2015-09-01 PPS School Board Regular Meeting
District | Portland Public Schools |
---|---|
Date | 2015-09-01 |
Time | missing |
Venue | missing |
Meeting Type | regular |
Directors Present | missing |
Documents / Media
Notices/Agendas
AGENDA 09-01-15 REVISED (45fc15d59a54378e).pdf Revised Agenda
Materials
09-01-15 Final Packet (d56985cecaefdbd2).pdf Meeting Materials
9-1-15 Meeting Overview (eba609bbab169baf).pdf Meeting Overview
LHS Partners BoE 090115 (e15e8fe65a26297d).pdf PowerPoint Presentation
Minutes
Transcripts
Event 1: Board of Education - Regular Meeting - September 1, 2015
00h 00m 00s
when they get on
um superintendent Smith is absent
tonight due to family emergency and uh
wanted to let her know on behalf of the
board and the whole PPS community that
we're thinking about her and her family
uh Amanda whan our chief of staff will
be joining at the dis introducing agenda
items director sparza Brown is also
absent this
evening um we would now uh go to
Suzanne
um on Cohen on behalf of the Portland
Association of teachers uh who's going
to come um and
present uh speak to us
tonight
welcome yeah
thank espe chair kler for giving us time
on the agenda tonight I am Suzanne Cohen
the P vice president and I'm here as a
part of a team effort with the p
advocacy committee which I'll tell you
just a little bit about in a minute and
this is Tia Smith Wallace an educator
from Lincoln High School and also one of
the members of our advocacy
committee as Educators um we believe
that a safe and supportive learning
environment is one of the cornerstones
of creating the schools our students
deserve and we're here tonight because
Frontline educators are clear there's a
safety crisis in Portland Public Schools
and we need your help in addressing it
tonight we're going to be presenting
some of the key findings from a safety
survey we conducted with our members
last spring um but the most important
result is right
here more than a third of Educators
believe that their school environment is
unsafe this figure is even more
disturbing when you consider that in
2014 as a part of the national tell
survey only 14% of Educators felt their
school environment was unsafe this last
school year we saw a substantial
increase of students and staff getting
hurt in our schools and to be blunt the
district's response has been abysmal how
many concussions or trips to the
hospital will it take for PPS to address
the very real safety issues in our
schools and give us the resources we
need to deal with the problems we face
as a part of our survey we gave
respondents space to write open-ended
comments in each section and we'll be
sharing some of these comments with you
as a part of our presentation I think
they really drive home the gravity of
the situation we're seeing in our um
classrooms so here are a few of the
comments addressing safety um one
educator said students do not feel safe
because there is at times a feeling of
chaos students who are doing the right
thing do not necessarily see anything
being done when others don't do the
right
thing uh another educator reported I
have a student with severe behavioral
and emotional needs he is in my full he
is in my class full-time usually without
support this student is unpredictable he
hits runs throws objects yells and
pushes others I worry about the safety
of my other
students so as I mentioned this has been
a team effort spearheaded by our
advocacy committee and I want to take a
moment to give special thank to all our
members at P we are committed to
building the schools Portland Students
deserve which includes a safe and
supportive learning environment and as
Educators we're going to use all the
tools at our disposal including our
contract to give the students what they
need so one important role that we can
play is giving um an independent uh
information and an authentic teacher
voice to the school board about what's
actually happening in our schools so
that we can address the problems and
find real Solutions together and that's
why we're here tonight so let me tell
you a little bit about the survey every
P member covered by our main contract
with the district received the survey we
received responses from over 30% of our
members about a thousand Educators and
so tonight we're just going to present
some of our key results and then we'll
be attending the teaching and learning
committee to go over more of the survey
results tonight we're going to focus on
three areas um um we're going to talk
about the district's track record of
developing disseminating and applying
its own discipline policies in Portland
Public Schools we're also going to talk
a little bit about the district's
decision to hollow out the Continuum of
special education services and PPS as a
part of a special ed redesign and how
that's impacted classroom safety and
then we can't ignore the long
withstanding problem in PPS which is the
patchwork of discipline systems across
the district and more importantly the
00h 05m 00s
fact that most are not not provided with
the resources they require and are too
often imposed from above rather than
being developed collaboratively in our
schools so before I go any further I
want to talk about something that I'm
sure you're all thinking about which is
the connection between safety issues and
our shared goal of reducing suspensions
and expulsions generally as well as
specifically eliminating
disproportionate disciplines for student
of color students of color and
PPS as P leaders we all want to reduce
the number of suspensions and expulsions
in Portland schools because if kids
aren't in school they aren't learning
and we have to recognize and address
that racial disparities and discipline
not just here in Portland but our
Nationwide and the figures are
staggering and what's happening is not
right No One Believes it's okay to
suspend or expel black brown or native
students more frequently than their
white counter points Parts but as we we
will discuss in more detail tonight ppss
approach directing an arbitrary
reduction in suspensions and expulsions
is starting at the wrong end of the
problem we need real supports in place
on the front end so we can head off the
kinds of behaviors that might trigger a
suspension or expulsion in the first
place we want every student to have
their individual social and emotional
needs met it's part of our Union's
commitment to building the schools that
all Portland Students deserve but it
requires a safe and supportive learning
environment last week Sarah singer Rick
pman and lenzo po reported that PPS is
on track to achieve the goal of reducing
exclusionary discipline by 50% and still
working to reduce disproportionate
disciplines by the same
margin when asked these District
officials provided very few specifics as
to how they were achieving these results
our survey results paint a very
different picture of what's Happening
inside our schools and offer some
insights into why and how the number of
exclusionary disciplines reported by the
district continue to decline the
contrast between our report tonight and
last week's presentation should serve as
a red flag to all of you especially when
more than a third of your staff twice as
many as the year before report that
their school environment is
unsafe so I don't want to keep you all
in suspense here's our
conclusions first PPS is doing a poor
job following its own rules and the pat
contract which three of you that served
last year voted to approve this problem
runs from top to bottom including spotty
work by the district disseminating
district-wide policies developing
school-based discipline plans
communicating standards to Educators and
consistently applying discipline
standards with students second we're
seeing a big problem stemming from The
District's special ed redesign in effect
the district has been hollowing out the
Continuum of service for special
education students particularly cutting
out midlevel options like Behavior
classrooms this has left Educators and
building administrators with options at
either end of the spectrum such as a
more restrictive placement or
mainstreaming students without necessary
supports it's not fair to our students
and it's contributing to unsafe
classroom conditions and finally the
district continues to use a hodgepodge
of disciplinary systems rarely giving us
any of the fronted resources necessary
to head off behaviors that trigger
suspensions and expulsions positive
programs such as PBIS and restorative
justice are implemented half-hazard Le
it seems that the district is more
interested in jinting up positive
headlines than rather than actually
addressing behavior problems
implementation of many programs has been
so peacemeal and top down that in most
places failure is almost guaranteed so
we have a lot of work to
do so one of the the first things we
wanted to find out with our survey was
how the district was doing implementing
their own policies as Educators we know
that there's a few steps involved in
effective discipline program first you
have to have clear expectations second
administrators have to communicate those
expectations to both students and staff
third those expectations and any
consequences have to be consistently
applied and finally the response to
specific in incidences has to be timely
so let's see how we're doing in each of
these four areas in addition to this
districtwide student rights and
responsibility handbook each school is
required to create a written student
discipline plan these plans are supposed
to be finalized in May for the following
school year and Educators and families
should receive them within the first two
weeks of
school what we found when we asked our
members however is that this is just not
happening we ask respondents if their
school has a written student discipline
00h 10m 00s
plan
62% report that they do not have or do
not know if their school has a written
building student discipline
plan one educator wrote I have asked to
see one and have never been given one I
was told there is no handbook another
said we have written rules and
expectations but not procedures to
follow when said rules and expectations
are
violated we also asked our members if
they thought administrators at their
school clearly communicated policies and
procedures regarding student conduct
given the previous slide it probably
won't surprise you that half of our
members do not believe policies and
procedures are clearly
communicated staff is not really sure
what the policies and procedures are I'm
not even sure the administration really
knows what they are with all the change
happening another educator said there's
no transparency students will engage in
very unsafe behaviors and administrators
respond that their hands are tied by the
district that they cannot exclude
students students get the message there
are no real consequences for their
behavior so their behavior escalates to
dangerous levels so I want to take a
moment to emphasize an issue that we've
heard over and over again from our
survey
respondents that building administrators
are not applying the consequences our
policies tell us should be applied or
not applying them
consistently we think it's clear that
this is a result of the district telling
administrators they're being evaluated
on reducing the number of disciplines at
their school and I feel their pain
because just like teachers they've been
asked to solve a problem without any of
the resources necessary that a real
solution requires but you can't wave a
magic wand and make these problems go
away and it's this pressure from the
district is having another really toxic
side effect which is it is seriously
undermining The credibility of our
statistics on discipline and referrals
we've received widespread reports that
ad administrators are systematically
suppressing or Under reporting
discipline problems not filing referrals
changing them once in the the system the
whole gamut we all support the goal of
reducing exclusionary disciplines and
disproportionate discipline but cooking
the books is not a solution and in the
long run it makes the problem worse
because it undermines trust and the
district's
credibility as the last quote suggested
students are getting the wrong message
about behavioral expectations
we asked our members if student
consequences were consistent with the
building discipline plans or the student
rights and responsibilities handbook and
nearly half 47%
disagreed uh when asked about
consequences one educator responded our
written building plan does not outline
or describe consequences the district
handbook does not seem to be followed at
all another noted students at our school
are not safe there are no real
consequences for violent behaviors
students will be sent to the office only
to be returned to class 5 minutes later
students are bullied and our
administrators are either unwilling or
unable to hold kids accountable another
responded this there is minimal to no
information shared regarding how
discipline is determined defined
assigned Etc as a teacher I feel in the
dark about what discipline issues exist
at my school if there are any Trends I
should be noticing or anything that may
assist in protecting and Aiden
students and so here you see again the
message coming down down from the top is
don't apply consequences because we have
to improve our statistics and I think
it's telling that when you were asking
lenzo Po and Sarah singer and Rick
kersman last week how we achieved the
reductions that they reported they
couldn't really tell you are we seeing
fewer problematic behaviors do we have
more tools short of exclusion to deal
with them do we know which behavior
programs are most effective at helping
us reach our goals the facts that we
didn't get clear answers to these
questions bothers me and I think it
should bother you
too Suzanne uh how long Al are you U I'm
just trying to get a sense of our timing
here oh um good
question I
think cut yeah they're about 10 more
slides to go and we've gone through
about 14 so what do you think okay I
mean our understanding we want to take
this in depth into committee but you're
here so keep keep going it's great
information um yeah yeah we just so we
just picked out actually just a few
parts of the survey and we're saving the
rest for the committee and then any like
questions or followup we could do there
that's all right thank thank yeah no
thank you I didn't mean
to um so here's another key element in
effectively addressing disruptive
behavior which is a timely response and
00h 15m 00s
so when we asked our members if they
felt like they had um a timely followup
to discipline referrals by nearly a 2
to1 margin they said they do
not one educator responded my students
have received referrals and there is
nothing in Synergy or nothing of
substance when the behavior is repeated
and the consequence remains conference
the behavior does not change and the
students suffer another said I never
hear a word 99% of the time students are
sent back to class or show up the next
day and so here you see that te again do
whatever it takes to reduce referrals
it's definitely undermining confidence
among teachers in the system and that
should have you
worried and second on time Linus I want
to make sure you understand why it's so
critical if you have a student that is
disruptive or physically acting out this
is not just making learning harder for
his or her classmates the longer that
behavior goes unaddressed by
administrators the greater the risk that
that behavior escalates and someone gets
hurt HT we've seen students assaulted by
their peers how many concussions or
other forms of bodily harm could we have
avoided with more timely action by the
district and it's probably no surprise
after seeing these findings that our
members feel the referral process in the
school is neither efficient nor
effective their response was an
overwhelming answering no to this
question by a 3 to1 margin the following
quote really summarizes the challenges
our members are facing every day in the
classroom and why we're here talking to
you while we write referrals and
appropriately escalate we are told that
students cannot be suspended and we have
no form of detention or in school
suspension these factors create a
situation in which the students feel
they can get away with anything
therefore making our classroom
management plans nearly
useless um so the second important area
we wanted to address tonight is the
district's decision to hollow out the
Continuum of special education services
and PPS and how that's um impacted
classroom safety and so our members were
very clear about this problem 70% do not
feel there's adequate supports for
special education students whose
behaviors create unsafe classroom
conditions we've worked from September
through April to finally get some
support through special ed for three
students in this building it has
impacted the entire building and I have
to credit our principal for being
persistent in helping us get the
students the help they need we don't
have adequate supports and need one-on
ones for certain students the model we
have doesn't support the number of IEPs
in my classroom close to 15 IEPs in one
class alone there needs to be a more
efficient process for taking Data
Tracking students who are struggling and
helping teachers design and Implement
interventions many students are falling
through the cracks until they get in
second to fourth grade at which time
they are already very behind
academically and behavior-wise
so what I really want to emphasize is
that the root of this problem is the way
the district is redesigning special
education services most Educators agree
that there should be a whole range of
options at our disposal allowing us to
find the right environment for each
student but the district has been
hollowing out that Continuum of services
particularly reducing midlevel options
like Behavior classrooms and this is
left uh Educators and building
administrators with options at each end
of the spectrum such as a more
restrictive placement or mainstreaming
students without the necessary supports
so for many neither of these options
work particularly well and it's not fair
to our special education students or
their classmates and we have to face the
fact that the practice of mainstreaming
special education students without
additional supports is contributing to
unsafe conditions and we certainly don't
want to place students in a more
restrictive environment than necessary
but ironically the district is making
that more likely by eliminating Behavior
classrooms and mainstreaming students
with little to no supports
and the final issue we wanted to touch
on tonight is another longstanding
problem in the district which is the
patchwork of discipline we asked our
members to name the different discipline
systems operating at their
school and as you can see there was a
wide variety of discipline systems that
work in the district with PBIS and
restorative justice as the most commonly
identified note that we asked people to
check all that apply so the numbers do
not add up to
100% but what's really important to note
is that this variation has created a lot
of confusion about what is or isn't
actually in place in a given school as
you can see from these comments in our
survey neither discipline style PBIS or
RJ has been fully explained we have just
been told that we are doing these models
we were explicitly told that the
district is making our school do
restorative justice but without an RJ
trainer we are but we are still expected
to follow it whatever it is another said
00h 20m 00s
I strongly believe in the imperative to
reduce inequity in student discipline
and I believe that restorative justice
is a powerful to Tool in doing so
however the way it has been implemented
was to just throw out the referral
process I've had several incidents with
students that would previously have
gotten them
suspended they experienced no
consequences and then we did not want to
go through an RJ process before the
student was returned to my class this
only exacerbates issues rather than
resolve them another reported like so
many initiatives we talk about PBIS we
say it frames our work and yet there is
not enough time for teachers to develop
a meaningful program we get a
superficial set of protocols and
structures but never enough time to
develop real embodied
understanding and the problems run a lot
deeper than the patchwork of different
discipline systems and two of these in
particularly stand out over and over
again our members reported that whatever
system a school said it was using
Educators were generally not provided
with the training and support necessary
to actually use it even top
administrators like Rick kersman
acknowledge that in fewer 20% of our
schools our programs like PBIS or
restorative justice fully implemented
what does that mean for the other 80% of
our schools a second point we heard over
and over again is that these programs
were being imposed from above rather
than being developed collaboratively in
our schools and I don't know how
familiar everyone is with programs like
restorative justice but that runs
counter to the very DNA of these
programs they can't be mandated from the
top down you need to build community
shared values and Trust for these
programs to work and they require a lot
of resources and staff on the front end
they also require a lot of time most
season restorative justice practitioners
say it takes three to five years to get
restorative justice program up and
running it does not appear that the
district is committed committing that
kind of time or resources to make this
work and as a school board you should be
very worried about this kind of cynicism
seeping into our schools it corrodes
trust and it makes real change even
harder Pat leaders want real meaningful
change that supports our students and
creates a shared Vision excellent safe
public schools in every neighborhood and
let's be clear we know what works we
have to recognize that doing this right
costs a lot more money upfront but in
the long run it will save PPS money
money and the state so much more because
we're setting people up for success in
life and then we're disrupting the
school to prison
Pipeline and so at this point I want to
leave you with a question a food for
thought that we can delve into deeper in
the committee and other questions um but
do you feel that you know what PPS has
done differently to achieve the results
presented to you last week and let me
just close by saying that as Educators
we will never stop working to create
safe and supportive learning
environments for all our students in all
our schools but we know that we can't do
that by wishing away the very real
problems facing some of our students or
minimizing the resources required to do
this effectively we look forward to
working with you and the district on
Solutions designed to support both our
students and our
teachers thank you for your time sorry
if that took too long thank you
appreciate it and um this will go in
more depth to uh Steve learning uh
teaching committee um and I know that
that the superintendent and her team is
working with you on on these issues as
we go forward so totally appreciate it
okay thank you very much for your time
thank you thank you very
much okay at this time we will have a
public comment do we have anybody signed
up for public comment we do we have six
okay and minor understand was there a
student that wanted to testify tonight
and I wanted to make sure that he does
you want to do that now Michael I yeah
okay uh come on down and
testify uh good evening everybody my
name is Michael yfi and I'm a junior at
Lincoln High School and for the last six
months I've been organizing the stem
toown speaker series uh which is a
series of free entrepreneurship and
Leadership talks targeted towards high
school students and featuring notable
local Leaders with the aim to inspire
Future Leaders and create useful
takeaways our first event takes place
Monday September September 14th pardon
me and so far the journey has been
rather exciting the series which takes
place at Portland center stage in the
Pearl District will bring together over
1,000 students from throughout the
00h 25m 00s
Portland metro area and we'll also offer
resources from numerous Portland area
organizations that students can follow
up on if they enjoy the
talks this series is also part of an
effort to connect our education with the
World At Large because when students get
to see the application of their
education it makes learning that much
more engaging I cannot stress the
importance of resources and the
importance of experiences enough which
is why I strongly support partnering
with local organizations and
institutions for the betterment of
students unfortunately I'm running the
the series on a total budget of $50 even
though it requires a multitude of
expenses including but not limited to
event space promotion t-shirts for
volunteers domain names nonprofit
registration expenses security and
transportation for
students so far I've been able to cover
a majority of these expenses with
donations and sheer sheer Goodwill on
the part of many
volunteers but the two items that we're
having the hardest time with our
security to ensure that every student
attending has an enjoyable and safe
experience and transp ation for PPS
students that might not have a
convenient way of coming and attending
this valuable learning
opportunity the reason I I'm here today
is to inquire if the school board and
District as a whole would be willing to
step in and work with Stumptown to make
sure that every student in the district
has access to this valuable resource and
to ensure that the series is beneficial
and successful for every student
involved thank you thank you thank you
for coming thanks and if you could check
in with Rosanne Powell who's our board
manager over here so she can get contact
information so we can get back to you
thank perfect thank you thank you very
much our first two speakers Greg Burl
and Lisa
Kae okay um my name is Greg Burl b r r i
l l and here I am again um I just want
to remind you I I had a speech uh
prepared but after hearing um Suzanne
Cohen I have to say something totally
different I want to remind you that
whatever the problem they all have
causes and we really need to find the
causes if we spend any time trying to
figure out who's to blame for any of
this that's just time that our children
aren't going to have effective schooling
this past spring I spoke about forgiving
if there's anybody to forgive let's just
do it and get it over with right because
what I want to say is I have watched
even though I haven't been in the room I
have watched every board meeting from
beginning to end at least once I'm
really enjoying listening to you get to
know each other I'm really happy to hear
director Rosen and director Anthony
who've been uh active in the school
system for years and the knowledge and
perspective they bring um director conam
and um director aspara Brown I love the
questions that you're asking and the way
you're participating I love I I hope
that the vision that we are trying to
see for uh P Portland Public Schools
coming back isn't marred by reaction to
crisis you know I'm I love the things
that are happening and then when I watch
some of the things that you have to deal
with that are in place from prior boards
and trying you know I see you trying to
not let it interfere with the vision of
building our school system back so I'm
I'm just uh I'm really happy about the
good things that are going on and but I
do want to remind you that this report
that you just heard presented it has to
do with why I no longer go to some of
the schools that were my favorite
schools to go to I am going to go again
this year to see what's happening
because I can't wait to get back and
help students at some of the places
where some of this chaos is going on um
so uh I'm just going to not use my
entire three minutes and thank you very
much for your attention thank you thank
you hi my name is Lisa Kane um K NE Lisa
spelled the regular way and I am
teaching now at woodlon elementary well
woodlon K8 after having spent 15 years
at ay and
um I would like to to Echo what Greg is
saying and and that it's time to really
look deeply deeply at what's underneath
and above and around these problems that
clearly exist and um I'm here to give
you sort of a personal touch on what it
is that I've noticed in the difference
in the places I've been and pretty much
wherever I am I think about the three
00h 30m 00s
s's structure systems and supports and
I'm I'm going to speak today about one
student who um came to our school
district as a
kindergartener um from a very
restrictive placement um looking forward
to to an education that didn't have
those
restrictions and sat in a meeting with
with parents and and with people from
both our district and and multiple
systems that supported this this little
child and um what was clear and abundant
to me was that what was in place for him
previous to our district in order to
build the successes that he was
beginning to experience were not going
to be in place in our school we had no
discipline support outside of our um
Learning Center teacher we event we did
we did get a a singular person but this
was an EA that was able to help but um
we had no classrooms available to to
deescalate we didn't have so much as a
closet available to deescalate a student
who needed quiet safe space um we had no
way of of of we don't have Gates on our
our facility our playground we spent
time after time chasing this student
around because we had no way to keep him
safe other than holding him down which
is not acceptable
um at the meeting where we were we were
told it would be six to 12 weeks to
effective placement and we had seven
months seven months of trying to to keep
this child safe and I was part of the
safety plan holding the door shut while
he tantrum across the hall that's not
and he was never suspended to my
knowledge that's not success my sister
once tried to bake um banana bread and
she used molass she the the recipe
called her molasses and she used uh soy
sauce because it looked the
same it didn't taste the same and it
wasn't banana bread and I think it's
really important that we ask ourselves
what the ingredients are to safe
effective supports for our most
vulnerable students because they are not
uniform they are not equally accessible
and they are not the things that are
leading to what we see as reduction in
discipline thank you very much and I
hope that this is something that we look
seriously on thank you thank you next we
have Jerry Walker and Julie Barnes
hi my name is Julie Barnes I'm a school
psychologist here in Portland I've been
here with Portland for over a decade um
I wanted to speak to inclusive practices
and special education and just some
thoughts on it so um inclusive practices
can be a great thing when students are
able to be in the General Ed instead of
in a separate special ed classroom it
can be beneficial for not only that
special ed student but General ed
students as well um but it needs to be
approached from the systems way of
thinking it's a bigger thing than just
including a student in a classroom
physically including and some districts
that have done it successfully have used
things such as um Team teaching or co-
teing or smaller class sizes so that the
teacher
can address and serve the needs of not
only the included student but all the
general students as well um these things
of course require the funding the
support the training and thoughtful
implementation so I wanted to highlight
this with um an example from my one of
my schools we have a kindergartener and
a first grader that have Down syndrome
that are included in their General
classes they have pair of professionals
they each have a pair of professional
with them or a one-on-one throughout the
day and they're doing okay they're able
to be
included um but when you look at the
bigger picture the systems way of
thinking the the school has been
assigned two pair professionals and one
goes to one student and one goes to the
other well last year the kindergartener
the first grader was a kindergartener
and we also had two pair professionals
so now that there's two students who
need the same Services we still only
have two pair professionals and so that
effectively means we have a cut in the
services that other body that used to be
available to help all the other students
is no longer available but that's
inclusion so it's inclusion at the cost
of some or the cost of them of many to
make it happen for those two students um
so so I just wanted to sum up that
00h 35m 00s
inclusion can be a wonderful thing but
it needs to be approached from the
bigger picture way of thinking
thoughtfully um supported funded
training it can't just be the physical
placement of a student in the General Ed
um so thank you for your time and thanks
for considering the way that we are
approaching it Julie I had a question um
so I wasn't I didn't know if I was
tracking that correctly
you had if you had a
kindergartener and um a first grader and
they each had their own educational
assistant and what you're saying is they
as they move up through the grades it's
a loss to the grade they just left
because that that classroom no longer
has the educational assist what I meant
is that last year we had a
kindergartener only right and so we had
we have two pair of Professionals for
the school so the kindergartener had one
I see and then there was another person
who helped all the other special ed kids
and even some others but you know she
helped dozens of kids I a day so the par
professional was working with other kids
with special needs now have two kids
with special needs you don't have
somebody that can float right so on
paper our absolute number of par
professionals has remained unchanged we
have two we had two but we now have two
two students who require one on on
throughout the day yeah but if you
didn't have those two students
you'd still have two pair of
professionals depending on the
population in your school you had those
needs but I now I understand what you're
saying so that was really help thank you
thank you very
much our last two speakers Diana Collins
and Aubrey Pinger
all right hello my name is Diana Collins
D an c o l l i inss thank you to each of
you for your commitment to serve and be
willing to work towards real solutions
so we can provide the best quality
education at Portland Public
Schools uh I understand that the federal
and state governments have mandated that
exclusionary discipline and suspension
numbers need to be decreased and in PPS
we are meeting our goals and although
these numbers are fantastic for our
district and state government as a
teacher on the ground floor I think we
are accomplishing these goals in a way
that's not acceptable for our students
we are doing it without intentional
strategies or systems and I'm really
worried about my students let's talk
about George Middle School whose numbers
dropped by 80% in discipline incidents
on paper this is fantastic but as a
professional educator at George I live
through a student who physically came at
me to beat me up in the hallway and who
returned to my class A few year few few
days later without in-class support I
was cussed out on a regular basis and
became numb to it because when I brought
it up in a staff meeting everyone else
was saying that they were experiencing
the same thing from students in addition
students would leave class on their own
accord I would call for help at down to
the office but the office was
overwhelmed with other incidents
happening all over the building and
couldn't respond one incident stands out
to me to to show you what I'm talking
about there was a student who shut up to
school every day she was inspiring to
her peer group she was the first one to
raise her hand in class and she helped
tutor people at the P at the table where
she sat she was enrolled in Avid and she
even started a kindness Club at the
school one day when she was walking down
to lunch with her friends this student
came running down the hall and he lacked
the skills to to manage his behavior but
he rammed into her and shoved her into
the lockers and she fell hard and hit
her her head on the ground she ended up
having it or hitting her head so hard
that she got a concussion for more than
a month her doctor wrote a note that
asked her teachers to be patient as she
healed the parent expressed concerned
about the lack of followup or care for
her daughter the message conveyed to the
mom was that boys will be boys the boy
student involved did not receive any
intervention for his behavior some of
you may be thinking well maybe it was an
accident a few days later the same
student gave another student a bloody
nose because he was throwing basketballs
down the hallway he had reoccurring
blowouts from classes and struggled to
follow Basic School guidelines with
documentation and resources we could
have built a responsive plan to support
this student with interventions or
coaching to help him evolve his behavior
as a teacher at George I saw this
dysfunctional Behavior system repeated
over and over again with different
scenarios in different students this is
one story of many although I'm no longer
at George I believe the students and
00h 40m 00s
Community deserve the support and
systems they need to build a truly safe
responsible and respectful community so
students can thrive in their learning
thank you thank you thank you very much
where are you teaching now at Robert
gray and if you want any of you want to
come visit me you can come I teach
science and math it's really
fun good evening ladies and gentlemen of
the board my name is Aubrey pegan stcker
p a g e n s t e c h e r and I teach
kindergarten at wood land School in
Northeast I'd like to welcome our new
board members thank you all for the hard
work that you do on behalf of our
students families and Educators and then
uh as a side note I would like to thank
you for funding kindergarten assistance
I cannot tell you what a difference it
is already making in our classrooms and
it's going to make a huge huge
difference for our students this year so
thank you thank you um I'm also here
tonight to speak to you regarding
discipline and safety in our schools uh
some of you may recall I addressed the
board last school year about serious
safety issues that were occurring in our
kindergarten classrooms um and after the
presentation at the Schoolboard meeting
last week regarding the decrease in
disciplinary incidents in PPS I felt
moved to share some additional thoughts
and observations with you based on my
role as a classroom teacher and also as
a leader within p i serve on the P exec
board and I'm a liaison to the Jefferson
cluster which affords me the opportunity
to collaborate and communicate with many
colleagues in my area and in many cases
when a colleague has an unresolved
concern or issue I'm the one that they
call for help so the concerns that I
share with you tonight are not just my
own I'm here on behalf of dozens of
Educators to have shared those
experiences with me and the following
are just a few examples of some of the
challenges that we faced with
disciplinary and behavioral issues last
year um our student intervention team
processes which exist to identify
additional supports for students whether
Behavioral or academic um are very often
ineffective or not in place in many
district buildings across our district
students with severe or emotional
behavioral needs have no significant or
effective interventions in place for
them at any point in the school year
students routinely left the classroom
building or school grounds causing
safety issues for students and staff we
have far too few specialists in our
buildings who have the necessary
training to respond appropriately and
quickly to students whose safety is at
risk restorative justice is referenced
as an intervention for many behavioral
incidents however RJ is not a synonym
for having a one-on-one conversation
with a student and then returning them
to class but this is too often the
practice in many of our schools uh there
were also a number of incidents of
students assaulting their classmates or
teachers As You Are already heard and in
many cases there were no significant
consequences as a result nor was nor was
there a consistent way that those
occurrences were documented all these
incidents occurred in multiple buildings
during the prior school year so while
the data reflects a decrease in
incidents the data from our schools
tells a different story and I have a few
theories about how these two truths
might be coexisting simultaneously um in
a number of building staff have been
discouraged from writing referrals at
all in some cases stage two and three
referrals that describe really serious
behaviors have been handed back to
and then they were told that those were
minor or stage one behaviors despite
those behaviors being described as stage
two or three in the students rights and
responsibilities handbook um referrals
are not processed or input into Synergy
in a timely way or at all I believe that
that's also resulted in a delay for many
students who would have otherwise been
flagged down at the besc for more
supports and interventions that was
certainly the case for one of my
students sorry I'm going to go a little
over but I'll try to hurry um in many
cases of serious and unsafe student
Behavior families of students who are on
the path to suspension were offered the
option to pick their students up from
school um or just they were sent home
allegedly sick so the P members who care
and work for students every day of
course we want to be instrumental in
efforts to decrease disproportionate
discipline we have a moral and ethical
responsibility as Educators to disrupt
the school to prison pipeline but we're
doing our students a disservice if the
needle is moving because of technical
changes to procedures and policies
instead of adaptive changes within our
systems and our schools um and if we
choose technical Chang that lead to
those short-term and superficial changes
in data we're really paying just lip
service to the communities of color
whose children are being
disproportionately disciplined um our
families want and deserve to see real
meaningful change and that's going to
take time we're living in a very data
driven age um but in order to be
effective we have to ask ourselves if
that data is accurate so I'd ask you to
continue to critically question any fast
and significant drops in student
discipline issues um because to be sure
the work that we're doing is making a
change but I just really question
whether or not could be quite so fast
acting um so I'd like to offer an open
invitation to you all to come and visit
us at Woodline and come and visit my
classroom speak with the teachers who
are doing the work just to gain a more
complete picture of the climate in our
schools thank you for your time thank
you thank
you and thank you for all all that
testimony yeah I wanted to thank Suzanne
and all the teachers that came out for
um the information they provided it was
a really good perspective Ive and it was
00h 45m 00s
concisely presented so thank
you okay uh we have a back to school
report Amanda would you like to
introduce so Antonio Lopez our assistant
superintendent from the office of school
performance is going to come forward and
present some information on back to
school including a video and then some
information on the enrollment at our
schools and the Staffing procedures that
we're using that you've requested thank
you uh good evening shair director the
student representative it is my pleasure
to let you know that as you know classes
began last Thursday morning all across
Portland Public Schools this year there
are many changes going um all across the
district one of Portland's Public School
bigest School Franklin High School began
the new school year away from their
original campus and are now located at
the Marshal campus for the next two
years roosevel high school students
return to class with visible signs of
new construction going all around them
and Fabian students began sing to their
new home at
tabman uh superintendent Carol Smith and
School Board Amy gam joined faculty and
parents at several schools Thursday
morning to greet his students as they
returned to class also on Thursday I had
the pleasure of meeting uh director
Rosen alen uh
school here is a quick look at the first
day of school in case you miss the
excitement
[Music]
the whole Community is coming out for
this clap in parents and teachers and uh
Community are all coming to welcome kids
to um to Franklin as they enter and
we're going to do a big tunnel and have
the kids come on through as we welcome
their their home for the next two years
it'll be fun yeah it's exciting
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
faan
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
everyone we are at F and at
Tubman today is a first day of school
for our first third fifth and seventh
graders at Fabian at Tubman we are so
excited our kids are coming in with
smiles on their faces and they are
loving our bigger building and are
looking forward to our move back to
fabbian in
2017 I
like I yeah I like how it's
bigger and I like all the new teachers
that are join joining I'm here today
fing the first day of school welcoming
the students saying hello to parents and
the community in general to make sure
that they know that we have school buses
now coming in and out the students they
occupying the streets and make sure that
everyone is safe so happy to be here and
volunteering it's the first day of
school we want to be kids I
know foxos Kimberly Eaton joins us live
this morning with a look at where
Franklin High School students are
starting to year on a new campus good
morning
Kim good morning lots of kids already
showing up here for the first day of
school very excited as you said Franklin
students will be on a new campus they'll
be here at Marshall High School for the
next couple years while their school is
being renovated now tear down on the old
Franklin High School started this summer
as part of a $16 million modernization
project when it's done the district says
the school will have upgrades like a
two-story Lobby and Performing Art
Center but in the meantime that means
all students are are relocated to the
Marshall High School campus now Marshall
has been closed for years so it had to
undergo some work too to even have kids
here things like fire alarms roof
repairs and it updates students and
teachers will be here this year and next
as far as getting to class today police
want to send a warning out to drivers
they say because Marshall has been
closed for so long people might not
expect a school zone they'll be upping
patrols here in all around the city as
students come and go this week and
administrators say they just want
everyone to get here to the first day of
class
00h 50m 00s
safely reporting live this morning in
southeast Portland I'm Kimberly eaten
back to
you I think there's excitement about
that and and big preparation to come and
relocate here to the uh Marshall campus
as you can hear behind me down the road
A6 million project is blending Century
old history with new Innovative
facilities when Franklin reopens you'll
find a new Fine Arts performing center
and a new gym and Athletic Facility to
name a few things for students here
especially seniors it'll take some time
to adjust but this family says they're
ready it is W feeling because it's no
longer part of the original Franklin
anymore but you know what we're going to
press on and enjoy it what does that
mean keep Franklin strong to you as a
mom we're a family you know we were at
Franklin for 3 years and then we have to
move over here and a lot of people were
unsur a lot of parents were like our our
kids going to be able to move forward
and by keeping it strong we're keeping
it strong for for them
[Music]
I heard that this might be the greatest
freshman class that Roosevelt has ever
seen so I said good morning everyone
good morning good morning welcome to
Roosevelt welcome
back today is very important
particularly since we're under
modernization right now we task each
student leader with leading a group
around school they' have experience here
at Roosevelt they are the experts who
better to teach our freshmen the right
way to go go move them around campus
teach them about everything there is to
know about Roosevelt they need to know
what's going on with the school like
it's construction so we need to be aware
of what classes we have to go to so far
we went to the library right now we're
in the gym my name is Mr Smith I'm the
athletic director here at Roosevelt High
School we have just basically two main
rules you have to abide by no food no
drink unless it's water we've got some
dust we've got things out of place a
little bit but that's why we're here to
say it's okay over here where there's
all construction is the old gym so
basically that's the reason why we have
that I was um glad to have the
opportunity after I got my own kids off
to school to come out and welcome our
students and thank them for their their
patience and their excitement about the
whole process of the rebuilding of the
high school our students are going to
have more space we're going to have
awesome programing here from our stem
our Athletics academics we've got the
full package out here in North Portland
and we're very excited about it
[Music]
[Applause]
thank
you thank
you okay Antonio Lopez is also going to
give you as I said an update on um
enrollment and Staffing at now in fall
all right so I'm going to ask uh H Shay
James senior director for the office of
colle and K Readiness to join me and
David Deputy CFO and budget director for
this presentation I just want to
acknowledge while Shay is coming up I
want to thank you all for responding to
this inquiry which came from the board I
think we asked for more detail on um
enrollment updates than you were
anticipating and you pulled it all
together um we're really interested in
you know making Staffing adjustments as
as urgently as possible so thank you so
much for doing what it took to pull us
together well thank you it is our
pleasure so um we going to start with um
just the timeline so you you have a
sense of what has been happening and
where we going on early March that's
when schools got their uh initial
Staffing from March to June that's when
we release additional Staffing and we
release approximately 20 FTE to deals
with issues of um are we meeting the
core program right and then I'm going to
talk about theault balancing and we had
00h 55m 00s
we started with 20a FTE for full
balancing we're down to 20 and I'm going
to explain uh the process how how we're
going to go about it okay and the way
I'm um I'm going to start with Kinder
and then I'm going to start with high
school and then I'm going to come up
then I'm going to come back to first
through eight the reason I'm sted with
those two um with Kinder and high school
is because there are um past practices
that we're uh we continue and then there
are some agreements in terms of the high
school that we need to make sure that we
are buy by so let me start with
Kinder in Kinder what uh what we have
done as a past practice that um when
classroom hit 25 students they get 25
students when they get the 26 student
then they talk to the senior director
and the senior director then we monitor
the numbers right uh for example if the
students uh if there are 26
students we might allocate a uh
educational
assistant but if he gets to 30 then we
start thinking about maybe a teacher so
we can divide that
classroom the to students into two
classrooms so that's those are the
trigger points in terms of that
conversation that is happening uh the
schools and the senior director
regarding regards
to um class
sizes what we have done uh and we
continue to monitor is that those Kinder
classrooms that are over 30
kids we have allocated in some of those
we have allocated teachers uh last week
we allocated teachers and I and I will
tell you which schools and what we have
right now is we have some classrooms
that they have uh large class
sizes right that we're we're we're um
like I said we have allocated some FTE
we monitoring others but we also have
quite a few schools that they're under
enroll right so we have some schools and
like Fabian right that we allocated
three teachers but uh when we look at
the
numbers uh there were like 18 kids in
roll the reason that it'sa kids enrolled
because some of the schools are under
construction so uh we know that some of
the kids will be coming back and parents
will be enrolling them that's why we
want to away until we do the first
physical count because what we don't
want is to um start taking
um teachers for from schools that are
under enroll and then finding out that
later on the kids are coming back the
first physical count is this
Thursday and we already have some ideas
where we're going to need additional FTE
and when we can do some adjustments so
it is about responding for um to the
schools whose enrollment is high that we
need to to figure out what we're going
to do and also for the schools that
under enroll how to make sure that we
don't pull them out early then later on
the kids are going to show up so that's
in terms of
the the
Kinder um those are the Hydraulics that
we working with right and how to balance
how to balance so uh the schools that
have over enrollment they get support
and the ones that under enroll we don't
uh prematurely pull teachers
out I'm going to go to the high school
in the high school we've been in
constant conversation with the
principls in regards
to um in regards to
uh in regards to student load how many
many how many kids do they see in the
full day and also in terms of the
periods that are
thought right so we look at the high
schools and then we look say here is the
FD how
many teachers are teaching six out of
the eight
periods right and from there we ask come
we uh we ask questions to the principles
like if they're teaching five what else
01h 00m 00s
are they doing right so this is the
conversation that we're that we're
having with the high schools and we want
to make sure that they get what they
need but also for us to understand how
are they um um the Staffing how are they
um doing the Staffing for their schools
those are the Dynamics that we have we
released yesterday we releas two FTE to
two schools we're looking at the third
school and we're looking also at the
number of students that are showing up
that's why the Thursday physical count
becomes really important because what it
happens in high schools is the students
roll over from last year to this year
from 9 to 10 grade and 10 to 11 right
and we want to wait
um to look at the first and the second
count to figure out how many students
actually show
up so um in terms of this those are the
two ones that like I said we have a we
have a a a practice and the other in the
high school those are the ones the
agreements that we have in terms of a
class
load and a period
start then once we address those two we
will come back to the first through a
grade right in those we're monitoring
like for example today the senior
directors they met and we have about 15
schools that we have a good idea that
they going to need additional FTE and
we're ready to deploy that FTE we're
going to wait on Thursday to make sure
that we bu five that the numbers are
accurate so out of the 20 we have about
probably 13 FTE
that uh we're pretty sure that we're
going to have to allocate because there
are some classes where there are 33 kids
that we need to find we need to find
ways to support them and like I say if
there are less then for the first
throughway we look when you get to uh 30
kids per classroom then we start figure
out is that
IA instruction assistant that we can put
in the classroom or or a
teacher okay um Antonio yes um I just
want to see if I'm checking this right
so you did send out to FTE to high
schools and who did where did they go
one went to Lincoln and the other went
to Cleveland okay that's great because
those they're really bursting okay and
then are you saying that right at as of
now there are a total of 20 FTE 20
teachers that are available to deploy we
have 20 FD for the follow balancing but
one the one question I have about that
is you're talking about making a
position available to them they'll still
have to hire the position right which
will some of them yes if it is for
example the Kinder what we do is if we
know that the students are not going to
show up for a school that is under
enroll we can make some decisions to
move that teacher from this school to
this school okay got it for the high
schools they might have to uh hire from
somebody depending on the availability
of people with that endorsement okay
thanks and so these are the these are
the schools that we sent FTE the last
week uh we sent to uh so you see the
schools the other hydraulic that we have
to think about like for example gleno we
had a teacher for that schools but they
don't have
space so space is also an issue in terms
that the the capacity of the building to
be able to haul another so those are
also things that we consider so in this
situation like Leno with
Nia uh the additional there is that two
High School to that that I was talking
about uh what I want to show also if you
can you move the next one is this is the
these are the parents patterns of a
enrollment
fluctuation that we're seeing that we
also um
monitoring right so a school might have
like I said because the high school
enrolls it students
over right and that's why we wait for
the uh first physical count and the
01h 05m 00s
second physical count to find out which
students didn't show up where the
weekend dropped them so this is just
from last year so that gives you an idea
of what are what are the Dynamics at
play so Antonio I was confused by that
because somebody um leaked this to us um
before the meeting and they showed us um
that um graph and then they showed us
what this year looked like and what was
different what's not in the August 20th
2014 that's what's in Synergy but you're
not showing um what projection was used
to allocate staff and so when I look at
that right column and you see you know
totals up to minus
333 it could still be significantly more
students than um
you know that were originally allocated
for is that making sense right so so
really the most relevant number is the
Delta between the uh number that was
used for allocation budget allocation
and the actual as opposed to the Synergy
that's true what we what we wanted to
show you with this is the fact that
there is at the same time as as there
are kids coming in and being enrolled
there are also there's also a
sure we're we're not implying by this
necessarily as you say the real
comparison is um one of the comparisons
is what what was the number used for
initial
Staffing and what is the number after
all of the movement we just this was you
know as you said we got requests for
this information at relatively short
notice last in the last two hours as we
were putting things together we had this
one to hand so what this shows is that
there is there's an there is a drop off
and once we've gone through the second
physical count we'll have more reliable
numbers sure just sorry and just for the
people who haven't seen the data what I
wanted to say is um the majority of our
high schools show at least in Synergy as
of today an increase of estimated
enrollment above what they were
allocated for so I just we are work so
to your point we are working between um
those three numbers
so and I'm sorry I hate to interrupt but
I do want to follow follow up
on director rosen's earlier
question
uh as we consider how long it takes to
get a teacher particularly into a high
school
class what
uh and I I recognize you don't have this
information on you right now but since
you're looking you're taking actual
physical
counts in very early September and in
midt why the twoe delay until October
first for those
numbers we're actually going to be
looking at the numbers as soon as
possible after that second physical
count this just happened to be last year
the data that was in this chart which we
found as we were looking for things said
October 1 we're going to be looking at
this as soon as we can get that second
physical count firmed up and we have
meetings scheduled for like two or 3
days after that second physical count to
be able to review the numbers and start
figuring out what action needs to be
taken and I would Al I'm sorry go ahead
no in in actually the principles these
are some of the um recommendations the
sooner that we can make that decision so
that way because then becomes more
challenging to find the teachers with a
certification so
just to let you know that we keeping an
eye on those um um numbers and we're in
constant conversation with the
principles and where the areas that we
know that we have that is pretty clear
then we have allocated the FDA and we
will continue to do so like on the four
we will revisit against the number I
mean on the on Thursday when we do the
fysical count on the third we will come
back and revisit those numbers and have
more conversations with the with the
High School principles and also with the
other schools that uh first through
eight it's good to hear that sense of
urgency because it seems like the um
delay in the Staffing should only be in
the realm of what the margin of error is
likely to be in terms of the enrollment
drop and we know at least uh I think
Cleveland Lincoln and Wilson that we
have an enrollment bulge on the books
now of more than 100 students and so
01h 10m 00s
that's roughly for FTE so even if we're
thinking about three as soon as possible
and then seeing how the other shoe drops
um that seems like maybe a wise strategy
yes totally and we're looking at Wilson
and I think we we just need a couple
more uh conversations with Brian because
it's the other one those three are the
ones that we really looking at night so
there's a there's another perspective on
this that I'm concerned
about there um I mean with this many
more students in high schools we have
space issues and some of these high
schools like Lincoln I mean we're at
probably going to be around 1700
students it's a school that's designed
for somewhere in the 900 and we had a
fire so we lost some um portable space
and my understanding is there's no
urgency
to replace that portable space um at
Lincoln and so I just want to hear how
you're going to address that
issue so in terms of the spay for the
classroom I'm not the person to was
going to say we can ask Tony to come up
can I just ask do we have other
questions on the enrollment Staffing
that we would want to do I have one
other question which is um regarding not
just teaching positions but the
schoolwide support positions in the High
School based on a per student basis so
um just in the next couple of weeks if
you could take a a close look at um
where those are in each of our schools
not just the comprehensive high schools
and be able to report back to us what
those ratios are and what we might need
to do in terms of um supplementing those
support positions in the schools that
are seeing the enrollment bulges right
so one of the things that we look at in
addition to teachers is we have schools
because of the way we allocate that
school support Staffing there are
thresholds if you cross 500 you get an
assistant principal if you cross a
certain threshold and I can I can assure
you that principales are very diligent
in helping us be very aware of the fact
that their school could well be Crossing
one of those thresholds so that's part
of the conversation that's happening as
well that's good because those positions
have as much of a bearing on our
students as the teachers in the
classroom and we understand that too and
and just for uh for you to knowe that
some of the FD that we released for high
school early on was ex exactly high
schools that were over 1600 so they have
an additional administrator and also
schools that are on the
bond that there is some word there some
support that they need so we release
also some administrative support any
other
questions okay
mine uh could you please go back to
slide number three
I'm afraid I'm about to become the least
popular person in the room uh that would
be
[Laughter]
hard do you want to raise your
hand quiet
David no back one
more
um I feel compelled to ask about this
because I hear about it uh a lot from
people in the community reviewing
suspect that addresses uh how are you
doing that and what are you
doing do you want me to answer so we um
we're still in the process of figuring
out exactly what our process will be
this year in years past I will tell you
the enrollment and transfer center has
had an investigator um who has actually
gone to do some investigation on
addresses really looking um the working
with schools especially those that are
overcrowded to ensure that we have
accurate and reliable data on hand
showing um that we have true addresses
for students um we also have looked um
pulling different reports that show um a
number of students showing up with
similar or the same address um who are
perhaps from different families um so
that would be another way that we would
look are you guys sorry but but this is
what's happened in the past I think we
have not quite um we have not uh you
know planned out exactly what we're
doing this year but we are getting a
number of the same um emails and
concerns that you have that um there has
been sort of too low of a bar set for
ensuring that students are enrolling
with the correct address Steve actually
said he's going to go all over the place
so he wanted me to go first so to set
him up I wanted to know Manda are you
checking do you have an investigator
checking the addresses of the board
members
no I suspect that there it should you
should look at that maybe for
Steve um we have we had parents that I
talked to before the meeting from three
01h 15m 00s
different elementary schools and they
had specific questions I thought maybe
we could just have them make their
statement and and get a response if we
had or tell them we'd respond later one
is uh over here from lellan and was
asking about the vice principal which
they normally in the past have changed
can you just State your thing why don't
you just go ahead and and ask well
because I don't remember the exact so
wording we director constam brought up
the issue of schoolwide supports and
what happens if a school essentially
what happens if a school um is
discovered to have you know higher
number of students and cross that
threshold and I said that's one of the
things we're monitoring lellan is one of
the schools where if the physical count
confirms the numbers then they will be
above a threshold that would have
qualified for an assistant principle and
that's one of the things that we look I
don't think that's his question no it
has to do with uh with the fact that in
the past the vice principal go you go
ahead and ask him no no no all right
well I can ask the question I so let me
let let me in in the past L Allan what
they were able to do is convert there we
go that's the question the FTE from a a
assistant principal to a
teacher and what we're saying is that
this year we're not allowing that that's
a sleep it slow for us because then we
were going to we're going to be hearing
from others if this school was able to
do it we want to do it too so what we're
doing is there are there are two things
Al and that we're looking at most likely
they will get the
1.0 assistant principle if they're 500
over and also we're looking at their
third grade classroom that it has 33
students most likely we're going to
release a FTE to relief the third grade
those are the the the third grade
aluan is one of those that we're pretty
certain that we're going to have to help
them out in terms with an additional FTE
so they're over the they weren't over in
the past and they're over now the the
numbers to have a vice principal yes sir
okay and and the issue when I was
talking to the principle is that he
doesn't have a space he say I don't have
not even a closet to put the assistant
principle right so we're going to figure
out what that looks like but um it is
true that they earn an assistant
principle based on the numbers and we're
going to verify it on the for when we
got the physical count and again the
third grade that's the one that is
almost certain that they going to get an
additional uh
teacher and that's on top of the one one
that you already that's on top of
exactly so we have about 13 additions
that we're going to look on Thursday
once we get the physical count that
we're we're pretty certain that a lot of
those going to go out and I can give you
a list it's about uh 18 schools that
we're looking you know some of those are
half time a fraction of afd so it sounds
like in that specific situation it's not
as if the assistant principal is going
to cost them a staff person they'll be
it sounds like they're going to be made
whole plus they're going to end up with
an assistant principal that we won't
have you
know and we got Forest Park a couple uh
mothers down here they had a was it
about you had 36 or something
we got anything on that or we need to
get back yes we for Forest Park we have
we're looking at that and we have right
now on the list we have an additional
FTE that will go into that school one or
two or
um okay let's uh I'm just going to keep
going I think that the just is uh that
after Thursday we're going to have a
better sense of where we're going to be
um and let's find out where it is I I do
have a question in terms of um the the
pool um I mean do you anticipate the
pool being expanded I mean you know or
we're get beond the needs are beyond
what we have beyond the amount of FTE
01h 20m 00s
right now in this is just um we have
about like I said 13 or 14 FD that we're
thinking um we might have to release
after the
fourth right and then we're looking at
the high
schools I do not see us
going needing more right now it depends
also we're going to be monitoring the
other schools if that are under enroll
see if the kids is showing up
and so uh it's hard to tell you but
right now we feel pretty good okay with
the numbers that we have and we can keep
you updated on that as we're as we're
moving through the process so it would
come up as an issue Amanda you need
ended up needing more than the
absolutely people that you have the F
available then that you know that would
cost that would cost money
obviously and and my last one and this
year what we did what we did different
is that we release early on in the areas
that we know that's why we ended out
with only 28 the previous year we had 38
or 40 FD for full balancing so we
realized that principles need to know
early on if they're going to get a FTE
so this past year uh I mean this uh in
this year we release more early
on so that's can you my last question
was can you speak to
Sabin got a something in Sab it's going
okay it's on the list on the list first
grade it's on the list right on I have
the list that I can give you a copies in
the FDA that we we were
thinking okay would be helpful to be
able to tell people that we're looking
at it because we are receiving
communication from people in those
schools so I think I think it's safe to
say that we're looking at all the
schools across the district that we'll
and as I as Antonio said that after so
Friday when we have all the numbers in
we'll be able to give more information
on the decisions that are being made and
I know you guys are moving faster than
you have in the past and so I want to
say that I appreciate and I think it'll
make a big
difference um sorry I have 26 schools 26
that we're monitoring and and that we
know that we're going to release in some
FD so I can give you the list okay and
then I would say that anybody everybody
from schools that are here make sure you
talk to Roseanne who after Thursday or
Friday will get right back to you in CCS
as well on the solution so thank you uh
yes thanks I think one of the things
that we still have to look at is the
portable situation I mean we condemn the
Portables and which is okay to do but if
you've got a school like Lewan last year
which could have moved a class into the
portable I done the portable for
20 years maybe not so bad if you get a
decent portable but the problem that we
have is that the city won't let us put
in a portable which will take care of
overcrowding to help out and they want
well they will but it's a half a million
dollars to do it and it's way too much
you can do Portables way less expensive
in the across in Vancouver in the school
district I worked in Evergreen they had
all sorts of Portables and they had
Portables because the school the
Washington won't let you build Beyond
Your Capacity for what you have right
now in other words you can't build a
school for a larger capacity in the
state of Washington beyond what you so
the first thing that happened I was in a
brand new school first thing that
happens they brought in eight Portables
well that's not good but if you've got
lellan last year and they could put a
portable out there for $60,000 or
$70,000 we could have done that taken
care of that we could remove the
portable move it it's not it's not like
we can wait 50 years on some of those
schools to make sure that we build the
new school schol for and we need to look
at that um you've brought that point up
before and I think it's a good one I I'm
going to send it to um the operations of
budget committee because I think we
should do something about
iteration okay well I thought we were
gonna have Tony come up absolutely yeah
so that's I want to get to that point so
just uh uh uh before Tony gets here I
really appreciate all the questions that
you send for enrollments so I'll be more
than happy you know if uh uh if you need
more information so we look at all your
questions that you said and and
hopefully with this um overview kind of
gives you an idea that we really we want
to be res uh responsive to the schools
but we also want to be responsible in
terms of how how we allocate the
resources so I do have one last question
for yeah um just a clarification the
kindergarten we get to 26 and we really
are looking at it to make changes that
right looking first grade did we used to
have a system where we went
if you got to a certain number in the
first grade we've never had that for
01h 25m 00s
some reason I had misunderstood that I
guess and so if you get to 30 then we
look at it we get to 30 we look at it I
can't I can't say never director bu but
in the last 12 years well only go back
uh to 1975 so maybe they had it then you
have an advantage of yeah they might had
it back then and I think it was I think
they did but there were a lot of things
different in
1975 including our whole funding
system yes they used to get a little
more money so we know we're we're aware
of the class size right and and so like
I said we want to we want to be
responsive but also be responsible in
terms of the you know the allocation we
know that 30 yeah for the first through
fifth is not the ideal but at least we
have we have a range that we can engage
in the conversations in the additional
support that they need thank you thank
you very much thank you thank you
imprecise science so Chief Operating
Officer Tony Magano come up and talk
about
Portables well Linn Lincoln Lincoln in
particular good even um I Heard the
question was about the Portables at
Lincoln yes right so specifically
Lincoln needs more teachers and has a
lot more students and it had a fire so
it lost space
and so my concern is we've known about
that for some time there may be some
creative options available but it sounds
like we have a static
situation so to the extent that we are
going to have a
significant um significantly more
students at a school like Lincoln like
1700 for school built for
900 how are we going to get Portables
out there
ASAP so I I heard a couple couple things
and the first I'd like to say is there
has been urgency in this and it started
the day of the fire when risk management
facilities the building principle
procurement all met to find out to begin
the process of how do we get this
cleaned up what are our next steps um
what are we how are we going to be ready
for for the first day of school and get
kids in classes that was the most urgent
and pressing need which we did it took a
lot of Creative Solutions within the
building moving things around but
students are in classrooms right now the
problem with um Portables on the Lincoln
site um we've had a pretty poor
relationship with the city historically
we've done a lot we've done a lot of
work as a staff cleaning that up and
being good partners and following
process
um those Portables that are placed at
Lincoln were permitted to be there up
until
2001 by right we're not entitled to them
it's a land use issue which is a 60-day
process by code um it's a zoning issue
um and in working with the principal we
felt that the best approach was rather
than just asking the city for to replace
the modular that we lost let's go and do
something significant and go for some
sort oflex and pull out the the existing
modu the remaining modular as
well there's no immediate solution for
that because we have kids or students in
that existing modular so we don't and we
don't have a place to put them so from a
and from a construction timeline
perspective getting anything done before
uh during this school year is really a
tough move through the city even
ordering a modu buying the a modular
there's a lead time with that so we're
we're talking to an architect now um
we've let the city know that we're
coming with this so that they're
prepared so what's the what's the time
that you're expecting to have a solution
because another option is to look at
space in the vicinity of the school that
you can rent right and we could we've
looked at space within the area around
the school students require something
that's called educational occupancy
which is not you know putting students
in a home that doesn't have egress and
it it's not a safe um to have not as
safe as the portable we put staff in
those right a portable rate an e
occupancy rating has fire um protection
in them
um it's not they're old they're wooden
01h 30m 00s
they're flammable as we know um the
houses are the Portables right the
houses the other other property right
okay so um this is a tough this is a
tough place to be in a school that's
already at capacity right and my heart
sank when I got a call at 2:30 in the
morning on another school fight sure
right right um
so have we initiated any conversations
with the city of Portland um regarding
what exceptions to the process might be
available given the urgency of the
situation and the extreme overcrowding
so I made a personal call to Paul
Scarlet who's the director of BDS
letting him know the predicament we were
in and that he and he said he would
begin to initiate conversations with his
staff um we have a new senior director
of facilities now David Hobs who was in
a conversation with an architect that
we'd like to get on board because when
you go to the city you'd like to have an
idea they want to see what you're
thinking what the plan is and we need an
architect to help us with that um but
right now you know our plan is um to
work with the city as best we can hope
that they don't ask us to remove the
existing modular because it's not
permitted to be be there as well and put
us in a further bind with housing
students um and try to have some sort of
um I don't I don't know if it'll be a
standard stick modular or if the city
will require us to do something that
blends more in with the urban
landscape um so that it doesn't stand
out
because the answer is yes you're in
conversation with the city yes I guess
what I'm wondering about is
um what's the quickest solution and is
the quickest solution to rent space is
the quickest solution to get another
module uh another modular space and the
concern that the city would ask you to
take down the the mo the other modular
and I guess put further pressure on the
school seems kind of absurd seems like
the plan would be that if we had to take
corrective action for that modular we'd
have some sort of phased plan so I still
don't understand
Tony you know what is the best solution
we're
pursuing to get this done as soon as
possible and what is as soon as possible
because my experience with government is
if you go in there and you say to them
we have a problem we want you to help us
solve it that's one way to approach it
another way to approach it is we have a
problem we have two months this is what
we want to do and we want you to help us
do it and if it's not politically
tenable for you then we have to find
that political urgency so that's what
I'm not hearing I'm hearing more like we
have a problem and we don't think
there's a way to solve it and we expect
it'll go into next year and the urgency
I'm seeing is it needed a solution a
month ago so what is the urgency what
are do we have a two months we're going
to get this done what are we telling the
city so I I guess I'm not understanding
what is kids are in
class um are we are we trying to add
more teachers to the building and we
need more we're adding more teachers
because we have more students the
problem is that you have a school
designed for 900 students you have 1
1700 students probably and you're down a
significant amount of space because of
the fire which of course you know is out
of our control and so in terms of um
sort of like there's a limited number of
space so if we don't have any more space
we have new students and we lost space
that means someone's being crowded
somewhere and somewhere in that building
there's a condition that's not conducive
to
learning well I'm skeptical I guess that
that was actually the case even prior to
the loss of the two additional class so
it's sort of like the problems just
continuing to compound so it seems like
you have to have new space so what's the
quickest way to get the new space how do
you put pressure on the city to be
flexible and what's our goal well I
think the best way to be um put pressure
on a city is to have a really good
methodology and plan to implement and
and not go in there um not knowing what
you want to do right that I agree right
so what do we want to do that's the work
01h 35m 00s
we're doing now getting an architect on
board working with an architect on on
what what are some reasonable designs
that we could take to the city to get to
to meet their permit all their code
requirements permitting requirements
yeah and all I would say is if getting a
a design takes x amount of weeks but
getting a portable and putting pressure
to get permitting and that's going to be
ad because the need is so great I want
to know what the risk analysis is so
there's a really good solution that
could take a lot of time but there's a
satisfactory solution that could take
less time and meet the need that's what
I want to understand that I'm I'm not
quite hearing that so if we wanted to
approach the city with um some sort of
modular that you roll in there on
Wheels um we could take that approach
and but
there still would that solve the problem
well it would get you two classrooms not
four um well why not bringing then two
modulars well we got we got so that
we're demoing we still have to go
through a land use 60-day land use so
we're going to experience growth pain um
no matter what we do for for a while I
just if we're going to add more teachers
to that building then we have a more
serious problem than um where we were
when the module initially burnt down
where we were with number of students so
we're going to add more teachers we're
going to add something like a hundred
students and so it sounds like we need
to rethink what the solution is really
quickly or where we add the students
right and to acknowledge that this is a
problem that is requiring an
unconventional solution and it's we I
think have a collective appetite to
portray it that way to the city of
Portland great I think that's a really
good way to put
it and I think we're also continuing to
explore the other options as they are
made available or you know brought to
our attention so I mean I think the hard
part is here trying to hold both and we
continue to do that really looking for
Solutions thank you Tony thanks Tony
really appreciate
it okay next on the agenda is Portland
State University memorandum
understanding Amanda would you like to
introduce this sorry my job um I'd like
to um call up Chief um chief of school
modernization CJ
Sylvester welcome thank
you name is CJ Sylvester I'm the chief
of the office of School modelization
Portland Public Schools and with me here
this evening is Sarah King who is our
director of real estate and asset
management in the facilities Department
we also have here this evening what have
turned out to be some very patient
people um some representatives from
Portland State University who will be
available to answer any questions you
may have of Portland State as uh the
other party to the proposed memorandum
of understanding and also
representatives from Echo North West who
did the development feasibility study
for sou Lincoln High School Sarah and I
are going to provide a single
presentation this evening as regards the
two items on the agenda that are the
opportunities for the Lincoln High
School site as they both uh relate to
the imminent Master planning
process the first is a memorandum of
understanding between the district and
Portland State University the second is
a potential for partnership as regards
underground parking at a fully
modernized Lincoln high
schools Portland Public Schools and
Portland State University currently have
a number of educational Partnerships
that benefit students from both agencies
and in particular provide valuable
access to dual credit courses of study
across our entire High School
System the Lincoln High School site is
unique amongst District properties in
its Central City location proximate to
Portland State University it is for this
reason that Portland State is willing to
consider collocating its Graduate School
of Education with a fully modernized
Lincoln High
School the reason this conversation is
both possible and appropriate at this
moment in time is that last year the
board directed staff to proceed with
Master planning three high school
campuses Benson Lincoln and Madison in
preparation for a potential 2016 school
building Improvement Bond measure all
three Master plans are to be complete by
June
2016 Portland State is on a similar
timeline for the Graduate School of
Education as we are for our fully
01h 40m 00s
modernized Lincoln High School if a
ballot measure moves forward in November
2016 as and is approved by the
voters there is synergy in the potential
collocation of student Educators with a
comprehensive High School the
co-development of facilities would add
value and benefits to both Portland
State and Portland Public
Schools the memorandum of understanding
commits both parties to participate in a
public Master planning
process this is not the only site that
PSU is considering if for its Graduate
School of Education and the memorandum
of understanding does not limit PPS to
just this one Capital
Partner staff recommends the board adopt
the resolution authorizing execution of
this memorandum of
understandings As We Know s are you
hearing me thank you as you know Lincoln
High School has a unique development
opportunity due to its geography it's at
the West End of downtown where we see
higher residential densities mixed use
uh event venues and institutions like
churches the zoning on the Lincoln that
has applied to Lincoln allows a wide
variety of uses residential commercial
educational entertainment institutions
with a great height limit and a uh
greater density of development than most
of our other
schools so we have potential to do
something on Lincoln High School that we
may not be uh see possible at other
school sites in order to better
understand what is financially feasible
on the site prior to starting the master
planning process Eon North West
undertook an analysis of Redevelopment
potential and Lincoln
the study uh conducted a conducted a
excuse me conducted to identify a range
of options housing
Hotel office and parking and looked at
the development Horizon of the next four
to six
years the study made several assumptions
first that Lincoln High School will be
rebuilt along 18th Avenue and the reason
for that is that moving the school to
the West End of the site allows uh us to
swing students onsite during
construction PPS retains ownership of
land as the study indicated ground
leasing is a better Financial deal for
Portland Public Schools than selling and
that the modernization of Lincoln High
School may include Portland State
University graduate school of education
we are
considering a partnership with
them the study looked at several
scenarios additional sports facilities
along the 14th Avenue um Frontage that's
made available if we build the school on
the 18th along 18th Street maximizing
developable land looked at two scenarios
full full block scenarios which uh
totaled 402 40,000 foot BL excuse me
40,000 foot total and two half blocks of
20,000 square
fet a third scenario included
underground parking garage underground
parking is very expensive it's about
40,000 dollars per space and we know
that the bond cannot cover underground
parking however we also know that
there's significant demand for parking
in the area and that we may have
potential Partners willing to fund a
parking garage so the study looked at
the opportunity for developing one level
of parking for approximately or between
600 to 1300 spaces giving Lincoln all
the parking that it would need as well
as offering parking for the greater area
and we would look to others to pay for
that
the study finded excuse me the study's
findings incl uh concluded that
partnering with PSU and for parking
maximizes land for education and
Athletics structured parking provides
Lincoln parking benefits as I just
stated ground leasing offers better
return than selling and some private
development is feasible along 14th
Street the study also noted that waiting
for property that um there was no sense
of urgency in developing along 14th
Avenue and that waiting delaying would
uh as property values rise would only
benefit poor uh PPS in the
future so staff's recommendation given
what we saw in the
report is that we partner with Portland
State University to to explore location
of a graduate school of education on the
Lincoln High School campus that we lamb
01h 45m 00s
Bank Parcels to retain the option for
future private development along 14th
Avenue and that we activate the building
Frontage along 18th Avenue through
educational
uses as CJ said we have Representatives
here from both Portland State University
and Echo Northwest who can help answer
any questions that you may
have thank
you questions we need a motion before no
I I think we can ask questions and then
have a motion have a discussion um
educational uses along 18th Street what
would those be what are you thinking
about well is the report U indicates
it's um an important design concept to
try to activate the 14th Street Frontage
meaning that there's a certain amount of
transparency if you will between the
street and a building so you're not
pedest I'm talking 18th they said 18th
right 18 yes yes so that um so that you
know the building doesn't Pro provide
just a blank facade to the outside
street so there are a couple of ways to
do that one would be um to activate the
street with ground floor retail as the
study indicates um PPS could include um
space for outside parties to rent say a
Subway sandwich shop for example but
that would put us in a property
management position that is Maybe
were're not best suited for so there are
other ways to activate for example
putting the cafeteria or putting a dance
studio or putting something up close to
the street that provides a visual
interest uh both ways and and a
transparency between the building and
the street that's helpful thank you and
when you're talking about the bill I
know we are so far from really talking
about this um but I'm assuming that
we're talking several
stories for the school not just yeah
I know we've got a long way to
go other
questions
Steve what do you mean by land bank does
that mean we don't develop it it's a
good question yes we hold that and we
hold do we so if we build the school on
the Lincoln site it would mean that we
would actually build the school on a
smaller
site because I'm I'm not for selling off
any public property that the school
district owns period under any
circumstances except if they would trade
us an equal or more amount of property
for the property but that would be a
trade not a sale I'm not for selling any
of our we've got tons of people coming
into this city in the next 20 years and
we're going to need every thing we want
so I would be if I'm voting for this
would I be voting to landbank director
Bill the answer to that would be no um
what the feasibility study said was that
depending on how we master plan the site
if there's a desire to land bank you
could put certain types of facilities on
the 14th Avenue Frontage that could
allow you to develop them in the future
it does not mean that any action that's
taking here tonight um or even through
the master planning process is preparing
for development for future sale of the
property you mean like basketball courts
right right for instance that's what
they were showing there that that that's
the kind of thing that could be should
there be a desire at any point in the
future by a future board of education to
sell um property for any reason that um
gra leas or a ground lease
right and just to be clear the the
motion that we hopefully will entertain
when somebody introduces it um is a um a
memorandum of understanding with PSU
there there's two items and the other's
parking right yes correct okay but we're
going to do one at a time correct and
this first one is and neither of them is
about land banking yes I move that
we go go ahead just because there are
other questions and we'll get to ask a
couple of
questions
um so maybe this is
a about the resolution yeah we have a
resolution well it's more complicated
than that so so I guess part of the
question is the relation one question is
the relation maybe this is for Jolly the
relationship of theou to the
resolution passing the resolution means
that we're approving the district sign
theou as it exists now is that true
that's not complicated you don't think
01h 50m 00s
so that's officially not complicated
it's a good question good
question so in this case yes answer yes
that that that the theou that we would
execute would be what was it what in
your board package okay and so if we had
comments or questions about theou
language we can ask that's we can ask
questions about that sure okay yeah okay
um
so here yeah well yeah and I don't
whoever needs to answer the question is
fine with me so there were a couple of
things in the memorandum of
understanding and it's in the
understanding
section um and so when I look at um item
three psu's Graduate School of
Education um blah blah blah other
potential areas of collaboration will be
considered in the master plan along with
the district's educational specs for
comprehensive high
school and what I'm trying to figure out
is this isn't ex this isn't exclusive to
PSU I mean there are other partners that
could come in and would have the same
access as PSU has so I guess the
question
is does the memorandum of understanding
establish some exclusivity for PSU in
terms of a
partnership of this kind of magnitude
with Lincoln no it does not in fact item
four under understanding specifically
says nor does it preclude the district
from entering into M us or other forms
of agreement with additional Capital
partners for the Lincoln site okay and
so I'm not being factious but if that's
the case then why do we need anou why
can't PSU just walk into the Master
planning process off the street like
anyone else because uh this is about
them providing capital
investment uh to the project this is if
it's
built there's no capital investment in
the master planning process we're paying
for
that that's
correct um but in the absence of a
memorandum of understanding between two
public agencies it is unlikely that one
public
agency would master plan for another
public agency without an explicit
documentation and agreement between the
two parties but so then just to clarify
that um PPS is paying for the master
plan PSU is allocating staff correct to
the master planning process so I don't
understand how that comports with what
you just said because it sounded like
what you said is that um PSU is
investing money in the master planning
process and they're not they're
investing staff resources that's correct
um and what they've invested already in
their graduate school of education is
putting together the building program
requirements which is no small
investment on their part for their own
facility in the same way that we have
invested in education specifications
right and maybe I mean it's maybe I
don't know that it's a big deal but they
have to do that anyway wherever they
build their graduate school so I still
don't understand why they couldn't just
walk in off the street and be part of
the master planning process without
anou but
I'll I don't think I'm going get an the
most fundamental um reason is because
we're building for a different capacity
uh while going into the master planning
if we're know that we're housing that
institution as well well as we did with
I just the thing I guess the concern is
or the the interest I have is and you've
answered this this doesn't provide um
PSU with any um enhanced access over any
other entity that would want to partner
with linkoln high school at the in the
same of for facility or building or
whatever of the same a project of the
same
magnitude no although I'm not certain
exactly what you're talking about
enhanced uh um you know meaning if
somebody walked into the master planning
process and said hey I want to build a
graduate school for something else or I
want to have an undergraduate component
they would have the same kind of access
if it was a if it was a Capital
Partnership the first thing we would do
is is establish a memorandum of
understanding with them okay so this we
do not have people walking into the
master planning process and saying I'm
thinking that I'd like to build a $10
million build
of the building we have people in the
community that are interested in
01h 55m 00s
figuring out how PPS can do a better job
of partnering with a ton of other people
in the community that have maybe
different Visions than PSU so that's why
I'm asking the first thing to do is for
for any potential partner to sit down
with a PPS staff and we start working on
this and so that can happen even with
this mou somebody can come in and
initiate that discussion it's not as if
we have
deal so I I would just like to interject
for a second and recognize the work that
link the Lincoln long-term planning
committee has been doing over a series
of years and this is just one of many
ideas that have surfaced within that
committee and I was going to wait till
the discussion period after the
resolution was introduced to bring this
up but I guess I'll just um do it now
you know one of the things that
um that I am thinking about looking at
the staff recommend commendations on
this is that there are many things
missing regarding the master planning
process and potential partners and
potential ideas um that aren't
represented here I'm fine with that
because this mou is specific to these
particular uses but I just want to
recognize that there are people in our
community who have put in so much time
and effort to really being Visionary
about the master planning process for
Lincoln for Benson for all of our
schools so this is just a teeny slice of
that that does not preclude any more
ideas partnership capital investment um
any of that right and I and I want to
say that's why I'm asking the question I
just want it to be clear to everyone who
hasn't been as intimately involved and
that's great so that is the point and
and it is spelled out to to your point
Mike well I mean these are subject to
Future interpretation by lawyers and
people um
so one
more um so I didn't mean to
overemphasize people so on number eight
PSU in the district will ensure
transparency and accountability for each
organization's contributions to this
partnership along with the results of
planning efforts including public
component of the process and the thing
that I'm most interested is the public
component of the process but I'm not
sure what transparency and
accountability means what what's your
vision of how the substance of how that
gets implemented um what that
effectively means director Rosen is that
both uh Portland State and Portland
Public Schools staff and the agencies
are equally responsible for ensuring
that the public process is
inclusive uh is it's intensive it's
extensive that all of the material is um
visible that all of the process is
visible um all of the kinds of things
that we normally associate with
transparency and accountability in a
public
setting I mean I can say that this same
language was used in the uh original
material uh in our relationship with
Concordia University as part of the fa
and Ka project okay so if that gives you
some indication of of what to use as a
guide for how that process well I just I
mean I think each
Community um and each project is unique
in terms of culture expectations and
capacity and so while I appreciate that
um the fabbi and
Concordia relationship is as far as I
know has gone really well I don't know
that that's going to be the model for
the perfect cookie cutter model for
Lincoln just like I don't know that
Lincoln's
um um public process is going to be the
Kirky cutter model for Grant and one of
the concerns I have is that's the go-to
place for PPS this is the way we did it
so this is the way we're going to do it
so I'm interested in understanding that
that flexibility exists because I do
think that the Lincoln project is going
to be very unique just like I think the
grant project will be very unique so
that's why I'm asking thanks
thank you Mike any other questions for
staff on this issue before we get a
motion on the
table okay thank thank you very much for
uh coming um so the board will now
consider resolution number 5140
authorizing the superintendent to
execute a memorandum of understanding
with Portland State University for
master planning and a potential cocation
of Portland State's Graduate School of
Education with a fully mod modernized
Lincoln High School do I have a motion
02h 00m 00s
to Mo I just I don't know if this is the
place on the language no this is not
the okay so director nolles moves
director Rosen seconds the motion to
adopt a resolution
5140 um suen is there any citizen
comment on the resolution no no
comment okay uh is there any board
discussion on this resolution so I just
wanted to
clarify there the superintendent in in
the resolution the one paragraph um the
Board of Education authorizes the
superintendent to enter into the
memorandum of understanding it's not we
already have the memorandum of
understanding why wouldn't it just be
the attached memorandum of
understanding it's kind of confusing to
me it says there
okay so the question is is this going to
be negotiated further Jolly or the one
in the board packet the final version of
the memorandum that's going to be signed
by PSU and
PPS what I understood CJ to just say is
that this is the final version of theou
okay so then why wouldn't it be
referenced in the resolution as the want
to be
signed um if that if that's not speciic
Ally clear hold on I'm just trying to
pull up the
resolution so that's typically the way
that the business agenda is
um I'm sorry it's just not coming up
here that's typically the language
in right a instead of the and the would
be um as
attached so um you the wrong one sorry
no that's okay that's
okay I mean it's just it's it's a
specific I mean I think Mike's got a
correct point so maybe you can help us
with the wording that specifies the this
memor I mean it is the the the
memorandum so how How would how would we
word that in the resolution and make it
specific so if you want to say uh the
memoranda attached to the business
agenda if you want to introduce a
Amendment to the resolution is what you
would do and then the board would vote
on the amendment to the resolution
okay that would be Mike you want to do
that uh could I interrupt yes uh the
motion is for uh
theou
correct the the the motion is uh we're
considering PSU you're not considering
the next resolution correct okay yeah
yeah thank thank
you so the motion so would you like to
to make a a a motion to amend so I'd
like to make a motion to amend
resolution 51 40 to change the paragraph
starting item one to enter in the
memorandum of
understanding tach to this
resolution is there second to that
motion
second okay it's been moved and seconded
to amend the resolution to read the
board educating hereby authorized super
attendant to enter into the
memorandum understanding Mike what was
the last part of that um attached to
this resolution attached to this
resolution
um all those in favor say I
I all those
opposed okay so moved um it has been
approved so now we will consider the
resolution as amended um
is there any other board
discussion go forth and partner
right thank you to PSU okay so um we now
will consider uh the resolution
5140 which uh direct the superintendent
to enter into the memorandum of
understanding with PSU all those in
favor of I I
all those
opposed okay we're voting for The
Resolution yes we are can we ask
questions about no we just did okay you
jumped after the thing we're voting on
the parking facilities no
voting the other one y memorandum
understanding sorry okay uh any opposed
okay the resolution 5140 which directs
the superintendent to enter into the
memorandum of understanding of PSU has
02h 05m 00s
passed by a vote of six to zero with
student representative I Katie Davidson
is an i okay thank you thank you to PSU
thank you to PSU thank you again
PSU our first partner okay um I I kind
of thought that the the parking was
covered but is there more staff report
on it as we move into the there is no
more staff report okay great so
appreciate that
um the board will now consider
resolution
5141 authorizing the superintendent to
pursue Partnerships for underground
parking facilities as a part of the
Lincoln High School Master planning
process do I have a motion so moov
director nolles
moves second
second director Rosen seconds the motion
to adopt resolution 5141 Miss hon is
there any citizen comment yes we have
four our first two speakers will Dan and
Rita
Moore welcome thank
you okay we're changing the okay my name
is thank you for having me here my name
is Will Dan
DN and I'm a parent of two Portland
Public School alumni in a longtime PPS
Advocate and I'm also an architect who
specializes in education and Urban
Development and I have to say as
enthusiastic support the resolutions uh
on the table the understanding uh the
memorandum of understanding for to
pursue a Capital Partnership with
PSU uh and the proposal to create
Partnerships for underground parking on
the Lincoln site however I'm a bit
concerned about these proposals as
presented today are indicative of a weak
public involvement and optimistic
schedule
assumptions we should all share a huge
sense of urgency about the work that
before us in preparation for the 2016
bond this effort must embrace the
lessons learned from the current work
and the opportunities presented by
recent Personnel
changes critical among the Lessons
Learned is a general dissatisfaction
with the depth and sincerity of
community outreach effective community
outreach will give the public ownership
of their schools and the process
and is one of the most important
ingredients for passing the next Bond
measure public involvement is not to be
feared key among the opportunities is
this new board and I'm delighted to see
you assembled and excited to see the
ideas that come from you um and the
other one is the change the recently
announced change in Personnel at the top
of the office of school
modernization um the most critical
decision facing you um although I heard
some pretty important ones earlier in
the testimony um
is is the hiring of a new of new
management for the office of school
modernization these new hires uh because
there are a couple offer the opportunity
to improve the public process PPS should
make a successful public engagement
experience a primary Criterion for
selection and seek out candidates who
have managed successful Bond projects
with exemplary Community involvement
other school districts Spokane and
Seattle to name to have succeeded and we
should benefit from the experience in
our region or we should hire a
portlander with a reputation as a great
listener consensus Builder and
collaborator absent a candidate this
week PPS should consider appointing an
interim director to signal to the public
the intention to improve public
engagement I read the job description
posted it is exhaustive and yet does not
clearly State either the priorities or
the opportunities for this critical
position write a clear statement that
screams the desire of finding the best
leaders to work with our communities on
behalf of our
children time is running out Bond
projects are behind schedule months have
been spent in secret to determine
whether we can talk publicly about
educational Partnerships and parking a
few more minutes another minute um even
starting today with consultant selection
you would have barely 6 months to Master
Plan before the bond campaign must begin
this is an extremely short time to
solidify Partnerships and produce shared
Community Visions for Lincoln venson and
Madison failing at building consensus
with our community puts the bond program
at risk support for the 2016 Bond needs
to be earned not assumed we must do what
we ask our kids to do tell us why you
what you are doing and why you're doing
it if it isn't working try something
else ask the right questions be nimble
02h 10m 00s
be bold thank you thank you Dy noted
thank
you do look like and is is R not here
reita is going next okay so
you're are you on the list do we have
a I'm sure do we have others Beyond R
yes we have Scott and okay Robin just
want to make sure you're on your list
yeah
wait yeah I'm not an
interloper uh chairman kler and
directors and student representative
Davidson uh thanks for listening to our
testimony tonight I'm Scott Bailey with
community and parents for public schools
commonly known as cpps I'm here tonight
to comment on the most current
developments at Lincoln and how they
reflect on the implementation of the
construction bond to
date you may know that cpps requested
and the district agree to retain an
independent contractor to evaluate the
public processes at Roosevelt Franklin
and Fabian we wanted independent
documentation of the lessons that could
be learned from those processes and
we're delighted to partner with PPS on
this project unfortunately while this
audit is going on and despite many
public pronouncements from District
staff about Lessons Learned it seems the
same mistakes are being
made take for example what's on the
agenda tonight as someone who worked
hard to get the bond passed I would like
to be up here waving a pom pom saying
way to go team but instead I'm kind of
smacking my head again District staff
could have and should have been working
closely with the Lincoln
Community uh keeping them in the loop
about the timing of the PSU mou and the
Eco Northwest study instead the
community was bluntly told not to talk
with PSU and the Eco Northwest study was
shrouded in secrecy we could be up here
celebrating another collaborative step
forward and instead we on the community
side woke up the other day trying to
make heads or tals about what looked
like a piece of Master planning done
without the community's
input poor communication leads to
mistress and alienation of which we have
a surplus good communication and
collaboration builds trust and a sense
of ownership on the public in our
schools as a member of the Grant
Community who applied to be on the grant
designed Advisory Group I watched with
some concern as the timeline for the
announcement of the dag went Far Over
deadline thus delaying the beginning of
the master planning process several
months and likely putting a lot of
pressure on the staff assigned to it uh
and to Dag members of just get the job
done with a reduced timeline this is
unfair to them and increases the risk of
a subpar design I was disappointed that
while there were several dag members who
were listed under the neighborhood
representation category the there are no
representatives from neighborhood
associations further was stated in the
charter for the de that the grant Alumni
Association would have a representative
on the dag yet the representative that
the association forwarded to the
district who happened to be me uh was
not selected it's not about me being on
the I'm fine not being on the deag but
what I'm criticizing is a selection
process that didn't have the Integrity
to stick by what it
said what all this points to is a
continued lack of commitment on the part
of the district to run good efficient
public engagement processes instead we
find that fundamental decisions like the
decision whether to modernize an
existing building or demolish it and
start from scratch have already been
made before the process starts that
basic principles of public engagement
which staff are well aware of are all
too often ignored and in the case of
school design the planning process is so
short that important options never make
it on the table we've seen how the that
played out at Roosevelt will the same
play out at Grant thank you thank you
thank
you and so next we have Rita Moore and
Robin
aarda
welcome thank
you my name is Rita Moore uh n r also
with
cpps as my colleagues have noted tonight
and in previous testimony the design
process for the high school rebuilds has
been problematic with delays and flawed
Community engagement processes but the
time is right to hit the reset button
and improve the design process going
forward we're completing the first phase
of three projects and moving on to the
to plan three new projects in a much
changed environment a new board a change
in leadership at the school of office uh
the office of school monetization and a
new director of The Office of teaching
and learning Mr R
as director constam stated two meetings
ago board members have a fiduciary
responsibility to ensure that the
02h 15m 00s
construction projects proceed on time
and on budget but also our
responsibility to ensure that the
quality of the new buildings as is as
good as it can be within existing
resources in addition to my colleagues
remarks we'd like to offer a few
concrete suggestions for how we might
improve the design processes one ensure
that Community engagement is Meaningful
if people p ps truly believes that
collaboration with stakeholders will
produce better outcomes that it needs to
be done well with clear guidelines and
expectations for all parties in its
oversight role we ask the board to focus
on the content of the community
engagement efforts not just the number
of meetings and email addresses compiled
if students parents Teachers Community
leaders and business partners are not
given really meaningful opportunities to
influence decision-making then
engagement efforts may actually proed to
be
counterproductive on the other hand
genuine collaboration can produce new
ideas resolve problems and generate the
excitement and support that we would
expect for projects that are critical to
the future of this city two greatly
enhance the role of the office of
teaching and learning in the design
process if form is to follow function
then the educational side of the house
needs to be much more active than it has
been to date from the beginning and
throughout the design process we've been
ured that OTL and teachers have been
consulted throughout the design phase of
the three schools but in our view
Educators should be playing a much more
Central and visible role in designing
these schools than they have to date
we're particularly concerned that CTE
and stem issues have not received the
systematic attention that they deserve
since CTE and stem spaces uh typically
require more space and often dedicated
space it is imperative that the office
of teaching and learning be centrally
involved in the design process from the
very beginning we strongly encourage PPS
to elaborate the long promised CTE plan
for the district within the next six
months ideally this plan would have been
available to guide the high school
design processes three years ago the
idea that we may still not have a plan
in hand when we go for a second bond is
deeply troubling it's worth noting that
in terms of existing CTE and stem
curriculum most of the high schools are
more similar to Roosevelt than to
Franklin
um after a long and divisive fight we
finally feel like PPS is taking the stem
space issue at Roosevelt seriously and
sincerely hope that the plan to convert
the auto shop will come to fruition but
the fact that this is still an issue
even after construction has started
speaks to the flaws in the design
process and The Perils of forging ahead
without a clear CTE stem plan in place
PPS is plan to modernize schools all
over the city should be caused for
celebration we know that the future of
this city rests in no small part on the
future future of its educational
resources we all want these efforts to
succeed we want our Collective Legacy to
be schools that future Generations
Marvel that and thank us for We Stand
ready to help you accomplish that if
only you'll let us thank you very much
thank
you and I am Robin abadia AB a d a and
first I just want to say welcome to the
new board members thank you for stepping
up to this Challenge and thank you to
the existing more members for the years
of service that you give I'm a parent of
two children in PPS a fourth and a sixth
grader and like thousands of other
parents I've been watching closely the
school monetization process I've pinned
a lot of hopes on it because I have
young children and I desperately want
them to be in a a modern high school
that's safe when the earthquake happens
I want them to be able to be in learning
in spaces that are large enough to
accommodate our growing population and I
want them to be flexible enough um the
buildings to change as 21st century
teaching and learning evolve and I came
here tonight because as a bystander I'm
concerned about what I'm seeing thus far
I'm seeing missed deadlines in the
process lackluster public involvement
and limited communication with the
community which has entrusted the
district not only with its dollars but
more importantly its children
specifically I'm not seeing meaningful
movement when it comes to the next Bond
in 2016 something we're really excited
about master planning really needs to
begin right now and there are whole
communities of parents and um people who
are willing to roll up their sleeves and
get to work on it each week that passes
is a lost opportunity to engage the
public instead I read the Eco Northwest
report which analyzes the Lincoln campus
from its developmental potential
development potential I'd like us all to
keep one thing in mind throughout this
whole process that PPS is in the
business of educating children not
developing real
estate while partnering with PSU is
great and it's laudable and it's
educational purposes just because we can
entertain the notion of building hotels
and apartments on an already small
02h 20m 00s
school campus doesn't mean that we
should I understand that with any major
new project or process there are bound
to be problems that's normal but we're
bark embarking on a 32-year journey
together to modernize our entire city
schools let's not let it falter right
out of the gate with new bonds and pro
major projects rolling out each four
years as projected the simultaneous need
to deliver top-notch results on current
projects while still carefully planning
for the next phases will be the new
normal for the foreseeable
future just because there are thousands
of us who desperately need new high
schools to be rebuilt doesn't mean that
PPS has guaranteed the votes in
2016 PPS needs to earn those votes
starting right now now is the time that
we can write the ship and start fresh
with this next round and the best way to
get people to vote for future bonds is
to run the current ones with as much
integrity and professionalism and
substantive public engagement as you can
so I'm here to ask you as board members
please don't let PPS mess this up don't
mess this up for my kids but really more
importantly please let's make sure the
thousands of other kids that go through
PPS schools in the coming decades um are
in the right spaces parents and
community members are here to support
you and we're ready to get going thank
you thank you thank
you that's it that's it okay uh is there
any more discussion on this resolution
before we
vote I just have a couple of
questions just to clarify on the
parking if the parking structure
generates revenue does the re how does
that work is that Revenue that goes to
PPS or we're trading the property for
and the cost of building it or again the
it's going to be balanced against the
revenue um that's a theoretical are just
discussion question yeah that's I mean
not question is are just
discussions yeah but go go ahead all
right yeah so does that mean I heard the
question all right and joining us is a
farcus with Northwest um who's the
principal involved with the the study um
one thing I would say at at the front
end is that we don't know yet what the
nature and extent of the partnership
would be okay whether it would be a
for-profit or a non nonprofit
organization and how any Revenue would
flow so just as a practical matter we're
so far in advance of knowing those kinds
of things but a can talk a little bit
about some of the things that have
happened in other places okay just to
clarify but that's to be decided in
that'll be decided in the future
there'll be a discussion of that yes so
CJ isn't it true that I mean these are
just discussions right that's correct we
may not even do this yeah I understand
that I understand that pan I also want
to understand R responding to you Mike
I'm asking a question these are just
discussions correct that is correct and
and this making any decisions about go
through the same kind of process that um
any kind of capital Partnerships have
previously here at the district which is
memorandums of understanding
predevelopment agreements development
agreements all of which of course come
before the board for discussion and then
I guess a would address this there is a
is there a potential for generating
Revenue through parking structure right
U so if if a partnership were to come
together you could set the partnership
partnership up as a nonprofit
corporation uh the school district
already owns the land so you don't have
to contribute any more financially other
parties wouldthe
hypothetically contribute financially uh
a nonprofit has the ability to issue its
own bonds that are revenue bonds and so
there will be a commitment by the users
of the parking garage uh to help pay off
those bonds so uh there are a number of
ways to set this up um there are
interested parties that just want to
talk with you about it at this point in
time okay so the potential exists that
there might be Revenue after
everything's paid for potential right we
have in Revenue
now thank you and then the other
question I had was about the partners um
and not to name any names but there
right now there are people that we can
talk to about this that are interested
in it but there no there have been no
decisions made I mean other partners
could come in anyone can come in and
have a discussion about their idea of
how the parking could work it isn't
narrowed down to any set of people okay
thank
you any other comments or
questions okay um the board will now
vote on resolution 5141 all in favor
02h 25m 00s
please indicate by saying I I I all
opposed
um resolution
5141 directing uh superintendent and her
dese into discussions with potential
Partners regarding potential parking is
passed by vote of 61 six to zero with
student representative I Katie gson is I
okay thank
you uh we'll now have the first reading
of the revised tax exempt Bond post
issuance compliance policy Amanda will
you introduce it please sorry Yousef
Awad who's our chief financial officer
will come up to talk about the
Amendments um briefly um up to board
policy number 810.02
chairman of the board board directors uh
good evening before he is the first
reading for um to revise the policy it's
our bond policy and what we're doing is
we're adding component to uh compliance
with the federal laws and
SEC um requirements that's really in a
nutshell what's the what's the the
revision for the policy this is the
first read we have taken it to the U
budget committee and they have approved
it and now it's before you and I'll be
happy to answer any
questions are any questions
okay
um the proposed policy will be posted on
the board website and the public comment
period is 21 days with the last date of
comment being September
22nd uh contact information for public
comment will be posted with the policy
the board will hold a second reading of
the policy on October 5th
2015 thank thank you thank you
appreciate yeah uh the board will now
consider the remainder of the business
agenda having already voted on
resolutions 5140 and
5141 uh Miss hon are there any changes
to the business agenda there are not do
I have a motion and second to adopt the
business agenda so move second okay
director conam moves and director nolles
seconds the adoption of the business
agenda uh Miss hon is there any public
comment on the business agenda
no okay
um the board will
now do you have a comment yeah I just
have one question on the um the family
health care for Benson Tech so there's
$80,000 roughly for equipment so I just
didn't understand or wanted to
understand the relationship of that
money to the money that we voted to
provide uh is that related to that I any
sense look get a call I'm helping he be
a out oh I'd be very happy to answer uh
it's absolutely tremendous uh the money
that we are looking at allocating uh we
have looked at on the budget and
operations committee is to build out the
space okay this money is a grant Benson
is receiving okay great to buy
supplies good furniture and equipment
thank you okay any other
discussion the board will now vote on
the business agenda all in favor please
indicate by saying yes yes all all
oppose indicate by saying
no uh the business agenda is approved by
vote of six to zero with student
representative Davidson voting yes great
uh the next meeting of the board will be
held Wednesday September 16th and this
Sources
- PPS Board of Education, Archive 2015-2016, https://www.pps.net/Page/7356 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:52.304471Z)
- PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)