2015-11-24 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2015-11-24
Time	missing
Venue	missing
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: Board of Education - Regular Meeting - November 24, 2015

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this formal meeting of the board of education for November 24th 2015 is called to order I'd like to extend a warm welcome to everyone present and to our television viewers any item that will be voted on this evening has been posted as required by state law this meeting is being televised live and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the Board website for replay times this meeting is also being streamed live on our PPS TV services website this evening we are missing uh director nolles and director kler and I'd like to um extend our condolences from the board to director kler who is mourning the loss of his father um Miss Powell do we have any changes we do we have uh moved the board's priority agenda item to December 1st okay um our first order of business is a superintendent report superintendent Smith and I'd like to First welcome our Grant High School lacrosse team thank you for showing up in such Force tonight um the first thing I'd like to just share with you is the beind online campaign and we had hundreds of PPS middle school and high school students who participate participated in National beind Online day last month uh a national organization called Beyond differences started be kind online um and students attended assemblies and special activities to raise awareness about about social isolation and cyber bullying across our district as part of the event Miss Black Oregon Octavia Chambers visited three of our schools to share experiences on social isolation and how to overcome it uh students at schools that Chambers visited signed a pledge to be kind online and students at other schools also signed the pledge Roseway Heights students produced a brief video promoting kindness that video wanted Beyond differences um National contest and gr high school students also put together power powerful video about cyber bullying and we're going to take a look at that right now I've been labeled as this on Twitter [Music] before I'm working on a photo project photographing students at the school um with signs that they of words that they've been called on social media um and we we're thinking that it will be a powerful project so that people can see that um bullying people isn't it's not a faceless crime the words are shocking and I think from from the students point of view again they want the they want they want there to be disclosure and they want there to be honesty about what they've experienced I'm participating in this because I personally have been affected by cyber bullying and I know many of my peers are affected by cyber bullying and it's not um it's very harmful to people's emotions and to their daily lives I hope that students at the school will see this and realize that um calling people mean names on social media and bullying people on social media um it's not they can't get away with it it's it's real people that they're affecting every single day what I hope students leave with because of this is just a continued awareness of how harmful um what they're posting online and the things that they're saying online can be to other students um sometimes it's unintentional but I think often times it it's being used as a means to to um lash out at someone someone that you maybe don't even know [Music] actually I just want to thank um students who've taken leadership in this and great video to our grant students so thank [Music] you um I also want to thank hundreds of parents students teachers and neighbors who've been turning out for the community meetings on um proposals to balance enrollment to strengthen our schools over 2,000 people have attended 11 meetings over the last couple weeks the final community meeting is actually tonight at King school and next week um we're partnering with the Portland Association of teachers to engage um a number of teachers and super saac is holding a student Forum as well so we're getting some specific although students and teachers have attended all of these forums as well so um we're grateful to our partners who've stepped up to support this important Cross School cross community and cross-cultural conversation the center for Intercultural organizing the Asian Pacific American network of Oregon
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Latino and Latino network of all sponsored meetings um along with the black parent initiative NAA Family Center uh apano concerned parents for public schools and Portland Council PTA um who've all played important roles in getting the word out um the district bride boundary review advisory committee or Deb as we call it have been listening and present at all of these forums they will then meet and put together a recommendation to me that will then ultimately I'll do whatever changes I to it and then it'll come to the board um early uh like February so I look forward to seeing that and we've heard a lot of passion at these uh Town Hall meetings Chelsea Clinton um visited Mount Taber Middle School this month to encourage young people to get involved and make changes in their world she read passages from her new book get informed get inspired and get going which is written for young people to show them that their voices count and they can make a difference in the world um and it actually did inspire a lot of young people to get engaged because we've been getting letters um just saying here are some of the things that I'm getting engaged in from people who saw her and she was great she did a really good job and passionate about her book um US Representative Earl Blumenau visited lent school earlier this month to learn more about a National Science Foundation Grant uh and how Gardens are helping students learn about science um lent Elementary School is also using their garden and protos from the garden is used in lunches at lent school after touring the garden representative blooman hour read to students and took questions from the students regarding the environment and other issues that are important to them hundreds of Latino parents and students attended an event called steps towards graduation that was held at Cesar Chavez in late September um and an additional session was then held at lent school and sorry I got to do water the dayong event was focused on celebrating Latino amilies in our schools and also um informing parents about opportunities available to students sorry I'm gonna just die I know I'm in the cop take a break period I'll just say this was a good event our fall sports teams I want to give a shout out to our high school sports teams that had great success this fall uh and to all of our student athletes for their partic participation in hard work Lincoln High School's boys soccer team won the State 6A soccer tournament earlier this month this is the first time that Lincoln boys team has won State title since 1976 [Applause] woohoo Lincoln girls soccer finished fifth at State this year together the boys and girls teams had the best finish in state of any High School soccer team in the state also woohoo Lincoln's boys cross country team took second place at State and Wilson High School boys cross country team took third place Grant High School's cross country Runner Ella Donahue won her third straight individual State title by breaking the course record um uh and Lincoln's varsity football team made it to the quarterfinals in the Oregon 6A tournament uh they defeated football Powerhouse Grants Pass two weeks ago to take on Sherwood this past Friday and Sherwood beat them but we are excited that they made it to the quarterfinal so [Applause] woohoo we've also had a number of our staff who have been recognized for their hard work um Alliance at Benson High School um Drake Shelton was recently named Oregon vice principal of the Year by the confederation of Oregon school administrators um Shelton has created programs to boost student attendance and increased graduation rates uh and we're really proud of him this is a really great honor um to be named name so this is Statewide vice principal of the year so congratulations Dr we have six outstanding Portland Public School teachers who've been named Civic Scholars by their state representatives the Civic Scholars Program is put on by the classroom law project and is part of a Statewide initiative to provide highlevel professional develop development opportunities for civics teachers around the state the teachers chosen so far are Patricia OA from Dunaway Elementary School Katie Moore from Frank High School George tenik and Emily Hensley from Lincoln High School Mike Bower from Roosevelt High School and Lisa Souther a teacher at cwood middle school so congratulations to all of them um they will receive free admission to the Civics conference for teachers which is held at the state capital in Salem on December 4th so that'll be very exciting and congratulations to all of them there's also um we've had a number of other outstanding staff who've been recognized
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so far this year Nancy Sullivan from Madison High School who received the Oregon Association of school librarians High School secondary library teacher of the year award Jennifer sohawa from Grant High School who won the Oregon Association of school librarians High School library prayer professional of the Year award Madison High School Susan Russell who won the Oregon Art education association's 2015 rookie of the year award and Lincoln's Tim swinhart who was named educator of the Year by the Oregon Council for social studies so congratulations to all of you um our annual book Harvest continues to be a success this is the third year that we have held the book Harvest um which is really about collecting books and and sending them home with children to build their home libraries the Harvest has collected 16,000 books this year and PPS transportation department and our bus service first student um volunteered to bring the donated books from our school collection sites to the children's book Bank um the book bank has been an ongoing partner with Portland Public Schools and we are very grateful for their partnership and their efforts and it has it's been very exciting to be able to send um backpacks filled with books home with kids for their vacation um with their breaks and finally um Megan Hall and her life skills team at Grant High School are doing a terrific job educating students and I'm glad we have such a good Grant audience to be here with us for this um little clip that we're going to see every Tuesday these students take a field trip to New Seasons Market near the school to place lunch orders for Grant teachers the activity gives students the opportunity to learn and use skills including reading counting um count change using a crosswalk communicating and most of all building self-confidence um so here's a video about this project ready sure that of you guys are before we go we got a lot of orders by the way guys when we come back we're also going to get a chance to do some deliveries okay Megan Hull intensive skills classroom teacher at Grant High School we're going to New Seasons and we're going to pick up some lunch orders for teachers okay what is it walk look look cross so we're really good about going to the crosswalk once we have the walk signal look both ways then be able to go across and I've had a lot of parents tell me that um through our weekly practice they've seen a difference at home nice Shayla good caddy and then once we get there we really kind of have a production line I have students that are responsible to go turn in orders I have students that are responsible to go get chips for teachers that order chips ordering chips I have um students that staple the orders to the bag so that we can stuff the sandwiches inside so they're working on their reading skills and identifying um matching letter so there's a lot of skills that are happening and then of course once an order is completed they go to the cash register and they get to practice the real money and because we get all sorts of different types of money you know sometimes they might have a $20 bill to work with sometimes they might have two fives in a one or they might have all ones and knowing how to get correct change back um a lot of these kids kind of are reclusive in themselves they don't speak so taking them out in the community they're able to use their communication skills and then bringing back the orders and the teachers are really happy to get them staff has been really supportive hello lunch delivery thank you very much for teachers um we don't have time to get out of the building with a 33 minute lunch and so now we get a fantastic sandwich brought right to us and it's really fun thank you very much you're welcome being independent is one of the most important things um and my students have that right to be independent um and it's my job to make sure that they get to be [Music] independent that's great uh representative Davidson you have your report this evening I do so I would like to report that the superintendent student advisory committee is going very well we have had four meetings so far and we have had most of the high school uh schools represented we're still recruiting Because it's a long process but we're happy of the kids that we have now um at the moment we are gearing up for a to host a student forum for the Deb proposed scenarios that is planned for next Wednesday December 2nd at Benson High School from 6: to 7:30 p.m. we encourage students from all over the district to come and hear the scenarios
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explained and to provide impact input for de rack input students provide will help shape the new boundaries I also had the pleasure of seeing Franklin High School's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and it was beautifully done so I would like to thank all of the students parents and staff who contributed to the play last Thursday I was able to uh tour construction sites of the remodels occurring at both Franklin and Roosevelt High School with fellow board members con Stam and nlls as well as superintendent Smith it was amazing to see what these schools look like during this time of change I would like to thank the people who took time out of their day to guide us through these construction sites thank you thank you all right Miss Powell we have some students signed up for Testimony this evening we have five the first two are Sawyer Montgomery and Sprout Chen you guys here you have a total of three minutes to share your comments please Begin by stating your name and spelling your last name for the record during the first two minutes of your testimony a green light will appear right in front of you when you have one minute remaining a yellow light will go on and when your time is up the red light will go on and a buzzer will sound we respectfully ask that you conclude your comments at this time thank you for being here uh so I guess I'll start um my name is Sawyer Montgomery s a w y e r m o n t g m e r y um um I'm here with Grant lacrosse um so members of the board thank you for taking the time to let me speak on behalf of this team um I'm a senior at Grant High School and I've played lacrosse for all four years I've also been a member of the student run Grant magazine uh for all four years um and as a student journalist I really like facts and data so I'm going to share some with you today on a national level youth sport participation is in a decline from 2008 to 2012 uh 4% less youth from ages 6 to 17 are participating in basketball soccer baseball and football um lacrosse uh shows a different story um looking at the same survey same period of time participation has increased by 158% if you uh take that back to 2005 and carry to today um that number exceeds 300% um and what does that look like at Grant when I was a freshman there were 16 total players on the team now our men's program is reaching 50 strong some of them are here today um and then uh among those 50 people nearly 20 of them are just incoming freshman alone so it's trending upwards uh my point is this over the last several years our club has made significant efforts with the athletic department to gain Fair field rates we have been responded to much like a niche sport such as uh Ultimate Frisbee uh while these Sports undoubtedly have a place in our community um we think that the amount of uh athletes that stand with our sport as well as the effort that we put towards the sport um merits a larger response from the governing bodies presiding above us uh I don't see many Niche Sports wait training three days a week I don't see many Niche Sports combining their men's and women's programs for nearly a hundred student athletes I don't see them doing skills training uh early mornings on the weekends and running a highly competitive offseason club team on Sundays um we're competing against top programs in the state such as those in the lake op go and wesland School District which practice on District Fields as if they were a school sport paying upwards of $75 an hour only puts us one step behind uh I know you can't give us Portland Park and wreck Fields um what I standing for our team request is your backing as we proceed to legitimize Lacross and thus gain space on available PPS campus Fields as experience has shown uh we can't do it alone uh your support as esteemed leaders of PPS will not only earn our gratitude um but would also earn the legitimacy and field space that we as dedicated athletes deserve thank [Applause] you hi there I'm Sprout chin s p r o u t c h i NN I'm a senior at Grant High School and I'm here on behalf of many of the students at Grant who are concerned about the layout of the redesign um the Ed specs implements 100% utilization model which would eliminate many of the classrooms and replace them with large common areas I want to briefly share with you some of my experiences at Grant and how classrooms have been a safe haven for me while navigating through High School my freshman year I struggled with making friends most days I found myself without anyone to eat lunch with so I would go to my English teacher room if Miss wrote
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wasn't in a meeting we would chat while eating our lunch and sometimes um the classroom was busy with other students which would make it feel a little less lonely by my sophomore year I was deeply involved with the queer straight Alliance at Grant being a queer student in high school is tricky but I could always count on the safety of Miss Todd's room during lunch um during an outside of qsa meetings as soon as I walked through the familiar doorway and could see the pictures that made her walls feel like home everything felt like it was going to be okay halfway through my junior year my best friend passed away and i s often s um s sought refuge in um the choir room allowing the tapping of the piano keys to become louder than my thoughts I wouldn't be able to AFF the relationships I have with teachers without knowing that the room was a safe place for me it is for this reason that I urge you to reconsider the layout of the redesign um as nice as commentaries would be classrooms are far more important and should take precedence the classrooms that I have spent the last four years years and have shaped me almost as much as the teachers that habitate them thank you thank you [Applause] thank thank you Miss chin this is a problem that we seem to have had at Franklin also so are you saying that there's a that there is aund basically 100% utilization of the classrooms and I mean can you lead me through how you got to this uh yeah so the redesign calls for um 100% utilization which means instead of I think we have somewhere over 70 classrooms now and it would be um reduced to 40 classrooms um which so the teachers would move to the classrooms teachers wouldn't have their own classrooms um instead they'd have large office spaces with cubicles so several teachers to a room s to 40 mhm thank you very much for sharing that bringing that to our attention thank you appreciate it next we have Annabelle Schwarz and Ethan Hess go first I'll go first okay um hi my name is Ethan Hess eth an HS um I'm a junior Grant High School and I've been paying lacrosse since the fourth grade um I'm with the lacrosse team and I'm here today to talk to you about treating lacrosse fairly like any other Varsity Sport so I've been playing lacrosse at Grant for every year that I've been at Grant and if lacrosse doesn't deserve to be treated like any other Varsity Sport then I don't know it does our coaches check our grades every week like any other sport we go to practice every day like any other sport the only difference really is that we're not OSAA approved um other schools have gone out and made lacrosse of varcity sport for their own school like in Lake asigo Lake Ridge and Newberg for example um we don't have to be OSAA approved just to be respected like another Varsity Sport I believe that it's unfair to me and my team that we are forced to pay much more than we can afford um because we don't have this label of Osa even though we have all the equalities of a Varsity Sport thank you thank you thank you my name is Annabelle Schwarz an an n a b l l e s c h w a r TZ I want to tell you a little bit about an issue that is currently plaguing our community a few months ago my counselor at Cleveland High School introduced me to a freshman girl who was struggling with a very serious problem she had to attend school with her rapist and not only did she have to see him but she had to put up with his constant harassment as well this included being called a and a in the hallways and even threats of violence after talking with her for a while I learned that she was not the only one at Cleveland who had been sexually assaulted by him and certainly not the only one to suffer from his harassment four other girls and a young trans man all talked about his assaults against them eventually the young girl I spoke with originally decided to go to the police I it did not surprise me when they reported to her mother that they were not interested in pursuing her case as a Survivor myself I have heard the horror stories of women whose local police departments did not take their rape seriously what surprised me is the school did not seem interested either when we have met with administrators they have told us that everyone has a right to public School
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even if that meant pushing these survivors out when we ask them why they do not at least deal with the harassment they say that it is complicated they act as if it is something that our teenage Minds cannot comprehend like we do not already have to put up with the world of sexual violence that was thrust upon us I don't say this to shame the Cleveland or its administrators but I wanted to start a discussion about accessible and understandable sexual assault policies for PPS I want to know why administrators will not use tools like Title 9 to their full extent I stand here to ask where should students go if both their school and their police departments cannot or will not help them thank you thank you director bu thank you thank you for coming M Schartz can you can you give me a timeline on what you're talking about in other words when did this begin and and where are we now you been and when was the last time you went to your uh uh to your administrators that the last time I talked to my school administrator um the first time I met with my principal um principal O'Neal was last Thursday but we originally reported the case to the school um at the beginning of the year uh I think around September 1st so the first week of September has the har is the harassment still continuing yes like in the last 10 days um yes even today um it's unfortunate but it has escalated too thank you very much for bringing this to our attention appreciate it thank you thank you for your testimony both of you miss pal we have a few more students yes oh we have we have one more Molly mats okay hi my name is Molly Mets I'm a junior at Grant High School and I'm a part of the grant girls across program oh my name is m o l o y m e TZ um so today I'm here to kind of talk about fundraising but also how that plays into lacrosse not being recognized as an OSAA sport um a lot of our players spend a lot of time outside of um practices and games games fundraising on the weekends in the evenings at nights when a lot of our players who are amazing um students athletes and um we spend a lot of time that we could be on the field or studying for tests and doing homework you know out in the community trying to raise money for the rising field costs just to get out on the field and I think that this is a really big part of um being a part of this team is doing the fundraising which I feel you know not a lot of other teams have to do their Osa recognized so I think that any support that we could get from you would be amazing thank you thank you very [Applause] much I'd like to ask a general question I'm not sure of whom is there a movement within P an active movement to have lacrosse recognized be as a school say yes well there's an active movement uh to uh We've applied again to OSAA become a state sanction sport uh and one of the reasons we're here tonight that I was just going to speak to in a little bit is other school districts have elected that lacrosse should be a tier one state or School sponsored sport which doesn't require OSAA sanctioning they've done it and I don't know what the process is to do that but that is a way that could immediately legitimize okay and you'll be testifying thank you very much okay moving on then to our rest of our public comment we have I believe our first testimony we are expecting Adam wolf and Amanda Kagel um hi I'm Amanda Kagel wol a m n da C A GLE E I have um three children currently in PPS one at Lincoln High School one at West silen Middle School and one at Forest Park Elementary I'm here to speak
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in support of the basic outline of the DB's proposed boundary changes and also against a soft boundary proposal that was considered and voted upon last time I was here at a board meeting um I have three main points to make and so I guess I'm sort of speaking to something you're not actually voting on today but I'm hopeful that you're recall it when the vote comes up again I have three points first that the Deb process itself has built trust within the community second that the proposal they put out is a good one and third that PPS needs to come up with a way to stop changing School boundaries so often at uh one of the first meetings early last fall a longtime principal spoke out on the issue of distrust that she sees between parents and PPS and that she believed that the source of that distrust was ppss past practice of implementing changes that severely impact students and families with little to no Community input or involvement and someone heard that and DB was born um and there has been an enormous amount of community input and involvement in the process this time it met for the better part of a year and heard testimony and research from hundreds of people and people came together in those rooms and talked about all of those issues the meetings got acrimonious often but people were definitely heard to shift now and adopt a proposal such as the soft boundary proposal which was rejected by DB and rejected during that process would be a slap in the face to all of the people who participated in that process process and why this matters is because research shows that parental involvement and trust is critical to improving student achievement a three-year study of 12 Chicago schools found that parent trust was the key factor in promoting student achievement and effective School Improvement um a similar study across 39 countries found that parental involvement is actually more important than socioeconomic status in terms of improving and predicting student performance so we really need to involve parents and earn and keep that trust in order to improve our schools so I'm asking you please don't undo the process that debu derre has begun second the outlines the you know the bigger outlines of the boundaries that they've done is a solid one the committee spent the better part of a year researching and learning about all the issues facing our schools and their proposal demonstrates that expertise IT addresses overcrowding and under attended schools and more importantly it keeps the kids in their communities research shows that Community Schools promote parental critical parental involvement and kids emotional development and academic achievement conversely other research shows that when you bust kids out of their communities test scores and parental involvement both go down while disciplinary suspensions go up keeping the kids in their communities also makes it easier for educators to do Outreach to and improve that parental involvement and just in conclusion derra heard testimony on all of these issues and they and including the soft boundary proposal and it was considered and rejected thank you thank you very much okay do we have um Cindy doich and Stuart Montgomery welcome go ahead I'm Cindy dich c n Dy D L cic and I'm here tonight just to raise some awareness about the national Board of Professional Teaching Standards um I am a fifth grade teacher at Beverly clear and I'm also a national board certified teacher I come with my colleague he'll be um talking to you as well in just a few minutes um nationville board is an a voluntary Advanced certification for teachers and I want to raise your awareness because I'm hoping that more Portland Teachers can go through this program my own personal story is I was at teacher at ainson for 22 years loved it um but every day I something nagged at me that maybe I wasn't the best teacher I could be so I went and got a master's degree an endorsement in reading an endorsement ESL took every class imaginable um read every book but I still had something that was missing I thought I wasn't doing Justice to the children in front of me every day and one day just by Serendipity I walked by another teacher's classroom she was a new hire from California she was Stellar she was amazing I was pretty Spellbound at how she taught and as I got acquainted with her she told me she was a nationally board um certified teacher and that planted a seed in me so several years down the road after my kids had graduated from college it was time for me to do this it's kind of an expensive program so I waited I did it and it absolutely transformed my teaching it gave me confidence it gave me intentionality um I teach very differently now but I have a lot more confidence that I'm doing everything that I can for the children in front of me so as my career is winding down I feel an obligation to tell you about
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about this fabulous program and how it can really change teachers um it uh really supports everything that superintendent Smith wants to do uh helping close the achievement Gap um getting more kids to graduate from high school getting our third graders to uh read to learn so it's wonderful and I feel like I shouldn't be the only one able to do it but more student or more teachers should be able to have that experience thank you my name is Stewart St a r t Montgomery m o n t g m e r y and I sit before you as a representative of Grant High School men's and women's lacrosse programs lacrosse is a club sport supporting over 80 athletes male and female and as such one of the three largest Sports at Grant with both sexes represented despite Club Status lacrosse has run on the academic and athletic principles of all OSAA Sports because of its Club Status we support athletes of the other schools in the P including Benson Jefferson and Madison Cleveland Wilson and Lincoln also have men's and women's teams no athlete is excluded from playing on the basis of the ability to pay we have secured Community sponsorships and gear to ensure all willing athletes can play this great sport there is a history of Lacrosse excellence in the Pio with Lincoln having won the state championship four times we need the school board To Be A Champion for us on the following topics one legitimize lacrosse as a tier one sponsored sport as other school districts have done so that District Athletics and Grant Administration can support us with their full power two Aid funding for Portland Park and wck Fields field costs are exorbitant and unsustainable for our clubs field costs have increased nearly 300% in the last three years rising to $75 an hour in the grant Bull and at Delta Park we have received mixed messages from District Athletics and Parks regarding our options and costs for both the past 2014 season along with what our costs will be moving forward three maximizing our opportunities on our home field the grant bull unlike every other High School in the district Grant students relinquish priority on their field at 6: not 700 p.m. the p and Parks has prioritized middle school athletes and for-profit programs over our high school athletes at Grant both before and after 6 p.m. four trying to determine the the usage Matrix of the other fields in the pil and whether there is a place on those fields for these student athletes this involves prioritizing these high school athletes over corporate Partners who are able to pay full hourly costs lacrosse has sought a solution to the above problems working with both parks and the P since the summer of 2014 Brian s'more our ad at Grant has been immensely supportive and Mr Marshall H Haskins has expressed his support of our athletes but his power has been limited by virtue of us not technically being an an OSAA sanction sport or recognized as a tier one sanction sport we need a champion who will stand up and say these are our P athletes they deserve equal affordable access to fields to be successful on their field of play we need a champion who will say if leak us weo and West Lynn will give their athletes in Lacrosse equal field access then we will too because it's the right thing to do please step forward to ensure that these dedicated student athletes have an opportunity to play at a cost all families can afford and that all student athletes have the same access to facilities we ask you to legitimize these athletes and to take a leadership role that will allow them to have the same chance of success that is provided to other school districts in the Portland metro area I thank you for your time thank you director I just like to say about miss doul that when I came onto the school board in the first two weeks I think that I was a school board member I received at least 20 emails saying what a marvelous outstanding and wonderful teacher she was and I've always remembered that in fact I kind of used her as an example hey maybe we could get Cindy dolses to get in here and do these types of things you know and we should be talking to her about what she's doing I mean it was they just raved about what a wonderful teacher she was out there at ainson and I had a question for Mr Stewart likewise and it was uh it was about what for-profit uh organizations are so using the grant field that's you would like to use after 7 P.M on pil Fields the priority in those fields as I understand it and no one has come forth to show me how those fields are used exactly my understanding is the priority
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on those fields goes to Community Partners no disrespect but Community private soccer clubs PCU Southeast soccer club I know there was an issue last year at Cleveland High School where they almost gave the field away right out from underneath the JB soccer team the same issue is happening all over the city and no one seems to want to share who uses those fields and when and all I have heard is they're all booked well you can't tell me I don't think that they are all booked by P athletes until 900 p.m. so you don't really know what what particular okay I'd love to have you send me that if you get if you can you could access that from the parks department you'd like to know the other way it's not Parks okay it's Athletics this I'm talking about the P owned Fields so each athletic director would have that I think why don't you make a request to us to get you that can we get that we can get that information be great was that a request we can get that that' be helpful thank you uh we do have some more public testimony uh Stacy Meyer and Mary P pavito petto not hi my name is Stacy Meyer uh last name me ye R and I am a fifth grade teacher at Beverly clear I work with Cindy dich and I'm also here to speak a little bit about national board certification but specifically I wanted to share my experience um as a Washington teacher this is my first year at PPS but I spent 10 years teaching in Washington state most recently I spent the last seven years working up in the Evergreen School District in Vancouver so as a Portland resident I commuted and um four years ago I went through the national board certification while working in the Evergreen school district and I'm hoping that I'd like to share some of the things that the Washington State but also some of the local school districts are doing to help support and encourage national board candidates in Washington um the first thing I wanted to share is that Washington state is uh ranks fourth in the nation for total number of national board certified teachers uh they have certified 8,196 teachers and that accounts for 14% of all Washington State teachers when you compare this with Oregon Oregon has certified only 313 national board certified teachers given it a rank of 38th in the country when I actually first started working at Beverly clear Cindy dolage came up to me and said how excited she was to have another board certified teacher at the school told me I was number 13 in the district and I just have to share at my school I was probably one of 13 just in my school um up at Evergreen so um why so many in Washington and what are they doing doing um that's working so well first of all the state has given a $5,000 stipend to national board certified teachers every year um additionally if you work in a school that's designated as challenging you get an additional $5,000 every year so teachers are earning possibly up to $10,000 more each year um and just significantly you know 34.2% of these certified teachers are working in challenging schools working with some of our highest need students um this the state also has implemented some supports to help teachers through the process uh they have a two-day conference to help prepare candidates for the process um and also allow for a conditional loan to help pay for the certification process as Cindy mentioned it can be um upwards to about $2,000 to pay for it but Washington state allows candidates to take out a loan on their first stipend so as long as you certify you would repay that loan back at your first stipended additionally many districts have offered supports to help teachers through the process in Evergreen I participated in a support group with a cohort uh we worked a group of teachers together through the process led by a trained and paid facilitator meeting once a month uh 3 hours in the evening to kind of help guide us through the process and this was um crucial for me to succeed as a candidate um moving forward just thinking about what we could be doing at PPS I would really like to see um our district adopt some of these models to help and support and encourage teachers in our district to become certified in national boards thank you very much hi thank you to the members of the board for allowing me to give testimony my name is Mary Pau p v t o I have three children at um Portland Public Schools um well no I have two my oldest graduated last spring from Lincoln High School I have one currently at Lincoln High School um but both of those
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attended Harriet Tubman Leadership Academy for women and then my youngest is um at Chapman Elementary School and I am here to to um comment on the Deb uh process and even though I feel like probably jumping the gun a little bit um I'm going to save sort of our personal testimony about what we feel personally but speak to a little bit from the Chapman Community about concerns about really what was not included we understand that it was a very exhaustive and volunteer-driven process um but we were looking to we were re really eagerly anticipating seeing these scenarios to um help alleviate the pressures already on the Central City Chapman school where we have 700 um students currently when and to put that in context my older daughters um when they attended that's double the enrollment of what they experienced when they were at Chapman 350 we also understand that a right siiz school is around 500 for elementary so we were really looking to scenarios that the Deb committee were going to come out to provide um some relief and some uh Solutions and and what it has made us question I think you're going to hear from possibly a lot in the community and again I'll save my testimony and um board member conam and um director Smith you are at the the listening session about the experience of children in these very crowded schools but we're really concerned that there is such a disconnect between our City's planning and growth process and and it is going to continue to grow um in especially in the central core the um the new pressures of affordable housing um uh you know goals are really just not being included that we're really looking at a Deb process that is looking behind us and we're not looking forward to the future of what our real pressures especially Central City um is going to experience and so we're very concerned that there are no Solutions on the on the um Horizon not only to deal with the 700 kids that we have in our c M but the 47 new buildings the 4,600 units that are coming into Central City within 10 blocks um of the current catchment so I guess that's what we would like to say is that um again you know the testimony about what our schools are experiencing I think it's more just to to ask that the board provide more pressure possibly on the city's engagement in this process to be more bought into the work that they're doing up to three years out in development planning um that it gets better connected to the school's um kind of realtime immediate needs of taking care of these kids when they arrive on this on the doorsteps September 1st so thank you very much for your time and appreciate the work that you're all doing thank you all right additional public testimony we have Gabriel boulevar and Helen Kent thanks guys and ladies and ladies where's the ladies oh yes yeah so we call up the other person we also have Ethan medling real go ahead Miss K okay great um it's Heather Kent uh for the record uh ke NT uh thank you so much for having me here tonight um I'm the PTA president of aess Academy um also a parent of two students at that school and I also want to speak to the D bra process tonight again I know um early in the process but as a school that attracts students from all over the district um we've been a little bit of an outlier in the neighborhood discussions um we've attended uh our our neighborhood School discussions and uh tried to make sure that access um had a voice in that process but because we do attract students from 54 different neighborhood schools currently um our issues are a little bit different um access Academy was envisioned as a K12 school designed to meet the needs of highly intellectually gifted students um these students score in the 99th percentile of nationally normed tests and often don't have a peer group in a neighborhood school they may have troubl making friends are subject to bullying and do not learn to work hard to achieve in that setting as a result they can de develop um problems severe depression um drop out of school fail to thrive in a myriad of ways and I personally for our daughter you know that per group has
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really been a Lifeline for her at school um allowing her to meet and make friends that we hope will last a lifetime um access was relocated from Sabin to Rose City Park in 2002 during the grant cluster boundary process and through our improved admission process support from the tag office and better Outreach we're really helping the district meet its Equity agenda for this group of students um we have with through more Equitable testing the consistent notification to families that their students are eligible um the additional Outreach and effort from the tag office to educate um and inform the tag uh Liaisons within the schools more and more families are becoming familiar with access and applying we have grown um we've been really fortunate to have had that support from the district and we believe um in this process that we need to grow a little bit more right now third grade is the entry point and there's not much room for any additional students um for this process um central location is also our biggest issue and Mary just spoke to some of the issues that are um uh causing crowding problems in the central part of the city but because we're attracting kids from 54 different schools a central location is really essential for access in order to provide that Equitable access um kids are traveling 45 to 60 Minutes one way on the bus their parents would put up with traveling further because it's such an important um benefit to be there but it's uh needs to be um something that is relatively equal in Access um to all students so those are our two main issues and I'm sure you'll hear more from us uh in the future thank you very much welcome yeah my name is Ethan medley ET n me d l y I'm the physics teacher at Grant High School and I'm speaking on behalf of many teachers in my building I'm here to raise concerns about the Grant High School redesign many of these same issues that Sprout discussed before I'm also the parent of two future Grant students who are now in grades six and8 the Ed specs the document that drives the redesign process is implementing a model called 100 % utilization uh it believes that the schools program works best when all classrooms are used all of the time bring up space for other uses it's tempting to believe that well-chosen non-classroom space might increase teaching and learning We Believe on the contrary that the school's most critical element is the classroom and that this model by decreasing classrooms will decrease the quality of instruction negatively impact student learning and increase stressors and disorganization throughout the building the edpc severely underestimate the needed number of classrooms at Grant we currently have 17 English teachers in The Edge specs 11 rooms are designated for them we currently have 12 Math teachers for whom eight classrooms are dedicated all departments face shortages of similar size this means that most teachers will have to move classroom space at least once a day some of these room changes needing to happen during five minute passing times PPS teachers are expected to post agendas and learning targets we set up classroom materials and arrange Furniture appropriate for each lesson many lessons are best taught with Hands-On activities and visual reminders posted around the room we celebrate and welcome our students by displaying their work on our walls carefully consider excuse me I've lost my carefully consider what is lost in a building that requires constant room changes how is the quality of instruction impacted what happens when a student needs materials from a Miss day but those materials are in another room or in a teacher's cubicle most importantly which of our students will be most impacted those with resources and strong School engagement or those most likely to struggle in school it's very much an equity issue we believe these structural changes will create deeper disparities based on income learning disabilities language ability and race building a school with a shortage of classrooms also deprives the school of flexibility to accommodate many potential scenarios all signs point to population growth in Portland why design new buildings with built-in shortages room shares and teachers on carts are used in times of shortage and as a stop Gap measure where is the evidence that 100% utilization is best practice like open classrooms or Modular Buildings it feels like a fad that Maxs common sense and constricts future choices Grant High School staff are organizing around these ideas now we don't want to turn this into a public spat that damages the possibilities for future Bond measures or delays the grant remodel but we do want a building that serves future Grant students at least as well as our current one you can help us by directing staff to re-evaluate the Ed specs or to allow Architects permission to deviate from them the Community College model that is envisioned by the Ed specs presents an attractive visual
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gigantic classrooms and increases in common space allow for architectural flourishes and Specialty spaces and they may suit older students and adjunct professors our students though are not all College Bound and freshmen are only 14 years old they are much better served by welcoming homes and educational richness that teachers create when they have their own rooms please help us make this a reality for all our students and teachers at Grant thank you you and that's the last of our public testimony Miss Powell is that right uh okay the next item on our agenda is the a quarterly report from our Ombudsman superintendent Smith would you like to introduce this item I would and I'd like to invite Judy Martin who is our district Ombudsman up to deliver this report and as she's getting seated I just want to recognize that Judy was named as the co-chair of the education chapter of the United States Ombudsman Association um so and Judy joined us um about a little over a year ago to build this Ombudsman program for Portland Public Schools so um and is doing a fantastic job so we're looking forward to hearing the update thank you g thank you uh I just want to thank you too I I whatever paths brought us all here tonight we've all chosen to be here together and the greatest thing we have is time so I appreciate you being being here particularly you as volunteers being here to spend your time thank you um I'm going to start at the beginning this is not it oh there it is yeah I'm Judy Martin I'm the district on budsman and uh more importantly to me is that I am a parent of a child in Portland Public Schools who's been there since kindergarten and I'm going to start with what is non budsman it is a term that's very can be very confusing if you ask five different people in a room you get five different answ answers not everyone understands it um even amongst on budsman it can be confusing but there are four basic principles for all Ombudsman neutrality Independence confidentiality and informality those are the Hallmarks of the ethics of an ombudsman and there's only four and they're all very important uh Portland Public Schools has an organizational edsman which is what is um the role in most uh educational institutions and the other type of Ombudsman that you hear about in public is the classical Ombudsman which is more like the city of Portland and government um that type of government Ombudsman so for an organizational edsman the primary Duties are to work to try to resolve concerns and problems and to bring systemic concerns to the attention of the organization so when you see a consistent problem that doesn't ever you know you see the same thing happening over and over in repeated patterns uh bring that to the attention of the administration so for Portland Public Schools what that means is that um and this is consistent for all organizational edsman that primarily the main role is to listen and discuss concerns with people who are having a problem to clarify policy helping Define the options that they may have available informally looking into their concerns helping to facilitate sometimes very difficult conversations recommend changes to Portland Public School policies or the way they do things and a a very important part is to refer individuals to the right people so that they can get their issue resolved organizational budsman don't advocate for any individual they're a neutral party they're um trying to help both parties come to a resolution I don't share information within out somebody's knowledge unless it's um within the bounds of law so you know the things that you would have to but most things can be confidential uh organizational ombudsmen do not conduct formal investigations or make or change policy and I really encourage you to learn more at the International udman Association website they have a really clear page about um at The Intern National Ombudsman Association they have a clear page about organizational ombudsman's roles so this year has been a lot about establishing the office for Portland Public School and I take this part of my job very seriously because um aside from Judy Martin sitting in the role I want the role to be around for a long time so I'm trying to help frame it so that it is here and somebody else could come and be here next so uh it really started in July of
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2014 is when I came I met with a lot of ombudsmen in our region and I still keep in contact with them I attended the United States Ombudsman Association and met a lot of U ombudsmen from around the country and around the world learned a lot there I went again this year and then the complaint policy was made by Portland Public School in November it was passed by the board the next big component was training people essentially letting folks know that I'm here and that's an ongoing thing but training people in the community and also working with staff to train them about what kind of resource the udman can provide and uh and also helping them understand the new policy so I want to tell you a little bit about how my office operates and I have some guiding principles and these are just my own guiding principles that help me do my work I believe that complaints are healthy for an organization and they inform us of where improvements can be made I welcome complaints I think they're they're there we need to hear them we need to hear what they are and we need to try to address them people can hear another person's perspect perspective if they feel valued and understood if they don't it's really hard to hear somebody else's perspective Solutions the best Solutions are found by working together we can all find Solutions but they're not necessarily good ones if we work together we can find a better solution I do believe that most people are trying to do their best sometimes it does not seem like that but I believe that that most people are trying to do their best in most situations there's always more to the story I've learned that time and time again in my life it's not more true than here at Portland Public School I have been absolutely surprised at how that that has expanded in my mind that there is always more to the story problems can be solved I love that problems can be solved I I we're not at OHSU we're not dealing with major medical health issues we are dealing with problems a lot of them are man-made barriers that can be moved so problems can be solved so what does a visitor and I want to kind of uh mention why I use the word visitor um Ombudsman that's an ombudsman term because it's not a client or a customer that would um negate the neutrality it's a visitor and also I'll say come to the office when I ever say come to the office I mean by email by phone call in person or if I meet somebody out somewhere who talks to me however I contact them but primarily I listen I share information about policies and procedures and help help them try to understand how that fits their situation uh I review and discuss possible options that's incredibly important to think of all the options my favorite option is that you can always change how you think about something that option is always available I keep confident information confidential unless somebody ask me to do something to help them I help them contact the appropriate person who can help them with the problem I will facilitate difficult conversations and I make referrals to any appropriate Portland Public School formal process I do a lot of the same things for staff I listen to them I contact the appropriate person to help I work to try to find possible solutions I meet with administrators to give input into processes and system Improvement I try to keep them informed of common issues that I keep hearing time and again which would indicate that there's a system problem that needs to be addressed and I train staff I want to do a lot more of this in the coming year with listening skills and empathy how to effectively problem solve and the Portland Public School complaint resolution process so this um section has a lot of numbers and I'm not a big fan of numbers they really belittle what is actually happening each number represents an actual person that had a problem and I take that really seriously and um so I don't like to reduce it to a number but this is what we have and this is how I'll be sharing so who came this first section is all about last year so August 1st 2014 to July 31st of this year and you can see that primarily who comes are parent parents as we would expect in a school district uh I will say a little bit about unknown that means they may be called and left a message and I was unable to to reach them again and I don't know who they were or they had a problem and they indicated who they were out of jurisdiction means that it was not a Portland Public School solvable problem it might have had something to do with the city or the county uh why did they come um mostly it was about policies or practices there were um the next largest
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category is about uh issues they had with people some folks just needed resources what was the outcome sometimes they got resources most of them were informally resolved we had 14 formal complaints last year uh and there were 22 people that I referred to the HR process 25 were unable to complete again that means I was not able to get in touch with them again uh their phone didn't work whatever happened that I wasn't able to get them so in this section I've put last year's quarterly next to this year's quarterly so you can just see how things have changed or stayed the same so uh again mostly parents have come uh between August 1st and October 31st we've had 97 uh people access the office of the edsman which is uh more than a little more than double last year's it's again mostly about policy or practice uh most of them are informally resolved and we've had eight formal complaints that were filed I referred two to personnel and um four were pending at that time so the top concerns we've had this is something new I've done this year is sort of break it down by concern and as we would expect the top two are the the two most prevalent things students and student services that includes uh student discipline so those are bullying issues cyber bullying um something happening between students and then the second largest is somebody not really happy with something happening with the teacher then at the beginning of the year it will be interesting to see what happen happens after this um but at the beginning of the year we would expect a lot of enrollment and transfer questions and concerns and Equity down there I want to also point out that's that includes um race income and can't think of the other one right now but it's it's a few things included inequity so these are other concerns um just where the rest of them fell a lot of different things and I want to talk about problem solving because that's pretty much what I do most days so the basics are that complaints start from a place of challenge so we're not in a really good space when it begins that's how it starts and to have the best outcome POS possible people need to feel safe so a lot of what I do is trying to help calm the situation to a place where we can find a solution people who are feel powerless and defensive um it creates unsatisfactory results for everybody and there are some big barriers to effective problem solving uh lack of empathy at the beginning not saying I'm sorry that you experienced this uh you don't have to admit culpability or think say I did something wrong but but we need to at least say I'm sorry that you're having this problem that is that's very challenging and let's work together to find a solution to it when complaints are directed to a lot of people for example an email that goes just sort of spread to everybody uh nobody acts right away because they think somebody else might be doing it uh getting to it you know nine people don't want to be calling the principal so it takes a little bit just to organize to see who's addressing it um slanderous public comments make it difficult because um that causes people to lose confidence and have distress and it makes problem solving more difficult time constraints are hard when people don't get responded to right away the problems get bigger they just grow so there's some strategies and and that's going those things are going to happen so what do we do to overcome it we you know we have to all work together to try to think of ways to overcome the barriers empathizing early is great uh saying taking a time to say I'm sorry and I I like to use the example of uh somebody comes to see a principal and they're sitting there for 45 minutes waiting because the principal had something emergent they had to take care of if uh somebody in the reception area there at the school could say I'm so sorry you have to wait could I get you some water even those little things make all the difference by the time the person walks in to talk to the principal just acknowledging what they're going through uh Portland Public School staff and board members can work together to help direct when there's a a complaint that kind of goes to everybody uh if they could directed to the Ed's office
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to help find the appropriate problem solving process that might help speed it along um they can develop an unreasonable complainant conduct policy a lot of public agencies have them because uh people absolutely have a right to voice their concerns they need to voice their concerns and they have the responsibility to work together respectfully to find the solutions and Portland Public Schools needs to do all that is possible to stay in close contact with complainants and keep them informed that's a really hard thing when you're waiting for an answer and you don't hear anything and you don't hear anything and you don't hear anything and so staying in close contact is really imperative successful problem solving is listening making sure that people understand what you're talking about a big one is giving reassurance that students are safe and cared for not just that they're safe but that you actually care about their student um providing options it's really important to have options uh sometimes the options aren't that great but people want to have a choice whatever those options are you also know need to know when to end not keep dragging it on because sometimes it's better to have the answer you don't want so that you can move on to the next thing that you need to do whatever that is than to just keep waiting and waiting for an answer so in seeking continuous Improvement how do we keep going from here so what I want to do is to continue to work with Community Partners to increase the accessibility particularly for non-english-speaking families uh working with Portland Public School to continue annual staff training and other kinds of training I really want to work on an effective data management system because as the volume has been increased ing I want to be able to give you better information in a more timely way and I need a more effective data management so I've been working with other ombudsmen about what they use uh learning from complaints to improve services and performance and I have added a customer satisfaction survey to the website um not many ombudsmen have them but I want that I want to hear what people have to say so that I can improve what I do and and continue to identify systemic concerns and bring them to the attention of superintendent and what staff and board can do is uh try not to get distracted by issues of the day and focus on the big picture and that happens a lot something big will sort of blow up for lack of a better word and there'll be other people who have been waiting a long time to get resolution and they have to wait even longer and it's hard not to get distracted be reasonable and not perfect a lot of people here at Portland Public Schools sometimes this happen people are um hesitant they want to make the right decision so it takes longer than making a decision you need to be reasonable but trying to be perfect can really delay process and make things harder for folks um don't give preferential treatment to concerns that go straight to the board or the media or the superintendent again those are kind of like distractions because in the background there's a whole line of other people who didn't do that who are also trying to get their needs met that are just as urgent um stay connected give complaintants a concrete time that you'll get back to them and get back to them and that is hard to do I know I've myself have not sometimes gotten back right when I wanted to it's it isn't always easy but we always have to have that goal in mind continue to develop consistent and transparent complaint review practices what might seem transparent to Portland Public School doesn't often always seem transparent to the public so needing to help continue to make make those more clear for people and continuing to identify and address systemic concerns and then I've added some things that you all can do which is um what we've talked about a little bit already directing complaintants to the proper channels if people contact you help them find where to go um and remaining neutral it's really important for you to remain neutral in the event that a complaint comes to the board for a final decision you need to have a a really clean perspective Ive and continue to work collaboratively with the staff and the community to improve systems so that um more people have similar outcomes so that the outcomes are consistent and that's all that I have of my formal presentation okay thank you thank you very much thank you director Brown Yeah question um thanks for your work uh I I i' like that you appreciate that you mentioned that
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you'd like to do more Outreach for um the non-native English speaking parents and so of the um you know the data that you showed us were any of them non-english speakers and what's the procedure then that you use to um communicate with them effectively well I get interpreters okay yeah great and I speak some Spanish I'm I'm conversational I don't feel comfortable doing I want to make sure that I completely understand so I will get a translator for that as well okay great I also want to know um you have a bullet here on one of the slides to develop an unreasonable complaintant um conduct policy uh can you explain what that is and something that we don't have now and there's um and there's there's a lot of really really good information available I could share some of that with you but really good protocol um already established a lot of different public agencies have that and it's really for um so really unreasonable complaint and conduct when it's incredibly you know when when the goal is not to resolve a problem that's not what the goal is okay yeah sounds good I'm good I just want to say I appreciate the diagram on the complaint resolution process because I think a lot of the frustration that people have experienced in the past prior to the establishment of your role was that people really didn't have a sense of any reasonable expectations about how a complaint would be processed or by whom or in what length of time they could expect a response um I think you know for a lot of people the the confusion still lies in um when a complaint is directed to the HR department when it's directly concerning um Personnel in our schools and so the more we can do to clarify how distinct those two two different paths I think that's helpful for the public um but I think this is um a step in the right direction in terms of giving people reasonable expectations thanks Judy I had a question about the um survey you said that you have a customer satisfaction survey how are you getting feedback on that is there like a certain percent of people that are giving you feedback it's new okay so I haven't but please share it with anybody who wants to what I can say too though is I I have heard loud and clear people who are not happy with the resolution process I I know those I also hear when people are very very happy with in particular my work which is different than that I will say but uh so I I feel like I've get the those extremes right and um and I welcome both of those but I yeah does the survey go to everyone that's accessed you how do or is it just like somebody accesses you and so lately so since I've put it up it's been about two weeks now since I came back from the last on budsman conference and talked to some folks about and thought that's a great idea um I have been telling people that it's there okay yeah thanks I had her turn already go ahead all right so um graciously deferring gracious so I see the letter because I was thinking more about the issues when it is an employee issue and wondering if maybe we could have a a separate kind of flowchart but I know that we were discussing several I think in August or so about having a letter that explained that it's a different process um when it is a Personnel issue so I appreciate that you have developed that too so um I'm really glad to see you know things moving forward thank you than you now Steve how are you doing with the HR department and the Personnel teacher situation are you guys on the same page would you say now I mean is it clear when somebody comes for you to you whether that's your stuff or it's a HR department stuff and that's a great question so uh when so I want to make clear that I will take any so the ombudsman's office I will take any complaint I don't Shuffle off a complaint that's so if they come to me and they want to work on something informally I will help them if a parent comes to me and they say I'm having a problem with this teacher I'll help them problem solve how to couch that you know they'll tell me the whole thing I'm like can we let's let's think of our three top things what do you want to get across to the teacher so you're you're going to want to talk to the teacher and this is how we'll do it and if they feel uncomfortable talking to the teacher I'll help them access the do we want to talk to the principal are you uncomfortable would you like me to talk to the principal so I'll do all those things informally where it changes over
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is if um they they want to do a written formal complaint that is a Personnel process and I'm not involved in that so on budsman will take any complaint um but when it becomes a formal situation then it goes to hi Sean hello HR good evening board member superintendent Smith Shan Murray Chief Human Resources officer so in addition to what Judy just provided to you I also wanted to say in regards to the utman office and the HR department being on the same page essentially we have what bi-weekly or weekly meetings with uh Judy and someone from my team and also from the office of school performance to go over all the complaints that have come in to determine what's the uh right Avenue door for that issue and I want to be clear though I only all all of mine are confidential unless somebody has asked me to pursue that I just want I don't go over all I'm still going if you want if it's okay okay if you can't get them by telephone do you go out to their home if I had their address if you have them I mean do you get that information at the start and I have gone out to people's homes by the way just wondering about that uh the Cleveland student we have we had talk here this evening uh now will you follow up on that without having somebody come directly to you so I didn't hear that I might have been stepped out or so I don't I don't would you have let's say what she was talking about was harassment out at her out at her school with uh a supposed rapist harassing the person who was raped according to her this is her story and it's going on she said even today it was going on I mean would would have you followed up on that or would have I have not heard of that concern but I would would I mean would you have followed up on that yes even though she didn't come directly to you I mean she didn't come directly she came to the school board and made those comments and it wasn't her comments but would you follow up or who follows up on that so if somebody came to a board meeting we which she just did which she just did like I would generally ask Roseanne to follow up in this case Jolly did follow up while this the person was here so that we know how to follow up so and I guess I don't you want to speak more to that but you're welcome to come up and say a little bit more you like so I would just say we that that students concerns very seriously we've already been in touch with the principal and are following up and that that is what so in different forums as superintendent Smith said the usual process at board meetings when there's testimony is to have the board manager followup um but certainly as Judy said If that had come to her attention through her office I would have brought it to somebody immediately yeah and actually the board testimony one I will also say what we will generally do Roseanne will follow up so we know that we know how to reach the person and it and then we'll generally inform you guys of what the followup was and she'll brosan generates that report and it could be different people that would actually then do the actual followup with the person depending what the issue is and now you're reporting directly to the superintendent now how often are you meeting with the superintendent I've met with her actually in the last couple months every month so once a month MH okay and may I ask a question sure I only had one more oh go go ahead I it was a comment that it's nice to have school board members be neutral around those things but sometimes that's an extremely that's not really my role to be neutral it's my role is to to help that isn't always being neutral wish I like to be neutral all the time but it's too darn hard to be neutral all the time you can't do it I just thought I'd make that so you would understand thank you I just wanted to clarify ify more broadly so are uh concerns ever referred to you um by others or through other channels other than the um complainant or the visitor coming directly to you yes so if some so often if some it depends like if they come through the to the front office if they come right through the front door and they're they need help they'll direct them straight to me so I get a lot of people directing folks to me principal send people to me teach secretaries uh and certainly the admin staff so yes yeah okay do we have any further discussion or questions on dy's report so this is now a um quarterly report quarterly update and I'm just going to say there's I feel really pleased with the kind of work that's gone on in a really short window of time to build a program for us that didn't exist prior to Judy building it um and just the amount of reach out to colleagues um and and looking for
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best practice to really help us build quality program I can feel a difference in terms of so anyway I just much appreciation for your work thank you thank you very much you thank you J excuse me all right we are moving on to our consent agenda the board will now consider the business agenda okay I got a thing I'm supposed to remove something now at this okay board members are there any any items you would like to pull for separate discussion and vote last time Tom went right by me I thought I was it was like a train coming by you not and going oh take that as a yes uh okay we got uh amendments to existing contracts I'd like to ask a question on that when we have a chance uh so a very end so okay so we will um vote on the business agenda ex with the exclusion of the amendments that's what you're requesting yeah amendments to existing contracts title it doesn't have a number this one see do I have a motion in a second to adopt the business agenda without the Amendments so move second uh director Anthony moves and director espara Brown seconds the adoption of the business agenda uh Miss Powell is there any public comment on the business agenda no there's not all right the board will now vote on the business agenda agenda all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no any abstentions the business agenda is approved by a vote of five to zero with student representative Davidson voting yes great uh the board will now discuss the Amendments contained at the end of the business agenda I'd just like to know and I know Tony's here so I just want to know would you come in on the wire glass we're spending a lot of money 150,000 or so to remove the wire glass and the wire glass is a problem because can you just explain that would that be all right Tony Magano Chief Operating Officer um so the history behind this is actually we're required to replace all the wired glass that's in our buildings because it's a it's a safety issue um in fact we Jolly may know the history of the case where an individual um put their leg or arm through it and we've been directed to replace this and it's it's millions of dollars to go through the school district and replace wired glass it's fire rated um and we've been doing it for a number of years we've been incrementally going through we prioritized first those places where um interaction with humans was most likely to occur so we've been and we've stepping through all of our buildings replacing this over time is a state law I don't believe it might be state law I mean wire glass originally was put in for because of safety right better than the other type of glass time but they found that this particular glass obviously isn't as safe as what they thought it was you weren't here when they put it in so you don't get fired over it thanks thank you anything else no that was good thank you okay thank you um our next meeting will be next week Tuesday you have to vot have vote on that excuse me so uh we wir glass proposal need to vote on the um Amendment to the bus business agenda reiring uh regarding the wi glass um do I have a motion for that Amendment second all in favor yes any oppose any extensions all right with that um this meeting is officially adjourned wow and we'll be

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)

2015-11-24 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

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Event 1: Board of Education - Regular Meeting - November 24, 2015

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