2013-06-17 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2013-06-17
Time	missing
Venue	missing
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: Board of Education - Regular Meeting - June 17, 2013

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foreign this meaning of the board of education for June 17th is called to order I'd like to extend a warm welcome to everyone present and to our television viewers all items that we bought on this evening have been posted as required by state law this meeting has been televised live and we replay throughout the next two weeks please check the Board website for replay times uh co-chair Belial is option this evening and I also wanted to congratulate my colleague Matt Morton on his legal anniversary and thank him for actually being present here today hopefully we'll get through this meeting early so he can actually get home um so tonight we're going to start with uh honor honoring uh director Sergeant um who served on the board for the past eight years and we're gonna get started with that we're also going to recognize uh Joshi hashimian who's been a Administrative Assistant for the for the board and for legal counsel so by the way before you start I want to cut you off before you start because I actually asked uh you know not not that I'm not going to start with you I actually not going to start with you I'm actually going to start with uh director Regan because I asked her also to you know not haven't seen the script um ask her to give a comments on behalf of the board for for director uh Sergeant uh given that she's also the longest tenure uh board member here and work with her that sounds great so we're actually honoring uh two board members tonight and one is Trudy sergeant and one is Martin Gonzalez and uh both of these board members are have been incredible public servants and are both uh this is the last board meeting for both of you Trudy is the second longest serving member of the school board and Martine I think you're the third longest serving member of the school board and I believe someone else is going to be making comments Martine on your behalf before talking specifically in terms of Trudy I was going to mention that yesterday many of us were at the Gay Pride Parade and it was the first time we officially had a spot in the parade so it was pretty exciting and we had probably close to 100 of our employees there um and at that time a young parent came up to me and asked me how can I run for the school board and it was just so exciting and I don't even care if they would be running in my zone I'm just so thrilled whenever anybody is interested in serving in this role because I do think it takes a special kind of person to want to sit up here and be in this position some people who run for the school board are recruited by specific groups or even large groups to run and some are self-motivated either due to their own experience as parents and participants in schools and PTA or classroom or whatever it might be some um think that this is a really fun position and it can be I think the most fun that all of us have is for example what we all did in the last two weeks which is we had the opportunity to speak at graduation ceremonies and it kind of reminds us all why we do what we do um but it's also an unpaid and very time-consuming position I would also say that most more importantly it's an emotionally consuming position because the things that we do matter and that we impact kids lives we impact parents lives we impact um how people feel about public education in general and we impact at some level how people feel about living in Portland Oregon and that's a heavy burden at some level more importantly it's just a incredible honor that we get to do this and we don't choose to do this we are elected to do this the community decides who's up here and we don't choose who we get to serve with the community gets to make that decision so with all of that it's been an amazing honor to have served with both of you um and I'm very pleased that the community made the decision to have you in this role so for Trudy specifically Trudy has served on this board now for eight years again the second longest serving School Board member
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she was elected in 2005 if everyone thinks back a little bit in the election of 2003 there were four school board members up for election and none chose to run again and so there were four new school board members in 2003. the next year the school board members were Julia remembrance lolenzo Poe and Derry Jackson in 2005 decided not to run and so Trudy came on in that election cycle and literally in 2005 we had seven board members with a you know total experience of two years um and so it was a very interesting time to serve and we had a whole lot of work to do and I think about Trudy's role on the board words that I think of immediately are integrity focus and she's very pragmatic so you're very pragmatic in terms of focus I would say Trudy that the contributions that I think about when I think about your eight years on the board is your focus on high schools and what happens in our high schools and superintendent Smith said it earlier that I think a lot of where your passion comes from is the fact that you had three boys who went through Portland Public Schools and your boys had very different personalities and styles and I think that you could see very clearly that our high schools serve some kids really well and other kids either find their way in their own path or aren't served well and all of that is apparent when you sit on this board I think it provides some really deep rich experience so that you know where your target is and I would say Martin for you also the fact that you had children and grandchildren growing through the system similarly um so I think your work on high schools has been just amazing and I think it's culminated recently in us making sure that our kids are getting an absolute full School instructional day and I am incredibly grateful to you for that another project the Trudy was very influential in is the great Fields project where we are working to try to have turf fields that every one of our high schools across Portland and when you live in Portland Oregon that's really really important not only for our high school kids and high school sports programs but everybody in the community benefits when you have sports fields that are Turf so your work in that area has been amazing as well I would say I greatly appreciate your work on the teachers contract over the years that you have served as our one of the board members who has sat on the team and I love the perspective you bring as a parent and as an attorney that you can kind of help us but what has guided you always in terms of the teacher contract is how do we make this contract so it really works for our kids and I have been very grateful to you for your help on that as we go and I think in general what I would say about Trudy is that you are always focused on what's best for our students and always grateful to you you have also been a huge advocate for music in our buildings and music and enrichment opportunities it's kind of educating the whole child and I think you've been a champion for parents in general what I love about you is that you have a get it done attitude you and I both are originally from New York and I think that comes out every so often um but I really love it the fact that you've worked on bonds and levees I think I first met you during the 2003 Multnomah County itax campaign you are somebody who gets things done and uh and at the same time you're a team player you and Martina both served in board leadership but it's also very clear that you understand that you're one of seven and the choices that we make as we go are team choices um so I I want to thank you most specifically for being a parent advocate always in Your Role and focusing always always always on what's best for kids I'm enormously appreciative to you for uh eight years of great service to Portland Public Schools to our families so if you'll join me please thank you thank you and actually I'll just do a finish our acknowledgment of Trudy because earlier and thank you for people to people who joined us earlier for our reception we presented a piece of student artwork to Trudy that was done by Haley Greg from our leader and actually will you just pop around and just hold that up for people just because our students when they do this artwork and it's presented to a board member it's high it's really meaningful that that's what we've used to actually
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honor the service of a board member so here is our our artwork for Trudy foreign gift that we're giving her tonight today she received a Pendleton blanket that was just a symbolic blanket about balance and Harmony that was a tribute to Trudy and then finally a plaque that I will read to you that says I hope it will be said we taught them to stand tall and proud even in the face of history and the future was made new and whole for us all one child at a time treaty Sergeant member board of directors 2005-2013 on behalf of the 47 000 students and 6 000 staff of Portland Public Schools thank you for your outstanding leadership dedicated service and unwavering commitment to ensure opportunity for every student to realize their full potential with highest regard and it's a little piece of art there as well so Trudy thank you so much and then I get to kick off Martine so Martin uh started we'll do or do you want to do finish let's do any other comments about the student so um Martine started on the board in 2005 and he was finishing Dan Ryan's first term and then was re-elected to serve the the next term and I would say um similar to Trudy martine's passion and relationship with the district was largely through his own children and grandchildren and where he was really passionate about what kind of quality of Education students are receiving in public schools and his relationship was developed as a parent and also as an activist and in organizations that were really working from the outside to work to impact what was happening inside a large district and he was part of the Portland schools Alliance for many years to then come on and work and become part of the leadership and figure out how do you do that work leading on the school board is a really complex challenge because you come in getting to Advocate from the outside and then all of a sudden you're responsible for the whole thing and as Bobby Reagan described it is a complex thing that board members come in and try and get their arms around and you're really looking for how are we serving every single child in this District to the very best of our ability I would say Martine has done this magnificently he's been an outstanding leader and really in terms of understanding what you're doing with a seven person board and figuring out how we get to the very best decisions possible he has done that in a way that I just have learned from tremendously he also a couple things I would call out one is he was he and Ruth Atkins together were part of the the board shepherding the development of our racial educational Equity policy which was a year-long process that involved members of the community and internal staff members to put together a policy that then became led to a five-year racial Equity plan and then subsequently a policy on equity and public Contracting and purchasing and then tonight we will adopt our affirmative action policy for the district which I think is a really appropriate vote to happen at one at martine's final meeting I'm really excited about that when you think of committees that Define what somebody is passionate about and where they impact Martine was an active part of our student achievement committee for many years and then subsequently the achievement compact he's also been really active in ensuring and laying the groundwork for the expansion of our dual immersion programs which is set to expand in the next school year so it's just with great pleasure and an honor that I I feel like thank you and it's been a pleasure to get to work in partnership with you Martine so Martine received a piece of artwork from Serenity O'Brien also from our leada the eighth grade thank you Bobby for showing our our artwork because yeah which is lovely and then also martine's other gift was a bench that will be outside of Beach Elementary School and it is um it will be right outside the front door and it's a school that um has special meaning to Martina and his family so and it has a plaque identifying and just saying thanks to Martine for his service on the board and then finally from our team um also I hope it will be said we taught them to stand tall and proud even in the face of history and the future was made new and whole for us all one child at a time Martine Gonzalez member board of directors 2008 to 2013 on behalf of the 47 000 students and six thousand staff of Portland Public Schools thank you for
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your outstanding leadership dedicated service and unwavering commitment to ensure opportunity for every student to realize their full potential with highest regard on behalf of all of us Martine thank you so much for your leadership thank you members of the Portland School Board sometimes you act as it were our masters you are public servants and your Chief duty is to protect the safety thank you sir we're going to continue from here we're gonna continue if we if she can wait to turn if you sign up for testified we really appreciate it so if there's any other comments from the board members it'll be greatly you know in regards to our colleague Trudy Sergeant uh you can share him at this time if not I'll move on truly for her service as well we had a few uh great months together as co-chairs and I learned a lot from Trudy at that time and it's been a pleasure uh serving with you on the board and I always have appreciated your um concern for students and like you three boys it's always been fun to hear about your boys and um and you're concerned with the budget and uh your representation of the taxpayers I'm going to miss that voice on the board so thank you very much for your service I'll just chime in as well how much I'm going to miss you on the board and how crucial you've been to the group and the importance of your voice and just on a personal note that we I was reminiscing earlier with you that we met at a preschool meeting I think in 1995 I want to say so you never know when you get started in this whole education thing with you when your kids are little where it all might take you and I just wish you the best for where life's adventures will take you next but thank you to you and your entire family on behalf of all of us in the entire District first of all one of the things I'm proud of is that I was part of the board that selected Martine for the open seat when Dan Ryan resigned from his seat and was delighted when he was re-elected and have just enjoyed very much working with him his leadership and his voice have been really valuable on this board so I just want to say thank you for your service and I know that you're getting kind of your life back this is a big this demanding position and you've got family to care for and just as I am going to have more time for for my family and other interests you I know as well we'll we'll have time for your family and and so I wish you well in that but I just wanted to say you know how much I've enjoyed working with you on the board and I will I will say uh to both of you um it really has been a pleasure over the last two years to serve with the two of you and and really the the years of service that both of you have offered both on the board and as advocates and parents within the district really serves as an inspiration to me to be involved on this board but also to be involved as a as a parent as someone who will have a child coming through the system very soon and uh and I appreciate that and I appreciate the involvement and the attention that you've you've brought to that thank you thank you and since I'm looking at the clock and we're gonna move on this is actually one of the the fun parts that that I actually get to do and and it's truly an honor uh for me to recognize the following person uh Josie hashimian who's been instrumental in in uh and keeping us not only well supplied with the information you know on you know for the for the board members but you know a other board members that are you know some here present some uh are not over the past four at 34 years he has worked for Portland Public Schools uh she's a provided assistance not only to the board but also to general counsel and I wanted to recognize her because for me uh here's a person that that I could relate to you know from the first day that I came in into this role uh here's a person that had an Institutional memory that was she was willing to share in regardless of the information and he provided me you know easier access in regards to information Vital Information for me to be a bit more effective in regards to the things that I was trying to do and was able to in some ways find the information that I also needed
