2017-10-24 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

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District Portland Public Schools
Date 2017-10-24
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Event 1: Regular Meeting of the Board of Education - October 24, 2017

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so I gambled in the regular meeting of the Board of Education for October 24th 2017 is called to order welcome to everyone present it's a sea of blue and green here tonight any item that will be voted on this evening has been posted as required by state law this meeting is being televised live and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the board website for replay times this meeting is also being streamed live on PBS TV services director anthony is traveling but he's here with us by phone this evening as a reminder we now have our PBS Ombudsman Judy Martin attending all regular board meetings specifically Judy will be here to listen to the public comments and if appropriate provide additional support to families who need or want it Judy can be reached at five oh three nine one six thirty forty five or Ombudsman at PBS net we also have interpreters with us this evening and I like to ask them to come forward at this time introduce themselves in the language they will be interpreting and inform the audience where they will be located in auditorium should someone need their assistance Samiha so Christina euros KP reward system owners diet is provocative emotion item in a time that you've carried away when I started Miami Lucia soul inside per day in espanol see mr. Seton waste our condo control operating status geography definitely can come live a little bit lambs in could be wearing so go to sink I'm angry thank you so to start off tonight's meeting I'd like to announce that Nancy bond a longtime PPS employee the resource conservation program manager was awarded the intertwine alliance Lifetime Achievement Award on October 18th and I'd like to ask Nancy and Jerry Vincent to come forward this award has you're coming forward this award honors an individual who's made significant contributions to the legacy of this movement in our region through leadership vision and partnership building the award criteria has more than 10 years involvement in completing major projects in the intertwine region has had a significant impact on communities within the region helping to make them healthier and more sustainable consistency of effort over time impact on multiple organizations and people and displays an innovative collaborative approach to achieving goals congratulations good evening board members and community many people know who Nancy bond is in this community I'm really excited to be here to talk about Nancy so Nancy is our one of the bright spots and what we do here I want to come back to a future board meeting is tell you about our sustainability program and all that we do and a lot of that's due to Nancy she's a resource conservation coordinator or our sustainability coordinator she's been with us 18 years on the district Nancy is in charge of the greening of our school yards that's everything from gardens to stormwater to D pave to planting trees natural nature play equipment and just for fun she oversees our entire trash and recycling contract for the whole district and that ties into our community care day she oversees alternative energy which is our small scale solar projects that we roll out and Nancy oversees we are an AmeriCorps sponsor we have Sammy Springs with us and the audience from AmeriCorps and Nancy is mentoring her and has been for two years now and she's part Nancy as part of Sammy as part of our emerging professionals through American core just can't say enough about the effort from Nancy and it's actually getting to know her and knowing what she does of what we do with this community in this district is what led me to create a new department separate from facilities called sustainability and compliance so we can take sustainability in Portland Public Schools to the next level so without further ado Nancy bond
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thank you very much I'm really deeply honored to be here I love this work I have been so privileged to have the opportunity to do this work for 18 years this is my right work even through all the changes that I've experienced here under under 10 superintendents welcome it's a nice round number don't you think so it's it really has been my privilege to have the support of the district in doing this work and it's been my pleasure to work with the community and to make our schools a little bit more sustainable both in practice and in place thank you Thank You Nancy and congratulations we're very proud of your work and honored that you've stayed with us for eighteen years and hopefully that's the last ten is the last number now I'd like to ask director Moore to we have got an election coming up I'd like to director Moore to speak briefly about the PCC bond renewal I have a statement of supports that I'm going to ask my colleagues on the board too to support tonight here is the statement the Portland School Board urges voters to renew the Portland Community College capital bond metric measure this bond would maintain the current tax rate and produce up to a hundred and eighty-five million dollars to support the modernization of classrooms safety security and a DA accessibility and the expansion of high demand offerings in the Health Professions in workforce training programs for more than 75,000 students per year Portland demonstrated its strong support for public education by passing PBS's bond in May and we urge voters to continue that investment in our collective future by supporting PCC now you should already have received your ballots please remember to vote by November 7th that's the statement and do you have a formal vote but I think people should indicate if they're supportive of the the board indicating its support for this and if anybody wants to have any comments I've already voted yes thank you for Olivo dolphin thanks Rita I support it this is one of our most important partnerships as a district we have embedded programming and most of our high schools through dual credit options and and try to connect our own CTE programming with that of PCC so what's good for them it's good for us and vice versa and I support it too I will convey that to the PCC campaign and hopefully Portland will show its real commitment I mean Portland has consistently shown tremendous support for education and I hope the trend continues thanks so um before we get to the student and public comments we have a brief announcements about the an update on the independent investigation into issues involving the former employee Mitch Whitehurst and any change in the changes that PBS might make to its policies and practices and procedures the investigation is ongoing and we wanted to remind the community there's two ways they can provide information to the investigators first there's an email Whitehurst investigation that stole calm and that's stole as sto e l comm and that remains available for anyone who has relevant information they want to share with investigators second the confidential phone line has been set up the number is 503 972 1580 the phone line does not track caller ID and therefore allows individuals to remain anonymous if they choose not to leave their contact information the line immediately goes to a voicemail the investigators would like to hear from anyone with relevant information regarding the allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by Mitch Whitehurst while the information line and email are available to the general public then
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negations confidential info line and email are intended to gather evidence from the following groups former and student former and current students class of 1983 to 2017 who've witnessed ok 2017 who witnessed or been subject to sexual conduct or abuse by Mitch writers former current PB s employees who may have witnessed or have been informed about any alleged sexual conduct or abuse by Whitehurst's former and current PPS employees who have knowledge of how PB s responded or didn't respond to reports of the alleged conduct former and current PB s families employees who have first-hand experience with PBS's complaint reporting process for staff student sexual conduct meaning they have tried to report sexual conduct to PPS who want to discuss ways to improve that process and last anyone else in the community of first-hand knowledge of any inappropriate conduct by Mitch Whitehurst involving a PPS student or first-hand knowledge of the PPS employee not responding appropriately after becoming aware of the conduct so we appreciate the community's assistance to date and those are just two additional ways in which people can directly contact the investigators so with that we are going to move into public student and public comment before we begin the public comment period I'd like to review our guidelines for public comment the board thanks the community for taking the time to attend this meeting and provide your comments to the board we value public input as it informs our work and we look forward to hearing your thoughts reflections and concerns our responsibility as a board is to actively listen with our electronic devices turned off board members will not respond to comments or questions during board comment but our board office will follow up on issues raised during public testimony guidelines for public input emphasize respect and consideration for others complaints about individual employees should be directed to the superintendent's office as a personnel matter people tonight will have a total of three minutes to share your comments please begin by stating your name and spelling your last name for the record during the first two minutes of testimony a green light will appear when you have one minute remaining a yellow light will go on and when your time is up the red light will go on and a buzzer will we respectfully ask that you conclude your comments at that time we appreciate your input and thank you for your cooperation miss Hewson I know we have some people signed up for a public comment can you serve all the individuals starting with students we have a Boatner and Phoebe Perez okay my name is Aidan Boehner boa TN e AR I'm a fourth grader to access Academy Thank You superintendent board members for coming to learn about my school I really love my school it is a very different experience I've compared it to my old school and no one is mean no one makes fun of me and I can work with my friends in class unlike my old school we are all very different but at the same time we're all very similar I want to tell you three things before this important vote number one please keep access as a part of your plan without a clear plan at home I'm worried and I know my parents are super worried too number two please keep access together I play card games with middle schoolers and I'm looking forward to taking middle school math next year please keep access available for more kids I was wait-listed for two years ever since my kindergarten teacher suggested for me to come to access I wish I could have started before having bad experiences at school and I felt bad about myself I hope no other kids have to go through what I did thank you for listening and thank you for making a good decision about our successful program thank you [Applause] my name is Phoebe Perez PE are easy and at my old school I had a lot of troubles and right before I came to access I had just gotten taken out of an abusive school that only cared about obedience during the summer I thought I was gonna get homeschooled because I didn't really have any other options but then one week
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before school started when I got into access I was so happy I'd never been so excited to go to school so I learned so much at access things about myself too and I hope other kids get the same experience so we need a bigger building so they can have that experience of access gets separated it might ruin some of these kids futures including mine because I probably have to get homeschooled because I can't handle that kind of environment so please keep access together thank you next we have Leila Connolly and Francisca Alvarez hello my name is Amelia cutter Marty KO ta mi RTI and I'm speaking on behalf of Leila Connelly co n le why because she could not be here tonight so I'm an eighth grader at access and I can speak from experience access has I've seen a huge transformation in myself in tons of my peers and in people in grades below me and I would like to thank the school board and the superintendent from the bottom of my heart for keeping access together and giving us another chance but in order to have that chance we first need to have a home where we can learn and I I'm going to be graduating next year but for my other peers in the lower grades and for students who aren't to access yet but still need it I can speak for them and saying that they need a home as well and we need a place where we can grow so that as many kids as possible can access this program thank you there's no choice yo soy Francisca al what is ALV AR easy and I'm I teach second grade in dual language program in Spanish at scat school I also referred to as a tli Ascari's as a focus school serving a diverse community this is my 11th year within my teaching career I have taught for six years in English only and this is my fifth year teaching in the DLI program I am here today to represent my colleagues teaching in any of the DIY programs and PPS I'm going to share concrete examples of the inequities my students and I encounter in a daily basis I teach second grade following the 90/10 model which means that 70% of my day is conducted in Spanish in three percent in English I teach literacy math in writing in Spanish literacy this is the only curriculum provided in Spanish however math other teacher guides math supplements are provided to me in English this means that I have to translate every lesson into a Spanish before I can teach it to my students if you are a monolingual teacher you do not have a clue about how time consuming it is to translate math vocabulary in concepts into another language on a daily basis for example for example not to work places the students worksheet are already translated however the materials and instructions for the workplaces are not where is the equity for my students here many of my students are the ones who have been historically underserved to provide some equity I have to literally cut in pace the game labels in game ports these are only a couple of examples for you to notice there are ten sessions of workplaces in six centers for each session writing the same ordeal is followed with a writing binder provided by the district the lessons are written in English and I have to translate each lesson create anchor charts in fine mentor books to make it accessible for my students math and writing are two examples of work love inequalities among a monolingual teacher in Adelaide teacher I can continue on for many hours with concrete examples of the work I have to do in a daily basis because I am part of the DLI program I have to translate her in parent-teacher conferences letters to send home and programs adopted by the school such as parks champs or avid or any other program they decide to adopt the mission of the DLI program is to close the
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opportunity gap for historically underserved students I can testify to this mission because I have witnessed the change in my students now in the DLI program compared to those I taught in a monolingual setting but at this price my back aches every night due to the additional workload I have to endure to meet the needs of my students I invite you all to come to in spend time at our classroom because as Dolores Huerta says to understand the problems of a community you must become a member of that community [Applause] next we have Sarah Brown and Greg Burrell hi my name is Sarah Brown Brown like the color BR o WN I'm our teacher at Ainsworth and Maplewood elementary schools I'm a second year teacher and I split my time between two schools to remain tane full-time employment with PBS I'd like to share the realities of my workload to help the Board understand the urgency for a contract that provides teachers what we need to best serve the growing population of PBS students teachers spend their career celebrating the unique identities of each young learner and forming strong bonds with students to give them the best opportunities to learn and succeed we are here as teachers for a second year fighting for a contract that gives us time an appropriate caseload - 10 - the vast needs of the students in our chart between the two schools where I teach I reach 1018 students I know deeply those part of me I know as deeply as possible those 1018 branes 1018 personalities and 1018 innovative thinkers learners and artists over an 8 day period I teach every student in two schools I'm not the only one I smile at every one of them as they make discoveries about the world of art and visual communication we spend forty meager minutes together each visit and I'm somehow expected to know each student their struggles their talents their IEP and 504 accommodations their language proficiencies and learning styles not to mention their personal traumas their intricate family structures and the things that they deal with when they're not in school I have 1,018 barometers that measure how successful I am as a teacher is this justified PBS needs to be a school district that shows that it values and supports the learning styles of all students and that provides funding and access to the arts and PE for all students regardless of if one school were funded enough to hire me as a full-time art teacher I could work with my colleagues to support the variety of student needs and be really proud of that work we could ensure that each and every student is relating to the content and finding success in learning I am surely not the only teacher with a workload this large and I implore the board to please think about the impact of this on both teachers and their students and to help us secure a contract that will support good teaching and learning I have 1018 children this year they are your children Portland and I hope this community and the board realizes that teachers working conditions are your children's learning conditions good evening my name is Greg Burrell that's URR I ll superintendent guerrero board directors PPS employees ladies and gentlemen whether here or in person watching thank you for all that you do for our children I've been addressing this board for several years watching as budget cuts and poor decisions decimate our students education school budgets have been cut in every biennium for 27 years and the cuts that happened during the Great Recession went deeper than the bone students who started kindergarten in the 2009-10 school year our seventh graders and the seventh graders I'm teaching this year as a substitute are different
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than subsidence seventh graders of the past and not necessarily in a good way I've been reminding angry stakeholders that we need forgiveness even as actions by the board and PPS management have further eroded trust and created chaos at buildings around the district I canvassed for the passage of measure 97 knowing that if it failed we would be unable to provide legally mandated services to many students we fail to support kids with special needs daily and break laws about the provision of mandated services we have kindergarten classes with over 25 students often containing students who have been mainstreamed an IDI favored by the way but having students with academic or behavioral challenges and inadequate power educate educators support in over filled classrooms is unconscionable after years of championing what is best for students helping teachers fight for better learning conditions for our students helping Oregon legislators understand what we endure in our schools and testifying against some of the worst decisions I've heard come from the top down I'm as discouraged as I've ever been in the 80s PBS was one of the leading public school systems in the nation districts across the country bought our curricula we we used a standardized test that we created to test what we were going to teach we gave it at the beginning of the year and again at the end of the year in three minutes I can't tell you much of the story about where all this outstanding accomplishment has gone but superintendent Guerrero I I ask you to make the best decisions that you can to use our inadequate resources to provide the best education our children can get [Applause] Thank You members the public who testified and our teachers here now I always like doing this announcement because it's one that gets a lot of applause I'd like to invite Susanne CO and president mr. guaranteed applause line hello good evening thank you for the time on the agenda this evening I am I'm here representing about 4,500 educators in Portland Public Schools and and I think I speak for all our members when I say the dysfunction in PBS has gone on long enough we are filled with hope we have new leadership on the board in central office and our hope leads us to believe that we will be able to get PPS back on track but if you want to fix the very real problems in our district you need to start listening to the frontline educators we're in the classrooms every day making sure that PBS students get the education they deserve and you need to trust our professional judgment and you need to support us your old chair Prem Edwards and superintendant Guerrero is to make sure that we have the tools the trainings the time we need to teach our students we have not felt this support this year and it's not just because we're starting our second school year without a contractor well into our second school year without a contract a one symptom of this district dysfunction is the enormous disconnect between what district officials tell you is happening in PPS and what we see every day in our building and and so sometimes it feels like we're talking about two entirely different school districts and this is incredibly demoralizing for us as educators and it's a real barrier to helping our students succeed so tonight I'm going to encourage you to put away the rose-colored glasses that you've been given and listen to a few examples of
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the problems that are affecting educators every day and I want you to understand the urgency that we are feeling and I hope that you can start seeing the realities that were actually facing in the buildings we started this school year with cuts with larger class sizes less administrative support and with more work expected from each educator but instead of acknowledging this and stepping in to resolve these issues we've been met with denial that the problem even exists Oregon has the nation's third worst class sizes but we are told that we can't talk about class size why I've heard some argue that Portland is better than other districts in the state let's be honest being the best amongst the worst isn't a badge of honor it's really just an excuse to deny the reality of what's happening to our working conditions and our students learning conditions as a middle school math teacher I warned my students that averages can be very deceiving and so I want to stress to you also to look at more than just average class sizes because when you dig a little deeper you'll start seeing the discrepancies and inequities that exist across the district some problems stem from putting too many different programs in one building and others stem from overloading certain educators an example of this is a PE teacher at Peninsula who spoke to district leadership two weeks ago about teaching two classes at the same time in one period that's over fifty first graders in one PE class now does that really count is offering PE when you're given a document on paper that a school has an art program what do you picture does it do you can you imagine anything like the reality that Sarah just described where she's splitting her time between two schools and struggling to get to know more than a thousand students we speak in PBS about every student by name and how can you have a saying like that when there isn't even support for a classroom teacher to know every student by name isn't that the kind of quality is that really the kind of quality student engagement we're trying to foster in this district and as Francisca described so vividly our two language instructors need curriculum in the language they're teaching and when the district doesn't provide it they've been filling in the gaps translating materials as well as instructing their students now we've been advocating for workload relief for our dual language instructors but instead of listening respecting and supporting them the messages they have everything they need your educators are telling you that they do not have the curriculum they need and that's a problem that you have the power to fix but not if you're busy denying that it exists [Applause] so we want to know when will the district stop ignoring problems and pretending they don't exist special education is another area where the district continues to ignore serious ongoing problems special educators have been telling you that their caseloads are too high they do not have the support from you that they need to serve our most vulnerable students whether it's additional parent educators to provide critical one-on-one attention or more time to work through their extreme case loads but overloading one special education educator in a school has a ripple effect throughout the entire building when a classroom teacher with the shortage of special education support has a student with unmet needs other resource people if your building is even fortunate enough to have them get pulled away from their own duties of their caseloads so a building so we have counselors being pulled from counseling to work with you know a couple of students all of the time and so then what happens is all the other students that need counseling have unmet needs that then escalate we have reading specialists that can deliver targeted instruction to our students that are that are most at risk for not reading and yet they get pulled to work with just a few students and then those students that need the reading instruction aren't getting it and even our principals are getting pulled to spend their time with just a few students with a most urgent special education needs these unorganized systems create a real conflict for resources and and the result is a negative impact on our students and finally I want to talk a little bit more about middle schools because you're voting tonight to open to middle schools and as a middle school teacher I am excited to talk about what we can do to
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support students at this critical point in their education but tonight is you discuss how we're gonna support students headed to Tubman arose way heights I want to ask you about what you've learned for our recent experiences opening Oakley because let me tell you a few things that I've heard from the educators who have been working so hard to make sure that aqua green succeeds for starters it's clear that any new middle school should start by building a schedule that works for all its students and staff and then we also need to ensure reasonable class sizes across all the programs in the building not not end up in a situation where some classes have 17 students and others have 36 and we need to allocate planning time for the whole staff so they can get to know each other and build the systems so necessary to making a school run smoothly and most most critically you cannot keep adding all these nice-to-haves while you're cutting all we have two halves we owe it to the Tubman and Rose Way Heights communities to make sure that these new middle schools succeed but we also owe it to the aqua green community to give them the same level of support so ugly green sea can succeed as well [Applause] I really do want to thank you for all the work that each of you are doing on the school board and for all your service to our Portland students but let me close by reminding you what our bargaining chair Steve Lancaster's said that our patience is is expired as our contract the hate of you the eight of you Polly Anthony on the phone have the ability to solve these problems we face in our classrooms and to settle a fair contract with these city's educators and we're asking you to lead the way thank you very much [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yeah so I'm just going to move on to the next agenda item it's just an update we have a it's an update on the public records policy we have been working for the last several months to update and revise our policy to provide greater transparency to our public business the district has sent out an initial draft policy by email to all stakeholders including the public who have requested it and all of our labor organizations a number of weeks ago and it's been posted on the district website for review and comments since September 25th the board has received and considered feedback that needs to be reviewed by legal and staff advisors and the board task force board task force and potentially incorporated
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we're gonna bring this once that's done we'll bring this policy back for further review and public discussion before voting on a final policy the board remains committed to an efforts to improve transparency in this operations and provide accurate accounting of how the district carries out the public business so the next agenda item is one that I'm really excited about for the last well for over a year planning has been underway to open new middle schools and really fulfill the commitment that the district has made to students in many neighborhoods who haven't had a equitable middle school experience and so we had a staff proposal that was brought brought forth and we've had many weeks of listening sessions public hearings and work sessions and I'm gonna ask in a moment for the superintendent to provide the overview but I before we do that I just want to acknowledge all the staff work that's gone into this not just this particular the last couple months but I know works happened over the last year so thanks to the the staff for everything you've done and with that I'd like to ask superintendent guerreiro to tee up the discussion for the resolution Thank You chair brim Edwards and good evening directors and good evening members of the community both those that are watching and those that have turned out this evening we have a very important main topic on tonight's agenda it's been a long time coming and the board is aiming to take dirac take a direct action on a portland public school commitment to providing an equitable education to more middle grade students particularly those in historically underserved communities this is this is a landmark occasion for a number of reasons it's a big step forward for Portland Public Schools and our effort to improve student achievement and outcomes and even though I've only been on the job for a few weeks I know that this and I understand that there's a great deal of history and that there's a journey that has come with this effort to get to this place a key objective of making sure that we're ensuring that students during their middle grades experience that we afford them the most comprehensive enriched middle grades experiences as possible and I too want to recognize a lot of incredible work that has gone into this not just from from our staff who've been involved deep RAK community members and leaders our school leaders principals and many folks that have come before us who initiated this conversation who understood that we haven't yet realized our fullest potential for our students especially in these in these middle grades I want to congratulate the board in advance for staying with it and and being dedicated to seeing this initiative through you haven't yet completed your first hundred days either so I think it would be a great feather in your hat and I know hasn't been easy to try to arrive at understanding all of the intricacies and the details that come with wanting to open a couple of comprehensive middle schools and it's and it's it's a good thing to know that there's been a real effort to try to understand all the facets that come with a resolution like this and more importantly the the political will that it takes to take this courageous act forward so what are we considering tonight tonight being considered as a resolution that calls for opening to middle schools when it rose way heights the other at Harriet Tubman it sets feeder schools and their associated boundary changes the caught up in this effort is in an effort to also try to bring some balance to the enrollment at a variety of campuses all of this has come after much board discussion and many hosted community sessions part of the process in designating two comprehensive schools means that there are some some programs and some school communities that get displaced in that effort so this resolution calls for also making sure that we identify a home for the Addams and I do see the sign there it calls for finding the access Academy a bridge or a permanent facility ideally or facilities for the Academy because we know it would need to relocate in order to open Rose City Park as a neighborhood
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school which is a crucial component of opening Rose way heights as a middle school and we're doubling down our efforts to find a home for the access Academy I know that there's been an initial meeting with staff I apologize for not being able to be present this past week but I can ensure you that we have doubled down our efforts this week in fact was up at sunrise today joining staff inspecting facilities I am optimistic that after we exhaust every option to find a suitable location that hopefully avoids the need to split the community to house to house the access Academy to continue doing what it does and continue to grow and build and provide the kind of experience that we heard our students again tonight so eloquently Express separately though not unrelated the resolution also includes language that affirms our commitment to identifying and providing program supports and services to all gifted and talented students and that we start the journey of actually beginning to implement many good ideas and roadmaps that have already started to be developed harriet tubman this resolution also calls for a comprehensive health and safety assessment of Harriet Tubman has asked us to take all reasonable measures to test for things like LED radon asbestos and any other hazardous materials that may be a cause for concern for for our students any student that includes indoor and outdoor air quality tests board members I believe are proposing this evening that we make the commitment to completing those health and safety assessments especially after hearing those concerns and questions from community members about the location and condition of the site area Tubman the district staff is can is equally concerned and want to make sure and I a superintendent that we take all necessary and appropriate action that we complete all tests and assessments necessary to ensure that it is a health healthy and safe facility for for any students and the staff that work in them we're gonna look to expedite that analysis and that could take a little while that could take us several months in fact and that could delay the opening of Harriet Tubman if it were to be the site of a middle school so out of an abundance of caution we're gonna be asking for an amendment in the resolution that would allow the district to continue on a plan be an alternative site for a middle school that serves the Albina neighborhood if it gets to the point where that is a necessary thing we understand that this place is a degree of uncertainty in the middle school implementation plan and I think it's also important that we realistic realistically plan for all possibilities as best we can I look forward to tonight's discussion vote into any questions that our directors may have staff is here again tonight to answer questions and provide details but again the bigger picture here tonight is that our Board of Directors is deliberating a pretty bold resolution one that affirms and ensures that many more of our students will have that access to a comprehensive experience in the middle grades which at its root is a fundamental question of equity so we look forward to tonight's discussion Thank You superintendent Guerrero um so tonight's gonna be because this is a big complex issue as we've found the process by which we're going to have our discussion tonight so in a moment I'll ask for a motion to bring the resolution forward I thought it's worth just describing how we're going to move ahead this evening so on October 14th we had the final version of the staff report the proposal for Harriet Tubman and Rosa way Heights middle schools clusters released and presented by the staff we've had multiple community meetings last board meeting we had a lengthy discussion by board members that essentially was a discussion about the draft resolution which would have implemented the staff report we also identified issues that were of concern that had been raised during the process that weren't yet in the resolution and we had a discussion at those board meeting at the board meeting about those issues whether it was access or the Supplemental resources for under enrolled K eights Vernon the Harriet
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Tubman environmental assessment and there was board agreement at last at the at the work session to add those to the resolutions so the resolution we have before us tonight which is resolution 55:28 is the compilation of that the the staff report with the additional issues that were identified at the last board meeting so tonight we've got a the resolution in front of us we also are going to there have been identified a number of issues that there's some further amendments and so after we bring the resolution forward for discussion will ask individual board members that have prepared amendments and I believe they've all been posted is that correct yes they've and they've all been posted so there's a number of amendments on lined all the ones that have been posted aren't necessarily going to be offered so I just often offer that so most of them should but I think there's one or I think there's one that's not going to be actually proposed so that's going to be the process that we'll work through each of the individual amendments vote on them and then we'll complete our discussion about the underlying resolution and have a vote and I think at the beginning I guess I asked the board is there a preference to have the public comment at the beginning or the and after our discussion let's do it at the beginning so the beginning will have the public comments so since we're acting on this resolution tonight also there's an opportunity for public comment any time the board is voting on something so with that I'd like to ask for a motion so moved director Bailey moves resolution 5528 and director comm stem seconds the motion miss Hewson can you ask for individuals who have signed up to have a comment yes we have drew McGee and Bryan to hi my name is Brian shoot this thing on okay who was harriet tubman middle school really opening up for the school to Prison Pipeline no longer exists it has shape shifted into the school and prison Nexus where prisons and schools mirror each other both hungry for black and brown bodies it gets him young and swallows them whole meanwhile school board members administrators parents teachers and well intentioned people of all colors under the Sun claim that equity is a priority and that they want it for all PBS do not believe what you say because we see what you do and we see what you have done and we're not at peace with your processes in fact we are disappointed unimpressed but definitely not surprised is it really so difficult to give people what they need when they need it James Baldwin says history is not the past it is the present we carry our history with us we are our history if we pretend otherwise we literally are criminals PBS reproduced as a culture of apathy and indifference under the umbrella of equity that in reality facilitates state sanctioned violence against black and brown people black and brown kids remain unrecognized for their genius because the AP ib SAT the talented and gifted tests are known to be racially biased this is violence black brown kids are so over-represented in remedial ll and special education classes this is violence high-stakes standardized testing target schools and low-income communities of color for sanctions and interventions while middle and upper income communities fear an embarrassing drop in their state report card this is violence so called equity practices brought into PBS in order to close the racial achievement gap the very same races high-stakes standardized tests created the racial achievement gap and resort design so the gap would never be closed this is violence the PPS key priority to reduce out of school discipline for all students by 50% and reduce the disparity of suspensions and expulsions between white students and students of color by 50% was being achieved by sending students home without actually suspending them and by sending them back into classrooms with no accountability this is violence when the snapshot becomes a big picture and we choose to invest in proficiency instead of highly proficient human beings then we know this white supremacist system is doing exactly what it was exactly what it's designed to do this is violence are we assimilationists or anti-racists do you want to perpetuate violence and put an end to it do we intend on making history or
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repeating it is it really so difficult for PBS to understand that the most historically underserved and marginalized communities are the ones you work with first these are the questions we as individuals must ask ourselves and let's not forget that PBS is a system comprised of individuals all of which much answered the questions put forth and breathe life into the words we say when Harriet Tubman middle school opens in the future or in the fall will it be revolutionary reality pedagogy professor dr. Christopher emdin says in the world of Education words like revolution get thrown around and revolution oftentimes means change but if you think about revolution mathematically if I stood here and I made a complete revolution I'd end up exactly where I started if we are honest with each other if we're consistent if we're willing to commit to one another and then we can change the paradigm and create a way more beautiful world for our children and for us if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together well PBS become a beacon for racial equity or a tiki torch for white supremacy only time in - only time in Tubman will tell black schools matter thank you [Applause] next we have Taisha Smith and Tatiana turtle thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak I think we can all safely come to the agreement that the middle schools need to open as soon as possible however the proposal that you currently have isn't really just about opening a middle school the previous superintendent thought she could fix too many things all at once and perhaps that's why she's no longer here I believe the reason this has taken so many years is because there are too many knots in this plan are you opening a middle school are you trying to figure out how to balance equity in under enrollment are you fixing boundaries or are you solving racial inequity because at this point it's incredibly convoluted and hard to tell what your end goal is our group of parents had to canvass an area and knock door-to-door to realize that this big five to ten year long awaited plan of solving underserved children and making things equitable all panned out to only include forty children and about five per year that we're going to the new middle school and maybe three to five that will be entering kindergarten no offense but if this is the best that your team of staff and analysts have been able to come up with after this long process is to move 40 kids from fifteen blocks to a school further away that I hope they weren't charging you hourly if your goal is to open to middle schools then congratulations the finish line is in sight tonight however if you plan on solving racial inequity imbalance student enrollment then I strongly urge you to wait and create an entire Eastside plan you have two schools you have two schools in the same neighborhood on the same street with the exact same focus option both have struggling neighborhood programs does anyone else here not think it's a good idea to take a closer look at those maybe it's time to move the underserved Scot children down the street and give access that building thank you about the fact that there are 40 children who currently been allowed to leave their neighborhood school to attend Rose Way Heights and now instead of requiring those children go back to Scott you instead decide to pull 40 children from their cohorts does that even make sense I'm for equity and I'm providing solutions to these problems and I'm also for finding a way of addressing this in a comprehensive plan so that's it thank you hi my name is Tatiana Toor dhall ter da l I'm a parent of two children with special needs at access Academy I implore the board to delay the vote on the boundaries until there is a location for access where we can stay home like most kids at access my kids came to access from neighborhood schools and we applied to access for three years in a row to get a spot because we saw that once in kindergarten that things were not going well and the school saw the things were not going well and they strongly supported our application to access we tried the school tried but at the end it just did not work out to the point that we had to leave school at spring break we could not even finish the year we basically left ApS left our neighborhood school and just registered as home schoolers so it's perfectly understandable that a neighborhood
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school that has limited resources that is overcrowded will be spending all its resources on 99% of its kids and the outliers I just fall through the cracks so what happens with those kids who fall through the cracks well many of those kids home at access just like my kids and suddenly from being Outsiders from being just after thoughts they're the focus of attention suddenly their resources for them suddenly they are typical our typical kids and that makes a whole bunch of difference you know for us as parents finding a home a community makes a big difference and for the kids it makes a huge difference so I want to implore you to give us more time because I feel like our kids fell through the cracks in neighborhood schools and I think access as a community fell through the cracks during planning process because we draw kids from 90 percent maybe first you know if you have a kid there get there get there you don't see as much impact as if it was 300 kids from one neighborhood but it's a lot of kids they need resources they need attention they need this whole program thank you I see it so I'll give you a visual I saw kids smash a pumpkin recently and I can tell you they took this beautiful pumpkin so nice and whole and they started smashing it and pieces just flew everywhere and there was a big mess and then when I saw the proposal to dissolve access I just thought about the pumpkin and guess who had to clean up the mess and it was not fun so I really please implore you to keep our program whole because you don't want a huge mess we already lived through that in neighborhood schools thank you [Applause] okay that's our public comment so I think what I'd like to do first is bringing the have the amendments presented and then we'll have the resolution with the amendments and then we can have a discussion about the resolution as its amended so with that there are amendments the board and the first amendment I believe is one that's not going to be offered is that correct correct and then and same as the second same as amendment number two so we're reading right to number three and that's director Bailey's amendment can you share what the amendment is and what its what its purpose and what it would do and then we'll have see if there's a first in a second I'm sure this would be a first and a second and then we'll either approve it and then okay do you want me to read it to describe what it is that this amendment does but I think since it hasn't been publicly vetted maybe you should just read it be okay hasn't been I'll start there then the board will defer action on setting boundaries for schools involved in creating Tubman and Rose way heights middle schools including potentially Alameda k5 Beverly Cleary k-8 King k5 Sabin k5 Rose City Park k5 Scott k5 and Lee k5 as detailed in sections 3a i3 bi 5a 5b i5p III and 5di in the main resolution to support the deliberation and action on the boundary decisions the board requests data and assumption used in the analysis and detailed data results of the analysis including but not limited to assumed catchment rates for each school assumptions used to establish minimum enrollment targets and k5s and middle schools projected yearly enrollment by grade for each school for the five-year planning period and the specific assumptions used to determine that collocating access and the vietnamese do a language immersion program at Rose City Park is not a viable option for the establishment of Rosalee Heights middle school and it's the feeder schools there was a long sentence a data on the proposed shift of part of Alameda to Sabin shall be included in the data release in addition the board will be provided with an estimate of the FTT FTE the number of teachers needed to fully staff each school and the budget impact for
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staffing above the current staffing pattern essentially answering the question of how many extra FTE will be needed to fully staff schools in the first year of implementation what what that would do if the board were to adopted so what what that would do would be delays somewhat the actual setting of the boundaries until we publicly and as a board can see the underlying assumptions involved in setting those boundaries and also so that we know we have we're promising in the resolution to fully staff under enrolled schools not not only within the two catchment areas but really across the district and that's a big step budget wise and I think we need to have a really good idea and it may help to hear this from principals at each of the affected schools to what what's the funding that were what's the support level that were actually the need to fulfill that promise we need to know that ahead of time as we head into budget season and if there are some ways to shift boundaries in terms to minimize the impact of that we we need to maybe get ahead of that now to save some money so we can use it better somewhere else emotion well I'll move it a second so the amendment three offered by director Bailey has been moved by director Bailey and seconded by director cons damn is there any discussion I think the second piece about meeting time for staff to fully deliver to us the costs associated with tweaking our staffing model so that every school regardless of its enrollment has adequate and equitable programming is really important this does represent a pretty big change to how we do staffing now and we don't we don't know all the cost implications of that so as you said it could have bearing on how the boundaries end up if we find that creating a school with boundaries that leave it under enrolled by a hundred students or something is just financially untenable so it's a complex problem but I think we're we're well underway in terms of getting the information that we need to make those decisions so that they're not so that we don't take that consideration in a vacuum in superintendent Guerrera I want to say again your staff has been working incredibly hard on this and a number of is really complex work and we're asking for a bit more here and I appreciate that that's another big ask on staff who were doing many of them doing at least two jobs so I greatly appreciate what staff has done and I don't take that lightly at all so I go ahead and Moses just like what the mention you're stopping I just want to I was just wondering how the schools are the new schools such as Tubman would be staffed because as we know Tubman will be like a pro serve a school that serves predominately black community so I just was wondering how it be staff since they're looking to stop him because I know in our equity policy it says that what it will work to hire a staff that reflects the steel population which it serves and so it just sparked me to wonder how is that super oh I think these are all good questions and it's difficult to pick out you know a few examples when part of the budget development process includes the superintendent's responsibility to develop the appropriate level of staffing to offer as comprehensive a program across the entire school portfolio so that's actually the work that staff and I have to engage in and already we are proposing to be pretty aggressive about that timeline so the board knows that ahead of time I've not seen a school district that tries to do that this far in advance and it's our target goal to do that because we know it has implications for hiring and early
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contracting and affording our school communities as much advanced notice around what resources will be available to them so I I think you've heard the commitment on behalf of staff and I know the board shares that commitment to make sure the the foundational base level funding allows each school to have the appropriate level of staffing to ensure core instruction and an equitable level of enrichment and elective and every support staff are also there and and we should be iterating those staffing models all the time and we have to look at that as a comprehensive package and we also can't do that until we have as clear of fiscal picture as possible and as you know that's a moving target and by the way we're trying to settle a collective bargaining agreement and don't know the implications of that yet so these are all very important questions and we have to look at the bigger picture to see what we have to work with but share your concern for making sure whatever decisions we make that we don't leave any under enrolled school without an adequate or subsidized level of staffing to provide that kind of instruction that you'd expect in any school and in response to this question about looking for teachers that really represent the students in terms of diversity I think one thing that you mentioned was as we move to an earlier hiring practices that that's really going to help us because I am a teacher trainer and yearly you know our top quality students of color or bilingual people with special skills are snatched up by other districts that have early early contracts so I know that our focus there will help us to recruit and retrain retain more teachers of color so I guess I'm gonna just I want to mention one thing about the timing because I think it might be tempting for people to think huh this is like this is the big delay that we're gonna defer action but as the conversations when when director Bailey indicated use and offer this amendment it was not with an intention to delay it's to get the work right and I think it's important for the community to know you know if when you think about what sort of time frame is that our board policy on student assignment to neighborhood schools require that the board have final approval of Ballinger changes no later than January the calendar year for the following school year so that means this this work that we're saying needs a bit more time and examination and that we want to do it to get it right that we need to do it in the next six approximately six weeks so just to be clear at the community this isn't a another another planning year it is time to get the work done right and I think we think just I'm gonna be supportive of amendment because I think we want to take the time to to get this right but I also think we want to keep moving yes anybody else want to speak to the amendment I just want to say I I support the amendment I was very glad to see it I think we're very close but I don't think we're quite there yet and I think in order for everybody to feel confident that we're gonna get this right we need to take however long we need to take to just show the work provide the data you know we're trying to be more transparent and and I think it will help if if we can demonstrate that we're we're really doing our best here to to make sure that that where we end up is going to be doable for every school and doable in terms of our financial resources and doable in terms of the kinds of resources that are going to be available the the the kids who are going to be in schools so that we can have you know two strand neighborhood programs that are robust I think we can get there I think when you get there relatively quickly but I think we need a little more time I support the amendment thank you I also though I'm most comfortable knowing that we there is a time line so
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that this work doesn't get lost or because we have to have some answers for the community so I'm supportive within that time so with the board will now vote on amendment three all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no student representative yes and director Anthony I'm not sure if I heard you or if you're on mute yet thank you so the board adopts resolution I'm sorry amendment three on a vote of 7 to 0 with student representative Fran voting YES so when I moved to [Applause] so now we're going to move to amendment four and this is a amendment by director Moore that has will be placed right behind the or beneath the item on there in the resolution relating to the comprehensive environmental assessment that the board is calling for and I'd like to ask director Moore to as director Bailey did sort of explain with amendments about and what its outcome would be if it was abducted this is a difficult amendment to make but I think we need to it's with a fair amount of sadness that I'm making this amendment in the last 48 hours board members have received some information that suggests that there may be some significant environmental hazards presence at the Harriet Tubman facility and that the mitigation mechanisms that are currently in place may not be as robust as had been reported previously in recognition that it may take many months to complete the testing and analysis of conditions at Tubman this amendment to the resolution directs the superintendent and staff to begin a concurrent process to explore an alternative site for a middle school in case Tubman proves to be unsuitable here's the wording in light of emerging information and recognizing that it may take months before the results of these comprehensive health and safety assessments are available available the board asks the superintendent to conduct concurrent contingency planning for alternative location in the event that the Harriet Tubman facility shows significant irremediable health or safety risks for students and staff district staff will explore and identify an alternative school site for a middle school through a process that includes meaningful consistent and extensive collaboration with all the affected school communities and full transparency to ensure the most positive outcomes for students that would be under K in the recital z' and there would be an accompanying bullet in the resolutions resolution six the board directs a superintendent to conduct a thorough comprehensive and collaborative process of contingency planning for an alternative middle school site in the event the Tubman facility proves to be an unsuitable location this planning process is to occur concurrent with the environmental assessment of Tubman with the goal of opening the middle school on schedule for the 2018-19 school year Thank You director more do I have a motion a second the amendment number 4 is emmmmm before is moved by director rosen and seconded by director Esparza Brown is there any discussion on this resolution well I think staff may want to elaborate a little bit more on the timeline for 1819 called for and that amendment so probably a number of the staff could could speak to that but dr. Laura Parker could you come and talk about or Antonio Lopez assistant superintendent or deputy
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Awadh I think could speak to the challenges that come with an 18 19 opening of an alternative site to to Tubman if necessary what that would take because it's a little more than planning off-site it's because it impacts on a number of the staff that would need to be engaged for multiple sites I can start as far as conducting the work for alternative plan it really depends I mean if there is major facility work that once we identify a facility and we need to do a lot of work from a facility perspective that may require issuing permits identifying what the issues then conducting the community engagement that may take some time our objective to meet the deadline to open Middle School's next year was to make the decision as early as mid-october so we can get a lot of these things done by then so I'm not ruling the idea but I think it'd be very challenging to actually meet that deadline it could happen it could be not but I think we ought to look at what we deal and we'll then come back to you with recommendation with that that's doable or not and I that's that's my two cents on this one and Jerry can speak more about the facility and so good evening so regarding Tubman there's three things we want to take a look at past studies have been done regarding outdoor air quality three or four different assessments of areas indoor air quality and then what's been brought up is the the question of whether there's an issue with Tubman and the hill side and any slippage there so we've gone back you have a lot of new folks here at the district we've gone back and the district has known a lot of these things but not us you know the folks here so there I've gone back we've looked at a lot of research we'd like to take the outdoor air quality study and have a third party examine that and perhaps conduct a new one because there's new there's new standards since the one was done I believe in oh nine indoor air quality has never comprehensively been done and it's on our policies protocols to do for the future at all of our sites as part of it but it hasn't been done on the entire Tubman facility it was done on areas that are brought to the attention of the risk management department and then as far as the as far as the the hillside there's an issue our records show that last year it was brought up years ago but last year a company was commissioned to put some probes into the hillside and the Tubman and it's a two-year study what she'll know something after one year as to whether anything's moving or not and then take two years in order to know that so that would be more like the summer of nineteen in which we'd know more about that so you know the superintendent has mentioned it so as as youssef it's you know these are safety issues and I take them seriously as being responsible for that area and I've inherited these but we need to go town when you get to work on them and check them out and see you know the validity the veracity and have a third-party study if that's what we need to do thanks Jerry so I think staffs addressed the issue the unknown issues or questions that could arise or maybe not arise at Tubman but I think the amendment speaks to us looking concurrently at exploring another alternative site and could we elaborate on the reasons why opening on the same timeline might not be a possibility sure so any alternative site that's now being addressed goes back to an assessment of the facility needs educationally classroom size putting an architect engineer to work and getting it done through the city permit and then getting someone to bid let alone within a dollar amount that we can afford and then getting the work done in time for August next year and it's a it's a really difficult lift to be in November and taking a look at that very difficult so that's a bit of a response on the physical plant preparation but there are other programmatic and staffing yeah and just more high-level as we presented in August the overview of the large-scale project plan for opening these two sites we obviously had an aggressive timeline and had some conversation about you know what happens if and we were pretty clear in that conversation that again was informed by project teams and folks working on this project over the years that a change in scope would absolutely derail us from being able to open in
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2018 19 so going to a site be a certainly significant change in scope not only from the facilities perspective but from the community perspective from the staff perspective and from you know working through those variables and certainly that planning analysis given the level of detail that's been requested for that kind of work so it's definitely out of scope and you know the level of complexity and I'm in the alternate plan it depends obviously if we identify a school that's currently have students in it it would mean if it does require major construction we will have to find a site for the kids that are in school in order to evacuate it and do the work on it which is you know part of the problem that we have in the district right now we just don't have facilities so I mean that will add a level of complexity to to potentially meeting a deadline for next year for an alternative plan of course adding to an unknown budget impact given such a significant change in scope would obviously have a significant change in budget impact for what's been put forth them I just see if I can summarize what that so that if after the comprehensive health and environmental assessment that the finding is that there could be remediation and it would still be a suitable site it would it would still be a challenge because we're taking a couple months out of the block to open for the 18 1819 school year but potentially still doable depending on how long the assessment takes and how much remediation and I think what I heard you say Parker is that if we at the remediation was so great that we felt it wasn't the right thing to do to have students in that school we needed to move to their site that it was much more likely to be a 20-19 to 2020 well it's hard to say opening of the alternative site is that is that something that's what staff is saying is we just don't have enough information right we don't know if any or how extensive the analysis what it will reveal what level of remediation perhaps we don't change site but you know no one wants to think about a delay in an opening there but perhaps it's possible to remediate with a little extra time and have Tupman be the fabulous school we all envision it being if concurrently we're looking at an alternative we also have to engage in the physical plant the staffing and the community engagement that would need to be involved in that and to do that between now and August you're hearing staff say would you know we'd be reversing and starting the process we've been doing for Tubman with the planning principle for almost a year now for over a year now and so just to be clear that this amendment you know the language of the amendment is with the goal of the 1819 school year so I think that's an implicit understanding that we may be putting ourselves off track for that opening I just want to make sure we're really clear I appreciate that it's a goal I just I don't mind being held accountable but I just want to be really clear we don't know what we don't know and we don't we haven't discovered and maybe everything's just fine and we proceed Gerry again on the slippage what's the where are we on the timeline I didn't quite catch what you said in terms of its so year early this summer probes were put in the ground this under that's correct in 2017 June of 18 they can do a first read on those and see or even April after a rainy season see if anything has changed but there they've been conditioned to do a final report for June 2019 and tell us what they feel ok with a snapshot of what that looks like in spring early summer of 86 so I'm just going to speak to the amendment so as we've had some listening sessions over the last month and a half and the issues have been raised and we had our board meeting last week and we discussed potentially adding an amendment to do a comprehensive environmental analysis the town took me back to the year 2000 I believe it was when we had whitaker middle school with some various i see the veterans nodding who were here then but there were very significant mold issues and then radon on top of that and it was right before I
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got on the board the first time and really the discussion got on the bite time I got on the board was you know would you want to have your own child in that school and you know I think that the district made the right decision it was a very traumatic thing for Northeast Portland to lose a middle school but really I think when everybody you know asked the you know ask themselves the question if it was your child would you want them to have them in that school and the answer was no so Whittaker doesn't exist anymore it was razed to the ground so you know I yeah I think we all received the news that there could be some major environmental issues at Tubman you know quite looking at it from a sense of yes we absolutely want to deliver on a middle school experience so that kids have an equitable experience in those grades but also that we had a duty to look at those environmental factors so hopefully they will be we can remediate them but I think this I think this is the right course of action even though it's it's later than we would like but it's at a time in which we can still do the right thing and if we move ahead we will continue moving the calendar forward but I think we we can't ignore potential I I completely agree at the very least we cannot put kids in a toxic environment I think that's the least we could we should demand in this district but I admit to being deeply disappointed that we are where we are when we are I wish we had I wish we had looked at this [Applause] I wish we had looked at this when the first issues first arose it's and I and I would like to I think we ought to look at how how do we get here right how come this these issues weren't surfaced long before now [Applause] and and I feel compelled to make a personal statement I have gone around to various meetings and made assurances to school communities about with my understanding of the situation and I have to apologize because I now believe that I was either misinformed or I misunderstood and I passed along incorrect information and and I well I want to apologize I wish I'd asked more questions I wish we'd all asked more questions and and I'm I'm very happy that we're now going to take this in hand and we are going to figure it out I am profoundly disappointed that it may require a delay I was looking forward to tonight I was planning to crack open champagne later and I just kind of I don't I don't feel like champagne tonight but it still is I mean we are still making progress we are going to open these middle schools we're gonna do this we're gonna do it right and I think the best we can say at this point is what you're seeing tonight is this board taking our responsibilities seriously so this is going to be if it turns out that we can't open Tubman and we do have to look at an alternative site this is going to be a wrenching experience for many people in that community many many people and as we proceed with this I think we need to be mindful of that and
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we need to be very attentive to engaging the community meaningfully throughout this process as it goes forward and what does this mean to you no equitable instruction and curriculum I think that as a board we will also commit that as we're working through these that the children will still have the opportunities for full access to the programs that we are promising them any other discussion on this amendment anything else you all think the board needs to know thank you thank you so the board will now vote on amendment number 4 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed indicate by saying no yes board member Paul Anthony yet the amendment is approved on a vote of 7 to 0 with student representative Tran voting YES our last amendment for consideration there's actually three parts to it and this is amendment I'm just offering some of its some of us clean up in some of its providing some more clarity and then the last one is providing a little bit more flexibility so the amendment does three things first all references in the resolution after the word Tubman where it's appropriate we'll need to add the word or alternative site then on page eight number K our letter K is that's the one dealing with the the environmental assessment and the first sentence starts out no later than November 15th and we're gonna replace that with on an expedited basis and this should give the staff the flexibility that I mean ideally we'd love to have it November 15th or earlier but we want it done well and so this gives the staff the flexibility and then third on page eight letter H this is the amendment related to access and one of the things I know the discussion leading up to tonight's meeting there was you know I think an agreement by the board that we felt that access deserved a home and that it was and we believed that superintendent Guerrero's vision for tag services is one that we want to support as well so that we have sort of this two-part amendment and as part of that in terms of the the facility that we were discussing for for tag that we had initially had a permanent facility or facilities and then it got changed a facility we under we understand there's a strong desire to keep the school community together there also were discussions by both individuals within the access community the board the superintendent that there potentially could be a sort of a feel of one school perhaps over two sites maybe that we're close to by and that we want to provide the flexibility this the goal is still one facility but that there are we do want to provide some flexibility to the superintendent because if we if we fought if we found I'm just giving you example if we found the ideal sort of adjacent sites or two buildings next to each other or two schools within you know five blocks and we wanted to do that we'd have to go back and change the resolution I think the intent of the so my intent and offering this is we're still shooting for one permanent facility but we also want to have flexibility for ideas that have been offered that could provide a very you know a one school experience so that's the those are the three amendments they're motion move move by director
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Esparza Brown seconded by director Bailey is there any discussion superintendent grasps one a firm chair for M Edwards statement to the community here the goal remains to find a home for access Academy that is s contained to one building as possible or two buildings that constitute a campus facility but I'm looking forward to circling back to the school community with some bolder options along with staff and we're gonna keep having that conversation together great and I think I would say the board really appreciates you personally going out and looking at sites and you know attempting to have every part of the school community that's involved in this have their needs met to the extent possible so thank you for your person your personal engagement in that any other discussion okay so the board will now vote on amendment five all those in favor say aye student representative Tran yes so amendment five is adopted on a vote of seven to zero with student representative Tran voting aye so we now have a resolution five five to eight as as amended so we're ready to consider the work before us and as I said when we started I think this is a very exciting night there's been lots of work going into this and I know many of us feel that well that this is a big step this evening there's much work to be done going forward to make sure that when the school is open they are the schools that we'd want to have our own kids in so that I'm going to ask any board members is there any discussion questions for staff on the now amended resolution okay are we all ready this just seems too easy I think that's what I'm sensing anyways I think I share director more sort of sentiment right now and that it's an important step to affirm this commitment and I know I'm not gonna pop open a bottle of champagne till we settle a home for access and any other impacted communities and that we do the necessary work that we first and foremost and share every one of our students is in a healthy and safe building and that we do our due diligence and that we be accountable and transparent about it so we'll get there but I think nonetheless it's an important step to take tonight towards that the community the northeast community has taken a lot of hits and that we're really aware of that so affirm that we are we committed to ensuring equitable education from this point forward as we're moving forward to figure this out [Laughter] sorry what was your name can we make sure that gets into the minutes so well while recognizing that we're still have some work to do I'm gonna symbolically raise a little glass of champagne to Rose why Heights yeah chairman I'd be remiss if I also in the interest of making sure we're serving all of our students and all of our communities had somehow heartfelt conversations with many of our african-american leaders in the Albina neighborhood today and they understand no one wants their children in a facility that isn't safe and able to thrive so there's a level of understanding there hopefully what we're able to convey here is that we're not giving up on the commitment to open a comprehensive middle school that serves students from Albina so I just feel like I need to say that
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[Applause] anybody else so I'm just gonna close again by thanking staff for all the work this has really been a heavy lift and I think we this is just the start so I know that there's a lot of work staff here in this in the central office but also in the buildings that will be supporting the work ahead to make sure that this schools when they're open are successful I also want to thank the community because I think this this has been quite a six week or eight week process and you know members of the community I think they from all the different schools really approached this in a it was heartwarming to have parents from one school advocating for kids in another school and advocating for kids who hadn't had a medical school experience and I think this is part of the beauty of Portland where you get parents looking out for other kids the kids of other parents and I think people while passions were high and you know this is you know the stakes are high for a lot of the communities people really approached it in a we're gonna try and get to a place where it works for all our kids and I think I think tonight's first step is a first step in that we have work to be done and hopefully when this is all done we can say that we did it for every we did it for everybody so thanks to the community and then finally just to the board members I know that this was a huge complex issue that we added on top of a lot of other work that we've done and that individual board members have a lot of expertise they have commitment to the issue a passion around making sure we've done right for our kids and I have been that just the the work ethic and the time the board members are put into it you know I really want to say thank you to everybody and our new superintendent who arrived right in the middle of the conversation thank you for jump it jumping right in I think you know it's and we're looking we're really looking forward to when we hired you it's an education leader this next phase of the work that's gonna be more important than ever so thank you for not insisting that you had some sort of honeymoon but that you're just going to jump right in so with that we have a resolution on 55:28 on the table it's been moved and seconded the board will now vote on resolution 55:28 oh that's as amended right yes thank you it would have been a pity to it would have been a pity to have wasted all that work you've earned your money tonight Jim so we'll vote on resolution 5528 as amended all in favor please indicate by saying yes director Anthony yeah student representative Tran yes resolution 5528 is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative Tran voting yes nice job so now we're gonna go to conference report [Applause] so now I'm going to ask directors Esparza Brown and calm stand for any reports or information from the recent Council of great city schools event you read okay so as the PPS board representative I had the great privilege of attending on the Council of the great city schools fall conference in Cleveland Ohio last week along with superintendent Godot and an administrative team the council if you don't know represent 68th of the nation's largest urban school districts in a coalition that's dedicated to improve the education of children in inner cities in inner city schools and that the organization does this through a focus on legislation communication research and technical assistance that to keep the members and the public low informed on all the best practices in teaching and learning in big cities so as a board representative then I attended the Saturday boards meeting along with superintendent get it oh and
01h 50m 00s
learn more about the ways that the council provides technical assistance around many of the challenges that urban city schools like us face particularly in narrowing the achievement gaps and organizational structures and a lot of the ways in which we knew that know that we can make improvements and so I'm really thankful to kind of hear the breadth of their some kinds of support that we can get from them the sessions that I attended there were many many interesting sessions but the one that I wanted to particularly focus on was one that was given by both the Oakland schools and Los Angeles school districts around the dock resolutions and how they have refined further refine their resolutions and really kind of operationalize those to look like in one school district for example a gray folder with the mr. protocol for ice and Drina school was at every front office and all the staff knew where that was so that the protocols are there and available and easily accessible and this district also worked with their community partners to provide support to individual families if a family member had been detained so working to support that family in many ways that she from the children to the parents to helping connect them to legal services so I'll share their websites with our staff fitness we continue to revisit and and revolve are evolved I think our own docker work they were interesting keynote speakers that included rosario Dawson that I missed because it was I have jet lag and she was 8:00 in the morning but we heard Bill Gates who talked about their new investment of a 1.7 billion dollars for k-12 education over the next five years and he kind of discussed the key strategies for their for the the future for them in well this was focused on education he wasn't nearly as much fun as the next day's luncheon speaker who was Van Jones of CNN who talked about his own personal stories and education he had a lot of humor and then talked about the current political strife in the country and our core beliefs yet at the end of it all he has this wonderment our nation's ability to continue to work together so it was really an inspiring message even in this difficult time and then to cap the day he ended by moderating a Town Hall on equity issues which was great and lastly we took the opportunity just to sponsor a celebratory hour to welcome our new superintendent and that was well attended by colleagues across the nation that were offering congratulations to us in our smart hire and that was great so overall it was a conference of the highest caliber and I look forward to representing PBS in all the future work with the council if I could just say thank you to the director spars of brown and constan for representing the PBS board and that lovely reception that colleagues were in attendance for and I only add to your comprehensive report that Portland Public Schools has already been nominated to be the hosting site this coming early summer in June for a curriculum and instruction instruction and chief information officers gathering here in Portland that was great report thanks Julie just want to add that it's just an amazing opportunity to really dive into best practices on just a multitude of areas so much to learn from our colleagues across the country both in the formal sessions as well as informally in conversation I had the opportunity to sit with some of Guadalupe his former colleagues from San Francisco who had a really phenomenal presentation around on track to graduation initiatives and they have been at it long enough to really see the the data and the fruits of those efforts as well as similar efforts in not similar but like efforts in Houston and Chicago that are really moving the needle for kids so this is all one of the best things about the Council of great city schools is that everyone is there to share what their successes have been and to help partner districts adopt some of the same practices so that's that's really an amazing opportunity for us and and we do tap into that that
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Network a lot I had the opportunity to facilitate also a session around building principal pipelines and partnerships with higher ed partners on how to really develop principled leadership and grow your own so to speak so those again a really fruitful conversations and then also just informally in a week in the last year through our superintendent search process have had the opportunity to lean on some of our friends and colleagues from the council around you know on on reaching out to find the best candidates and how to support a new candidate had a lot of conversations with districts that have brought on new superintendents in the last couple of years about what was your onboarding process and and what can you what can you teach us about how to really support our superintendent in the first year of his his work here here so that's that's all just really critical good work I also had it we also had an opportunity informally to share some of our health and safety work and our gap analysis and health and safety inventory that is being considered by other districts is really a national model for that work because the infrastructure side of the house is often commonly ignored but everyone has the same kind of problems that we have faced so acutely in the last year so dr. John I was really proud to be able to to share your work and others were really glad to receive it okay so my day job I worked as an economist over in Vancouver and I was at an Economic Development lunch in this last week over there and I ran into somebody who worked at a partner organization there but now heads the Oregon bioscience Council and next Monday they are doing a big shindig and part of that is where local companies and researchers come and make a pitch for a new technology that they've developed our new product and they decided this year they've added fast pitches which are three-minute highly structured pitches and that would include grad students and for the first time high school students and so I said anybody from Portland Public and I was delighted to find out that Cynthia we a student from Madison if will be making one of those pitches so we hope to have her here after she makes the pitch to tell us about it in the coming weeks but it's a pretty exciting thing and I'm gonna go and be there and scored a couple of tickets for Patrick Allen those the principal at Madison and a teacher and are one of our toeses and if any of you want to come along we'll figure it out and I know you're gonna be out of town that's unfortunate but yeah so I hope to have a rip have her come back and report on her experience but I was pretty excited I just want to quickly say that super sec I know that a few weeks ago I had talked about our priorities and where we were moving but have taken a pause and said just to say that we've taken on pause of that and taking a new direction instead we're looking at going into the schools and proposing a more sustainable way of electing people to work on the district super sacked because in years previous is just it hasn't been saying well like every year that we're working it's like a new system that we like how we recruit people so I just want to say that we're working now we're just really streamlining like working on building a system a sustainable way in hopefully at each school having a elected position from their student body on the who they would choose to represent their school at a district level so I just have a brief report from the task force on policy and governance and we met yesterday and directors smore and Rosen are also on it and this was a renewal we talked to had several meetings about the district's complaint policy I thought yesterday's was very productive and I want to thank Jim Harris the general counsel and Kylee Rogers for the help the assistance and
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the leadership they're providing as we rework the new complaint policy we and director Moore received secured several model complaint policies from OSB a that should provide a framework for that and we probably likely are going to take some of the value language from the current complaint policy and then sort of meld it with the OSB a language and that that the OSB a stands for Oregon School Boards Association and that language should comply with all the recent state laws so we're hopeful we'll have in not too long time a draft policy to bring to the board for consideration and we've asked well as is appropriate Jim Harrison Kiley will both work on the administrative directive which is the the complementary piece to the the new policy so I guess the board members hopefully that will be coming and I know director Kahn's damn and your committee you've got some work related to the title nine harassment policy anybody else the business agenda the board will now consider the remainder of the business agenda having already voted on resolution 55:28 miss Houston are there any changes to the business agenda do I have a motion so moved moved by director Bailey seconded by director I was gonna I guess we're kind of the same time during seconded by Trent okay moved by director con Sam's seconded by director Bailey is there any public comment no public comment is there any board discussion on the business business agenda I just want to say it's really exciting to see the design contract for Madison High School in there and get that work underway yeah I think I saw notice also for the dag for the medicine gallon advisory group all right the board will now vote on the business agenda all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yeah soon representative yes no abstentions a business agenda is approved on a 7 to 0 vote with student representative Tran voting YES and then I'd like to lodge a protest that we are 43 minutes I was telling superinten Carreiro this is the benefit of having committees that you have work that's done and it comes to the full board ready for discussion and this is a testimony if you do your homework we won't say it's easier on staff right okay yeah okay we we are


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