2014-08-19 PPS School Board Business Meeting
| District | Portland Public Schools |
|---|---|
| Date | 2014-08-19 |
| Time | missing |
| Venue | missing |
| Meeting Type | business |
| Directors Present | missing |
Documents / Media
Notices/Agendas
Materials
08-19-14 Final Packet (27efcde188a8157b).pdf Meeting Materials
Minutes
Transcripts
Event 1: Board of Education - Business Meeting - August 19, 2014
00h 00m 00s
it has
recycling analysis okay everybody ready
it should be at your spot
okay everybody ready
good afternoon everybody
this business meeting of the board of
education for august 19 2014 is called
to order I'd like to extend a warm
welcome to everyone present and to our
television viewers
any item that will be voted on this
evening has been posted as required by
state law this meeting is being
televised live and will be replayed
throughout the next two weeks please
check the Board website for replay times
this meeting is also being streamed live
on our PPS TV services
director Morton and student
representative Jazz wall are absent
today co-chair Adkins is listening and
watching at home she's not feeling well
today
so to begin our first on our agenda our
contract where is uh statements from our
Pat president our contract with the
Portland Association of teachers allows
them to have a few minutes on our agenda
and I'd like to invite Gwen Sullivan the
president of Pat to the table for
comments welcome Gwen thank you
hope you're having a great summer
thank you lots of work
um so I don't have comments per se I
have more questions and I think my
questions just are things that I'm
hoping that you can possibly discuss or
maybe you've already pondered about
um the business agenda so
um if you don't mind I'll just ask you a
few go right ahead
okay so the first thing is
um I want to ask the question regarding
we know that a lot of the
community-based
um
organizations the the money that we're
going to be you're going to be voting on
today a lot of the services that the
schools provide are unique in and really
unique in some areas for kids that are
pretty fragile or or maybe they have
Residential Treatment uh you know that
they're coping with trauma and so I
would say that
those alternative schools
I mean they're much harder to work with
kids with differing problems not saying
it's impossible but it's harder so what
I'm really asking about are the schools
that are a little more like things that
we want within our schools
um
so when I read about the different
contracts
some of them talk about the uniqueness
is smaller class sizes
which I would argue that's what we all
want
um that we want to make sure that we're
meeting individual needs of students
which again I would argue is something
that we all want
um
and and so knowing that why are we
Contracting out versus hiring people
within to be able to provide these types
of services within our schools and I go
back to
reading Dick Tracy had an audit a few I
think it was two years ago it was last
fall oh was it last fall thank you
and and some of the recommendations you
know as I look are
how we integrate those services within
our schools because whether they are in
these outside programs
we know that there are a handful more in
our schools right now that need those
types of services so I don't understand
why it's going outside rather than
having it within our school system
um we know that our district runs
alternative high schools and those
actually have the same requirements as
public schools do and so they're held to
it that you know higher accountability
um that's why I think it would be maybe
a better idea to bring some of those
services within
and
there are
let me see
says uh
the thing they have in common a lot of
the schools are about rescuing kids who
have either failed the big box schools
or are at risk of not making it and
that's where I would argue again these
same sorts of services that if we had
00h 05m 00s
them within our big box schools it would
help it would help to make
um
a better impact on our schools
I am left with
and I I know that you looked at me with
a quizzical face but I I think part of
it is
um I know in Salem they have graduation
coaches and within the schools they make
sure that if kids aren't there that
somebody has a relationship with those
kids that are at risk so they're calling
and making sure they get to school
making sure that if they're babysitting
a brother or sister that they have a
place for the brother and sister to go
to as well so I think that's something
that we should look into as well as I
would ask has the district done anything
to engage
the high school the people working in
the high schools to figure out what are
some things that would help what what
are some wrap around services that we
need to to better help our kids
um
I'm trying to think if there's other
things
oh other question Open Meadow is closing
so I didn't understand what that
relationship is and if it could just be
asked since there's
um
money going there just to clarify for
the public
um
well it's a lot of money and I just
think that if we're going to do it right
for all of our kids I think that we need
to figure out how we bring it in-house
rather than outside as much as possible
so I'm hoping that you can discuss some
of that
great thank you for your comments and I
I know that during the presentation
today Karina wolf who heads our
alternative Services might have some
answers for some of those I think she's
in the audience somewhere and I hope she
was there she is I hope she was
listening and can provide some of that
okay yeah
I just got this so I'm it's hard to go
through everything sure by no means
thanks Steve did you have a question for
you one of the things I had done during
the budget was I'd asked I'd suggest we
take about a million dollars and spend
it on Social Service coordinators in
each of our high schools which kind of
gets at this problem but I couldn't get
support on the board to do that and I
think it would have made a lot of
difference do you have a comment on on
that I mean you we had the one at
Roosevelt that we got rid of I tried to
get her back and we don't seem to have I
I even went out to one of our
alternative high schools and we didn't
have anybody who could get out of the
building into the home in that school
and so it seems to me that one of the
most difficult things to do is making
these contacts and setting people up
with services and going having somebody
available who can go out and actually
work with a kid where they are and I
wondered if you're you had an opinion on
that well that's part of the wraparound
services that we talk about that is so
important and we used to have I know
that Carol you know we used to have the
truancy officers and we would have
um our
counselors that would work with some of
the people at the school the same types
of people employed at our school that
built the relationships that would be
knocking on doors and and coordinating
services so yeah it's instrumental and
thank you thank you again I think
hopefully Corrine all have a few things
that she can say about that as well so
thanks so much for being here today I
appreciate that enjoy the rest of your
summer
okay our one and only agenda item today
is our business agenda and on this
business agenda there are contracts for
our community-based organizations and I
can see there are many representatives
here from those organizations for those
who are involved in a community-based
organization could you just raise your
hand so we can get an idea about
how many are here great thank you so
much for the work that you do
and
superintendent Smith would you like to
go ahead and give us some background
information on this
um yes briefly I'm going to introduce
Karina Wolfe who is our senior director
of schools for multiple Pathways to
graduation and I want to thank the board
for coming together for this vote
tonight or this afternoon because it's a
special board meeting to do the votes on
this contract
um one of the things that Karina will be
talking about as we evaluate our
alternative programs that we are a
contract relationship on an annual basis
and there's actually been deep work on
what are the metrics that you use to
evaluate our alternative providers and
materials are show that 91 percent of
the students in our community-based
organization schools in 2011-12 had been
out of school for at least six weeks so
we are this is an important Outreach and
00h 10m 00s
Dropout retention strategy that is being
employed with the contracts with our
community-based organization alternative
schools
we will be coming back together to do
for a board work session to go in more
depth and actually invite the
alternative providers to come and
participate in that work session so that
