Dixon Neighborhood Discussion About Dixon Building

Thursday, January 15, 2024 the district held a Dixon community meeting to discuss the future use of the Dixon Building.  Below is the audio recording and the transcript.

If you would like to add your voice, you are welcome to take the survey that was provided during the meeting.

• Dixon Survey in English
• Dixon Survey in Spanish

There will also be a second community meeting on Wednesday, January 31 at 6:00 p.m. in the Dixon Middle School auditorium.​

 And I, we do have, um, translation available into Spanish, so I will be pausing from time to time to just make sure that, um, they can translate everything that I say and that everyone can participate.  So, thank you for being here. We will have, um, an additional meeting next week on January 31st at Dixon Middle School at 6 o’clock p.m. So, if you have friends or neighbors that were not able to attend tonight, um, have them show up next week. So, but anyway, without further ado, I’m Superintendent Dau. I am superintendent here at Provo City School District. Um, I’ve been here since July, so, um, I don’t really consider myself super new anymore, but Um, new ish, I guess, would be a great word.

I, I really want to, um, thank Principal Rawlins for allowing us to come to Timpanogos and use this great space. I want to thank all of our interpreters for being here to help us this evening. And I want to thank board member, uh, Meg Van Wagenen for being here. Um, and then we have, um, some of our cabinet members.

We have Darrell Jensen. And we have Anne-Marie Harrison. And we also have, um, Michelle Eldridge. She lives over at Title One. Um, so she helps a lot at Timpanogos Elementary. So,  um, lots of support and we welcome all of you.  So, um, let me just talk to you a little bit about the format of the meeting. Um, and then we do have a chance for you to also provide some written feedback as well.

Um, but first and foremost, I’ll probably I will start with just giving, uh, an outline of some of the needs that we have identified as a district. And it’s long, and these would be facility needs that we have overall. So as we’re designing what we need to do for that Dixon site, we want to take into account and make sure that that site is fulfilling at least some of those needs in the process.

Obviously that site is not going to fulfill all of our needs.  But we want to make sure that we are addressing that. Um, I’ll talk about why some of these things are our priorities. Um, some of them are safety issues. Uh, to make sure that we have safe spaces for our students to attend school. And then what we’ll move to is I will move this microphone to the center.

And then we’ll give you an opportunity to just ask questions. Um, give suggestions and ideas. I have Caleb and Shauna here from our communications… Oh, that went too loud. I’m so sorry.  I can hold it down here. We will move a microphone to the center. And then you can come up, give your, ask questions. If you have questions, I will answer them  to the best of my ability.

Some of them I might not have answers to, but Caleb and Shauna from Communications will be writing down these questions, and then those are things I can follow up with you, um, about. I know everyone always wants to know how much these will cost, and I don’t have exact numbers for those kinds of things.

And so I’ll talk about how that fits in with this, everything that we will be discussing tonight.  So, as you come up, here’s some of the things that you could ask about. What would you, you could tell us, this is what I really feel like we need at that site. This is what our neighborhood needs. This is what our kids need.

Um, what is important for you to see maintained, um, in, in your neighborhood? And what would you like to see?  Another one would be, what are some ideas that maybe you have thought of or talked with people about, um, for how we can meet the needs of the neighborhood as well as the needs of our students, um, with this particular site.

So, a lot of this is about sharing of ideas.  And I, and I do want to recognize,  I, I wasn’t here when everything happened with Dixon Middle School and Shoreline and all of those situations, um, and so I, I do know from having spoken with many of you that there are a lot of really strong feelings and I want you to know that I am here to listen, to build trust with you, and to be very transparent about this process.  Um, one of the things I’ve learned is that we don’t always agree about what should happen, but you should understand why that decision was made, and it should be very clear from finish to end, from beginning to end. So, um,  anyway, I will, I’ll talk more about that as I go. As we go through some of the ideas, so, uh, and then there will be a QR code at the end where you can provide, uh, you can use your phone to provide some digital, uh, feedback. 

Or you, we also have written forms if you would prefer to do it, um, that way as well. You can certainly do that, so.  So we’ll start with that format. Um, really our purpose is to communicate our needs. And to share ideas and to make sure that we are, um,  that we are being very transparent. I, I really feel like I have tried hard as a superintendent to explain processes and  to let you know why things are happening the way that they are.

And as people have reached out, I’ve tried to explain. Um, to explain those things and, um, try to listen. So I hope you will continue to see that, um, from me. Um, but our most important focus tonight is to talk about what we want to have happen at our Dixon site. So, with that, we’ll get started. So, one of the things that, um, if you watch the board meeting where we talked about our next The next stops were, um, the Dixon site, and I think I heard it from every single board member, was a real need to repair the relationship with our Dixon neighborhood, and to make sure that, um, that transparency is, is really clear, and I want you to know that that is my priority as well. 

Um,  one of our major needs, is we have a facility known as East Bay Post High. Many of you may never have heard of this facility before.  So, I’ll explain it and kind of let you know um, what it is.  Kind of what we need to do with this particular site. East Bay Coast High is a facility that we use to educate, um, students who are 18 to 22 years old who have significant disabilities. 

Currently they’re housed in a, I would call it a strip mall basically.  Um, behind Sam’s Club in Provo.  Um, they currently serve about 33 students.  They have five different classrooms that they utilize. And these are students that are at differing levels of, um, cognitive ability, work ability, all sorts of medical, some of them are medically fragile.

Um, so there’s lots of different needs there. Uh, we have several staff members that work with these students. And because of the increase in that number of students, we had to expand. to the other side of that strip mall, basically. And these individuals that work at East Bay Post High have done a tremendous job in making this a very inviting place for students, but it definitely doesn’t feel like a school.

I’m going to be really honest with you. It’s in a strip mall, and there’s just no way that it feels like a school.  So, we have a temporary contract with, uh, the owner of that building for the next three years. So we lease that space each month. Um, if you’re going to ask me the total cost, I know to increase the size of it, increased our cost by 20,000 per month.

Um, and so, but I don’t know what the original cost was of the other site. So I can find that out.  Something that you feel like would be helpful to you. Um, but we need a space for these students. These students need a school. They need to feel like they’re a part of Provost in these school districts. So that would be a definite need that we would have that we would want to address. 

Another thing that we need to look at is our vocational and technical education offerings. Particularly for our high school students. Um, now, we already do have lots of options for our students. Provo High School and Timpview High School do have several programs that are housed in those high schools.

For example, um, there’s a great, um, Uh, there’s great woodworking labs, for example, at Timpview High School. Um, there’s a great welding program at Provo High School. Um, however, there are, there’s just a limited amount of space at each of those schools, and they’re very cost intensive. A lot of the equipment that we use can sometimes be, um, half a million dollars for it. 

And so having to purchase that for two high schools can be quite expensive. So one of the thoughts is to create a centralized location where some of these programs, um, could be housed so that kids are graduating from high school with these certifications, um, in hand. So whether it’s an electrician’s program, or Um, a cosmetology program,  something like that.

Um, now, we do have a great agreement with Mountainland Technical Education Center. Um, and so they provide a lot of these programs for us.  Part of the issue is we compete with Nebo School District as well as Alpine School District. district for those spaces and those programs. And some of those programs are highly competitive because many of them will feed directly into Utah Valley University.

So if I, for example, do the nursing program at MTEC and I get through that, then I can go straight into the nursing program at Utah Valley University. I have the guaranteed chance. Um, so some of these programs are sometimes limited for, um, for students. So as I’ve been working with our CTE, Director CTE stands for Career and Technical Education.

So it’s really helping kids. Who might not want to go to college, but really want to develop a skill so they can get a good job after high school. We’ve been looking through where our students have requested things, and we’re trying to identify programs that we could really benefit from. But we need some space to do that. 

And, and, by the way, the Dixon site is not the only space where we could do that. So these are just needs overall as a district.  Um, another piece that we need is we need a location for community resources. You know, I was just talking with Principal Rawlins and, and she was talking about the need for, um, spaces for principal’s pantry and to be able to serve a much larger group of people that she’s even able to serve here at Timpanogos.

We have an adult ed program that’s located at Independence High School. We have our English as a second language classes or English classes for people who are learning English. Um, it’s currently at the Dixon site. Um, we have community ed classes that are happening. And being able to house that with, uh, some resources for families, that would also help.

It would be a tremendous need, um, that we have as well and would benefit our families and students. It’s also important to note that we can, we can use some of these spaces in multiple ways. So, for example, we could, um, use these spaces, some of these spaces for students in education during the day, and then they can be used as classrooms and things for adults in the evenings as well.

So, there’s a lot of ways in which we can really maximize the use of many of the things that we need.  And then we’ve also, as I’ve talked to people in the Dixon neighborhood, I’ve talked to Board Member Hales, um, she talks a lot about, it’s very important to this community. community to preserve green space and that becomes really important as well.

So,  um, so that’s also something that we want to, um, talk about.  Um, another program that we have in Provo City School District is something called the CAPS program. And it stands for, um, I knew I was going to forget this. The Center for Advanced Professional Studies. There we go.  It is currently housed at the Nu Skin Building.

And what this program allows is for high school students to um, basically take two periods of a class of their schedule and they work directly with a business. So the business comes in and says something like, I need an app built to do X. And the students work with that business as if that business is their client. 

They develop that app and go through that process. From beginning to end, learn about the communication skills, learn about budgeting, um, and we have four different strands that we use for that program. We have two concerns about that. NuSkin at any point could come and say we need our space back, and so we would need to find a place for these students.

It’s Provo High and Timpview High students that benefit from this program.  Um, and, uh, when I spoke with Clay Bingham, who oversees our CAPS program, there are two additional strands that he would really like to bring on. One of those is computer programming, and another one is education. So that would be, those would be some additional strands that would be part of it. 

Um, we also do have a need for a district office campus. Um, our district offices are located, some are located right across from the hospital. Some are located up at, um, the old Grandview building. And then we have a couple of satellite buildings. And it, and it does take travel time to get a team of people together to be able to meet and, and problem solve.

Yes, you can do those things with Zoom sometimes. Um, I’m a big believer that in person collaboration is very helpful. Um, but again, that isn’t necessarily a priority. for the Dixon site. We have other properties where, um, a district office can be built. So, um, I just am trying to identify that that is definitely a need that we have. 

We have also, as we’ve talked with employees about some of the things that would encourage them to stay in Provo City School District. They talked about, um, it would be great if we could provide a daycare or preschool just for employees and their children. And we have a couple of surrounding districts that are starting to introduce this.

So this is going to become a competitive piece that we’re now going to be working on. Competing with those districts for teachers and the way that they fund this that is so creative is they’re using it as a child care lab for your, um, high school students that are earning concurrent enrollment credits and they’re earning college credits in those child care classes. So part of it would be, it would be great like at, wherever we put this district office campus, if we could have some kind of centralized location to use that as a major teacher recruitment tool, we think that would be, um, very beneficial.  We also know that we need to finish, um, our Timpview High School rebuild.

The part of the construction that is finished, um, was part of that, um, bond. But the bond did not cover the rest of the construction that is still needed to make that building safe for students. There are still entire wings of that building, um, that are not, uh, that we need to look long term at to make sure that they’re safe.

So their arts wing, their cafeteria, um, and so we have an obligation to make sure that our students are safe there.  And then very far down on the list, this would be like, Many, many years out, in my opinion, would be, um, we are going to eventually need more athletic space for both Provo and Timpview high schools.

With the amount that the Utah High School Activities Association is expanding, all of the, um, programs and sports that are being added, we’re going to need space for that. I’ll give you a great example. It looks like esports is going to be probably sanctioned at some point. And I don’t know if you realize, but they play, esports happens in usually a pretty large arena.

Um, and so there will need to be practical spaces if our students at Timpview and Provo High School, um, want to be part of that, and Independnece, if they want to be part of that, then we could have a shared space, um, that could be utilized there. Certainly, um, we have other properties in the service. It’s just something to think about down the line. 

And then we also have to look at other buildings that are getting quite old. So when we look at Westridge Elementary, for example, or Canyon Crest Elementary, um, these are schools that are going to be, you know, um, some eventual rebuilds or remodels. That would be way down the line. But we also need to recognize there’s maintenance that goes with these buildings that we have to pay attention to to make sure that these buildings are safe for our students. 

Um, if we do rebuilds, do we need to look at boundary shifts to, you know, that’s always a tricky question, right? Like, that’s never anything that’s popular. Um, but sometimes to make sure our students Our schools are well balanced. Um, there are just lots of things that, that we have to take into consideration.

So this is not a, just a six month plan or a two year plan. This has really got to be a well thought out, long range plan. We are more interested in doing it right than in doing it fast. Um, because that’s really going to be important, so. Um, with that, I’m going to move this microphone over here. I would love for you to come up,  um, state your name and, um, where you live, if you’re in the Dixon, uh, neighborhood.

And then I would just really ask that we follow these norms of being really respectful, not interrupting one another, allowing an individual to speak. Um, allowing an individual to ask a question, allowing individuals to answer those questions, um, and then if we need it, a three minute time limit, but I think most people are good at monitoring their air time. 

Shauna is recording this meeting, Caleb’s taking really good notes, and then we’re going to take all of this feedback and I’ll talk about what our next steps will be after that. So I’m going to turn the time over to you guys, um, to come up and just, what have you talked about? What are your ideas and suggestions? And I have good note takers out there too, but I’d love to hear from you and I’m so grateful you’re here today. 

Jared Curtis: Jared Curtis from the Dixon neighborhood, well for now, who knows what they’ll call us later. Oh.  The build trust, uh, I’m a little hesitant to give feedback, because I don’t have trust, because the feedback of needing extra care was overwhelming and it wasn’t,  I don’t know how well it was taken into consideration.

Um, so I’m going to give the advice that I think you want to hear. Um, I think it makes sense to put the school district there,  because I think you’re going to sell the school district to the non profits even more. For you who are IHC, and that makes sense financially, so, um, I think that, I, I don’t know how, I don’t, I guess I have a question of if we took kids out because it wasn’t safe,  and I, I don’t know if it’s insurance, I don’t know, I would think, why would we put classes of high school students, preschool kids in there, if, if it’s not safe? 

Superintendent Dau: That’s a great question. It would be a rebuild.  So, it would be completely torn down and there would be a new building that would be built. 

Jared Curtis: Okay, that, that’s what I would say, but I, I didn’t know. Um, another suggestion, I think it’s a bad idea, but it’s a suggestion. It’s just tear it down and,  um, I know that, Uh,  maybe put in some  rich people houses that, that, that complain enough, um, and then we could have more success and feedback from our neighborhood. That seems to work really well. 

Superintendent Dau:  Thank you very much. Jared Curtis, right? Okay, thank you.  Anyone else? 

Eric Chase: Here, I’ll talk. Uh, my name is Jared Chase. I live about four blocks to the north of right here, uh, in the North Park neighborhood. I have lots to say. 

Superintendent Dau: Yeah, you’re, you just go..  

Eric Chase: Okay, I want to talk about what our community needs now as we move forward. And I wanted to start by saying, um, I don’t think the school district appreciates what makes  land in the central part of the city valuable.

I just looked up recently a couple of some of the values of how much property costs. So there’s a, uh, like half a block for sale on, like, second left, just a few blocks from here. Um, that’s for sale. It’s just over two acres. It’s for sale for six million dollars. Uh, that’s about almost three million dollars an acre.

Um, if you go out to West Provo, you can get property that is one for sale at sixteen acres for about two million dollars. You have $120,000 an acre, so the property here in Central Provo is worth 20 times per acre what something out on the west side is, and if you go farther out to, like, Goshen, you can get  property for, like, $5,000 an acre, so this is worth 560 times what property out in the I don’t know where it is, and why, why is the property more valuable here in the central part of the city than on the west side or way out in the developed, uh, wilderness?

It’s because of the connections that’s here. It’s how all the different parts of the community work together. There’s people, there’s businesses, there’s infrastructure in place. And the way all these connections work because they amplify each other. That’s why the property here is so valuable. For example, if you build a sidewalk here in the Dixon neighborhood, you know, kids can take it to the school, but it can also be used by everybody else to walk to the park, to walk to a restaurant, to walk to a library, to walk to a job, to connect in with transit, uh, to anywhere.

If you build a sidewalk out on the west side of Provo by Provo High, it’s a single use facility. It’s only for those kids because there’s nothing else out there to connect with. That’s one of the reasons why moving, why closing the school at Dixon is, has such an impact. Because not only do we not have, uh, that point of, of connection to build up the rest of our community, but you took all the infrastructure from us, the city at, to support those single use developments at the Shoreline Middle School and at in  for, for a decade or more of infrastructure improvements for the city.  Um, one of the problems is,  a vacant or real underused Dixon property. If instead of building up the multiplicative synergizing with us, it suppresses our neighborhood.

So it’s not just a net zero, it’s a negative.  Um, and unless you find a new primary use that lives up to our neighborhood. Um, that’s what we need. What do I mean by a primary use? I think everybody knows the expression. You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, but what we have here is the opposite problem.

Um, a school by itself is a great asset for the community, uh, mostly because the school accompanies secondary benefits like, a field space, I guess sort of place for community meetings or a place to have junior jazz basketball. Those are, those are nice, but those are, they’re just secondary.

That’s what I think is the bath water of having a school. Um, if, if the city came to a neighborhood and said, we want to have, if the city came here and said, we want to hold those two blocks  of the neighborhood, And maybe you have a field, maybe a couple tennis courts and a track, and it’s, if we have another similar thing one block away,  we would never go for that because we know how impactful that would be negatively on our community.

We’d never go for it.  But, what I want to emphasize is, you guys already took the baby, the baby is gone, it’s dead, it’s out on the west side of Provo, it’s by the Footprinters Park, that’s, that’s the middle school. And holding on to these secondary uses, like extra field space, or whatever, tennis courts, whatever, those, those are what I’ve been thinking of as bath water uses. 

Um,  making it part of one block from another field at this school is the bath water use. Including the district offices there is the bath water use.  Using a few parts of the building and letting the rest fall apart is the bath water.  Um,  but there’s, there’s two big obstacles I see to getting something good there.

Uh, first,  the school district, as an entity, is designed to  run schools.  And so anything, like, outside of that scope, you guys don’t have the expertise to do that. It’s, it’s not what you, it’s not your forte. So when things like running parks,  Frankly, the district’s not very good at running parks.  Um, definitely worse than the city.

And I’m worried that outside of a major school, like a third middle school or something like that, there’s nothing you can do as a district that’s going to meet the potential of what the neighborhood needs and what the neighborhood can support and what we can build up in the neighborhood.  Um, I just don’t think the district has the vision, that’s the same thing, the same problem with Fox Field, that’s why you guys are just sitting on it.

You don’t even have sidewalks along Fox Field to integrate with the community. Because you,  as an institution, you don’t see how it works together.  Um, the other problem I see is I don’t see how you’re going to finance something good here, because of how badly you mishandled, the district mishandled the bond process last time, and all the, the way they’ve run through all the community’s trust.

I don’t, I don’t know how you’re going to get us anything good. Um, I think holding on to the property, you, the district just sees this, or sees this as just an item on the balance sheet. It’s, it’s something that, you know, it’s just extra space.  If, if you’re,  if you have the option of doing something on the west side or here, and you’re going to do it just because you have here, that’s, that’s a negative to me.

Because this neighborhood, deserves 22 times better as what you would do out on the west side. Um, I just want to set a  baseline of what, like, could be here, what would be a good use.  Um, if you went around the neighborhood, the immediate neighborhood here, and took, like, the best developments that have been, like, New condos. 

The ones like across from Smith’s, they have 28 family condos on one acre over there. If you were just to copy and paste that however many times it would fit on here, it would be 200 new families into this neighborhood.  And nice, new, affordable housing.  Um, that’s like the baseline.  That’s the possibilities we’re dealing with here. 

You can’t get other places.  Um, so even if you have some of these lesser uses. If you want to keep the historic portion of Dixon, um, you should, I think, the district should not hold out, um, selling the property to someone who has the vision and who has the, the financial capabilities to give us something better for the neighborhood, because I really don’t think the school district can provide that.

Superintendent Dau: : Can I ask you a couple questions? 

Eric Chase: Sure. 

Superintendent Dau: How much did those condos cost  that were established across from Smith. So, yes, 28 family homes in a one acre space. But how much is each one of those? 

Eric Chase: I don’t know. I mean, but, but that’s, that’s what we could have here.  And, I know the district and the city have worked together on stuff like what if we were able to provide a workforce housing for teachers, this kind of stuff, you could, you could do that.

You didn’t want this expensive, uh, uh, things on here. You, I know people aren’t gonna like this, but the building by the rec center that Chip Cookie is in, that has like 60 units on half an acre.  So that’s, that’s the kind of thing we can support here, less impact on the school. What we’ve had in the past.

And I think that’s what I’ve got to say. 

Community Member: Can I ask him a question? 

Superintendent Dau: Absolutely, but come up here. Yeah, you’ve  got to be on microphone so she can hear it. Community Member: I’m just wondering, is that like, how most people feel in the neighborhood?  I’m just trying to get a feel for like, I don’t live in the Dixon neighborhood. Like, what people in the Dixon neighborhood want that I’m, just curious. I didn’t think they did want  housing going in, so I was just curious.  

Multiple Community Members:  We want a school. 

Andrea Busby: My name is Andrea Busby. If you want turn this around here. You actually facing these. Let’s do that. Okay. Oh, well. Push it back down so we can see her, too. What? On this other one? My name’s Andrea Busby. Nice to meet you. I live across the street. Uh, so technically not Dixon, but kind of. My child goes to school here.

Um, I also will have a Ph. D. in Human Development and Social Policy from the School of Education. I’m a professor of Child development. That’d be right. Why is that relevant? One of the things I study is neighborhoods and how it relates. You can’t hear me? Okay. One of the things I study is neighborhoods and child development. 

You know what? I can just do this. Yeah, that’s fine. Uh, I’m totally fine with this.  One of the things I neighborhoods, it feels weird talking to you, so we appreciate you having us here. And I know that you’re cleaning up a mess that you didn’t make.  Um, but,  so, I study neighborhoods I think really seriously and I, on the, I go to the neighborhood district meetings, and anyways, one thing I just keep thinking about here, living downtown Provo  is,  um, maybe you’ve heard of food deserts before in this concept.

And I keep thinking, are we making downtown Provo a child desert, which is a place where people actually can’t raise their families.  Um, I, my family, we have a bike, we walk around a lot. My daughter is visually impaired. It’s really important to us that she can move around and we live here.  For many reasons, but that’s one of them.

So that she can have an accessible lifestyle. And, you know, in the last 10 years, we just gutted secondary education in downtown Provo. And you have to have a car to get to your child’s school once they get to 6th grade. And we’re also, at the same time as doing that, urbanizing downtown Provo, creating these high rise buildings, making a lifestyle where people actually could primarily take public transportation, walk, bike, do all these other things.

But then the school district is going in the opposite direction, moving everything out to these kind of suburban areas where you actually couldn’t access it without a car. And I was in! Amen. Um, so, I mean, and so I moved here right around when this decision was being made, but I knew we were buying a house here, and so I was watching all of these meetings online.

I remember hearing in this meeting one of the members of the school board saying something like, well, if we move it up to the west side, more children can walk to school there, like, numbers wise. As if a child living in a car centric community, being able to walk to school is the same as a child living in a neighborhood here where maybe they don’t have multiple cars per family.

And, um, you know, frankly, it’s just not the same. And so, I get it that the school  isn’t a priority, you know, for the district, but I don’t know what’s gonna serve that purpose for us.  Um, because it’s just such a clear need for the community. And my family can afford to buy another car. We choose to have one car in our family.

But it’s actually to the point of when our children are in secondary school, we may have to purchase another car so that my husband and I can afford it. And we work at the same place. So, we have the easiest lifestyle. Purchase another card just to make sure that our children can get back and forth from school, or that we can go to extracurricular and things there.

And it just, there’s just a fundamental, you know, like a mistrust and bad taste in our mouth. Some of those arguments being made in bad faith, like comparing children living in the suburbs to children living here. As if they’re the same when they’re not. Um, and the other thing is obviously, and I think this was stated, but, there’s a real safety concern about that property not being used and being, because it’s being used all throughout the day, there’s so many eyes in that area.

And then just having this kind of black hole area,  like a building that’s not quite being used or not being used all the time, it doesn’t have all the people there, can just become such a safety hazard that I think we really don’t want that there. 

Superintendent Dau: Anyone else? 

Micah Clyde: My name is Micah Clyde.  And I am a student at Dixon Middle School.  Um,  and,  what I have to say is,  I don’t want to housing to go there.  Um,  like, we have plenty of other spaces where we can put housing, and  like, I just feel like,  I do understand that we have the park over by the rec center, but I also think we should keep some green space over here. Um,  yeah,  just. 

Superintendent Dau: Thank you very much. Anyone else? 

Community Member: I’m kind of simple and I’m old. I have grandchildren and they pray. And I’m just wondering, of all these propositions, how are they going to be funded?  And if we’re funding for this, why are we getting funding for a second middle school?  

Superintendent Dau: Um, I’ll answer that when we go through.  Thank you for bringing that up.

Marty Madsen: That was too tall. Uh,  my name is Marty Madsen. Uh, me and my wife basically lived in the same area for for over 50 years now. Uh, my wife’s father taught back in Dixon.  And, uh, both attended school there when we were young. 

But, uh,  Dixon met a lot, and I know that the issues with the building being an altar, having to go on to something new, and the, uh, kind of civil war that took place about where it was to be built and that, and, uh,  uh, I was raised down in the Southwest Provo around Sunset,  and so I was kind of more out of it. And, uh,  if I wanted to walk to school at the time, that was how I walked to get to school. Going on the freeway, across railroad tracks, down to school.  So, location  is always an issue. It’s always been an issue in the last few years with the school being built.  But, uh,  I’m in for more green space.

The, uh, fence we have just around the corner makes me, uh, It’s nice to see that that film is being used for, uh, sports. The, uh,  um, the Latino Spanish. The Polynesians, they use those quite a bit for soccer. There’s, uh, flag football going on over there and that.  Something that, uh,  in soccer. Uh, something that you can’t do over at North Park. Or at Pioneer Park.  There’s no room for it. And, so, Dixon is kind of a center area. For these groups to come in and use that field for, uh, for the things that they would like to. 

Um, there’s nothing really close, even to the Dixon  Field, within the area at all, to use. Um, I think that some, I think that you’ve mentioned on the, uh, on your presentation as far as, um, possible uses of that. Apparently, Dixon, it sounds more like Dixon probably would actually work for them. It’s just that the age and that kind of,  kind of what I call um, uh, it’s kind of  uh, the old, it’s not gonna be, try to be rescued like the old BYU Academy or the Provo Tabernacle or some other things.

But, uh, I think what I think what we need to realize and to keep in mind is the potential use to, to take a person from one level to the next level.  Somebody that maybe has the need for more instruction.  And it sounds like it’s kind of going that way a little it.  And I think there’s some diversification in your life there, Dixon Field,  uh, even though that the old, uh, school itself  has no, you know,….

But, uh,  I am, uh, my business is floor coverings. Uh,  I get to see a lot of, uh, things that happened to prior buildings. It’s a concern . I’ve seen a lot of building and I think that shouldn’t have taken place in places where it did. Uh, our buildings that ….  The thought process was there so that things could be built. 

But, uh, I think the people, all the old timers like us, are pretty much gone.  And, uh, the, because the Southwest, the area that we are in had half acre lots. Uh, irrigation system is in place. They have their gardens, uh, their home, especially  in, in the time that they were built. That was kind of their, also their vacation, too. 

And, uh, now that, now that, uh, there’s no irrigation, uh, to those homes anymore. Uh, the homes of, uh,  have diversified to something else. And, uh, people don’t want that much land. There’s a lot of people that don’t want the big yards. And so, things are getting split up. Uh, I,  I would be, I’m kind of opposed to a building that doesn’t have students there because I think the need is still there that people are coming in as starter families, uh, with smaller children and that.

They can still utilize things in the property for activities and for maybe being able to increase them, you know, regarding  if that was possible, so. 

Mary Wade: I’m  Mary Wade. I’ve lived in the Dixon neighborhood for nine years. And in the Timpanogos neighborhood just two blocks that way.

Well, together we’ve been here for like 16 years. We’ve been here for a long time. And we really love,  we really love this area. Um,  One, one concern I have Um, uh, that has, you know, with that damaged trust, um, things, whether the, the board and leadership understands, like, the depth of the historic, like, financial disparity in this city. 

Um, I was surprised at the most recent steering committee meeting we had that someone commented, like, well it used to be East versus West, it was just so much disparity between the two, and now that’s not really a thing anymore, and people are like, oh yeah. And I was like, well that’s not really our perception here.

And maybe, maybe it is more the case now because of all of the, uh, very expensive homes that have been built in recent years on the west side and that, that was actually one of the points we tried to make when all this was going down because when we, when we tried to speak up and say, hey, we, please understand the concentrated need of this neighborhood.

We were told, well, there’s really poor people over there, too. You’re being selfish. And that felt really personal to y’all.  Um, so we try to point out, hey, look,  literally, like, dirt is thrown up. There’s development all around Shoreline of these, like, 700,000 homes. It may be the case now that the income’s about the same, but that has got to change dramatically.

And the fact that it was brought up of, like, there’s not so much a disparity anymore between the east and the west, like, kind of drove that home. It’s like, okay, so where does that leave us? This is very emotional for me. It’s been like years. Anyways, so the decision to build at the  new site just felt like a willful refusal to make low income views part of the conversation, but it’s too late now. Gosh. Um, another area of damaged trust has been that I actually, like, really hesitate to bring up because  I’m so grateful that the board voted to have a busing, and I don’t want anything to jeopardize that, like, I’m so grateful because I,  across my home, is a bunch of mobile homes. And I’m not….when we’re trying to have these conversations we asked, like, how would you feel if Dixon were moved? These families were like, well, that would be terrible if  If they couldn’t walk anymore, if they can’t take a bus either, we don’t know what we would do.

We’d probably just go to Freedom because it’s right there. When I tried to bring that up, one of the board members at the time literally was like, you went there, how dare you? I was like, this is what I’m hearing from our neighbors. I’m like, why? 

When we advocated for Dixon to stay in place, we were told, okay, we got the same price point either way. The same, we’re rebuilding. We tried to ask about the busing pricing.  If we were able to get that busing exception for us to be bused. And, it just felt like that was sidestepped. Like, no, don’t bring that up. Board members in the future can vote different ways. You never know what it’s going to be, so that shouldn’t be part of the consideration. But it is very expensive, and that’s our reality now. Like, and I, I can’t, I don’t want jeopardize because Im very grateful for it. And especially I keep thinking about these families that are like, we have no other means to get our kids to school. We would just go to Freedom. Like, we have to be able to have them walk or take a bus.  And so I guess what we really just want is just, for the future, just like, thank you. I’m sorry. I’m emotional.  This is all very near and dear to my heart. Um, future’s future. Financial decisions.  To be extremely transparent. Like, don’t cite something. It’s like, gotta all be a whole, whole picture. I loved the comment about the child desert thing. The years that we’ve lived here, my oldest  is 13, my youngest is 7. It’s been really hard on them to make friends, but then move away because they feel like they can’t raise a family here until their kids graduate.  And, um,  that has been hard.  And we really could have used more long term families in this neighborhood that would really bring more strength here. And so I guess I would just like the district  and the board to be mindful of that. But that’s a very strong need here. And maybe leave your um, somehow on the table for third middle school someday. Because that would be a huge asset, I mean, and I know that’s what I mean right now, but if we were to do high rises or whatever, then that would be forever not an option, so, I guess that’s just consideration. 

Community Member: I didn’t come here prepared for anything. Um, I know that Dixon has been a great asset to the community, especially with adult education. Um, they have GED classes, English classes, so many people go and utilize that. Please do not turn it into high rise apartments. Um, I feel that it would bring down the value of our homes in this area. I just live a few blocks that way. Um,  I really feel because of our low income area, I’m a teacher myself in the district, and I can only afford low income, despite having a master’s degree and 18 years of education. Teaching in education, um, I feel that keeping that adult education and these English classes will only lift  our community and increase their opportunities to provide a better life for their families. We need this facility and the adult education programs here to help our community grow and progress. 

Dylan: Hello guys. Hello. Hello. Uh, Dylan Brinson. I’ve been working here for a year, two years, and moved to Dixon. I’m the helper over there. I’ve been living in Dixon’s neighborhood area for most of my life. I attend Dixon and everything. I just, uh, thought is, y’all are sad that Dixon has moved, right? Everybody’s sad about that. 

So, the process I’m thinking of is, why don’t they do it to Timpanogos? And they move this somewhere else. So then, you have the bus trips farther.  So what I’m saying is maybe, put  the school here, move it to that location. So then, they’ll have it for another 20, 30 years.  So then, you don’t have to worry about, oh, transportation.

Gotta go across the busy street right here. Or like, how much of you guys, right now, have kids who can attend? 1, 2, 3? Uh,  How much, how dreadful is it for you guys? 

Eric Chase:  It’s not an issue, because everybody can walk to the meeting. 

Dylan: Yes, but, but, what I’m thinking is,  not only you guys, but there’s other people in the parking area. 

It’s dreadful. You have to park on the side of the road. I see cars parking on that big, busy road. Having kids run out there, that’s pretty unsafe.  So, I’m just saying, what would be smart to do is move this school over there, then make this, the uh,  high school, not high school, the uh, adults, English learning, Spanish learning, make this school it.

And make it maybe the district office because they’ve heard about it previously. Make it this building.  Because I feel like, uh, redoing this school to do a lab would be better. And then making a brand new one would be  better. Because then you guys can have the school for longer. Because you never know, they might just do this somewhere else. 

So I just kind of thought, I’ll just say this, they did it to make it safe. They probably didn’t do it to make it safe. 

Superintendent Dau: Anyone else?  Please. 

Aimee Clyde: So my name is Aimee Clyde. Um, our family’s lived in the neighborhood for 15, 15 years now. Um, and I, uh, I also work here at Timpanogos Elementary. Um, and I really do love the idea of having some sort of, um, continuing education there in place, um, available to the community. Um, and also maybe looking at having some sort of preschool,  um, there available for in the area.

Um, I work specifically.  And we see a lot of,  um, we see a lot of our friends come out that are in a place where, um, they have to work really hard  all year to get them to where they maybe should have been when they started kindergarten.  Um, and I feel like if we had something there, then we’d be reaching, um, our younger friends at the senior spectrum and also our, um, like, high school friends and then also the community friends, so we’d have all the different age ranges there.

Um,  also, I think, like, a Spanish learning class would be really great. I would love to be able to learn that better. I know there’s lots of English classes opportunities out here. But, um, and I guess just for me and my family,  Micah’s our, one of our sons. And green space is really important to us. Um, we have a big yard and a garden, and we really appreciate having  that space.

We feel like it’s a really good asset to the community. So, I guess in short, we would, um, for me, some sort of continuing education, younger education, and green space to kind of bring that all together. 

Superintendent Dau: Anyone else? 

Jason Weir: I’m Jason Weir. I live across the street from Dixon.  Um, I attended Dixon. I’ve lived here in Provo my whole life.  My son goes to Dixon this year, and so moving Dixon was extremely, personally, hurtful. It wasn’t hurtful, but it hurt. It hurt, but it wasn’t intentionally hurtful.  Um, but what I’ve noticed, I work from home. So I see what’s going on at Dixon all the time,  and it feels alive. Kids are there. They’re coming. They’re going, you know, people are playing in the field. It’s, there’s, there’s liveliness in the neighborhood.  If we do something there that takes that away, then that’s If we do district offices putting office buildings in, it’s, that’s dead space. Nobody does anything outside the office building.  That, that sort of thing will hurt the neighborhood.  

I also don’t want to just replace it with housing that, that takes something away from the neighborhood. Just  levels over it and it’s just more,  more houses.  I, I want to replace it with something that, that lifts the neighborhood up rather than just lots of…

Julie Potter:  Um, I’m Julie Potter, and my husband Michael and I, we’ve lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, so we can actually see Timpanogos and Dixon from our house. We have two kids now in Provo High and one that will be at Shoreline, I guess, in the fall, and then another one that will come up, uh, in the middle schools. And we appreciate you being open with us and we’re thankful for all your hard work and, um, for having this meeting for us.

And I think you’re well aware of  the issues that we have.  Oh, you can’t hear me? Sorry. Um, I was just thinking.  But, um, I think for us, and maybe most of us here, if we bought a house, it’s because we wanted our kids to want to walk to school. For us, that was important. And living here, what do we do? Like, she brought up earlier, um,  and it was so great to send my two kids out and have them walk to middle school, or walk home every day, and then to the elementary school and back.

And so, uh, I think whatever that, it’s like echoing Mimi, that if, as long as it continues to be a place of learning and education where like people were already saying, can continue to improve and be better, and like Jason was saying, that we can continue to use it as a facility that’s not dead, but keeps our neighborhood alive, because it is such a gathering place for the neighbors, I feel like we people are only using the space, which has been great.

Um, and I know that’s definitely not the district’s  goal to have, like, us use that space. But for a neighborhood, it’s important and it is, it is a center where we feel like we can gather and it’s just part of who we are as a neighborhood, and so, um, but I think as long as it continues to be a place, whatever it becomes, that as long as people can continue to learn and educate and grow there, and, uh, that would be great, so. 

Elizabeth: Hi, my name is Elisabeth. I speak Spanish. This is my son’s first year at Dixon.  At the beginning, he didn’t want to go to school there. But we live really close to school. And, uh, he goes there. He loves being there, and he wants to stay after school. For him, it’s a really big concern. 

Because he doesn’t know where his friends are going to be. I really don’t understand a lot about the school system here. Because we’ve only been in this area for two years. So for me, what school is he going to get to go? 

She’s also like, I’m not sure. I have to find out ’cause I don’t know how it will be divided. 

So now that Dixon is moving, he feels really sad. And his question of grief is, where am I going to go after this? A school that won’t be able to provide transportation because I’m not able to drive. So my worry is where are the, um, So where will the kids from Dixon be going?  Because if there is no transportation for them, then I, I have to figure something. I have to move him to a school that provides transportation. And he says, it doesn’t matter how far Dixon is, he will walk there, even if it has to be a really long walk. 

I understand the feelings from out of the neighborhood.  Again, I need the support of the district. 

So that my son could be able to attend school and that it will be an option for them to get there.  Thank you. 

Superintendent Dau: Alright, anyone else? Going once?  Okay.  So, first off, thank you so much. Like, I feel like already we had, I mean, already started thinking about some of the ideas and already have gotten some  really great suggestions of things that we also need to consider and think about. And so, this is exactly what I was hoping would happen, um, with this meeting.

Yes.  Yes. Yes. I would be happy to.  Yes. There is transportation for your student to the new middle school. So, just make sure she knows that. I’ll put that in the outline. I’m not, I’m not seeing. Like, I, We just want to make sure. Yes. Yes. Yes. We, we got you. That’s right, thank you.  

So, just some of the things that, um,  that we’ve talked about that I just kind of want to just highlight very quickly.

And please note  that these are ideas, um, one of the ideas that we have come up with, kind of floated, is the idea of a student, really a true student and community center.  And, um, many of you are kind of speaking to this, um, it could be a location where we are offering our career and technical education at our CAPS programs.

And many people are like, well that’s not helpful, because how do you, How do other kids get there? Transportation is provided from their high schools to that location, so it isn’t like they would have to figure out how to get there. Um,  we can expand those particular programs. We could potentially have, um, uh, East Bay Post High, a real school for our students with disabilities. 

And then many of you are speaking to this, could we have an adult and community ed center in the evening? Is there a place where we can do our GED programs and get adult ed diplomas?  Um, that’s kind of the idea, that it would be a dual use space, um, sort of like that.  One of the other things that I’ve heard community members talk about is, is there a way to make sure that there’s a space for the community to use for things like junior jazz or, or things like that.

And that I think absolutely could be designed into this so that it really still feels like it’s being utilized as a community center.  Um, so just some of the benefits to this. Um, it, it really does allow us to address many of our needs, and it allows us to address, um, a lot of the, um, concerns about it continuing as an education space.

It would continue as this education space. And we have talked about, and you can see, I, it’s like you guys read my mind. Because I was thinking about, I was just talking with Principal Rawlins, and she’s like, we don’t have our preschool here because we don’t have space. And so it has to be elsewhere. And so being able to have something like that within the neighborhood can be really powerful.

Having, um, a space for, um, you know, or a principal’s pantry, if you will, that could serve much of the neighborhood. Um, I think those are all things that could be handled by this particular space. We’d have to look, I mean you’ve got to have somebody that’s going to draw up some designs because in my mind you’re thinking about all of these different spaces and what those needs are and um, that kind of thing.

So, it is going to cost some money if, if you’re transporting students from high schools to access these programs. And, and, Somebody asked, how are you going to pay for this? Anything that deals with Dixon and most of the needs of the district  will likely require us to look at a 10 year plan and what that might look like in terms of a bond.

It is also important to remember that bond debt drops off, and so then as you bond again, it doesn’t, it doesn’t necessarily mean that taxes increase as a result of that. It just means you’re borrowing against that same,  um,  the part that you’ve already paid off before. So, just, just note that these are, these are high. This is, this is not, we can’t just, districts are not allowed to save up money over time and just be like, save up money for 10 years and hang on to it and then you can build something.

That isn’t, that isn’t how our financing works from the state. And so these are things that we have to do. We have to look at it. If we want to improve our facilities, it does, it does cost money. Um, one of the other concerns, will the site allow for all of these programs? And if it doesn’t, then we would have to prioritize those, right?

Figure out, um, what’s going to be the greatest need, um, to the community there.  

Um,  we have talked about putting, um, a district office campus and combining that with East Bay Post High, I think that’s probably one of the least popular, um, choices. Um, and to be quite honest, I’m going to tell you, we have other locations we can place the district office.

So, that isn’t something that, if I’m looking at that, um, if we’re looking at that as a community, we have where we’re currently at at Fox Field, we have Grandview, there’s, there’s other spaces that we can look at.  I think, um and, and really what I’ve heard tonight is that though those community pieces and the learning is what’s really a priority for many of you, that’s what I’m hearing.

I hope we will fill out our surveys so we actually see that happening so that we’re putting that priority first. I’m a, I love education so I always want, I want every building to be like a space of learning and let’s do some more things and let’s help our community. So those are things I get pretty excited about.

Um,  so,  I, I do really want to advocate too for our students with disabilities. Um, I hope that at some point you’ll watch my, um, Instagram. I’ll probably do a reel so that you can kind of see. I’m going to go to some of their job sites next week and just see how excited they are that they’ve been doing this.

Um, and I am hearing that green space being very important to the community, just for pickup games and different things like that is also important.  Um, district office campus, I put not a priority for the Dixon community, or likely any community in Provo City School District. Maybe for teachers, or maybe for district office people, but, um, and we’ve talked about, I talked about the bottom, we have other places we could put a district office campus, so.

Um, we’ve talked about just preserving it entirely as a green space, like if we don’t. So, it doesn’t, it’s not going to cost us a lot. I think there are concerns about what does the maintenance of that look like? What would that look like? That would take still some, um, considerable time and design, and, um, making sure that we’re doing right by that.

Um, so that is a very simple thing that could be done very, very quickly, you know, much more quickly than some of these other things. These other things are going to take a little bit of time. Um,  you know, I was even thinking about things like after school programming, and is there a need for those types of things for families in the community, and can we fulfill those needs as well, um, while also helping students?

So, um, those are just some of our ideas. So I, I did want to address kind of the elephant in the room of why not a school on that, on that site. Um,  and I, and I really feel for those of you who are like, our schools have been moved to the other side, unless you’re living in a neighborhood where that has happened, you have no idea what that, what that feels like. 

And um, I did my very first practicum at BYU in education at Dixon Middle School. At that actual building, they did teaming, it was in 1992. And so it’s just interesting how you get connections to things. And it’s very important and very apparent how connected you are as a community.

Um,  we have talked about like, yeah, you could, We could build another elementary school there, um, but right now our, um, we already have too many seats in our current elementary system for the number of students that we would have. So doing that would result in a school being closed somewhere else. And every time you open a school, you’re now increasing the numbers of teachers that you have. You now have an administrative staff. You have to have a school nutrition program at that site. You have to have custodial staff. Um, so you have to have another social worker. There’s just a lot that goes into the maintenance of even just opening up a school that sometimes we don’t, we don’t think about.

Um, I talked about, you know, we could move another elementary school to the Dixon site and use that elementary school as a district office. I never think it’s very popular to close or move any school, as we’ve noted. Um, and, and in particular an elementary school. And so, I, I just feel like there’s a lot more uh, appropriate spaces for a, a district office. And, and so, I don’t really feel like that’s much on our radar. 

Community Member: May I ask what, what the appropriate spaces that you have for a district office are? 

Superintendent Dau: Yeah, so Grandview, we have, um, I don’t know if you’ve been up to that location, but we can build a district office on the Grandview site pretty easily.

Um, we have 10 acres on Fox Field. Like, we could rebuild a district office and then tear down the current one, when we needed to. So those are two sites that we could easily use, um, to do that. So, that’s it. Yes, yes.  

Community Member: So, um. Grandview is also in the middle of the neighborhood.  

Superintendent Dau: Yeah, that’s so fair. That’s an excellent point. Excellent point. But we can certainly put it where it currently is, because that’s not changing that significantly. So, um, another thing that somebody also suggested that I met with, and this is something that could be looked at is, they even talked about is it cheaper for the district to rent office space that already exists and use that as a district office.

Right now that’s very economically feasible, but probably may not be in the future, and so is that, is that a good idea? I mean, certainly something that should be considered, right? Um, and, and I don’t think that’s off the table as an option.  Um, and then at the middle school level, we do have, um, we do have more capacity between the two middle schools than we actually do have enrollment.

And as we look at our projections as a district, our overall enrollment is declining. And so, um, really the only schools where we see that enrollment increasing.  Um, it’s usually what happens in the high schools, it’s kind of interesting because you’ll have students that are homeschooled or go to charter schools and then they’ll enter into, um, Timpview or Provo or they’ll permit in from other districts at that point in time.

Um, and, and just with the increased cost of that infrastructure, so now you’re going to have, Um, another administrative team, you know, as you, as you, if you make a, uh, another middle school, for example, um, you may have to cut some programs because now you’re going to have a smaller student population. So I can’t offer choir and orchestra and band. It’s just going to be choir. And so you start seeing some of those programs that will fall off as your, as your population declines. It’s both a blessing and a curse to have a large middle school because those large numbers actually help us to fuel a lot of those elective programs that we care so deeply about. And the smaller that school becomes, then the more targeted those elective programs actually have to become. 

Community Member: (Asked in the new Shoreline is built bigger to hold more students than the current Dixon)/

Wendy: Yes.  Yes.  Yes. No.  So, I think the current student population will be around 900, but I think it’s actually the actual physical capacity is 1100, so, but I will check on those numbers for you. I don’t, do not quote me on that because I, I,  yeah. So, I think part of it is always like, when you calculate numbers, you’re looking at every single space that could hold students. So we have to go in and look at, could you actually have a classroom in that space? So that’s what I need to look at in terms of what the square footage is in person.  But those are great questions and we want to make sure we’re being very transparent about that.

Um, I spoke with a patron too who gave a great suggestion of maybe the district having some guidelines about when schools reach this population it triggers a discussion, for example, about building a new school, or when a school drops to a certain population, do we discuss, like, do we need to have some conversations about some boundary realignment? 

I would always rather do a boundary realignment than actually closing the school, right? That’s just my personal opinion, that’s not, um, necessarily the opinion of the board, but that was my opinion. 

Um, so, those are just some of the thoughts, and I think we have shared some really good ideas here. Um, what I hope is that maybe what you could do is fill out this feedback form. 

Um, so you can use your phone and scan the QR, QR code. And then if you can start to think about what are some of the things that you feel like would be really beneficial. And, and, and give us this feedback. This is very important  to our board, to me.  Um, this is, this is a big deal and we want to do this right.

Um, so if you will fill that out and then part of what will happen is, um, we will gather all of this information and then present, um, all of this to our Board of Education. So I’ll give a presentation, um, about that and share all of that. I will make sure you all know what that meeting is. I would love to have you there or listening to it.

And then you can also see those documents as well. But, are there any other questions that I can answer for you or that I need to write down so that I can get answers? Please.

Community Member:  I just have a quick question. I heard from someone at the district.  I mean, that was just there. But, like a magnet school 7 to 12, like can you speak to why that’s not a good fit?

Superintendent Dau: We talked about, it, it certainly is an option.

So we talked about doing a 7 -12 like STEM school or something, um, uh, possible like that where we could have some of these career and technical education classes and then it goes as a 7 -12 model. The only concern that I get is the more magnet programs you create, then you’re leaving students back at neighborhood schools that aren’t necessarily connected into those magnet schools.

And I worry about what that could do to the dynamic of a school. It doesn’t mean it’s not a possible idea. So if you’re like, I really would like you to explore that further. Um, that is, that is something that has been, um, tossed around as an idea to also kind of pull off some of the, um, you know, if there were ever more enrollment issues at that 7 through 12 level.

So, I think you had a question, yes?  

Community Member: Um, I haven’t really thought about what the plan is for next year when the school is emptying during the daytime. And I, we live literally right across the street, and so it’s like, new here unlocked. Like, what’s going to happen during the daytime when it’s not open, and at nighttime when nobody’s around. So, can you speak to if there’s plans to like, have security or something during the daytime? 

Superintendent Dau:  Great. Um, I have, we have not had a really clear conversation about that, but we have talked about that. Because we know this is going to be like, we’re not immediately fixing this, but you’re absolutely right, this can have a negative impact on a, on a community as well.

I don’t think there’s, um, there are some, uh, our Adult Ed, we haven’t decided to relocate that anywhere, so there’s going to be some things that are going to be there still, and I need to, I need to make sure that I’m understanding more about what the restrictions of the actual occupancy of the building are and what that looks like so that we know, can we continue to use it for a community center?

What does that look like as we’re designing plans and thinking about how to move forward? But that does need to be a piece that comes to you very clearly so that you know what happens there.  Thank you.  Anybody else?  Um, we also have a board member Lisa Boyce here as well and, um, board member, um, Meg Van Wagenen..

Did you guys want to say anything? Um,  okay. 

Meg Van Wagenen: I’ll be brief, but I mostly just want to thank you all for coming.  Sharing some of your thoughts and, um, your experience and, uh, kind of what it’s been like with this decision to move the school. I’m new to the board since last year, um, so I’m still learning how this job goes. But, um, mostly I just thank you all and this is something that I can speak for myself as a board member. I’m very, um, concerned about and aware about and really committed to making a good decision about this site for this community. My kids coming to notice. This feels like home to me. Um, I love my time or my kids time here. So, um, thank you. 

Lisa Boyce: Yeah, my name is Lisa Boyce  and I just wanted to thank you. I’m also new to the board. Meg and I joined last January. Um, and I have appreciated people who have been willing to sit down and help me get the context and history. Um, even just like a small piece of what has happened in the past leading up to the place where we are tonight.

Um, as I, I’m hearing people talk about this and listen about this, um, as a new board member, I’m just learning the timeline of things like how long it takes, even once a decision gets made to write a bond if you needed that to fund something, to then get it on the ballot. And so I hear this idea of, well what if that, on your best case, we come up with a magical plan that made everyone happy, there’s still a time gap between now and then. And so I just want you to know that we are committed to making sure we don’t leave um, a security hazard and let a property decline in the middle of your neighborhood. I, I personally am committed to watching that and I hope you will watch that and you will hold us accountable to that and, and be willing to communicate to us what you see needs. Cause if you live right across the street or if this is your neighborhood, you might walk by and see something and periodically someone will reach out to me and, and they are at a point where they’re pretty unhappy about something. And it wasn’t on my radar necessarily in a way it should have been. And that’s not me too, but I would just say I only know what I know.

And so, the more you’re willing to share and talk and get in the room with us, and tell us, the better our decisions can be. Um, and this is an important stewardship of this site to serve this community.  My dad’s an old bulldog and he went to Farrer and he about had a heart attack when he moved back here and saw that it was an elementary school. I mean, he just couldn’t take it that the school, so I know that this is important and I just, I’m so grateful you took time. I hope you’ll tell your neighbors to take time. This will be on the website for anyone, so anyone you know that isn’t here, ask them to please tell us  everything that’s on their mind about this. The more information, the better our decisions can be, so thank you.

Superintendent Dau:  Thank you so much everyone for taking so much time to, um, come here. I just, I really appreciate how much you care about your community and just know how much you care about your kids too. That’s just really important, um, to me as well. So I hope you have a great night.

Board Meeting Summary for November 12, 2024

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• November 19th, 2024

On Monday, November 18, Lakeview Elementary held its annual art show Art teacher Elicia Gray...