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neighborhood organizations and schools. She urged consideration of the question of whether the <br />programs would serve just kids from Eugene or kids from the entire metro area. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor commented that neighborhood-based programs helped to solve transportation <br />problems. She was in favor of using school buildings for the programs since every neighborhood <br />had a school. She suggested a new youth center, located downtown near the library, so that <br />youth could meet other young people from different places. <br /> <br />Mr. Farr said that the responsibility for making sure kids had the best opportunities lay with the <br />entire community. He stressed the importance of involving parents in the proposed programs <br />and stated his support for moving forward with the project. He complimented staff and team <br />members for their work to date. He urged examination of all the programs to make sure that <br />there were no redundancies created with existing agencies. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner stressed the need for hearing from the school boards on the subject. He <br />commented that a comprehensive approach was the only way to make the program work and <br />called on the County and other providers to "step up to the financial plate." He stressed that a <br />City tax or levy could not support the problem alone. <br /> <br />Mr. Green thanked the Mayor and City staff for their work in forming the task team and <br />accomplishing so much in such a small amount of time. He raised concern over the use of serial <br />levies and property tax measures to fund the project since many of them tended to be voted <br />down. He supported phase 1 of the plan but said that it was premature to advocate funding <br />options at the current time. He stressed the importance of hearing from youth and getting their <br />viewpoints on desired after-school activities. He suggested going to schools and getting their <br />ideas separately from the proposed program and seeing if their ideas matched what was already <br />planned. He stressed that they kids would add valuable ideas to the work in progress. He added <br />that kids would not attend programs that they had no part in creating. <br /> <br />Moving on, Mr. Green called for an action plan that spoke to applying diversity measures and <br />monitoring their outcomes. <br /> <br />Mr. Lee clarified that the target group was grades six through middle school and some high <br />school. He also clarified that money spent on the proposed programs was not meant to replace <br />existing services. <br /> <br />In response to a question from Mr. Lee regarding the times for the proposed programs to be <br />implemented, Ms. Phelps said that the times would include after-school hours, days when there <br />was no school, evenings, weekends, summer holidays, and she stressed that it could also mean <br />before-school hours. <br /> <br />Mr. Lee stressed the need to discuss a specific projected outcome. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey called for input from the school districts and said that he was looking for a <br />willingness among the districts to participate in the program. <br /> <br />Mr. Russell, speaking for School District 4J, said that his district would be very interested in <br />participating in the program. He stressed the importance of looking at services already provided <br />by schools so that no redundancies were created. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 22, 2000 Page 5 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />