2014-11-18 PPS School Board Study Session
District | Portland Public Schools |
---|---|
Date | 2014-11-18 |
Time | missing |
Venue | missing |
Meeting Type | study |
Directors Present | missing |
Documents / Media
Notices/Agendas
Materials
11-18-14 Final Packet (eac298383d5ddda3).pdf Meeting Materials
Minutes
Transcripts
Event 1: Board of Education - Study Session - November 18, 2014
00h 00m 00s
good evening everybody
the study session of the board of
education for November 18th is called to
order I'd like to extend a warm welcome
to everyone present and to our
television viewers 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 PBS TV services website
um
agenda and as a notice at Agenda item
number four the school Improvement plans
has been pulled from the agenda this
evening and will be heard at a future
date
so at this time we will move ahead with
public comment Miss Houston
do we have anyone signed up for public
comment we do we have five okay our
first two speakers Marisha Childs and
Micah gorgonis
okay well uh people are coming up for
public comment I'll go ahead and read
the instructions
thank you for taking the time to attend
this meeting and provide your comments
to the board we value public input and
we look forward to hearing your thoughts
and Reflections and concerns
our responsibility as a board is to
actively listen and reflect on your
comments the board will not respond to
any comments or questions during public
comment but we have asked board manager
Roseanne Powell who said it over seated
over here in the front row to follow up
on issues raised during public testimony
Roseanne is available if you'd like to
add additional information about how the
board might respond guidelines for
public input emphasize respect and
consideration of others complaints about
individuals and what individual
employees should be directed to the
superintendent's office as a Personnel
matter
you have a total of three minutes
and please start by stating your name
and spelling your last name for the
record
during the first two minutes of your
testimony a green light will come on
right there in front of you when you
have one minute left a yellow light will
come on and when your time is up the red
light will come on and a buzzer will
sound and we ask that you conclude your
comments at that time thank you very
much for being here and we sincerely
appreciate your you know comments and
inputs you may start anytime
okay my name is Marisha Childs uh
and I'm speaking on about the Sackett my
husband I have a daughter in
kindergarten at Winter Haven I attended
meeting the meeting last week and I like
most parents in the room regarding
Sackett I appreciate the work of second
they were given a large task to do we
appreciate the work probably
I collectively feel the recommendation
is unacceptable and the recommendation
should be rejected the reasons we feel
it should be rejected may vary but we
feel it should be rejected the second
member who remarked last week that she
does not care around baggage was
incredibly insensitive we all come from
varied backgrounds and that baggage she
speaks of is what makes us whole people
that baggage is is why we have streets
named after our ancestors and holidays
memorials and museums that baggages our
history and Portland already has a very
ugly history and his treatment of racial
and ethnic minorities and her remarks
one especially sharp with attendees and
shows a lack of lack of cultural
competence and apology should be
forthcoming
when kindergarten time Kindergarten
Roundup time is upon yes my husband and
I did what most parents did we went to
the neighborhood schools went to many
other schools and we chatted with many
parents
and we ultimately decided that our child
would go to Winter Haven but when we
filled out the form that the schools PPS
sends out we looked on the forum for a
place to indicate race or ethnicity and
there notice that there is no place to
indicate that and we noticed uh on pps's
website they say that we strive to
maintain gender and racial parity
amongst the schools but I don't really
see how you can maintain or racial and
gender parity if you don't ask for the
race of the child my husband called PPS
and spoke to somebody at staff and asked
where do we indicate that on the Forum
they said we can ask that it's illegal
my husband and I are both attorneys and
we know that was absolutely incorrect
but there's no point in arguing with
somebody on the phone about that
like many parents I have a younger child
that would be starting PPS in the fall
and concerned about the potential impact
of these changes would have not only
about the weight giving sibling
preference and the current launches but
also also of logistical reasons but also
we're concerned about the impact it
could have psychologically if you speak
with any child psychologist or therapist
about the importance of keeping siblings
and siblings together they would tell
you it's extremely important I'm an
attorney and I work with youth in the
juvenile dependency proceedings often
there are multiple siblings involved in
any given case and the big issues is
always maintaining siblings sibling
contact
uh if a child can't be maintained in the
home of origin courts are always
concerned about what's with what's in
the best interest of the child
and and it's always a Paramount
importance for not only for family
development but for a child's
00h 05m 00s
development granted it may be extreme
examples but the fact is important that
to maintain siblings in the same school
is important children throughout their
siblings around for lunchtime for recess
Etc improving the diversity of schools
is an important goal but it overlooks
the reality that Portland is not
particularly a diverse community
thank you very much
that's going to be hard to follow
my name is Micah grigonis
g-r-i-g-o-n-i-s
I'm speaking also on behalf of the
Sackett committee
committee recommendations
um I'm a parent of a child at Richmond
and we
we applied for for our child to get in
our older child who is currently at
Richmond to get in on with the
understanding that our younger child
would be able to also go there and to me
it's sort of the same issue of uh you
apply with with the with the with the
idea in mind that they would be able to
continue all the way through 12th grade
and so uh getting rid of the sibling
preference is is similar in my mind to
saying well we're going to cap it now at
eighth grade and then you have to figure
out something to do later that wasn't
the deal that we that we applied under
and that deal in my mind is now changing
and there's a big there's a big blurb in
the paperwork that you get from from
Richmond saying now this is a big
commitment we want you to make sure that
you go all the way through 12th grade we
realize you know that Japanese is going
to get hard
a family thing and you gotta you know be
really committed to it and and that's
what we're willing to do and so having
having our second child now not you know
not being sure that she's going to be
able to get in is just bringing back all
those
um issues of well then where is she
going to go and how what where are we
going to send her
um because like when our older son was
ready for uh for kindergarten I went to
eight different parent nights for for uh
kindergartens I went to my local
neighborhood school I went to several
language immersion schools I went to uh
to a few charter schools and
uh every other one other than my
neighborhood school was standing room
only and there was you know hundreds of
parents in there my neighborhood school
there was 12 parents there was a sign on
the door that said don't bring firearms
in the building and one of the one of
the parents joked we'll do a lot of
third graders bring firearms and the
principal said no that's for the parents
and I thought okay well I can't send my
kids here like I don't feel safe sending
my children to this school and so I'm
just saying like
this it just seems like it's not a very
well thought out proposal
um there's there's a lot of I've sent
you guys all emails about my thoughts
about it and I'll continue to do that
but there there's a lot of things that I
think that just aren't very well thought
out with it so
for instance like the the sacket board
member that was saying well we don't
know why people want to transfer from
neighborhood to Neighborhood well you
could ask them like you don't have to
demolish the whole system to find out
why people want to transfer you could
simply ask them you know who they are
um things like well Richmond's not a 50
50 language immersion program well you
could make it one there are enough
Japanese language speakers in Portland I
imagine to fill half the spots
thank you very much
our next two speakers Nicole Eros
eliardo and Toby rates
I guess I don't know where the other
person is my name is Nicolia rosalardo
i-r-o-z-e-l-a-r-d-o and I'm here
representing the Scott School apparent
community
Scott School Kaa is a diverse community
in northeast Portland and over 89
percent of our children qualify for free
and reduced lunch over 80 percent are
kids of color over half speak Spanish in
their home and we have significant
Somali and Vietnamese populations
our principal recently informed our
community she is returning to her home
state in December Dr Gutierrez initiated
several several programs over the past
four years to increase academic
performance and change the general
climate of the school most visible is
our dual Spanish language immersion
program
but the performance and the performance
of that inaugural class now second
graders are is very promising but our
cap details other programs such as
instructional strategies like guided
language acquisition design assessment
strategies such as dra to fine-tune
reading instruction and behavioral
support such as the rite of passage
program for our boys of color
so we thank Dr Gutierrez for her service
for putting us on this path and wish her
00h 10m 00s
well we also appreciate the support of
the board in helping us get to this
point
as a community we're starting to see
change good Equitable change that
supports all of our children and we want
to know that our next leader will
support and build upon these initiatives
we have great confidence in our current
teachers and in staff to continue
and the PTA supports the interim
placement that is that began today if
doing so results in authentic timely
engagement with parents to ensure the
selection of an experienced
Administration administrator appropriate
to our diverse community
PPS policy
5.6.60.017 and the administrative
directive
5.60.016 require quote meaningful
participation in the principal selection
process by administrators
representatives of the community
including Starrett staff parents
community members and students
direct a state clearly that parents
should be meaningfully involved in both
the selection criteria and the selection
of the principal let me repeat that
again the selection criteria and the
selection of the principal yet recent
practice reveals that PPS administrators
find parental engagement messy and
ignore it during the hiring process we
are here to ask you to reverse that
Trend and follow board policy
parental leadership at Scott is
committed to bridging cultural
linguistic differences among our
families in all important School matters
including this one the PTA will begin
with deep engagement starting with
tomorrow's PTA meeting and the and the
Friday of morning meeting following that
we're willing to do our part but we need
your help on top of linguistically
appropriate Outreach we ask for
authentic And Timely engagement from PPS
staff
our parents have limited electronic
communication options limited access to
personal vehicles unpredictable work
schedules we need time to give this
input
our children deserve a permanent
principle who's prepared to be an
academic administrative and Community
leader someone with expertise in dual
language immersion who supports current
programs is committed to equity in his
experience in very diverse populations
and we ask you to commit to having an
exemplary engagement process to make
that happen right
thank you very much
our last speaker is Richard greenstead
all right
Richard greenstead
g-r-e-n-s-t-e-d superintendent Smith and
the board thanks so much for the
opportunity to speak
my family and I have been in our
neighborhood school since 2008 Chief
Joseph elementary was a school with an
amazing Community then two years ago the
Jefferson cluster enrollment balancing
started our school was threatened The
Proposal
to merge with auxley green made me
Furious
Oakley had a reputation in my community
in the days and weeks that followed I
said horrible things about failing
schools
I advocated to emulate Great Schools not
tear them apart it became Time for
Action to ensure change did not occur
when I reflect back I see where I was
wrong I wasn't interested in finding
solutions for Oakley green I was stuck
in the me and I trying to save my school
today I'm in I am embarrassed about the
comments I made about failing schools I
owe the octagreen community an apology
I have learned that my perceptions were
wrong my child's education has not
suffered
it has flourished both my kids love
their birth school they have grown as
individuals as a result of the process
in its first year Chief Joseph Oakley
green has achieved level 4 status and
academic growth the investment that
Chief Joseph Buckley green received must
proliferate to every neighborhood School
we must have strong leadership in every
neighborhood School
and we must provide that leadership with
the supports needed to succeed academic
growth and success for all students is
possible through this investment
as members of the PPS Community we have
a moral obligation to stand up for all
students I hope every parent at every
school will honestly analyze the role
they play in the greater system
Sackett was tasked with helping bring
enrollment and transfer in alignment
with the racial education Equity policy
superintendent Smith thank you for
acknowledging the issue and looking for
Solutions
I commend Sackett Sackets work and their
dedication to the task at hand a stack
deck deck against the very students the
racial education Equity policy is trying
to help cannot continue I urge you to
make the tough decisions in the coming
weeks sitting in those seats requires
that you vote the we empower
the difficult work will start after
those tough decisions are made we must
follow up with strong and I mean truly
strong parent engagement
to address Community needs due to
00h 15m 00s
changes we must provide the investment
the investment must include strong
leadership at every school in a 2015-16
budget proposal that addresses parent
concerns equity and Excellence can and
will co-exist please join the focus on
the we and our
thank you Mr grinstead it's not often we
have someone who comes up and testifies
like you did so thank you very much
okay moving on in our agenda
um last week the board heard a report on
enrollment and transfer recommendations
