Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 22, 2010,
Item 9
9. Revised language (c added): consider and take appropriate action on promise neighborhood program providing afterschool services in travis county (st. Johns community): a, authorize the county judge to sign a letter of support to the united states department of education regarding the county's participation in the promise neighborhood program providing afterschool services in travis county; and b, approve interlocal agreement between travis county, city of austin and austin independent school district for the county's participation in the promise neighborhood program for afterschool services in travis county. C, other items represented to the grant application. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge. And commissioners. Deborah britain, travis county health and human services and veterans services. We're here to answer any questions that you may have about the grant application. And i also wanted to introduce the -- the project support specialist, ms. Karen dulaney-smith with the austin achievement zone. Just real briefly we are in partnership with the austin achievement zone, the city of austin, austin independent school district, to put forward a grant application for a promised neighborhood grant and they have renamed it austin achievement zone. It is modeled after the harlem children's zone in new york. Which is an extremely successful program. So we're really -- we're really excited about the opportunities for the saint john neighborhood. If you would like to ask further questions of ms. Smith, i am sure that she would be happy to answer those. But -- but basically we're just submitting our support documentation with the grant. Our letter of support, which is -- which is directed towards webb middle school, this is the same investment that we're making in our after-school program. So we're just targeting that to -- for inclusion in the grant. And also for staff support costs for -- for essentially sherri flemming who is our executive manager and myself, who represent judge biscoe on the steering committee.
>> remind mef the deadline -- me of the deadline, the application deadline?
>> it's on friday.
>> and the committee has been working feverishly i guess for several months, i know.
>> for months, yes.
>> i know that based on the number of meetings that i have missed
>> [laughter]
>> yeah, well, it's been a very interesting process because there's been quite a bit of community input, everyone that's involved from the community level, we have many, many different agencies, communities in schools, united way, a foundation communities, almost every agency that would provide support services in that community are present and engaged in this process. Even the -- the lead agency, which is the university of texas meadows center was selected through an r.f.p. Process, i think there were five different agency that's submitted applications to become the lead agency. So there was a -- there was a very intense vetting process. In doing that, you can imagine bringing that many different agencies to the table and all of them coming to the decision to select a single agency to act as the fiscal agent. Ms. Smith's position that was another -- that was another area that was developed through this whole process. It came to our attention that it was really important to have staff support. To make this program move forward. And, also, everyone at the table is also invest understand making sure that we continue to this process, we are hopeful that -- that the grant, we will be successful in obtaining the grant, but i think everyone has also realized that if we do or don't get the grant, it's important that we continue this initiative.
>> 9 a is a letter of support that you are requesting and in that letter we indicate $300,000 worth of in-kind contributions travis county can make. These are expenditures we are already making mostly at webb school.
>> yes.
>> so what we're saying is that we will -- we will commit these dollars that we're already investing so the implication is that we will keep investing them.
>> that's correct.
>> and -- and -- any questions about a?
>> no. I second the motion on that, judge.
>> the motion will be for the county judge to sign this on behalf of the commissioners court. At least be part of the application.
>> also, i just want to applaud karen in her work, both as an aisd member of the aisd board in trying to get just such a collaboration between the city of austin, travis county, and austin independent school district and judge biscoe and commissioner gomez participating on the subcommittee with aisd and the city of austin for just these kinds of coordinated projects, it's really nice to see some fruit from the labor. It's really great.
>> it's a very diverse neighborhood up in the saint john area. Just for the public's point of view, hopefully everything will be all the i's dotted, t's crossed. But just -- could you just give us just maybe just a little brief paragraph, the description of the type of program that will actually be available for the -- for this particular neighborhood, so the public won't be at a loss as far as what we are doing.
>> yes, commissioner, i will be happy to.
>> thank you. Little harlem children's zone was something president obama highlighted during his campaign. He found it to be the type of project that would provide a cradle and really before cradle for parents to have education about parenting before they became parents so they would be ready to put their children in a good preschool program, get the services that they needed because a lot of chirnl start out 18 months behind their peers. Then that kind of pipeline as they call it would continue all the way through to college. And career. The program has been in existence since the 1970's in harlem. This model the obama administration is offering 20 grants nationwide for promise neighborhoods. The saint john neighborhood has been recognized twice as one of the best neighborhoods in america. It's received awards for that. There is a lot of collaboration, a lot of opportunities, but at the same time there's just a wealth of need as well. And the exciting part of this project is to be able to replicate the harlem children's zone model for children in a completely different atmosphere. In coordination with the public school system and programs that are already in existence. What's exciting about the project for me personally is that one of the things that i wanted to see was the city and the county and the -- and the school district partner together, collaboratively on something that would address all of the needs that we have. And then what i hope to happen, which is visionary, is to be able to replicate this model that we have in saint john's in other areas of east austin and beyond. There are plenty of areas needed in our city and we want to be able to model, you know, the kind of program that we want our -- that we want our children to have, the kind of city that we want to be is no stronger than our weakest, most impoverished neighborhood. This project will be the beginning and what we hope to do with the funds if we are successful in the half million dollar planning grant is to have u.t. Prepare a -- a software and database program from parenting to college so that we know what the service gaps are. We believe in answer specifically to your question is that there are excellent programs but sometimes there's duplication, sometimes there's a gap. We want to see what those gaps are and what the neighborhood needs. The value of having a steering committee and having a residence involved is -- is -- is an empowerment model for them so they really have their needs met and are able to help meet their own needs. That's what we are hoping will happen. If we plan well, there is a much larger implementation grant which will be forthcoming. I think that will be where we will really see needs get met for students. Is that responsive?
>> oh, yes. I mean, no one could have done it any better than what you just illustrated there. I just wanted to make sure that the public understand what's going on and what this is all about.
>> thank you very much, my pleasure.
>> ms. Smith, i don't know whether this is true or not, but it just occurred to me as you were speaking about it, does this dove tail with the university of texas' efforts to do an opportunity mapping for the youth of this msa? I know the first leg of that was opportunity mapping with regard to child obesity in travis county. Finding very interesting and surprising statistics comparing for instance saint john's against dove springs. Drawing some conclusions from that.
>> this will be a separate project, but certainly all of the things that are going on in terms of mapping youth services, we do have a couple of areas where that is something that can certainly be rolled in and augmented if we have this planning grant. I think there are other efforts out there among non-profits and people work in this the community that will also bring to bear on the project.
>> thank you.
>> uh-huh.
>> did i get a second to that snotion. That?
>> yes, judge.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. B is the interlocal. We did get that yesterday. Any questions about it.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? Mr. Reeferseed?
>> i just had a question about this --
>> about the interlocal? Interlocal agreement or is it about c? The application? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Comments, please.
>> i -- i live in that neighborhood and i'm wanting to -- i want to help. I don't have a vehicle now. But i can get there if you can show me -- fill me in on details. Volunteering for --
>> thank you very much. We have a volunteer. Thank you so much, i appreciate it.
>> saint john's area, so you can give me the information.
>> excellent, i will be happy to after they continue the vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Reeferseed.
>> c would be the grant application itself. Any more issues with it? Do we need to approve the application or just the letter and the interlocal?
>> just the letter and interlocal. Which ms. Smith is hoping to take away with her when she leaves today.
>> today is ms. Smith's last day as an elected official on the austin school board.
>> actually, yesterday was, judge biscoe.
>> i'm a day late.
>> i see why my request for a role election watch for you was -- rolex was voted down.
>> they did offer to double my salary if i would stay and i said no
>> [laughter]
>> thank you so much. I appreciate it.
>> we appreciate your committee's hard work and we'll keep our fingers crossed on approval by the feds.
>> i do have to admit that there was great pleasure in watching this come through because the collaboration between the city and the aisd and the county is really something important to me. And it is -- it is with great pleasure that i watched this happen. Thank you.
>> thank y'all.
>> thank you.
>> congratulations.
>> to show you how efficient the county judge is, here are the documents that you wanted signed
>> [laughter] stop criticizing me when i'm not around.
>> [laughter] did mr. Jeffreys leave. There he is.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 1:35 PM