we can do a deeper dive on strategies
that are being used and what's being
effective and what it is that you do
that it may be different than the
capacity we have in our big box schools
as our Pat president just referenced
because some of what we are able to do
is harness the
the resources that a community-based
organization has that are part of that
organization that then provides some of
the wraparound support so beyond the
education that the district contracts
for it also harnesses other services for
kids for very specific populations of
kids so Portland's been unique
nationally actually in the relationship
we have with community-based
organizations and providing these
services so with that I will ask Karina
wolf to come on up and talk about our
system and how we evaluate it
welcome
thank you
good afternoon
um I'm gonna get
good afternoon School Board directors
I'd like to as superintendent Smith said
just give an overview
um so you have before you today
contracts for our community-based
alternative schools or cbo's as they are
known I would like to take just a couple
minutes to provide an overview of the
information you received in your board
packets as it relates to the CBO
contracts specifically the alternative
accountability framework and the
segmentation analysis
you have read in your board packet you
have seen in your school visits and you
will hear in public comment our 14
contracted CBO programs serve incredible
students with challenging situations
they serve students who are more likely
than our overall height District High
School population to be students of
color male older between the ages of 17
and 20 identified as ell pregnant and
parenting homeless or identified as
needing special education services our
alternative system serves many of our
students who move into our district
after their high school years have begun
it is important to share that while
students serve within our cbo's are like
students from any other high school
coming to school with a wide range of
skills and abilities students within our
cbo's are typically 17 years upon and
older upon entry and more than six
credits behind in school as they arrive
with reading and math levels often
falling several years below grade level
our cbos and our in-district alternative
schools are our safety net deliberately
they catch students who have not been
successful at previous schools
with regard to the current evaluation
process of our cbo's it is threefold the
three areas of evaluation which comprise
our alternative accountability framework
include our alternative accountability
growth metrics report card our contract
compliance and our and a qualitative
review
each contractor successfully
participated in a competitive
procurement process in 2010-2011 to
enable them to provide contracted
Education Services
the alternative accountability framework
the alternative accountability framework
was created to provide a set of metrics
which more accurately describe the
successes and challenges of students
enrolled in our contracted and
district-run alternative schools in 2012
within the multiple Pathways to
graduation Department we determined that
we needed to refine our reporting of the
metrics to give a clearer picture of the
programs we are holding accountable we
created a year-long task force made up
of district and community members
representatives from the Oregon
Department of Education and from
Workforce Development systems to Define
appropriate measures our work was based
largely on similar work done in Chicago
public schools and Denver public schools
the result of the work of the
alternative accountability task force
includes the pilot 2012-13 alternative
accountability report card you have all
received a copy of this report aggregate
report pilot report card in your board
packets as well as on our School Board
website
the metrics can be categorized by
academic skill growth successful
completion and school engagement the
definitions are complex and under review
for example after the first year we
realized that we had set a higher
standard for our one-year graduation
rate than would be expected of any of
our district high schools the standard
resulted in a percentage that is that is
lower than expected we are modifying the
definition to more accurately reflect
00h 15m 00s
the expectations of credit attainment of
any student in a District High School
you will find this on the third sheet of
the alternative accountability
report card pilot you see in the header
where the header says alternative
accountability metrics definitions
under the one-year graduation rate the
definition was students with eight or
fewer credits to high school graduation
this is higher than our general high
schools and is being revised as we
prepare to create the 1314 report card
to include in our under our definition
of a one-year graduation rate
this will include in the future students
with six or fewer credits to high school
completion the same as used within
General general education
the alternative accountability framework
while in its infancy and still being
piloted has received attention from
National and Statewide Partners
including the national alternative
accountability Forum the Oregon
Department of Education and the national
league of cities
all of these groups recognize the need
to tell an accurate data story of
students who have experienced multiple
traumas multiple School enrollments and
severe academic setbacks and as a result
our overage and under credit and older
and farther from graduating than their
peers
it is important to note that the metrics
and report card are only one aspect of
the framework framework excuse me the
other components of our alternative
accountability framework are contract
compliance and qualitative review
with regard to contract compliance each
year we ensure that each of our
contracted community-based organizations
maintains contract of compliance
compliance with all state and federal
standards are insured through multiple
site visits to each School each year as
well as documentation received from each
School
State Testing the meeting of graduation
requirements and College and Career
Readiness indicators such as assembling
portfolios internships and employment
opportunities and school to
post-secondary acceptance are visible
within our CBO schools ensuring contract
compliance is required for each of our
contracted Partners to be eligible to
maintain their CBO contracts with our
school district and to be up for Renewal
as each CBO contract is today
lastly a qualitative review process is
required annually within the alternative
school statute by districts Contracting
with cbos
in previous years we have conducted an
exit survey within the cbo's and
Alliance to capture qualitative data on
school climate as you will see in the
alternative accountability report card
Pages three through six includes
responses from
1193 students served with an alliance in
our CBO system during the 2012-13 school
year you will also see within the data
metrics on the second page of the
alternative accountability pilot report
card that school connection is measured
with indicators of annual retention rate
average daily attendance and growth in
attendance the annual retention rate for
the cbo's was 71 percent during the
2012-13 school year it is significant
that for students with histories of
chronic attendance many unenrolled for
six weeks or more previously the cohort
despite challenges and academic skill
growth is showing a 71 percent annual
retention rate currently we are working
with our partners with education
Northwest to develop a qualitative
review doing so will enable us to both
have a qualitative and quantitative data
on each contracted in in District
alternative school so we can identify
areas of strength and where growth is
necessary
and then just briefly I'd just like to
share about the segmentation analysis
the segmentation analysis was undertaken
in the spring of 2012 with the intent of
studying the PPS high school student
populations from the perspective of how
many students are off track from
graduating in four years and what sorts
of services are necessary to support
them in completing a high school diploma
or GED
the analysis took 2011-12 October 1
enrollment data and analyzed 9th through
12th graders by age and number of
credits and then geographically located
them in the city the report has many
facets but in the end determined that
for the demand created by students
leaving high school and students moving
into PPS during the year and the supply
of available and appropriate options PPS
is at least 600 seats short of what we
need to appropriately engage educate and
graduate every student within our High
School District boundaries by the time
here she turns 21.