from the superintendent's advisory
committee on enrollment and transfer
tonight the superintendent will present
her timeline on those recommendations
superintendent Smith would you like to
go ahead
okay we have PowerPoint going up
um yes and what I'm doing tonight is
walking you through the wreck the
proposed timeline
um so wait for me to get this up on the
screen
yeah
all right we'll take that
okay so board members received a memo
and I'm going to walk you through with
two different memos one was a flowchart
that goes through the sacket
recommendations and identifies of the
six recommendations that Sackett made
which ones require policy changes from
the board and which ones would require
some kind of board approval and I'll
since that's print is very small I'm
going to walk people through just so
that you hear like it's trying to pick
apart what actions actually are required
from each of the recommendations and
what I said in my memo to the board is
um that I'm still considering which of
any of these I will recommend to move
forward so a lot a lot of what the staff
is now doing is looking at what it
actually takes to operationalize any of
these what are the things that if in
fact we make the recommendation we could
operationalize by the next enrollment
and transfer cycle which are more
elaborate and would require more than
that in order to do so could end up
being things we'd consider for the next
enrollment and transfer cycle and some
of these don't require policy change
there are things that are would be
budget budget or operational
considerations so the first
recommendation from Sackett was to end
the lottery transfers to between
neighborhood schools that would require
a policy change so the First Column says
yes policy changes and would it require
board approval yes
the second recommendation from Sackett
was a proposal to enhance the petition
transfer process so this would be
utilizing petition to do neighborhood to
Neighborhood transfer as opposed to the
lottery being used as the mechanism for
neighborhood to Neighborhood does that
require policy change no
but does it require board approval not
board approval but if in fact it takes
dollars to actually implement it so
budget considerations would come before
the board
third one was to conduct a focus option
review this is something that was
already included in an existing policy
so it does not require policy changes by
the board and was is board approval
required no not to actually
um
do a review it may require additional
staff capacity in order to actually do
what's required as part of the policy to
conduct the review
the fourth recommendation was to support
dual language expand immersion expansion
does that require require policy change
no
um does it require board approval yes
and this would be specifically if
additional dual language programs are
cited in the district then it comes back
to the board and the Dual language
immersion process department is already
leading that process so we're actually
already in a due diligence process on
the next set of proposed dual language
immersion programs
the fifth one was to do changes to the
focus option Lottery
that does require a policy change
and is board approval required yes new
00h 20m 00s
policy language would require a board
approval if the proposals are more about
improving Outreach and support and
expanding the applicant pool that is not
that's a procedure and it's something
that the staff can just do
the last one special education changes
does it require policy chains yes so
there's the specific policy that's
identified that would need change and
does it require board approval yes the
new policy language requires board
approval
however it's also changes that are part
of the Strategic plan for the special
education department so some of these
are more about Service delivery model
and some are about what would be
required policy change so that's
essentially what's the framework that
I'm using to then look at what I come
back with as recommendations to the
board
so timeline I'm looking yes yeah it's
intercept because
all this is absolutely correct except
we're missing the number one
recommendation out of socket which and I
informed the second memory of the day
that they buried the lead
and so the number one
recommendation is basically in a
paragraph on the third page two
paragraphs above this chart which they
say the number our number one
recommendation is make sure that the
neighborhood schools
uh are performing to the degree that
they should and to have consequences if
they don't
um so I would like you to consider that
I mean I think we should include this in
this chart and you're clearly have some
recommendations on how to make that
happen so we should we should account
for that okay and one of the things that
was discussed at Sackett are the
multiple levers and what are the
different things we have that impact the
success of a school
the recommend which some of the things
that you're speaking of are beyond the
scope of Stack its actual
recommendations so effective principle
it can be I mean there's a whole
framework by which we're looking at how
do we have successfully performing
schools the specific recommendations in
front of us right now are about changes
to the enrollment transfer policy so
it's a limited scope of recommendation I
hear what you're saying
um
addressed things that are Way Beyond
what the scope of their
um
transfer policy yeah it's a whole cloth
I totally gotcha yeah
okay so the actual changes to the
enrollment and transfer system on
November 25th which is our next board
meeting I will bring back
recommendations to the school board
including the components which would
require support in the next the 15 16
budget and which would require policy
change by the board so and ones that
were are specifically intended to impact
the next enrollment and transfer cycle
so actual proposal come back to the next
the next meeting
on December 2nd which is the the next
board meeting I'm recommending that the
board hold an open hearing to provide
members of the community an opportunity
to give feedback on those
recommendations and then also to provide
the opportunity to submit uh comments in
writing and online
December 9th board meeting would come
back with policy language and a draft
resolution
for the first reading by the board at
that time the board would also hear
additional public comment
January 6 meeting again more opportunity
for public comment
and then at the January 13th board
meeting a second reading of the
enrollment and transfer policy changes
and potential board resolution for
official board action
this particular deadline would allow
that any changes that we actually are
approved by the board could be
implemented for the 2015 open enrollment
um
opportunity so and it allows us to
operationalize those so
thank you
Carol where's the
sibling preference is that focus on
focus on the lottery changes it's enough
Focus option Lottery changes right yes
okay okay probably be good if we just
called it right out there so that people
aren't trying to figure out where it is
yes
all right board members who have
questions
Dr Buell oh man
this timeline just seems to me a to be
extremely fast but B2B very sketchy we
it has one meeting
00h 25m 00s
this massive change that we're looking
at and I came from a district where I
worked the last 10 years where they had
the change that were contemplating and
so I have some idea of how it actually
works uh it I think we should have at
least three major public meetings and
those public meetings should be should
allow for dialogue
because a lot of times what we've done
in the past is we have allowed people to
come and talk but we don't allow
ourselves to ask questions
and we should have not only some second
members there to answer questions we
should have the full board we should
have and we should just have a
dialogue
with people about what this means and so
forth in in it just seems to me like
this is too sketchy we don't I mean
we don't allow we we just saw the public
comment and what it is though at our
regular meetings so public comment which
if you don't come to a lot of board
meetings you might look at this and go
oh yeah probably comment yeah with six
people you can't ask questions you can't
talk you're limited and so forth and so
forth so so I'd suggest I'd suggest that
we actually have a public large public
meetings at uh maybe one at Madison one
at Roosevelt one in Wilson and we have
ones where we allow people to come and
we're allowed to ask questions and
dialogue and sacket members can comment
and ask questions and so forth so we
actually have a we look at this in a
very and give it the um and we give it
the importance that it actually really
deserves so I have no problem with what
you have except that I just think we
need as a board to be have much more
extensive
communication with the to and from now
that's part of the point of having the
dialogue tonight so the one on December
2nd the recommendation here is to hold
that as a public hearing so it's a
regularly scheduled board meeting that
you know you'll all be available but
that recommendation is to do it as a
hearing
and your opportunity tonight is to say
you could make these all hearings you
could keep them as regular public
comment you could do unlimited public
comments so like that's exactly the
discussion you're having here tonight
and if in fact you get to the end of
this time period that would be the time
period that allows us to operationalize
it in this enrollment and transfer cycle
then
we're not there and you're bumping it to
next year so what I'm defining for you
is the window that
lets us operationalize it for the next
cycle
I think another piece too I mean um an
agenda setting we'll need to look at
what other pieces what other topics and
issues are coming up
um on the upcoming meetings along among
our other priorities so that's another
piece I guess what I would suggest is
that we take folks thoughts and
reactions similar to director buells
hear them tonight and then Pam and I and
Carol and staff can take that and then
um and then kind of weigh that and
figure out how that how that fits in
with the other pieces that we're trying
to address in the next several weeks if
that's agreeable to folks
other comments questions
well yeah I mean I'll just uh I'll say
that um
that we want to make sure so I mean
Carol this is a great start and then I I
mean I'll reiterate I think
Sackets recommendations buried the lead
I mean we ought to talk about their
number one recommendation and and I'd
like to get input from you on steps so
that we can get there and Leadership is
a huge thing and we've talked about that
in our
in the board so following up on that it
would be good
um but from a process standpoint
we
want to uh
we want to make sure that we do do it
right and we've had a lot of experiences
where we haven't done things right we've
learned so my one request would be to
work
is just to uh
kick the ball back to to you and work
with John in the communications team and
what we've learned from past experiences
that we don't want to repeat what we've
learned from working with PSU that we
want to
maybe roll out in this so
um
yeah I think we want to make sure that
the process is done correctly on this
and I but I appreciate the timeline as
well
I think it would be helpful for us uh
when we're in agenda setting to hear
exactly what you consider uh doing it
right that would be helpful I mean Steve
gave us a good idea in his right what
what does your right look um it is only
one right in there no you know well I
you know I'm I'm not the I'm not the pro
at this so I uh but what would it look
like to you to me it would
when PSU came here and sat here and said
we're going to reach 40 of the people or
we're not going to consider it done
correctly I thought that was a highly
00h 30m 00s
aggressive
uh and
directionally positive way to talk about
things
and um so doing it and
so doing it right is is setting an
aggressive Target on how
we're going to reach out to all the
people in our district and
making it happen
do you have any suggestions on reaching
out
yeah uh yeah I'd like to hear John
Isaac's uh suggestions on it I mean you
know this is
all right I'm just yeah
I mean you commented about doing things
right so I I was just assuming you had
some specific ideas well I just said uh
set a Target and hit it okay
in terms of people that we that we and I
think 40 percent uh is highly aggressive
yeah
that's Tom did you did you like did you
like the at least having three
I mean as a man that's basically a
minimum
well those are now you're defining
meetings versus how many people you're
actually reaching
well I'm just defining opportunity for
people to comment on that part okay
going beyond that yeah okay
yeah other
Puerto Rican
um so first of all I wanted to apologize
especially to Sackett that I wasn't here
last week to actually hear the report in
person
um I have an elderly aunt in Southern
California who needed attention so my
sister and I flew down there so I have
listened to the entire board meeting
from last week so I think I'm up to
speed but I just want to acknowledge
that first
um so uh yeah I would love to have
opportunity for some interaction with
our community related to these
recommendations I certainly would not
want to have public comment at these
meetings limited to six you know
comments we need to open that up and I
would certainly want us to have an
opportunity to have discussion at the
end maybe of the public comment one of
the things that we did really
effectively in the past has been
listening sessions with our community we
did it um you know around superintendent
searches and we've done it around and
when we lost the band in 2011. and those
seem to be pretty effective because
while we were sort of hearing from folks
we did it in a way that was um
not sort of one person coming and
testifying it it was a an environment
that felt a little warmer than that
somehow
um but we also at the end reflected back
what we heard
um and whether we agree with that or not
I think it really helped the community
realize that we heard what they said
um so maybe a listening session kind of
format or maybe even a town hall kind of
format we've been doing some Town Halls
we have a little bit of experience at it
now whether we could maybe do a town
hall related to the second
recommendations and maybe even invite
some of the second committee members to
you know help us with that so I just
want to throw out a couple of those
ideas
expansion
um
I said I'd wanted to say something I
didn't know what I didn't have planned
what I was going to say
um
I I think from my time since I've been
on the board enrollment and transfer
policy has been an issue people have
recognized it as inequitable
um
and what I think I hear Tom you saying
um my words not yours obviously and you
may not align these two but what I hear
you say is a process more similar to
what we're doing with district-wide
boundary review which sets aggressive
targets has a year and a half year
year-long process no that's not what I'm
