2016-06-28 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2016-06-28
Time	missing
Venue	missing
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: Board of Education - Regular Meeting - June 28, 2016

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late can I just bang on the is that really the time okay uh formal meeting board of education for June 28th is called to order welcome everybody uh meeting is being televised live items that will be voted on this evening have been posted as required by state law director Rosen is absent this evening uh Miss hen do we have student testimony we do we have six we have welcome hi thank you um okay I will begin um hello everyone my name is Tania bishop and I'd like to share with all of you some of my experience at Rosemary Anderson High School but before let me back up a bit as a freshman at Jefferson High School classes were so large that my teachers didn't notice the missing student me eventually I got into some serious trouble from skipping classes and had to pick a new school I picked Rosemary Anderson high school because of its Loc I picked Rosemary Anderson High School due to its convenient location and I actually ended up finishing my high school career there because I adored the man manageable classroom size I was able to get the one-on-one help I really needed at Rosemary Anderson High School I became an Engaged student I was eager to learn and ready to take on each assignment I participated in Leadership Academy all four years and joined student council making activities such as yoga drama and even an unheard of prom for an alternative high school scho possible for future Rosemary Anderson High School students throughout Rosemary Anderson High School I was fortunate enough to be a part of several internships where I was sorry I'm very nervous right now no problem um through Rosemary Anderson High School I was fortunate enough to be a part of several summer internships and work Readiness programs where I've learned skills from great customer service to facilitating events because of Rosemary Anderson High School I have an exceptional work experience during my time at Rosemary Anderson High School I definitely took advantage of the available resources and I still do since I'm a rosemary Anderson alumni student I'm offered support with homework transportation and work Readiness and overall moral support up until I'm 25 I'm currently continuing my studies at PCC and plan to transfer to PSU where I will join the social work program and earn a masters with my degree I would love nothing more than to return to pic and support them them just as they've supported me with that said I would like to thank you Portland Public Schools for investing in our in our alternative schools and programs thank you thank you thank you congratulations yeah my name is Zachary McKay like tanasia I'm also a graduate from rosemary Anderson High School but prior to joining Rosemary Anderson High School I was a freshman and uh I was homeless and on the verge of dropping out um I was very unmotivated even complete School even show up um I kind of made a promise to my mom because she moved me out of state that if we'd move back to Oregon Portland specifically that uh I would look into attending an alternative high school to seek out uh resources uh luckily I found Rosemary Anderson High School and right away they uh brought me in got me engaged in Mentor program I also with tenasia joined leader leadership program and currently now I'm a peer mentor myself for future uh graduates from the school um they got me involved in student council I ended up graduating not only on time but with honors um and then right away I started at PCC on first generation to even attend college actually I believe I'm first generation to even earn my uh high school diploma um just recently the past few days I found out I actually graduated PCC I earned my associates degree in science which I'm very proud of it's still sinking in right now but um uh I'm PSU bound I plan on continuing my uh bachelor's degree potentially my master's degree in civil
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engineering um but only because of the support of Rosemary Anderson was I even able to you know have a dream to do something like this because without them I myself uh wouldn't be here to this day um I'm 25 right now and they're still supporting me I go to them for help resources um and they've never let me down so I'd like to also thank you guys for your support for supporting Rosemary Anderson High School and all of all all and all alternative programs sorry that's a that's a crazy word you could tell I'm not a rapper so thank you way to go thank you congratulations really to both of you next next we have Isabelle kroer and Maddie Cruz everything that's kind of what I fig you go first go first my all right welcome hello um my name is Carl or that's the name I go by um I'm gonna talk about open school north um when I transferred to open school two weeks into the school year I was dealing with social anxiety and acceptance issues at my old school Sabin um I'm a trans boy and needed a place to learn that was also accepting of my transition I found that at open school open mindness and respect of others are some of the ground rules there Jesse my Advocate started using my prefer word pronouns right away and so did all the other staff and teachers Mike even offered to take me to smirk um basically an LGBT Boys and Girls Club I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to begin my transition at open school I don't feel I could have stayed in school anywhere else thanks for sharing your and lastly we have Carl Temple and Carly Joe shulikov welcome hi thank you can you hear me okay MH okay um my name is Carly Joe shulikov um I'm a graduate of Mount Scott Learning Center um thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my story and support of Mount Scott and other contracted community- based programs serving Portland Public Schools um growing up both my parents were addicts uh they were addicted to heroin um they had gambling issues they were both alcoholics and uh there was little support around my education and it was the beginning of my 8th grade year that I found myself struggling to learn in a large Public School environment I wasn't getting the individual support that I needed at my previous school and I found myself needing a place like Mount Scott uh I needed a place with you know a smaller quieter learning environment um getting that one-on-one time with my teachers at Mount Scott was something new to me and it definitely helped me grow the curriculum was really engaging and I felt connected to the adults in my life for the very first time and having those connections with my teachers was really special um um throughout the encouragement of my teachers and being in the Mount Scott Community I began to see myself as a really capable person a capable student and a capable human being the school helped me succeed not only academically but also personally and professionally I started working for US Bank when I was 18 years old and since then I've SE received a couple promotions um I've been there about five years and I'm now the Assistant Branch Manager of a branch in downtown Portland I really love my job I love dealing with customers day in and day out and I love being the face of the company um I'm no longer ashamed of where I come from because where I come from is from Mount Scott I was taught the perfect example of the person that I wanted to be and I'm now a reflection of the staff at Mount Scott and I couldn't be more proud so what Mount Scott does matters and it changes lives and it's definitely changed
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mine thank you very much congratul so much is that it okay so um Katie would you like to give your grand finale I report being student representative on the PPS School Board has been an eye openening experience I was the first Junior to be appointed in this position and although it has been a challenge I am very glad I was given the opportunity to be the voice of tens of thousands of of students in our district as we all know the school year has been an important year for Portland Public Schools many issues were brought to the board's attention and these decisions affected every Community lad and raidon levels The Grotto choir performances boundary changes climate change education and the upcoming dress code policy decision are all matters that the board has gotten media attention for and I'm looking forward to how our district will continue to address address these very important topics the school year was also an exciting year for our schools many schools earned p and state titles and for the first time in history two PPS high schools competed in the We the People National Constitution team competition in Washington DC and both placed in the top three and countless other class club and personal achievements of PPS students and staff were awarded this year it has been a very eventful year for Portland Public Schools and I'm so proud of our district I would also like to reflect on my personal experience as a board member and a leader of the Stu of the superintendent student advisory committee it has been very educational to learn how the district and the board operate as a board I think we wasted a lot of valuable time this year we need to remember it's our job to do what's best for the students of our schools and that everything we decide affects each student board members should not should be above making snide comments to each other and should be AC acting like Role Models while we work you guys are all amazing people who care deeply about our kids and it's painful for me to see you not be able to work together as student rep I have felt that sup saac has gotten pushed to the district's back burner our meetings that were scheduled were rescheduled many times due to new events planned at the last minute and it constantly felt like everything else was considered more important than the students I hope as that as we go forward super sack will be more of a priority for the superintendent and that the student rep will be fully supported and given clear communication throughout their whole term the first time I met my fellow board members in the District staff I was extremely nervous but as soon as I met everyone my nervousness faded I have never been in this big of a position before and be because of this opportunity I have grown more confident in my abilities listening to student testimony and community members weighing in on important decisions hosting meetings and forums for super saac and providing reports at board meetings are all important roles of the student rep Jefferson's High School's Al Lima Bradley will be the next student representing more than 49,000 students I confident that she will provide great leadership to the district Al Lima I will to you my seat on this dedicated and passionate board and the willpower to stay up until the early hours of the morning for those long board meetings sitting on the board this year has been a lot of fun and I'm forever grateful for all the people who have supported me this year board members I thank you for being so welcoming I really enjoyed working with you and getting to know each and every one of you you are not getting rid of me completely though as I will continue to be a member of super sack and de brck throughout my senior year thank you all so much yay thank you Katie and we are really going to miss you and I would encourage you to give Al Lima you know really specific suggestions about how we can strengthen super saac and how we can um support super saac and make it more connected to the work that we do as a board and make their work a priority for the whole District great thank you Amy yeah and actually I'll also say Katie thank you so much for your leadership and it is great to have you back again next year um but I also just want to acknowledge uh your efforts to to get involved in things like boundary um being the representative on other things as part of your role on super saac and being the student rep on the board you immersed yourself in like really significant issues and worked to be a voice there in a really good way so thank you for that and we just did the passing of the torch in my office a few moments ago and the gift from all of us to Katie I is sitting at her seat so I'm not get walking over to deliver it because we've already delivered it to her but thank you so much for your
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service yeah thank you well thank you oops I'm not sure what you did to Tom to make him have you sit by me the whole year but but many snide comments down here I'm sure there were quite a few so uh I'm chastened by you but I you had a uh I really enjoyed it personally and I really think you're a wonderful person and wish you all the best thank you so much and I was just going to say I'm glad you're continuing on D as I get to work with you yes aome thanks great great great thank you guys all so much thanks Katie do appreciate all the work you did I'm sorry I'm not going to be on Deck with you and Katie I called to say also thank you so much I think you represented your constituency with class and um and when you spoke uh it was right to the point um but in in a way that everybody heard um so those are invaluable uh tools that the world will uh be better for because of you so thank you very much thank you looking forward to keeping track all right all right thank you guys yeah uh public comment we have a total of nine and our first two speakers are Sharon ferreria and Kelly Cook welcome sorry so excited to share my story and passion for Mount Scott Learning Center thank you for letting me speak on behalf of Mount Scott Learning Center tonight uh my name is Sharon Ferrera I am the parent of a Mount Scott alternative high school graduate Marcus Ferrera I would like to convey to you how much Mount Scott Alternative High School has made a difference in Marcus's life Marcus had attended Portland Public School since kindergarten through high school as did his two older sisters who are both graduates from Franklin High School one of them is sitting back here she's a teacher at Troutdale ele school now um I'm speaking to you today from years of experience as I have PA ented students for a total of 20 years through the Portland Public Schools I applaud the the Portland Public School District for providing a well-rounded solid Educational Foundation to thousands of students in this city um back to Marcus when Marcus uh started his freshman year of high school he uh lost his way he like many students did not fit into the box of mainstream High School his struggles were not academically but rather motivational he began he became a master of flying under the radar his attendance was sketchy and he never turned in any homework assignments so as a result of this he failed all of his classes his freshman year he eventually completely dropped out of school that year as I reflect back on those dark days I find myself in tears remembering the frustrations and struggles of trying to find a way to get my son through his high school years to a graduation day I was so desperate for help I had resorted to looking into boot camps to send him to but finally a counselor recommended the Mount Scott program to us I took Marcus to an enrollment interview that summer and watched in amazement as he sat there engaged in conversation with the counselor learning about the program at Mount Scott I could tell he wanted to be a successful student but he always seemed to get lost in the daily Shuffle he was accepted into the mounts Scott program and from the first days of school to the final day of graduation the staff at Mount Scott was incredibly supportive and dedicated to the success of each student there the culture of community acceptance and accountability are core values at the Mount Scott Learning Center that every student there will learn and benefit from if you read some of the student testimonials every one of them speaks of a sense of family at Mount Scott where they feel accepted from the staff members and all of their student body as I reflect back on the memories and the situations of those four years I am overwhelmed with gratitude to all of the staff that played a part in marcus' success in completing High School Marcus's experience at mscott Learning Center was truly a life-changing direction for him I would like to thank the school board for providing this alternative program to students and families out there struggling with similar issues the program works in producing accomplished successful graduating high school students they are prepared for the challenges of life
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whether that be vocational or on to college I can attest to this as I recently experienced one of the proudest moments of my life watching my son Marcus walk across the stage at the University of Oregon graduation he received his Bachelor of Science in public relations from the Department of Journalism just two weeks ago thank you thank you next we have Jody Hancock and Nelson hello hello um my name is jod I'm a parent of an incoming fourth grader at Rigler Elementary I here tonight to talk with you about the issues surrounding the single track English only in our school a fellow parent Betsy spoke with you two weeks ago about our school I'm here to reiterate what she spoke about show parent support and put out a few ideas to be looked into further by you the board that we elected to ensure our kids receive the well-rounded education that they deserve and we as parents demand when Betsy presented to you on the 14th of June um Julie Esparza Brown um did talk about having had spent a fair amount of time observing at Rigler this year agreeing with us that behavior is a huge issue at our school and something does need to change she did mention the idea of implementing the behavior model P PBIS positive behavior interventions and supports this is an intervention that regler is already using with complete Fidelity it is necessary to gauge what is in place at each school before implementing an intervention that has been adopted already we need more than a packaged Behavior program the issue that we need to be addressed the issues that that we need to address are the impacts of trauma poverty and systemic racism in a collocated single strand program when children come into our school at a level that does not allow Spanish Immersion as a choice or they do not choose Spanish Immersion these issues become magnified as they are automatically forced into one class to remind you our Spanish Immersion program has two to three classes for each grade and a single track English only there are two main issues that I want to address with you tonight um as you well know there are many issues that come with a single track English only you have heard from Betsy about what specifically those issues are overcrowded classroom higher number of behavior problems in each classroom teachers unable to teach due to behavior classroom management issues teachers unable to collaborate in each grade and bottom line all children being able to receive an education in a learning environment they deserve I am going to speak personally for a a moment um our daughter came into Rigler at third grade last year we felt slightly behind due to classroom management behavior issues at a different school as she started the year at rler we were hopeful that she would be able to catch up but as we quickly quickly realized this was going to be very difficult given the situation of the single track English with almost half of the students in her classroom having IEPs and all with very difficult behavior issues it became clear that this was going to be a challenging year throughout the year we had several discussions with our principal the teacher the school counselor the restorative justice counselor and and other parents it became apparent that the issue is single track English only I'm using my daughter as an example but these are issues that are present throughout our school and are affecting all the students and their learning ability immersion and English only alike we must provide the appropriate services that these students deserve our daughter we feel is coming into fourth grade at at the L on the lower end as a result of a classroom that was almost impossible to learn in as a side note we are losing four out of six of our English only teachers this year four of our strongest they have left to explore opportunities classrooms schools where they are able to actually teach the students of course the obvious solution is to add a class for each grade level and this is ultimately what we are asking asking for we also realize that this may not be a realistic request or a goal for our school as the parents and teachers have discussed this at length we have also discussed the PO possibility of blending classrooms two classrooms for each blend for example two two three classrooms and two four five classrooms this would allow for collaboration between the teachers better blending of personalities of students with extreme behavior issues collaboration between the younger and older students and most
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importantly a more positive learning environment also the administration must take a look at the current IEP situation on the English only side and provide the services and the staff that is necessary we as parents are demanding that these ideas get a closer look and serious discussions as solutions to ensure our children are receiving an education and learning to their potential the other issue I want to bring to you tonight is inequality of the immersion and English only programs at our school it has been discussed among teachers staff and parents that there are benefits that the Spanish emersion program reive that English only does not for example a a Spanish Immersion social studies curriculum was purchased for the Spanish Immersion teachers the English only did not reive such a curriculum or any kind of curriculum the Spanish emersion program received Chromebooks for their classrooms the English only received nothing the Spanish Immersion program teachers are allotted time and hours for Spanish curriculum progr ation the English only are not given this time and most events or celebrations are of Latino in theme leaving other cultures in our school unrepresented as there are few celebrations involving other cultures ma'am are you are you ready I got I'm in conclusion awesome okay thank I would like to improve implore you to take a very close look at the issues we raise and bring to you these issues are not something we can shove under a rug or put on a list for later or next year we have students that are falling behind each year because the students cannot teach each year falling behind makes every subsequent year so much more difficult for all involved we need to make these changes now thank you thank thank you very much like to comment sure so I'd like to comment on that okay good um so first of all to as you portrayed so I just want to kind of clarify a couple of things I'm not saying that PBIS is the answer at all and also it's not a prepackaged program it's a framework that that has to be developed by the school and the community of the school okay um but beyond that I mean you bring up a good point and I I do want to say that we are looking at And discussing the issue of um single track within a dual Language School um and in the teaching and learning committee um we will be we're looking to see when we can calendar that putting that on the agenda but but the discussion is also looking at as we're um adopting the new literacy uh work and curriculum looking at the achievement the literacy achievement of all kids so rler is on our list we're looking across schools um so I don't want you to think that we haven't heard I mean it's not there's not going to be an easy solution um but but we're we're really working on it and um so watch for the teaching and learning committees in July or August when we will have more discussion of it okay okay thank you thank you thank you Julie our next speakers are Virginia lefor and Rachel Linder I think we're speaking together go one at a time yes I mean both both come on up and then speak one at a time okay yeah do you want to go first I have a phot my name is Rachel Linder and I'm the parent of two um kids at Portland Public School a senate Chapman and my daughter who's 13 is at West silven and first I just want to say thank you for your consideration of updating the dress code policy um I think it is time and I'm here today to give give voice to my daughter who is here um did not want to come up and participate but she does I have her permission consent to share a little bit about her history um and her experience this year with the dress code um when she was in sixth grade at the East Campus she was diagnosed with anorexia and her um doctors recommended that she stop all activity and um including school and sports and be um she was admitted into a local um eating disorder clinic with other children um she successfully completed that she missed three months of school she did go back and um finish sixth grade and I'm proud to say that she's worked so hard to get um to a healthier um place not only mentally but physically and she's growing and developing beautifully and I'm so proud of her she has a good team of therapists and doctors that still work with her a few months ago I got a call from
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the vice princip one of the vice principls at West silven leaving a message saying that they dress coded my daughter and you can see from the picture that's her after school at the bus stop so they said she was not following PPS um protocol and she was um not dressing appropriately they pulled her out of her class and she missed more than an hour of Education to be talked to about her choice of um clothing and I have a really hard time looking at that photo even finding what it is that's wrong with her but it's sending such a wrong message to our young people girls especially that something is wrong with her and I've worked so hard to teach her that she is okay and she is beautiful just the way she is and I think updating the policy now is it's timely and it's needed and it's going to give a voice to especially my daughter who was so upset that day when she was called out um by her authorities at school thank you thank you very much hi um my name is Virginia lefors and uh I'm a Community member and the parent who first alerted PPS to the presence of deteriorating blood-based paint at Alam Elementary uh in October of 2013 I'm here tonight because I wanted to speak with you before you make any decisions about how to proceed with lead abatement be it water or paint throughout the district in particular I wanted to dispel any doubt that there is paint in the air particulate at Portland Public Schools as you're most likely aware the greatest health hazard related to lead is the dust origin originating from lead based paint it's pretty easy for the average person to imagine how lead poisoning in water works you have lead solder lead pipes the water sits in there it leeches you drink it it's very very easy to imagine however it's not as easy to imagine dust generated by snapping a piece of lead based paint off of the side of a building um sliding your hand on a leaded handrail or throwing a ball against a lead contaminated plate cord floor recently I went through at least 100 emails between PPS and myself related to the lead paint at Alam I came across mold test results that had been conducted at my request due to concerns from other parents while the mold levels weren't alarming I flipped to the back of the report and looked at the air particulate data for the first time these results which you have in your hands um were emailed to every parent at Alam as an assurance of a safe building however there is paint in every single Airborne particulate sample considering that we know that the paint there was 13 led by weight it was 342,000 parts per million the chances that there were no there was no lead in the samples is basically zero in fact if you review the data um on the first page I kind of marked it up a little bit for you 39% of all of the particulate was paint spheres and chips I find that alarming I have no idea how I missed it the first time around um especially when we were in the middle of this lead paint investigation uh at the time so um why am I bringing up something that happened two years ago because the stabilization of alam is incomplete and there was no cleanup done the cover play Court still positive for lead it took me about 30 seconds to find positive paint chips a couple of weeks ago um the metal posts by the garden are still positive for lead completely deteriorated right by the gardens where the kids grow their plants to eat um the information was on the front page of the Sunday Oregonian but still there's no action that's been taken all of the areas are still accessible to children and whyare is in session right now so it's not like there aren't any kids running around on the playground um um it's um summer camp for kids you just repeat that sentence oh um oh God whyare is still that whyare is still in the building and has access to the grounds the whole neighborhood has access to the grounds it's basically um you know it's like a park that we all care very deeply about um and again these areas are still accessible to Children I'm almost done I swear um so I want to say as we move forward and I definitely feel like we have made progress the fact that we're even hearing about this regularly is it's just huge um that we're having this conversation but it's imperative that PPS submits not only a risk assessment for each building but a plan that involves the proper cleanup so our kids aren't sitting here 20 years from now having the same conversation with each other would ask that you start with Alam due to the sheer volume of the paint which your project manager called an emergency I hope you'll consider that every dollar allocated later tonight takes us that much farther away from a permanent solution to to the lead
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hazards in our schools please be careful with this money and if contracts that are up for approval are not more important than removing lead from paint and water in our schools please vote against them if only for now so that we as a community can trust that we're all on the same page that safety P first lead poisoning is so Insidious because no level is safe whether it's a couple of unrealized IQ points or you know a stomach ache I don't think any of us would make that deal on behalf of our kids so um thank you thank you Steve did you say that 39% of the particulates I did the math that yeah 39% of the particulates in which in the library which I'm guessing is probably because of the books and dust and the 39% of the particulates in the air yeah it looks like um 60,000 which the report identifies 60,000 particulates the report identifies those as dirt 57,600 are paint spheres or chips um just to compare to like human dander that's 10,000 so it's a a lot it's a lot so I I think that this will be a really interesting review it sure was for me um 22% inside the front office in the Northwest end um 26% in outside the building by the front entrance and that's all kind of the same area and actually if you live in that neighborhood that's the way the wind blows literally it blows right from that area outside the building right into the library and and the offices and um and also I did highlight the crystalline particulates as well because um I did talk to I wanted to make sure I wasn't sticking my foot in my mouth when I came here tonight um and talk to a friend who uh works for OSHA and also um uh when I know who owns a mold um testing company here in Portland to ask about they actually brought up the crystalline um uh particular to me because it would warrant for their testing because it could be silica or asbestos so so I don't know what happened to this report after it's sent out but again this this was sent to every family uh at Alam um as an assurance of safety and I don't think that any of us made it to what page eight so did they did they make uh did in all your dealings back and forth with the school district did we talk about the cost to take care of those particular lead paint problems that Alam Meed you ever get any the cost brought up to me did yeah did I mean no but I mean did they ever say about how much it would cost to take care of that no no only that it was very expensive the main structure was stabilized but the play Court which was part of the original assessment was left untouched it was part of the um it was mentioned in the OA report on behalf of the EPA um it was it's in the lead I have the PPS is own lead test results in here as well which also talk about the positive results on the play court and I'm not sure which report it was but I've been doing a little digging lately um was it 2008 was it the mellin report that kind of ranks the different areas the play Court was listed as a five which I believe is the highest level and it was recommended that impact resistant material be installed and that still hasn't happened it's really dangerous these kids are playing for square wall ball kindergarten lets out right there it's just it's not a safe place and it's my hope that um with all of this information that you know maybe this can be an example for how to move forward for every school it's the is it the paint in in which part of the outdoor cork did they think is the paint on the walls are they talking paint in the ceiling ceiling one of the walls tested at zero and then the ceiling tested positive and the post tested positive so it's the ceiling and the ceiling is dropping right exactly that's where I found the LED hips on the ground we haven't painted this gone out and painted the ceiling um it wasn't part of the um the uh what do you call the the bid that was done for the project you know the and I think it was inline construction it was only the original structure that was part of the wood structure that was part of that project and the I'm sorry you probably not familiar with the school the cover play court is stucco it was a 1953 addition to the building so um I believe that when the work was done in Alam there were several other schools that were less money that were also done during that time and I think that was done under the umbrella of the being wood sided structures and I suspect that the play Court must have been excluded because it wasn't wood that's the only I can't speak for in order to fix that situation they would have to vacuum the play court and paint to ceiling is that all we're talking about paint probably wouldn't work just because of the type of material the best thing to do would probably just be to cover it up that's considered a batement just to cover it with another material and exactly vacuum it up something no one has ever given no one has ever given you a suggestion of what actually should take place out there to fix it and what it would cost no thank you very much for sharing this
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evening thank you appreciate it thank you very much thank you both of you our next two speakers are Gabriel Boulevard and Rick Reynolds well thank you my name is Gabriel Mercedes bbar superintendent Smith PPS board of directors and student representative thank you for taking the Bold action to approve the resolution to reopen oy grain Middle School this is the first step of manyu that will begin the process of restoring Middle grades programming and increase Equitable access to educational opportunities for our students in the Jefferson cluster as the parent of an incoming seventh and eighth grader at oy Green Middle I've been impressed with our new principal Renee Conor's accessibility presence in our community and with our children this week as he meets with each of our featers schools to hear a student first perspective on their vision for a middle school when our community and PPS partner collaboratively together we are better our work is not yet done however on June 24th 2016 DB submitted a briefing to superintendent Carol Smith that stated under Section Five additional guidance a DB requested the superintendent introduce a resolution to the board of directors to formalize reopening of Harriet Tubman and Roseway Heights as middle schools for the 2017 2018 school year this board level action will support D's work by reducing Community uncertainty around these decisions I implore you to please introduce and pass this resolution today the delayed vote has created unnecessary fear and uncertainty in our communities SEI recently announced they will be closing their Charter Middle School in anticipation of the reopening of PPS middle schools in North northeast Portland Martin Luther King K8 families have given emotional testimony to the PPS board of directors and at D bra Town Halls imploring PPS to reopen Harriet Tedman middle school and students and staff testified to the sense of emergency and the proposed Roseway Heights Middle School feeders and the need to take action now for their middle school to reopen fall 2017 all of our students deserve an equitable access to a free appropriate public education all of our um regardless of the neighborhood where they live and regardless of the address we are better together and we are best when all of our students have access to an equitable education that is culturally responsive and appropriate and rigorous in the same Deb memo under guidance to develop Standalone or balanc col collocated sites for dual language immersion programs to resolve issues that exist at imbalanced neighborhood immersion schools you have all heard testimony received data that continues to highlight the inequities of collocated immersion programs and the impacts on the English only neighborhood side this should be urgency in prioritizing a solution that will not segregate students by language ability learning differences or socioeconomics as is happening right now English neighborhoods side staff and students are not receiving an Equitable allocation of resources to meet the needs of their students the incoming single English strand fifth grade at beach only one student passed the sback this year for math let me repeat only one student passed the sback for math an intervention must be done increasing the English trans from 1 to two is not going to stop the segregation by language ability learning difference or socioeconomics and cooc language programs I believe in and support language programs my father came to this country as an unaccompanied minor Refugee with his two siblings through opion pedan operation pedan it was the largest um unaccompanied minor 14,700 um and put into foster homes as Latino immigrants they had to learn a new culture language and work through systemic racism and Prejudice as many of our students struggle through today there's incredible value in DLI and evidence-based best practice model however we should not be addressing one inequity by creating another we must create create sustainable programs that meet all of our students needs we are better together and we are best when all of our students have access to an equitable education that is culturally responsive appropriate and rigorous thank you I look forward to celebrating the board vote on the reopening of Harriet Tubman and Roseway Heights Middle Schools C welcome thank you my name is Rick Reynolds and I am a native portlander I'm a product of the Portland Public School System I went to school at William Clark Elementary which is now you call it the creative science school at Clark John Marshall High School and that prepared me to graduate from the University of Portland and uh what i' would like to do tonight is I would like to take just a moment to thank the superintendent for the job that she has done the last nine years and I hope all the board members are aware of that as well that there are thousands and thousands of grandparents like my myself
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and parents in this city that are very grateful for what she's done the transparency that she's shown in this lead issue the transparency that she's shown in the with the water the lead in the water the lead in the paint all of that stuff and before people come in and complain to you and complain to her and demand her job why aren't these same people down at City Hall in front of Charlie hail's office because the city of Portland has been testing for lead and water 2011 2012 and 2014 and by law they're required to report that and they haven't and and as far as schools go I got do have to use my glasses for this and this was verified by the uh Oregonian I did do that and online there is nothing in state or federal law that requires schools to test drinking water for lead to share the test results if they do test for lead or even take action if they find lead and this is something that the Oregon legislature is now looking into to try and make happen but in the meantime it's not the superintendent's fault it's not any of your fault and I have I mean I feel like I still have a kind of a dog in the fight here because I've chosen grandchildren that are at school my daughter Courtney um that tragically passed away when she was a senior at Grant she was 16 a Young Senior and uh um so I've all all my life it's been the Portland Public School and that's 68 years so thank you superintendent Smith and thank you thank you for all that you've done and everybody should realize that than thank you and School Board please note that there are so many of us that are happy with her work and we're sad that she's leaving a year year from now thank you thank you thank you very much thank you I vot say I just can't pass up to not make a comment we have one student who passed the sback we have no idea why the any other any of those children passed or didn't pass because the esack doesn't give us any information that we can use period the Springfield School Board all passed a a uh resolution saying that the we needed to change the test cuz it's no it's no good and it isn't and so it's nice I mean we're doing all this testing and spending millions of dollars but we it doesn't help us at all we have no idea why that kid passed and the others didn't because no one can look at the test and even see what the questions are and yet we're taking all that time energy and so forth I just want to people here who maybe hadn't heard that before and next time testing comes up you'll hear it again from me than and don't you know one other thing too don't stop doing everything else too get the schools ready for this fall for the kids as well thank you thank you our last speaker is Joe R uh good afternoon everyone can you hear me okay sure um I am a teacher of computer science at Franklin High School and I'm here today uh not for the sake of me and the other teachers but I'm here for the sake of students at Wilson High School Lincoln Roosevelt Jefferson Benson Madison Grant and Cleveland including Franklin um for those of you who don't know or weren't here a few weeks ago several Franklin teachers put their jobs on the line um these are younger teachers and they told their Truth uh about uh what PPS is doing to Franklin and it may come to you as a shock but here's the opening uh sh shock for the audience uh the Franklin Building right now is um in the middle of a 2-year remodel uh in about 12 months we'll be moving back into the Woodward building and that Woodward building will be overcrowded by Design and PPS doesn't call it overcrowded by Design PPS calls this new world model the 100% utilization it is a business practice much like Community College where teachers are not allowed to have their own classroom and they are uh compacted to save uh square footage the building on Woodward that has been mostly demolished and rebuilt will have more square footage uh total but far less square footage for classrooms so this should be a shock there's a rumor going around that when we move back to our brand new building after hundreds of millions of dollars we will have to order Portables um now I don't know if that rumor is true but I keep hearing PPS
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abuse the words right size over and over again to uh tear apart schools much like Vicky Phillips did when she came up with this Bright untested Idea Bright untested Idea remember that what PPS is doing with their 100% utilization model is a untested idea in the United States I don't know anywhere in the world that schools are being designed with this model uh teachers are labeled self-serving if we advocate for students what do students want uh Katie I hope you can respond to this students want to uh be listened to they want uh answers honest answers and they want that repeated this form where I speak for three minutes and the button is up and you guys don't really respond other than Steve who does respond this forum where I'm talking for three minutes is a sham of democracy uh I speak for three minutes and nothing is done so what we want we want the board and we want PPS to listen respond Bond honestly and repeat that because when I started under this 100% use I've been living under 12 months when I started I said I'll give it a go business model sure we'll squeeze in we'll save some money and then I documented like 30 different reasons which I can't go over because I'm running out of time I'm not going to go over those 30 reasons what I am going to say is that you can hear those 30 reasons if you come and talk to the Franklin uh graduating class of 2017 they will have seen two years in our wood building that was torn down and they will see two years under this uh overcrowded by Design model so come talk to those students they've seen both and then come talk to us after we've been in the Woodward building another year but to not talk to us uh is almost criminal and just to warn the public teachers took these complaints three years ago through the proper channels through the district channels and they were shut down instead of PPS listening and responding PPS hired their PR our staff John wilhelmy people like John Isaac's uh to tweet out and instead of fix the problem uh use public engagement to change the Public's perception of the problem so I I am not uh looking for Applause I'm looking for people to have a moment of silence so that this 100% utilization model does not impact uh Grant which is going to be remodeled and uh and it does not affect the other schools I'm all for best practices and changing things but uh teachers and students have not been listened to talk to the students ask them how hard it is to move think of your freshman year in college think of your freshman year in high school and how unsettling that is to find where teachers are under this new model your sophomore year will be just as unsettling because between every year and high school everything will be different teachers no longer have a classroom everything is dynamic thank you okay Pam I see you nodding your head do you have something you'd like to say okay thank you for your testimony okay thank you thank you okay uh Miss H is that it that is it okay great um we will now have a first reading of our revised student dress code policy superintendent Smith would you like to introduce this item can I ask before we start who is who who is in charge of this in the district that's going to come up and talk somebody as because I have a couple questions about the dress I'm about ready to introduce them you're getting introduc I'm going to introduce them sorry I thought you were give no I'm going to introduce the so this was I'm going to introduce Yang deol who is um the program administrator who staff one of the staff to um our District dress code advisory committee that's been working over the past year and I'm going to invite you to come on up and other members of the committee I believe are going to participate in this presentation um but I just want to say thank you to everyone who served on this committee I think this has been a pretty robust discussion um and we look forward to hearing the outcome of your work here tonight um Yang over to you great thank you and actually my one last thing is this did go before the business and operations committee I believe Paul is this correct yes and unanimously moved forward to the full board correct y good evening tonight I along with members of the District dress code advisory committee and presenting the recommendations on updating the student dress code policy I'll go over a process and then Ben kefir and Ellen watmore will address our recommendations followed by a closing statement by Sophia Carlson in May 2015 students and parents testified at the board meeting that the current dress code policy unfairly targets female students and that the resulting disciplined actions often take away learning time the board supported updating the student dress code policy
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and in September 2015 Robin Mack and I were asked to convene and facilitate the District dress code advisory committee from the start we felt it was important to have multiple perspectives involved in this work this meant having a committee made of parents students teachers and administrators representing grades K through 12 and meeting monthly to discuss how to update the student dress code we decided that in order to properly assess the current policy and make our recommendations we needed to get feedback from all of our stakeholders students and families who must follow the policy and our teachers and administrators who must enforce the policy furthermore we applied our racial Equity lens we knew that we needed to reach out to the racial and ethnic groups that would be affected by this policy we understood that this was not an easy issue to address we wanted to have deeper conversations with our stakeholders in smaller sized focus groups the purpose of the focus groups was to get feedback on the the current policy and recommendations on how to update it with the help of research and evaluation we created Five question prompts to start the conversations we also use the questions to create Google form surveys starting in February Robin and I met with 11 focus groups including students and families representing grades K through 12 and representing our racial and ethnic groups in addition committee members shared the Google form with students and families through email and on Facebook pages administrators provided feedback during a districtwide leadership meeting and teachers gave feedback during designated School me School staff meeting times all of this qualitative feedback from the focus groups and survey responses was then compiled and helped inform our final recommendations last Wednesday at the business and operations committee meeting we were asked to add an implementation plan that includes why we are updating the dress code a timeline for communication to all stakeholders and expectations for the a new policy we'll work on this as a committee and have it ready by the July 25th board meeting before we read over the recommended policy and administrative directive I would like to state that these recommendations are not intended to convey a message about ppss views on any specific type of garment or style of garment and that PPS and this committee does not recommend or endorse any form of garment we encourage All Families to decide what is appropriate for their children to wear to school within the guidelines of safety and Equity so um Ben and I'll start by reading the recommended policy student dress and grooming Portland Public Schools Portland Oregon 4.3 0.012 DP the responsibility for the dress and grooming of a student rests primarily with the student and his or her parents or Guardians attire or grooming depicting or advocating violence criminal activity use of alcohol or drugs pornography or hate speech are prohibited a student's attire or grooming should not be grounds for exclusion from his or her participation in school classes or programs or in school related activities if however the attire or grooming of a student poses a threat to the health or safety of any other person the appropriate solution as stated in the ad will be followed School directed changes to a student's attire or grooming should be the last restrictive and disruptive or excuse me student School directed changes to a student's attire of grooming should be the least restrictive and disruptive to the student school day any School dress code enforcement actions should minimize the potential loss of educational time Administration and enforcement of the dress code shall be gender neutral and consistent with the PPS racial Equity policy this policy applies to all individual schools schools schools may not enact more restrictive or less restrictive dress and grooming codes questions about application should be directed to general counsel hello my name is Ellen watmore and I'm a teacher at Wilson High School I'm going to be sharing um the revised dress code uh specifically um the administrative directive um part two which um is um largely the the piece that received the most revision almost uh the entirety of the rest of it um remains unchanged um so for the purposes of the administrative directive the definitions are one attire is clothing including outerwear headwear accessories such as scarves or jewelry and shoes grooming is makeup tattoos and hairstyle dress code is a set of parameters determined by the district that describes standards for student attire and grooming and the school uniform dress code is distinctive clothing style Andor specific color selected by the school following a community process and worn by all students as a means of
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identifying them as members of the school Community uniform dress codes May range from identical articles of clothing worn by all students uniforms to clothing similar in style and color worn by all students uniform dress so uh you want to refer to uh page two of six uh the basic dress code so minimum safe attire student attire and grimming must permit the student to participate in Learning Without posing a risk to the health or safety of any student or School District Personnel a students must wear clothing including both a shirt with pants or skirt or the equivalent for example dresses leggings or shorts and shoes B shirts and dresses must have Fabric in the front and on the sides under the arms C clothing must cover undergarments waistbands and straps excluded D fabric covering breasts genitals and buttocks must be opaque e hats and other headwear must allow the face to be visible to staff and not interfere with the line of sight of any student or staff hoodies must allow the face and ears to be visible to school staff F clothing must be suitable for all scheduled classroom activities including physical education science labs wood shop and other activities where unique hazards exist G specialized courses may require a specialized attire such as sports uniforms or safety gear two the just district justess code board policy 4.30 012 provides attire or grooming depicting or advocating violence criminal activity use of alcohol or drugs pornography or hate speech are prohibited all PPS students are expected to comply with the requirements of this policy specifically a clothing may not depict advertise or Advocate the use of Alcohol Tobacco marijuana or other Controlled Substances B clothing may not depict pornography nudity or sexual acts C clothing may not use or depict hate speech targeting groups based on race ethnicity gender sexual orientation gender identity religious affiliation or any other protected classification D clothing must not pose a threat to the health or safety of any other student or staff e enforcement must accommodate clothing worn by students as an expression of sincerely held religious beliefs headscarves for example and warn by students with dis disabilities protective helmets for example three parent responsibility board policy 43.122762 provides the responsibility for the dress and grooming of a student rests primarily with the student and his or her parents or Guardians parents or Guardians are responsible for ensuring student compliance with the school dress code four student responsibility all students at all schools are responsible for complying with the dress District dress code during school hours and school activities five staff responsibility to equitably enforce the District dress code teachers administrators and all School staff must be notified of of the policy at the beginning of the school year with a refresher in March before spring break in regards to its purpose and spirit and how to enforce it without shaming students or disproportionately impacting certain student groups staff should be guided by the dress code policy and follow the letter and spirit of the District dress code six enforcement when a teacher or School administrator discusses a dress or grooming violation with a student it is recommended that another adult should be present and at least one of the two adults should be the same sex as the student in no circumstances shall a student be spoken to about a dress code violation in front of other students a teachers or staff discussing a dress or groming violation with a student should present options for obtaining appropriate clothing EG School Clothing Closet B where possible students should not be required to wear school-owned replacement garments and should never be required to wear specific garments as a disciplinary measure C discipline for dress or grooming violations should be consistent with the discipline Poli policies for comparable violations I'm going to stop there hi I'm Sophia Carlson and I'll be starting ninth grade at Grant and I would just like to say that this committee has worked very hard on coming up with the dress code that eliminates the problems that have accompanied current dress codes such as body shaming victim blaming and lost educational time that disproportionately targets girls the dress code we are proposing to you today has not only eliminated some of that specific language such as sexually suggestive or distracting but also changes the mentality of girls being the problem for distracting boys which may not have been the intention of current dress code but it's following a wrongfully placed status quo schools are some of that first exposure to those ideas of victim blaming and objectification which should not be part of the PPS system with with the new gender neutral dress code it's a perfect opportunity to
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educate students about why the dress code is being changed and how the new code and in h sorry implementation plan will give students a voice and a societal shift we are striving for Dress Code Enforcement is important but we shouldn't it shouldn't be a disciplinary issue we want it to support students instead of Target and shame certain students as I stated in my testimony from last year our main goal is to make sure you are aware that we need to teach students healthy and resp ful ways to treat each other I feel that the dress code we have come up with is a great opportunity to take that step in the right direction and hopefully future students won't face any discriminatory issues with dress code and I'd just like to say thank you so much for all the time and support you have given to this issue and it has been a great experience for me and I'm so thankful to be a part of it thank you thank you okay um board members questions comments I just want to commend the students who got this all started last year with I I don't remember if you were one of the young women who testified but it was incredibly powerful testimony and I'm so glad to be here today with these very reasonable reforms and recommendations so good job can I add something real quick onto that um I know that these are words on a piece of paper that comes from up top and the biggest piece of it is actually the enforcement of it so in the implementation plan um that's going to be the most important thing I mean otherwise they just remain words on paper um at Irvington the dress code was was actually targeting girls so was sexist at a place like Lane Middle School was not only sexist but also racist so in addition to the gender neutral piece to it we also want to be anti-racist as well and the work is just getting started it's very easy to change words it's much more difficult to put actually something in practice and I think that's our biggest challenge right now is actually put into practice and we're determined to do that and we're going to work hard card at summertime you know it's like July we have July and we have to get that done and we make sure we get that done and actually striped in the way it should be thank you thank you Steve yeah I think you did a really good job I have one I have one uh amendment to it when should I do that amendment should I do it tonight or should I do it next week this is the first reading so how would that work amand um so is it an amendment to the policy it's to the is a change in a slight change in language to the policy or the administrative director yeah it says administrative director but I'm look going to see where it says policy the one pager that I read that is the policy preds does say policy on my thing okay it's to the administrative director so that ised by the superintendent so that is something can be Amed not going through the policy so you could state it now and when we and when we bring it back for the second reading it could be included should I just send an email to the superintendent 10 on it I gu it has language in the enforcement that says in no circumstances shall a student be spoken to about a dress code violation in front of other students and I just I have a problem with that I can think of many circumstances where you might have to do that or it might be the correct thing to do that and so I just would change the language to where reasonable no student should be spoken to because if somebody walks into your class and they have on a hoodie and a mask okay what a broken address code policy right because they have on a mask can't see the face can't see the can't see so they have a mask on so you've got according to this policy and I try to make this stuff clearer when I mean according to this I want to make it clear for teachers in the school and for students so it would be you could be written up as a teacher for saying to the kid we want to start John please take off your masks so we can start according to this administrative policy that teacher can be written up absolutely so the teacher's option is one leave the mask on that's not a very good option for your class for our schools and two you could take the student outside in the hall and speak to them outside fine sounds like a good option but if there's other kids walking by that option's not to you you can't do that so you now have to take the kid outside leaving your whole class where really it took just a little comment uh uh you know you once don't you take the mask off John and we'll start class it's just in no circumstances there's such absolute language I just think it needs to be changed but that's not okay so there you go that's it the other question that I have is more so it's on the whole thing maybe this doesn't have anything about gang atar in it is that in another policy or are you eliminating that from the policy because I don't want people getting shot in our schools by allowing a lot of gang attire
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and gang stuff so how do we come down where does this come down I'm confused on it and I I read through all the stuff but I don't see it well and I'm sure you've done your homework too and know that gang identifiers change and yeah I was the guy who called in 1986 to every public official in the city of Portland it said gangs are coming into Portland we have to do something about it and every public official except for one woman who was an assistant in the mayor's office said well that's baloney so I 87 we were we were the people in the school system helping to stop gang violence in our schools sure in in response to the question I think the the piece where it's specifically referred to it doesn't say gang attire but it say clo clothing must not pose a threat to the health or safety of any other student or staff and I think that this is where you you get into the trickiness of gang identification which is ever shifting so if we ban hats they can wear something else if you ban and a certain kind of attire they can shift that attire and so the notion is that if the youth services division is working with you know our schools the officers that are in our schools and the Gang enforcement team works with them there should be a way that they could communicate some of those dangers in a way that would be more fluid and would also make more sense to the context so hopefully that would be how it would be addressed well it doesn't say gang attire in this any place nope and if I'm a principal out there in Hinterlands and I'm looking at this and it doesn't say gang attire somebody says well you're going to let gang according to this this policy in a way I would think you could come in with a with a red hat that said bloods on it and a green and the guy down the hall comes in with a blue hat that says Crips on it and really is it a VI is that a violence thing no not necessarily is it really a danger well yeah it's a danger but are we seeing it as a danger I I just think it needs to be spelled out that we do not allow gang attire in our schools and I how that normally works is that as I understand it and is that we get a briefing our SRO and our uh security people get a briefing from the gang uh task force in Port in the city police on a fairly regular basis which updates us on the change of gang attire and allows us to deal with it in that way I just I just think we need it in here Steve why don't we have these guys respond and then we can um go forward I think I think there's a bigger issue of perceived gang attire like you know so once again if if someone walks in with with a hat says Crips or Bloods you obviously know it's gang attire but if someone's wearing a red bandana but not necessarily conting gang membership but just a fashion statement and is perceived as being gang attire and told to take off and the whole nine yards that's when it gets that's where the the conversations need to happen that's where this piece of paper right here that we have in front of you is useless this is knowing the kids having a conversation with the kids an honest one in order to actually tease it out to understand that wait a minute at the end of the day this kid is not wearing something to actually be affiliated with the gang they're just wearing it as a fashion statement and if you get to the bottom of that then once again this board policy and administrative directive and all these little um referrals and displ issues disappear but the thing is it's been an issue for the past at least for me for like about last nine years right in particular for public class five so the issue is in what way do we see our children right our students especially our children of color once again and in particular our uh the dress code I think it even more affects at like a school like lame Middle School uh our young women of color in particular our black women of color right young black women of color because they're the ones getting targeted and it's over not not even gang uh not even gang affiliated things but something like as simple as black yoga pants this this where this particular policy Works to stop that type of targeting however if you're wearing gang attire that's clearly gang attire in the school then that needs to be dealt with otherwise we're going to have people shot and so the other the it's not a matter of and it's not spelled out here so the answer here is in fact just when you talked you said absolutely that's not right you don't want to G but in in what you said was I took it as saying that we don't want to we don't want to deal with gang atar so this doesn't spill it out and this says the reverse I think principal Kea read the part that addresses that that you probably had the discussion specifically around how to um look at clothing that either is or can be perceived as as gang attire and that that language is Broad enough to right and is this something you might address
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in the implementation plan yeah I mean that the hard of this and and and that's really been the conversation that Brian's trying to bring up around like one of the issues of of past dress codes was schools would change or modify or adapt them and there was a lot of subjectiveness to the dress codes and you would get teachers who would get put in a really awkward position because you would have a teacher who's well-meaning and trying to follow the rules and they're calling kids on stuff and then you have other people people who don't feel comfortable so they don't not even that they don't want to but they just don't feel comfortable so it creates this inequitable thing that if anybody's ever worked with a teenager or anybody has one when you've been able to do something six times and the seventh person calls you on it that's uncomfortable because all of a sudden you're in a situation where you thought it was okay based on what people are saying is okay so the whole notion of training is what are we doing to prepare staff around what the dress code is and part of that would be safety issues so that's something that we're committing to in this piece in the ad specifically to do twice a year to do at the beginning of the year and then to do right around spring break when you know clothing entire changes a little bit and people forget some of this stuff and it comes up again so that's the notion you present something that is there one of the complicated issues among many which is around how do you call that out if it's shifting right because you say gang attire gang attire today once they get called out and they know it's gang attire and people know that people know it's gang attire they shift so it doesn't stay gang attire for all time that's why if you look at their sheets the hot sheets they they change what they wear their attire those things as they get called out on it or they aren't able to they don't wear it anymore and and the job of our school principls is to stay up on that and take care of it we had a gang shooting last night more than one handful of them we don't need kids staking out halls in the school is the blood hall or staking out halls in the school is this hall because we're allowing them to wear gang attire and they're then staking it all out all that stuff is nice talk and I spent 40 years as you know as a school teacher and I've dealt with plenty of this stuff I'm I think and like I said at the beginning except for this one statement the little bit I'm totally in favor of it but we need to be very specific that we will not be accepting gang attire in our schools period you can we can sugarcoat at every place that we want but you'll quit sugarco putting it when somebody has a gun battle in the middle of one of our schools because somebody was in the wrong spot with the wrong clothes on and somebody's shooting somebody and all of a sudden we'll decide oh geez it wasn't a really good idea to not to allow kids to call to fly their colors in our schools we'll decide oh it wasn't a really good idea after all when the kids lying and a kid and a few bystanders are lying on the ground shot from the gang we had a gang shooting last night we have schools in our school district that we have where gangs have have uh claimed the playground for our schools they've claimed the playground this is a blood's playground okay Steve yeah but this is more important I'd like to have him respond to it okay but also Julie has a Julie fine that's fine but I I would like to have him respond to well it relates to this it's just in doing a search about other uh policies board policies related to dress codes um there's some nice examples that I found of Gang Related apparel and it it has that language of what you're talking about that because Gang Related symbols are constantly changing and then it gives them guidelines for how often the administration would review those and kind of give updates so uh it just might be something to consider and look at some other examples because it it does address sort of that fluidity and the context for that so that we're not misinterpreting the bandana you know is from fashion statement to it so uh it just might be okay I have some examples to look at yeah I just wanted to respond as a teacher who's responsible for enforcing this kind of on the front lines um I think that the reason why um the that specific wording is not here is because it is so subject to interpretation that each person comes into um the world with their own ideas of what this means or what this indicates and they make their own um judgments sometimes false and I think that's where the implementation piece is so important important because there's so much education that has to happen surrounding educating the staff um in what those changing um uh signs might be um so I think that the the specific language of the policy is that the attire or gromming depicting or advocating violence criminal activity um right there um are prohibited that's that's the the meat of that that that touches on that explicitly um without it having the the loaded language of
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suggesting or implanting in somebody's mind like oh I perceive this as gang attire therefore I'm going to respond I'm going to call this student out um so I think that there there was absolutely um not a dismissal of that but very careful consideration of what that might be and how that might be interpreted but I think it really is about the implementation and the education piece for enforcement all right which you're going to bring a draft out on the 20 Pit All right so okay well I want to I want to make the final statement then final statement this is a first reading so yeah this needs to we need we need and and also too at uh Lane Middle School when when Carl Logan was principal towards well before he became the senior director he he actually realized that in late middle school there were no gangsters at school because he knows the students he knows uh he knows a neighborhood and that's when you actually brought up a change like maybe we should relook at this policy because the thing is it uh we had this uh you know there was policies against hats regarding like gang affiliation but since there were no longer any more gangsters in the in the school um he was like we need to revisit this policy and that's when these conversations started coming up about well if why why do we have this policy we're enforcing this thing that that's arbitrary right so rather than having kids in the classroom you're enforcing this this Rule and actually pulling the kids out of the classro the opposite of what District's Equity Equity policy is so I mean guess that's that's really the thing I think is just kn KN where you're teaching at having good relations with your students and understanding that when a kid is learning a certain thing you know if you know that kid you know whether that kid is is Affiliated or not right and if they're dressing a certain way yes and no right yes I no a lot of teachers don't know a lot of a lot of principles may but I'm going to bet that like you know all don't know I will know you would know but not but there's 3,400 teachers in this school I would guess yeah and and you're not going to train all the teachers to deal with gang and tire because it changes uh fairly regularly but you can teach you can train all your sro's you can you can train your uh your uh security people and you can regularly train them to help keep gang attire and gang affiliated flying of colors and so forth out of your school you can train people to do that but in order to do that you have to say we're not going to have gang attire in our school and this doesn't say that gang is not illegal to be in a gang in the state of Oregon gangs themselves are not illegal they're only illegal when they start breaking the wall okay I would assume you know let's wrap it up and then what I would suggest we'll do it again okay next time second time and and you can again we take and in the meantime have maybe have some discussions we'll talk uh and we'll see what the uh implementation plan is and if if there's the will of the board to support an amendment we'll do it go ahead is it okay yeah we still do this um first of all I'd like to say thank you to all of you who work so hard on this um I know I think we all know dress codes what a gnarly topic right really really hard and I have to say I remember really well because back in 1968 when I was a middle schooler um I led the protest because girls weren't allowed to wear pants you could only wear dresses to school so there you go um so I understand that it's a gnarly issue and I I will say that we won that fight as you all know now because you're all wearing pants but back then no you couldn't so and even then you had to wear nice pants no jeans just nice pants so um so fast forward to today and um I just finished in a position where uh for the last five years I advised young people who are looking for jobs about proper attire for going to look for a job and I was always surprised at how difficult it was for young people to understand that you don't go look for a job in your Saturday night date outfit boys or girls um so I think that we need to be aware of messages that we're sending to kids as well um about what is proper attire and I think that this particular um policy is just missing a couple of things that I'd like to suggest to you one of them is that it doesn't focus on why you're in school I mean you're in school because it's a learning environment and I think that it has to acknowledge that someplace in this that's why you're here you're here to learn and it's a learning environment and the other part that I um would add um is it seems like it it's got a lot of negativity to it you're not going to do this you can't do that you but I think one of the things that uh is important and and places the burden where it should be to me um kind of does it in the first sentence but doesn't go far enough for me I would I would put something and this is just something I wrote up here so f flexibility um that the students and parents show respect for themselves
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their peers teachers and the community and concerned for mainten for maintaining a quality learning environment in the schools when they're considering their dress I'd like to have something like that uh within the policy that that really kind of talks a little bit about why we're here and places the burden on what on the people that it should be on which is the students as they're trying to decide decide what to wear at a school that day to make sure that they're thinking about where I'm going and what the purpose is um so I'd like to suggest some changes like that all right any thank you P um any other I just have appreciation this was a really um hardworking work group with an as Pam said an early topic and you guys did a great job um putting something together that I'm impressed to see here in front of us tonight thank you you thank yeah thank you um okay and then just to be clear if there are changes that the board would like to make or that you guys want to suggest after hearing this um then we would that would start another process of of hearing so it would add it to another board meeting which is not the end of the world so thank thank you very much getting started early yeah thank you thank you thank you again you guys okay uh superintendent Smith do you want to provide us with an update on the water and air quality I doal actions Yousef Awad who is our Chief Financial Officer and also um currently acting Chief Operating Officer and David Hobbs um will provide an update on all of our health and safety issues super smith uh board U directors um we started um the testing of the water is underway we're scheduled to complete the testing this weekend um the results are coming and as we we get them we're posting them that's about the water um as far as the blood testing we have uh signed a contract that we brought to the board last board meeting um that's for Onsite testing um we have another contract that's in the agenda today uh up to a million dollars for mailin packets um excuse me um it it will cover significant number of people we're anticipating about uh 280,000 roughly to be used for the employees uh the remaining is backup plan um potentially if we need it to use it for students uh in addition to that um you'll have in the agenda today a resolution um to use up to $5 million in reimbursement um if the bond passes that we can reimburse the general fund for any Capital Improvements that we will spend on health and safety issues um the last item I have on the update is uh ch2m we have kicked off the meeting today they'll be on our facility stting uh July 1st this Friday um and hopefully they'll they're schedule it to complete the work in about four months with that I'll be happy to answer any questions okay board members questions thank thank you Yousef Paul Yousef thank you very much I I'm a little confused by the zrt labs contract here uh these 10 thou up to 10,000 test kits they're $1100 a piece um it's no it's about $60 a piece um it should be I don't know why it say 10,000 I'll have to review that initially we had a number that we negotiated we negotiated the price down um it should come up to about 14,285 tests based on the price that we have oh okay thank you anybody else over here Steve last week I voted against the budget because we didn't have and one of the reasons was because we didn't have any money in that budget to deal with uh the lead paint and we had you had said 20 schools that had we had prioritized 20 schools correct uh Mr R that's what you said last week uh so let me clarify that again again David Hobs senior director of facility Asset Management um what I said about the 20 schools is we had uh 20 schools that were included in that list that I presented at the bond committee that
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were pulled forward and representative of classes of lead paint condition from one through four which is from our worst case to some of our better condition paint and that those were representative of projects that could be done with the money and in those particular projects that we identified total the $870,000 those are representative you said representative so so that's 20 out of 80 we have flad pain in 80 and the 20 year representative is that what you're saying as I suggest I thought you said there were priority those though there were 20 top priority ones that's what no I I did not indicate they were the top priority are not so there aren't they're not we have seever several of those on that list are priorities um and our highest priority needs that are on there others were not do we have a priority list we are working through that process now to identify um additional projects that we might be able to go after uh for remediation encapsulation of the lead paint at more schools as I mentioned at the last board meeting in this coming fiscal cycle we have $125,000 that we've carved out for uh lead pain encapsulation plus another $50,000 from the water Bureau Grant but I want to be clear on this the the um the 5 million that is that we're looking at tonight in terms of the reimbursement this these projects would qualify for that is that correct so it had to be Capital Improvement projects and if extend the life of the asset for at least one year that's considered a capital project so uh the assessment may not be but but the actual word the fix fixing of the the fixes yeah correct so did did you get that no okay um so five the five million is to be spent where if we do that it can it can be spent on this very exact thing that that you've been talking about um and uh get reimbursed for um by the um the future Bond proceeds and are we planning to do that so we we need to pass our bond well but also but we need to prioritize reimburse it very good chance we won't even be putting a bond out what if we don't put a bond out what happens to that 5 million then we are working on a plan to prioritize the schools we're engaging our uh representative from the unions and the custodians and the painters and our folks to make sure that we address the schools are at the the most need during the summer and that's our plan so there's a lot of work that's going to be done in between to get to that point um but our plan is to address those schools um as soon as we can I don't know if it's going to be 5 million I don't know the dollar amount because we don't have that numbers yet but this is just kind of to hedge our um plans and kind of plan ahead I mean that's really what the five million is for and you'll come back to the board with a plan definitely by way um we've got a couple of meetings scheduled in the next 10 days um maybe in a couple of weeks this is the plan to do work this summer that's our goal I don't know if we will or not I mean we'll be in a better position to tell you paint testing so where basically it's still allly floating around in the air someplace we're we're working on a plan for you so we'll bring we'll bring the bo of the plan I don't want to promise you something that I can't deliver so I want to make sure I can okay there you go we can grab it out of there when it comes by and we'll come up with something good the uh uh I want to ask a couple other questions maybe somebody else wants I get a couple more no go for okay thank you uh let's go back and talk about the lead blood the the lead paint I mean the lead and the water I got an email today that said we're doing we're going to do one a day one what a day one school a day basically that that's what it looks like was that an accurate email I'm not aware of any email we're almost done testing but we should be done by this weekend doing the testing oh I mean and back sorry sorry St you talking about the email that I sent so what I said is that we're expecting at least one school a day of results starting like now I thought what I thought so it's not one a day it's at least one like so what I was letting you know is that we're expecting results
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almost every day now for at least one school probably more so that we are now sending out those notices directly to schools and their school communities and then we're also going to be providing the aggregate results to the entire District all PPS to the families and to the staff um as part of our weekly updates that we're sending out okay great thank you that clarifies I really appreciate that uh uh Amanda uh so are we going to be done by July 8th which is basically what I was promised and I threw in a couple extra days for you to give you a little word a little extra are we going to be done testing the water in all our schools and have the results all out by July 8th which was I mean but that was what I was promised by people so the answer I'd like to know because if it's not if it's not then I think maybe you need to shift focus on the plan that I had put forth which allowed us to get through the main testing for each school by a certain by July 8th so that the children in our school system still had time to get their blood tested when it made sense because after you get a couple three or so weeks past that you're pushing on the edge of when it makes sense now as told July 8th everything done working 24 hours a day evidently we going to make it that's correct so just just to make sure we're on the same page so as as Yousef indicated we're wrapping up our sampling um this weekend uh including this building that's at the end of the week this is almost the last building we're doing we're we actually got all the water collected in all our buildings that's correct and so all we're waiting on now is for the lab to do the water testing that's correct and I believe labs are getting overloaded and so forth which is a problem and that's different than when we talked about at the beginning but at the same time we do need to get done in time for our children to get their we're still pushing very hard to have those results back as quickly as we can we've continued to add additional lab capacity uh Labs uh under contract to help us with the testing of the a samples which is the first draw um and and again I'm hopeful that we will be there um we'll have a better handle on that in the next couple of days as those results um I'm sorry as the samples get sent back to the labs and the labs are able to give us a more accurate uh information on when it's coming back the uh okay July 8th I'm looking for it uh the let's talk about the blood testing of the children last week I asked about that and was told that the county was on right on that so when I called the county the next morning the county wasn't on it at all County was lost running around with their head cut off they hadn't done they hadn't done anything basically to think in terms of the number of children that we had coming and in fact and in fact in fact the county said no we ain't going to get that many children tested 8 to 10,000 children if that's which it looks like about what it's going to come down the county said no no and I talked to the woman who was the head of the program that did that stuff they said they don't have any plans to put on any extra work necessarily except they did say we're going to prioritize to some degree based on the type of school that it was they did say that but my my sense of the when we were done is they might get lucky if they get to close to a thousand and we're talking 8 to 10,000 children so the county didn't have their act together or even close to their act together they weren't even in the same ball game as ni nice as people as they are they hadn't done what we said so put me back a week for checking on them well I checked on them the next morning but basically it took a week to get back here to say hey the county doesn't have their act together so are we going to test those children since the county is does not appear to do that to do that now we talked about that and so give you a chance to answer um so we have talked to the county the county are they have issued their um update on how they're going to monitor the situation and it's in the document I just passed and that's the message that we have gotten from the county they are ready to help as needed um they have 10 sessions scheduled in the next two months five in July and five in August um that we will provide to our to the parents of of our kids in addition about 2,000 kids in addition to that as I mentioned earlier we have a contract that it's on the business agenda that allow us to test close to 14,000
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people um 13,000 children or 13 14,000 people so it could be kids could be employees um so that's these are the plans we have I mean the county is still ready to help and assist as needed but we also have that contract in case in term of capacity because they should probably become a capacity how many kids can you test in know one one day we test 10,000 children and 3,000 teachers say we have a contract that's going to do that we currently have capacity to test about 16 close to 16,000 people we're going to have that done by the July have 30 or 31 days uh the onsite test that we already scheduled and and there will be a letter going to the employees in their paycheck this um this weekend um and we'll be send in other communication through PPS and we'll send a second letter about the mail in to the employees as well um all of that is being communicated so we will have capacity for about 16,000 the mail in it's it's up to the parents to order the kit and it's really their timeline it's not my timeline necessarily um as far as the onsite testing we have that scheduled um throughout the month of July do we have on-site testing then for 10,000 kids if nobody mailed in we don't have 10,000 we have close to 3,300 um the contracts about 3,300 roughly and we have the county 10 sessions in addition to that I thought you said 16,000 total that's including the mail in backets so the mailin is not going to be very it's very likely to not be very high mail in is a penny take kid down take him home that's kind of going to be my guess mightbe I'm wrong but that would be my guess that that's where we're going the most so are we going to be able to test all the children in on that if nobody ma let's say nobody mailed in can we still test all the children if you're talking about on-site testing yep uh that will depend as we get info from these see how much it is how many kids and stuff correct and then we'll be working with the county on that and and that on-site testing will be uh in one of our schools and schools in a certain place in different parts of the community what's onsite testing Unity the one we're Contracting for the aut and hour facilities okay um the county already have scheduled testing through the month of July and August and if we need more then that's a conversation we'll have with the county at that time okay well I'm confused about that cu the county is only going to test certain number and then we've got other on-site testing that we're going to do for thousands of children that we're going to do and pay for we have not scheduled on-site testing on our facility for the students yet because we don't know what that's going to look like till we figure that out till we find the results of the order and we know what the county is going to do then we can react ACC so are we are we planning to uh move are we do we have a plan in our head so to speak for testing 8,000 children or 10,000 children on site so Steve we have two contracts one of them for on-site testing that we can expand on to include students if needed up to how much um it's I mean we can we will have to work with the company see what's their capacity um what I'm wonder that see that bothers me and makes me worry about it because if their capacity is 850 kids and we need to test 10,000 we're already behind we got to find out that capacity and make sure they can do what we want to do or otherwise we have to get other people online don't we so Steve also the thing we just gave you is what they've got posted on their website that I'm going to read out loud to you just because you mean the county the county yeah but it's not the it's not the question uh Carol it's it's nice but I the Count's going to do their thing I already talked in depth to the county people there if they get to a th000 I'll be surprised but they might but the uh by July the end of July but the question is if they're not going to get to it are are we set up to get to it or not you know it's either yes kind of in a way if we have a contract for 10,000 kids and they can go up to 10,000 kids then we're set up to deal with the the numbers of children that we have if our contract goes up to 3,300 and the county does a th000 and we have 10,000 kids who want tested we're 5,000 kids short which I don't want to get into that and we and we don't know that until we get into July and so it's very difficult for us to hurry around to get it we need to have that in our head and we need to have the plan set out in my opinion so the question I guess is do we have that plan set out or not I guess Steve as I said we have capacity for on-site testing close to 3,300 we have the county that is as mentioned they're ready to respond
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depending on the severity of the lead okay so we're so we're then we have the mail imp packets which give us another 14 we're about 5,000 kids short possibly that's not true because would I suggest you just sending a memo on but I want to settle it here in the public because the public has the right to hear this and the people have the right to report it whether we're ready or not that's a that's a public it's not just me it's not me asking this it's everybody who voted for me 47,000 people asking these questions and they and we should have answers to them and I'm sorry if it takes a little bit of your time you guys' time but but it's it's really too bad that it does and and the qu so all I'm saying is we have 43 we have capacity without sending their stuff in for 4,300 kids I don't know what the county capacity EX for those if they get to a th we'll be very surprised okay Pam great so I'll go ahead and read what the county says it says the health department is independently analyzing PPS Building Maintenance records to prioritize lead screening resources so Moma County can provide school specific services in the coming days Health Department staff will be scheduling free lead screening clinics and response based to the severity of the lead levels and student demographics so to me me that sounds like the county is ready to step up and help 750 kids you don't know how many Steve you're making a wild gu I know I'm not making a wild guess I spent a long timea I spent a long time I spent a long time talking with the person who didn't even know spent a long sign talking to the person who's head of this entire program at the county well then they should have known what was on their website but their website this says it's under a thousand this says three three set up three things and she talked go to schools wherever we ask just like they said when we had our public meeting Steve and she talked about prioritizing and how they did that and how they went about the prioritizing and when I asked about the capacity of the county they did not have a capacity that's anywhere near what what these people are talking about it's not idea it's not even close we also have no idea how many people will seek to be tested well we have a pretty good idea because we ran every one of schools that we put in that we tested lead on was about what do we have 570 for two schools 519 five how much 519 okay so it's about 250 per school and we and our and our uh lead testing ourselves in the past has found between 40 to 50 kid schools so if you take 40 and you multiply it by 200 that comes to 8,000 children and if you take 40 I mean and and you if you take 50 and you multiply it by 200 that comes to 10,000 children and that's a pretty good idea of the outside edge of where we're going to be if we get to that edge please days Pam boy you're being please I have the FL Stephen you interrupted me okay please don't I'm I'm not done go ahead if you want and I'll I'll and I'll wait for you to fin well that comes to 12,000 students what is that 10 8 to 10,000 eight to 10 so 12 days with the county the countyy is not going to do that they already said they're not to me I talked to the head of the program and the county said they're not going to do it they say to the public that they are going to no they don't if you read this carefully it doesn't say that yes they do read where it says they're going to take care of all the kids it says right here read it please if you would would you mind health department will be scheduling free lead screening clinics in response based to the severity of the lead levels and student demographics and what that says is this and this is what the county head of the County uh head of the county program told me what that means is they are going to prioritize according to the the type of school that it is and they have nowhere near the capacity to do 8 to 10,000 children that's what they said and they do approximately a thousand kids a year and they are not going to if they get over a thousand I'd be very very very surprised after the conversation I had with the head of the county call her up and ask her who's running that program and see what she says the answer is if they get to a th very very surprising that that they just say they're going to prioritize so they're going to take the poor schools in this city and they're going to prioritize those schools for the county to test because the children in those schools they figure they believe have a worse diet and if you have a worse diet then you end up putting more lead into your system because you're short of men enals and that's what the county said and they're going to prioritize in that way but I I asked her dead out I said you going to
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do 8 to 10,000 kids she just the first guy asked that he just laughed she said no we have nowhere near the capacity to do that that's what the county says that's how the county is doing it so the question if we're at 3,300 and the County's at a th000 we're at 4,300 and if we're looking 8 to 10,000 and we're doing it by the end of July we need a we need a plan that expands that well I think the test kits are part of that plan well you're going to but you would have to have 6,000 kids 6,000 people send in test kits and they're going to take 6,000 test kits in one basically coming in all at once you think 6,000 out of those 10,000 are going to go test kits instead of taking their kid to a deal and having and then getting the result right there and they don't have to go to the they don't have to pay anything to get it where you send in the test kit you got to pay you send in you got to do all the stuff you got to test yourself of course they're not going to they don't have to be anything well there's no you can send just dump it in the mailbox and off you go going be is going to be reposted so so you think 6,000 people 6,000 people are going to do test kits instead of taking their kids to the thing and we're going to do all those test kits within a 3-week period is that what people are telling me and and how much money will people give me to uh let me go out to dinner and celebrate that I was right here if it comes about no might not come about but we need to have a plan in case it does come about and it's the county doesn't have it and no offense and I'm not we don't have we do have a plan in in the test kits but if those test kits if if let's say it's if we do test 3,300 people how many of those are well wait how many that's not counting teachers right we have 3,300 kids or is that counting teachers Steve we're not going to come up with what I wanted to what I suggest is that's nice but I'm not doing that way Tom you can you can gble me down if you want but I ain't going to be a one happy camper of it I want to know I want to get this finished so the public understands exactly what we're doing and I what I'm suggesting is that uh we do not have an exact plan tonight to do thatt of the board is very clear um we we're working with Partners we're putting resources into it it sounds to me like they're there is the um aspects of the plan are there what I'd like to have Yousef do is put together a plan send it to the board work with Steve over the next few days and we can make it public 33 let me ask the last question okay and then we'll move on 3300 does that include that doesn't include adults the 3,300 plan doesn't include adults it does that's total that includes adults yes and so if we got 3,400 teachers and we have over 50% come on in 1500 that only leaves 1,800 for uh children out of the T and if the county does a a thousand and so that's 2800 and 2800 from 10,000 if it happened to turn out to be 10,000 2800 from 10,000 leaves us 7 7,200 test kits sent in within a 3-week period and somebody's going to get that and get back to the people within uh okay so Steve this is what I got to say it's we have a contract for on site we're we are approaching others and the company to see if we can get more capacity that's what I was trying to explain earlier for more on-site testing we have not completed that discussion yet so I can't give you the info on that one okay in addition to that we have the mailing packet and we have the county to get more capacity that's what we're working on but and we're having trouble doing that well we haven't concluded that discussion so I can't share with you what I have handy yet but as soon as you do you will definitely so the answer to the public is we don't really know if we're going to be aing making a significant investment tonight to have capacity available in three different ways including directly from the county maybe maybe any you could we could use you as the new PR person that was quite good just trying to see what it is it was a pretty good spin on it all right okay just an accurate thank you Yousef and David um Carol do you have me wrap up to any of that discussion can you summarize no no not not just that but but the whole the whole effort on people are really working hard to try and have forward motion and you can feel the forward motion that's happening so okay good um and these points you're raising are are good um all right so the next uh on the next
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on the agenda is uh resolution um about the superintendent search now that uh Carol has announced her retirement um it's the intent of the board to uh start a search um immediately and to do it in a professional manner both both the search uh and the transition um and so this resolution uh simply codifies that it should be in people's packets uh and essentially it it it the first thing that the board um will do is um solicit input for search firms um and the chair uh will appoint an ad hoc Committee of three board members to help get those um get those uh uh solicitations uh rfps to the board um and uh and then the board will make the approval and selection of a firm so move so second second so resolution 5302 any other discussion okay see none uh all those in favor say I I I all opposed any abstentions uh resolution 5302 is passed by a vote of six to zero with student representative I Davidson voting I okay very good thank you um okay so now we uh make sure we don't miss anything here um are going to the business agenda are there items that uh folks would like to get pulled out of the business agenda for it um uh I'd like to pull the contracts for self-enhancement Inc the Latino Network and uh NAA please I have a couple of questions okay um uh the um n n Self Enhancement was the other one Latino Network Latino Network okay um anybody else um I see two two two uh SE uh two on for the Nia same with yeah there are two for one same with latino Network okay so all of them on front Okay I Tom I got I'd like to talk about all of them on here in the Way Mount Scott Park Center also open school Incorporated also okay and but Portland youth Builders Southeast Works Portland Community College youth progress Association and okay so we don't have a business agenda that we're going to uh pass without question so let's let's um and uhu resolutions Northwest yeah there's a couple on here okay so um new governmental agreements then let's let's I think I'd like to get them on get this whole thing on the table um so in order to talk about these we need to get them on the table so is there a u motion to move in second resolution 5297 so moved is there a second second second okay moved and seconded uh discussion Pam um so I am always uh supportive of our alternative opportunities for our students and we had some wonderful testimony here tonight um from people who have graduated from those programs have gone on to lead very successful wonderful lives uh as well as their parents I felt for that mother who son just graduated from U ofo that was wonderful um however uh this morning um I realized in my packet I didn't have the information I needed in order to uh complete uh looking at these uh particularly I'm interested in the metrics around success rate and that kind of thing um so my suggestion would be that and and I should say that when I arrived tonight uh there was a packet of material at my seat here but uh obviously I'm paying attention to the meeting so there really isn't any opportunity for me to go through all that at this time and I'd like to propose that we move these to
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the next um board meeting table uh Tom if I could uh director I I would like to support director n's suggestion uh director as far ASA Brown and I have been feverishly going through some of this material and we have some questions or at least I do I I think you do also um I do want to point out we aren't going to have a meeting for a month is that going to cause an issue oh thank you that's what my question would be yeah well I don't think anyone will have the answer to the questions tonight um you might because just looking through the document I didn't see the questions answered that I was asking earlier um and unless you know the graduation rates and other specific information of each of these programs in comparison to Prior years we have in the summertime done just a business agenda meeting where we could meet for 15 minutes to just do the business agenda maybe we could do that I'm open I'm open to that um would it be good to get some questions out now tonight absolutely I think that'll help Kina figure out what we all want to know well one thing is I don't have the data for all of the contracts that are um that we're looking at here so I would like complete data and I would be really open to having a meeting soon cont right you need the material lenzo you need the information to make a decision so um I just would like to make a comment about the process here I um I think each of us have made efforts this week to learn more more about some of these specific contracts and I have uh we have made progress in the last six months generally around um attaching accountability metrics and a deeper level of information with our particularly our directly negotiated contracts so I want to thank youf and his team for particularly Emily for for making progress on that however um we are still not at a place where as a board we are receiving um just basic information behind each one of these typically their contract renewals sometimes their their new contracts basic information that also includes just basic accountability metrics and this information that Karina provided tonight um includes most of the data that I would need um so we we need that as a matter of course and I asked um 10 days ago or so to have it be this item be included on the business and operations committee agenda so that we could finally get this work done of attaching accountability metrics to our contracts was not put on the agenda so further delay in just getting systems in place that will give us the information that we need to to make informed decisions and to um for the public to see what these contracts are all about whether or not they're a good investment what type of um data these organizations have when they renewals because just from digging myself I I know that at least on this agenda tonight most of these organizations do have good data they do have metrics they have more information about their um Effectiveness than we ask for even as the contracte uh of our contract but uh we just need to get that template that structure in place and I think through the business and operations committee is a way to do do that I agree um so Tom yes so I my concern is um well again I would like a complete set of material um so not every contract that's listed on here I could find data for in what you provided um but I what can we do here can we problem solve this because I really don't want to see Services interrupted these are critical services so what what can we agree to to somehow um be able to provide so that the services continue as we're working through solving the problem ultimately in terms of what we would be asking for consistently as metrics across every contract um I Carol I was just going to say in this particular moment with the Alternatives there this was a response to a request for proposals correct correct correct because because you did get some of that information and I'm thinking even a brief presentation about what you have here in the packet because this is a moment that's people
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have come forward and presented their data and applied again for the dollars and so it's been a formal we're at the end of a formal process here um that that just hearing a little bit about that may let you feel comfortable moving is that the data that's included in here well I so this looks like it's old data to me it's 20 14 so that's the most so I'd love to tell you what's in the packet and maybe that would be a starting place um but um thank you superintendent Smith she's Carol's absolutely right we are we' finished an RFP process every five years um we are required to go out to RFP we did that process this year we um there you know we went through our um purchasing and accounting um process with our formal RFP process um um had requests for proposals reviewed the proposals went worked through our contract negotiations phase and brought um 10 of the 11 proposers who were approved forward for contract what I will share with you is um and I am happy to do whatever people would like and be helpful in any way people however people would like information I would gladly provide it to you in that former format um G given that this was on the business agenda and not a board item part of what I did was try to capture what I perceived to be the questions that would be coming so what we have which I think is really important is we have every um and some of this for those of you that have been in the board on the board in previous years is I've included the segmentation analysis which we did which really looks at our system which we are by the way just looking at and currently in their second segmentation analysis um currently so we will have an updated segmentation analysis kind of 2.0 um in the future which I'm very excited about um in addition we looked at our alternative accountability framework and so one of the things that we have is we have in answer to a really legitimate Wonder around how do we measure alternative schools in a way that makes sense for the student population we have developed alternative accountability framework so what happens is there's often misinformation or misunderstanding around students in alternative schools and I cannot be more grateful to the students and the families that spoke tonight and the program leaders that spoke tonight because those that's every single student is a story as you well know and it so part of what we do is we have qualitative data we have with site visits and and um and interviews we have quantitative data with alternative accountability framework and then we have contract compliance and those are really the three legs of our stool um with which we proceed with our and evaluate our contracts all of our providers so with regard to our metrics what happened is and I know Carla gay is here too who was instrumental in leading this work was we had an alternative accountability task framework task force and we looked nationally to say how do people measure alternative schools what happened is we looked at our national Partners in Chicago in Boston in New York in Denver in Los Angeles in a variety in Seattle in a variety of cities and we we modeled largely again I want to credit Carla gay um with her leadership um largely after Chicago Public Schools what we have done is create an alternative accountability framework which looks at with and this is the metrics in this and for folks in the audience it has a yellow sheet so we looked at how do we try start to measure Apples to Apples as far as skill growth so and that's and that's a process that we are in is we looked at what are the growth scores for map or the growth scores for cus with regard to reading and with regard to map we looked at what is credit attainment what is the process for credit attainment for our students and that's these are the measures that are on the alternative accountability framework both per school and for us as a system PPS alternative system part of what we have is we have um success and completion criteria so part of what is not accurate to say when people say oh they have allowed for your graduation rate when students in alternative education enter alternative education at an average age of 17 and a half and more than six credits behind that's really not the most relevant metric for us to use what's me what's the most relevant metric for even though you heard young people tonight say they really uh worked hard and and some of them did graduate in four years which is fantastic what the most relevant metric to use is for schools and this is what we're finding now nationally is for students who are within six credits for students who in the first year we did within eight credits for True
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seniors you can be in school five years and have 11 credits and still have 13 to go for True seniors how are our community- based alternative programs doing with true seniors so we looked at that's really when we look at graduation rate for then the second part is credit attainment then lastly we looked at attendance and School climate and school climate we're still working on but we're looking at retention in programs one of the reasons that the segmentation analysis is so important to us as a district is that the segmentation analysis talked about how many schools our students had been in prior to the their CBO the average as you see on the front of this page that says PPS alternative high schools the average number of schools prior to entering their current contracted Community Based alternative school is four four other high schools the average number of weeks out of school unenrolled from school is 11 so we are both a prevention from Dropout an intervention for kids that are struggling and a recovery a re-engagement it's the Continuum of prevention intervention and re-engagement and that's really what one of the things that we ask task our community- based alternative schools to do part of what we wonder and part of what I started to say was one of the real gems of the segmentation analysis was it identified that 91% of the students who had dropped out the previous year had come back and maintained in community- based alternative schools and so part of what we had and you heard some of the stories tonight is we have a number of students who struggle with social anxiety or we have a number of students who feel like because of their home situation or other barriers in the Life in their lives or their learning style it wasn't necessarily a right fit in their first high school that they went to part of what we realize is we have to have a Continuum of learning environments to meet the the various student needs that we have so part of what we looked at is how do we measure all of these things in a way that's relevant that gives real data so we can measure schools against one another so we can measure schools as a system so we can say it's fine that I'm bringing a child into this school who's a sophomore per se but is his or her skill growth happening it's not that just that we want everyone to graduate unless they are ready for postsecondary and I'll just say one more thing before I stop for a second is you will notice that we have GED on there and part of what we have GED is we have the measure the national measure of the new GED at 145 145 has been identified by the college board board as being College ready so if somebody passes the GED but they pass at a lower rate we don't count them in our metrics because what we want for our students is to be postsecondary ready so that was a lot and there's more but I can I comment sure thank you that was a really helpful explanation um so given that framework for the data that is available and again it's not complete for everything on our um list tonight um the data looks really very good in terms of the progress it's helpful the way that you the colorcoded uh growth measures thank you um so as looking through all of the alternative schools it looks really as a whole that they're doing a pretty good job I mean there are some places of growth needed of course absolutely but really in general um as I did spend some time going through every one of these so that's just my general reflection at this point Thank you and I just sorry could I just make a procedural point because I think there was we've um there are sort of two different buckets of contracts that have SE the same organizations and I just want to make sure that we're looking at those um separately so there is both the alternative education contracts um which are the the um the pieces that Karina's speaking to um and then there are another of a number of other contracts using in m in many cases the same organization so NAA Latino Network and open school all have um other contracts that are not part of that program but have different ones here family engagement and supports for for students okay and is the distinction you're making the first bucket was part of the RFP for which they were qualified considered qualified and the second one are just directly negotiated yes although there was an RFP done at an earlier moment for those and a bunch of that information on those family engagement contracts um and Duna and Linda are here could speak to those so I would want them to be the ones to do so but we have also provided a number of pieces of information and metrics on those contracts to the board at different points throughout this year at the request of director Rosen normally um but but those have been contracts that we've been looking at at a number of times so then that's why the
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information was not here so as I look at these the two for litho Network are not um Alternatives right exactly so that's one and the two SE exactly that's the distinction I just wanted to make sure you all have thank that's helpful to thank you yes uh I do miss wolf thank you so much I really appreciate it um very uncomfortable with what you said about comparing these schools one to another given that so many of them are dealing with students at different uh different levels and with different problems uh I wanted to ask though uh about the data that we are collecting is there a way to show if the school's performance is improving over time and do we have that uh are there ways that we work with these schools to try and improve the outcomes for for our students absolutely okay could you say some more about that please love to so when I thank you for um articulating your concern when I spoke of comparing cbos part of what I was speaking of is we often look at our community based and contract alternative schools as learning Labs so part of what we want to do is learn from one another we you are exactly right director Anthony we have different populations in the previous years we had specific Pro specific contracts with agencies who focus on homeless students we have a specific contract with um programs identify themselves differently as far as their student population we have some programs that work more with younger students and we have some programs that work more with older students so there are absolutely differences you're absolutely correct what we do is we meet monthly and actually in the new contracts one of the things that we have articulated and um Illustrated is that we want to create and be really specific about creating our professional development Network so I should um also say that kren plumo is the current CBO program director and she is out of town otherwise she would be here um but she one of her tasks in her role will be leading the professional development cycle with the community based alternative schools doing they've done like in the past year for example they've done instructional rounds they've looked and done different book studies they've gone and looked at different um at one another's schools to learn and share practice so there are absolutely ways that as a as a system and as a contracted alternative school system that um that this that the cbos work together we also include and invite our C cbos to our instructional leadership as well our cbos have actually LED some of our instructional leadership in the past so it's it's very much of a of a districtwide learning environment and that's the intention do you want yep Anna Paul I'm not sure that I understand guess I yeah it's hard to compare kids but as I mean our job is to educate them so there are certain things that we're going to look at which is achievement in Rion and Ma typically graduation rates GED completion I mean so it makes sense that those are the metrics that we see here um Let me let me ask Carla gay who was our contracted alternative schools program director for eight years and is now in charge of our reconnection services to articulate around this the growth Carla was again instrumental in developing our metrics good evening um thank you for having me um so when we created these this is this is the third year of this um report when we created it it was intended to be a pilot so it's really in a phase of trying to figure out what are the right metrics we brought together representatives from the state we brought together Workforce Development and we brought together many representatives from the alternative schools themselves as well as um our own research and evaluation folks and some f some other research folks um with whom we were Contracting at the time one of the things that we talked about is this that we do have a variety of students in these programs and the students enroll for varying lengths of time depending on what's going on so what we wanted to do was to figure out a minimum standard of what we would want for all students recognizing that students enroll for different lengths of time so the design of this and if you look at um this sheet right here with a yellow the third column it really describes the inclusion criteria and you'll see that at a minimum for student it's length of enrollment is a huge variable when you talk about skill growth for example so when you have a
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student who's homeless who's only doing a drop in they didn't actually get included in the denominator of this because we recognize that we wouldn't expect them to make skill growth if they were enrolled for fewer than 30 days because they're homeless and they're in transit but the whole group together was intended to show a big bigger picture of the organization and the school as a whole recognizing that not any one of the metrics can stand alone the other things that we acknowledged as a group was that um we were really kind of pioneers in this work and that there's a lot more to do to figure out how to accurately represent um students who have been out of school for an average of 11 weeks as you saw and who have struggled in a variety of things I'm involved um annually on a alternative accountability policy forum um and I'm on sit on as um one of the planners of that Forum um nationally to really think through with other statisticians and people who are concerned for student populations such as the students represented here um how do we think nobody's really we don't have a great answer but it's part of the process of trying to more accurately represent the work of these students and then finally I will say one of the acknowledgements was that we're actually asking a great deal from our contracted programs with regard to measurement that we do not ask of our comprehensive schools so when we ask for growth metrics around um academics we do not expect that of anybody else in our comprehensive high schools and I'm not suggesting one way or another but I'm saying we have a higher threshold of measuring quality for these programs arguably than we do other elsewhere and so we've got some real work to do as a system to talk about how we inform that how we also then learn academically from what's Happening that's going on really well in our comprehensive neighborhood high schools and how do we share that through our professional development opportunities with our Alternatives so I think what we know is that we need to have more of a Synergy between not to use an overuse term between everyone but that we also hold a thre high threshold of expectation for these programs thank you I have another sorry what quick comment uh two things that as as you're well first of all I think it's alarming that we're not being able to show you know the growth at all schools I we need good data to know what how we're doing and I our feedback and I think we do clarify we do annually it's not in a 45 day window so I should be clarifying of that the ways in which we measure growth are very different and then two things just to to think about because I if as I look at the population of the Learners in these schools you know often there are kids with that are on IEPs that are special education and English Learners so part of that accountability the metrics should have uh like uh percentage of uh growth one level or just looking at the growth of like English langage proficiency and then how about something of kids meeting IEP goals or I mean I think there's some thinking around how you're really inclusive and looking at all of the needs because we know that if they're not growing in their language proficiency English Learners it's really hard for their academics to grow so that would be something to tet for sure and I I when we did measurements prior to this um we had produced a packet of report about every program that really nobody read because the programs found it so deep and it would and it segregated it so part of the intention is we have a lot of data beneath this that we can disaggregate in a variety of ways way but this is really a cover sheet for every program so that it makes it something that you can actually look at and try to get your understand and it should good data should really help you ask more questions and that's really what it should do oh I wonder about if you dis agregate this data what that looks like that's really the intent is to get people to ask more questions now okay great Karina will you walk me through this um chart that's got the yellow on it um because I'm looking I I look across the metric that's what it's called right the description of what it is inclusion criteria that's who you're looking at right you're not going to do people outside of that and then the targets but where is what happened so is is the target what happened is that the no so the target is your numerator and your denominator is the inclusion criteria and then what happened is is on the back of this so this is really definitions this is not the data itself this just explains how we got to the data the data itself is the report and this is the two-page
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report card so for instance so so to use one example Pam so for instance in the top column when it says map scores three-point gain yes so that's our inclusion criteria so that's what Carla meant when she said that's the denominator that's right so then we're going to look at how many of our students in a school in or or alternative schoolwide met the inclusion criteria the target the target I'm sorry so if we look at that for skill growth with kasas 58% me or with map sorry 54% met that criteria so 54% of our students made three-o gains in the mapow you on the first one and this this one right here PPS alternative is that what it is yeah so every and actually part of why um we have that the metrics on every single after every single and I'm sure you sum through this and thought it here we go again with the criteria because I just want that's the context with which to read the graph yep do you want me to do it again no no I just need time to go through every one of them now okay got it I got it thank you very much so would you like me to just talk about the other pieces that are in the packet and just share with you what I've included would that be helpful okay all right so here is the alternative accountability framework both for the alternative school system and then for each school we have um there's just each of our schools in their contract one of the things we added um that's different than the than what you got from in your um a notice of the board meeting what was on the business agenda was how many student slots that was so for each School it'll say if people are curious how many how many student slots are as you can it's 85 $115 per student but how many students does that so we did the math for folks so for each school what that what does that equate to when we're when we're working with the schools that went through the RFP then I I think two important pieces of information are the Portland Public Schools four and fiveyear completion rate the graph the bar graph both for our high school graduation rate and for our completion rate it's at the very back it's at the very back thank you Pam so one of the things that I'll just say for context that we hear often is that how are our alternative schools helping or how how do our alternative schools add to the sum of our gain as a district and so so this is a measurement that our systems planning and performance colleagues identified that for every year since and they don't have the current year that we just finished so the last year we have is 1415 and that's the same for the alternative accountability framework because of course we also have students and summer Scholars and other things hopefully we get we'll get some more students across the across the line before the end of or August 5th summer Scholars ends so if we look at our um graduation rate for every year from 910 or from um from 1011 to 1415 students whose last school was a in a CBO raised those students completing raised our district graduation rate by two points Y in our four-year rate for those students for whom cbos was their last uh School enrollment or Dart or day Residential Treatment school which we have a handful of graduates but it's really predominantly predominantly our cbos it raises our 5-year rate by 3% and that's been consistent the last five years what's what's has more variation is our completion rate so if you look on the on the second sheet it varies over the last five years raising our high school our District's completion rate between I have to make sure I'm looking at the right form between 4% and anywhere to 12% so our completion rate includes our GED and our completion rate includes our modified diplomas but that's really the raw numbers of our schools matter alternative schools matter one of the things that we've been able to do and I can share with you that in the we're still pulling metrics for this school year um but we we have 300 as of today we have 310 completers this year over the last graduation and completions over the last three years we have 948 students and we're still Gathering our
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data and I'm I hesitate saying that because it's June but if people ask me does it matter it matters we have so what you see in the alternative accountability framework I'll just go back to that is for the last year that we had we had 183 seniors graduate with diplomas and we had 84 students graduate with the new GED so we had out of last year previous year 267 completers and that was I think we've added you know and I yeah okay and the overall completion rate so folks that pass the GED Carla just wonderfully pointed out in that bottom corner it says has 313 students so you went through an RFP process correct and there was a group that reviewed all of the applications can you just tell us I mean I would prefer not to come back I would prefer to be able to vote on these tonight can you give us information about what what you what that group looked at and what thresholds they held and those kinds of things that determined that these would all be excellent places for our students to be so part of what and um Carla can speak to this as well but part of what that group looked at was all of our metrics so it was people who it was organizations who bought into this is the accountability framework that we're using so if you want to come and have a contract with Portland Public Schools this is the framework from which we operate and as far as our contract compliance looking at the measures and the metrics within our contracts um and um and our site visits and our ongoing work so certainly as a at a minimum part of what we do is we meet statute so there's a variety of um guidance from OD and from State Statute that talks about private alternative schools and that was certainly articulated in the RFP as well as what we expect as a district want to say more specifics do you have more specifics so no I'm looking for I'm looking you for the specific okay so we have it we have what we have had for a long time which are deliverables that are that are required at the beginning of the year we have mid-year deliverables we have end year deliverables we have site visits we have an annual site visit and an annual um review of each school as is dictated by Statute and those are all included and when you're reviewing the RFP all the results from all of those as well they're public yeah one of the things that I would say is different about this time around is we did use the segmentation analysis to try to help us figure out the size and location of where we needed programs to be and um and we still have work to do but what I would say that the biggest shift is that we recognize that there's a that running a full High School is expensive and um to to have really tiny contracts and expect them to meet the same outcomes um as a large contract is is to director Anthony's point is really you start to say it's an apples to oranges situation so we set a minimum threshold for number of students with some variation based on the type of program but we really recognized that you you need to be able to hire enough qualified licensed staff to really teach the the minimum core content area and so we said that we wanted about 50 and give or take if you serve mostly special ed students or mostly elll students then that then that 50 could end up being a few smaller number of kids because you're paying at a greater greater rate but the total amount of slots should equate to enough dollars to really have to meet the expectations that the district has to run a school and if it's and if and if they can't if we don't have the ethical ability to pay them at a rate that they can run a school then we really need to rethink what kind of a contract is it but if it's a school based contract a private alternative school then that is then we had to really so I would say that was one of them the other thing that the segmentation analysis told us is what we already know which is our demographics for the student population are largely in um on the east side and outer Southeast and so how could we prioritize um programming that allows for to serve the student population where they live and I would just I would just add two
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things so just adding on what Carla said so we did specific to geography so one of the things you will see that came out of this that you that is before you tonight is you will see 70 more slots students to be served by Rosemary Anderson High School who has agreed to open and start working with our students in southeast Portland in direct alignment with what was requested in the RFP the other reason that I'll say that the guidelines that you'll see around this RFP complimentary and what complimenting what Carla just said is because one of the things that we've witnessed and you all have been part of this and witnessed this over the last few years is we've had three community- based alternative schools um right stop doing doing business and go out of business and part of what we want to do is then what we definitely don't want to do is have to work with kids midyear if there's schools closing like that's the worst case scenario and so what we did is build in assurances with regard to size and geography and a whole variety of things as best we could to predict otherwise well just just like the students who attend these schools are very unique so are the schools themselves and so what I'm really looking for from you and I think that you're making me feel pretty comfortable is that you have done a thorough review of each of these schools against metrics that we have um to determine that they're right for our students that they fit our unique group of students and I appreciate the variety of all uh Alternatives that we have because of that uniqueness of our students so um thank you very much for uh coming tonight I'm I'm comfortable now thank you P Paul u a couple of questions first of all do you have the disaggregated data on student demographics yeah so it you'll see it in the um High chart in the pie chart of every school we desegregate every school by race and we do it in the overall um as our alternative system as well okay uh the other question uh is a little more General I hate to pick on any one school but uh say Helen High School M it's a good example uh the data is for many of these why is so much data missing uh having asked that I do have to say the data that Helen's view has on School connections is very impressive given what uh the issues Helen's view is dealing with right but that's all there is so Helen so there are a few schools on the report card that are not contracted alternative schools and Helen's view is one of them they are through the mesd as such because they are run through the mesd how our instance of synergy works we cannot directly pull data from mesd run schools but we do have students there Helen's view opted into this um as it in a they have a completely different relationship with us but we said if you're going to have that relationship we really want data then they have a new principal this year who is working to get them onto Synergy so that we can pull the data and actually have them be aligned with everybody else but that would that's a his been a historical challenge of the two agencies really okay thank you that's helpful I was going to try and answer answer Julie's question and comment which I thought was a good one but for me the the difference in all of these situations is that one is contracted out and one is with inous I think we need to do a study not a not an audit not a scary thing where we're thinking they getting rid of people but we need to do a study to make sure that we're spending our money well for all these contracts now I reviewed contracts where we were paying people literally this is not the phony one that keeps coming up on Facebook it wasn't Ray Larry it was uh uh we were paying somebody to come into our school district $1,000 an hour to do a sixh hour PD and we were paying him $1,000 an hour we had another one where we were yes that's true I I'll send it to you it is absolutely true yeah and another one $677 an hour other one $500 an hour uh and and we have contracts all over the place we decide we're going to do a contract for this or a contract for this