as a result we are currently reviewing
the segmentation analysis and looking
strategically to prepare to meet the
needs of all our district students
within our Continuum of high schools
high school programming both with
General and alternative education
opportunities this will include
00h 20m 00s
preparing for the next RFP cycle for our
cbo's as well as working to continue
the work of arts district high schools
the work of our District High School
redesign which began in 2010 given that
the segmentation analysis identified
that we as a high school system are
short approximately 600 seats we need to
continue the great work our great work
at the reconnection center and our
reconnection services programming to
both bring students who have unenrolled
back to school as well as improve our
services within all of our general and
alternative high schools across the
district
so
okay okay
um
so I we're going to go ahead and put
this on up for a vote and then we'll I'm
sure there'll be questions for you okay
so the board will now consider its
business agenda Miss Houston any changes
no
no and do I have a motion in a second to
adopt the business agenda
director Regan moves and director curler
seconds the adoption of the business
agenda Miss Houston is their public
comment and they know there is okay
our first two speakers Tom Desjardins
and sativa newcomer
and I believe we also have such a
popular topic today we have folks who
are also submitting
written testimony and if that's the case
then if they could give that to Roseanne
Powell who is our board manager that
would be great she's sitting down here
in the front Roseanne ready to use a
hand
okay
all right this is the business people
this is the business agenda what
happened to the original people who were
supposed to talk at the start of the
meeting we didn't we this is just a
business agenda meeting and so this is
the business
it doesn't exist under the law or under
our policies this is this is a regular
meeting with a bit only looking at the
business agenda so theoretically with it
we need to vote to see if we're going to
limit uh the past practice no no we
don't
would you like to go ahead include
people thank you thank you School Board
directors and superintendent Smith thank
you for this opportunity to speak this
afternoon on behalf of the contracted
community-based organizations serving
Portland Public Schools I have been the
executive director for Mount Scott
Learning Centers for the past 10 years
prior to that I was the communications
coordinator for Salem Kaiser public
schools for 10 years and also for five
years served as the Director of that
District's Charter High School during
these 25 years working in public
education and another 10 in the private
sector I have become well aware of the
need for Quality education options for
those students that for whatever reason
are not successful in the Traditional
School environment
who are the students that the cbo's
serve
our programs serves students who compare
to students in the larger traditional
schools are disproportionately older
than the typical PBS high school student
significantly behind in credits living
in poverty impacted by mental health or
abuse issues in foster care or homeless
involved in the Juvenile Justice System
on average two to three years behind in
reading and math
impacted by drugs and alcohol
students of color
special education students pregnant or
parenting and living in single parent
households all of these barriers and
many more negatively affect these
students ability to stay and succeed in
school graduate from high school and be
adequately prepared for Success After
High School
as was mentioned earlier over 90 percent
of the students CBO serve have been out
of school at one point for at least six
weeks or more before enrolling before
enrolling in a CBO program
the CBO programs are recapturing these
youth what either dropped out of school
or on the verge of dropping out the CBO
programs are reconnecting these students
to the school district and their
education and setting them up for future
success
so how do we do this
we provide a flexible and responsive
student-centered model that many
students and families need in order to
stay engaged in school we provide
personalized and differentiated
instruction to meet students where they
are we fundraise a significant portion
of our budgets and leverage a variety of
resources and Community Partnerships in
order to meet the high needs of our
student populations
we provide creative and Innovative
instructional strategies for inside and
outside the classroom such as open
Meadows highly successful Step Up
program Portland youth Builders Career
Technical education program Portland
Community College is a Gateway to
College program and the CBO generated
High School graduation initiative which
was a five-year Federal grant that
brought in millions of additional
dollars to the district to support
academic priority students
we do all of this and much more in close
collaboration alignment and partnership
00h 25m 00s
with the school district and the demand
for our services remains high with most
of our programs already at Contract
capacity for the upcoming school year
I recently had the honor of serving on
the district's year-long High School
action team which was charged with
developing recommendations on how to
improve the district's graduation rate
one of the team subcommittees which
included Bobby Regan visited Mount Scott
Learning Center and conduct a focus
group with our students first of all
thank you Bobby for taking the time to
come out to our school and meet with our
students and learn about our program and
please know there is a standing
invitation to all board members to visit
the various CBO programs whenever
possible in closing on behalf of the CBO
programs I want to thank you for your
support and the commitment you have
helping our students
thank you point of order
point of order
I'm director Buell
can we discuss when all these six people
are done testifying about the other
people who would like to testify who are
not allowing to testify correctly
because it's going to take well I'm a
big alternative school fan I'm a big fan
of running the meetings appropriately
and correctly according to our policies
and we're not doing this according to
our policies we need to have a vote in
order to limit the testimony and there's
a and there's a reason that that should
take place we have obviously
well thank you very much for your
comments I appreciate that
the leadership sets the agenda we set
the agenda and this is the agenda that
we have you don't get to set the agenda
according to yes we do according to our
policies as you continue to right
according to our apology exactly thank
you we're not doing that according to
the policy go ahead
name is sativa newcomer I graduated from
Mount Scott Learning Center in June
2014. I would like to share my story
I came from many different struggles the
home of substance abuse and domestic
violence which then led to being placed
in the foster care system I bounced
around schools a lot throughout my
childhood I went to seven different
elementary schools during my freshman
year at my old high school my father
died due to substance abuse which in
combination with teachers who do not
Empower me in my education
I dropped out for the majority of my
first year
I started at Mount Scott my sophomore
year a year behind in credits and not on
a path to graduate on time
during the beginning of my junior year
at Mount Scott I found out I was
pregnant
Mount Scott helped me to graduate on
time it was the environment at Mount
Scott that helped me and empowered me to
push through my struggles to succeed in
my education
despite all the challenges I faced
academics was never my problem
I did what I needed to do to catch it
maintain a GPA of 3.68 and graduate on
time
Mount Scott's Mall Community brings many
different students together who have
faced their own struggles and connects
them with teachers who care about their
success
now I'm on a path in a college as a
future connect scholar with funding from
the Pell Grant and organ Opportunity
Grant I'm enrolled in PCC in this fall
term to begin my prerequisites to assist
me to transfer for the nursing program
at OHSU and become a registered nurse
thank you Mount Scott and thank you to
the members of the board
thank you for being here and good luck
to you
friend of order
our next director Buell
I want to challenge ruling of the chair
which means it would take four votes to
rule that we would eliminate the other
six members who of the community would
like to speak I'm not sure you guys
don't want to do that you that is that's
not quite the way that happens sure is
something that you would so I'm I'm
thinking what you want to know is if we
can add six people
or add more people to our
agenda for public testimony
no I want to know what I want to know is
if we would have the the public
testimony that we've all agreed upon
which is six people at the meeting and
six people speaking to the resolution
and that's the public testimony system
there's no such thing as a business
meeting there's only a business agenda
at a regular meeting and so I just want
to run I want to run we've got we're
spending seven million dollars over
seven million dollars and if we're going
to spend over seven million dollars we
should run the meeting according to our
policies and past practices which and as
I have stated that the leadership set
the agenda the agenda has been published
for a week
the agenda calls for a business agenda
and there is public testimony on the
business agenda but that's not that is
our public
agenda is what's on the meeting and
that's right the the uh chairperson
cannot lose unilaterally change past
policy or past practices without having
the board do that you don't you don't
have to I mean it's you just don't have
the power to do that within the thing
you run the meeting and you set the
agenda the agenda has been set but it
didn't include
00h 30m 00s
the public I I understand your concern
and um I'm just I'm sorry but you're not
you're not correct well let's vote and
see if I'm correct or not I've
challenged the rooting of the chair so
let's vote and see if I'm correct
ing my ruling on what I'm challenging
your ruling on on the elimination of the
six people that normally would be
allowed to speak at this meeting that's
the challenge and you need four votes to
to wipe them out because that's the past
practice either go by policy or past
practice state and federal law and we're
not doing any of those things you just
can't make it up off the top of your
head again thank you we are going by our
practices and I guess we will go ahead
and vote on so we'll take a vote on
whether
uh to
I'm still not clear because there has I
haven't ruled on anything
so
we will vote on whether to add another
set of public comment to the business
agenda whether we're required to do that
under our policies okay I could live
with that so that's close enough good
compromise okay all those in favor
no no no we're voting to knock it off
not to add it you've got to vote to
knock it off because we have it it's
part of our agenda every week I mean
every time we have a meeting we have two
types of comments one is
the general comment for the meeting at
the beginning which is which we have
limited to six people we have as a board
of limited to six people and the second
part is the comment on the resolution so
that would make 12 people to comment
today so you've got to have the four
votes to knock them off not to add them
on no that is not our policy and uh it's
not always our practice either so
your point of order has to do with
whether we should add more people mark
them off
I guess we'll move forward without it
then there's nothing let's vote on your
ruling now I've challenged that ruling
okay so you need to vote that you're you
need to get four votes to say that your
ruling's correct okay that's fine
yes we have other people would like to
testify I've been cut off no they can't
we have we have a certain number of
people who signed up to testify we have
others who wanted to and we told them
the best way to do that since we are
full is to go ahead and provide written
comment
um uh for Testimony so and I'm not quite
sure how we would
pick who gets to testify if there are
more out there because we are not going
to have open testimonies all afternoon
that would work
okay well my my general sense is if
somebody provides this written testimony
at this time unless we take the time to
read through that it's sort of
meaningless so
um if if there were people who were
interested in signing up prior to the
meeting and we have six slots I would
like to hear from them personally so
okay well we don't we don't have six
slots
I'm not sure miss Houston do you have a
list of people who signed up who wanted
to sign up I
I know for sure there is one Teresa
McGuire
well let's let her testify okay then
we'll have Miss McGuire testify
point of order I I thought that the
agenda was set
as originally published our normal
processes for public procedure we turned
folks away it sounds like at least one
so I thought we were going to rule on a
ruling before we decided whether or not
to add
sure good point so let's go ahead and
rule or how
or how to add
more slots for public comment
at this meeting so all those in favor of
adding more slots for public comment at
this meeting reverse though again you
have to go the other direction you have
to vote director Buell you're out of
order and you are wrong and that's why
I'm not phrasing it that way if you
would like us to just not vote that's
fine too
yeah I'd I'd like us to just not vote
them okay
yeah it'd be fine but let's uh then
let's vote on the appropriate the
appropriate way right
right instead or allow people to testify
one on the other
my understanding is the point of order
right now is to allow a question about
the point of order is to allow more uh
six more people on to public comment no
the loud the point at that point in
order was to
allow the testimony not to allow the
testimony but you have to vote in order
to eliminate the testimony
because the testimony is is there in
past problems
you don't it's not part of the agenda
the testimony is not the agenda the
testimony step period the agenda is what
we're going to question
well which way are you going to vote
whatever the chair
okay so then we'll vote on whether we're
00h 35m 00s
going to add more to uh public comment
all those in favor yes yes
all those opposed
two three to two so we will not be
adding more
typical okay
director Buell please you're out of
order again
so can we go forward with who uh I think
we're on public comment thank you
our next two speakers Joe McFerrin and
the bray Franklin
thank you for being here
thank you for having me
you are on
okay good afternoon members of the
Portland Public Schools board and
superintendent Smith
thank you for this opportunity to make
some brief comments to you regarding the
funding of community-based Education
options
my name is Joe McFerrin president CEO of
Portland OIC and the Rosemary Anderson
High School
I've worked for Portland OIC for the
past 19 years
to help Youth and families thrive
I'm also a Portland native and a member
of the grant high schools
1987 graduating class
Portland and Rose Mary Anderson High
School
has been accredited since 1989 and has
partnered with PPS for over 20 years to
provide education to many of our cities
highest risk highest risk low-income
students of color
many of our students are involved with
foster care
and the juvenile justice system are gang
impacted or young parents
The Key to Our Success over the past 20
years has been our ability to leverage
the support of PPS while also securing
investments from public and private
sources
to build a holistic system of care
that provides our students with
wrap-around services
students attending Rosemary Anderson
High School receive family support
Mental Health Services
young parent education
crisis Management Services
job placement and Job Training Services
to ensure ongoing stability and
self-sufficiency
we serve all graduates until the age of
25.
as a testament
to our success in partnership with
Portland Public Schools and supporting
at-risk youth in making a drastic life
change and getting on a path to success
the schools of East Multnomah County
in the David Douglas Gresham Barlow and
Centennial School Districts have
requested our assistance
with adopting a similar system of care
in 2012 we opened a second Rosemary
Anderson High School campus in the
Rockwood neighborhood
and since we have seen great community
and District support
as well as a growing demand for our
services
Rosemary Anderson High School received
support and collaboration
throughout the community
including from Multnomah County's Human
Services and Juvenile Justice Services
Department for family support
Portland Children's Levy to provide
mentors
the city of Portland's office of Youth
violence prevention to provide
alternatives to a gang involvement
the Oregon Youth Development Council for
gang prevention
Mr McFerrin I I apologize I forgot to
read you the instructions ahead of time
but when the red light goes on and the
buzzer sounds we ask you to wrap up your
testimony okay thank you
uh gang services and before and after
school programming and also the local
Workforce investment board to provide
job placement
um and training and I'd like to say that
you know Rosemary Anderson is just one
option that you have in your District
our cbo's are unique and provide a
safety net for for most of our most
vulnerable students in Portland so thank
you for letting me
share my comments with you today thank
you very much
how you guys doing
um I'd like to thank you guys for having
me here I'm gonna break Franklin I'm a
student at pric
00h 40m 00s
um one of the biggest things that I
learned about this program is more than
a school is it's for at risk use at risk
use Excuse me but when we say I risk
it's not necessarily at risk of death or
prison it's at risk of not being
successful because a lot of kids a lot a
lot of Youth in North Portland and you
know in in the bad areas they they
they're fail for structure they don't
have structure and the things that the
school provides to you is is they open a
lot more doors than just uh regular
school it's not just a school you see
what I'm saying it's a program it's an
organization that's designed to actually
build you as as a woman or a man they're
not just designed to give you a diploma
they're designed to to create a a
successful human being that can actually
fit in with with everybody else and
actually do things that pertain to them
that they actually like you see what I'm
saying and as as being a student at this
school I've seen how a lot of these
teachers and I wouldn't even call them
teachers I would say mentors I call them
mentors most of the time and I will see
I see how these people they take they
take this job very serious and they go
above and beyond when speaking with
somebody when you I'm not once again I'm
not bashing nobody I'm not trying to
make nobody sound bad but being in a
bigger environment when you have a
teacher that has 125 students rather
than having 20 to 30 students he can't
get around to speak to you necessarily
to speak to you sit down and have that
one-on-one conversation and some kids
they need to be reassured that there are
a lot that they're doing good you know
then they need to hear that they're
doing good and they need to they need to
have somebody there to work with them
all the way through a lot of kids they
they can't focus a lot because being
around people you see what I'm saying so
when you're in a smaller environment
gives you more it gives you more room to
mess up but also it gives you more room
to bring yourself back in because
they're going to make sure that you
can't hide theirs there's nowhere to
hide it's too it's too small you know
and personally I can say from my
experience my freshman year I didn't go
to school enough to get graded I didn't
I didn't attend and that's from family
problems not not having resources and
things that I needed so and from going
from from a big school to going to
Alternative School it helped me a lot I
went from I left from public schools
with 0.6 I got 3.1 now you see I'm
saying I I've been a part of amazing
things that opened they've opened many
opportunities open many doors they put
me in BMA which is blackmail achievement
and I've been around I've been around
people that's doing better things and
and and like I said it's more than a
school it's the program that counts and
I feel like the the alternative the
alternative work when people hear
alternative they think negative they
think negative which is really not what
it is it's really just it's another way
and everybody learns differently you
know people have different ways of
learning things all you guys up there
have different feelings different
thoughts so you guys you know everybody
they they take heed to things very
differently and it's I feel like it can
be it can be more of a help to
hard-headed kids that's one of the
things you know that's the truth you
know it's more of a help because me
personally I needed I I wouldn't take
advice from somebody unless you know I
really care about them or they care for
me so relationships are one of the
things that help with education but you
know I feel like this organization in
this program should be around for a long
time and I and I'm in support of it as a
young African-American male until I get
old I'm gonna support it all the way so
thank you
thank you very much Mr Franklin and good
luck to you
our last two speakers are Leia Gibson
and Deborah Hughes
so I'm going to go ahead and let you
know because I forgot to tell these
other folks on our public comments uh
you'll see a green light go on and you
have two minutes when the yellow light
goes on it means one more minute and
when the red light comes on it means we
ask you to wrap up your comments so
thank you very much for both being here
thank you
my name is Leah Gibson and I'm here
today to speak on behalf of Gateway to
College and I just want to kind of go
off of what the last student speaker
said he said that when he's old when
he's an old man he's still going to be
supporting these programs and that's how
I feel I'm one of those maybe not old
but older adults and I just want to tell
you guys about my story
so some of you might have heard of my
story
um I grew up in an impoverished
Neighborhood in Portland and experienced
a lot of the challenge a lot of the same
challenges that some of the other kids
here have talked about through middle
and high school
and by the time I was a junior in high
school I had dropped out of two high
schools and one alternative school and
had very few few credits towards
graduation I had been exposed to a lot
of negative influences and struggled
with alcohol and drug abuse which
extremely affected my mental health
I ran away from home several times and
had lived on the streets in shelters and
couchsurfed I'd also been through a drug
drug and alcohol treatment program and a
mental health program
00h 45m 00s
I really thought that the best thing
that could ever happen to me was to get
a GED and get a good job
just when I felt like giving up one of
my high school counselors signed me up
for a Gateway to College I appreciated
that they treated me like an adult from
the beginning and I was motivated by
their high expectations of me
they broke down my barriers to getting
to uh to getting to high school and
going to college by providing bus
tickets and paying for my books and
tuition as well as wraparound Services
my resource specialist called me all the
time to check on me periodically and
made sure that I did my homework but on
top of that she went above and beyond to
take me to therapy appointments that I
needed to go to and checking in with my
teachers and stuff like that
I graduated Gateway to College in 2004.
by then I was connected to the PCC
community and I was in student
government and I decided to stay and
finish two Associates degrees which I
received in 2006. I then went on to
receive my bachelor's degree and my
master's degree from Portland State
University and I got my master's degree
in 2011. now I am a grant writer at an
amazing non-profit organization called
friends of the children there I work
with disenfranchised disenfranchised
youth who remind me a lot of myself I
choose to give back to PCC by coming to
places like this and speaking on behalf
of their program because I know that is
only through the program or the power of
programs like this that I am who I am
today with the opportunities that I have
to make positive changes in the lives of
at-risk Youth I am standing before you
today to thank you for your past support
of the Gateway to College program and I
request that you continue to support it
so that youth who are a lot like I was
have the opportunity to overcome the
barriers of their barriers to success
like I did I also want to know quickly
that there are a lot of community-based
organizations here that are represented
in this room that have also touched my
life one of them is Open Meadow and
another one is Naya and through the
combined support of these programs sorry
very emotional
um I was able to succeed so it wasn't
just one program it was all of them all
together
so for youth like me
um with all the challenges that I had
I really feel that a resource per person
or a counselor in a high school is not
enough it is definitely not enough for
these kids
and it's just not going to cut it
thank you thank you
congratulations on your journey
hello I'm Deborah Hughes I'm a
grandparent who has had three children
to matriculate through Open Meadow
program and the reason I've come here
today is because from my point of view I
think the parent can more accurately
speak to some of the challenges that
have been managed by the CBO programs
I'd like to say that I've also lived in
seven different states where I have been
involved in my grandchildren's education
and I think that what's going on here in
Portland is very unusual and I've heard
that that stated already my observations
of my three grandchildren all different
is that every one of them gets up and
goes to school in other words they are
cheerful in the morning to go to school
and this is something that I had not
seen in these children or or the others
the um other factor in my observations
has been that they Trust
their mentors teachers in this program
we can very rarely fool our young people
into thinking that we care about them
but my grandchildren still revisit those
that have graduated still revisit those
folks that had taken care of them when
they were in school I'd also like to
speak to their academic achievements I
was a little
um suspicious when they left their big
box education and came to Open Meadow
and all of a sudden they started getting
good grades so I went up and challenged
open Metal let me see what this
curriculum is based on it obviously
isn't going to uh equal what they could
have been getting in other situations
and that's not true I've seen
documentation of that so they are
compelled to compete at the same level
my other observation is that
being a grandparent and having three
grandchildren live with me there are a
lot of kids that come in and out of my
house and what I observed about the
children that uh visited with my
grandchildren is that they're from all
different uh ethnic backgrounds and uh
socio economic backgrounds so it's
almost like a little United Nations
which I think is another education
component that we don't consider knowing
people who are different from yourself
um I would hope that the board approves
the contract but I also would like to
ask something that has is probably not
mine to ask and that is important has so
many different
00h 50m 00s
um
associations and groups that help
I would like for us to be the model for
the com country to say that we pulled
down our silos it's not should should
this kind of alternative education being
in Big Box schools or should it be only
an alternative I think it should be both
because there's no one stamp answer I'm
not naive I know it's going to take a
lot to make that change management
happen because some of the protocols
used in the cbo's could be applied in
very small sessions in the big box
schools like Grant and Roosevelt where
you have a resource center where those
kids come into thank you for letting me
talk
thank you very much
okay
um at this time we're going to have
board discussion
so questions comments from the board
coming back if you would like her you
bet
sure Bobby
um I'm happy to start and I may come
back around sure have more to say as we
continue our discussion so first of all
thank you for your testimony and thank
you to everyone who testified and always
great to hear from students and from
folks who have been through the programs
and seen the huge benefits and it makes
it all very real to us I had a sister
who was out of school for many many
months during High School when my mom
was passing away and so I have a little
bit of a sense of what it's like to fall
way way way behind from a personal level
and what it takes to come back so and
also on the alternative school side when
I first came on the board in 2003 De La
Cruz Williams was on the board as well
and she and I made the effort to visit
every single alternative school at that
time to really get a better
understanding of how we support our kids
and in what different ways and so that
was great and I've tried to keep up but
probably need to be doing the rounds
again so
um I had sent an email out to my board
colleagues this week expressing some
frustration mostly about the timing of
this vote more than anything else
because we're starting school in two or
three weeks and of course we are going
to be uh approving these because
otherwise we'd be leaving a couple of
thousand kids stranded
um but it's also more about the
discussion of the yes and what are we
doing in our community comprehensives to
make sure that we are providing the
supports that we need to be providing so
our pit president mentioned this audit
on improving graduation rates in
Portland Public Schools it's a great
piece of reading it's from June
2013 and there were many many
recommendations in this about what we're
doing well and about what other
districts and other states are doing
well and I think that we've made some
efforts both originally in 2010 with our
high school system redesign
and how do we serve kids in our schools
and how do we restructure to better
serve kids there's a couple of areas
that we're still getting to like
decreasing our ratio of you know
counselor to student ratio and we took
that from 400 to 350 we know we have
more work to do we now have counselors
in every school starting next year which
is exciting and CTE the Career Technical
education in every single one of our
high schools is still something that
we're working on but this year for the
first time we'll have a career
coordinator in every high school so
there's many many things we're doing in
our community comprehensives and many
many more things that we need to do
including making sure that our kids have
a full day of classes and if they are in
a study hall making sure it's meaningful
and they're getting some kind of
tutoring support or whatever it might be
so there's a whole variety of ways that
we know we need to do better by our
community comprehensives and that's the
discussion I want to be having before we
make these kinds of approvals because
always what we're doing on the board is
managing budget priorities and in the
way I'm thinking the alternative our
alternative schools are a huge important
partners of ours and I think will always
be a huge and important partner but what
I want to know is what are we doing on
this side that will hopefully support
kids earlier and in a perhaps in a more
substantive way in terms of
relationships whether we need some
social workers in our schools all of our
schools that sort of thing so that if if
we if we aren't if a kid falls here we
still always want to have the
alternative schools to pick them up but
I want to be catching them earlier and
in particular there was quite a bit of
discussion and so I'm going to have one
specific question for you in particular
there was one particular discussion in
this about the fact that we need to move
our supports down farther into Middle
School level because already as kids are
coming into our high school they're
struggling and we already know that kids
00h 55m 00s
are some kids are at risk as they come
into our high school so I have a
specific interest in that and I don't
believe that's what we can or should be
talking about today but it is the reason
that I asked board leadership for us to
be doing a deep dive earlier in the
process like in the fall and before the
budget process so that we can kind of
really have that deep dive discussion so
my question is
um Open Meadow so Open Meadow fabulous
alternative school and it is closing its
doors in terms of the high school
program by the end of this year this
coming year so it's serving last year's
Juniors and it's going to take those
Juniors through and otherwise it's
moving to more of a Multnomah County
approach and moving more to focus on
middle schools so I was particularly
curious about so a I'm pleased I'm sad
for the middle for the high school kids
that were being served by that program
of please that we're looking more at the
middle school level
but I don't really understand in terms
of the budget for Open Meadow and here
is it more is it less is it different
how does it
what students are we serving are we
actually
funneling different or more middle
school kids into the program or is it
I want to know what's happening with
opened
so
um thank you for that question so with
regard to Open Meadow we
um as you know Open Meadow is having
their last class of seniors in the
coming year and so we have a space for
40 seniors for our Open Meadow high
school we have also contracted at an
amount that would serve a greater number
of middle school students and providing
greater support in our Open Meadow as
well as our Mount Scott who are out of
our contracted alternative programs
those are the two schools that serve
students in grades six through eight so
we have additional supports both at
Mount Scott and Open Meadow
that's helpful so that's I may come back
but go ahead sure thank you we'll try
and move it around a little bit others
Craig
sure just a couple comments um I
appreciate the comments uh from public
testimony that talks about maybe it's
not an either or at the same time I
appreciate what you're saying director
Regan that we have to really understand
what's going on at our comprehensive
high schools and I remember when we got
our report from the high school system
design it had talked about a mismatch
that we we were looking at profiles of
students and they were noticing that
some students were going to alternative
high schools that were not typical quote
unquote whatever that means and not to
generalize but
um and so what I really appreciated in
our in our information and I know that
we had kind of alternating copies and
but we got the information shortly
thereafter this segmented analysis that
begins to really because what I what I
appreciate is rather than just making a
knee-jerk reaction One Way or Another of
all it must be this or it must be that I
mean even the audit points out it
highlights that we're one of a few that
that do this Contracting but it it's
clear to not make a causal relationship
that it's enough to make a constant
relationship
so what I appreciate is that from what
I've seen from that report on high
school system redesign I've seen staff
and we budgeted for this we were
intentional about them using resources
to do a segment of analysis to begin to
understand what exactly what you were
saying director Regan about who's going
why are they going where are they going
where are we failing them and then again
as part of this last budget process we
prioritized investing in the early
warning system to you so to your point
director Regan about trying to find the
resources to make sure that we catch the
catch folks early because I was
astounded in the segment analysis that I
mean it's almost a third if I'm
remembering correctly a third of our
dropouts are kids that are actually in
ninth grade on track in our
comprehensive high schools and that's
unusual quote unquote right so I just
really appreciated the information I
look forward to our deep dive on this
and with all the community-based
organizations here I just want to say
thank you all for the work that you're
doing
and for the students that all came I
appreciate you are being here it's it's
I don't want to say it's a great
reminder but you are Testaments to how
hard folks work and the determination
that it takes to get through school so
thank you all
so I'm sorry I didn't have any questions
but I got called on anybody else
I'm a big supporter of
alternative schools but I'm a big
supporter of alternative schools I'm not
a big supporter of schools that we're
going to over
we've got we've got kids in in schools
that end up going to a different place
where they're going to be treated
slightly differently if we don't treat
them differently to some degree then
they're going to have difficulty there
too and so I get real nervous when we
01h 00m 00s
begin to talk about qualitative review
and accurate data and so forth it makes
me nervous because I I want the
alternative schools to be alternative
schools not to be uh
kind of a
another type of
school because that those types we
already have failed in those cases to a
huge degree with a lot of children and
it's not that the schools have failed
it's not even that the school boards
fail it's that it's very very difficult
to work with
a lot of kids in society the way Society
has changed it's really hard it's really
hard and if we keep coming if we come
into these alternative schools
and say like we do to the regular
schools you want to follow this is it
that that's not going to work and it's
not and it's not helping anything so I'm
I kind of like freeing those schools up
as much as I possibly can I was I went
out to Alliance and I talked to the
principal there and said who who do we
have who goes into the home
we didn't they didn't have anybody
I mean how can we
work with children who are struggling in
their lives if we don't have anybody who
can make those connections it doesn't
make sense to me and so I think a lot of
places with these what's happening is
you like you go to nail and we give
we're giving them seven hundred thousand
dollars but they have all these other
resources that are added and on top
isn't just the money we give them they
get money from the state they get all
this other the other resources and so in
that way we are benefiting tremendously
from these community
organizations we we really benefit
hugely but at the same time
we need to look as Bobby says and at
what we're doing and it's not
necessarily just in the high school our
the middle we have this Middle School
area with sixth through eighth grade
children were were just devastating
though
those particular children I mean we've
got them in
a situation where it's really really
hard to be successful and succeed it's
really hard to engage them in school we
need to start to look at that and I
would hope that the people who are out
here in these cbo's would say yeah you
need them yes and would push us to do
those things in the middle school
because the middle schools where the
kids begin to drop out you can talk all
you want about third grade reading but
some middle schools where kids begin to
drop out and there's the middle schools
where kids begin to go off into other
areas and get in with different friends
and you have all these difficulties that
you don't get necessarily the same way
in primary schools and you've already
established so much in the high schools
by the time a kid gets to high school he
or she has already established all these
patterns and then we're breaking the
patterns we should be fixing that before
they establish the patterns and and we
don't
we're not really looking at that as a
district and so I'm yeah I'm supportive
these well absolutely we need these
these
the alternative schools are absolutely
necessary and I want us to free them up
I don't want to be out there saying okay
you got to do it this way that's a bunch
of malarkey it doesn't work because that
what works for those kids is the
relationships with the people you ask
them you ask them what worked for those
kids who have been successful coming out
here it's the relationships it's not the
fact that we now have this little
systematized uh qualitative evaluation
it's because this particular teacher
took the time and the energy and we set
up a system where they could actually do
that
when you start doing these little
qualitative analysis and the little
report cards and stuff you don't end up
with a system that allows the teacher to
do that because the teacher and the
staff get oriented in those directions
instead of oriented towards the children
we have a similar situation with the
testing that we do in the school whole
school system we get oriented towards
the testing and we're nuts on the
graduation requirements and yeah we
brought them up but if you look into
them some of them are Reggie
and what we really want to do is educate
kids
so they can go out and be a success in
society you don't do that with little
report cards that you're asking you do
that by hiring teachers and getting the
people in those schools to work together
for children it's the same in every
school I mean we if you look at that
till survey that they did and we have
these principals who are running six
percent trust and respect or their their
staff can't bring anything to them that
doesn't work we have to be careful that
01h 05m 00s
in these alternative schools that we're
that that's not what's taking place if
you walk through an alternative school
and nobody says hello
to you as I've gone out I went out to
one and no one you know nobody said how
you doing or nobody they just kind of
went about their business and they
didn't make any difference you could
just feel that the atmosphere wasn't
what it should be in that school and so
that's much more important than uh
having a good set of metrics a metrics
is fine to figure out how you're doing
to some degree but that's not where our
efforts should be and I don't think
that's where the efforts should be from
the administration and so I think it's
important that we start up and think
about those and to think that we're
going to do a deep dive I've been here a
year the only deep Dives we've done are
in the kiddie pools we haven't really
sat down and figured out what was going
on really in anything since I've been
here with the exception of the 10 months
so we took messing around with the
contract which we did a pretty deep dive
in the contract and
I guess we came out after a while but we
were underwater a long long time and so
I I just don't have any faith that we're
going to do in Deep dive and come to
this because generally what we've done
is kind of smoothed it over and didn't
want to look bad so we don't necessarily
really want to go out and look at these
alternative schools and say okay where
are the problems how can we make them
better I'd be all for that but I don't
think we're going to get there thank you
for
time thank you for coming forward I did
have one more question
which was a question not a comment now
how do if we say
if we give a let's say we give a
alternative school eight hundred
thousand dollars
how do we mod that money where does that
most of that money go
in in these cbo's for instance if we
have
if we have let's say they have a hundred
kids and we give them 800 let's say we
give them seven hundred thousand dollars
they have a hundred kids well you can
put those kids in 25 kids in a class for
3 200 about because they're paying their
teachers less than we pay them right
they get they do not have all the
um benefits and other things and
soldiers we're kind of getting a good
deal because we're we're paying their
teachers list I guess if you want to
look at it that way but if if we give
them 700 000 and and they have a hundred
children that's seven thousand a kid and
you could do four teachers would be 3200
so you got another third three or 32
excuse me 320 000. you have another 380
000 left over where does that usually go
they'll split the classes again so 12 I
mean do we average
just way less class size or does a money
go someplace else or because so are you
asking about the building no I'm just
talking about no I'm talking about
actually out in the school itself how do
they come up with their budget do we
work with that at all with them and say
this money needs to go here or anything
like that they are their own
organizations and we contract with them
for Educational Services they Supply on
a monthly basis
students served and days present they
enter their information as do all our
schools and it as far as our data
collection services and their um
their con their the finance department
pays them accordingly to the number of
students they served but I mean what I'm
saying is if we're paying them seven
thousand per student and they can
educate a hundred kids in 25 kids in the
classroom for half of what we're giving
them where does the other half actually
go does it go like they have a does it
go into overhead does it I mean where
would the money actually be spent maybe
somebody here could just out of cure I
just want to know if we pay attention to
that or we care or no or whatever so
again they're each their own
organization and we contract for their
education services in the compliance
part that I spoke about as far as the
annual review and the annual site visits
we have our program director of
contracted alternative schools as well
as a manager within our finance
department that do a review every
quarter on each of our schools
so
how did how do we how have we come up
with the 7300 per student
why why is that the right number why
isn't it higher why isn't lower
so that's a good question so what we do
with regard to finances is we take our
net operating expense
which is uh um based on a formula that's
developed within our district Around the
Net operating expense for each student
and we pay as a district we pay actually
01h 10m 00s
eight and eighty percent of that and
that's where we get our figure as far as
what gets paid per pupil for each
student so one of the things the
question came up the other day about the
rate so that we had a net operating
expense increase from last year to this
year of 77 of 77 cents per student per
day
so we get so as far as that 73 exactly
what it is I think it's 7306 actually
that is that's 80 of our net operating
and expense On Any Given year as
determined by the district
Bobby in my general sense is in terms of
our alternative schools and the budgets
I mean we have you know if you look at
Carol's salary it is split among 48 000
students I mean that at a per student
basis if you look at a principal in an
alternative school you're looking at you
know 100 200 kids who are sharing that
cost I mean there's all kinds of
economies of scale and lease and
property and mostly just huge mentorship
and Social Service supports you know all
those folks are going out and doing home
visits there's there's a cost involved
so I don't I don't necessarily question
that piece and when I'm talking about
doing a deep dive Steve I'm much more
interested in doing a deep dive around
what's happening in our own community
comprehensives and I know that we are
doing some really great work and we're
and we're moving services in and this is
the first year that we've really had a
budget where we could do more in terms
of Investments rather than either a
whole study budget last year or Cuts
before that so I'm much more interested
in deep dive around what are the what
are the things that Hillsborough is
doing what are the things that Salem's
doing and we took a really good look at
that in the high school task force and I
think we know where we want to move what
I want to be doing is having that
discussion
early in the cycle when we're doing
budget prioritization as opposed to two
or three weeks before school starts and
again I don't expect that alternative
schools will be sidelined I expect that
they will be a part of it but this is
where I really want to do the Deep dive
so that you know if we have a a void of
600 students that we are still wanting
to serve in all alternative schools I
guess my question is could we be serving
them here instead and what is it that we
would need to be doing to effectively
serve those and that's what I'm looking
for in a deep dive yes I want to hear
what the practices and Protocols are in
the Alternatives maybe we could learn a
lot from them and maybe we need to
invest more I don't know if that's the
answer but that's the Deep dive and more
for me is the timing of that and three
weeks before school is not the time to
have that conversation so
okay well let me just I just have a
couple of uh okay thanks Karina first of
all
um
I guess I I want to say that uh our
schools I mean I think we are
continually starting to pick up and have
been for years
picking up uh our students where our our
families or our schools or others have
failed them and
um but at the same time we're not
receiving the amount of funding that we
really need in order to serve all those
students well and earlier Bobby talked
about counselors
um even 350 is way too many for our
counselors to handle for students we
talk about smaller class sizes all the
time I think this gentleman over here
talked about 20 students in the class
wouldn't that be a marvelous thing for
us to have but but at the same time we
are where we are
and I think it's important for us to
continue to work with our community
both with our alternative
schools our community-based
organizations and with our other
partners in the community who help us
provide those services in our schools
the county health others that that are
there for us so
um as per as director Beale said we need
we need more of those wrap around
services in our schools and it's just a
matter of us figuring out how to either
provide those or how to find Partners
more partners that we can work with so
that we can benefit our students more so
there was a
a question I think I was looking for um
uh so I'm just going to go back to the
questions that um Gwen Sullivan the pat
president posed so that you have an
opportunity to have to answer some of
those for her
so one of her questions was why the
services outside versus within the
schools
so I know that's a that's a really broad
big question but maybe you could make it
a little more concise and give us a
response to that
um so that thank you for that question
that is a big question and I think that
a number of the comments that you as
directors have made have already touched
01h 15m 00s
on some of the reasons for that
um one of the things that I hear and
then I see working with students is a
sense of being having those wraparound
services and having those relationships
with individual teachers and individual
students when we were in I was part of
the high school action
um team and part of the committee that
director Regan was on with the lineman
up high school services and one of the
things that was really poignant to me
when we went and listened to a focus
group at Mount Scott was the number of
students who struggled with addiction
the number of students who struggle with
mental health issues and the number of
students who articulated you know I
don't think that my teachers really care
or I didn't have an individual
relationship that kept me necessarily an
individual school so I think there's a
there's a there's a variety of reasons
depending on the student and I think
there's also some categorical how do we
create
learning environments that are as
engaging as possible how do we create
more Hands-On some of the conversations
I think that we're certainly already
involved in one of the things that how
do we incorporate more Career Technical
education how do we incorporate more
internships and one of the things that
was articulated today was in large part
part of the innovation of the
community-based alternative schools and
um you know I think of the charter
schools as well with leap having a day a
week where students are in a business
and so I think when you talk about
community-based alternative schools
looking at how
looking at how they wrap around their
students and talking about the levers
levels of rigor I was really excited to
hear one of the our students talk about
thinking that I was
um maybe going to fly under the radar
and that's
um for better not of it not a
possibility at a community-based
alternative school so I think it's
really a lot of that high level
engagement that we hope for throughout
our entire system Pre-K 12. so so again
more wraparound service is more
resources relationships
Innovation that we look to our
alternative schools for and our Charters
and and those and thank you high
expectations so
um
I think there's another one okay
um okay so
um she also called out Salem and their
graduation coaches can you just make a
comment regarding that or something
about the thoughts on that one
absolutely so again that's another
strategy that we've talked about in the
high school action team one of the
things that I would say is Salem Kaiser
along with Portland Public were awarded
hsgi or high school graduation
initiative grants and so will they have
graduation coaches that are a little bit
different than we have what we have is
we have our reconnection services and
our Outreach
our Outreach workers who do do that with
our students and as far as having in the
Franklin cluster and the Roosevelt
cluster one of the things that I'm
excited about is in the upcoming year
we've secured a grant from the Oregon
Department of Education for an early
response system and we're really looking
in the Jefferson cluster the Roosevelt
cluster and the Franklin cluster and
while we hope that all 43 schools in
those clusters will be impacted this
primary focus of the as we wrote the
grant was for 612. so again it's looking
at how do we really pay specific
attention to the needs of our students
in Middle School
and so I think that that's some of the
work that is that is happening and
forthcoming and I'm excited about how
that moves us also to do a better job of
wrapping around each of our students
um and I also
um I'm a big big advocate for starting
much earlier and I think our third grade
reading is definitely the place to start
but I am curious about what we are doing
in the middle schools uh you know maybe
that's better for our Deep dive because
it's not really related to what we're
doing right here other than those couple
of schools that I think Mount Scott and
another one that take on the middle
schools but be prepared for that because
it's coming back to you right okay and
I'll just tell you one thing that's uh
because it connects to both so part of
our partnership with all hands raised we
have pilot sites in all six districts
with Department of Human Services who
this year will be placing full-time
social workers and for us it's George
middle school so we'll have the
opportunity to see and they're looking
at this as a how do they change their
business model of how they're working
with families and kids and saying here's
where we we at other moments of time as
one said earlier we've had
Touchstone folks who were actually
County employees placed in our schools
because this is where they had the best
opportunity to really work directly with
students and families so this I'm
hopeful that this is the beginning of
she said I don't want to call this a
pilot because I want to see this as the
way we're changing how we do business I
think a lot of this how we do wraparound
Services is how we're working with
01h 20m 00s
partners and not necessarily about new
resource but how are we
how are we making Services accessible to
families which is a partnership with
schools similar with our health clinics
so great great and one of the other
things in middle schools that I
understand that we're starting to try to
do is to bring Sports yes we're building
our sport middle schools and that's
pretty exciting it's a big deal we're
going to be making a lot of connections
between the middle schools and six
through eighth grade programs and their
high schools and the rest and you know
it's just another way of engaging and
keeping kids focusing exactly yeah thank
you for calling that one out good thank
you and then I also wanted to comment
just um I I do remember when I first
came on the board and I wasn't able to
participate but we did do a tour I think
Bobby was talking about a tour of the
cbos and that's definitely on the
leadership team's list to make sure that
we have something like that available so
that as we're doing some of these deep
Dives around Alternatives but also high
schools we have an opportunity for
everybody to get out there and
appreciate the invitations I think Tom
was one of them and some of the others
invitations you bet to the board members
to come out and see what's actually
happening and we're going to try and
make that happen this year and then
finally yes the Deep dive on all of this
before we make our budget decisions I
appreciate that so we're gonna that's
also on the list so
any other
any other comments
great
um so
excuse me
um the board will now vote on the
business agenda all in favor please
indicate by saying yes yes all opposed
please indicate by saying no
the business agenda is approved by a
vote of how many of us here are five to
zero
and then I also wanted to remind
everybody that's the end of our business
agenda in the vote I also wanted to yay
I want to say thank you to all the
people who came to
testify about the cbo's and we really
appreciate especially hearing your
personal stories and I want to thank the
cbo's for the work that they do what for
our students in our community thank you
very much
Saturday the big day Community cares day
everybody get out there go to your local
school help them make that school ready
for
um for the coming year clean it up so
they're all looking beautiful when our
students arrive and thank you very much
for all being here today
the board retreat will be held on to
Tuesday September 2nd at 5 in the
Hawaii's Conference Center here at the
besc the next study session is Tuesday
September 9th here in the auditorium
thank you all for being here in this
Sources
- PPS Board of Education, Archive 2014-2015, https://www.pps.net/Page/1893 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:53.371200Z)
- PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)