saying okay can you clarify then yeah
I'm saying let's use that
um let's use let's just for for sake of
let's just say that's the best in class
for that particular topic and it may or
may not be but I think it's pretty good
yeah
um then what is the best in class for
this topic in this timeline and let's
hit it
so you're still asking for us to meet
this this timeline to have it in place
I don't
that would be ideal okay yeah because I
get that that's the part yes that's the
idea that's the part I struggle with is
that right now PSU is looking to help us
00h 35m 00s
get this done in a year and we're
feeling like it's pressure
um to do it in less than a month and a
half
um I think is The Challenge from my
standpoint my guess is that
um PSU or somebody that does this to say
if you want deep penetration and since
there are changes proposed
for every school because neighborhood to
Neighborhood transfer will affect every
school not just sibling preference for
Focus option it would require an
Outreach comparable to what I imagine
District wide boundaries because that
too will touch so again that's how I
process it
um
so I think Sackett has done a great job
of reaching out they have not spoken to
every school they have not spoken with
every school or every Focus option that
would be affected by this their charge
wasn't my understanding was that it
wasn't that wasn't even part of their
charge but was to to view our policy in
in regards to our racial Equity policy
and so they gave us some Reflections on
what that was and we can decide whether
to accept those or not or to go through
another process
um
right they they weren't charged with
right with
with that and but we are
charged with the with the process to
make sure that it's
that it um that it hits the mark before
we make a decision that's
um that's highly consequential
perhaps I mean we we made the charge
about how much Outreach we want to do
again I've been hearing for the three
years that I've been on the board that
this this Pro this policy has been a
problem
um Sackett has been working on it for
quite some time
um so I guess I'm just saying that I um
I know that's what we characterized as
I'm not interested in public Outreach or
public input but I think they have done
the work and I'm comfortable moving
forward and I don't know about you all
but I'm hearing Lots from our community
about these proposals and it's probably
certain communities more than others so
I am intentionally trying to reach out
to folks who may not be aware of it
um so I appreciate the timeline and I'm
comfortable with the timeline and I
appreciate the ideas that
um so you don't want to change any any
process and just so I can understand you
you're saying what Carol's laid out is
fine there's we can't do a better
process
I didn't say we can't do a better
process I bet after we do distant
boundary review we could do a better
process as as I think I've heard you say
actually just last night we can always
do better right there's no perfect
um so I couldn't say that we couldn't do
a better process but I appreciate what
director Buell is saying about saying
can we make sure our hearings are are
more open so we get to hear that
um and I'm I'm comfortable with that
other comments from the board or Carol
did you have something else I was going
to add I mean a couple things you've got
leeway in here of um in the time frame
to be able to implement this in the next
cycle these could be two-way hearings
they could be Town Halls they can be I
mean you can you guys are deciding how
to use those times and then the other
thing listed on here is an electronic
survey which is another way that people
can communicate which is yet to be
developed but is one of the things
listed on here so we're including that
as a way that we're intending to reach
people and and solicit feedback and in
writing and I will say we've already
received feedback from probably a stack
this big of people who have already
written in from what they know so far so
it's even responding like it's generated
people that have
strong feelings about this are reaching
out and communicating to us so like I'm
believing we're getting a bunch of
feedback organically how's that I think
it's uh
it's fair to say that it's hard to
schedule seven people and a student
representative in this in the period of
time so while I appreciate us thinking
about doing any time right doing these
during our Board of Education meetings
and I would agree with the one on
December 2nd I think that you know we
can have other meetings in here where we
have like all of the suggestions that
everybody's had for ways that we could
reach out to the community but I think
that we generally as a board are pretty
realistic about the fact that we have to
move ahead and if all of us can't be
there
hopefully the people who can't make it
are reviewing the record and if we have
enough of these hopefully everybody will
get an opportunity to go to something to
hear what the public has to say so
we I'm sure Ruth and I will be telling
staff that that's not
critical that we are at ever everybody
here is at every single meeting so I'm
sure we can figure out a way within all
this to find ways to reach out to the
community and have everybody have an
00h 40m 00s
opportunity to talk to us
publicly and then as Carol said we're
all receiving lots and lots of emails
from people and and we appreciate those
as well don't always get a chance to
answer everybody but definitely our
hearing
our hearing so
other but Greg I just wanted to say and
I'm happy to meet as as frequently as
I'm available and it's just as often so
if people want to have more meetings I'm
happy to do that
I think the piece too particularly of
dialogue and with
staff and with
members and us to have that opportunity
so yes we definitely want to be able to
hear from the community we are I'll be
hearing from many folks do more Outreach
to hear from those we haven't heard from
yet would be great as well but just to
make sure that we do have that
opportunity and what I'm seeing in the
schedule is that is that we would and
again to me you know always with these
questions where there are no easy
answers we're balancing the need to move
forward and make changes and make things
better in the district with the need to
make sure that folks have an opportunity
to weigh in whether they agree or
disagree or whatever so we're always
balancing that and I do feel given the
length of time that this has been under
you know been an issue that has been
called out as one we need to address the
length of time that saket has been
working on this and deliberating and
really wrestling in depth with this we
need to move forward now we'll see what
the superintendent comes back in terms
of you know what portions of
recommendations how she wants to move
forward and then that'll also I think
give us an indication too of you know
what what are we dealing with here and
are there are there pieces that are are
some less controversial than others that
we can absolutely move forward are there
others we need to pause and have
additional conversation about we'll see
how that goes but to me it's still that
we need to move this forward this has
been a topical conversation and again
recognized as an issue that needs to be
dealt with for quite some time
so I I appreciate hearing folks input I
don't know if director Morton or mean
I'm on a ran too but we'll definitely
take that and then weigh that in
figuring out mapping out the next
meetings coming up
I mean do you have thoughts about
student outreach are you working on this
through supersac or could you make it a
topic I mean we could definitely like
reach out through super sax super sack
is well connected if we wanted to that's
definitely an option and I think that
students have a voice but I also know
that Sakura has had a student
representative on it so I'm confident
that Marty Berger has provided a great
voice on it so I'm pretty happy with the
student Outreach on it just because I
know Marty also has brought it back to
Super sac in the past year and we've
discussed it great
thank you
Matt anything from you
yeah I think the uh thank you for asking
um I think the
uh we're gonna we know that the more
information the better uh
the more information we have the better
uh decision uh theoretically we're going
to make
um
so I'm certainly open to having more
meetings more opportunities to hear to
hear information and I I do appreciate
as director Regan mentioned the town or
not the town hall but the sort of
listening session
format because that was more of a
conversation and it's uh in fact I think
we used we used a similar format as we
were preparing for the Jefferson cluster
enrollment conversation too so uh that
brought out a lot of good information
that ended up going into uh decisions
um I think the other
thing we have to realize too though is
that uh
I think the timeline is is the timeline
and uh and the recommendations aren't
going to change we just have to make a
decision based on what that what has
been recommended and if there are any
tweaks that we would like to uh we would
like to see happen
um
I
I think finally the the only thing is I
don't think
all of us are ever going to agree on how
much information is enough information
right and uh and we're going to we're
going to have to make a decision that
we've met a critical mass and we need to
move forward because the timeline is
what it is
where are we planning uh
superintendent Smith in your
in your timeline here to discuss things
like
number one sacramentation in Lottery
transfers to Neighborhood School
something that I
pretty much in favor of the like number
one do we end it
so everybody goes back to their
neighborhood schools when do we discuss
those issues do we grandfather anybody
in is does everybody everybody goes back
to their neighborhood Schools starting
next uh September first so this is what
I'll bring you no I'm talking about I
00h 45m 00s
know what you're asking yeah so this is
what I will bring you on the 25th and
part of
um
so we've got a large amount of policy
which include addresses grandfathering
and how to how do you get from here to
there I'm going to bring you the entire
policy and tell you which pieces of it
I'm recommending change in so how are
you getting that Community input into
your recommendation I'm going to bring
the brain of what I'm going to do as a
red line of our current policy
taking recommendations from Sackett
considering which ones I'm going to
recommend change in but I'll bring you
the whole policy so you'll be able to
see
exactly and people will be able to
respond by what they see either it hits
it or it doesn't and will be in dialogue
through this entire period of time and
will either be some place in time that
we can implement it for this and drama
translator or we'll realize it's a much
larger conversation we want to take the
next year being in it so like or some p
as Ruth just said we'll take some piece
of it so I will address that
specifically when I bring it forward
next next week
your question about
what we grandfather that's part of what
I'll bring you next so that's going to
be and then and when we decided to do
that then our
is the part that's that's you've got by
January 13th
accepting these without the details or
with them I'm bringing you the details
and then we're going to take those
details out and we're going to say to
everybody in the city of Portland for
instance guess what next year you're
you're going back to your neighborhood
School let's say that was the detail and
then we would have one meeting for
people to come forward to discuss all of
that plus all of these changes plus
although plus all the focus option
Lottery changes and all those things in
one meeting be because I'm a kind of
opposed to doing it in the board
meetings I think we've got I sat through
that negotiations process and where we
almost shut the whole District down I
don't really want to shut the board down
at the beginning of the budget committee
to do this that's why I'm up that's why
I'm suggesting that we have at least two
more three full community input
discussion dialogue open up
that around this because I think the
minute we hit the detail you're not
going to just see these people here oh
no we'll hear from people there's going
to be yeah all over and we need to have
space to allow those people to come
forward and make their comments and do
stuff so that so when the police we end
up voting on the policy
that we end up going you know we did
offer people the chance to hear and we
did really truly listen and we
demonstrated that even if we're getting
a lot of emails they're not nobody sees
emails I'm getting they're almost all
from Richmond anyhow there's a handful
of books
please
okay yeah I know I mean and but you see
what I'm saying I just think it takes
more than and and so the reach out that
Mr curler is talking about here
is done around those three meetings so
we reach out to everybody in the
district and say here we're having these
meetings you're welcome to come that's
that's Tom's Outreach
that we put together that's my way of
thinking about it so we can reach 40 we
can reach 100 of our basically we have a
method to reach pretty close to 100 so
so that's exactly what we've been
talking about here Steve good so thank
you very much for summarizing it for us
okay so I'll look forward to those three
meetings well we'll see I mean we're
taking everybody everybody on the board
we're taking everybody on the board's uh
thoughts into consideration no not just
one person that's that's why we're all
here tonight that's what we're having
the conversation about it so it's all
good that's all okay any other comments
okay great in that case we'll move on to
our next agenda item tonight we'll
receive the recommendations from staff
regarding a proposed 2016 school
building Improvement Bond ballot measure
here we go again
superintendent Smith would you like to
introduce this item very exciting I
would so CJ Sylvester who is our chief
of school modernization is going to
report provide the report and the staff
recommendations are what you're going to
hear tonight which are based on the work
of our bond development committee and
I'll be coming back to you next week
with a final recommendation on the
proposed 2016 Bond measure
good evening CJ Sylvester chief of
school of organization for program
schools
in the existing 2012 School building
Improvement Bond program there are funds
00h 50m 00s
available to provide High School
planning and preparation for subsequent
consideration of another Capital ballot
measure in 2016.
tonight is intended for board discussion
about the recommendation that staff has
provided
based on board input tonight the
superintendent's recommendation will
become before you at next week's meeting
for action
it is not until 2016 that the board will
actually review then current assessed
values possible tax rates Community
attitudes and ultimately make decisions
about whether to move forward a proposed
Capital Bond ballot measure for November
of 2016.
in 2012 a creative and Innovative
32-year plan and program was identified
to fund the full modernization or
replacement of our aged School
infrastructure
this plan is primarily pay as you go in
order to ensure that maximum dollars are
being expended on learning environments
and not on interest payments
last spring the superintendent convened
a bond Development Committee
this committee met five times over six
months to develop their recommendation
to the superintendent
stakeholders included not only three
members of the board of directors
but interested parties from the city of
Portland are Portland OR schools unions
citizen activists a state representative
PTA program Partners parent leaders
Latino Network
higher education General Contractors and
as well as that there was Crossover with
some of those members from the 2012 Bond
development community
as well as the long-range facilities
planning committee
the committee reviewed current Bond
projects facilities conditions the
nature and extent of competing
priorities based on those facility
conditions Equity the very real issue of
political support the value of capital
and program Partnerships
tax rate and inflationary cost
considerations
the survey results from August reviewed
by the committee are worth noting they
indicate that half of the survey
respondents are familiar with the 2012
Bond program
of those people 69 feel positive about
the bond and the projects that are being
funded
for any contemplated 2016 Bond the
following top three priorities for
funding were identified
first Urgent facility needs followed by
benefiting the most disadvantaged
students and the most crowded schools
the recommendation is to continue the
plan of rebuilding modernizing High
School's First and to include three high
schools in each of the next two bonds
previously identified for 2016 and 2020.
in each of the next two bonds include
two comprehensive high schools and one
Focus option High School
and complete Master planning three high
schools by Fall 2016 in preparation for
any potential November 2016 Capital Bond
ballot machine
in order to complete this master
planning with full community
participation
dedicate the 1.5 million dollars in 2012
School building Improvement funds to the
recommended three high schools for
master planning purposes
in the 2012 ballot measure explanatory
language we said we would quote also
begin planning for upgrade of all high
schools in coming years end quote
the facilities visioning and high school
education specification work efforts to
date meet this requirement
the three high schools identified for
2016 consideration are Benson
Polytechnic Lincoln and Madison high
schools
the three high schools identified for
2020 consideration are Jefferson Middle
College and Cleveland and Wilson high
schools
the committee ultimately prioritized
facility condition including
overcrowding and improving facilities
for the highest number of historically
underserved students as the highest
criteria
Benson is the district's only Career
Technical education Focus option and has
significant seismic retrofit needs
Benson also has about 80 percent of its
students in the combined underserved
category
you may remember that combined
underserved as a state identified
category that includes economic status
race English language learning and
special education considerations
Lincoln High School is by far the
district's most overcrowded high school
building
00h 55m 00s
we have exhausted all in-building
options for managing its enrollment
an example of this is the fact that the
cafeteria has been converted into
classrooms for educational use
Madison has a poor facility condition
and 77 percent of its students are in
the combined underserved category
the committee also noted that both
Benson and Lincoln
offer immediate unique partnership
potential
so again the schedule is that tonight
there's board discussion and input about
the elements of the recommendation
that next week the board adopts
resolution as amended if appropriate
based on the conversation tonight
but it's not until 2016
that the Board of Education reviews what
are then assessed values inside the
district
possible tax rates the political climate
how the community is feeling and decides
whether or not to actually move forward
with any potential ballot measure in
November of 2006
. I'm happy to answer any questions you
may have
thank you
questions
director Buell
the number one response category says
spending should go to the most urgent
facility priorities such as unsafe
school buildings and linking roofs but
that we didn't
go with that right we decided that the
number one thing should be the three
high schools no actually
some of the criteria that was used to
identify the three high schools is
facility conditions and then the three
high schools themselves don't
necessarily mean that that's the only
thing that would be in any potential
2016 Bond ballot measurement of the one
this time we have that's exactly right
we have urgent facility needs that we're
addressing at up to 63 other schools as
part of the 2012 ballot measure we call
our summer Improvement projects and I
would anticipate that in fact those same
urgent types of urgent facility needs
would be addressed in any subsequent
Bond measures up until such a time as
the entire portfolio of schools has been
completely modernizing retrofitting now
this bond with this double what you're
paying now for a period of four years
because we have to eight it's eight
years before it drops right this Bond
goes out eight years before it drops
then it has another tale of 12 more
years well
essentially pay as you go and then we
have a tail for an additional 12 years
what has always been contemplated and
the reason we call this the subway tile
version is because of the way it lays
out is that there would be one more
increase in tax rate with the second
Bond and that with subsequent bonds
three four five six and seven they would
simply be renewals of existing tax rates
so what that tax rate is going to be is
a decision that the board in 2016 will
make in deciding whether or not to go
forward and with what tax rate so they
said so the second Bond the 2016 one
because I wasn't around when we were
talking about all this stuff uh the
second Bond would go would if we
contemplated where we were thinking at
the beginning of the first Bond right
would that go then that would that
double the tax rate and then that double
tax rate would stay or would it double
the tax rate and then drop after a
period and then that tax rate would stay
what was our contemplation around what I
can show you up here is that the
original one
um based on the long-range facilities
planning committee recommendation to the
board and board adoption was that we go
out strong with high schools and that we
go for a larger amount which included
that 30 Cent tail there that you're
looking at and so that that tax rate is
a dollar ten per 1000 value assessed
value what it was contemplated at that
time was that potentially the next one
would be 90 cents per thousand so it's
not doubling it would be something less
than that based on what was originally
contemplated and that that tax rate then
would be a total of two dollars per
thousand the dollar ten from the 2012
Bond 90 cents from the 2016 and that
would remain stable over the balance of
the 32-year plan and program so that tax
rate is what would remain into act so
the two dollar per thousand would remain
intact over that 30 years okay thank you
very much for sharing that with us
other questions no comments
the dark dragon
um thanks so much so thanks um to the
committee and everyone who worked on
this I guess just maybe some from the
board members who participated in the
committee any thoughts on
um I mean I know that if there's a case
to be made for every single building in
this District needing work
um so like in the original Bond
Cleveland had been on that one it was
not on this one just maybe a little bit
more of some of the thought process
again every every building is deserving
and needs the work but it just would be
helpful to hear a little bit more of
that
I I can give you what I what I remember
01h 00m 00s
the conversations
um
and I think director curler and director
Regan were also so please jump in if I'm
I'm forgetting something so
um at this stage there are a couple of
things is that originally when we went
out with Bond one the community came to
a consensus to start with high schools
primarily well for a number of different
reasons but partly because it would
eliminate the chance that your it would
eliminate the opportunity for your child
to be in two remodeled buildings at any
time during your K-12 education so if we
worked backwards from 9 through 12
people wouldn't have their middle school
remodeled and then go to a remodeled or
then also have a disruption rather than
the disruption right yeah
um so there was
um
some discussion but then eventually
consensus of saying that
um let's stick with that plan to stay
with high schools and so then there was
a discussion about which high schools
and we are at a at a point as you were
pointing out that um The Physician the
facilities condition index is one or two
or three or four points away from each
other but when we're talking about those
levels it it's indistinguishable they're
all in need and so that moved us on to
um which ones made the most sense and
there was a lot of discussion about
which ones made most sense there was
caution there was a lot of folks who
wanted um Jefferson to be part of this
primarily to show the commitment and
investment from the district as it's
been meddled with a number of times
ironically it also is showing great
growth academically and so there was not
an interest in disrupting that we didn't
want to mess with something when it's
when it's headed in the right direction
if I'm remembering the conversation
correctly
but that there was still strong
commitment and a belief that as it
continues to grow
that perhaps it would need a different
size facility than if we if we rebuilt
it now so that left some other high
schools there was interest in Benson
permanently again facilities condition
index but opportunity for partnership
but also again as you as you saw a
highly diverse student population that's
succeeding and a belief that it will
help catalyze some of the CTE for the
district
and then uh like I'm thinking you asked
specifically about Cleveland Cleveland
was at one point in the mix because it
had a significant roof work that needs
to be done and it's a big roof not as
big as Wilson's I don't think but
similar and so there was discussion
about should we do the roof and then
have to come back and rebuild it later
and our understanding is that much of
the roof work actually will can be
maintained because it's a historic
structure there's some diaphragmatic and
pieces that will be even if we do it now
it won't be all lost
um but there was a discussion about the
overcrowding at Lincoln there was some
safety concerns about downtown
that they are currently using Portables
and then there was also some interest in
again all the facilities the conditions
were an issue but that Madison
is uh is a growing area and a worry
about if we did something like
um
Madison Cleveland Benson there are some
issues about geographic Equity
that concerns some folks so again there
were there are many considerations in
this but that's that's primarily what I
remember the discussion I don't know
director Regan or director curler if
there's anything you would add
other than then it's very exciting yeah
yeah it is so uh and and all those
buildings are in need
so I'm hearing I mean so um of the
schools that won't be addressed so
Wilson did have its roof fixed which is
obviously was a hugely urgent need to
that it's and then what I'm hearing is
that Cleveland might would be able to
have some of its roof needs taken care
of in the meantime while that's waiting
and then and then I totally and I was
reading in the memo and appreciate all
that information about the discussion
about Jefferson and I think as it is I'm
growing that it makes sense to be able
to say give it the chance to grow
without disrupting attending kids other
places but will there be any
um I know the track just the field and
draftus went in which is which is great
was there any discussion or information
from staff about any sort of interim
improvements or anything facility
related given that
that kind of interim piece and if we're
switching from having
um Master planning multiple campuses and
really focusing on the few which makes
sense to me is just again that piece of
when the waiting of the decades
in the Improvement Project work work
that was identified
01h 05m 00s
Cleveland Roof then which will then be
completed if in fact it's not slated for
consideration in 2016 and some seismic
and Ada work at Jefferson has been
identified as well in the Improvement
project
okay great thank you very much I think
that's important I mean
the selection of these three doesn't
preclude other things that I mean it's
we're not going to ignore the roof at
least right and my expectation would be
that we wouldn't be ignoring it right
and it's already identified
it's on the high schools we've simply
been other than Wilson which was uh you
know ranked as one of the the top
priority roofs in the district needing
attention uh we've been uh pushing back
the high schools until the determination
was made about which ones might be
moving forward in 2016 so we would then
know how to schedule the work on the
balance of the high schools
so you're saying that Cleveland this
work at Cleveland and Jeff will come out
of the current Bond not out of a future
Bond that's correct it's already part of
the Improvement projects and will be
scheduled then for the summer of 2016 if
this
TJ when do we start looking at other
kinds of improvements other than just
the high schools
these three high schools is that in 2016
when we start to develop either late
2015 or early 2016 uh know more as we go
start going through the master planning
process with the high schools with what
kind of costs we think we're going to be
considering at the
and then also we have we always have a
list of needs and so it's a question of
us again making determinations about
relative priorities and if those are
going to remain the same
as predominantly around a roof seismic
and accessibility last time and uh in
the absence of anything changing between
now and then that seems likely that
those will remain the priorities only
that different schools
and will you remind me how how many
schools were doing that smaller
improvement work on in the district out
of our 80 83 82 schools 63. 63. okay and
that that includes six through eight
science classrooms and
it's the educational improve
improve the other kind of facility
condition
thank you
I was just going to mention those little
those pieces when we figure those out
will be the determining factor and what
that second Bond actually is
needs to be right it works both ways
both
the costs can determine the size of the
of the amount of projects we can do the
amount of projects quite frankly are in
Access of what we know we'd be able to
do with a second Bond simply because of
the fact that we have a need to go
through with
I have no doubt at all that there will
be Lively discussion about what's the
appropriate tax rate given the need and
what gets what gets left in a potential
ballot measure and what gets removed
from it some of those projects yeah I I
agree some of the feedback I think we
got in this previous going out to this
previous Bond was let the let the
projects guide what you need in terms of
in terms of the resource not the
resource and then fill the projects up
to that at that point and there was
actually some conversation in that
regard at the bond development committee
as regards to three high schools even
there was conversation and information
in there
material about the fact that they
considered should should we only be
moving forward potentially with two high
schools based on a potential tax rates
and ultimately the committee decided no
they think that we need to be able to
maintain the momentum and to move
forward with three and then to evaluate
in 2016 what that's going to look like
in terms of the tax rate so that was an
active conversation at the committee
last spring
hello George Reagan so um I think
director Lyle did a great job of kind of
summing up where the committee
discussion was I just wanted to add a
couple of things
um one was
um I think we want to be careful to be
talking about these next three schools
not as these are the ones we're doing
these are the ones we're not doing we
should instead be talking about these
are the ones we're doing in 2016 which
sets up the fact that we're going to be
doing these other three in 2020. I mean
we all knew that out of these six we had
to pick three right so what we really
did was we set these three for 2016 in
these three for 2020 and that's really
the way we should be presenting it to
the community where we have made a
commitment that we're going to get
through our high schools in the first
you know three bonds a couple of other
things is I think we decided together
that it didn't make sense to do two West
Side schools in one Bond so we sort of
wanted to split those up it didn't
necessarily make sense to do two Focus
schools in one Bond and so we sort of
wanted to split that up
um and I think that we really were
looking at the partnership potential
01h 10m 00s
um and even with the partnership
potential what's exciting to think about
is that PCC is likely going to be going
out for a bond in 2018 and so having
Jefferson 2020 might give us some
opportunities to be thinking about what
the partnership opportunities are with
them as they're designing their next
Bond 2 which is kind of fun and I think
the other thing for us to all be keeping
in mind is that um
after we get done with the high schools
the pace of our projects is going to
speed up pretty dramatically
because for what it costs to build a
high school now you could build two or
two and a half elementary schools or
three
and so you know once we get through
these three all of a sudden I think
we're going to take off in terms of the
change that's going to happen in terms
of our facilities in Portland Public
Schools so it's really exciting it's the
next one is going to be the big one too
talk with voters about and from there
hopefully it'll just be renewals
yeah
I appreciate it CJ you're bringing up
the conversation about
um that the the committee continued to
commit to three high schools um even
though
um there's some question about rates and
inflation about whether or not
um that rate will will make it an
appreciate director Morton what you were
reflecting back of our community
processes that part of the challenge I
think in bond one from the listening
sessions that were referenced earlier
was it felt like we picked like the
district picked a number and filled it
up versus we had very clear criteria
about what we were going out for for um
for the bond that is now Bond one and
expecting to do the same thing with Bond
number two and I just want to note that
I have heard some public comments and
public input that they're surprised that
we're considering Bond number two they
felt we weren't communicative about that
but I just I just want to highlight that
because I know that penetration of of
information is really important so as we
continue to talk make sure that we
continue to talk this is this is not
even just to get through R9 high schools
this is all all of our buildings and
it's a 32-year project and we have been
thoughtful about it unintentional about
it and I'm from what I'm hearing it's
very exciting Community is very excited
about it
and it's been really impressive how
we've managed the work so far with what
we know is escalating costs because of
competition in the market because other
districts are now building as well which
is great for all of us it does Drive
Market rates up and so for us to still
be on Target and on budget
is is phenomenal and it's it's a kudos
to you and your team so I appreciate
that and I also just want to acknowledge
a little piece of input that I feel is
important just to give voice to um again
back to Jefferson there was concern and
you you mentioned PCC going out for a
bond I just want to acknowledge that
some people in the Jefferson Community
are concerned that PCC will take over on
the Jefferson campus that we will
somehow seat it to PCC or something like
that and I just want to share from my
perspective that I am not interested in
that and that is not something I would
consider as a proposal there are some
unique partnership opportunities but
that is not something that I'm
interested in so I just want to
acknowledge that because if it's out
there the community I just want to make
sure to address it
so you know there's there's one final
thing I also wanted to say I think there
was a lot of excitement on the committee
about Madison
um especially with the kind of the outer
east side and the fact that Marshall had
closed that we have so much growth there
um Community is so strong so I think
there was a lot of excitement about
having Madison in the mix in this
particular uh Bond so I just want to
acknowledge that as well all right can I
take on to that one more time I just
also want to acknowledge that most of
the people on the committee were were
recognizing the enrollment Trends and
understanding that by the time we get
through all of our high schools there
may be an opportunity or a need to
um to to look at other options for
example something like opening Marshall
campus again it it was originally built
as to add capacity to the system
and so just recognizing that enrollment
Trends could very much make that a
possibility again
if we keep our continuing Trend it could
well be a master plan for the 2024 Bond
if in fact that's necessary or the 2028
or
that's exactly right that we're going to
have we've got that capacity now in
order to be able to use it as swing
space for our high schools which is a
highly valuable to us and in fact we're
probably going to need it for permanent
capacity in the future
right others anything else
CJ thank you very much
okay our next agenda item has to do with
01h 15m 00s
our legislative priorities tonight we'll
receive recommendation from the board's
ad hoc legislative committee on proposed
2015 State Legislative platform director
belisles the chair of the committee
which also includes directors Morton
Regan
superintendent Smith would you like to
introduce Mr Williams from David
Williams who is our director of
government relations will walk us
through the recommended legislative
platform David
thank you very much so you have in your
packet a draft 2015 State Legislative
platform uh as uh was indicated in the
memo to the board this was developed by
your board legislative committee over a
series of uh three meetings and uh you
have it before you today for some common
feedback I'll very quickly run through
the highlights of the document uh for
you and then you're sort of happy to
take any questions about it
um it's of course no secret that a main
thrust of our legislative platform for
the upcoming session is around school
funding and obviously we really hit it
right from the beginning in the document
this is a very similar to the document
you approved in 2013 but even for
somebody who's been doing this uh for as
long as I have I still find some of the
statistics around school funding are
pretty striking as we look to try to
continue to build the investment in
education going forward
particularly of note the fact that over
the time period from 2003 to today the
state budget has grown by 56 percent uh
Public Safety excuse me 52 Public Safety
by 68 in human services by 84 percent
whereas education grew by 34.2 percent
not even keeping Pace with the growth in
the state budget really tells a more
Global story about The Arc that edge
education funding has been on in the
state so I think it's important to
uh so then moving from that we talk
about specific sort of legislative
priorities again to preface this this
document is really about creating a
framework for us as we go into the
legislative session really establishing
the the sort of 30 000 foot principles
that I will apply and the district will
apply in evaluating individual pieces of
legislation so we don't attempt to take
specific positions on individual pieces
of legislation or policy Concepts in
this document what we try to do is
inform that process so that we can be
nimble during the actual session and
taking those positions as the need
arises on individual bills I would
remind you that during the session
there'll be somewhere upwards of three
or four thousand pieces of legislation
introduced probably uh it's fair to say
about 30 percent of those affecting
public education so upwards of say a
thousand bills affecting public
education we won't position on every
single one of those a thousand one
thousand because most of them won't even
get a public hearing or get any
consideration so we obviously want to
position ourselves when valuable and
when we can have an impact on
specific bills so that's that's the
process we we use during the legislative
session
so you have a section that we sort of
title student achievement we talk about
some of our high priorities
um talking as well about some of the
state's
um sort of public policy education
policy initiatives globally
um obviously speaking to things like the
work of the oeib and some of the
concepts that have come out of that
around sort of strategic initiatives and
looking at the the value of that sort of
work going forward we do talk about
any sort of Education reform proposals
should not come and we we talk about
that in the I believe that's the third
bullet point under there any specific
reform should not come at the expense of
overall education funding so really
looking for any reforms to be additive
to the system not disruptive underneath
the base
um kind of thing
as well we have a bullet point talking
about sort of lifelong Learners and CTE
connectedness as well as higher ed
connectedness things like expanded
options and such programs in there as
well and support for that we come back
to education funding and we have again
quite a few specifics in here and we'll
call out for the viewer we do in the
state have something quality called the
quality education model which tells us
really how much is needed to actually
reach it's actually to reach 90 percent
of students reaching standards and
obviously we have in the state the 40 40
20 goal which an underlying factor of
that if you do the math is 100 of all
students graduating from high school so
this 90 requirement uh standard level
the qem says we would need 9.158 billion
dollars in this next biennium to reach
that goal
um I think it's fair to say we are
looking at something in the range of
seven billion dollars as the likely
01h 20m 00s
outcome of the session so still a very
significant Gap when it comes to
actually funding towards that outcome
forward
we also have in here a bullet point
around the state school distribution
fund formula and how we will weigh
proposals in that there is also always
in every session a number of proposals
dealing with how we distribute the money
regardless of how much that money is so
we do talk about how we will weigh that
and evaluate those proposals
individually to on their
um I've simply copy and pasted all of
the resolution bullet points from the
resolution you adopted to someone on the
smarter balance assessment as they
relate to this the work of the state
legislature so
um you'll see those copied in their
entirety right there then we have a
section called School District
Operations which looks at more of the
well the operational side of the
district talking about some of the cost
drivers that we
um that we deal with in the district
things like employee salary and wages
and health benefits and um and the like
underneath there then we go to the last
section which I call other areas of
legislative interest which is just a
smattering of some of the more Global
topics that we anticipate will come up
in a legislative session or that we also
conversely want to highlight
specifically things in this for instance
that the the first bullet point as we
point out PPS supports targeted efforts
that would benefit the district and or
the other similarly situated school
districts as we know Portland fits a
fairly unique spot in Oregon education
being both the largest District in the
state and the most Urban District in the
state so there are a number of
initiatives that we work on throughout
the session that are sort of uniquely
impactful to large school districts in
of course there's one hand on one hand
we can count this and a number of other
bullet points about supporting our
Community Partners supporting the work
of the city and the county where they
intersect with the district and
supporting our state Partners as well
where their legislative agendas align as
you know in a session we do work very
strongly in Coalition with any and all
willing Partners who
for uh graduate greater focus on
education
and with that would be happy to sort of
field questions about this too
Dr Buell
can you look at this last section under
uh
student achievement
says a key component of lifelong that's
the start of it yeah
down towards the bottom it talks about
CTE and it says that we strongly support
additional State Investments outside of
the state school fund right I was
looking to this in looking through this
document I didn't
it that's only CTE because you and I
were both at the oeib meeting and they
had they have last year
or two years ago Governor had 75 million
dollars that he was spending for his
priorities
which came out of it all has to come it
only comes in two places right it comes
from the federal or it comes from the
state money state money is common School
fund and is that pretty close to correct
I mean and so he was spending 75 million
dollars in this state common School fund
for his
stuff
well this year as you and I uniform
they're he's spending
870 million dollars
which for us at seven percent so we're
about seven percent of the state correct
that's that's 600 FTE of ours that he's
spending someplace else that aren't
going to get into our classrooms and so
are we
did we take that into account in our
legislation I mean are we saying no
that's too much money out of the state
school because that's got to come out of
the state school fund there's no place
else to get it that he's getting it he's
getting it there right including the
third grade including the third grade uh
reading initiative which is 400 million
dollars which is 28 million
uh he's he's spending that on actually
preschool and is that do you did you
know is that part of the kindergarten
is it because a couple hundred million
of that is the kindergarten initiative
is that beyond what they're planning to
give or is that what they're planning to
give see I you see what I'm saying I got
I don't know where that separates out
and we should be if it's beyond that we
should be fighting it and we should be
standing up and saying 870 million
dollars out there it's too much you know
600 of our fde out someplace in the
Hinterlands I mean it's not that it's
not good stuff that he's doing I think
it's good stuff but not against what
he's doing it's just that's a chunk of
change
870 million dollars
it's only a chunk of changes it comes
01h 25m 00s
out of what we currently get well it's
great if he would just add another yeah
out of the state budget now that's that
I could get behind it is he going to do
that I I don't know do you know David I
I don't know
so
um a little bit on the on the process
which I think is informative in the
specific instance so the governor will
release his actual Budget on December
1st
um the document that was put out at the
oeib meeting previously was informative
for sure but it lacked a significant
amount of detail for us to know exactly
I would point out that a couple hundred
million of what we know on that document
were what I would describe formula
changes that are merely reallocations of
existing dollars
um of specifically the 400 million you
refer to as the third grade reading
Early Childhood
um he did call out 220 million dollars
as
um as a way to pay for the move to full
day kindergarten yeah that's positive
but again we don't know any details
below that how is that money being
distributed
is 200 the right number so uh what we
have been advocating for the cult the
sort of broader Coalition is about 250
million dollars to pay for the move to
um and so to give you the sense
um
these are not firmed up in final numbers
as we go into session and um but what we
are generally looking at is what we
begin by advocating for is what we call
the true roll-up so how much will it
cost to run the education Enterprise
over the next two years the same as
we're running it now okay because we
gotta we gotta keep people employed and
keep moving forward and we estimate that
Statewide to be about 7.3 billion
dollars okay so we're at 6.65 right now
so 7.3 then add 200 to 250 million on
top of that to pay for full link unicorn
so
um I think generally our approach would
be that you have to begin from that as
your starting point then if we want to
have discussions about valuable
strategic initiatives no matter whether
they're coming from the oeid the
governor or individual legislators
because they will all have good ideas
but we need to talk about them in the
context of adding on top of the existing
system as we move
forward we can't merely carve out from
below those numbers to sort of redefine
the system right right
are we good on was that legislative
committee good on all that because I'm
good on all that that's wonderful yeah I
think that's exactly what the point I'm
trying to make director Atkins and I
think the other piece of that too is not
only should it not be carving out the
exist money and then mandating exactly
how it should have spent and then
requiring additional compliance and
Reporting which in itself has cost added
right and and puts limitations on local
districts and what they view is the
highest and most effective strategies
versus having the IV or whoever say well
we want you to make sure you spend you
know X percent or X you know million
dollars on this strategy or this
particular approach and you need to
report on it and do all this other hire
people in order to report on it right I
mean so I'm really
Direction
accountability yes but when it comes in
the form of these mandates not a
recognition that we need to have if we
want to do Innovative Pilots try new
things again do it on top of
um the other piece too I wanted to ask
about I just want to make sure I'm clear
on the quality education model it is in
the state constitution correct
correct and what it says in the state
constitution is that the legislature in
effect says the legislature will fund
the quality education model which as you
pointed out is about nine billion
dollars a couple billion dollars above
where the state currently chooses to
invest in our kids uh it needs to do
that or issue a report saying why it
isn't going to
is that basically what the Constitution
says that that is basically correct
there actually was a very interesting
court case a number of years ago about
the I think the Constitution uses the
word and instead of or when it comes to
writing a report and a number of school
districts sued the state saying you did
you're not off the hook for funding you
have to fund and uh the report is a nice
little touch but you have to fund the
system
um if I remember correctly essentially
the court said you know you're probably
right
but we as a court don't have any
jurisdiction to hold say the legislature
in contempt so there really was nothing
they could do about it so who would have
that jurisdiction
it's okay go ahead
well I'll start by stating the obvious
I'm not a lawyer
um but we pursued this I'm at one point
to decide whether or not there were some
changes we could make um and I think I
just heard director Knowles say under
her breath that um this is a this is a a
current Court ruling it is a judicial
interpretation of the law right which um
01h 30m 00s
says something to the effect of you
shall fund education they're very clear
that that is a demand and a command and
an expectation of the state but when the
voters approve the amendment to the
Constitution there was language in there
that said something to the effect of if
you can't fund it you must issue a
report and so they didn't feel they had
the authority to re-legislate that they
said that there are two opposing
viewpoints in that and so they try their
best to interpret voter intent and what
they said is in that in that Amendment
it seemed that voters anticipated that
there could be an opportunity to not
fund at that level and so gave the
legislature
basically an out a way to do it and so
um
that's where we left the conversation
there is nothing saying that there
couldn't be a change to that
Constitution again or another amendment
and I'll just say publicly that I'd be
happy to work with anybody and everybody
including our teachers union to work on
putting forth some kind of
Constitutional Amendment that would
correct that because I believe the
people of the state of Oregon are
interested in funding education at the
state required rate you're here
so we could include that in our
legislative priorities though
yes yeah yeah yes we can and certainly
as the institution
constitutional amendments to the
legislature and we have we've brought
several Constitutional Amendments
previously working trying to work on
reforms to the state's property tax
system
of course the caveat being once
something is certified for the ballot we
use
I wouldn't know battle measure one which
was the battle measure proving that um
championed and push through
correct
other comments
stretcher built
two major things the first one you
covered I appreciate and I appreciate
the way the board dealt with it because
I think it's correct the second one is
something we need to deal with too and
if you look at the very last thing on
the report the draft report
says PPS support servers to ensure that
when any data is collected and stored a
lot of students that have done reliably
and securely and that such data is only
is for legitimate educational purposes
we need to look at that as a district
besides this
two weeks ago the Oregon Employment
Division
had 850
000
of their people have their data breached
850 000 we are handing our data down to
the state the people who could not
protect the even 850 000 people's uh uh
social security number
we we could they can't protect it they
cannot protect our children's data
period they've proven that in this
breach like hey if you can't protect
that how can you protect our children's
data and so the state is asking us to
send down all of our children's data on
the longitudinal database which they
can't protect and it would you know what
we should really do really seriously
this is kind of this is almost a serious
thing we should write a letter to every
parent in our school district
or an email that says we are taking your
day your child's data and we are going
to hand it to criminals because that's
exactly what happened with all of the
employ all the unemployment data and
it's exactly what can happen to all of
our data
and the thing that a lot of people don't
understand about this data thing with
children is that the children's data is
much more valuable than adults because
it's clean
you have clean data so your child can
have their data stolen and it can go on
for several years so when
Mr Morton's son gets to college all of a
sudden they find out he's got a record
in Wyoming and he owes three thousand
dollars in Texas I mean no it's how it
it's how it it's how it really works so
he can't get into the college that he
wants because he's got a felony record
someplace it's just craziness and we're
just saying to the state take our kids
data and give it to criminals and
basically that's what happened with the
employment data and it's basically what
we are doing when we send them our
children's data so we need to have our
people look at it and we need to go down
to the legislature and say I'm sorry
we're not we're not going to hand you
our children's data to turn over to
criminals because that's exactly what
we're doing and we need to figure out
what we can do about that because it's a
terrible thing if it happens or seven
about what 600 between 600 and 700 000
01h 35m 00s
kids in Oregon and we're handing their
data to criminals good luck on that and
just wrong and we need to figure out
what we're going to do about it and so I
like this part about saying this but but
it's stronger than this
it's really important thing for our
school board to look at and and say hey
we need to quit it
well I'm glad that you included that
within the priorities all those of you
on the committee so it was it was a
discussion that we had um and also very
concerned about it if I'm remembering
our discussion correctly and please
correct me if I'm wrong
um but what I also remember us
discussing is that the reality in
today's world is the being able to
protect somebody's data is really
challenging
FBI gets hacked CIA gets hacked
everybody thinks
so we chose
um not to and I just want to point out
that um if somebody's data is stolen
such as the states or any individuals
that doesn't make them criminal it makes
the person that actually talking about
we're actually handing it to criminals
because they can't protect it right and
so and we say well if they can protect
it we want to make sure they can protect
the one story they can't protect us
right so I guess what our discussion was
is that our district State Whoever has
the data has been shown that it's really
challenging to protect it so what we
wanted to make sure is that we were
advocating for policies and procedures
that take into account because lots of
students are on devices iPads
Chromebooks all of this stuff and many
people are starting to use technology
applications and they all have Clauses
about what they can do with student data
what data they're collecting and then
they Market it and sell it and all of
those pieces and so we took that tack
I'd be curious if other people are
interested I'm not sure what we can do
to protect data anymore because again
everybody but
but we then were is on the hook as the
state I guess is was our part of our
discussion is that protecting data is a
challenge and we do as best we can as
will the state but our what we were
trying to do with the legislative is to
say let's be realistic about all the
data for example if we are sending them
we don't want it to go to a company who
then sells it to a third party who then
markets to our children or something
like that and so we took that tack but
if other folks are interested yeah and
this is the I think this is probably the
best tax you're going to take Lou
Frederick is probably will have a bill
that deals with data I hope we're really
very supportive of it and we
and I hope that um he actually goes even
farther because I think that um I think
it could benefit from even more
stringent oh well they should not have a
state longitudinal database that in any
way identifies any of our children
that's where they should go if they want
to get disaggregated today I mean data
that's aggregated and we send this and
that's not but it's the one we send
actual information which identifies our
children we should not be at they
shouldn't even be asking us to do that
because it's wrong because they can't
protect it sorry okay thank you
thank you any other questions or
comments
first do you have comments correct yeah
I had a chance to sit on the committee
as well and I want to recognize David
and his work and his Insight keeping his
finger on the pulse of what's Happening
um Statewide I think the uh the reality
of this is that in many ways it's our
opportunity to create a real partisan uh
document to say this is about us as a
district but the other balance of that
is that it also takes into consideration
what we see in terms of the need across
the state which I think that's an
important balance to strike
um the other piece real quickly too is
that uh as we make this available the
the intention and the attitude in as we
go and prepare for Salem is to every
partner parent student Advocate that we
can gather with us
um I I hope we pursue that whether that
is
Cosa or osba or the governor's office or
elected officials in in Salem OR our
teachers our p-a-t or oea and so on
these are all folks that the voice The
Voice amplifies more and more what
happens when we have an opportunity to
speak together and I think I think
things like
um uh the funding level can continue to
be chipped away as we saw in the last
session so and that's a credit that I
think everyone can take
contest that so I appreciated the
opportunity to and I think this document
just
my perception being on the on the
committee this document outlines a lot
01h 40m 00s
of that partisan work but also the
balance of what the state needs
thank you others
Senator we had a couple of questions
um so I was also on this committee and
um I had an exchange with David today
about one area where it seemed like we
had um not included a piece and that had
to do with the fifth year student issue
so could you go ahead and address how
we're going to deal with that or yes
maybe explain to people what we're
talking about thank you so at one of our
meetings we did talk about putting in
here a a a priority around the growing
use of the fifth year senior programs
where students who have effectively
graduated from high school the district
withholds their diploma and allows them
to attend a nearby college and they
continue to collect State School fund
dollars to pay for that student
so we did a bullpling and I I apologize
it was not in this draft it will be in
the final as explored I can read it here
for you right now I step right in front
of me
um we say uh we say there's a current
movement among school districts to
create five-year high school diploma
programs that include a fifth year
solely for post-secondary enrollment PPS
believes that the state should establish
a dedicated source of funds to invest in
these programs so as not to dilute the
state school fund but rather provide
students with no cost or low-cost access
to higher education
and this is a practice that's expanding
around Oregon and so I think it's
important that we have something in here
so um I also so thank you for that and
then I also wanted to mention
um two other things as we go forward
um David I'm hoping that we are going to
be you are going to be organizing an
opportunity for us to be meeting with
Portland area legislators to go through
this with them prior to the legislative
session we usually do that right yeah
thank you for the question so that
really also is the next task for the
legislative committee is a
great work on developing this really Now
launch into the phase of developing an
advocacy plan which made something I'll
write up for them to
improve and work on doing sort of
concerted advocacy both in December and
January and then once session starts in
February throughout the legislative
session as I would anticipate some of
the things that would be in there as we
did two years ago
is a fairly robust legislative briefing
for as many of the area PPS area
legislators as possible came here to the
building with board members and staff to
go through the legislative platform we
had if you recall specific legislators
come during the session to your board
meetings and address specific issues as
they arose I think we had Senator Devlin
the co-chair of ways it means we had
uh Senator Dem bro come and talk about
what was going
we will probably continue to do that
similar practice as well as Outreach
days where members of the board uh come
down to Salem last year we had a very uh
great day in Salem where we had board
members superintendent Smith as well as
uh folks from Pat join us for some group
meetings in Salem where we really pushed
hard on education funding I was I
believe around the President's Day rally
which usually happens in Salem so a lot
of those similar activities will will
happen
very effective in moving our message
David I had a
um I was very impressed around the last
legislative session with a program that
they had out in Beaverton
I'm not sure if they've partnered with
the PT I think they did but it was more
an educational program where they
did a review of exactly where the money
comes from for the legislature and then
where it goes to give
parents in the community a better idea
about what what school funding is all
about where does where's the money to
come from for our schools
and I think that they had a lot of
success with just educating their
Community around that but would you
check into that uh program I think they
they did it with their PTA and with
their Foundation I think were the two
partners that the district used to do
that and they had huge turnouts for
those they did two of them
so my final one is I appreciate the um
statements in here about us working with
our Statewide education partners and I
know that you ran this past Association
of teachers and some other groups in
Coalition of communities of color Cosa a
variety of different groups so
um and I um also appreciate that you
mentioned that we're also going to be
supporting the efforts of the city of
Portland Multnomah County Metro
neighboring school districts and the
rest
um as that makes sense for us to kind of
partner together with them my my
question is I know that you you focus
your primary focus is on the state
legislature you also do some federal
01h 45m 00s
work
in terms of the city and the county and
the metro and and when they're have an
item on their agenda that is of interest
to us I'm still trying to understand
how who's following those agendas so
that if the county has a budget item
related to health care clinics or some
schools or the city has something
related to sros we can be sure that we
are participating as appropriate in
those in those efforts or if they are
going to the legislature and lobbying on
something that impacts us how we do that
together so is that you or is that John
who who is who's kind of coordinating
the city county other entity roles yeah
no I think that's an excellent question
and you know what we do try to do is
weigh in where appropriate I know for
instance the city is going to be
discussing the street fee this week and
we've been working with them in the
development and we'll be presenting um
words of support around Investments that
the city is making based on that
scope of the work of the legislature it
is certainly and fairly where we invest
the vast majority of our time because
the work that they do is both 70 or 80
percent of our budget as well as
probably 80 percent of our sort of
operating Life as a district is
encompassed in statutes so I just think
that that's that's where you see the
bulk of that work is that scope
um where appropriate and where issues
arise as needed I think that's when we
tackle those with the county and the
city
um both as our efforts can align in
Salem although generally when they align
in say limits around the city and the
county wanting to support our efforts
um for instance the the mayor of
Portland two years ago organized a big
sort of mayor's education day in Salem
and it was mostly a call-in thing but we
supported their efforts and tried to
help them as they educated Mayors about
Educational Funding
um
where there are specific budget items in
the city's budget and the counties
try to impact that as much as we
can't bring great Partners into the us
as excellent partners and so generally
they reach out to us on a fairly
informal level up and down the
organization
um you know where where appropriate
based on the issue at hand you know
whether that be
in facilities you know if it's around a
planning issue or some such whether it's
you know
our level if it's something more Global
like the street fee or whether it's you
know something specific program based
that intersects some other area of the
organization
I guess I want to make sure that we have
the opportunity when our when our great
partners are devoting money that impacts
us in a positive way I want to make sure
that we have an opportunity to be out
there
meetings and to thank them for that or
to suggest tweaks or whatever it might
be and I just want to make sure we don't
miss those opportunities as we go so I
want to make sure somebody's pink
because I know that David spends a lot
of time in Salem during the session but
I want to make sure somebody else is
following the other agenda so that we
can be oppressed and I think we can
always do better with that John is doing
some of that with the city bureaus and
we do an informal
get together with the mayor on a regular
basis kind of checking where our common
you know what are the things we're
working on together or how are we
supporting each other and David just
described it well in terms of there's a
lot of interface with facilities David
and um and John do some tag teaming and
we can always be better at paying
attention to this I think you guys also
scan things and we'll bring it to our
attention too so
keep keep doing that you know and I
think it's fair to say that there's
there's
so much of my specific effort is devoted
down in silence
it will ebb and flow as we have an
ability
Dr Buell
and two specific one comment kind of and
then a real specific question on a
little section here that I don't
understand exactly and I want to make
sure it's clear and then I have one
other comment
we say
we support the priorities of the Oregon
School Board Association okay I've
looked at those are not too bad they're
pretty good and so on but the
confederation of Oregon school of
Administrators I don't know what those
are and a lot of times I question those
so I'm not so sure that we should be
saying that we're supporting their
priorities unless they're also mixing
with our priorities
is you know I don't know exactly how
they mix up I haven't studied it enough
to know so I just had that reservation
01h 50m 00s
on this David do you have a copy of what
they're proposing so you could
distribute to us
um what you see with osba and Cosa are
two different approaches to legislative
advocacy
osba as you will have read all their
stuff they are specific legislative
policies in private
Cosa takes a much more subjective
approach and they don't actually approve
a formal
legislative platform for the leg
Al election and remain as a more Nimble
um focused shot and I think to a degree
they maintain a greater degree of
connectedness with their membership
basis specifically the superintendent
base among that organization to be a
sort of constant sounding board for
their advocacy efforts but you know if
there was a specific thing that you
think we as an institution would have a
big problem with that customer do I you
know I certainly welcome you to raise
that I would note that in that again we
do say that's where our issues do align
which for all of our Statewide Harbors
osba Cosa oea osca Oregon PTA I would
say the overlap is probably in the 90 to
95
of Pam points out that it says common
okay so I kind of I got the draft on it
and I missed that a little bit but yeah
okay
I wanted to highlight highlight that and
maybe we should add the oea in with that
we had three thousand teachers in that
organization so we should be supporting
a lot of their stuff where they overlap
too of course uh well go back to can I
go back to this one sentence and I have
one more comment and
oh this one it says it's on the
legislative priorities second to last
paragraph right above where it says
other areas of legislative interest it's
the second one that starts out PPS
supports the creation
I was making a note help me out again
okay
second paragraph down yep
uh and it is this sentence and I want to
know which which way to read this
sentence uh PPS supports Statewide
efforts to encourage local collaboration
and development of metrics or including
student achievement growth and
evaluations and my understanding is that
as a school board we talked about it
that we're not for that having student
achievement growth and evaluations that
was kind of in our
Common Core
thing that was my understanding so I'm
not sure are we support are we actually
are we supporting this or what and so
should this sentence read PBS supports
Statewide efforts to encourage local
collaboration and local development of
metrics or are we actually supporting
the development of metrics for including
student achievement growth and
evaluations which way is that sentence
supposed to be right so I read it as
encourage local collaboration and local
development
right exactly okay and the last thing is
I I think we have to be careful with
that we're kind of
we're using as a as a board and as an
Administration and as a district really
the word achievement gap which and we're
not really defining it exactly correct
and I think it'd be a good idea if we
would at least think about it because
the achievement Gap is it the gap on the
testing or is it the gap on the reading
from my point of view it's a gap on the
reading that what we want is all of our
children to read at grade level the
testing thing is different and it's
becoming even more different with the S
back testing so I'm not sure which
achievement Gap are we that we want to
push on
one of the other mathematics might be
better with but the aspect is also
changing the way that we're looking at
mathematics of course and it's becoming
more can you write about mathematics
then can you do mathematics which is
questionable there's a lot of
questionable things around that so I
just wanted to bring that out that when
we say achievement Gap do we mean the
testing or do we mean the reading and
the foundational mathematics skills or
what we just use it Loosely and and I
and there's a huge difference between
the two things I just want to point that
out for something to think about as a
board so I appreciate you listening to
me on that
others at direct dragons yeah I think
just one comment to that piece I mean I
feel like we've been using the term
opportunity Gap
um
because there's it's it's not just about
test scores it's also about reading
graduation rate it's about opportunities
in all different ways exactly anyway I
just wanted to say thank you to um to
David and to the legislative committee
for your work this is outstanding and
really appreciated and I'm really
excited about moving forward and
advocating strongly in Salem and with
all our community to keep that I know
we've been in there in the trenches for
decades some of us and we've got to all
01h 55m 00s
keep keep pushing because our kids
deserve it
I just wanted to highlight um two other
things but before I get there um I
wanted to ask we had talked at one point
about including this encouraging the
state to um locally allow for bonding
Authority for buildings for facilities
as we just had our bond earlier to help
leverage additional funds so it doesn't
rest on local communities and I don't
see it again in this draft but I know it
was in one draft so
just a placeholder if it's not there I I
would assume that we would support I
know it fits perfectly on four pages um
but if it's if it's not there to include
five pages when you get it back
the second thing is I just wanted to
highlight
um two things that I'm really also
encouraged by is one is our position
that we don't support the state moving
to a Statewide collective bargaining a
Statewide salary schedule we believe
again that's a local control issue for
us to be working with our staff and
um lastly I just want to acknowledge
that we're also advocating for Statewide
funding for outdoor school when I hear
director Morton talk about a balance
between local and Statewide to bring
those opportunities in and we'll have a
budget discussion about this but really
this is I think a Statewide ethos about
Environmental Education and it should
really come as a Statewide opportunity
so
we're
when I talked to uh
at least one Union person about this
particular paragraph they might say
you're we're in favor of collective
bargaining right
as a form
okay I just wanted to get that out in
public to make
a bit here it's not quite as strong a
statement as hey we're for yes we don't
want you to in there great with
collective bargaining don't think the
state should meddle in it yeah
okay great what a great discussion
um
so we'll move on to our next agenda item
we're fortunate that director Reagan
serves on the osba board and is the
president-elect of that board
so I'd like to an org OSB I should say
Oregon school boards Association rather
than just osba for everybody who doesn't
know what that um stands for so I'd like
to ask her to provide us with a brief
overview of the osba ballot and the
board will vote on this at our uh next
meeting in on November 25th so thank you
so technically I'm still vice president
of the Oregon school boards Association
but in January I'll be president-elect
um
so
um there's a series of resolutions that
we're going to be looking at voting on
um so I think we're just going to
introduce those this week and then we
actually will vote next week
um and the other thing that we wanted to
do tonight is to introduce the promise
of Oregon campaign and show the new Full
uh three and a half minute video
associated with that so first of all I
just wanted to first start by just
saying
um the Oregon school boards Association
is a Statewide Association and it
supports school board members as we seek
to improve student achievement and there
are school board members now in 197
districts across Oregon and it's helpful
to reflect that most of those are very
small and very rural school districts
there's only 10 or 12 school districts
in Oregon that have more than one high
school
so when you're talking about a Statewide
Association supporting that you need to
understand that you know Portland Public
Schools is the only Urban district and
then there's only nine or ten others
that have more than one high school so
you're an association that's that's
supporting all of those so osba as an
organization provides services Direct
Services to many of our smaller
districts
it partners with education organizations
Statewide to a Lobby for public
education generally and it provides
tools resources and professional
development for volunteer elected school
board members across the state
so
um in terms of the several resolutions
we're going to look at the first one is
a resolution that supports the promise
of Oregon
campaign and just so you know what that
is at last weekend's uh Oregon school
boards association annual convention we
actually participated in a workshop to
help board members understand what this
campaign is all about and how they can
use it to change the conversation in
Oregon around public education and
around our students and so I first of
all wanted to thank John Isaacs if he's
still here so director of communications
02h 00m 00s
and family engagement and I also wanted
to thank Minaj aswald our student
representative for participating with me
and others in that Workshop that was
really fun and it was really exciting to
have a student voice in that
conversation as well so I have wanted
the Oregon School Board cessation
Association to do a public relations
campaign around public education for a
long time and so it's so exciting to see
the organization the whole organization
come together and embrace it and I just
give them huge huge credit and I'm so
grateful for this campaign and part of
the reason we wanted to do this is
because today
media is often focused on the most
Sensational stories or the most negative
stories out there and the question is
who's telling the positive stories about
public education and our kids and why it
matters so you know generally the tone
of the messages seems to be often you
know public education public employees
Public School teachers are bad we should
privatize Public Schools public
retirement benefits they're too generous
you know you even have stories now about
kids and how lazy they are and that you
move to Portland to retire I mean it's
just such negative
portrayal of our kids and of public
schools in general and even positive
stories often end up sounding negative
in the media or at least the headlines
come off negative and the example I gave
was a couple of years ago The Oregonian
did an article that basically had a
headline about how Washington State
beat Oregon again in terms of ACT scores
for our high school students well it
turns out once you read the article you
realize that Washington state was first
in the nation in terms of ACT scores and
Oregon was second
and so the headline could have been you
know the northwest or Oregon Washington
take first and second place but instead
it was if you if all you read was the
headline you would have thought Oregon
was just doing horrible and so it's
trying to just kind of turn that
conversation around a little bit
and to
um
talk more positively so we know in fact
that we will invest in our kids the
conversation really is whether or not we
want to invest early in public education
which often and always is less expensive
than investing later in human services
or you know welfare or even in public
safety which is a much more expensive
way that you invest so if we all accept
that we're going to invest it would
probably be
um
smart for us to look at that and then
the other thing I think that we all need
to be thinking about is whether or not
we look at publication public education
as an expense or whether we look at it
as an investment if you look at public
education as an expense you're going to
make really short-term decisions and try
to spend as little as possible if you
look at it as an investment
you're going to look at much more in the
long term and you're going to make
smarter decisions as you go and so again
that's the conversation we want to
change at the state legislature and even
among ourselves
um and so what the promise of Oregon
campaign is about a quarter million
dollar investment that the Oregon school
boards Association is making to try to
begin to change that conversation and
again obviously the hope is to help us
all understand that our kids are worthy
of the investment so I wanted to see if
we could just first run the three-minute
video now and then we'll talk about the
resolutions that are coming forward
thank you
I am the promise of Oregon because I'm
gonna do so many things when I grow up I
want to build Bridges so cars can go
over them and under them I want to be a
gardener and make more air in the world
I want to be a painter and paint
everything and travel the world
I want to find a way to make people not
be allergic to peanut butter
and the promise of Oregon because I'm
gonna stop bullying and have everyone be
friends
I forgot what I was gonna say
I have the promise of Oregon because
when I grow up I'm gonna get a
scholarship go to college learn about
endangered species and save those
endangered species
02h 05m 00s
I would like to take after my dad and be
a great electrician I'm gonna swim
across an ocean I'm gonna own my own tow
truck company I'm the promise of Oregon
because I'm gonna make Oregon more green
I either want to be a missionary or a
comedian
I want to be just like my mom
I'm the promise of working because I
want to help people bring babies into
the world I'm going to help premature
babies like my brother Logan help
children who have heart problems I help
people understand different cultures
better I'm going to stop diabetes I'm
gonna be the mail lady
I'm the promise of Oregon because I want
to teach people that their mouth doesn't
just come from the grocery store
I want to change people's lives with
music and theater
this sounds kind of nerdy but I want to
be a physicist
I'm going to discover something unknown
in the Deep reaches of outer space
I am the promise of Oregon because I
want to show my passion through
like I'm going to teach agriculture
education because without agriculture
we'd all be naked and hungry
I'm going to win the gold medal in the
200 meter in the 2020 Olympics I'm going
to be the first person to pole vault on
the moon I hope to influence Oregon
public policy and get involved in
politics I want to start a new family
tradition
I want to put an end
ogram I don't have to suffer I want to
write books that will take people to
whole new worlds I'm the promise of
Oregon because I'm going to keep asking
the
clinical stand up for people who cannot
stand up for them
so fight for loss protect the
environment I want to design buildings
that are good for the environment I went
to work for the right to equal
opportunity
provide a to people in third world
countries I'm going to report stories
from around the world I want to make
people happy every day
three two one
yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes I'm
the promise of organ yes I'm the premise
of Oregon yes I am the promise of
warrior
so Bobby I have a question for you yeah
so I'm in maybe you don't know the
answer but it's uh 250 000 is what's the
main vehicle for
how they're going to spend it how we're
going to get that message out yeah so
first of all just to make this video
they ended up visiting 25 to 30
different school districts across Oregon
so that it would really represent the
whole state they're going to be
providing a variety of literature out to
districts posters that sort of thing
thumb drives with this medium on it and
the real focus of the campaign is to
have a really strong social media
presence with the hope that people will
send in pictures of their own kids that
say I'm the promise of Oregon or that we
will take pictures of ourselves holding
up signs like this I'm keeping the
promise of Oregon it's really to spread
the word
and then to you know as we get into the
legislative session we'll we'll be
targeting that even more as we go so
it'll be a whole variety of different
mediums like this that we'll be seeing
over the next couple of months
cool yeah it's really cool and if you
didn't notice Mina was in that video and
osba did do some filming in uh in the
Portland School District which is great
every day on the website for a promise
of Oregon they're putting out a new
promise of Oregon kid that's being
featured and again I would really
encourage you to like the Facebook page
for the promise of Oregon and there's
also a website for the promise of Oregon
that gives you things that you can print
out yourself like this and would show
the three minute video I put the three
minute video up on my own web page and
you know I've had eight shares already
in the last couple of days so
um it's just trying to spread the word
ourselves that
we view our kids as worthy of the
investment and and truly being the
promise this is what's going to take us
all forward so it's pretty exciting I'm
just excited that we have a School Board
Association that is that is so engaged
in this way and in supporting us and
supporting our legislative agenda so
so one of the resolutions that we are
going to be asked to vote on next week
is simply a resolution in support of the
promise of Oregon campaign so hopefully
that one's pretty straightforward
um another resolution that we're going
02h 10m 00s
to be looking at is we just heard from
David on the osba legislative
policies and priorities and on
Portland's and we also have information
here a draft of the Oregon school boards
Association legislative policies and
priorities and my guess is we might do a
little bit of discussion tonight on
these if anyone has questions but why
don't I just run through really quickly
what the other
resolutions are real quick
um we will be voting on candidates for
the osba board and so a couple of years
ago osba changed the way they do
elections so that instead of it being a
Statewide election to the osba board
regions are actually selecting our own
board members and so in Multnomah County
we have three board members on the osba
board in my seat I'm running unopposed
and we have in position 19 we have two
people running recommending Doug
Montgomery who is on the Multnomah
County ESD for that role he's been
serving for one cycle two years he's
done a really nice job he went to
Washington DC and lobbied with us he's
really focused on special on the needs
of special ed kids and trying to get
nurses into all of our schools he's got
a real passion around
kind of the safety net and Social
Services issues and I highly highly
recommend him again for the board
there's two other quick resolutions that
are are more housekeeping kind of
resolutions for osba itself one in and
but their constitutional changes so they
have to be voted on by the membership
one is we have a couple of districts
around Oregon especially in really rural
outlying areas where it's hard sometimes
to find folks to step up into the board
if we don't find someone to volunteer to
step up to run we don't want to leave
the position vacant and so we're
proposing that as the last resort we
could appoint somebody from adjacent
districts so again you have that rural
representation on the board that tends
to be where we find it the most and I
think the final resolution was just
again a housekeeping change where we had
some old language about or the way we
used to
pass resolutions in the way we used to
elect board members where we voted
Statewide at the annual conference and
instead we now vote within our own
boards after the annual conference and
regionally
so those are the resolutions I don't
think I've left any off
um but I'd love to just open it up
so
um comments on
let's start with the promise of Oregon
comments
that's a resolution for us any comments
on the resolution
okay
and then we also have the
osba legislative agenda
comments from board members on that I
think David
covered a little bit of it that's the
same the pieces that are common for us
so
anybody have any questions on that
and by the way these are put together by
a group of
um 38 school board members from around
the state so each region has a school
board member and a legislative policy
Committee Member the legislative poly
committee is is all of those combined so
it's uh this represents the work of 38
different school board members from
around yeah
one of the places I disagree with are
legislative policies and priorities is
the supporting the continuation of the
oeib they do have conditions but the
conditions aren't strong enough in my
opinion
the achievement compacts I don't think
the Chima compacts are doing any good in
this
for anybody really and so it's unless
that equalized a section 400 no I I
don't want to make suggestions or
anything I just want to kind of kind of
highlight both of those that were things
that um
it'd be nice if the osba would get
behind though and help them straighten
up the oeib because it's such a
instead of saying well okay little
things put a parent on it yeah
they have parents on it and I'm I'm poor
putting a school board member a paranona
but they have parents on it they're
people that are parents uh
Nicole mayor brought her baby a couple
times she's a parent I mean you know
they're it's kind of it's just such a
weird setup
thank you
for their comments
director Paulo coming I just wanted to
reflect back I thought I heard you say
for a minute put a parrot not a parent
that was like they already have 14
parrots
02h 15m 00s
they have 14 parents on there they just
keep parroting cliches back and forth
day after day down there so I don't know
well it is interesting to think that the
the oeib actually does have to be
reinstated this year it expires unless
it's affirmatively reinstated and so
that's going to be really certainly
worth considering conversation yeah
see anything else
other comments
okay uh Bobby thank you so much for both
the stuff on the promise of Oregon and
your work on the Oregon school boards
Association I appreciate you
representing us there and
thank you so
I think that's it for tonight uh the
next meeting of the board will be held
on Tuesday November 25th where we'll
vote both on the Oregon school boards
Association and I are we coming back and
voting on our legislative priorities
that night as well that's what I thought
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)