Neighborhood Planning Council 10 - Lakeview west

WESTALKE/PRAIRIEVIEW NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #10 Meeting Minutes November 26, 2012 The meeting was held at First Assembly of God Church, 800 S. 24th Street, Battle Creek Michigan Call to Order & Welcome Chair, Jeff Koteles called the meeting to order at 7:00pm Cecil Salinas led the invocation. Attendance: Members: Chairman: Jeff Koteles, Secretary: Linda Patenaude, Vice Chair: David Weaver, Diana Cole, Julie Davis, Tom Frame, Joyce Garrett, Cecil Salinas, Guests: Judith Campbell, Lakeview School Superintendent Dave Peterson City staff: Marcie Gillette Chair Notes/Correspondence/Announcements: None Additions or Deletions to Agenda: Minutes: Dave Weaver motioned to approve October 2012 minutes with support from Cecil Salinas. Minutes were approved as written. Police Report: No officer present. Marcie passed out reports. Public Service Announcements from Commissioners: No commissioners present. Committee Reports: a. Membership : Take brochures out and Nominating committee will be looking for officer nominations b. Beautiful Battle Creek Award‐ Uncle Ed's on Columbia. c. Neighborhood Planning‐ Planning ordinances are being reviewed. D. Woodland Park‐ The tree branch is now gone over the park's sign on Gething's road. Thanks to Jason Francisco and Todd Gerber of the city for removing it. Spooky Science Saturday was a great success. QR responses are up to 300 downloads. There is NO HUNTING in the park! City Staff Report: Marcie Gillette passed out written reports. Code officers are assigned to specific areas and are mostly complaint driven. The city now has a conditional staff person, Eric Campbell, who will work half of the year in Code and half of the year in Engineering. His role in Code will be completely proactive, a seeker. He will be looking to enforce garbage cans left out in all area of city and other problems he observes. New Business: Joyce and Linda are looking for nominations. Everyone present at the meeting was considered asked if they were interested in . Program: Dave Peterson spoke about the Lakeview School District. The alternative High School had some problems in October regarding smoking cigarettes on school grounds. These challenges are being addressed. Drug dogs are used to find any illegal drugs at the High School in efforts to keep drugs out. They are being addressed. But as any high school, there are drug issues. School traffic in neighborhoods was discussed. There is a new transportation director hired from within doing a good job. The district has looked at other avenues for drivers including Meijers old driving. Televised school board meetings were discussed, letting more people to know what was going on. It will be checked into. Possibly using students to tape it. Schools are being much more flexible about customizing student's curriculum. The face of schools are changing and not because of Schools of Choice. In district it is 74% Caucasian and 70% in schools of choice. Minges Brook has really changed and is now over 50% in poverty. Riverside has a large increase in Hispanic students. Now, the district poverty rate is at 40%. Changed the process in grading and it will be more competitive, less 4.0 students. AP classes will be weighted. Comments for the Good of the Order: a. Public Comments‐none b. Member Comments: • Cecil talked about crime and a person who possibly tried to break‐into his home. • Joyce thanked Dave Peterson for presenting to our group. • Joyce liked the new brochures provided by Neighborhoods Inc. • Linda agreed to personalize these brochures with contact information. • Jeff thanked everyone for coming and wished them happy holidays. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 8:06 pm Next Meeting: Submitted by Secretary, Linda Patenaude Members who will not able to attend our meeting for an excused absence please call Linda Patenaude @ 269‐962‐8514.