the school board is looking at education as a whole. They don't look at facility planning every school board meeting. That's generally around the February time frame and, then, they are looking at it now because they are talking about the policies for it, but really the school board isn't talking attendance areas at every meeting. So, I don't think it would be Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page ——20 a good -- a productive use of any of your time or the staff time to have somebody at the school board every single meeting. But I did ask West Ada if they were willing to have a representative on the attendance area committee from the city. Their first response was we are fine with you coming and sitting in the meetings, but we don't plan to give you a voice on the attendance area committee, because you are not one of the parents that has a student that we would typically have on those committees. And, then, they said, well, if we let you be on it, well, now we have to invite every city. So, actually, we probably can't have a city representative on those. But what you can do is come to all of the informational meetings or any of the informational meetings that you want. They also said that starting this school year when they make their attendance area committee, they plan to post all the information online. They are going to post the formulas they are using. The maps that they are using. All of the raw data that they are using. So, that community members can go in and see that data and make decisions and ask well-informed questions. So, that's the point where we could come in and have involvement in the process. You all are welcome to go look at that data. I will be going to look at that data to see what kind of ways they are leaning in those decisions, where they may be wanting to put new schools or change boundaries and, then, how they are using that data and what data -- data they have available and, then, at that point we can make like any other community member public comments about their decision making process and the decisions they are making. Simison: And if I could weigh in on that, I think that's one of the things that I can speak -- when we -- when I was on the attendance area committee I had more knowledge about the projected growth rate of Century Hill Farm. I shared that with the committee. It wasn't taken into consideration for when the boundaries were drawn, but I think if we have a dedicated staff person who is working on this and can provide real feedback based on real numbers to the attendance committee about areas of absorption and certain parts of the community, it will -- I think that information will be utilized by that committee in the appropriate way to maybe allow for certain schools to have more space for development or otherwise. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: That being said, does -- does the district actively go out and pursue feedback from the area governments on -- you know, as part of -- as part of the attendance area committee, do they ask the -- the cities for a report or for feedback or for perspective? Is that pursued from the area governments as part of their discussions? Carson: So, to my knowledge they do not go out and pursue the governments -- the different government groups. What they do is they go out and they pursue the parents. So, they send out informational fliers to any school that will have changes. They have several sit down meetings that go well into the evening where parents can ask as many questions as they want and all of their questions are answered at those meetings and anybody on this staff would be welcome to join those as well and that information will also Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page —of 20 be available. They said they are going to have basically a repository where they start posting all of this information. So, in the past they had the attendance area committee, they would post a flier that we are going to have a meeting to discuss all of this information with you -- Perreault: Miranda, you are still cutting in and out really -- really bad. Carson: Sorry. So, in the past they would have --they would send out fliers of when they were going to have the informational meetings and, then, if a parent wanted information before the meeting, so that they could come up with their own plan and send it in, then, the attendance area committee with somebody on --from the staff on the attendance area committee would send them that information. Now, what the school district is proposing and planning to do is to post all that information publicly. So, there won't be somebody that you have to contact to get the information to look at and make your own plan or review their plans, they will have a data repository of all the information they are using to plan. And that will also include when those meetings are going to be. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: A follow-up question on the committee. So, it's my understanding that this -- the committee structure has been in place for a really long time and -- and that in the past when there have been some attendance areas -- attendance area changes there have been some agreements that -- that couldn't be made unanimously, especially regarding the Rocky Mountain High School area and generally that northwest Meridian location and so I think I had mentioned to you in -- in a conversation that we had that I would like us to -- I guess get some more information from West Ada on whether they are open to the idea of changing that committee structure to some extent, because the reason I'm asking this is that I anticipate that as we grow, as we get bigger, as the schools get more full, that we will continue to have -- to not have unanimous agreement on some of these plans and that that will stall us in our effectiveness -- not as a City Council, but that the residents' effectiveness to make decisions regarding the attendance areas. So, I know that's not really a role that we as Council play, but any -- any scenario that we might be able to help with or-- or any information that would help these parents to --to make those agreements unanimously would -- would be great for -- for us to know. Carson: I definitely think the more research we can put into the student generate -- or the absorption rate will definitely help them make their