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to go a little bit deeper to get a more more more context and information so we wanted to recognize uh her you know 34 years of service but also her her unconditional I think support you know for us uh as board members to be effective in our role superintendent Smith I believe you were going to say a few words about uh Josie just uh I will just say we're all going to miss you terribly Josie and among the things that Josie does she she supports all of the board she supports me she supports all of us and she is the institutional memory for this district and Josie recently organized a an event for um the board alumni so everyone who has served on the board since like the 1970s and it was a fabulous event of really understanding the many people who have served as as board members for this district and watched the Baton Pass from one group of board members to the next about how we are being stewards for this District but Josie has been the consistent thread through all of that time of really making sure that that people have the information they need to do the job that they need to do so Josie just thank you so much you are awesome and if you can start forward because you know this there are you know we said earlier you know there are at least two of us that are very happy in this room and one of them is Josie the other one is me uh and so my wife might be the other one too by the way um so Josie if you can come forward and accept this on behalf of the the board and superintendent I have to say you guys has randomly speechless right so again thank you all and thank you Josie the colleagues that remain on the board Chelsea has promised to come back occasionally to speak from the from the testimony from the community testimony table so yeah so moving on uh superintendent's report okay so um that was nice celebration a nice honoring of our board members thank you that was great um so this month we are launching our uh the beginning of our bond work so roof Replacements seismic and science grab lab upgrades at six schools and this is the first step in the eight-year School building Improvement Bond we did the kickoff over at Wilson High School where we are going to be replacing a three acre roof and this is the largest school construction program in State history and will begin transforming Portland schools for 21st Century Learning we're totally excited about it and actually I'm just going to say let's have a little celebratory moment for the the kickoff which is today so woohoo um so again as I said today the improvement work started at six schools we have Alameda K5 that will receive a complete earthquake safety upgrade Wilson High School receiving the new three acres of roof Bridal mile K-5 Louis K-5 and Laurelhurst K-8 will receive new roofs including seismic strengthening Laurelhurst and Oakley green k-8s will receive upgraded science classrooms and our PPS and its contractors aim to complete this summer work in time for students to return to class in the fall and we've been working with the city of Portland to manage the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods so exciting moment for Portland Public Schools we're really just glad to be launching what we're launching um director Regan talked about the Gay Pride Parade yesterday we had a group of as she said close to 100 PPS board members administrators and their families participating in the gay pride parade and I just want to thank our administrators and Rudy Rudolph in particular who organized all of us to be there but we got such a great call outs from the sidelines from students teachers families who were just so pleased to see Portland Public Schools represented in this parade so it was a great thing so thank you to all of you who were there marching or on the sidelines waving Jefferson High School last Wednesday we unveil unveiled the completed Jefferson High School Frontage project with Portland development commission this we dedicated the new construction project and unveiled a plaque in honor of the project
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originator the lake Carl flipper III this is the whole Frontage along Killingsworth and on the front of the school that is now a beautiful like terrorist kind of garden and wall and fence instead of a Cyclone Fence barrier that connects it more to the neighborhood into PCC and the next the neighboring Library it's been a project that has been in the work for more than 10 years and it now provides a positive pedestrian experience knitting together the businesses on each side and a more visual connection between the neighborhood and the school and reinforces the important place that Jefferson High School holds in the community and it's significant I think that Jefferson has really transformational work going on inside the building at the same time this is coming together outside the building so it was a really exciting celebration and there you see Carl Flipper's wife there to dedicate the project Dr May Jameson the nation's first African-American woman astronaut spent June 5th problem solving with Roosevelt Grant Jefferson and Lincoln High School students and teachers around such issues as environmental sustainability and green job creation over at Roosevelt as part of North American World environmental day sponsored by the Bear Corporation more than 70 students and teachers participated in this workshop at Roosevelt Jameson and a team of environmental scientists gave the students a series of problems to work on over the course of the morning and then tasked them with presenting Solutions later in the day this was developed for Jameson's the Earth we share curriculum which is part of the Dorothy Jamison foundation for excellence and it's named after her mother who was a teacher in Chicago public schools for 25 years people were really excited about this visit and we were really honored to have her here in Portland Public School District um our nutrition services department will partner with 17 Portland Parks and Recreation summer playground sites this summer and 30 Sun Community Schools in North Northeast and Southeast neighborhoods to offer free summer meals to children and teens from June 18th through August 23rd the healthy lunch for children plus fun summer activities is a great combination for Portland families an important way to fill the gap for kids who are at higher risk of going hungry during the summer months the strong partnership between nutrition services Portland parks and rec summer playground program and Multnomah County Sun Community Schools results in over a hundred and eighty thousand summer meals being served to Portland kids in 2012. there will be a Portland Parks and Recreation summer free for all tip-off event for summer food and summer playgrounds at Peninsula Park on Thursday June 27th from 11 15 to 1 o'clock we have one of another one of our schools turning 100 years old this year so Capitol Hill is turning 100. the school kicked off its Centennial year in January with a birthday party for the school this Saturday June 22nd from two to four will be the culminating celebration featuring music tours of the school and historic exhibits and we just want to offer our congratulations to the Capitol Hill Community and then finally we've had again graduation ceremonies promotions and end of the Year celebrations and a bunch of phenomenal photographs um just documenting that are now on our website Flickr site and Facebook page and we'll now be just featuring a number of those great graduation photos we heard we had great graduation ceremonies and really um strong wrap up at all of our high schools and all of our schools and we just wish everyone well as we send you off into the summer months so thank you the student testimony Ms Houston is there anybody sign up for to his testimony and Lincoln Payne you can yeah you can have pass the handouts to us or this way and then you can accompany them if you if you need to so you know green light is going to turn on and then you have about three minutes okay and then the yellow light will come on when there's like a minute left and then the red light will basically that's that'll be the end of it so welcome can you state your name and just for the record
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you can say your name for the record and then start okay you'll say your name and then start your testimony go hours on student council and I wanted to come to share with you a little bit about my wonderful music teacher she's been teaching at our school for 14 years but um the school year her position has been reduced because of their attacks Miss Wright is one of our favorites at school she meets us up to eight classes every day she also teaches choir and band and she helps us perform the Portland Place third graders each year she also organizes the fifth grade Samba band for the Rose Festival when we heard right before school finished for the summer we couldn't that we couldn't have any of those experiences next year we're all very sad build big sales craft fair garage sale lemonade stands and many other fundraisers but it wasn't enough here's some things that my school have to say about our Music Teacher Miss Wright is really funny and nice I'm learning music with her and she's the only one who really knows music if she won't be our teacher I'll be really sad and I would cry from Diego in first grade Miss Wright gives us good directions so I've learned how to play a bunch of instruments and drums and I've learned about songs I want to be an important play like my sister and brother were I already know some of the songs I want to be Mr Petty girl because he named Portland from Jack in first grade I feel happy about myself and save I can't imagine anyone else didn't think she she does I love music music I miss right mean a lot to me I would be very sad if she had to leave from Amelia in second grade I want to be on the Portland play next year and I want to be in the in the choir and Samba band we get to learn and sing and play instruments which make which makes me feel happy when I was in kindergarten we got to do kindergarten scene every Friday I got to be with my friends in different classes and the Spanish classes and I had a lot of fun I really want my brother to be able to do that to do that too from Iowa and second grade Miss Wright teaches us band choir and how to do the Portland play in Samba I find this upsetting because the next year there will be none of those special classes I feel that magic and art should be as important as classroom subjects from a fifth grader thank you for listening and we hope the art tax funds will be released my name is Lincoln Payne and I just finished first grade on the first day of school there were 34 kids in my class four of them left because they wanted to be in a smaller class classes we ended up having 30 kids this year my teacher Miss Pruitt is a really great teacher but it was all still a lot for her to teach reading math and science to 36 and 7 year old kids my mom says classes sizes for next year are going to up even higher in Portland at my school this means we are losing half of our time with our Music Teacher we love music to our music teacher Miss Wright she plays a lot of extra attention to us and lets us try all sorts of instruments she knows I play the banjo and she wants me to play it for her at school voters passed a tax and they wanted kids to have music and art in school but because of the increase in class size questions over the attacks the opposite is happening my school please find a way to reduce my class size and help us keep our Music Teacher full-time thank you very much any other students no thank you so we're gonna move on now to public comment at this time they will allow 20 minutes for citizen comment uh Miss Houston do we have anyone sign up for six Okay so let me can you call the first two and I'll read the instructions uh how do you see Mr Hirsch by the way and I know him um so you can can you can you call the next person after that okay
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Mr this if you can take a seat and and I'll start reading the instructions um our responsibility as a board lies inactive listening and reflecting on the thoughts and opinions of others the war will not respond to any comments or questions at this time but we'll follow up on various issues that are that are raised guidelines for public input emphasize respect and consideration for referring to board members staff and other presenters you have a total of three minutes to share your comments please Begin by stating your name and spelling your last name for the record during the first two minutes of your testimony that green light will appear when you have one minute remaining and your light Will Go On and when your time is up the red light will go on and a buzzer will sound we'll respectfully ask you that you conclude your comments at that time we sincerely appreciate your input and thank you in advance for you cooperation Mr Jess thank you Mr Gonzalez and superintendent Carol Smith and all the visitors here today well I'm here to talk about you know how wonderful it is to have children I have two children here Nadia Natalia and Genesis and here's the sound of children playing you can roll it and then thank you so I think that's such a lovely sound now here's the sound of the children who just last year that Planned Parenthood killed over a third of a million babies and the prior years before that almost six million babies for a total of over 6 million and all the babies that didn't even get a chance to be conceived by planned parenthood's pill and IUD so here's how that sounds okay foreign thank you for listening again to the sounds of the children playing and the Deathly Silence of no children playing thank you so we're gonna move on so you can start your time thank you no that's my name is Adela Chavez and I have children in Portland Public Schools along with many nephews and nieces and I am a Kathleen and Mexican and find it very difficult to understand why you have planned parenthood working in our schools and with my children Planned Parenthood has constantly attacked her faith over the last century and has called my people and other minorities human weeds my people and I
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are fully human and we love our church and our priests our Bishops and our Pope who happens to be Hispanic as the or as the founder of Planned Parenthood will say a human weed what gives you the right to allow Planned Parenthood to freely seduce our children and take them away from their classes what if a fellow Catholic and Hispanics do not want to work do not want Planned Parenthood to work in our schools are they protected I work hard with my children to teach them about Chastity and then you have planned parents who teach them that having sex with multiple partners partners are it's fine Planned Parenthood whose idea of abstinence is masturbation we believe every sexual act should be open to life and between a married man and woman why do you allow Planned Parenthood to teach otherwise and destroy the innocence of our children Planned Parenthood has killed over 6 million babies in the last few decades and they report that they killed three thirty three hundred percent more Hispanic babies than why babies my people were hard to teach children their faith and Planned Parenthood brought a report saying that children not going to church is a success for Planned Parenthood I think having my children and friends in schools where Planned Parenthood is working is worse than having the client at our schools the clan also heard and killed many minorities in capital colleagues I think Planned Parenthood is not different than Diablo and your support of Diablo makes your histimonials I do hope and pray you remove Planned Parenthood a very racist and anti-catholic group from our schools I would also like a copy of planned parenthood's curriculum on paper and deliver it to me may Jesus Christ forgive you and help you have a pure heart and Viva Cristo Rey I'm sorry and we're not going to allow our tax dollars to kill our values this is the opportunity for people that signed up for Testimony okay thank you thank you if you can call the next two people big really appreciated miss you soon speakers are estephe veresco and Maria Velasco I'm sorry you know if you didn't sign up for Testimony you you it's not at this point we're looking at the people who signed up for Testimony the people that mobilize should informed the people that brought you here should I inform you in regards to the process again we go back to the people that signed up can you repeat those names please um staffy veresco and Maria Velasquez hi all of you I thank you for giving me the opportunity to come and speak with you all and thank you everyone for coming my name is Maria Velazquez and I'm a Catholic Latina and American and I'm proud to be I have come here to present to you a letter from our Archbishop John blasney it has recently come to my attention that Mr build this a teacher at Benson High School has been placed on leave it seems that the school administration has determined that this his struggle to derail the involvement of plan Parenthood in our Public Schools it has brought considerable harassment to his both professionally and personally I deeply regret this and definitely want to support him personally and also his efforts to confront the administration about the decision to bring programs or Parenthood Planned Parenthood into our schools as you know many Catholic families send their children to our public high schools sometimes I have the impression that the