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of which a lot of our cbos the community based organizations are under contract so if you take even look at those should we be doing all this Contracting how is it how does it work I think we need to study the whole thing and I'm willing to vote on these tonight yeah not because I think the perfect because I don't but I do think that they're kind of in this second budget cycle and we're going to do hopefully we will do in the next year we will do a budget that is built from the classroom out and one of the places you go out is into the cbos do we need them and we need to look at them and I don't mean datawise I I think the data is fine I don't have a big problem with it but we generally we have way way too much what we need to look at is what are we actually doing in those schools it's nice to look at outcomes but outcomes don't really tell you what you're doing it doesn't tell you about the children who came for or the older students who came forward tonight that we don't they they are a little blip but what are we actually doing are we doing a lot of that are we making what what is the difference for instance between Nia and our own Indian education uh uh Department we give a lot more money to naah than we give to our own Indian education department is that the proper balance maybe the balance should be 50/50 maybe it should be this or that we don't we haven't looked for so long and one of the reasons we haven't looked in my opinion is because if you try to look people kick you in the teeth and and it's I don't mind getting kicked in the teeth it's fine you know but if you try and look should not be a reason for anything other than let's take take a look and see what all this contract these contracts are and how do contracts work and look at the whole contractual thing not for the contracts I think the work that that uh Yousef has done and Paul Anthony and Mike Rosen looking at the contracts I think that's wonderful I look at the contract a contract and go yeah I can tell but we need to look at the whole all these contracts in how they fit into our system and are they necessary are they not and so I'm willing to vote for these with the caveat that we say we are going to look at all our contracts as a group and take a look so something like uh uh Nao yeah yeah that's good it's doing this good work we look at it we see it but our Indian education project I mean Indian education and doing this work what should be the balance we we look at that and we do that throughout and we don't look based on the data we look based on what they are doing and and making an assessment educationally which is a lot more important to me than the than the data uh in the end now the data is helpful and would be part of that study but it the study needs to go beyond the data like when you take a lot of these alternative programs and say oh gez you don't have your graduation rate up as high as well yeah of course not of course not these are totally different children who come with totally different backgrounds who come with totally different everything and so I think we should do that as a board in which case we would just commit to doing that in this next year putting together that that study and studying and come forward with a big summary and looking at all our contracts for instance those contracts I was mentioning are probably ones that come out of the the super I mean of the uh principal's uh consolidation budgets should we be contracting out out of the principal's Consolidated budgets for $1,000 an hour for people is that a good way to spend our money we need to look at that I I don't know how to do that I'd be willing to have the board make a you know I'd be glad to make a resolution or make a resolution that we bring to the board next meeting and and if there's board members who would support that type of a thing I'd be glad to do that sounds like it's a good place for the budget and operations um yeah but they don't have the time that this is a huge would be a huge study they wouldn't have time to just to do with that but they could do it through there right yeah that's what I mean okay so um anybody else sounds like thank thank you for absolutely thank you thank you answering those questions and your work do Kina can I ask you one question Steve brought up the n and the Indian education isn't Indian Indian education a federal program Federal correct totally not out of our general fund so Indian Indian education is a Fally funded program they actually just changed from f the feds just changed them from title seven actually now they're title six that's
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and one of the differences I would just say there are one of the differences I would say is with regard to what we brought before you tonight is NAA is a diplom high school diploma program and Indian education is not so there are some clear differences but it's not a total fed program we give them money correct for part of their program is our program and it's a different type of program but they but they both NAA theoretically even though they don't exactly serve uh Native American children from Confederate tribes I guess but our Indian education program being a federal fund does do that so how that money should be balanced out is really a pretty good question maybe we should be more here or there that's what I'm saying we need to look at right okay um I realize that there potentially some testimony that we forgot so uh on this business agenda item Susan do we have testimony I have a list of five okay our first two speakers would be Tom Dave zardan and Andrea Cruz that was very helpful thanks School Board directors and superintendent Smith thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the contracted Community Based organizations serving Portland Public Schools my name is Tom de jardan and I have been the executive director at Mount Scott Learning Center for the past 12 years uh prior to that I was the communications coordinator for Salem Kaiser public schools for nine years and also was the director of that District Charter High School for four years during these 25 years of working in public education and other 12 in the private sector I have become well aware of the need for Quality education options for students that for a variety of reasons have not been successful in a large Traditional School environment I want to thank Carl and Karina for painting the overall picture of our programs uh and providing some statistics but I think it's also important to talk again about the the students that we do serve our program serves students who compare to students in larger traditional schools are disproportionately older than the typical PPS high school student significantly behind in credits living in poverty impacted by mental health or abuse issues special education students on individual education plans in foster care or homeless involved in the juvenile justice system on average two to three years behind in reading and math impacted by drugs and alcohol students of color pregnant or parenting and living in single parent households all of these barriers and many more negatively affect these students ability to stay and succeed in school graduate from high school and be adequately prepared for Success After High School I think part of this was shared earlier 90% of the students CBO serve have been out of school at one point for 6 weeks or more before enrolling in a CBO program the CBO programs are recapturing these youth who had either dropped out of school we on the verge of dropping out the CBO programs are reconnecting these students to the school district and their education and setting them up for future success how do the CBO programs achieve this how do we achieve this we provide a flexible and responsible student centered model that many students and families need in order to stay engaged in school we provide personalized and different differentiated instruction to meet students where they are we fundraise a significant portion of our budgets and leverage a variety of resources and Community Partnerships in order to meet the high needs of our student populations we provide creative and Innovative strategies for inside and outside the classroom such as open School's highly successful stepup program Portland youth Builder Career Technical program Portland community colleges Gateway to College program and the CBO generated High School graduation initiative a five-year Federal grant that brought in millions of additional dollars to the district to support academic priority students we do all this and much more in close collaboration alignment partnership with the school district and the demand for our services continues to grow as many of our programs are already at capacity for this fall in closing on behalf of the contracted Community Based programs thank you for your support and your commitment to the students we serve together we are making a difference thank you hi I'm Andrea Cruz um I'm talking I'm for open Meadows or open School North they've just changed the name um
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my son went to PPS and after a long battle a lawsuit and still continued filled IEP instruction we actually ended up pulling Tanner out of Portland Public Schools his fourth and fifth grade year was that a loss had no idea what I was going to do with him and then I remembered that open was still around from even when I was a kid called him up got him enrolled the first year Tanner entered six grade at a third grade leing reading math and writing level Tanner pushed every day every button he could to get sent home never worked they never ever gave up on him by the end of his sixth grade year Tanner was up to sixth grade level three grade levels in one year because of this school and their staff and their dedication Tanner continued to just make amazing strides seventh grade jumping three more grade levels on his Reading Writing and math graduated from e8th grade unbelievable never thought that would happen Tanner starting his junior year at Roosevelt he is on the honor role he is a football player he wants to be engineer and go to Oregon state is that the Beavers yep so when it came time for my daughter to get into Middle School there was no choice it was open and I wouldn't have it any other way their programs are unbelievable I have seen Miracle after Miracle after Miracle not just with my kid but with with any many many children at that school it's an amazing school thank so much congratulations thank you up next we have Andrew Mason and Michael Navaro it's a good story thanks thank you all for your time and your dedication it's it's not the city's you know most favorite job at appreciate what you're doing uh Andrew Mason executive director with open school and I want to do a little bit of background to support um both what Andrea just told you about her experience with with open school but also Carl who came up and spoke here earlier and the only thing I want to say about Carl is that we've you know we got a goal of 40 4020 in this state that means 100% of our students are going to graduate that's our goal that means all of our students are going to grad graduate that means uh that means that Andrea's child is going to graduate and it means Carl who had an experience in a school where he felt no sense of belonging needs to graduate and we can't have a one-size fitall program and we know that but what does that ultimately mean when we're looking at a graduation rate of 72% and so our Focus as we all know in the cbos is to serve that other 25% Carl promoted from middle school this year and at that Middle School promotion as Oregon Springs are want to do stood up this was my thing but just hollered out on Lumbard and said I'm gay at a rainbow that he saw in the sky and it was a sense of safety and belonging that um that students need in order to be able to learn um and and exactly the kind of environments you need to be able to provide so that students can jump up and holler that out um and and I just want to say with you know we are your own schools you know we certainly view ourselves as being your own schools because these are your own students what do they look like 70% of the students at open School North were uh were in poverty by free and reduced lunch 50% of them were special education students do I need to repeat that 50% of them were special education students um 60% of them were students of color 24% are title 10 homeless or at risk of losing their home one quarter uh and 78% were deemed at risk of you know at high risk of dropping out that's this year's numbers and so the 14 15 numbers may be slightly different to compare to you know that by a couple of percentage points what does doing this kind of belonging for Carl and others do for us it gets us three three grade level increases um in our stepup program it gets us Innovations there where we've got a 94% graduation rate for cohorts at Roosevelt High School um and it allows us to leverage the PPS Investments by you know a dollar from PPS we leverage an additional 50 cents to be able to make these happen make these things happen small class sizes individualization and belonging gets academic results I think that um um so 93% of our students uh uh in the data I think you're looking at now from the years back were retained in school 88% of our students last year met or exceeded minimum gains on the on standardized
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tests and um students in our in open School North 86% of them uh passed uh passed their the average student passed 86% of their classes this is good for students who are coming in academically behind and it's why they get the kind of results in terms of the academic progress that they're making and I'd like to point out that of the 60% % of the students of color we have no academic achievement Gap there's no racial academic achievement Gap so I think that I'll just offer in closing that as I was walking down Lumbard today to go get a burrito on Lumbard a young woman came running out of a of a of a a dental clinic who was um riddled with uh methamphetamine when she came to open school 15 years ago I've I've only been there for 21 years but 15 years ago when she was there um riddled with methamphetamines and she's you know and and we worked with her and we ended up finding a job she's been six years uh clean and sober and working for dental clinics um and then one of our stepup grads is coming now and doing a master's program that we're doing in partnership with un University of Portland and so the point is not to have our students get smarter and leave the community the point is how are they coming back and investing and making it better for the next Generations that's what we're trying to do um and so I I I I hope that we can make a a not one siiz fits-all program thank you thanks thank you thank you hi uh Michael Laro the principal at open school north um I think a lot of the people here in the room and especially uh the kids and parents in the beginning really told a lot of the stories of what go on um at the cbos so I'm not going to I I think we have a great data great data and we have a lot of good stor out but what I'm really here to do is to invite every single one of you to come and visit every single one of the cbos there's lots of amazing things that happen there on a daily basis and um I am grateful to Karina and Carla for encapsulating all that in data but to really see it happen is something totally different I know that um I have my guest L here I have two of you who I visited and I'm I'm waiting for everybody else to come by and see us so that's yeah that's just all I wanted to say thank you thank you and lastly we have Joel s narrow all right good evening so good evening superintendent Smith and board my name is jel SOS and I'm the director of school-based programs at Latino Network and I want to start off by saying that we welcome the competitive RFP process and we welcome you know the accountability abilities and so I very much appreciated that discussion earlier uh I would like to begin by thanking you for your ongoing commitment to engaging students and families your commitment to our partnership as we work on improving students is also commendable and appreciated through our partnership we are able to work with students in grades 7 through 12 and their parents our programs for youth include after school programming academic case management College and Career preparation internship opportunity and service learning to name a few our parent engagement programs help parents learn how to navigate school systems track their students progress online support and Foster learning at home and communicate with their children's teachers thank you uh thanks to our partnership last year we graduated our first cohort of high school seniors and 93% of those seniors graduated on time and are enrolled in postsecondary education 100% of our middle school students had one or few one or fewer School absences last year and over 80% of our parents across our programs report being more involved in their children's education as a result of their part participation with us in closing we look forward to continuing continuing our partnership with uh PPS and hope that you will vote to renew the contracts that support this important work for students and families thank you thank you thank you very much M Mr SOS uh sir sorry thought I heard applausing so I just walked away oh uh wanted to ask very specifically about the services that are down on the contract for Roosevelt High School uh are those I believe in the past you've just been providing services for juniors and seniors at Roosevelt is that true and oh sorry in escal and uh is that still true for this coming year or are you able to expand those
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know sorry um he's new in his position so there were so I apologize that's the reason why I'm coming down my name is dun minu um I work in the office of equity and Partnerships and so um at this point yes for Roosevelt we are um looking at continuing the escalera program which is for 11th and 12th grade and then also a family engagement component so what I do know is that it's called early escal for the nth and 10th graders so yeah so we're going to do both oh you are oh oh very yeah thank you yeah much happier all right okay that's all thank you thank you very all right so we will now consider uh the business agenda which is the uh revised res resolution 5297 with four additional contracts highlighting yellow copy in the back as well um all those in favor indicate by saying I I I all opposed any extensions I'm abstaining thank you okay and so am I based upon the idea that I we didn't actually come up with uh are we going to look at this and look at all the contracts some sort of study until we do if we get that then I'd be glad to vote for these okay um and I'm an I so the uh vote passes four to zero with two extensions and I and student representative voting I okay um agenda business agenda approved next meeting the board will be held July 25th this meeting is

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)

2016-06-28 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

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Event 1: Board of Education - Regular Meeting - June 28, 2016

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