|
Council Agenda: |
11/25/03 |
|
Item: |
5.1 |
|
|
||
|
|
||
ALL CHILDREN ACHIEVE COMMITTEE
|
||
|
|
||
|
Meeting Report |
||
November 13 2003
|
||
|
|
||
PRESENT: Chair Ken Yeager, Vice Mayor Pat Dando,
and Councilmember Terry Gregory
ABSENT: Vice-Chair Judy Chirco
STAFF:
Jim Holgersson, Barbara Jordan,
Julie Shioshita, Sara Hensley, Albert Balagso, Maria Hurtado, Jane Light,
Cornelia van Aken, Ruth Kohan, Cheryl Hahs, Mary Johnson, Capt. Randy Cooper,
Sgt. Jaime Zarate, Christina Gilmore, Emily Moody, Megan Doyle, Craig Mann,
Diana Miller, Jo Coffaro
OTHERS: Dr. Elias Chamorro, Lois Baer, Robert
Dunnwoody, Marlo Dorsey, Leah Burns, Tabitha Lemons, Amory Cousino, Xian
Ballesteros, Lisa Mariona
The meeting was convened at 1:35 p.m. The items were heard out of order.
a. Report on Public Safety and Truancy
(Police Department/Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services)
Capt. Randy Turner,
Police Department, and Maria Hurtado, PRNS Deputy Director, presented the
report. Capt. Turner reported schools
are the safest they have ever been, truancy rates are down, number of youth
Police pick up is down. He also added
there is more officer contact with truant children. Capt. Turner stated that the cities of San Francisco and Oakland
are reviewing the truancy process of the County to use it as their role model.
Chair Yeager asked
how much the truancy program is costing the city. Capt. Turner responded the Police Department has reorganized and
put two officers in five geographic areas.
These officers spend 5% of their time doing SARB function and these are
included in their duties. He said they
have negotiated with the school districts that if they want more, they would
have to work with the Police Department.
Capt. Turner also
reported that the Police Department is currently negotiating with school
districts to work with them to hire off-duty officers to help them with SARB
program.
Chair Yeager stated
that as school districts benefit financially, he wondered if there is something
the districts can do to help the City out for these programs.
Maria Hurtado
explained that the involvement of PRNS is limited to the agencies that they
contract with through the BEST Program.
They allocate $269,000 annually for those three or four agencies who
contribute to the truancy intervention programs. Maria reported that truancy is one of the areas outlined in the
Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force, and as school districts are beginning to
see the value of the collaboration among the District Attorney’s Office, the
Police Department, PRNS and community-based organizations, some of the them are
now starting to re-invest in that partnership.
Capt. Cooper
explained that school districts are contributing in a round-about manner – they
are deriving more funds that allow them to not cut teachers, their budget, continue
to provide children with quality education while the Police Department
maintains an even safer environment for our children.
Vice Mayor Dando
stated that if it were a perfect situation, the Police Department would not be
picking up truants. She added that one
of the areas that has been missing with the truancy program is that we need not
just pick kids up and process them; we need to identify the reason they are
cutting school and try to solve that.
She added that we also have to find out if their attendance has
improved.
Vice Mayor Dando
also expressed her concern about the budget.
She commented that the City funds the truancy program not just from the
General Fund, but from other sources such as Healthy Neighborhoods Venture
Fund. She stated that as our budgets
go, it is time to look at the service we are providing, who were are providing
it for, and is there is a way for the program to be self-supporting.
Councilmember
Gregory agreed that the City should look at how school districts can contribute
to the funding. He stated that what is
most important is not making money but getting children in school so they can
learn. He acknowledged that although he
is not aware of how much schools are putting in proactively into truancy,
absenteeism, etc., school districts are still putting proactive effort into it.
Vice Mayor Dando
inquired about the status of the data system – if it is up and running and not
using notebooks to handwrite data in.
Sgt. Zarate replied that it is, and it is, in fact, reporting out on a
quarterly basis.
Dr. Chamorro,
Eastside Union High School District described about the financial situation in
his district. He stated that the
district has a student population of 24,000 and10% of the population is truant
at one time. He also explained the
district’s concern with truancy. He
stated that it is difficult to keep students who have been truant. The students don’t find a place to
experience success and they end up going back to the streets. He said that the district has one or two
re-entry program for truants but it is a reality that the district does not
have the funds to add more.
Vice Mayor Dando
acknowledged that eight years ago when she recommended the Truancy Policy to
the City, it was to the direction and advice of Dr. Chamorro and Lois Baer of
the County. Dando stated that it is
important to look at how we can continue the program with limited budget. Because of the budget crisis, she stated it
is time to review, re-evaluate and find ways to provide funding.
Lois Baer of the
District Attorney’s Office, stated that issues at home are predominantly the
main cause that kids get into the habit of truancy at an early age and continue
throughout the years. She explained the
importance of the BEST providers to the families of the truant students. These providers work with the families in
giving them support. Countywide, Lois
said there are still over 26,000 truants a year. She said the City has pro-active school districts that just
cannot address the habitual truancy program because they do not have the
personnel in the DA mediation or prosecution program. She stated that schools are also looking for ways to maximize the
services that they have by partnering with the DA’s office.
Chair Yeager asked
if there is a lead agency in the truancy abatement program. Capt. Turner responded that in the future,
the PD will take the lead within the City of San José, and the District
Attorney’s Office has the overall lead.
Lois Baer stated
that the Truancy Abatement Collaborative is made up of representatives from
most of the school districts, cbo’s, BEST providers, law enforcement agencies
and they meet every month to keep each other uprised of what is going on in the
County. Lois said they do not
coordinate services but they talk about what services are available.
Sgt. Zarate also
added that the collaborative also has a network of services that deal with all
the different issues related to truancy.
Capt. Turner stated
that although in the future we will have to re-evaluate how we do things in the
City in order to continue the level of service to keep us a major safe city, he
acknowledged that the city is light years ahead because of the efforts of all
involved. He said the school districts
may not be contributing so much in funding but they are able to hire personnel
and buy supplies to help keep our children in school. In the part of the PD, he said it is almost no cost to the City
as the program only uses 5% of the officers’ time.
Councilmember
Gregory acknowledged all the agencies that are involved in the truancy
program. He stated that it not only
helps the students, but helps with the crime situation – keeping the children
in school reduces the amount of responses our police officers have to do.
Upon motion of
Councilmember Gregory, seconded by Vice-Mayor Dando, the Committee accepted the
report.
b. San José After School Program Transition
Update (Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services)
Maria Hurtado,
Deputy Director, PRNS, gave the presentation.
Chair Yeager distributed a list of questions related to the After School
Program. Maria stated that the report
highlights some of the implementations staff have gone through and what the
plan is for the next three years. Chair
Yeager asked if staff have been able to reduce duplication of service for a
more efficient programming. Maria
responded that they met with all the service providers and figured out who’s
doing what and with the Level 1, 2 and 3 strategy, there is now a coordinated
efforts in terms of where certain cbo’s provide services, where PRNS provides
services and they work with the school district. She stated there in increased communication and coordination of
the different recreation and enrichment providers. Another way is the consolidation of their administration and
management of the after school program.
There is now one phone number to call and makes it easier for people to
access the after school program.
Chair Yeager
asked about how the pilot fee-based programs are doing in light of the budget
cuts. Maria responded that fee-based
programs give us the opportunity to provide equitable after school programs
throughout the City. Most of these
programs are funded through State and Federal grants with limited guidelines
around where these services are offered.
The fee based programs the City is implementing in school districts that
are willing to pay and those that want additional programs. So far, PRNS has received favorable
responses from the community. She
stated that the fee based programs is one avenue of increased revenue for the
City. Chair Yeager asked for a list of
programs the City is charging for and the rates.
Jim Holgersson,
Deputy City Manager, suggested that when the After School program update
returns to the Committee, staff will walk the Committee through the
prioritizing process – looking at the big picture. He stated that a budget dialogue between the CSAs occurs so that
the public safety CSA and the recreation CSA talk about these issues from a
continuum of services and not just enforcement or just the education
piece.
Vice Mayor Dando
expressed her concern about funding that the City has given to schools over the
past years. She stated that on top of
general fund money, we also give from the Healthy Neighborhoods Venture Fund
and CDBG, and she suggested that we come up with a review process to make sure
the money we are investing is meeting those needs.
Chair Yeager
asked how much the budget cut is for PRNS.
He also asked how the department is going to absorb the cut with the
reduced departmental budget.
Sara responded
that they now have to go back to what the community values most in Parks,
Recreation and Neighborhood Services.
She stated the department will have to focus on issues that are
priorities, like clean, safe parks. At
the same time, Sara stated that staff really have to make some very difficult
decisions on where the cuts will be made.
Chair Yeager
stated that with the budget cuts, it is even more important to leverage our
resources with other jurisdictions, and suggested the need to sit down with
school districts to discuss the continuum of programs.
Upon motion of
Councilmember Gregory, seconded by Vice-Mayor Dando, the Committee accepted the
report.
c. Report on Library’s Role
in Helping Children Achieve (Library)
Jane Light, Director
of Library, introduced Cornelia van Aken, Senior Librarian who coordinates
children and teen services systemwide.
Cornelia gave a presentation on the services geared towards helping
children achieve. She explained the
four major service objectives. The
first one is promoting reading from birth through age 18. The library provides storytimes from baby to
family storytimes.
The second objective
is supporting the educational achievement of all children and young
adults. The library’s resource
collections provide curriculum support for elementary and secondary students
and also support the individual, and informal learning needs of all young
adults. Under this objective, homework
centers have served over 15,000 students in 10 branches. The Grade One At The Library (GOAL) program
has offered over 12,000 children the chance to acquire library cards.
The third objective
is supporting parents and caregivers in their efforts to raise healthy, happy,
successful children. The library offers
free programs like author visits and public shows and musical entertainment
which are presented by professionals and paid for by local Friends groups. The library provides literacy training to
families and specialized parenting collections, programs and services. The Library has partnerships with the Tech
Museum and Young Audiences of the Bay Area to bring low-cost cultural and
educational opportunities to families throughout the City.
The fourth objective
is providing programs and services that will help young people develop
effective life skills. The library
provides resources to enable youth to develop the necessary skills for the
transition to effective adulthood.
These resources include information, services, programs and volunteer
opportunities.
Cornelia also
explained the challenges that the Library is experiencing due to the budget
situation. She reported that many
schools have lost their school librarians due to budget reductions, and this
has increased the demand for homework help.
She also mentioned that the expiration of the Benefit Assessment
District Funds in 2005 places the library in a very dangerous position. She stated that funding is critical to the
Library’s continued success.
Jane added that
library facilities still do not meet the demands for the kinds of services that
families and children need today. She
also mentioned programs like Families for Literacy, Books for Little Hands and
some others that are funded from grants are at risk if the grant sources fail
us.
Jane cited the
problem of schools not having a librarian or having one for two schools. She stated that in this situation, schools
can use the assistance of the City/Schools Collaborative to tackle some of the
budget issues.
Chair Yeager stated
that if the schools no longer have their own librarians and are no longer
purchasing books, and the City is taking over helping the students, maybe the
schools could help out to keep some of the programs going.
Councilmember
Gregory added that he agrees the City/Schools Collaborative would be a good
venue to address these issues. He
stated that typically when budget reduction comes, the librarians and musicians
are first to go because most of the time, schools don’t see these as part of
the core curriculum.
Jane reported that
each branch library serves 10 elementary schools, and it is very difficult to
replace the services onsite at 10 schools with one branch library.
Councilmember
Gregory also asked about the status of the collaboration between the City and
the Santee School to build the Santee School Library. Jane replied that the library will apparently open in December
but only to the school community. She
said she suggested to the school that if they needed assistance and
consultatation on how to set up a library and how to open resources to the
community that the Library would be willing to assist. She also added that Santee is being served
by the Bookmobile, and mentioned that the City will not be able to staff the
school library everday after school at the City’s expense.
Councilmember
Gregory also asked about the automated check in – check out system and its
impact. Jane reported that this has
actually increased the usage of the library.
Upon motion of
Councilmember Gregory, seconded by Vice Mayor Dando, the Committee accepted the
report.
c. Civic Center Childcare
Update (Public Works/Redevelopment Agency) [Deferred to December]
e.
Oral Petitions
None.
f.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:05 p.m.
Ken Yeager, Chair
All Children Achieve Committee