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public schools Community thinks we don't care about their activities and programs we certainly do because the education of our future citizens is very important work in the service of democracy we are proud to have a good catholic-like buildings involving the educational Enterprise in Portland Public Schools here is a practicing Catholic involving the activities of many poor lamp parishioners including Immaculate Heart of Mary in these communities there is a wide diversity of students from various ethnic backgrounds Mr this has the best in interest of his student's heart he's a man of integrity and Will Do no harm to anyone but it will seem that his rights as a citizen and his competency as dedicated as a teacher I presently been undermined we cannot eliminate serious differences of opinion about important matters by eliminating people from the discussion that is a mistake has been made to in the past I am in all enough to remember the struggles back in the 1960s to protect the citizens rights of all citizens thank you I'm a starter of a woman of 11 children and I thank her forgiven her given me her life and she's a better woman because she struggled to have me because my dad didn't want to have me and thank you foreign I was a student at Benson High School from 2007 to 2011. I was Bill's dis student for two years and for the time I had him he was a really good teacher and like he never like involved like his faith and school together like you know but I would like see him at events sometimes and he was like always a really generous teacher and really supporting and I don't believe that he should be punished for his beliefs outside of school you know that's his personal life and if he wants to try to save children then he should be allowed to try to save children everybody has their own decisions and their own morals and I just believe that he should have the opportunity to return to his job and do what he loves and thank you for listening to me the next question please uh lastly we have Kevin trong dear Madam superintendent and members of the board my name is Kevin Truong t-r-u-o-n-g thank you for allowing me to serve as the Benson supersex representative and Alternate student representative to the board there has been much progress that has been made such as the passing of the school bond and thank you director Gonzalez for speaking at my Benson High School graduation that was a long graduation ceremony with you all giving me so much advice these past two years I have learned new lessons about serving in the government and even topics that I wrote that I wrote to be able to get the Gates Millennium Scholarship from director Sergeant's advice thank you from director Sergeant's advice about Civics during my first time in supersac to director Gonzalez advice about life and not drinking during my graduation to superintendent Smith's lesson on the budget I've learned too much I have learned so much now I would like to offer my own two cents for the next year first with the school bond we need to find more Partnerships the current money allocated is enough for basic necessities but I feel like it is not enough to meet everyone's Demand with more Partnerships Partnerships should also go be for schools like events like the Benson model where Partnerships will drive down the cost of
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operation operations and also capital for the teacher contract negotiations we need a hat like students the PPS and the pat need to compromise and solutions that has student input instead of only just doing what you all think is the best for students and then like director Gonzalez always says make sure that diversity is prevalent in PPS and also keep High achieving schools like Benson Lincoln although I will not be able to fully serve the district as a member supersex anymore I will still help PPS in any way I can while in college and in the future thank you for all your help and I'll truly miss you all and I wish the best of luck to Super to student representative Davidson and Alternate representative way Saul and passion and her team next year thank you and I also like to thank again Josie I remember the first banquet we had she was one who helped you arrange it thank you for all your help thank you again I want to thank everyone for the testimony and again you know reminder of the process the process is that people are signed up for for Testimony before the meeting starts and the and the list is available up to the start of the meeting and then that's when we we close off um our next item on the agenda is the affirmative action policy um or a combination of two actually resolutions at our May 20th board meeting a first reading was held on a proposed affirmative action policy and amended non-discrimination policy after 21 days of being open for the public comment and receiving none the board is ready to vote on the proposed amendment and I just wanted to point out that uh you know for board members uh that uh Lorenzo Pochi faculty officer and jolly Patterson general counsel are present in case we have any additional questions so we'll now consider resolution 4772 um adoption of revised Portland Public School non non-discrimination policy 1.80-020-p uh do I have a motion in a second so moved second director Morton moves and director Reagan seconds adoption check is the motion to adopt resolution 4772 Miss Houston is there any public comment on this no resolution 4772 not 4772 is there any board uh uh discussion resolution maybe we can read the record the just the non-discrimination policy real quick just to um read that part because that one is actually a brief at the end of the uh yes so if director Reagan would you like to Portland Public Schools recognizes the diversity and worth of all individuals and groups and the roles in society the district is committed to equal opportunity and non-description non-discrimination and all its educational and employment activities the district prohibits discrimination based on race National or ethnic origin color sex religion age sexual orientation gender expression or identity pregnancy marital status familial status economic status or source of income mental or physical disability or perceived disability or military service so is there any more discussion on this resolution no no it's great it's hard not to say hey about time but yeah about time yeah this one is right right it's not a new poem right so you can say that at the next part by the way the board will now vote in resolution 4772 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes by saying no so resolution 4772 is approved by a boat of six to zero with director below absent so what about it for the resolution by the way so we'll now consider resolution 4773 adoption Portland Public Schools affirmative action policy 5.5 10-025-p do I have a motion and a second Knowles and director Atkins seconds uh
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the the motion to adapt resolution 4773 Miss Houston is learning public comment on this one yes we our first so welcoming you were here when I mentioned the public testimony before so I don't have to do that right so if you can State your your name for the record and then spell your last name be greatly appreciate it uh chair Gonzalez a member of the board of directors and superintendent Smith my name is Rob Larson l-a-r-s-o-n and I come to you this evening not as a Portland School District resident but as a person who works in the Portland School District area and who works with the Oregon leadership Network which is housed at education Northwest I want to speak to you on behalf of your affirmative action policy in support of the work and the leadership shown by this board the Oregon leadership Network represents 16 school districts two state agencies higher education institutions and professional associations one-third of the state's student population is in this network of organizations it serves 42 percent of the minority student population in the state and 42 percent of the ell population in the state the mission of the Oregon leadership network is to expand and transform the knowledge will skill and capacity of educational leadership to focus on issues of educational Equity so every student achieves at its highest level the work that you have done today and the work that you've done in the past in your affirmative action policy is significant in this state I want to make three points about its significance one is that the Portland School Board is calling out the issue that the state has not been successful in implementing the minority teacher Act over one-third of Oregon students are minority and approximately six percent of its teachers are minority so this has been the case since the minor since the minority teacher act has been enacted in the state and so your bold work tonight will help address that issue secondly Portland is not hiring minority staff at an acceptable rate which is why you are taking these actions in support of minority teachers Portland is demonstrating high standards in action by doing this work and I commend you for that Portland school district is also moving their affirmative action policy to Prior passive fairness to proactive will not tolerate discrimination and that is a significant and bold move and I appreciate that as do the members of the Oregon leadership Network the Portland School Board is demonstrating leadership by example that can only be expected of the largest school district in the state I might also add that the racial Equity policy that has been adopted by this board I see as a nationally significant policy and that that work the work that you've done tonight with your affirmative action policy supports not only the minority teacher act but is also supported in state policy and National policy thank you for your service thank you and your action Mr Alexander good evening my name is Michael Alexander and I'm president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Portland and I am also here this evening to commend you and to support and ask for your support of the affirmative action Amendment and its Passage I know that this has been a very challenging year for this board I was here several weeks ago to offer testimony during what we're very detailed and stressful budget discussions but my charge and my request to you then was that despite the difficult challenges and decisions you need to make their needs to always be a focus on a North star and that North Star the equity changes and challenges that you seek to implement I look at this policy and the amendment to support the changes as almost the GPA system that the school board and the district need to follow in order to meet some of the very meaningful but challenging changes that are facing Portland Public Schools so I commend you I commend this board I understand that this may be the last opportunity I have to speak to this
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group of individuals but I can tell you that if we are successful the profile facing all children in this city in the years to come will change for the better we still live in a time where unfortunately race is the most accurate predictor of educational achievement and that needs to change and I believe that this is a critical step in that change and I thank you thank you both our next two speakers Yolanda Flores and Andrea Marquez I don't see Yolanda yet here so if you can um go to the next our last one would be Jason Trombley good evening superintendent Smith and members of the board I'm Andrea Marcus with latino Network Marcus is m-a-r-q-u-e-z as a culturally specific service provider for Portland Public Schools I'm here tonight to address the proposed adoption of the affirmative action policy this policy aligns with pps's Equity lens and will give the district the tools to be intentional in the Recruitment and Retention of Staff of color providing an excellent opportunity to break down historical institutional barriers it's a key step toward recruiting building and retaining a staff that reflects the diversity of the students served by PPS having a Workforce that reflects student body has a tremendous positive impact on students by fostering cultural identity development and motivating our students through exposure to diverse instructors and educational role models and by facilitating the ability to engage parents and families by making schools more accessible for our diverse populations to both crucial components in closing the achievement Gap this is also an opportunity to build and strengthen the district's work around courageous conversations about race having a staff that can contribute to these conversations and share an Intercultural perspective increases everyone's capacity to better serve all our students thank you for your commitment to equity and Excellence for our students good evening members of the board and superintendent Smith my name is Jason Trombley I'm a PPS alumnus and I represent the Coalition of communities of color on a number of committees including the achievement compact advisory committee and now I'm the incoming coach of Sackett so I'm here tonight to speak before you in support of the draft affirmative action policy before you so in January you were presented by the members of the committee a number of draft targets for the achievement compact two of them in particular called into question in order to reach the governor's initiative by 2025 in order to meet those goals you had to show double digit gains in a number of the communities that represent the historically underserved what I think this racial Equity policy does in this affirmative action policy does it allows the district and administration members to actually have a conversation about the key one of the key strategies to actually support those kids of color is which is to diversify the teacher Workforce as my colleague mentioned earlier in order to diversify the teacher Workforce in order to get actually kids of color into the classroom empowered and ready to learn they need the opportunity to see somebody that looks like them to empower them in order to succeed and thrive in a school setting finally one of the key lines in the policy here is the board of education's racial educational Equity policy requires the school district to quote recruit employ support and retain racially and linguistically diverse and culturally competent administrative instructional and support personnel recruitment and employment is a key strategy to get members of diverse populations into the actual classrooms but a key Focus for long-term growth amongst all of the communities regardless of skin color has to be the support and retention of those staff members there must be an equal support focus on providing key supports to retain this Workforce between the veteran teachers who are successful with their students of colors who've been there for 20 years including a number of the teachers that I had when I was in school when I was a student here in Portland Public the community community benefit organizations and parents and families they need to understand that this is an opportunity for collaboration you have a number of experienced leaders around the table throughout Portland that are willing to step up but an adoption of this policy lays the fundamental Foundation to have that real kind of conversation that long-term helps All Families thank you
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and I still do not see Yolanda Flores out there um hopefully before the thing gets done you know we're actually ahead of schedule so which is great um so we're gonna we're gonna continue with with uh with our discussion in terms of the resolution so at this point I'm gonna turn it over to to to my colleagues in in regards to this I also wanted to to recognize some of the individuals that um that I saw uh earlier you know Maria Lisa Johnson of course the actor who was part of the coalitions for educational Excellence also uh I saw Ray Espana earlier also you know walking around back there uh he's now with uh Native American Youth and Family Center but he was also part of some of those uh folks that for a number of decades uh have worked on trying to get the school district to formally adopt the an affirmative action policy I see but them risking also from the coalitions for educational excellence and we had meetings there various meetings with the with school district officials a number of times for that so um I'm glad that they are present to to witness what we asked some years back but I also wanted to to you know ask one of my colleagues to to at least read the the introduction of it to for people to get an idea in regards to what we're talking about here because I think our our the folks that provided testimony reference some of those things in regards to what the policy is is intending to do and and perhaps uh director Morton can sure can read that part sure thank you for the opportunity I think this speaks very clearly to the intent of this policy in order to close the racial achievement Gap and better serve all students Portland Public Schools staff must reflect the diversity of the students in which we serve the board of education's racial educational Equity policy requires that school the school districts to recruit and employ support and retain racially and linguistically diverse and culturally competent administrative instructional and support personnel Oregon Oregon state law as articulated in the minority teachers act states that quote the number of minority teachers including administrators employed by school districts and education service districts shall be approximately proportionate to the number of minority children enrolled in the public schools of the state this affirmative action policy sets forth the sets forth the Portland Public School District's prohibition against discrimination directs the superintendent to create and Implement an affirmative action equal opportunity equal employment opportunity plan and establishes the goal that the district will come into compliance with goals established by the Oregon minority teachers Act so any other comments or things you want to share I just want to thank you co-chair Gonzalez for your leadership I know this has been a work of many decades and the staff and partners have brought us this but I really feel like without your leadership we we might not be here today approving this policy it's something that you've been steadfast about from well before you were on the board of course but from day one on the board and throughout and you have never wavered and it's been it has been a long time coming but I'm just so pleased that this is happening on your last day and so grateful for your leadership in taking us to the next level and I know that you're going to continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the community and I just appreciate so much your leadership on behalf of students thank you said it will again thank you all here there president I wish Yolanda would have been uh here uh she's part of the Portland Teachers programs that is referenced in our in in the work and it's important work that is happening out there in the community and in regards to actually having a supply of qualified teachers to come into into our building so we can actually begin to diversify and I want to thank you know the folks to testify the folks that remain uh for this for this work uh for me it is indeed a um one of the greatest goodbye presents because then I have a policy that I can come back and Hammer the the board with um and and and the staff by the way because it is I think that the policy service is a um it's a tool I think for community members to be able to reference us as well how well are you actually putting forth this into practice I mean 30 years ago 33 years ago people thought that they resolved this decision regards to
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diversification of the of the workforce and actually you know dealing with delivering a call to education for our students the fact is that that has not happened and so if plans are to be developed you know we also need to develop bands that are actually achievable and so I think that's why my role is going to be to make sure that that we also look at how are you developing a real plan to to implement so I thank my colleagues for actually all participating in this process and actually supporting this process again director below is not is not present with us but uh his absence does not mean disagreement with this policy so the board will now bone resolution 4773 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all the post piece indicate by sin no resolution 4773 is approved by a boat of six to zero with director Bilal absent thank you we now get to invite a the person that actually got me to this situation Dan Ryan now executive director of all hands raids uh former board member representing the district that I'm representing at least for the next couple weeks until June 30th so if he can step up come to the speaker stable uh will ask him to provide his reports and I be leave he's going to be accompanied by Rosemary I hope I don't Massacre your last name schreimer manager parent and school engagement I believe also I have on my list Ginger Burke from Ainsworth I believe Lincoln School Foundation parent also Christy lynnholm a regular principal and I think we're going to need another chair at least um and I know Dan likes to have other people speak but you know but anyway if we can get enough shares and be greatly appreciated so welcome thank you and good evening my name is Rosemary Schwimmer and I'm delighted to be here tonight representing All Hands raised on behalf of Dan Ryan who's here with us and all of the All Hands race staff I would like to extend a special thank you to Ginger Burke the chair of the Ainsworth Foundation who's with us here tonight to talk about the parent commitment that's out there supporting the Portland schools Foundation um I would be remiss however on a night of thank yous if we didn't do one of our own and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to New Seasons Who over the years has contributed over 600 thousand dollars to support the work of the Portland Public Schools foundation and what that means is that we manage these funds at zero cost to PPS and zero cost to parents putting more dollars back into the school and funding our kids and so thank you to New Seasons and thank you to some family foundations who also donate to support the work that we do knowing that those donations are going to get to the children where we need them um although I am just now completing my very first school year as the manager of parent School engagement at all hands raised I am not a novice to foundations I have two College age children right now and I have been involved in foundation work since they were in elementary school my youngest will be entering Wilson in the fall and so I'll have four more years in this dual role of parent and manager of the fund however I feel that um there's so much support out there for what we do that I can do this work knowing that I'm bringing together a body that is really supportive of every child in our community the model that um this body came up with 19 years ago to put together the Portland Public School Foundation is one that is unique in the country and we get calls all the time from other school districts that say how are you doing this this is a courageous program this is an equitable program and when we explain the board action that was required to have a program like this they are amazed at your bravery and your commitment to
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every child in our district and so I'm very proud to be facilitating that and in doing so what I like to do is bring people together I think that there are ways where we have best practices and yet we have 42 School Foundations at 42 different schools kind of operating in a parallel universe and unless we bring those people together they often never share and so now we can come up with templates for letters to solicit funds we can share ideas what worked at your event what didn't work at your event we have them come together for trainings about auctions and it has been a really Dynamic and um exciting process to see because the schools are knowing that they're there to help each other and it's also helping in the development of you know the Elementary School parent to the Middle School Parent to the high school parent to bring those lungs the communities within the Clusters where the foundations are operating we are really focusing on reinvigorating these programs really with the sole end of being the most amount of money going back into the schools so if we can negotiate a better deal with a vendor because we have 42 foundations that's what we want to do if we could know that we can buy for two hundred dollars eight credit card swipers and then loan them out to programs that are having auctions knowing that they're going to save 80 to 160 dollars per rental it at stall all adds up and it all goes back to the classroom so that's been really exciting for me but the cream of the job is really the Equity Fund it is amazing what principals are doing out there this year we were delighted to be able to award over one million dollars in um Equity Fund grants to 39 Portland Public Schools and five alternative programs they range from forty five thousand dollars at the highest Needs school to 13 400 at each of the five alternative programs that were awarded and all of these awards are based on a data-driven formula that was instituted a few years ago so that there's no so no subjectivity no back room dealing we entered the data we get the rankings we come up with the numbers and it's all very transparent and I think it's something that the community deserves to have and has been extremely well received and I commend Dan Ryan and the vision that he has brought to this organization for that and the support we've had from Portland Public Schools in this board for having that in place um these programs that these Equity Fund schools I'm Amazed by these principles their creativity and the flexibility of the program allows them to do kindergarten Readiness restorative justice almost every single school going into the next school year is checking off equity and discipline as something that they are addressing with these Equity Fund dollars writing and math supports um Chief Joseph under the leadership of principal Joe Galati used the Lion's Share of its Monies to fund math and literacy support but at the end of the year they found they had a little bit of money left over and they were able to commission a Native American Artist to do this incredible mural of Chief Joe to maintain the cultural awareness at that school and its long tradition in the Native American Community I was honored to be at the mural dedication ceremony where director Morton was a keynote speaker and it was just a really nice way to show that you can use this money in a variety of ways that does bring together community and really highlight some elements of the school that may not necessarily be in the Forefront um one of the other great things about this work is being out able to go out to schools and see exactly what they're doing and we were invited to work with principal LaShawn Lee at Fabian and go to their Spring Concert cup of tea with principal Lee well it's amazing principal Lee stood up at the beginning and said we got a twenty thousand dollar Equity Fund Grant but I'm going to make it look like it was a two hundred thousand dollar Equity Fund Grant and you know she did we had performance after performance kids engaged I mean look at the leadership there you can see the engagement on the
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face these these people that come into the schools to to do their glee club which this is a picture of or the Drum Corps or the African dancing are mentors to these kids and really help them not just with how do you beat the drum or how do you sing a song but are you prioritizing your schoolwork are you doing your homework are you respectful to your elders student after student came up and gave testimonial and it was really really overwhelming and and very rewarding but this is just the tip of the iceberg there are so many dedicated parents and schools out there and I'm really honored to have ginger Burke from Ainsworth with me tonight because she represents you know one face of the thousands of parents out there that are volunteering hours and donating their time and money to this process but I'll turn it over to Ginger now thank you thank you Mary it's a pleasure to be here tonight to speak to you all actually um I am just finishing my second year as the co-president of the Ainsworth Foundation and I have I've thoroughly enjoyed the job I think what I'll do is to begin by telling you about our specific fundraising campaign this year to follow up with how our Ainsworth Foundation dollars benefit our school directly and then finish up by telling you about our support of the Equity Fund and all local school foundations so to begin each of the past three years our foundation has raised roughly three hundred thousand dollars from our community for an average contribution to the Equity Fund of ninety thousand dollars per year this fundraising is of course on no small scale it has benefited Us by allowing us to buy back teachers for our school last this this current year we purchased we bought back 2.8 full-time equivalent teaching positions this coming year we will have the benefit of buying back 2.4 teaching positions each of the LA three two of the last three years we've had to run a 57 000 campaign in the month of May alone 57 000 of that 300 000 just to make ends meet asking our parents to wrap their heads around budgeting and shortfalls and open their wallets and give us more money in May is very challenging but we've done it um it's a tough time of year I don't know how many of you have seen the semi-viral blog a worst end of year mom end of school your mom ever it's it's well worth the glance but it really represents the complete and utter burnout everybody feels in May but our community has risen to the occasion for two of the last three years the only reason we didn't have to do it last year was the city's bailout it's a really difficult model to sustain but we're doing it we're doing it and we succeeded this year we recognize an incredibly positive collateral benefit to this fundraising is it it provides a real galvanizing effect to our community as well so what we noticed was the community really coming together and we specifically we had our second graders they've started a fried Eagle magazine they made a substantial contribution at the end of the year to our campaign to save our teachers our entire fourth grade class made a substantial campaign substantial campaign donation by running a four-day bake sale and craft sale on our school grounds after school and finally our entire Community came together and had our first ever rummage sale which was such a huge success it's going to be an annual event at our school that was a huge campaign donation so at the end of it all it really galvanized our community and brought us together we succeeded and we'll keep on plugging along our foundation benef dollars benefit Ainsworth so directly I I simply put we could not staff our Core Curriculum classes without our foundation dollars this year the school district allocated our school 18.03 FTE exclusive of the administrative FTE so 18 teachers for our classrooms we need 19. so we simply couldn't staff our classrooms without our foundation dollars it's essential to the livelihood of our school as you all know we have two programs at our school we have a dual language Spanish Immersion program side by side with an English program or what we call Our Community program right now they comprise 53 and 47 percent of our student body respectively this poses significant challenges to us in Staffing our Core Curriculum classrooms to illustrate next year we have 96 students in fourth grade 50 six of those students excuse me 52 of those students are Spanish Immersion students 44 of those students are English or Community students
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at any other school that was all one language those students could be spread out 32 students per classroom using three FTE but at our school we have caps on our Spanish Immersion classes we have 26 students in each Spanish Immersion class which would leave us with 44 students in our community classroom it's unfair to burden those students that way so our foundation dollars help us pay for another FTE teacher in that situation so as you can see they're essential to the to the livelihood of our programs and the livelihood of our students at our school unless the district is able to acknowledge and recognize those specific unique challenges we have then we need to keep fundraising and we need to keep Staffing our teachers in our classroom and we do that through our foundation dollars our foundation unequivocally supports the Equity Fund and local school foundations we're proud to be contributing to the Equity Fund we're proud to be associated with a program that is a nationally renowned program we applaud the efforts of the Equity Fund but we will continue to do everything we can to work toward a vibrant and self-sustaining school system that provides Core Curriculum and arts to all students through its budget thank you for your time tonight thank you for our dedicated dedication to our children and thank you for your continued commitment to public service thank you for all your work regular principal Christy Lindholm speak about what's going on at her school she's an Equity Fund recipient school and some of the challenges there thanks Rosemary and thank you Ginger because we do rely on the wealthier parts of our community to fund us with the Equity Fund money and in the past four years we've received varying amounts so we received 25 000 one year we received 20 000 for two years in a row this year I was thrilled to open my email and find thirty thousand dollars and so I really appreciate the adjustment of the formula we have chosen over the last two years to spend our money on a community agent believing that in order to meet the needs of our school Community we have to better meet the needs of our parents and looking at parent involvement as one of the many vehicles to closing the achievement Gap we have hired a man named Fernando Madrid many of you probably know him he's here frequently he's been at regular as long as I have he started six years ago when I did he was a an Americorps not well volunteer I think really because I don't get paid much but he was an Americorps person with our sun program and his whole goal was parent involvement Community involvement volunteer preparation and awareness and he was so valuable at that time we couldn't let him go so we found a variety of ways to Cobble together part-time positions to have him and the longer he worked with us the more he it was evident people would come they'd look for him they'd make contacts with him he is a parent at our school he lives in the community attends church with the other parents he is currently an educational assistant in our bilingual classrooms and he's a halftime Community agent so what he has offered to our families is basically a face a lifeline their culture their language um we do everything from have him answer phones to interpret to translate all the technical stuff but that technical stuff sometimes includes legal help immigration help rental assistance like Lifeline literally Lifeline things that families need to be able to rely on to get their kids to school on time he works with me and a variety of school staff to make sure that parents really feel heard we've we've talked about you know School Readiness for different children he shared his own life experiences in essence he's really he's changed the face of how we do business with our Latino Community who comprise 50 of our population so while I speak fluent Spanish two-thirds of my staff speak fluent Spanish he's the guy he's the one everybody wants because the model's been so successful for us and has raised parent awareness and involvement and Trust in our school we're looking to replicate that this next year partially through the Equity Fund and partially with old money from an Equity Fund that we weren't able to spend all the way to do the same thing with an African-American Community agent so we'll be looking to have two racially specific culturally specific people who will be there to look like the children be in the community and be that liaison
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to heal a lot of the Rifts that our community has lived with for for years so we thank the the communities that help us with this we think all hands raised because it is allowing us to do what I consider to be the core work of our school and our school district which we can't afford to do without them so thank you thank you thank you for inviting us here tonight and we're available for any questions if you have any other comments and I think superintendent Smith I think wanted to share just want to say thank you and I really appreciate the way you did this presentation tonight that just gave us both historical context and also perspective Rosemary you've done a fabulous job of building infrastructure to support local school Foundation leadership and really spread what's that what what's the wealth of talent and ideas across and so people are providing technical assistance to each other but it's made the whole system stronger and ginger just appreciate your taking on the role of leadership but also representing all the leadership of the local schools foundations here tonight to really give a flavor of what it is that goes on because we have incredible amount of effort that goes on at every one of our schools foundations every year of that that's this kind of magnitude but it's totally passion to make our schools better and it's become a really critical part in these years of how we actually staff our schools and Christy just giving the um real specific what does this mean in your school and I will say the um the fact of the school's Foundation I'm going to put this to Dan that of not not asking of doing the equity formula in such a way that allows the schools that are receiving the Equity Funds not to have to go through a proposal process with a new project or a new something but really say what is it that you as the principal know is going to make the difference in your school what's your high leverage strategy and here's how it's distributed it's not a song and dance it's not rigmarole it's really clearly um it's it's just it's gotten more straightforward and more powerful in terms of how principals are figuring out what they apply those dollars towards that are the high leverage strategies making a difference for kids so and just that um the visuals of what's been the growth over time in terms of what dollars are being raised and what infrastructure you've built to support people in both how we use the dollars and how dollars are raised I just really appreciate the work all of you do so thank you so much yeah you see that that Yolanda came by the way and we already moved to that agenda item uh Yolanda Flores from the foreign also from the Portland thesis program and we are at at the legislative update at this point um so I want to invite David Williams director of government relations uh to the speaker's table and ask him to provide us some legislative update I understand that there are some news that uh we might not want to hear um so it's still smiling that's yeah thank you uh board members Again David Williams your director of government relations um I I don't want to bury the lead but I'll save the the juicy stuff for last uh I I first want to cover um just some of where we're at on a few of our priority pieces of legislation a big issue we've been working on just lately and then we'll get to the money uh the first is uh House Bill 2632 which is our urban renewal legislation which would restore voter intent around urban renewal around local option levees pulling them out of the division of taxes under urban renewal um after a 59-0 vote in the house it went to the Senate where we put in a one-year delayed implementation to give counties on County Assessors time to upgrade their systems to be able to accommodate this it came out of the Senate finance and revenue committee unanimously and will be on the floor of the Senate tomorrow or Thursday and should receive let's call it near unanimous support I don't want to go too far to Limb and say unanimous and have one person maybe not be there so we're feeling very confident about that after it does pass the Senate it'll go to the house for a concurrence vote which is a procedural motion and then on to the governor's desk for his signature so we feel very good about that our second piece of yes could you put into English for folks what that is what that is because it's exciting it is uh thank you that what the measure would do so uh we'll cut to the chase the upshot is once fully implemented and upon renewal of our existing local option Levy that means about four and a half million dollars would be restored annually to the local option Levy that is currently going to
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fund um uh debt on urban renewal districts by the Portland development commission happily the Portland development Commission in the city of Portland are great partners and supportive of this effort and we couldn't be happier to be able to go to voters and and have that conversation with them about hey if you vote for our local option Levy guess what every dollar that we raise will actually go to Portland Public Schools to pay for services rather than other programs so we think that's a big positive thank you uh the second piece of legislation we're actively working on is House Bill 2153 which is a modification to the state's Charter School application process and we've talked about this before what this would allow is districts that have reached a certain threshold of charter schools already in existence it would allow them to adopt an alternative application review process whereby you as a board would identify specific academic goals that you want Charter School applications in any given year to address and then Charter School applications will be required to address those goals as well as other issues that they are proposing and that will allow you to to base your reviews and approval or denial based on that on that happy to report that bill came out of the full Ways and Means Committee last week on a 16-7 vote so a little more contentious than the urban renewal legislation but with strong bipartisan support from uh from folks on both sides of the aisle it will be on the floor of the house it should be on the floor of the house tomorrow where we're cautiously optimistic that it'll receive a favorable vote and then it will go to the Senate because it is a bill that came out of ways and means procedurally and as it gets a little wonky procedurally it doesn't have to go to another committee so it will go to the senate for a full vote of the Senate body and then on to the governor's desk for his hopeful signature so we're feeling very optimistic about those two as you remember we had five pieces of legislation that we proactively introduced in the session two of those were Constitutional Amendments around property tax and unfortunately we were not able to get traction with those mostly because um there is let's say there's decidedly more work to be done with the voters about the problems with the property tax system so that people have a greater understanding of some of the inherent inequities that are are contained in that uh the the fifth measure is a measure dealing with a state bond for school security infrastructure improvements um I I wouldn't say that that's dead just yet there are a number of measures dealing with school Capital Construction that are in the Ways and Means Committee and let's say in the mix as we approach the end of session but I don't have extremely high hopes that really any of them will come out of the the milieu that that that finishes up the session we've also lately been dealing with you may have read about an issue dealing with students at the Providence Center for medically Fragile Kids and we've been working feverishly with representatives and and folks from the Department of Ed to try to come up with a a stopgap solution for the 13-14 school year so kids continue to get served and um and that um that our budget does not um sort of take an undue hit because of that don't have a solution yet but I think all parties are working very uh positively on that and we'll we'll report more as we as we get stuff down so lastly then the money so uh as you know coming out of the Ways and Means Committee some time ago was a small bill that um that allocated 6.55 billion dollars to the state school fund um the the Curiosity that happened in the Ways and Means Committee for for those who might have been paying attention is Senator Chris Edwards from Eugene who had indicated that he would not support the bill actually had himself removed from the Ways and Means Committee for that vote so that he did not have to vote because of the the way the the votes worked out if he had voted no one committee would have killed the whole bill so he removed himself from the committee the bill did come out went to the Senate and today if you if you read the news or watched the news or any on any such today of the political junkies you'll notice the bill failed today on the floor of the Senate on a 15 to 15 vote with all the Democrats voting in favorite of it except for Senator Edwards who voted no along with all of the 14 uh Republicans a variety of other the procedural motions happen on the floor and upon failure Senator Edwards of course served notice of possible reconsideration so there will be more conversation about this tomorrow now what does that mean what does that mean to you all what does it mean to us as we talk about the budget um I I don't want to overstate that it's merely part of the political dance that happens in Salem as they come to the end of session but I think that it is to a degree part of the negotiations that are ongoing in Salem as you may have read There is this notion around a grand bargain if you will that would bring about some additional reforms to the
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state's Public Employee Retirement System pers as well as some additional Revenue 200 to 275 million dollars in additional Revenue raises there there is no deal yet but all parties are sort of actively negotiating what such a package might look like and if there are the votes for such a package obviously the positive is that I think for Education if there is that would mean additional expenditure savings from the from the uh pers reforms and it would also mean additional Revenue in the state school fund almost every uh legislator in the building when they uh discuss any proposed deal we we have been hearing in the neighborhood of 50 to 150 million dollars added to the state school fund should a deal be cut so um I think we're sort of I hesitate to say we're only looking at upside from 6.55 billion but I think all signals point to only an upside from the 6.55 billion so I think this is just part of what you see as the session begins to wind down in theory they'll finish on the 28th should they come to a resolution on such a package you know I think today made that maybe a little less likely it might took a couple extra days maybe go through to the first of July constitutionally the legislature has until July 13th to finish their business however they've statutorily targeted the 28th deadline so you know I think it's fair to say that every day there's going to be a new story about what the state school fund conversation is in Salem what the person Revenue debate is in Salem and probably all of them are right when they were written maybe not when they were printed but when they were written they were right you know the other thing we say coming out of today there was the vote on the on the Senate was of course 15 to 15. all 15 um folks that voted for the bill all voted for it saying they absolutely wanted more money for schools and all 15 that voted against the bill all said they absolutely want more money for school so I think that that's a a positive sign that people are trying to find a solution that will provide money for education and we feel very confident going into these last two weeks kill Super Dan Smith would you like to add anything well I'm just going to say thank you to David for his presence in Salem and actually we've had a fairly strong PPS presence all the way through this session um in all different parts of the preparing for it and then being in it and um and it's meant a lot to just have you down there on a regular basis and and make it clear when when others of us should show up so just thank you for that thanks colleagues that were on the legislative Forefront of this I just say thank you to David and to the audience and our people at home feel free to contact your legislators and tell them that you think it's important that we have more money for schools too and that you hope that they will vote for more money for schools the contacting your legislators is one of the most important things you can do David can you inform everybody about how they would do that that's great a great question director and Alice thank you and that kind of Grassroots advocacy really is some of the best advocacy around for people to look up their legislator if they simply go to the legislative website which I'll just say it is www.leg leg.state.or.us there's a button find your legislator click on that it'll tell you it is you can shoot them an email your your state senator and your state representative and uh yeah letting them know that you want more money for schools and you want more money uh now I think is a very positive message to send so can I just clarify the vote today was 6.55 Million for schools then we're looking at per savings potentially to to get us to the 6.75 which we are hoping for because that's what our budget is based upon plus there's some you know chance of maybe some more Revenue so we might get a little bit more than 6.75 which would be really awesome because we could add back some of the things that we've taken out of our budget for next year so that that's the breakdown that we're looking at so what we need people if you're going to contact your legislators ask for all three pieces we need all three pieces in order to I think plus additional purse so excellent clarification so um let's let's put it in four pieces so two pieces on the table currently 6.55 billion dollars in an appropriation the legislature has already passed and the governor's already signed into law another bill Senate Bill 822 that would achieve for Education about 200 million dollars in in savings to the Public Employee Retirement System so that's how you get to the 6.75 then the two new pieces would be an additional appropriation to the state school fund a
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hundred million 150 million to take that 655 to six six five or six seven plus any additional if if that new Revenue happens it will inevitably have to come with additional savings in the Public Employee Retirement System which um it's hard to say that that if absolutely balances because some of it what we understand of what's being debated some of it cancels out some some of what was accomplished in a22 and the pers board is also taking additional actions around long-term savings that cancels out some of the short-term savings but you would I think fairly reasonably be looking at an additional 100 to 200 million dollars in savings for education in an additional Purge reform package so you can put those numbers together however you want them they they start to look like we can actually begin to reinvest in education that would be exciting when you calculate what 100 to 200 million dollars would be in for Portland Public Schools I think I know the answer I think we're about eight percent right yes yes and so we're looking at eight to sixteen million dollars correct you know I think calculate that further to what that means in terms of teachers you're talking 80 to 160 teachers I mean this is this would have a huge huge beneficial impact to our kids you nailed it please thank you thank you so we're not gonna so when I'll place the board into recess from his regular meeting and open the public hearing from the proposed 2013 budget to 2012 to 13 budget amendment number three okay uh Brendan Smith can you and I will introduce this item please I'll ask David wind our Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Sarah bottomley our assistant budget director to come up and present this report thank you both thank you thank you superintendent Smith co-chair Gonzalez and board members you have in front of you a recommendation from the superintendent and a resolution to amend the budget for the 2012-2013 school year which is almost finished but just in time before the end of the year these are essentially housekeeping items where we want to make sure that we've appropriated the right amounts of money relative to certain expenditures and that is what is described here for you the one thing that I would clarify and I think if you haven't already you're about to do that is that one of the funds actually increases the appropriation by more than 10 percent so we have a public hearing on that which if anybody present is signed up to speak they will do so but that's uh again relative technicality and the reason that those expenditures of that appropriation is so big has to do with um fund 438 which is the facilities Capital fund as we were when we issued the capital Bond recently one of the primary one of the uses immediately was to pay off the existing debt that we had and we fully Advanced that line before we paid it off and the additional proceeds that came out as a part of that are what is reflected here so it's it's the financial moves that are consequent upon the issuing of the bond and the payoff of the interim debt any questions is is there any citizen comment on resolution four so and so forth okay okay so thank you I will now reconvene the board back into regular session for the boat um we will now consider resolution 4774 amendment number three to the 2012-13 budget for School District number one J Multnomah County Oregon do I have a motion a second director sergeant and director Atkins seconds the motion to adapt resolution 4774 is there any board we discussion this resolution resolution 4774 only play would be all in favor please send the key by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed basically by saying no resolution 4774 is approved by 1060 director rely on absent um now moving to the next item which is
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the adoption of the 2013 uh 14 budget on May 20th the board uh sitting as the budget committee uh held the public hearing and voted to approve the 2013-14 budget uh superintendent Smith is there anything you'd like to add um we'll now consider resolution 4775 imposed taxes and Adoption of the fiscal year 2013-14 budget for School District number one J Multnomah County Oregon do I have a motion a second director Morton and director Sergeants seconds the motion to adapt by solution 4775 says in comment on this yes we yes and Robin abadia and I believe you all were here when I went to the instructions earlier so if you can state your name for the record and then pay attention to the lights be great appreciate it thank you superintendent Carol Smith and directors for the opportunity to speak tonight as I prepared the speech one thought kept haunting me how do I explain to my third grader why she does not receive the same quality of Elementary education as her older sister received as a parent and supporter of the public schools I am lost for words for my daughter referencing the ratio FTE table on page 24 of the 2013-2014 proposed budget it is quite clear that the Staffing of teachers in the classrooms in all schools has dramatically declined over the past five years the ratio of 23.2 to 1 and the 20 in the 2008-2009 school year has risen to 26.9 to 1 in the approved 2013-2014 budget for the elementary K-5 schools the difference of 3.7 in the ratio translates to three less teachers at our elementary school that we need that we would have if we were staffed at the 2008-2009 level teachers are the backbone of our educational system how can our country and you succeed if we're not providing the strong backbone backbone needed in our educational system for them referencing your presentation this on school Staffing dated April 22nd 2013 at the general fund budget was reliant on 4.5 million in the Arts tax and seven to eight million dollars from the state budget which we just heard was defeated today in the Senate the elementary schools have taken the brunt of the general fund shortfall versus last year with the art tax only being partially funded this is leaving a huge hole in my daughter's elementary school as well as many other elementary schools in the district many teachers are being let go teachers who have dedicated their lives to the instruction of our children as the school board has focused on equity in education how do I explain to my daughter the inequity of her education compared to her sisters he passed through the system just a few years ahead of her we urge you to make the elementary schools whole the children and the teachers should not be the victims of faulty assumptions made in the planning process please utilize the 20 million dollars in contingency from the general fund to bridge this Gap thank you for your time and dedication to our schools I know the board wants to do the right thing for our children as evident in the concessions made at the high school level a stronger stronger education for all our children makes for a better Community let's not leave the smallest of our school children behind in this year's budget process thank you for your time hello I'm Robin abadia a-b-a-d-i-a I am also a parent and I'm here to voice my support for those arts and music teachers who are currently in limbo awaiting news about whether the full funding for the art tax will be made available for the next school year not long before school finished for the year and after the Staffing decisions were finalized we were notified that the Arts tax funds were on hold due to Legal challenges this combined with another increase in the student teacher ratio meant that our school many others are struggling to staff even their basic classrooms for the coming year we are one of the schools that is currently slated to have less Arts and Music education this coming year than last which is an ironic and sad outcome on an otherwise positive step forward for Arts education the children and parents at our school
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are devastated because we are threatened with losing our beloved music teacher of 14 years she's introduced an entire generation of children throughout Portland to Rhythm and song theater and an international repertoire of Music her curriculum adds a creative Dimension to our children's education that inspires and enriches Young Minds we're very grateful that the city and PPS have stepped forward with partial coverage to keep many of the Arts and music's teachers at halftime during this time of limbo but we ask you to fulfill the wishes of the voters by prioritizing full Staffing of those positions which were cut at the last minute as soon as possible and hopefully before school even starts in September now that one of the legal challenges has been recently dismissed and the other sounds personally like a very weak argument it is our great hope that the funds will soon flow or if Governor kitzhopper's current negotiations for Grant compromise come through and result in additional funds for Oregon schools we ask that you again prioritize funds to make this these art Staffing positions for in all schools whole it as a last resort maybe consider dipping into reserves just a little bit more we think it's a prudent step in this case as well there are times when teachers are described as FTE or staff or resources or budget lines and then there are times when our teachers are real people who shape us to be better human beings and our Music Teacher is one of those people thank you for supporting her and the other arts and music teachers in her same situation we very much hope to hear good news soon thank you all very much thank you both Miss Houston next our next speakers are Therese rusink and Mary Grace McDermott my name is Therese rusank last name r-u-e-s-i-n-k and I have a daughter in Portland Public Schools in regards to curriculum and programs I'm deeply Disturbed that planned parenthood's programs are in our schools as Salem School watch explains quote Planned Parenthood is America's leading abortion provider they derive most of their income from killing unborn children on this basis alone they should never be given access to our children their business model is based on abortion end quote you are partnering partnering with an organization that has a documented history of killing unborn children hiding and covering up child rape to protect its facility peddling pornography under the guise of sex education selling chemical death in the form of artificial birth control and plan B to women as health and targeting our teens with the most vile soul-killing perversion possible Planned Parenthood gained access to our children by claiming to be interested in reducing teen pregnancy yet Planned Parenthood promotes teen sex and promiscuity which is the direct cause of teen pregnancy Planned Parenthood has failed to reduce teen pregnancies as can be seen by research from The gutmacher Institute which is a research arm of Planned Parenthood this is cited from the Illinois right to life committee and there have been many studies documenting this they are not in the business of women's health as they claim or of supporting their employees Planned Parenthood employees who have had the courage to leave Planned Parenthood have suffered significant emotional spiritual psychological and even physical distress from working there imagine if your daily job was counseling women to kill their babies and or putting back together the fetal Parts after an abortion to make sure they got everything how is that helping people that wrecks people one can easily see what Planned Parenthood is about by looking at their websites which include videos entitled take care down there and I didn't spew depicting oral sex between teenagers not the sort of organization that I would want my daughter or any other child for that matter to be exposed to this is not a life-giving organization I see anywhere from 6 to 12 young girls and women coming out of the 50th and
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Franklin Planned Parenthood on surgical abortion day having had an abortion and I'm only there a couple of hours a week they're coming out of there and it's heartbreaking to see they their hearts are broken too and often I learned that these women were on artificial contraception that Planned Parenthood provided they've told me about their pregnancies on the pill using a condom the pill in the condom the IUD Depo Vera the NuvaRing implant and the patch they use the cheapest versions of these contraceptives as quoted by Consumer Reports we need to move on okay they I thank you I'm begging you to get Planned Parenthood out of the schools thank you for your attention go ahead I'm a volunteer nurse I work on skid row and also at the rosehaven intervention Center and shelter for women in my talk is sort of like a potpourri so I don't know your budgets but when teachers have so much time to prepare one class what's the cost of their time in the budget to interrupt lessons for outside interference in the last study out three weeks ago the maturity level for a woman in our society is 28 and for the man it is 34 to reach his maturity and yet you're presenting adult material to high schoolers and 10 years younger and only on one level peltro pie addresses our six levels of formation spiritual mental emotional psychological respiratory reproductive Etc the nine systems Family Heritage what brings us into the world and our lastly environment Club schools and where you live Etc you would not let a ten-year-old drive your convertible Porsche no matter his dexterity on a bike or prowess in a high school baseball game hormones are raging you don't allow soda shotgun classes or Saloon Keepers to come in to show what's the best way to make you know drinks and you don't allow smoking on campus so the cost down the line of dropouts or geds for those on the street should unbalance any City budget and we would end up paying for that now um I don't know what your agreement is with the Planned Parenthood but do you check the condoms for holes you check other material that comes in in conclusion I refer you to the fairy tale about the king who wanted a Sumptuous set of clothing for his Regal parade in secrecy all played the game until the parade came and a little boy said yelled out look mother the king is naked as the day that he is born now don't be deluded or proselytized yourself Planned Parenthood makes a million dollars a day plus and those are big bucks and they offer their Wares to the immature and they're at the level of number four what looks good feels good is good what everybody is doing part of the pie of philosophy 101 is not in place that is responsibility now it's the dropouts or the teachers years to give glass classes conclude with don't be wasteful or be deluded thank you see you soon you want to continue our last two speakers Jennifer Merrill and Consuelo Jean wrote two of Zeller foreign either one of you can start
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I am Consuelo Jean Roto of Zeller Row 2 r o u t t u I have a few things I'd like to say I want you to know some things that I know about Planned Parenthood and some other organizations Planned Parenthood is on the steering committee of the Oregon adolescent sexuality conference that is held in Seaside Oregon and when Rita Diller walked into this year's Oregon adolescent sexuality conference in Seaside Oregon one of the first things that she encountered there was a table of Man by three young teenage boys and on the table was a collage that included many depictions of totally bare female genitalia obviously pornographic and what I would have thought illegal the collage included a drawing of a pigtail little girl riding on a tricycle with a word that starts with v and I don't know how many children are still here but I'm going to spell it fast v-a-g-i-n-a written above her and another drawing of a young female girl standing by a rose with a V word written below her on a chalkboard these were the words that were visible along the outer edge of the piece quote everyone can come inside okay now why are teenage boys Manning a table containing graphic pictures of female genitalia suggesting that everyone can come inside from a pigtailed little girl riding on a tricycle partnering with Planned Parenthood this is an organization that held a sex toy Workshop demonstrating how sex toys work and how to maintain them at a bar in Portland just a few months ago why are you partnering with Planned Parenthood do you really want your sons and daughters our sons and daughters and the sons of daughters of the parents in Portland involved with this organization I think not I want you to know the real truth do the research please let's put our dog let's put our dollars to better use and contract with organizations that are involved in the promoting of our youth in in this area um in their adolescence and Planned Parenthood aims were quite a bit younger too and this organization and there are other organizations like it but this one's uh that I'm quite familiar with is Northwest Family Services they deal with the whole family from The Young to the to the older it's wonderful and on top of this I want to say this the board fired one in a million who had the courage and The Virtue and the and the wisdom and the character to stand up for the purity of our babies of our little youngsters the protection of our youth our adolescents build this your time is done oh my time is done well anyway thank you thank you thank you hi thanks for opening up this opportunity to speak um I spoke with y'all in April I believe it was at Wilson and I was fired up I was ready to go I knew we were going to have some staff cut but I thought I felt like there was some hope and I talked about wanting to build a nest for our children and our families of Portland Public Schools so what did I do I actually have I have written 15 letters to the governor and the legislator unfortunately I haven't even gotten a form letter or response from anyone that feels really bad I think I can tell a compelling story short one-page letters stories about parents and kids at our school and what happens when we keep chipping and chipping and shipping at our staff so on Friday the kids at our school found out about some of the staff losses that we're going to incur for next year despite a stable budget um my kids are already in 30 plus classrooms it's really hard they didn't start out in 30 plus my daughter had you know great kindergarten first grade second grade levels third grade and now she's going into fifth it's 30 plus and it's really hard um so now we've increased the number of classes in our school that are 30 plus um pretty much all of them I I think that's where all of them are going to go and that it's really hard to have a classroom with those levels of small
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kids um so we're losing part of the we're losing 2.5 FTE for next year that's a lot we've already lost um my daughter found out that one of the people who's leaving is a halftime secretary she is a big halftime secretary she I feel like she is there all the time she knows what's going on she is glue she is the glue that makes all these little pieces of the parents and the teachers and the staff working really hard to put it all together and she's going to be gone my daughter's comment was um this is just going way over the line we've lost our precious secretary um we don't have a music teacher on a regular basis we pay for that with parent dollars we don't have a regular art teacher we have a pieces of PE teacher and all we're asking for we want the basics we want some people in the classroom we're going to take care of stuff um I asked the SEC the secretary we have 7 366 hours of volunteerism in our school that's people in the classroom who've logged into the system it doesn't matter we have people who aren't not logged into that who have worked on our carnivals our fundraising all these different efforts I run a math detectives groups for my child we are tired we're tired we're worn out I don't know how much more we can do but um I'm really hoping we can restore some of that 2.5 thank you again thank you everyone for their for the comments I know it's a bit of a stretch in regards to the the comments um but again we're discussing budget and people are talking where we invest some things definitely are not up for discussion and in this in this budget but I wanted to be able to to provide some opportunity for my colleagues to share any comments or have any discussion in regards to a disappointed in terms of the budget parents and community members that You know despite the best attempts of everybody to make this the best possible budget that we can under the circumstances that we're we're still so far from serving our kids and giving the kids education they deserve and so just talking back to the legislative discussion earlier um that I hope the legislators are listening and that they will not just say okay we can pass something and go home that we have a long ways to go in the state and we're not serving our kids the way we need to be others I think I just say I appreciate the the testimony about what's going on in our elementary schools and the Staffing is um we knew it was uh not optimal and it's not optimal so it's bad out there I think going forward if if we find that the legislature passes a more um adequate budget than what is in our current budget then we would look I think I won't be here but the board will look at where to invest that extra money and trying to meet you know the needs of our students so that they do have um our the music teacher and the Staffing in their schools so they need their right you know low 30s for elementary school kids that's a tough class size we all know that um so I would just say keep our fingers crossed and um look for how to uh invest what we hope will be a little bit more money in our schools for the coming year I would agree with that I hope our state legislators step up I also wanted to remind people how we ended up where we did um in part because of federal sequestration cuts and I think people forget about that and it seems so far away but to the extent that we can also be contacting our federal delegation Portland Public Schools suffered about two million dollars I think as a result of federal sequestration cuts and those cuts typically hit the most vulnerable in our population so in terms of Education you're talking about Head Start programs you're talking about Pell Grants so kids can go to college you're talking about special education programs for emerging bilinguals title one I mean there's a whole variety of programs and all of those programs are you know really basic services for the most needy in our community and so um
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to the extent that we can be having that conversation with our federal delegation two million dollars would make a big difference it's another 20 staff I mean if you do the math so that would be helpful as well we feel your pain anything yeah I would say that um the the few things that I'm really pleased about with this budget obviously the um that it has served as a very good reminder and I think we've continued to have that reminder as we have gone through our our engagement with the community on the budget um but a few the few bright spots in this one is that uh our budget is in uh secured based on a based on a bailout from the city uh which I think is a huge step towards towards stability uh with fun continuing to fund teachers in our classrooms the second is uh yeah I think an opportunity that we that we took based on community feedback to invest in re re-evaluate some of the Investments that we were making outside of classrooms and reinvest that those resources into into high schools and then I think the third is is quite frankly the realigning our budgeting towards to better reflect our Equity uh Equity commitment and uh and the last one I think being relatively groundbreaking certainly for our district but for districts all over the state and all over the country um so uh I wouldn't you know it's hard to say this is a truly stable budget when you're so far below the um the uh you know in a good a good model um for funding but uh but given what we've seen over you know the last two decades were probably we're inching closer to that and I think there is hope for uh There's Hope for the future There's Hope um certainly that I have in our legislator that they'll they'll start to make those decisions that are good for kids so again I don't want to necessarily repeat what what I want to say but I think that it's important reminder in regards to the the the process for us and I think for us as board members you know coming to this point this has been more of a compromising of Our Own our own perspectives and trying to come up with what will be uh well we can be able to put forth at this point in time I mean I think that my colleagues have have known that have I always argue for for greater investment in regards to Early Childhood you know Elementary you know particularly the third great reading um and also how do we deal with the transitions in particular you know we you know to to high school and and that investment I think that we have managed to keep some of that in place and I think that if if the if the district comes in with with uh with the opportunity of getting more money in than I would hope that those that remain on the board would think about those things that that were discussed previously in regards to what's our Strategic investment what is it going to move us forward in regards to what we're trying to accomplish um and and to the parents I think it's important to to continue to Advocate I think for that for that investment in terms of you know uh you know my bias of course early childhood and also Elementary School um because I think you know it says you know the the the path for for later but um at this point I think it is important to also my perspective I think I acknowledge those things that are not you know we're not I think at this point trying to come up with okay let's put a uh my project at this point in time and see if I can get some more money every reserves I think clearly you know if we look at assessing the you know where we're at as board members there was a strong majority of the board that was very hesitant to dip any more in terms of reserves and I think that's the reality of it so it's to put forth a proposal uh to to the you know to that effect it's just a uh more like grandstanding rather than any in any political reality and and I'm not into those things uh particularly since it's my my last meeting um so the board will not vote on resolution 4775. all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all the posts please indicate by saying no resolution 4775 it's a pro approved by a vote of six to zero with direct reliable six to zero I'm sorry uh with
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DirecTV live absent thank you we have you know we have receivable over the past months you know a monthly update on the capital Improvement Bond and superintendent Smith we also have another one this month it'll be my last one so we do yeah um and actually Jim Owens who's the executive director of our office of school modernization and Paul Cathcart who's a project manager in the office of school modernization will provide us with our report this evening thank you this is the June Bond update and we're going to mix up our presentation tonight to highlight some very important work we're doing on a component project that leads to the bond around our head spec work with me tonight is Paul Cathcart who has just been a superb individual to lead this effort and to collaborate with Community with teachers and kids to highlight what's what's really important about our facilities and how our facilities support our teaching and our program and curriculum I would add that in your board packets you have the balance scorecard update I'm not planning to present that tonight but if you have any questions about it I'm happy to respond to any questions after we're finished with our edspec presentation I would point out that we haven't seen a substantive change over the last month that we're poised to begin our construction phase work at our schools for this summer the six goals that we're going to be working on and so we're well on our way so without like to introduce Paul to walk us through the educational facility visioning directors chair Gonzalez superintendent Smith thanks for the opportunity to be in front of you tonight and give you a brief overview of the district-wide educational facility visioning that we've been conducting over the last few months I'm just going to give a brief introduction to it but the majority of my presentation are some audio and visual representation of what we've been hearing from the community and the conveners that have um for a lot of our community conversations together so uh district-wide Ed specs are being developed to as part of building design characteristics that will inform the design of schools undergoing Renovations as part of the district's Capital work so this project has been divided into a couple different phases the first of which is the visioning process and the intent behind this is to produce a vision that will guide future design of all district school buildings including and especially the capital Bond work to take on this visioning process we initiated a number of community conversations involving segments of the community that to date have not really been represented at the table with PBS and really tried to focus on those representatives of PPS that are existing in emerging constituents so we were very fortunate to have an executive advisor committee help us lead the design of those Community conversations and the project overall within that advisory committee there were a number of conveners of community conversations want to especially thank those including director Morton who helped us convene a meeting with data Family Center and I believe Kevin and Andrew are in the audience they were student participants and both convened some very good sessions with students and the Vietnamese parent community so overall we had 16 Community conversations more than 360 people participated and we just recently concluded an online survey which more than 200 people commented to that so the notes from all these conversations can be found on the web address here and what I'm going to give you this evening is just a very brief overview the the notes the conversations are very rich they're very deep they include communities thoughts about the future facilities but also about the future of schools and we're asked people to bring together their vision and what that would feel like so I'm going to move into kind of an overview of that and may interject along the way but I want to give you a flavor of what the conversation has been via a couple Community conversations that we've had videotapes some audio summary of the visioning Summit that happened on May 28th and then some synthesis of the thoughts that will conclude my presentation here we go I hope
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we have been on the road for about three and a half four months now talking with groups across the city from first graders to high school students from communities of color to futurists from teachers and principals to our parents and our seniors that all reside here report all of you have had something to say about what you hoped for former public schools and what you hope it can become and grow into and what you see the future feel unto me or club sports more after school Sunday school things things to help out feel more comfortable when they come into a school because I know when you're coming in high school so like more like people to greet you on your way in something or like make the building just feel more welcoming yeah welcoming but like also have classroom for like students to have an opportunity to study for their self if they have like study hall like have their own room with comfortable things and like to make them feel like calm and be like more comfortable to be able to study sure so I think it's better if we have like multiple classrooms that teach the same subject instead of just once and everybody comes into that one okay um I think we used to have the most support for our Performing Arts like choir and drama is what we should be glorifying rather than just you know like oh if you play this sport you're great if you do the other two yeah awesome this is efficient and easy they can work with students that's I think that's a no it's a it's an entirely important point some sort of Child Care Program so that they know that their kids will be safe while they're in school it also capture that sort of like like and getting worked on atmosphere um I don't know how and transformative change is is changing the rules of the game in some substantive way to create new possibilities new relationships new new ways of Behaving all the money's gone so now people are having to invent these new methods hearing that our tax base can't support schools hearing that we can't respond to this accepting process I feel like my Generations could gift to our society will be figuring out how to be Innovative on the capital side because my view is that we do have enough money what we don't have is the right priority so dollars for Education may be scarce but learning is fundamentally abundant is to always keep true north of purpose and cause awakened the thing that fuels learning is motivation and so I feel like the real underlying issue is to find a way to tap into the motivation of every child that goes through this whole system right how do you make it safe for grandparents to come into a school and feel like they can participate that the neighborhood can come in that that everybody in a community is thought of as responsible for the learning of everybody else if you can create space that allows teachers to learn from students and show that learning is good even as they learn from students we've got a school that needs to be porous but it needs to be a container right that's interesting right so that that's a good Paradox that as we think about schools in the district it's not a district school that looks alike feels alike does the same schools in different parts of the district are different and and they respond to the community in which they're helping Build a Better Community and transformative change is is changing the rules of the game this is just a visual of the world and in that structural change what goes up what comes down they stay down because 80 of the world is structurally changing now and it's changing under the feet of our young minds and we have to equip them with new creative capability that even we don't know how do we work that missions narrow your focus into an exercise causes expands your focus so you become bigger than life itself mission is give you Direction causes people the opportunity to create something is going to happen
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you can't even stop something's going to happen let's move I think means that they're not ritually built based on a vision that is short-sighted sustainability has to do with making sure that the community is involved in every process every step of the process design development and implementation I mean continues to be involved after the the buildings are complete and wordable just means functional and satisfying the needs of all the stakeholders involved using Neuroscience to study what our clients our students what's going on in their brains their brains are different now than our brains are like literally they are required different relations you using internships with individuals and then finally have our facilities be multi-functions have them be a library they have a library be credited that way have their new health clinics and community centers and we shouldn't be constrained by the existing historic structures each one of those structures has a memory that that Community holds onto so part of the conversation we tried to summarize at the vision Summit on May 28th and came into a broad category of teaching and learning and we asked participants to vote on the the subheadings um and so as part of that we took those statements and read them aloud and had participants vote on those Sunday statements and I've pulled a few of them out here the district will ensure that all Portland Students have Equitable opportunities to succeed and all schools have the resources to meet the unique needs of their children every school will be an inspiration to a student's staff and community and in vibrant and exciting place that celebrates growth and learning every school will be the center welcoming people of all ages for activities that reflect local cultures needs and interests and that contribute to an expanded learning community that enriches both the school and our city we heard a lot on this front it has to do with school design and material selection that will enable efficient operations and effective maintenance which together ensure cost savings over the building's useful life a great number of comments in this area as well so the comments you just heard were indicative of those that tried to summarize the 16 Community conversations that was just a sliver of what we heard and and the intent to note is kind of give you a visual and audio collage of what we've heard we'll come back to you now that the online survey has concluded and presents develop a vision document that will go to our advisory committee and Community conveners to ask the question did we hear you correctly and once we receive feedback from there we'll bring that Vision document back to the board likely in August the second part of the educational specification project the Ed specs themselves will likely come before you in September and we're currently working with teachers and administrators beginning those conversations to get more specific about what we want to see in the future of our schools so this is just kind of a an update literally of where we are with this visioning process it's been very rich very deep and I would encourage you to read if you haven't already the notes from the community that have spent a lot of time and given a lot of their thought and talents behind this so with that uh I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have thank you so we're gonna move on to the business agenda great thanks I'm sorry could I just ask one question sure and it might be uh Sue and that the question is too um we have a high school action team it's that our meeting and um I had just looked up what their goal is and my question is um about how that conversation is going to get woven into the design conversations at the school so I just had a Roosevelt I'm on the Roosevelt design team and um obviously as we are designing these buildings we want to make sure that our educational specifications are front and center and I believe that that's what
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the high school action teams are working on but I'm trying to understand how those sync up so that we're sure that the design teams are looking first and foremost at what we're trying to accomplish in terms of the educational specifications have some additional Insight after our conversation at the design Advisory Group that is the question there so as far as the conversations with school staff we've invited the office of schools office of teaching and learning we'll be talking with principals next week we've asked them what is what's the district's best thinking that we're going to bring forward in our educational specifications and how should that be reflected in the space making that the educational specifications are designed to do and so um I think the high school where those two will sync up is to have that reflected in the educational specifications that will then go on to the design teams and design advisory groups that can look at that specifically for each school and again educational specifications are meant to be a Point of Departure for the design of each school but reflects the district's best thinking as far as teaching and learning and how that should be reflected in space and so will the high school action team be done with its work prior to the education specifications group it sounded like the education specification final product will be getting to us in the fall but I thought that the high school action team was going through next year so I'm just trying to understand how they think up as part our conversations with high school teachers and administrators are happening this month and potentially into July we hope to have that work done and the high school at spec developed during the month of July and into August so that's the time frame there I'm not as familiar with the time frame the high school action teams and when their work might conclude okay is working on because I'm hearing a crisscross of well yeah well I mean it says here that it's an Advisory Group convened by the chief academic officer to develop recommendations to accelerate student achievement and graduation success in Portland's high schools recommendations will focused on making systemic instructional changes that will mitigate barriers to graduation success for all students particularly students of color whom in the high school system is not historically served as well as white students so I'm presuming that out of that we may have some ideas in terms of what we want to offer kids and therefore what our buildings would want to accommodate am I so um so thank you for the question the high school action team as you said was an outgrowth of the report on the first year of the implementation of the high school system design work and so it's a group convened has roughly 30 members it comprises teachers students principles central office staff parents and other Community Partners so it's a really broad-based stakeholder group what we are looking at are what are the next layer of shifts in our high school practices to accelerate learning for all kids and close the achievement Gap so we don't right now have an explicit intersection of the the Ed Speck work as it's called and the high school action team although there is overlap because people from each of the constituents or stakeholder groups in the high school action team are also part of the groups that have been convened so and um and as you said the high school action team's work will continue through next school year so whereas the Ed Speck work is um they're working on kind of establishing so what are those specifications so um does that answer the question I just want to make sure that as we're rebuilding our high schools there was a huge conversation about this during the campaign that we want to make sure that our buildings are built to accommodate what we're attempting to do inside of them instructionally and in terms of our curriculum right and it would seem to me that this High School action team is a huge piece of that and what we're going to be trying to accomplish so I just want to make sure that it is working in sync with the Ed specs group as we're going forward okay okay thank you and you can get back to me a little bit more no yeah just so that Ed specs they're going to be groups that are convened that are specifically High School
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constituents that will overlap the the group that the high school action team is broader deeper longer program and strategy people will inform some of the Ed specs process and there will be an overall district-wide Ed specs that relates that will include High School constituents specifically and then we'll go and be local communities doing the master planning for their individual buildings and there are overlapping people in all of all of these connects so none of this is disconnected from each other but we're not waiting till the end of the high school action team process to have that explicitly inform the high school facility design it's going to keep going on in terms of specific strategies so have a dimension to them all of these things connect to each other and are all informing each other so and one is not waiting for the other to be done in order to keep keep moving so maybe worse or you you would not be happy with the answer that we're waiting till the end of next year to start design on our high schools like but you've got I mean truly we've got um intersecting people between who are in participating in all of these processes that are part of how it's how it's linked worth noting to the two themselves are meant to be a living documents updated periodically um along with the long-range facility plan to kind of follow behind wherever the trends are with program delivery in the districts who um change and provide spaces that are current with what the program is trying to deliver and I think like we're going to continue to learn through this entire process and work will continue to build on itself yeah we can continue to be here all night but I guess what I'm hearing is is that making sure that we take advantage of the fact that there are some resources out there regardless of trying to inform this decision and hopefully bring that into the fold so that we can actually hear the excitement in regards to what the system we're trying to build and and that coming across so that people see that we're trying to deal with the educational Vision that we're trying to build but also you know the the actual structural stuff that we're trying to address in in this process I thank you again for your uh presentation um I know my colleagues look forward to more of these discussions but we need to move around thank you okay thank you so the war will not considered the remaining items on his business agenda having already voted on resolution 47722 to uh through uh 4775 we see some are there any changes to the business agenda do I have a motion a second to adopt the business agenda Regan uh moves and director Sarge's uh seconds to the adoption of the business agenda is there a citizen comment yeah is there any more discussion okay the world when I bought on the business agenda all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all post-presentative by saying no the business agenda is approved by a voter six to zero with direct Bilal accent do we have any announcements before uh we adjourn the only announcement that I have I want to thank the voters for providing me an opportunity to serve on the board and also for releasing me from that uh that responsibility the next meeting of the board will be held on Wednesday July 17 200 000 2013 at 5 PM the regular meeting at the board has now adjourned

Sources

PPS Board of Education, Archive 2012-2013, https://www.pps.net/Page/2225 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:54.937864Z)
PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)

2013-06-17 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

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Event 1: Board of Education - Regular Meeting - June 17, 2013

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