2018-05-30 PPS School Board Special Meeting
District | Portland Public Schools |
---|---|
Date | 2018-05-30 |
Time | missing |
Venue | missing |
Meeting Type | special |
Directors Present | missing |
Documents / Media
Notices/Agendas
05-30-18 Special Meeting Notice (b99ae2f4e55f878f).pdf Public Notice
Materials
Co-locating ACCESS (603057ea74ec9fa4).pdf Meeting Materials
ACCESS Resolution (44c4f6fed41f1943).pdf Resolution
05-30-18 Special Meeting Overview (1c682c7bda2b21e9).pdf Meeting Overview
Minutes
05-30-18 Informal Work Session Minutes (574c7496093200c8).pdf Informal Work Session Minutes
Transcripts
Event 1: Special Meeting of the Board of Education - Access - May 30, 2018
00h 00m 00s
welcome everyone cousin
viewers of a live stream on PBS website
will be replaying the next two weeks
interpreters here this afternoon as I'd
like to have them introduce themselves
that might please
[Music]
no first time
sit down lucky Pig
[Music]
[Music]
my name is Uday Chopra Joyner the
activist young you know generally be any
glass I worked on that ena many other
and hence my name is Bill there
thank you so I also want to notice that
there is overflow room outside of the
windows cafe right outside here that'll
this will be live streaming as well so
if we run out of seats or you want to
watch it through it's also a livestream
some purpose of today's special session
is
access program please my recommendations
last summer
I support all those we made the decision
to open two middle schools and areas of
the city where students had been
underserved in the middle grades and as
part of opening of Harriet Tubman middle
school and Rose Bay
at the time when the board voted on the
voted on that middle school resolution
which was October 24th as part of a very
comprehensive resolution adopting the
boundaries the feeder programs for the
two new middle schools we also provided
some direction and a request to the
superintendent to really into a variety
of schools of programs or one of them
related to the access program
and for the last several months there's
what to find
for great placement and today's meeting
I'd like to turn it over to
superintendent Guerrero to share we
process that the staff went through to
look at various sites and criteria that
was used
riding out to today I'm going to ask the
board to let the superintendent and
staff get all the way through the
presentation we have
pretty tight tape framework so I'm going
to ask for people to fold their
questions to sound at the end of the
presentation
okay so what we do is how the
presentation
we'll have time for some questions I
know that everybody received some
materials of the last two days question
and answer discussion right on
and then
fifteen
00h 05m 00s
the Board of Education so that time
thank you for all the work that I know
you personally have spent on this
project as in
so good afternoon directors first of all
thank you for dedicating a work session
on what a complex challenge that you're
attempting to solve
because it's important to make sure all
of our schools have a place
access community for their patients I
know we decided
issues but they have exercised extreme
patience
to
viable options
that's a short-term prospect or
hopefully in a long-term prospect at
some point soon so we have a lot of
staff here because this effort has had
to engage a lot of different departments
within this industry so they will have
many more detailed sort of responses
should have any questions at the end of
our presentation some of the share
presentation do these primaries don't
you superintendent Purvis and her senior
director further communications as well
but for the last two weeks we've really
two months we've really stepped up our
efforts given the aggressive timeline in
attempting to co-locate the access
Academy the choices have been limited
not ideal and deciding amongst buildings
that actually had physical space as
proven
complex exercise none of these options
are ideal and we simply just don't have
a singular sight of a single location or
we can have the access to County readily
available to us at this point and our
portfolio of our facilities so we are
forced to locate grades one through five
or the access Academy the building and
on the second side to grade 6 to rate in
another collocation you can have its
benefits and we need to find them over
our students in the Academy and
hopefully begin shifting our focus on
how communities
a positive transition as much as
possible next slide I think chat room
Edwards opened with providing some of
the history of how we arrived at this
point there's a commitment to openness
comprehensive middle schools in process
to displace it didn't aim upfront where
access Academy there were a couple
earlier attempts and plans about where
that could be and those didn't prove
feasible throughout this process as we
focus on looking communities within our
facilities a few other factors have come
to life has been topics of conversations
in this room without stairs at the dance
around some of the issues that are
systemic that we face one of them is our
educational program you should have a
clear vision and any design should be
articulated sufficient exit to really
inform sort of as an initial phase plan
we have to do some broad assessments of
the leadership and subject matter
expertise that should be in place to
exercise to carry out that vision and we
have been having a lot of conversation
recently about how our long-range
capital plans should be there to support
this instructional vision and all of
these shifts all of these
transformations require a lot of
indicators made not just with our school
site leaders and internal administration
but our communities as well so I point
these out only because there are also
challenges and they're also factors
yes a place where it was quite
satisfactory what we're working with
where we're at I want to turn it over to
deputy Curtis to talk about the process
that staff has undertaken over the last
couple of months to try to arrive at
some possibilities so even though we
were on a very tight timeline we
believed it was really important to
engage with staff and parents from the
access community so we put together what
we called an advisory group so that we
can understand the program requirements
through their view make sure that we
weren't making assumptions about things
that we weren't sure of we wanted to
clarify criteria which was identified by
the district I want to be real clear
about that because there were some
criteria that we put as non negotiable
00h 10m 00s
on the table that didn't really work
their first wishes they were patient
with us and I appreciate that but those
criteria were there because of the
constraints that we have we wanted to
confirm the roles what roles were we
playing whose
it's kind of been a question all all
along and I think it's really really
important as we go forward together as a
shared leadership team that we do get
really clear about decisions and the
governance structure mirrors so I wanted
to make sure we wanted to make sure that
we started modeling that and being
transparent that transparent so the
other the challenge which is a challenge
we've continued to meet up to even to
the moment before this meeting has been
which facilities should we be taking a
look at our facilities folks have kept
records on as all these different
changes have happened in the district
where is their space available when
you're a principal and a leadership team
in a building you tend to use all the
space you have because more space you
have the more students get to feel
comfortable in that learning environment
so sometimes we have to get very
descriptive around what is the adequate
space and are we just talking about
homeroom classes and so on so we
connected with principals to to get
clear about that and then ultimately my
role was to make a recommendation to the
super
using that criteria and then the
superintendent would recommend a bring
that recommendation to you however when
he took a look at that recommendation
based on the criteria he said well maybe
some of this criteria we could take a
look at again I wasn't available and
then he went forward working with that
Advisory Committee to look at other
places in terms of what the spaces that
access needs we're I'm just gonna let
you read the slide but of course if you
start with what are the homeroom classes
and make sure all the classrooms have a
space does the school need a learning
center and then what kind of office
spaces are needed and then you go to the
specialist the different electives
opportunities they might have for both
the grades K one and I mean one five and
six eight so let you look at those on
that slide in terms of the criteria
access community shared with us we
believe we really want a single site we
knew from the start of that process we
didn't have a single site option that
was why we needed to engage in this
process we also know news given our
tight timeline and all the other work
going on around the district because of
the new middle schools that we could not
displace other programs or we were just
going to magnify the problems and most
we had to consider space requirements
the solution then was to try to maintain
definitely the current service level for
access program as well as any school
that they would be collocating them and
then just to make sure that we didn't
disrupt the already challenging work
around facilities curriculum schools
works around the theme of opening of the
middle schools
so again I kinda already mention this
our constraints were we had this really
compressed timeline we also had to
consider codes and per many some
questions came up like what about
portables what about looking at sites
outside that are not just property we
took a lot look at looking at those as
viable options but the issues around
codes and permitting became then another
barrier that we don't have time to deal
with we also had to consider the budget
we're in that process of building our
budget and getting that budget approved
by our board and until that actually is
approved you don't always know exactly
how much you have so the goal was to
make sure all the needs were mad but to
not add any more budget than we had to
and then of course the the challenges
continue to be boundaries and previous
policies and I'm I'm also going to say
that along with the boundaries and
policies there's there's a long history
and a deep history here around
understandings about previous
conversations that people have heard
from board members and from resolutions
or from community meetings and all of
that is really important to listen to
00h 15m 00s
and
consider but became very challenging
when we're trying to figure out what
here they are our parameters for coming
to a solution as timeless ticking away
and I'm going to change seats with
Cameron and she's going to talk about
the process we went through the advisory
while she's doing that I'm going to just
list out some of the additional factors
maybe not criteria but things that we
had to consider especially a staff that
are more logistical how does that
integration happen both physically and
as a community there there are certainly
bus drives perhaps after the
establishment of transportation
accommodations how you work to provide
breakfast lunches justice impact
entitlement statuses or doesn't and how
does this tie in to any potential long
term vision there's also some additional
sort of factors that play in treat some
of the schools that projected
enrollments and some of the schools that
you're considering some of this is late
information but it really kind of wade
into the information and then there are
also some commitments to making pre-k
seats available
to our sides of town or at certain sites
so all of these were additional factors
that they really needed to wrestle as
well
so Stephanie Cameron's going to talk
about how the advisory groups work
process
so we have stefaney camera and i'm the
senior director of communications and
public engagement and it's been through
through all the challenges that have
taken place with this process this has
been actually a very rewarding and very
educational process to be involved with
with and I'm very grateful for that
when dr. Curtis was assigned to this
challenge and to find a solution one of
the first things we discussed was the
establishment of an advisory group both
of us are very new to the district and
didn't have a very solid understanding
of what access Academy was all about and
what was important to that particular
community and I would say that overall
in establishing the Charter and building
and most importantly building the
relationships with this advisory group I
think this is a good model for moving
forward with how we ought to be working
with community before making decisions
and
decisions but with that said we
establish the advisory group for the
purpose of involving voices from
teachers our principal at access Academy
and parents along with district to
figure out what is - what are the most
important pieces that we should be
considering we knew what our constraints
and criteria was but we needed to figure
out how to mesh those two things
together so we established a charter and
kept talking work slides at the same
time so this was the general purpose of
our Charter and we met several times
weekly at Rose City Park to establish
early on what were the most important
needs we needed to be considering we
also established this not as just a
short-term advisory group there's
obviously some long-term visioning for
this particular program that we need to
be considering and so we decided that
that this would be in duration until a
long term solution can be determined I
think it will Evan flow with the
frequency of our meetings knowing that
our first and highest priority was
finding a place for students football
and then the membership in the Charter
like I mentioned talks about including
district leadership school staff and
parents which will rotate on and off
this advisory group and then specialists
or outside experts joined us
we're also joined by Scott Bailey and
Rita more for a couple of our meetings
and we greatly appreciated your insight
and including at those meetings in the
process of establishing these
relationships this has been a great
resource to me and communications and
one of the first things I've learned is
how complex this district is and how
important it is to make sure our
messages connect with the questions that
our community members have and if this
has not just been limited to the access
community every time we've gone out to
another school community and considered
that it's evident to me how fast
information moves in a district and how
fast it needs to move and how important
it is for us to be transparent and open
and frequently communicating with what
we're doing at every step of the way so
for a new person with the district this
has been very very informative to me and
how we shape our future communications
so after beating and gaining all of the
kind of insight understanding what our
criteria looked like that's when we went
into a facility review so I'll turn that
back over to dr. Curtis actually Sarah
pain come up I just talked these two I'm
sure doing
00h 20m 00s
right when we started looking at space
facilities took first pass at with
schools that we believed had available
space our emphasis our first look was
that sufficient homeruns plus a learning
center and specialist classrooms meaning
we looked at what schools had homerooms
that would have been available what
schools had assuming there would be need
space for a learning center and any
classrooms that were dedicated towards
dance music computer lab those are the
kind of specials that we knew that
access would needed in addition to the
whole program so we looked at those is
not necessarily being available we
looked a little bit at office space
again our concern was primarily looking
at home runs
we were very cognizant of course spaces
is there enough room to meet our new PE
requirements and being cognizant of the
need to serve lunches and some of these
schools have shared gym and cafeterias
or gym and auditoriums and Touring's
whatever you want to call them so every
school is a little bit different so it
was important to take a look at those
course spaces and then importantly and I
think this was touched on by dr. Curtis
we did not with the exception that the
pre camp Lane which we thought would be
something we would
at some point we determined that things
like special education classrooms that
were currently in school to stay their
existing pre-k but also stay there and
any other programs such as that so we
did not assume any relocation of
dislocation of those programs thank you
this next slide is really for our
directors information this is just a
demographic breakdown like a big listing
of schools
this is doesn't represent an exhaustive
list of all the schools we looked at but
many of the ones that we did primarily
focus on so you had enrollment
information as well as demographic
information there for your information
so getting to the list you see some
color coding here as we kind of went
through the vetting process and we
looked a little deeper at some of the
factors and feasibility we started to
really start crossing off some of the
schools and those are represented and
they're color coded red that includes
the schools of Irvington Jason Lee and
while paging near save and Whitman for a
variety of reasons sometimes it was
space sometimes its boundary changes who
are creating projected enrollment
numbers that were already showing up for
kindergarten that we know we're going to
end up growing and needing more space
colocation very temporary some of these
there were some questions about space
usage so we went and validated staff
validated those sites quite carefully
and so but these schools ended up being
sites that we're not primary focus after
looking at those possible we had a boy
see Elliott there there are a couple
reasons why the feasibility of that one
sort of began to drop off we really are
focusing attention and focus the rest of
our conversation on four sites Peninsula
we're investing and each of them I'm
sorry when I say Lane and insula
Woodlawn Vestal and Lane primarily as to
pairings Peninsula and Woodlawn as one
option investment Lane as another each
of these school sites presents some
variables that we have to address and
some factors but these four appear to be
the most feasible from physical space
Syria that could pose a co-locations
just to place them here on the map
proximity we heard was also you know a
preference of the access Ruby if it was
something that we could factor in so
just kind of place where those parents
are happy one would love generally out
the north side a few models acquired
invest a little Lane middle school on
the east and southern parts of the city
about five miles apart in taking a look
00h 25m 00s
at sort of the cluster of the where our
axes families reside we also know
geographically that they they tend to be
spread throughout the city with some
density in the central part but know
kind of clear cluster of where they are
located necessarily we also know that
there are some sets of siblings that was
another point of conversation so as we
looked at each of the physical
blueprints for each of the schools which
staff and out and I personally did as
well in many cases to the look at the
sites we began to work pretty closely
with site administration
I'm deputy Curtis to describe the
process well kind of go through each one
specifically but the point is just to
point out that physically they're spaced
so remember I mentioned that we had
original criteria and that our
superintendent said well maybe we have
to enough around some of that criteria
the the one that we had to have that
conversation about was did we have to
put the six through eight in middle
school that is ideal because of the same
reason we're creating middle schools and
that was a hope that we could create
more electives on just from an
instructional perspective I know many of
you know it's a struggle anyway in all
middle schools to ensure that we can
have multiple electives because of our
funding level and the fact that we can
only afford to staff the middle schools
for six period days some are figuring
out some other solutions but that is a
constraint as well so you can see how
multiple variables come in and out of
the pictures appending on kind of what
combination of criteria you're talking
about so initially we said Lane was the
only place where we could see that there
were enough classrooms for the
classrooms from grade six to eight have
a classroom and then some
Learning Center office some electives I
I think we'll just flip through these
because we have some slides at the end
where we sort of summarize these are the
things reasons why we think these are
better choices Vestal came onto our list
a little later to take a look back there
are many things that we learned about
Vestal and that has been some recent
history around reconfiguring the size of
that school impacted by boundaries we
had had some earlier conversations
because of to other areas when we have
been looking for places is for special
education programs and also for Head
Start we always want to try to place
head start in elementary schools if we
can and right now we have some head
start at Lane and they don't always
filled our slots we thought if we could
put those in elementary schools where
there's room dusta was one of those that
we had already talked about before we
even started looking at buildings for
access so then we started moving
multiple variables around and saying oh
but if we didn't do that and we're if
they go to another school so that's why
it's a little complicated to walk you
step by step because it's not a linear
process it's a what if this than this
each time and then Peninsula was a
building that was always on the list
we knew there was space but initially we
didn't take a look there initially
because we were still trying to find
places that were closer together around
for middle school students could have a
middle school experience but as we
started realizing the constraints and
all the variables we were up against in
the other buildings that's when we
decided to take a look at Peninsula and
you can see their classrooms one do five
would be able to be housed in the
peninsula building as well as their bare
Grade Center woodland also has room for
six eight we know that a of course
football like earlier had happened at
Woodlawn six eight had moved out they
have space on there are a couple of
things we needed to take into
consideration there were questions
around title one status and would that
be impacted if we put another co-located
program in there we learned in asking
more questions that it would not impact
the title and status of woodland we also
know there are other supports going on
at Woodlawn because of the grant we had
to make sure that that wasn't impacted
as well so at this point those are two
00h 30m 00s
buildings that had enough space so
that's just a guess and the board some
blueprints are sort of examples of what
those floor plans could look like after
initial rounds of conversations and
principals and staff beyond facilities
there's also other factors there's a
staffing that would be required we know
that by splitting the access Academy
that we
it has their staff rosters so that
includes an additional administrator
some of their support staff and math FTE
to make sure that their program is not
interrupted and they experience
continuity of their offering so and this
will need to be refined as a meal and a
solution here but there's also an
opportunity with the collocation you end
up with an increased enrollment in a
building so that also affords an economy
of scale and other possibilities that
benefit both doing these that are
co-located in a facility so those are
things that we would want to continue
conversations with the hosting principal
as well as access administrators about
how we may do that there's also
potential opportunities there to think
about our continued programming and
where some crossover benefit might also
help to benefit the hosting community
while we do that systemic work as well
there's also an opportunity there the
shares of professional learning so there
are benefits that can be contemplated
with the two communities sharing a site
all of those those would be topics that
we hope to cover and think through as we
move down the process there's also the
need to be creative in some of the
solutions right if we're asking a school
to dismantle a technology lab but maybe
it doesn't get daily use that could
satisfy the need for digital tools of
the laptop cards that could travel in
some cases that was shared to be a
preference or something that would be
workable and
some cases there's a minor physical
retrofits but in the forest schools were
pointing out here there's a pretty minor
or aesthetic and certainly that would be
within the scope of our facilities
Department a summer work back that could
be taken on so none of those seem to be
the media barriers some of these things
will of course be these shifts don't
come without some cost the good thing is
there's no heavy construction involved
here with these four schools in most
cases and esthetic improvements for the
buildings overall we also know they
contemplated already was possible
reciting the pre case and to spread
across northeastern situated
Elementary's to give the community
greater access
so we already knew there's going to need
to be some some retrofitting there for
example with restrooms with
four-year-olds as a factor so the moves
have some cost some of those are
internal even if you're asking classroom
teachers within school to shift room
numbers for instance to create some
clusters of classrooms that are more
ideal those are details we work with our
school administrators with some
custodial time we also know depending on
the sites that are choosing there's a
difference in the transportation costs
in some cases because they're on a four
or a shared route that could be employed
there's a bit smaller that's the case
with Peninsula Woodlawn
professor Lane we know that that
transportation cost goes up
significantly
we asked to meet about four bus routes
that need to be added to ensure that
their staff service to Academy access
Academy students you know there'll be
some number of additional FTE regardless
of which sites we see access are kind of
me at so that's also factored in and I
already mentioned there will be some
other accommodations like laptop carts
for instance to help ease some space
needs so we have the two options this is
really where we end up this is just a
short hole I think this just sort of as
a reminder with our staff which I'm
talking more detail about these but with
option A you have vessels and we are
about five miles an hour for eight miles
it does hold true to trying to land our
little grade students and comprehensive
middle schools so that's one feature
there and you know that space is
available the schools are generally
located around a second corridor and it
lays a little bit west of that the staff
and transportation costs together are
not insignificant either Peninsula
Woodlawn this allows to no measure you
would log Bill Gates access students as
a second option option two those are
about three miles apart we place the
sixth grade students reconfigures site
that is offering its middle grade
00h 35m 00s
students now so the classrooms are
available there both of those
off the highway the staff and
transportation costs are the figure
there now this this figure I believe
factors and we already provide some
services so not all of it is necessarily
in transition we're having this
discussion this work session I'm sure
our directors will have questions and
take those to learn confirm the
decisions we want to make sure to
communicate those to the communities
communities involved we want to start to
really move into a whole other level of
planning to get a lot of the specifics a
lot of these we've kind of outlined
already we want to drill down into more
details around that so we have some
timelines in preparation and the
soudanese getting staffing needs to be
identified and filled ASAP so there's
some some logistics that we need to
happen depending on the pair of schools
that can we go with so district
departments are prepared to mobilize to
do that right the question part of the
program
my favorite questions that what I think
I'll do is I'm gonna start with director
Bailey and I know that people have many
questions but as a just courtesy to a
board with what I'd like to ask people
to do is we wind up short and maybe you
have one question and follow up and then
pass up the next and if we have time
we'll just back around some and it just
passes down
okay just what's your number one about
staffing for an access so another
counselor was festive it was really
clear from visiting access that the
Learning Center staff was overwhelmed
and understaffed working their tail off
because I'm doing a great job with kids
and more assistance there does that
accept what the counselor position
represents it does one thing we want to
be able to guarantee is that level of
service won't be diminished so we know
we need to make up for the difference by
excluding the staff they currently exist
across the two sites so we would need to
hire for complementary positions it's
true the Learning Center helps to meet a
lot of student needs from our work with
our site users and community around
especially with an economy of scale in
immersion schools what is the
appropriate level of learning center and
are there other behavioral supports they
could be helpful to not just access the
county of students but any hosting site
so we have a beautiful time position of
our house
increased enrollment of hippies so that
does represent any could have te that
could help to address not only access
Academy students my first question is
looking at the prospect of colocation at
Lincoln would you imagine that the two
programs would remain entirely
segregated or could there be
opportunities for those motivated
students to have electives together
classes together shares this out
well I would certainly hope that it's
not just a cohabitation where there's no
relationship so I think you have a lot
more opportunities to think about what
our integration opportunities electives
is in an obvious place without a makes
sense beyond you know the dental college
our or other opportunities we hope that
the economies of scale maybe we can
actually increase the sort of some
elective offerings that could be
available to all the little great
students that would be residing at that
school site so my hope is that we try to
strive for integration wherever it makes
sense and try to run a more inclusive
overall school environment so that could
mean not just shared staff like a
particular teacher teaching it's at both
programs but potentially students
learning together absolutely and I mean
those are decisions we want to make sure
our educators are being thoughtful about
with our families around for that they
didn't question about the difference in
the transportation costs in the first
slide it says seven seventy thousand for
Woodlawn but then in option B it has six
hundred thousand and it was the same
thing in spite of thousand
00h 40m 00s
so I'm not sure the difference in the
1.0 that's that's an exam so the
difference in the two options with
vessel and lane
they're far enough apart that we're not
able to share those buses and pick up
all the students at once and then drop
it once
so we're basically doubling the route
that's where though I think in one
thing's it might say 600 but I'm not
debating it it's about Piper for those
for those eight routes with Woodlawn and
Peninsula were able to share those buses
we would drop a peninsula first and
they're gonna want to would long so the
70,000 were reflects the additional cost
involved in the ad an average for the
day it's the combination of staff
for both incest grades one through five
and six through eight we needed space
for specials because specialists eat our
language do you the those schools that
were considering to place those xsf have
those instructions so I guess what I
would want to see is well in the
invention that we could perhaps because
the cognitive scale able to bolster the
offerings of the
yeah I think that's been a general rule
as we've thought about this as an
overall school physical plants
enrollment increases that should
contemplate for the enhancing FTEs but
we certainly want to make the elective
offerings you know continue to be
available we have to be creative about
how those are situated within the school
or how those are scheduled between two
programs on the same site but the idea
is
we have a full-time music teacher where
that's a beautiful place for integration
perhaps to take place or opens up
electives and instrumental music that
maybe weren't even there in the first
place for those two schools
[Music]
questioning about there's some concerns
that were raised to the lawsuit that was
filed yesterday the third District say
the district cannot meet its obligation
to certain access programs for students
abilities Act section 504 another loss
if access from the access program is
located that petunia location let's do
you have any concerns about the
district's ability those trees
well they don't have concerns because
our intent and our obligation is to
continue providing services to our
students particularly where there are
IEP or special needs that are identified
the only thing that would be changing is
the address so our tank would be to
continue to not just comply but actually
think about how we enhance those
supports just as we know before we
identify but to create those supports
availability building where there are
more students so we have to make sure
I'm sure we're respecting those
requirements whether they're a TA or 504
I da all those acronyms we have to
comply
in no particular order I guess the first
question is I know there were pre-k
programs at Lee
and it was already imagined that those
would be moving but at least one of the
places that at least one of the
classrooms is going to move to Vestal so
I'm assuming that's off the table so do
we know yet
where those programs are going and I
guess let me just it has always struck
me as a little not ideal
damn pre-k programs in the middle school
anyway so moving schools
just to say I never understood why they
were associated there either but I have
that institutional knowledge but we do
know is that community wants to see more
seeds more options open up on the east
side so a number of the schools have
been concentrated toast spread out those
classrooms that's all I was going to say
that there's multiple schools we could
spread them out into although the later
we go in this decision we could decide
to if if Lane didn't become inflamed
Vesto wasn't the solution decided on we
could just say okay for this year we're
00h 45m 00s
not going to move those head starts
right now just because we have a lot on
everybody's plates to ensure that we get
this all done in time and we know that
there's a lot of things that are
changing between now next year so it
just depends on first where we we decide
to place access programs whether we move
them now or later and then where we put
them depends on whether we do it now or
we're looking at this again next year
because we are facing this growth that's
happening in other schools I mean even
today we're finding out
well the boundary changed in one school
and they're gonna have three
kindergarten classrooms and we didn't
realize that we now
for three first grade classrooms but
those are all projections so we don't
know until the kids actually land a
specialty in kindergarten so you can see
how one decision and the timing on one
decision impacts another but we have
schools we've talked about Kelly and
festal and Lee and claritin there's
multiple schools that would love to have
those pre caves that would help bolster
up those schools and more importantly
would provide that early experience in
communities where the students really
need those so that's why we had
instructionally with that instructions
focus made those decisions initially to
try to move them into those schools keep
in mind that we were also at the same
time trying to figure out where to put
some special education classrooms
something who was going to take those so
just trying to move all those pieces and
make sure that the instruction for
children for all children stayed the
focus or the driver
so that distribution of those bad
classrooms and pre-k classrooms along
the eastern side of the state
things that are also emotion that we're
playing with so this creates additional
space at Lane middle school by situating
when the buildings that maybe don't have
entire blocks of ten classrooms
available would certainly have several
available Jeffrey Kay's vessel is one of
those sites that is contemplated to take
water to every case it would be a tight
fit to launch a new pre-k there if all
you have to think about whether that was
a possibility or something we could do
you know postpone the short term and
then he was attacked in a couple of
years all right
I know that individual board members
have looked at this whole probably at
least half dozen times but the numbers
seem to be in dispute so I want to ask
can we just leave access at Rose City
Park and distribute the projected
students for Rose City Park to Lee Scott
and vessel
do we have we actually didn't look at
that because we felt that decision was
already made in terms of a previous
board decision about where storage
schools
so because we didn't we don't have a
slide on that one because that wasn't
part of our
thank you when we adopted the resolution
we designated boundaries for
for Oh City Park and where the boy those
students were going to go so I think
staff right and felt that the board you
know was a unanimous may have been close
to the boundaries
I could just remember when we started
working with the advisory part of what
we needed to do is determine what is the
criteria for our decisions because
otherwise you don't plan on a decision
and you keep talking about it with no
decision and so what we did is went back
to previous board documents and that was
all part of the conversation about what
decision is ours to make
made that decision I appreciate that
because I've cut that's where we saw it
my question so is good luck currently g5
in saluting introducing 6/8 into
yes they did have six eight before but I
think it's two years you've been without
sticks movement so we be introducing
okay for the four stools we're currently
considering here what is each current
program giving up in order for there to
00h 50m 00s
be enough room to move in access are
they losing spent classrooms
de-escalation space cafeteria I do not
know what's on the traffic light I think
depending on the site it varies right so
certain
I'm served lunch everybody you know
cafeteria before any states some of the
reasons that some of the schools fell
off the list is because some of some
very key support spaces with a lot of
the available spaces that did provide
for the de-escalation of the students so
that's and so we wanted to make sure
that some of those were preserved but we
we have to go kind of site by site with
each other before we have the
principal's here
so I'm Jean Grae Cardona and I'm from a
middle school um so clearly a head start
would be relocated and so that would
open up light classrooms there we would
have to use the stage would have to be
utilized we have a couple of rooms that
are being used by partners some I think
that's the Latino network also son
school would have to move their offices
we also at the same time our clinic is
moving out of a back area and so some of
those partners would move back into the
into the area that was used by the
clinic so we would be mostly shifting
different areas right now we do not have
we don't don't have a drama program so
it's really not being used other than
Head Start uses it for a recess area so
that would be used as a classroom space
for access in order to meet the
requirements that they have because we
have eight classrooms and the stage
would be the aides would be the minus
base I'm sorry John Gray it is the
clinic space going to be repurposed or
will it be used as counseling space or
otherwise so just great the partners
that will be that will be required to
move in order to make a classroom space
for access we'll be moving back to where
the clinic the current currently is used
for a clinic so there are office spaces
and then there's a larger area that it's
kind of like a staff room that would be
that would be used I'm so V agent from
Peninsula
and for us to bring access in it would
if we had another administrator
everybody venetian area offices we would
lose the room that he currently used for
our caldera studio to school program we
left the one two as a blend but if we
had to separate them we will either lose
the motor room or the computer lab the
motor room is server may be used for our
installation space for our CV classrooms
because we have two of those we lose our
staff lounge and the counselor chairs
face our drama and music group would
also be lost and they would be pushed on
the stage or put into a cart we may lose
the art room and make the space that we
currently have the campfire room would
be shared throughout the day instead of
just being dedicated for campfire if we
had a staggered start
Givaudan max our after school some
programming her after school day care
and our before school day care I am
Andrea Porter Lopez on the cart went to
look at one school in making in making a
move the ships would include we have to
re-envision our reading lab currently we
have a room for Territory intervention
for reading what everything specialist
in any a we would lose that space we
lose our space for ESL so that would
become like hallways Support Services we
lose our book rooms we relocate a CD
classroom into our Learning Center you
can for Learning Center into what we
thought was our growth space for first
grade or two years from now or
projective or three Kinder's this coming
year our academic coach currently is in
one of the rooms she hosts PLC's and
does the teacher PD in there so all of
our materials for that are in there
which is a storage thing but it was a
place to get teachers out of their
classroom to meet PLC's and have no
00h 55m 00s
distractions we lose that admin space
will be shared our kinder create space
will have to turn into a teacher work
rooms our current teacher workroom is up
in that pod will give that practices
teachers to have a workroom
that's hi I'm Sabrina flame I'm the
principal at Vestal the head start
location change would be it's kind of it
doesn't count as a loss because we don't
have it right now with something we're
anticipating the de-escalation space
would be shared between schools our
learning center would be shared our
speech-language pathologist space would
be shared and then we would change our
computer lab to a classroom and that new
saman chart was a request for a cart so
I think what you would hear from you
heard from these four principles I think
you would hear from any principal that
would require some shifts in the way
that they're using space in their
classroom we want to make sure that
there's space for our essential services
you know if you take the example of any
one of these schools Peninsula for
instance you have 12 whole rooms the 28
classrooms available I've been principal
of course of Anna maximize every space
that I have provide services supports
and electives
for students so is is asking each of
these school needs to rethink how they
use space
and
so we have these papers
professional under in that final column
it says as
yes
yeah we can certainly have Sarah our
principal stock how did contemplate it
before just how many programs
[Music]
yeah
[Music]
so as this what this one that's right
when we talk process the terms cut in
terms of what we believe to be schools
that had facilities available as you see
we've got about twenty schools here that
we looked at and our initial and
facilities initial look we determined
that there was probably not enough
classrooms as a the superintendent
indicated then and some of these schools
were took a second look
we had principals look at them folks
that are more on the academic side that
had a better idea of how space could be
used than the in facilities so this was
facilities initial cut answer your
question
I have sufficient so those two perhaps
we'll have to be creative about some
shared spaces and how we maximize these
phases but it can be done so I have a
question about a school that's not
currently under consideration but it was
as of last week and I think just it was
understand why it
so I think there was a sense that it had
some very positive attributes it's
approximately issued a vessel and
static that it was and about the
advisory group had ten classrooms making
sure like what why it came off the list
and thank people it's slightly look like
fact that good
just share what the thinking was why
we're here today that not
yeah I was feeling positive about that
as well as as possible as we kind of
drill down a little bit further with it
and understood some of the variables it
was clear that shifting the way that
space is using you know
good good good impact on these existing
program such as the escalation space for
either program would be available in
this costume requirements the other one
is as we looked into policies we the
boundary shifts have already projected
for three kindergartens to go to lead
01h 00m 00s
which is new and so that's an additional
kindergarten which was already factored
in but in the coming year we have to
fight another first grade and so on and
so that kind of scratched it off the
list because there's more students than
we were anticipating we kind of knew
that by expanding the attendance area
that made it feasible
gratefully to destroy its enrollment at
the boundaries doing what it's for to do
what its objective and it's working out
right had things stayed the same that I
think
you know we might have been short of
space for two you know and we get into
the whole particle of modulars
conversation and that becomes its own
difficulty there's also sort of
late-breaking other factors that are
coming into play with under the
neighborhood schools for instance
there's overcrowding in the number of
our science Bridger is one of those we
may need a temporary solution how we
accommodate all of those so that's also
our staff slide right now we're talking
about some of the same schools we would
play a very special rather pre-k or some
overflow music
so I'm wondering why we give an interest
of transparency these were the sites
that were considered with da Vinci is
considered sure
so DaVinci there was a question about
could we visit it there weren't a lot of
empty classrooms it wasn't one of those
schools where we had a significant
number of classrooms that he had just
been vacated recently so it was another
the original list but then when
community started asking about what
about the Vinci we had a couple of
different visits to see what was going
on there and I don't know why we didn't
put it on the list I think maybe it
could have been an oversight but it
wasn't one where we had a lot of
classrooms in the first place so there
would have had to been the other
language we kept using was it feels in
some of these places where we're being
asked that we didn't really have on the
list from the original facilities list
was because there were they weren't
really open and it was like really
wedging and saying okay well if we could
put two programs share to two specials
sharing a classroom but then you get
into the conversation does that really
work in the schedule and how many total
kids are using that classroom during the
day one of the challenges at da Vinci is
the
HPE requirements and the fact that there
is no gym so it's really hard already to
do pe and now the only peeve and then
she's students will have is dance and
now everyone has to take down and
they're actually already struggling
trying to figure out where what is the
other space where they're gonna be able
to have dance so I can't champion you
know those goals could have been on this
list and almost any school business
would be a better situation in DaVinci
to access such requirements age attend
classrooms for support space there's
nowhere near that number at DaVinci
event
and ever since have temporary or these
decisions would be to pairings so we
don't look at this every year or that's
a great question thereafter Oh something
rich in the question back to our court I
think a lot of it is I to some of the
work before is already expressed that it
wants to do in poverty reviews if I
focus option that use the things that
we've been talking about throughout the
course of the school year that could
create some program consolidations other
flexibilities we know that we have a
couple of district properties that could
come back online and available to our
portfolio to site programs that we value
that deserve and warrant their own at
this location it's just that's two years
out so I look forward to doing that work
with the board but today we have a
dilemma making sure all of our students
at home so we're talking about Woodlawn
and the question about whether the 10:1
status would be impacted by access
living in there you said it would not is
that because the the aggregate student
population would still keep it within
10:1 status or did we learn something
about co-located program
and how they may or may not affect it
because that's significant to several
01h 05m 00s
other schools that have lost their title
1 status because of a co-located program
so I don't want to speak about the other
ones because I didn't do any research on
that what we did do is it has worked
with our title 1 coordinator to say if
we had played if we faced access in any
of the title 1 schools that currently
have title 1 funding would they lose
their funding if we put access there as
a program and the answer was no because
right now we see that program as a
separate program we're not saying we're
gonna put that there and it's going to
let their long term it's now going to be
this permanently co-located thing my
understanding is like other co-located
programs like language programs they're
placed there and there I don't know my
understanding was that they're there
they are more long-term and access so he
said our when we asked the question it
was about this sort of a few year
placement the question was are you going
to merge all the services and programs
and the answer is
now I don't know about schools that lost
title one in the past
typically it's been about the speech I
think what staff confirmed with the
Department of Education is if access
operates as a program under its own
administration of code because the
services are kept separate so we're not
supplanting so I want to go back to a
little bit that some of the principles
touch on an issue and that's the
availability to before and after school
care and you say let's talk about what
they have available for before
so at Bethel we have the why before and
after school care as of this moment
there's no space available no additional
space it's full woodland has campfire
but it serves six to twelve year olds
surveys before and after school when we
have a Sun program it's affected
we have campfire bird before and after
school care it's currently at capacity
if it increases it has to add another
classroom and our ser you learn after
school Sun program it would only be
impacted if access starts later which
has been the proposal to answer a half
an hour I'm a traditionalist arts lady
has another son school program that
operates after school and it's usually
operating at capacity and fills up
almost immediately so this is a little
bit of a survey of courage existing
level of services some of them are
contracted we have Nancy on child care
services did you talk for just a moment
option to what pursuit well I think some
of the options are what we had talked
about together a few months ago where
are there some access families like to
get closer or have their kids take a bus
and get closer to their neighborhood
school and access childcare at that
school and I think what would work
really well since campfire is is one of
the options on the table would be to use
those programs throughout the throughout
the district create science school in
our southeast
Fernwood and in our northeast they I
think there would be options as long as
we have an opportunity to connect with
transportation planners need to survey
what
so I think we're switching out to public
comment and how we set this up is that
we allotted two slots for the for
potential collated located schools and
then to potential - for access and then
01h 10m 00s
one for the tag Advisory Council and I'm
going to ask candidates do one at a time
because are they gonna be this Mike yep
yeah Moses here
there's
our students who wants to speak there's
lots there there's one
my name is Anna Deville and I've been a
kid a great teacher at Bestival for five
years as you know vessel is a title one
school on North East 82nd and is a
beautiful and vibrant community because
of our families our community is also
incredibly complex every day as
educators we are supporting kids who are
experiencing generational poverty
homelessness food insecurity foster care
continuous immigration status this is
just a short list of experiences our
students encounter in their daily lives
we happen and can you continue to be a
highly trauma impacted community last
school year Festivus named one of four
schools deemed in crisis in all of
Portland Public the vessel staff is
devoted to our community we have been
working hard to repair and rebuild our
school co-locating access that vessel
presents many challenges and is a huge
issue of equity the influx of access
would almost outnumber our students from
our neighborhood this will change the
school community students in the
building will nearly double
pablor trauma and acted kids navigate
having a new and very different
community on a two vessel violence
history is entrenched and racism in
persist as the whitest city in America
vessel his majority of kids have Killip
colored what does it mean for students
of color to lose the opportunity of
being in a community that is reflective
of themselves by colo D locating access
which is 67% way access had $100,000
donated to their foundation last year
how will the disparity between resources
throughout the belief book and a
collocation of schools with such extreme
differences how will we explain to our
students that they do not have the
resources that access house our building
will be beyond capacity we will no
longer have the space we need to serve
our students like a de-escalation room
soin already has an office and a shower
our counselor would not have space to
meet confidentially with students
Western psychologists already meet in a
closet where will our most vulnerable
kids receive their deeply needed and
deserved services we have been promised
FF so we'll have cut start beginning in
fall 2000 18 and we need this we are
worried we can't fit both access and
head start having head start vessel
means our families will have greater
access to
I'm education which will have a direct
positive impact for our neighborhood
vessel students come to school vessel
school a vessel students come to school
each day with a broad range of
experiences and needs I ask how is it
equitable to add access to our highly
trauma impacted community we are
dedicated to serving each of our
families for whom we care so deeply
about I know the colocation of access
will only add to the immense challenges
our community already faces
he gets bored and I said a lot of what I
was gonna say but I will add that he
also acknowledged that many of the
students at access likely have had
setbacks and struggles in their lives do
who they are as individuals but the
difference between those struggles and
the struggles faced by our community is
that the latter are in large part the
product of systemic problems in our
country and our world and in Portland
racism displacement global conflict lack
of social services we as a society and
as a public school district have a
communal responsibility to help balance
those inequities by prioritizing the
needs of those students and families if
we ever hope to create a future world
that is successful in peaceful we must
prioritize the needs of the most
vulnerable the irony is not lost on us
that a program titled access will be
housed in a community who has been
denied access to so many things we've
heard far too many times from PBS we are
sorry we didn't do this process right we
didn't treat you equitably we will do
better next time
well this is the next time please the
time to do right is now find an
alternative to housing access and title
one communities it's it's the most
single important thing to remember it's
the right thing to do but please stop
the rhetoric that it's not possible
within a limited time that you have
01h 15m 00s
created for yourselves to find an
alternative for our communities there is
a better way
I'm Coney impressed parent woodline I'd
like to offer some insight into our
community and the terrible spot PBS
administration is putting us in again in
a never-ending cycle of changes that
destabilize our school community six
years ago as my oldest was starting
kindergarten we hurt wood line was going
to close in the Jefferson cluster and
moment balancing exercise woodland was
already the product of a closed school
merger after Applegate was shuttered
years prior at the end of a long
drawn-out process
full of racist overtones and constant
advocacy we saved our school in that
conversation we realized the inadequate
educational opportunities in the KH
throughout the Jefferson cluster and
then advocated for our middle school
kids to get appropriate classes to help
them be on even ground with the other
students in the district and we reopened
ugly green now we have a pre-k five
working hard to adapt to a gentrified
neighborhood while maintaining the deep
and important connection to the historic
african-american community and our
Hispanic community members we have
appropriate spaces for classroom
supports we've expanded our media
collection to be far more diverse to
truly reflect the kids in the classrooms
we have built an amazing schema
curriculum we are on an upswing the
tragedy in this conversation of
co-locating access medical students is
that the building will be providing
accelerated classes that we were not
able to get for our own students when we
have start middle school grades I
understand this colocation offers very
little opportunity for integration and
the very real potential to have a
predominantly white Academy inside the
school that is very diverse a separate
but equal mentality I urge you to play
put this plan on hold
balance the whole district use the
equity lens like your belt but rarely
seeing action make the Jefferson and
Madison clusters as important as the
grant cluster in this decision-making
process and make all the kids and all
these potentially effective schools as
important as the ones who tested out of
their neighborhood schools and as a last
point all kids deserve and us
individualized support a reminder that
access is there because of what is not
being done and implementing teh
programming in our neighborhood schools
[Applause]
message and her name is Riley watzmann
and she read that sorry I am extremely
concerned the inequities presented with
cocaine access with woodland or any
historically underserved title one
school for that matter historically our
needs are under breath decided ignored
and not meant we are underfunded we like
resources programming and opportunities
co-locating access in our school take up
space and resources that should be
intended for would want to be able to
grow and flourish we will lose some of
our support programs and are
specifically for our more vulnerable
students we could lose ESL reading and
behavioral emotional support rooms and
maybe others to make room for access not
to mention we don't really have a
physical space so our school will be
crowded I also want to point out the
cultural impact of a change this big in
our school in the past few years the
Woodlawn neighborhood has gone through
massive gentrification our school the
families and students have had to endure
a change in culture feeling and becoming
displaced you need to come into place
and like an outsider in our own
community moving an entirely new
population of students into our school
will cause a major and immediate shift
in our school's culture that will
negatively impact our historically
underserved student population a
community who has already suffered
through toxic challenges students and
families may feel displaced in our own
school being forced to make space for
new population much work has been done
so far to try to preserve and celebrate
our schools history and culture despite
the changes we face this colocation will
be a big step backwards and could I do
much of the work Vietnam
01h 20m 00s
I think it's unfair
okay so four minutes fudge
my name is Jenny gap I've been a teacher
library at Peninsula for the past seven
years what district leaders said you're
not a ke anymore we were heartbroken we
were a successful Katie because our
middle school students and knew we cared
about them no one fell through the
proverbial cracks as they do in large
schools this one size fits most idea is
not good enough for our students that's
why we have a special program like
access to begin with it shouldn't be
about a k-8 versus middle school amount
it's about the social emotional and
academic needs of students now we're a
large district I don't understand why we
can't have both the k-8 model and middle
schools coexist here when district
leaders said you're not a title one
anymore we let out a collective groan
buck up they say you're resilient they
say continue to provide the same level
of services to students with less they
say by the way we change the definition
of historically underserved and change
the formula for who qualifies for title
one they say having also worked under
two principals while saving in excess
we're on the same campus I can attest to
the strain the two distinct communities
place on a single building squishing a
special program into a neighborhood
school is not right for either community
the access community is unique and
tight-knit
I know they are weary of being batted
around by district leaders who still
haven't figured out what to do with them
for over a decade
here's that a degree just to taste mind
you of the potential environmental
impact in my building from where I sit
what will you do with the access
librarian she comes to live with me well
record where were her desk ago will
there be a budget to build a collection
of library materials that are at best
fit for access students will that be
separate from peninsulas budget all the
work I've done in our
Caty computer lab or not well it really
be dismantled to make more room in the
now maxed out building are we stuck with
Chromebooks is the only option that
means you're limiting students to
programs that can be run from a web
browser every device has its limitations
are we interested in being a future
ready school it makes materials and
lessons I have built around the lab
environment obsolete as a work I'm doing
right now today to transition students
to the new Windows 10 adoption going to
be pointless when there's no space for
classes to access desktop computers that
were new to us mid-year we already have
to lunch periods to fit our own students
in full we now have four lunch periods
when we start eating lunch at 10 a.m.
will groups of students in the building
never have access to the library because
my schedule is now spread so thin I have
no problem with change I expect and
accepted in my life however maxing out
schedules and spaces overwhelming staff
with a constant stream of new
expectations and enforcing change on
students who's one constant in life
maybe school is demoralizing this bond
going game of ping pong ball with the
access community continues to be handled
in a disrespectful way I'm disappointed
and disheartened but hey in three or
four years when district own building
leases are up you'll actually get back
to Cyril building right
[Applause]
thank you for hearing from all that's
today superintendent Ferraro dr. Curtis
and members of the school board
after an entire school year of proposals
announcements and attractions this
last-minute decision making processes
the direct results of help inadequately
your staff as a judge considerations
that impact access and the sites you
propose for colorization wise leaders
understand when they don't have enough
information as you've seen today or time
as we see today to act appropriately I
hope that today he will exercise more
wisdom than your staff has in seven
months since this board voted to open
two new middle schools action based in a
false sense of urgency is almost
certainly guaranteed to reinforce
pre-existing inequities and that is what
01h 25m 00s
we see in your plans that impact
Woodlawn Peninsula vestal and Lane
schools where space is available
precisely because this school district
has spent four years to modify
boundaries excuse me and ensure
distribution of students that would
support more equitable educational
opportunities at those schools leave
access at Rose City Park Paul thank you
for asking about that plan once again as
we have asked so many times you should
have defensed that plan in today's
meeting where the public could hear the
reasons that was deemed unbeatable but
she didn't many people have demonstrated
that that plan is feasible and not just
be a little bit more desirable for so
many communities take more time to
gather the information you
implemented the district boundary review
and modifications many of us have been
pushing for for so many years right Paul
freida Scott that's how we know each
other
years and years without a plan that
appropriately houses all students
displaced by opening two new schools
you are simply not ready to implement
that plan your plan requires too much
sacrifice from your most vulnerable
communities and does not account for
under enrollment in school it does not
ensure appropriate academic programming
or workable transportation and childcare
for access families like mine I will and
for those with multiple students and
Melamed triandos we heard from all the
other principals about what their
schools would give up in colocation and
that was appropriate but our principal
was passed over we did not hear a word
about what access is losing and what we
have never had because of colocation
such as a secure home security about our
continued existence sufficient learning
room supports for our most struggling
students adequate administrative support
enough information enough space to serve
all students who need our program and
more absorbent can you focus you have
squandered the goodwill and Trust of
this community all gear just as you have
wasted time and energy stop
stop doing that
thank you very much but it was Chris
Waldheim a perronnette of to access
students with your indulgence I would
like to pass the microphone to dr. Kyle
Johnson clinical psychiatrist or a child
psychiatrist because I think just
comments maybe more thank you very much
I am a Nexus Academy parent and child
license apparently to see his children
throughout the community access Children
and Families and the under considerable
emotional strain since early fall when
this first plan to sight it fell through
today I'm your seven days until the
school year ends we are here addressing
a hastily scheduled board a board vote
we adults us the adults have failed our
children this year by delaying decisions
until now May 30th this is a ver Slee
effective the students at access Academy
a population already vulnerable given
their asynchronous development research
shows that will actually get the
children display these behavioral and
emotional problems compared to numbers
of samples including anxiety low
self-esteem social withdrawal access
oppression in short this year is
uncertainty has already harmed this
cohort of children and poorly planned
transitions will exacerbate the park
board you do not need to vote today
please do not make an ill-considered
decision affecting access and Portland's
historically underserved communities
because of time pressure pressure we the
adults have imposed on ourselves through
mismanagement sometimes when we are
under considerable strain it is best to
back off leave things where they stand
and regroup you can make another choice
today and that is leaving
as they are access Academy could stay at
Rose City Park this coming academic year
this would give the district time to
carefully consider options with a with
every community then put input and
interests taken into consideration while
learning from your mistakes this year hi
01h 30m 00s
afternoon glad to be here today and I am
kind of disappointed that this is the
first time that tag AG has been offered
a spot we have to get them from public
testimony and that it's not okay so
hopefully you'll stay with me here I'm
gonna try parent of a child at school
title in and access Academy I am the
incoming tag advisory committee chair
although I cannot speak formally for
tagged act today because we did not have
more than 24 hours notice to get a
statement together and we like to vote
on what we put out as formal statements
I will say though that the law through
three division 22 organization rules
requires that PPS do three things first
identify students achieving in math or
reading or capable of achieving at the
97th percentile or above second to
engage those parents and third to
provide services and program support
salary learning at their accessory and
level OD e guidance has further stated
that the tag away RS apply to all areas
in which a child uses a scale which they
have been identified previously is
gifted and should be routine even daily
and should be implemented quickly within
30 days of knowledge that accessory or
level is not being met access serves a
very specific and demonstrated need at
the far end of the accelerated learner
continuum the public likes to pass off
these children as being high achieving
white males of having an easy life and
many but not all and access do come from
family
of economic or racial privilege it is
notable however that access demographics
are largely more diverse than the pool
from which access draws the greater tag
population in my opinion this speaks
volumes about the district's failures
with identification and culturally and
linguistically relevant accelerated
learning in one particular area
the access demographics are actually far
more vulnerable than the tagged
demographics at large known as twice
exceptional students approximately 5% of
accelerative learners and PBS also have
documented disabilities that require an
IEP an individualized education
education program so 5% in the greater
tag population access it's currently 15%
three times as high another 6% have
medically diagnosed and we believe
recognize learning disabilities that PPS
won't give an IEP for an additional 20%
of those families state that they would
seek an IEP or 504 if they weren't at
access so I'll do the math for you
that's about 130 students right now here
today that won't be bearing the brunt of
moving up to four times in the next five
years because of your more planning so
to all of you
you can't staff superintendent community
questioning the need for access I ask
you some questions how often has your
child been asked to do work in the hall
daily how about have you discussed
antidepressants with your general
practitioner at their at their third
grade well child visit I have have you
had your seven-year-old evaluated for
suicidal ideation I have have you
wondered if it's counterproductive to
provide child
did math worksheets to come out of a
spinning cycle of anxiety and stop a
meltdown miss work to front-load a
fourth grade field trip spent hours
collaborating with staff on how to
support your child in just sitting in
the cafeteria for most of you I'm going
to guess the answer is no if this is a
common experience in Access this is the
context in which you make a choice about
accesses future it's the reality of my
household its reality of many people at
access it's also the reality although to
a lesser degree of many parents students
identified or not I despite the obvious
need that is backed by science best
practices the law PBS has done a
horrible job of addressing these needs
you have an out of compliance or in
court with respect to these three Oh ARS
or 15 out of the last 20 years you I
can't but I 15 I last 20 years there has
you've been voluntarily out of
compliance for the last two you don't
even have a tag director and we're
supposed to believe that somehow this is
gonna all be better and so I'm going to
list the following things based of
fast-forward that tag Act documents and
in draft into the reports suggest need
to happen so the access is being split
and will land on to the liberal
communities is it on access or
accelerated learners this is on the
district for planning it's an ability to
articulate a vision and take timely act
action the district needs to actually
01h 35m 00s
finish the focus option review process
and make meaningful boundary policy and
curricular changes and only those bold
actions are going to ensure that title
one schools are the only buildings that
have room 408
as you do this you also need to
concurrently do these other things you
need to show your work we were pleased
you look at the looked at the tag
document women pathways model came out
what was the last time you looked at it
how many of those questions are still
relevant
do you have answers where are the
resources number two you need to just
stop dismantling accelerated learning
programs before you know the replacement
whether it be access or opportunities
for science and high schools you need to
commit to number three commit to
comprehensively including tag materials
no later than six months after
finalizing the general scope and
sequence teachers want to help but they
don't have the materials or the training
to do so you need to articulate the
intersection of accelerated learning
with emerging bilinguals if we're really
going to talk equity and tag that's
where the disparities are the greatest
and if DLA is going to be the major
strategy for English language learners
it's ridiculous that that isn't
articulating that intersection you need
a higher tag director be thoughtful
about and clear about to who not person
reports number six you need to require
that TAC professional development occurs
with all building administrators since
they are the gatekeepers serving as
facilitators building schedulers
professional development trainers
trainers and setting behavioral
expectations number seven you need to
commit to and implement tag service
program pilots that are more than
professional development PPS should be
rolling out concurrently with this
access change high leverage culturally
relevant services where access is placed
in order to provide parity in meeting
accelerated learners rate and level in
that very same building
that's what equity looks like I have one
last one yeah it's a top ten we're
actually compeiied the final eight is we
need to implement district-wide
accelerated opportunities for everyone
services and programs need to be consist
it predictable and perhaps more
importantly automatic such that it
doesn't require that your human efforts
and burden on parents parents who have a
parent vote to get basic services for
our children
only then are we the stuff start
chipping away
[Applause]
so people could just stand down with
them briefly
we're just going to get director content
when the only two are then we'll start
[Music]
that's good
01h 40m 00s
so special session special meeting of
2018 is called the order stream live on
PBS TV Services website and will be
displayed the next two weeks we have
interpreters here who have introduced
themselves during the work session at
this point we're going to have a
recommendation on a resolution and
director content dude lactose yes sir
yes so we have their constant joining us
by so now we have before us there is a
resolution
[Applause]
okay you have a resolution to relocate
the access program and there's a series
of recitals I have shared previously the
rationale for why we're here today I
think before we get to the resolution
point I would say this has been too long
a process for accessing to show the new
schools we acknowledge that we didn't
want to come to conclusion before the
summer started so that we weren't summer
when many families aren't here so as
we've said before you know how to be
enough here the satphone even to change
we need to make sure that it'll middle
grade students who are having the neck
and the neck the whole experience had a
more equitable experience and the other
dynamic that's happened in addition to
the middle school initiative that the
board and the superintendent Kabam is
to ensure greater equity is that over
the last 40 years we've been a growing
district and we've also had some
buildings that were taken offline but
those buildings the future will be
coming back online and we know that we
need to manage our facilities to really
optimize education for all of our
students but that's going to take take
time to do so there's no ideal placement
and as we've all discussed and I think
the staff is really agonized over the
numbers and the criterion was what's the
best thing to do for all of our students
so based on the criteria that was
established we appreciated that the
staff the superintendent came up with
two qualified pairs of schools that
could conceivably work with the criteria
that we established and we were
recognizing to the community that the
process wasn't ideal we don't have great
choices we're trying to get better and
we're trying to improve educate the
education options and the access of our
students to have really rigorous
programming so based on the discussion
today I'm going to make a motion that
the Board of Education adopts the
bombing sites identified by
superintendent
Asian access program for at least the
2018 making school year and it will be
blamed for the 6/8 and vessel for the
1/5 grades the board would then direct
the superintendent to undertake all
necessary steps to implement this
resolution including and ensuring
adequate transportation the continuity
program in the new locations and that
necessary supports continue to be
provided to students in the access
program including providing that
individual school access and disability
basically need to continue to be met and
the board acknowledges and appreciates
participation of the access Advisory
Group in the broader community and the
program relocating process so that's
what I'm moving and I'd like to ask for
a second second it's been seconded by a
director as far as around so we have a
resolution that's moved and seconded and
at this time we have three individual
centers for citizen product plus one
students and I would again for the spend
over their portion it's two minutes and
I would ask that a respect for the other
speakers and
[Music]
okay that was a miscommunication but if
you were told to be minutes then in
three minutes we'll be I would just ask
please
01h 45m 00s
hi my name is human camel saw I am a
fourth failure on access so I like maps
I really like maps and I looked at the
map at the schools that you were trying
to break us up into and one option
separates the elementary and middle
school into schools three miles
apart and the other option is six and a
half miles apart
you couldn't have teachers like math
teachers and language teachers go back
and forth without using up a lot of time
and you certainly couldn't have kids
you're back and forth to get map at the
correct level the way we do now my
mother told me that she has written all
of you seven times now glass how this
was going to work and nobody has ever
answered her so now I want to ask the
question am I even going to have math
next year I'm in Cu I won right now I'm
a fourth grader next year I will be a
fifth grader obviously and need to take
C why - what's your plan how are you
going to do that what do you believe
how will you're going to do that without
missing my own classroom work and time
you expect me to just not study math for
an entire year do you think that's a
good idea
are you going to hire a math teacher
just to teach me and my one other friend
you will be in - why - next year I
didn't think so
are you going to put me in the hallway
and let a computer chips me do you think
that's a good idea
your plan does not work the choice of
schools are not look we'll have to stay
away from each other and they are too
far away from lots of students to go to
access now some of our schools are bus
rides of Overland how long each way and
more than even math waking up waking us
up like this is really mean we are a
community we do things as whole school
how was that going to happen now you
should not accept these options you
should make a different decision you
have treated us that very badly all yeah
I am very very
you don't have a very good plan now
don't just accept a bad plan wait do it
right and in the meantime keep us at
both City bug you keep saying you don't
want to displace anyone don't displace
us thank you
[Applause]
[Laughter]
I'm also elected board member of the
save access Association yesterday prior
to the announcement of this year meeting
or at the same access Association we
filed suit against the district not in
reaction of the choice of any particular
schools because it was prior to the
announcement of any particular schools
we seek a permanent one building
solution that successfully needs the
educational and socio-emotional means of
access students we also seek true tag
services for all time as an offense
students as required by state law with
only seven days left in the school year
is anyone here convinced that PPS as the
financial or logistical capacity to
dramatically restructure our program in
a way that meets the needs of all the
students in those affected buildings
access students are highly gifted marked
by asynchronous development and not
infrequently also have disabilities many
of a single building so that the 22
percent of students with a EPS or
section 504 plans can have their
specialized educational needs supported
for all access students disruptions and
transitions can be particularly
difficult to their asynchronous
development and yet this plan opens the
access community and other school
communities while doing nothing to solve
the long-term issue of citing access
access students need a single building
because access is the only program the
district with the curriculum that
depends on students being grouped by
skill level instead of age and yet this
proposal splits the school into you by
age allowing students to cross the
grades takes advantage and economies of
scale in a single location
reproducing since two locations will
require additional funds and trained
teachers at a time when both are in
short supply but access needs and what
because cannot provide even with
to budget his community the
socio-emotional connections become
available in grouping these kids
together are something not possible with
here appears access kids for too tight
connections and provide immense support
across all of the grades in dividing the
population this intangible and immense
aspect of the program is too deeply
diminished so we remain concerned about
a number of issues
how will the district afford and
continue to afford duplicating access
administrators other staff and
transportation set to locations given
serious budgetary shortfalls we worry
this is just another plan that will
ultimately be withdrawn it's not now in
a year
how will TPS accommodate students who
need to travel between buildings
how will TPS accommodate the hundreds of
other students in the district that I've
been a fight as highly gifted and the
01h 50m 00s
many more identified as gifted and all
the ones who haven't been identified at
all what is the long-term plan
there isn't one finally we keep hearing
about tight deadlines it has been over
two years we've been having this
conversation why are we rushing at the
last minute literally push the boat
through on the matter with such impact
given all this perhaps the best option
is simply to maintain maintain status
quo with the access Academy a trusted
park for another year until a permanent
one building solution is found like all
of our district students these kids
deserve an education that meets their
needs and enhances their futures thank
you very much
I'm gonna be reading remarks from mr.
Garcia a much loud science teacher who
could not be here tonight he says I have
taught science and access Academy in the
last 15 years and during that time I've
seen access grown to a program that has
successfully served the needs of
talented and gifted PBS students in my
first few years I realized that this
program has a potential to be a national
model for how to develop an inclusive
urban public school program that meets
the unique needs of a diverse highly
gifted student population access
students are capable of learning science
and performing activities at advanced
rates and levels which has been
reflected by its even great success over
the years for PBS and many important
state regional and local stem
competitions
unfortunately school leaders in Portland
have neglected to find an appropriate
location that would sustain the program
or allow it to grow nor put in
sufficient effort to make the program
more representative of the entire
Portland district something I've taught
for the entire time we now have found
ourselves in an impossible situation as
you face the decision of finding another
location for the program I have seen in
case of challenges they come from
colocation and it is my hope that you
consider the decision before you today
you place considerable resources and
planning for all schools affected to
minimize conflict and the impacts of
place in schools to schools under one
building this will require significant
investment and additional staff in order
to sustain the program at two different
locations and to meet these students
needs for education at an appropriate
rating level I also have my
and they are no one in this room
believes that your resolution is
intended to support access most of us
don't believe it will even enable its
survival
the proposal simply named those
communities with the least ability to
defend their resources the proposed
sites are among the highest poverty
schools in the district no one here is
surprised my understanding is that Lane
middle school has not a single
representative in the room here tonight
if you slight access at the fringe of
the district and a high needs community
with its own distinct challenges ending
family with another option we'll take
that option the most vulnerable access
children will remain access has worked
because of the broad diversity of kids
that it serves they are not all twice
exceptional they do not all work two or
three grade levels ahead they can't for
it to be a successful community the full
diversity of students and an
exceptionally dedicated staff have
created a place of acceptance belonging
and intellectual curiosity that is truly
unique
this could have been the district
success story but it won't be if you
vote for the current resolution which
essentially essentially dismantled
access
[Music]
yeah my daughter's in kindergarten at
Woodlawn and I'm one of those really
excited parents really excited to being
involved at PTA and I'll be the vice
president that would longest PTA next
year and with other parents have been
pretty upset by the lack of
communication along this process
decision-making we've been doing in fact
last May last week on May 22nd I've
received an email that said that parent
representatives and the principal from
each school have the opportunity to meet
with the district and other officials to
have our concerns discussed and asked
questions and I asked our Prince about
it and there was no follow-through
a week later which was yesterday an
email was sent out about this meeting
and then this afternoon while I was
01h 55m 00s
taking care of my toddler I had three
hours to put together a statement to
share with all of you and the truth is
that I don't really have a statement I
just have some things I jotted down here
I think that in addition to everything
you've heard this afternoon you're
making a decision that truly and clearly
has a tremendous impact not only at the
schools that have been chosen the
resolution but also for access and it's
extremely disappointing to see that the
schools that you're choosing to bring
access to or the schools that really
need as many resources has like access
I'm not prepared to speak to the
logistical complexity of your decision
the buses the classroom allocation the
scheduling but while listening to your
presentation on your process and your
criteria it was pretty clear that you
completely disregarded the school
communities the emotional connection
between the kids the socio-economic
demographics the racial demographics how
will bringing a predominantly white
program to a school of more diverse
environment in background I didn't see
that at all and the criteria you
discussed the fact that you're making
this vote at the very last minute with
absolutely zero English from some of
these community members is disgraceful
and I think it goes against the very
bottom of every email I get that says
PBS is taught your mission of delivering
high quality instruction to all students
at least remove that with your future
decisions and yeah I think it's someone
who's very new to this process it's
clear that staying at Rose City is what
everybody wants I think you should
listen to the parents Thanks
[Applause]
so in order to session
thank you I'll be building against the
resolution several times I've been
delayed also in Woodlawn I would believe
that would Lana Peninsula potentially
have the space I I have to press the
evidence of my own eyes I can't vote for
putting kid more kids in the lane so I
wish they had been brought to the board
sooner than yesterday because there's
been no time I'm I would be persuadable
but I have not been persuaded it's
pretty much nothing about this process
then that has been good
and I don't think it's that's not as a
meant as a criticism of the
superintendent or staff or even us
[Music]
this has been an impossible position and
and I just wanted to say if anybody ever
needed evidence that PBS needs to
retrieve all of its buildings this is it
this is it
so we are I mean I I am quite confident
but people almost literally beat the
bushes trying to find a single site we
don't have one we don't have one where
we are we're not gonna have one I would
ask I would ask the audience to allow
board members to speak we listened
02h 00m 00s
okay but this is this is not anybody's
when we started all of this congrat to
middle schools I don't think any of us
contemplated being here today but here
we are it is what it is
it's not it's not anybody's ideal
certainly not mine obviously the parents
but but we aren't where we're trying to
do right by kids and with very very
serious constraints and we're trying to
undo more than a generation of terrible
decision making and this is it's it's a
lot messier than I am hoped but I think
this solution is the best we can do
right now and just one last thing I also
want to say that I am perfectly hoping
that as we take care of the access kids
we also take care of the kids in the
middle of programs at the hosting
schools and if possible I'm hoping that
we will be able to provide more access
to more programming for kids in those
schools
it concurred that it's been a really
horrific process that was one of my
comments - but if we addressed that
earlier that I think that the hosting
schools I mean it is uncle but they will
benefit with additional resources and
and the acknowledgement that after all
you know a gifted curriculum is good for
all so hoping that they'll be ability to
share instructional strategies again to
bolster the the most in schools through
the process it has really been
disappointing
wait many school communities have really
villainize XX I feel for all of you it
has been disrespectful and I feel that
it has been instead some instance
holy moly and I don't think that's what
we wanted model to our kids I wish that
we had a better solution for you but as
some elicit acknowledge we we really
have longtime larger beliefs and and we
just have no believes we have no ability
to psych this at one location we've
given the current constraints and
therefore I think it's important to that
in order to move ahead and be ready for
their students in the fall that it is
imperative that we make a decision now
there will be a lot of work to do to
ensure that we have appropriate
programming and that one of their
services again I wish we had other
options I think we are looking at making
the best choices that we can and that we
will be watching carefully we also
realize in the process how how important
it will be to look at tag services and
other models so that is something that
point forward we will certainly address
as well thank you
so I'd agree with everything that's been
said I think this has been a really
difficult process for everyone the
neighborhood schools the access parents
it's taken a lot of time but I think
we've found that we don't have a lot of
options and so this is what we're left
with and it's unfortunately not without
flaws but it's the best we can do and I
apologize for anxiety and stress on the
community this is common I agree with
Julie we need to take care of our
neighborhood kids we have to make a
decision next year yeah I didn't want
for a long but just to agree with most
of us been said in particular I know
some of you believe that it would work
to keep both city park or access and
move the kids scheduled a Totoro city
park to these surrounding schools that's
not the numbers that come up on my
02h 05m 00s
spreadsheet happy to talk offline with
anybody
but I don't I don't see that was working
so I just want to lay that out there
[Music]
so do it forward again paying attention
a lot of things as specifically for
access kids and the kids in the
receiving school to ensure that the
learning centers at least and I see the
FTE listed for access as a minimum and
something we should pay attention to and
be able to flex it that word that needed
be that them for an aftercare are
important as well
and again what kind of synergies and
what kind of additional staffing can we
provide to the receiving schools
Thank You director Bailey I want to ask
director MUNs director constan do you
want to say anything
it director condemn hold on just a
minute we're gonna get the mic closer to
is it on speaker
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
I think I'm a little bit sad today
because I don't know I just think I want
the best for our students and we do how
hard decision to make today on the table
I like my pencil place
please make this decision including
myself that we think that's gonna be
best for these students temporarily but
I would really like a commitment that
past my term in July that the board and
that the school district will to me on
you know just as we welcome this today
like it's not that - this conversation
another option for the two schools that
have access cold cocoa cakes today as
well as access because unless we find a
solution and have on the paper that it
will benefit both of the schools then
until then we need to find another
option
thank you so I think I'm just I'm
closing I'm just going to say that I'm
supportive of the option as it stands I
do you think as a district we've made a
commitment to the middle grades and
really strengthening that and I think
matching it to access middle grades to
Lane is a consistent approach that we're
taking across the district and we need
to continue but we still have many
inequities in many areas of the city so
this is not the the end of our larger
journey to try and ensure that our
02h 10m 00s
students in the Nilla brace it's
equitable and rigorous academics I also
just want to note that we did receive a
communication this morning from members
of the access Academy parents Advisory
Group and they certainly had other
options that they would have preferred
that we had looked at I think we've
heard some of that today and however
they said that we decided to move ahead
of the two options
their analysis was that the lane vestal
combination was a better combination
than
and peninsula they provided us with some
reasons for that and again I want to
just be clear that they this was not
their their first choice so we say that
but that if we were going to choose from
the four sites that staffs and a lot of
time looking at and I know they did
Advisory Group spend a lot of time in my
house was scouring through building
plans I'm looking where space was
available and so I think I just want to
note that those people who participated
in the advisory group of the choices we
have main festival combination and I
think just think closes a loop say to
the lane and vessel and access community
that we want to continue to support and
help make this a successful transition
and one of the things I found over the
years for my previous service on the
board when you have school community and
frankly from my senior year in high
school I became part of our merged high
school Washington in Monroe and the
adults play a big role and whether these
are successful so I can only speak for
myself but I think from the district
standpoint and the board standpoint
we're going to stay in the United
by the support conceded we hope you'll
reach out and ask for support if it's
needed but I also asked the adults who
are part of this conversation to do to
support for your students because you
can really make a difference whether
this is successful or not so with that I
think it's time for a vote
the resolution resolution number five
six five eight
represented
I so the motion passes by a six to one
both a student representative Tran
though they high at this point the
meeting is adjourned over next regular
meeting is a boring 1812 shame on you
Sources
- PPS Board of Education, Archive 2017-2018, https://www.pps.net/Page/12568 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:51.006202Z)
- PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)