2018-05-30 PPS School Board Special Meeting

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District Portland Public Schools
Date 2018-05-30
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Meeting Type special
Directors Present missing


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Event 1: Special Meeting of the Board of Education - Access - May 30, 2018

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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


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