decisions, because as you said they are using ten years -- they assume that the neighborhood will be built out over ten years at ten percent a year. That's the only number they have to go off of. So, if we have a better tool that we can give them to have in their tool belt, then, I have no doubt that they would use it. At this point they have expressed that they have no interest in changing their attendance area committee. They have no interest in adding us to their attendance area committee. They like the 14 members -- at 14 team members they have never had an issue going to a unanimous vote. I can tell you when I served on it there were a lot of Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 16 of 20 back and forth between the two subgroups and, then, even people that, you know, flipped sides and decided to join the other group, that they agreed with their plan more, but we worked long nights, late nights to -- until we came to a unanimous decision. So, with a 14 member attendance area committee at this point they haven't had any issues in the past having a unanimous decision. It's when they surpass that number 14 that they had issues with unanimous decisions and that's why they don't intend to expand that committee any further. Simison: And I will --just from a -- I assume, Miranda, that you were meeting with staff in this conversation? Carson: Yes. The staff. Simison: So, this is staff level conversation. You all have your relationships with trustees or others, so you are welcome to take up any of these issues that you hear today and provide that feedback to them. I don't -- you know, they are much like City Council, you know, the attendance area is the Planning and Zoning Commission. You know, at the end of the day it's the board that makes the decisions about what they agree to and what they don't agree to and, likewise, if there is a board decision to change the makeup of the -- to create a permanent or how they would like city's participation, I think that's a board and superintendent conversation. Carson: And the attendance area is the policy that they are reviewing tonight. So, I'm not sure if it outlines exactly how many members are on that committee, but it does outline the goals of the committee. I don't know if they will be approving it tonight, but if you have comments soon would be the time to make it, because that's when they are making their decision about how that committee is going to be organized and -- and run. Simison: We have got about another ten minutes -- Carson: Okay. Simison: -- to get through. Carson: So, I did ask them if they are open to having a regular working group meeting and they said, yes, we feel that about every other month would be a good timeline for that. Going on to talk about how we can educate homebuyers, this was something that came up during the special joint meeting in February. I did talk to the school district about what their kind of disclaimer that they give parents. I know having worked there that when a parent calls and says we are buying a house and we want to know if we are going to be zoned to Hillsdale, you say, well, yes, you are zoned to Hillsdale, but I don't know if you will always be zoned to Hillsdale. So, talking about coming up with a standard disclaimer that we can also give people that are buying houses that explains how boundaries change and how often they change, so that our citizens aren't buying houses thinking that they are guaranteed to a school that we can't give them that promise of -- no realtor should give them that promise of and the district can't give them the promise of. So, the Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 11 of 20 development review letter, that's something that I'm working with the school district so that we can see what information the staff -- the city staff would like to have on that and, then, what information the school district would like to provide. So, that is an ongoing conversation about how to make those development review letters a better tool for us to use as a staff and also for City Council to use when making decisions about developments. The city priority areas is something that a board member had asked about and we will at some point start looking into the service impact tool and when that's ready to share that's something that we are still working on as a city staff, hoping that will be available soon, and then -- sorry, I'm not trying to breeze through, but I am -- since there is only ten minutes I want to make sure I have questions -- time for your questions. Also the -- there was some questions from a board member about whether the city is open to putting minimum standards -- basically saying if a development is going to put a school over capacity, is the City Council willing to have some kind of minimum standard for that. In speaking with Council Woman Perreault, it sounded like it would probably be about 50- 50. 1 just want to express that this question is not coming from me, this was from the school board, so just something to ponder over as we make this plan. One school board member had asked that question. The only thing that the school district really wanted to get back from this meeting that we are having right now is they asked if the fire response time for priority service areas would be firm at five minutes or if that's something that we expect -- Perreault: Miranda, we can't hear you. Carson: Oh. Can you hear me now? Bernt: Yes. Carson: Sorry. I turned away from the microphone again. So, the school district had asked if -- one, if the city was willing to put some kind of minimum standard on developments saying that if a development was going to put an area over -- a school over capacity, whether the city would consider that when making a decision to approve and that is a question from a school board member not from me. And also the school district had asked if the fire response time would be firm at five minutes or if the city had planned to change that fire response time to some other time. Is there any response at this point or would you like to just think about those and we can discuss it further at another time? Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: So, what I caught, Miranda, because the sound is just coming in and out terribly, I don't know what's going on -- is that the -- the school district would like to know if we are able to set a minimum -- or a maximum on the amount of students we anticipate would come into the district based on our development applications. It's very hard for us to create anything like that when we don't have capacity numbers. So, the conversation we have had tonight about how difficult it is to get capacity numbers that are consistent, Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page ——20 it's even harder for us, then, to sort of, you know, judge how much impact that the developments are going to have on the schools if we -- if we can't get solid capacity numbers for them and I -- I realize that's kind of a chicken and egg scenario, but I -- I trust that we can come to some sort of -- you know, I realize it's not going to be exact, but we can come to some sort of arrangement where we -- what -- we can usually work together on this. I mean that is definitely our desire and it sounds like the school district's desire. So, if we can get some --some ranges of capacity we can start answering those questions for them. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Is that Joe? Sorry, I don't see all -- Bongiorno: Yes. It was me. Simison: Yes, Mr. Bongiorno. Bongiorno: Quick comment on the five minute thing. That's kind of something that the city has adopted and I know Chief Niemeyer is planning a meeting with Council -- I believe it's on August 11 th and we are going to talk a whole lot about growth and response time. So, I can go downstairs and meet and we can talk more about this. But, obviously, five minutes is a very important number for the Fire Department. Carson: And, then, going on to the last section, we just wanted to kind of outline -- or just wanted to outline what the expectations were, so that everybody was on the same page about what data we wanted from them, what data they wanted from us, so that's what those numbers are. I did ask them, they said they are happy to give us enrollment counts as often as we want them, but what they felt would be the best times was September, November, and February, because that's when they report to the state. As well as the attendance boundaries. They said they are not necessarily updated every single year at the start of the year, because sometimes they are updated during the school year. For example, there was once an apartment that was coming in during the school year, it hadn't been built yet, the school that it was zoned to was over capacity, so they -- the board voted to rezone, essentially, just that apartment complex to a neighboring school district -- or to a neighboring school. So, as attendance area boundaries are updated, they said they will send those to us. The facility plan will be sent and, then, the development review letters will continue to come as well. So, that's the end of the outline. As I said at the beginning, this is a working draft. So, I am happy to add -- or discuss adding what you feel you want to see in coordination and I really want this to be an outline of realistic expectations from our side and their side, so that we can have a good data exchange flow that's happening consistently and we can really be proactive to get in front of growth that they are seeing, growth that we are seeing or approving. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 19 of 20 Bernt: I think that, you know, going forward I think that's the million dollar question and I think that it's going to take longer than two minutes to have it. So, I know our Executive Session is very important, it's going to be a long one, and so I would hate to end this right now with Miranda. We appreciate her, but I think that we may need to extend this conversation possibly to next Tuesday. I believe talking with the clerk I think we have a little time to maybe finish up this conversation and maybe give Council Members opportunities to mull these questions and what's been discussed this evening. So, if -- if that's the will of the Mayor, that's probably my thought. Simison: Yeah. Whether or not it's next week or in the coming weeks, but I guess what I would encourage is Council take this -- this information, gather it, if it's -- if you don't have a lot of questions I don't know if it -- if it makes sense to come back, if there is more dialogue,just ask each member of the Council to at least convey to your Council President in where you think this conversation still needs to go, whether it's writing or in person, and we can bring it back if necessary. And I know that there will be further conversations, it's just whether or not it's next week, two weeks, or if it's two months after we start getting data into the staff report, you start seeing it, evaluating it and feel like we need to have a more in-depth conversation. So, with that I will say, Miranda, thank you for the information. Item 6: Executive Session per Idaho Code 74-206A(1)(a) To deliberate on a labor contract offer or to formulate a counteroffer, and 74-206(1)(d): To consider records that are exempt from disclosure as provided in Chapter 1, Title 74 of Idaho Code Simison: And I will see if Council has a motion they would like to make. Bernt: Thank you, Miranda, for your time. That said, I move that we move into Executive Session per Idaho Code 74-206A(1)(a) and 74-206(1)(d) per Idaho State Code. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Simison: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Is there any discussion on the motion? If not, Clerk will call the roll. Roll call: Bernt, yea; Borton, yea; Cavener, yea; Hoaglun, yea; Strader, yea; Perreault, yea. Simison: All ayes. We are in Executive Session. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:30 p.m. to 6:08 p.m.) Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. July 28,2020 Page 20—20 Simison: Council, do I have a motion? Bernt: Mr. Mayor, I move that we come out of Executive Session. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Simison: I have a motion and second to come out of Executive Session. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I move that we adjourn the meeting. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Simison: I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. Is there any discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:08 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 08 / 11 / 2020 MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK