Travis County Commissioners Court
February 17, 2009, 2009
Item 25
Now, Ms.Flemming and -- and Mr.
Jeffreys and -- and Ms.
Pierce, let's lay out item no.
25.
we may need to take more time.
we got this over -- over lunch.
appreciate staff's hard work.
25.
consider and take appropriate action on interlocal between Travis County, the city of Austin and the Austin independent school district for the men and boys harvest foundation to enhance the educational and economic opportunities of Travis County youth and/or modification of after school interlocal, as appropriate.
right after budget markup, dr.
forgione came to me and he and the city of Austin were trying to put together a proposal to help sustain this program.
and I brought the matter to the Commissioners court.
we said basically we will be a partner in the amount of $25,000.
and we do ours a year at a time.
subject to our ability to put together an appropriate interlocal agreement.
they sent an interlocal agreement, which was probably a little bit more sketchy than ours typically and so we have been working to try to come up with an appropriate contract.
can I get one of y'all just to walk us through this?
>> marietta?
did you need to --
>> I was just noticing that actually it's an amendment to an interlocal and the city of Austin is not a party.
>> okay.
that still doesn't change the history, though, are you saying that we need to change that?
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> microphone there.
>> it's an amendment to our after school interlocal.
>> what happened is when they sent over the sort of the draft interlocal it was like three pages.
we looked at it and concluded that we needed something of more substance and so after the county judge floundered repeatedly, we concluded that a better strategy might be to amend the after school interlocal because these involved various schools in Travis County.
and weekend stuff.
so that's what we have right here that marietta was pointing that out.
>> so as the judge stated, sherri flemming, executive manager for health and human services.
what we have proposed for your consideration is just that, an amendment to our after-school contract.
if you recall the kind of-school contract provides for a variety of services that are provided to students after school.
it is in line with the department's direction to provide gap time activities for students which will help them to enhance their educational performance, their -- their social exchanges and hopefully create opportunities for them to look toward better economic activities.
so -- so this program would be in line with the types of services and programs that students would receive in our after school program.
and the -- the contract that you have before you basically has the amendment to add the $25,000.
we contract with aisd who manages the program for us.
and they in turn contract with the providers who -- who set forth the activities for the children after school and then with your approval of this amendment, would be the -- the Saturday conferences associated with the harvest foundation program.
if you look at the copy that you were provided, the conferences, there will be about 10 conferences that actually started in October of this fiscal year.
and there will be 10 that will be completed by the -- by the end of this contract amendment.
and the locations are listed sort of the -- sort of the back of the third page in.
it's -- it's what I'm looking at.
section 9 of the contract.
and you see there the dates of the contract -- of the conferences, the locations, the titles?
these conferences represent a partnership with -- with the schools that are listed there, so the schools also provide -- provide publicity, they provide food.
door prizes and things.
they -- they solicit their students to participate, it's my understanding that some of the -- some of the students who might have a debt to pay, if you will, to the school for being tardy or late or whatever are encouraged to attend these activities as well.
and the conferences themselves represent partnership with the community in that there are a tremendous number of community -- of community speakers who come in and provide workshops for the young people as they participate in these conferences.
>> these conferences really focus on the importance of an education.
>> that's correct.
>> trying to motivate the participants not only to finish high school but to go to college.
>> that's correct.
>> and graduate.
>> yes and become good citizens later on.
and by the way, each participating school puts up the equivalent of about $4,000 for that particular conference.
but the kids are like there all day and they give them a meal and I know travel expenses are paid and speakers come from -- from pretty much around the country.
most of them from Texas, but others from -- from other places and I notice they have had quite a few Travis County judges to speak.
i have spoken a couple of times, but I mean judicial judges, educators.
>> it's a wide variety of -- of different professions.
>> the big question has been what do we do to sustain it because it -- it was kind of moving on.
and really dr.
forgione kind of took it upon himself to -- to get the three partners to contribute 25,000 apiece to -- to make that the training components.
the other thing is that although -- although these conferences are held during the nine months of school, they have a variety of summer programs, they tell me, plus most of the planning in preparation for the school year takes place in the summer.
so -- so I -- I think that I have spoke the first couple of times they had it.
that was really real good turnout, Travis County staff was there, city of Austin staff.
a.c.c.
the other governmental entities.
it's an idea really that's kind of taken off and we need to grow it as much as possible.
early on, I thought it was really african-american, but really it is 30 to 40% hispanic, I'm told.
only about 10% white but open to all.
>> what volume of students do they reach out in.
>> ballpark?
>> say it again?
>> the number of students this program reaches out to on an annual basis.
>> I would say 200 plus for a conference at a minimum.
and I would say the times that I have attended they have sustained that.
it could be even more than that of people who have come and gone.
you know, so there is opportunity for folks who can only stay for a part of it.
so I would say they pretty much maybe sustain somewhere between 150 to 200 and then a little more than that of people who maybe were there for the morning session or just there for the afternoon.
>> right.
>> it was standing room only the couple that I went to.
the last one was that -- that -- at rosewood zaragosa in the auditorium there.
i think it will hold easily a couple hundred people.
but there were people standing around the walls and stuff like that.
good law enforcement presence, trying to promote better understanding and cooperation with law enforcement with the judges.
a kind of, you know, keep positive attitude, to become a good citizen and for those that have been in trouble, they are kind of invited to come and see peers that are doing -- doing better, good role models.
this started out as a men and boys thing, which is in the name, but actually there is a -- there is a women's female components, right?
>> there is also a woman's component, yes.
>> it's kind of grown.
>> it has.
just to expound on what the -- expand on what the judge was saying, your staff has been available as a support to the conference, but also to provide information about your programs.
and so -- so a lot of information is available for our emergency assistance programs, our utility assistance programs, the various programs that we have for mental health services, our cooperative extension programs, 4 h, so it does provide an opportunity for us to outreach to -- for those programs the same is true for the city of Austin.
at one time when I attended there was a workforce person there from the workforce solutions.
so it does provide an opportunity not only for the kids but the parents to connect with -- with services that they might need in the community.
>> is it fair that the overwhelming majority of the participants are from low to moderate income families?
>> I would say that's accurate, yes, sir, yes, sir.
>> will, the doctor forgione, I understand that he's going to be moving on.
i was wondering if the school board with aisd staff will want to continue this -- this program?
i think that it is a great program.
>> well,.
>> of course we have supported it in the past and of course going to continue to support it.
but I want to make sure that -- that on this contractual situation future superintendents that will come on board will hopefully keep this under their wing and -- one of the good things to do for the community.
>> well, we hope they will.
you know, we -- we certainly would have to see what -- what would be that person's focus, but I do know that part of -- of aisd's involvement in this project has been included in their strategic plan.
and so -- so that would be encouraging to me that -- that various persons in the district see this as a -- as a viable program and so I would imagine that there are advocates within the district that will -- that will be able to share with the new superintendent the commitment that they have made to this program.
>> I think they have gotten a three year commitment except from us.
i told them that we had to -- to review ours annually during the budget process.
i'm sure the city is the same.
but I'm told that the city manager and aisd have to the extent possible committed to a three year deal.
and they are out trying to hustle grants in other funding from other -- from other sources to sustain themselves.
>> I have a couple of questions just from the legal angle.
one thing that I wanted to contact on is the data division, creating the data base that will report to unidentifiable individual student data, to show -- track
>> [indiscernible] student progress since the goals of the conference is a reduced dropout rate and mitigate under achieving academic performance.
so that's wonderful.
i'm wondering about number 7 outside the party obligations since the city of Austin isn't -- isn't a signer -- what would happen, is the city at all legally obligated -- not under this agreement, no.
>> do we know -- there's another agreement.
we sent Austin an agreement that bind the city in aisd, we turned that one down, that was a three pager.
we said we would require something a little bit more substantial.
>> there is another agreement between those two that are -- that is already inks and dry --
>> I have not seen the sign -- the signed city document, have you?
>> not that I would make that contingent.
i'm just wondering -- if we weren't to get the $25,000 from the city -- wilford hall required that I think they provide us with notice and proof of the contributions by the aisd and the city.
that's part of the -- part of the deal.
>> okay.
>> the city and i.s.d.
-- aisd have been waiting on us.
>> I have something to sign here by mark williams chair of the -- of the aisd board of trustees, it's dated December 1st, 2008.
they sent ours over in December, too, right?
>> uh-huh.
>> we looked at it and I said it was a two or three pager, actually it's four.
but they have been waiting on us for -- for a few months, we have been trying to get ours together.
to go.
>> so what -- what they did was -- with a separate contract and what we did really -- we finally concluded let's just amend our after school contract and run with that and so -- so we did send that to dr.
jones at aisd and they should find it satisfactory.
>> I just have give -- given the dropout rate that exists, I really want us to stay on top of the data.
we need to see some improvement in that, in those rates.
there just isn't any reason for the dropout rate to be so high.
in Austin, Texas?
and so -- so I really want to -- to keep up with the performance measures on that.
it's essential.
>> that's part of what has taken us as long as it has to get our agreement put together.
we wanted some type of performance requirement.
>> actually essential.
>> I really appreciate y'all pushing that.
>> yeah.
>> I would like -- I don't know -- we haven't gotten their final approval yet.
they have been notified --
>> I know --
>> [multiple voices]
>> because of the mistakes in the posting, if we could repost it for final action next week, hopefully by then we will have aisd's signatures and we will get the posting correct to show it's an amendment and that the city of Austin is not a party to this agreement.
to have it just be safe.
>> okay.
>> okay.
>> next week is February 24th.
okay.
appreciate y'all's hard work on this.
>> our pleasure, judge.
>> anything else today?
on this item?
>> that covers it for me, marietta?
>> no.
>> okay.
>> that's it.
>> thank you.
let's see what else we got left y'all.
we do not need item no.
10 because the took care of that business.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 2:10 PM