2018-11-13 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2018-11-13
Time	missing
Venue	missing
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: Regular Meeting of the Board of Education -- November 13, 2018

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this regular meeting of the board of education for November 13 2018 is called to order welcome to everybody present into our television viewers um I just want to acknowledge that we have a full house tonight um and um we're going to be hearing about the Benson master plan tonight I just want to reassure everybody that no decisions have been made as yet now we are moving toward a decision there are a lot of things that still need to be determined and we need to work out some details and we're we're trying to perform due diligence here we want to make sure that the Benson we build is as good as it can possibly be and also take care of the needs of all of our students so I want to acknowledge that you're here and thank you for being engaged um and we'll be hearing more about this as over the next few weeks okay for tonight's meeting any item that will be voted on this evening has been posted as required by state law this meeting is being televised live and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the Board website for replay times this meeting is also being streamed live on our PPS TV services website as a reminder we now have our PPS Ombudsman Judy Martin or Martin this case maybe attending all regular board meetings um uh can she raise her hand is she okay um Judy will be here to listen to the public comments and if appropriate provide additional support to families who need or want it Judy can be reached at 503-916-3045 or Ombudsman at pps.net we also have interpreters for you this evening and I'd like to ask them to come forward at this time introduce themselves in the language into which they'll be interpreting and inform the audience where they'll be located grasses come on foreign thank you uh before we move on board members are there any items in the business agenda that you have questions on this does not include any individual action items listed on tonight's agenda want to pull anything out okay okay so our first item is a proclamation and I'd like to invite director esposa Brown to introduce the next agenda item on Native American Heritage Month you November is National Native American a Native American Indian Heritage Month which celebrates the contributions and achievements of Native Americans the month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures traditions and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of native people heritage month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges native people have faced both historically and in the present and the ways in which
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tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges okay the board will now consider resolution number 5749 resolution proclaiming the celebration of national Native American Indian Heritage Month in Portland Public Schools do I have a motion and a second on resolution 5749 well first I'd like to um of what I just read I I think we first have to have them put it on the table okay so moved okay director Bailey moves director Anthony seconds the adoption of resolution number 5749 um do we take public commenter now or no okay first or a second okay let's do the amendment first um after just um talking to some uh you know people they've made some suggestions to change um the last part of the paragraph the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges delete that and instead to say and to acknowledge the sovereignty of our tribal Nations and their contributions to the fabric of our country anyone need to hear that again is this an amendment to the resolution or to the introduction you read I'm sorry is this an amendment to the resolution yes it's changing the last uh part of the last sentence ah the proclamation sorry and are we kept tonight right you know the resolution is fine okay do we have public comment we do not okay I thought she said we did um is there any board discussion on a resolution on the proclamation okay the board will now vote on resolution number 5749 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no any abstentions student representative yes okay it's confident [Music] resolution 5749 is approved unanimously next student in public comment Miss Houston do we have anyone signed up for student comment we do we have five and our first two speakers are Kylie malinowski and Karine Alcantara [Applause] okay uh can I just um say a few words the board thanks the community for taking the time to attend this meeting and provide your comments to the board we value public input as it informs our work and we look forward to hearing your thoughts Reflections and concerns our responsibility as a board is to actively listen without distraction from electronic devices or papers um and one quick reminder any oversized signs need to be in the back which they appear to be okay uh board members and the superintendent will not respond to comments or questions during public comments if you want to follow up from the board office please contact Ms Houston or Roseanne Powell the board manager guidelines for public import emphasize respect and consideration of others complaints about individual employees should be directed to the superintendent's office as a Personnel matter if you have additional materials or items you'd like to provide to the board of superintendent we ask that you give them to Ms Houston to distribute to the board and superintendent presenters will have a total of three minutes to share your comments please Begin by stating your name and spelling your last name for the record during the first two minutes of your testimony a green light will appear when you have one minute remaining a yellow light will go on and when your time is up the red light will go on and a buzzer will sound we respectfully ask that you conclude your comments at that time we appreciate your input and thank you for your cooperation go ahead um hi my name is Kylie malinowski my last name is spelled [Music] m-a-l-y-n-o-w-s-k-i and I'm a junior at Benson um being at Benson has given me so many opportunities and experiences I've been able to explore multiple career pathway choices I've been able to meet amazing people and I was able to find a career or job path that I think could make me happy the rest of the day like the rest
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of the days of my life um I came to Benson wanting to be an elementary school teacher thinking that was like all I could really do but when I came to Benson I really didn't have any interest in any of the CTE programs but sophomore year came and I realized that architecture was something I would honestly love to do and I've gotten to work with local Architects like the study Architects involving the Benson Remodel and I've been able to go to their firm and my teachers just been absolutely amazing to give so many opportunities and along with being part of such amazing CTE programs I've met like the best community I could ever be a part of I came from an area that was mostly white and had a lot of money and to come to Benson and to meet people who have to struggle with hey I can't always go do things because I don't have the money hey I can't always go do something because I'm so far away it's it's almost like heartbreaking to kind of see that but I'm so happy that I came because the closest friends I've grown to have there I have a friend that lives in southeast I have a friend that lives like towards Scappoose but still in Portland I have friends who live in the center of downtown and I never would have met them if I hadn't left the barriers of my neighborhood high school and I think that was something I'll always treasure it's going to be friendships that I know I'll have the rest of my life um and it's totally crazy how being part of that kind of community can give you a whole new perspective I again like to come from I come from like the Wilson District area and I never thought that there would be problems involving a school like involving money and stuff like that and I think that that's crazy for like to come to an area and realize that so with Benson there is a community and this community cannot be torn down because of money that's or because of what's happening in the city I stand here at Tech men and I will stand here at Tech men in 10 25 50 years and I want to be able to come back and see my high school and say I went to school there so please honor the bond and keep Benson a community so we can stay strong in the future time to come thank you [Applause] hi my name is Karina Alcantara a-l-c-a-n-t-a-r-a and okay um hello board members um today I was honored to receive the bethod scholarship and in the video showcase thank you um and in the video showcased um I mentioned how important Benson is to me and how I love being a part of this of the Benson community and being part of the CTE program it has been devastating to hear how we started the bond with 700 million dollars correct me if I'm wrong and now have only 10 of it left for reconstruction prevention to me Benson is more than just a school it's a place where I spend like 80 percent of my time when I'm not home and it's one of the few places where I feel safe being able to go to Benson is something I'm really grateful for I've been given many opportunities because of Benson such as being part of the health occupations program by following people at hospitals such as right now I'm following an occupational therapist it's one of the best opportunities I have ever been able to receive um just I wanted to let you guys know that I hope that you guys honored the bond that we were given and help keep Benson the community it is because so many students appreciate that and are there because they believe that that students didn't give them opportunities every day and it's like highly said I hope to go back there when I graduate and say that I went there and I help my children if I have children go there and are given the same opportunities I was given thank you congratulations on your scholarship congratulations on your scholarship and all your hard work yeah next we have Chase hunt and Ari Becker [Music] [Applause] okay okay um so when I um oh sorry um my name is Chase and then last name hunt h-u-n-t um when I first went to Benson my freshman year um my parents didn't have enough money to live in Portland we had to move to Washington and we moved back and forth and back and forth and we now are in Portland but the issue is is that when I was in Washington we were in a lower income housing I had to bike to school because I couldn't afford a bus pass and
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I had a flat tire on my bike I carried a 50-pound backpack but I still went to Benson because I am passionate about that school when I was in Middle School I couldn't understand the thing that was said I had problems like I had to like see a therapist almost every day for it I couldn't understand things that were being said at Benson and I couldn't learn but the second I saw the CTE programs at Benson and the wonderful Community it had it sold me and when I went to Benson that was the one time in my life that I felt like I really did belong somewhere and skills that I have learned at Benson I still carry over I make I program stuff and the skills that I learn via those I still use like all the time in my spare time I'm passionate about these things and I know a ton of students are passionate about the skills that they learn at Benson and it's such a wonderful Community because all the teachers are extremely supportive and kind and they genuinely do want to see students succeed I always have fun talking to my art teacher drinking coffee with them in the mornings talking about the day and it's such it's such an inviting community that I think if you were to shut it down this would only be a temporary solution to a long-term problem not to mention the temporary solutions that Benson does have doesn't seem to work when the water fountains were when there was lead in the pipes PPS offered to give us office drinking fountains and those get littered all over the place and those ended up costing more money than fixing the pipes is and the pipes still aren't even fixed for the school the school isn't even built up to code currently but people still go to this school because they genuinely have a passion in it and if you were to close the school people would be forced to go into schools in their neighborhoods that they aren't passionate in and you would see a lot less graduation rates because students wouldn't have a good incentive to learn anymore because no one would care and that's about it thank you [Applause] hi my name is Ari Becker b-e-c-k-e-r Benson unites us we have all these people from all over Portland behind me today and together we're all coming together to a to a school that we don't have to because we believe in it they believe we believe in education and we have a way and we believe in the way that it's taught we don't need to shut down Benson or turn it into a skill center we need to make more schools like Benson Benson is one of the most unique schools I've ever seen I've traveled all over the West Coast looking for a unique school for about since sixth grade and when I found Benson I was concerned because of its conditions but I didn't find any other schools like it and when I went there for shadow night I knew that this was my school it was going to be for me and I could change it it's more than most people can say I watched him participated in the all student talk meeting I listened to the concerns of the people and how they talked about how we need to vote and how our generation needs to be more involved Benson is that place where we are more involved we've gathered tonight where I think no other school would have to rally for a school most people hate their school but we have a hundred people easily tonight on last minute notice who gave up their time who are going to have to go home and do their homework late at night and pay for it the next day and I don't think any other school would do that especially in our current state why would you want to close a school like that why would you want to give to to limit people's opportunities we shouldn't close Portland I mean we shouldn't close PPS we shouldn't close Benson we need to rebuild it thank you [Applause] and lastly we have Alex Marley can I just clarify to everybody before the next speaker um closing Benson is not even on the table
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nobody's talking about closing Benson so just just wanted to clarify that good very good my name is Alex Marley Marley m-a-r-l-e-y um when I came here at the Benson I was doing a foreshadowing day on eighth grade at my old my middle of the school before and this was after I went to Lincoln I went to Franklin and then I went to Brinson and when I went there this that I went there this I opened I opened up opened my eyes to see that there's so many opportunities that Benson the welcoming vibe that was there and it just it's just no the school has that vibe that I went to foreshadowing and I just wanted to come into the school really badly and I got accepted and then throughout these years I've been having these skills that were that was brought to me and I've learned throughout the throughout the years that this school has it's has a its has its unique ability to teach someone and and on learning the psct the ctes and on learning Hands-On abilities are amazing and I don't think any other school has those and I look at my phone I look at myself now and I've gone to other schools I wouldn't I wouldn't like it because this school is like like it's one of a kind no school has it and like everyone else says I think there should I think there should be school more schools like Benson you know it it provides multiple diverse opportunities more and has High graduation rates like there's there's like people come here to learn after these four years and they go straight into their job in the career and it and it and if you check if you check with other people it's like people love the school they come back everything for alumni for people who people who love the school they cheer on they got people on the back right now like supporting the school that they came here like maybe 1980s or something like that and they just love the school so much that they don't they don't want it to see anything bad happen and my my thing and I I would do the exact same thing because the school is the best school I've ever went to I love the school and I don't want to see anything bad happen thank you thank you okay um it appears that we have a a little technical issue um apparently we need a 90-second break so that the audio software can be rebooted whatever that means so can we start the clock okay we're going to recess for 90 seconds [Music] all right um hello are we on okay all right so um apparently audio is back for interventions um so we're going to continue with public comment Miss Houston yes we have six speakers tonight and our first two are Kate Dean and Smith lye and members of the board my name is Kate Dean [Applause] my name is Kate Dean d-e-a-n-e I am involved with the PPS dyslexia
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advocacy Group which addressed You in September and my daughter is a sixth grader who goes to the new Roseway Heights Middle School first off I would like to thank you for your action last month to declare October dyslexia awareness month it is also great news to hear that PPS has convened an internal work group on the dyslexia legislation so that policy makers from across several different departments can come together to plan for the implementation of the new law requiring that kindergarteners and first graders begin to be screened for their risk of dyslexia um really want to applaud those good first steps in order to increase public participation and transparency I would like to respectfully request that ppas take the following actions I mentioned there is an internal work group right now on the dyslexia legislation I'd like to request that that group be broadened to include at least one parent and to include at least one educator who is currently working with students who have dyslexia in addition to that I'd also like to request that PPS established an ongoing advisory committee that would be composed of teachers parents community members students and PBS policy makers to develop an overall plan for the systemic changes that are needed to identify students with dyslexia as early as possible and support them throughout their height all the way through High School so we need an overall plan around supporting students with dyslexia I'd like to tell you a little bit about our experience with dyslexia and PPS schools my daughter is an intelligent curious and articulate 11 year old she has struggled with reading and spelling and writing since kindergarten with the help of a PPS reading specialist she made great gains in the third grade but reading continued to be a nasty chore at the start of the fifth grade when it was clear to me that my daughter continued to lag behind her peers I took matters into my own hands and turned to private testing we learned that she has this dyslexia and at that point she was reading at a third grade level a fifth grader reading at a third grade level my fears for her success in middle school and Beyond exploded every teacher that my daughter has had has been capable and competent however they did not have the knowledge of Dyslexia to be able to recognize the signs nor to help me as a non-educator connect those dots my daughter is going to be okay my family can afford the dyslexia specific tutoring that she needs and we are able to equip her with audiobooks and other technology to help her succeed I just will conclude by saying that other families do not have these same kinds of privileges this is an enormous Equity issue for the district and we really need this overall plan and some way to make sure that these very intelligent students get the same kind of support that my daughter is going to get thank you thank you next we have Ian Maurer and Aaron Thomas Sarah wall and Sarah Kennedy Adams yeah all right um hi my name is Sarah wall w-a-l-l I'm an advanced math teacher for Dart schools one of the sites in Dart I serve is Clinton School which is currently located at Benson Polytech High School I want to acknowledge the topic of this redesign and sharing space brings up many feelings and opinions for all those involved and appreciate the board's work to look at solutions that serve all the students in PPS and make room for their learning as mentioned in the October 30th work sex session resolution 5160 asked that the board perform an analysis of the location options for Alliance and other multiple Pathways programs how's that Benson it is stated that it was completed on February 7 2017 but I could find no record of it in the board meeting minutes or documents posted on the boards page I would ask that the board now include those findings in the notes and documents from today today's meeting so that they are easily accessible to the public so that we can see what the outcome of that educational analysis was as a teacher for Dart I speak to my next
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points from a personal local and immediate perspective students who attend Clinton come from all over the city 100 of our students are in foster care or Proctor homes 100 of our students have experienced trauma and have had interrupted schooling these students deserve to have a building with all the same functions and accommodations as any other high school student in the district the board notes from October 30th also state three goals listed under facility goals goal one States every PBS School shall provide an equitable and effective learning environment that maximizes the achievement of every student these students deserve to be included in the conversation from here on out of where they will go and what will happen in their education in the same way that mainstream students do in order to ensure that these students are served it is important to include them in writing in the proposals that are happening now this process started with a different board and superintendent and will continue for many years there is no way for us to know if the future will change both these circumstances again and have a whole new group of people making decisions that affect these kids we all know there is a lack of space in PPS we all watched last year as the Pioneer access push and pull happened we all know Kenton is coming open in the future and that schools without homes will be fighting for it I'm not here to fight with Benson students teachers or parents and I do want my students to have the education that they deserve and not be an afterthought of the district uh I do not want them to be forgotten when no one is shining the light on the problem let this be an opportunity we take to turn the tide of scrambling after the fact let this be the time that we thoughtfully decide where these students already displaced in their lives get to receive their schooling thank you uh Sarah Kennedy Adams k-e-n-n-e-d-y-a-d-a-m-s the community of access Academy and its educational model have been damaged by your choice to disperse the school to remote co-locations over five miles apart here's how sped support has been understaffed by 30 according to District regulations PBS has been in violation of required IEP service minutes and writing of new IEPs three elementary students receive half-time cy2 instruction on Chromebooks via Skype and must self-administer learning individually or online for the remaining half this is untenable and will impact more students next year the geometry teacher arrived week 10. my daughter who loves math and always has love math since first grade hates it this year PE is a disaster the elementary PE position was staffed 12 feet 12 weeks late some sixth graders haven't had PE yet at all and no middle school student has access to the gym Elementary no longer receives regular Spanish Tech Library Mandarin Middle School students do not have Tech and still do not have electives despite that being the reason to co-locate access at a middle school we lost a lot of staff due to the move directly and how late the communication and decision were made about location and start time some staff got assigned to teach a brand new subject two days prior to school Elementary staff does not have ready access to our principal or her secretary who handles payroll ordering class accounts there are still unfilled I.T accounts sorry tickets and our sound equipment wasn't delivered until October 26th a minimum of 300 instructional hours have been lost by elementary students alone due to busing incompetence some bus commutes are one and a half hours one way elementary kids are arriving over stimulated and unable to engage middle school students report exceptional fatigue according to teachers longer teacher commutes have compromise planning and quality of instruction and cause teacher attrition due to District mismanagement of our admissions process enrollment has dropped 20 percent third and fourth grade historically have enrolled 56 students third has 30 and fourth has 40. PPS refuses any more students citing physical space issues you said nothing would change except the address the social support of our community is fractured we have been forced to cancel or greatly modify traditions we hold our PTA meetings here at Dixon coordinate busing to other access locations or rent space in central locations so our community can come together the split plan costs 1.2 million dollars each year in 16 years access has never had a permanent home instead it's been given temporary plans and looming sense of elimination why does PPS assign optional programs to permanent locations while need-based programs like access have no
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permanent location or commitment when senior PBS staff declined to participate by walking out advisory planning meetings this is not working together this is disrespect PPS you are failing above Benchmark students you are failing access the only gifted offering the projected multi-year split is already harming students to serve the most kids access needs one central location now and by the way superintendent we want our t-shirt back foreign [Applause] okay next item is the superintendent's report well good evening directors students families members of the public and thank you to everyone who offered comment this evening as well I'm gonna start with the weather just because I was visiting family in California it was hard not to notice all the smoke in the air our thoughts go out to all those folks who've been affected by the ongoing wildfires here in Oregon forecasters are calling for a mild winter but we're nonetheless preparing so we've already assembled an inclement weather team led by Deputy superintendent Hertz and we're updating our comprehensive inclement weather plan so we're just making mention of this now so folks know and are aware if we get word that snow or ice is in the forecast or any other condition that might affect how we open schools or transport students the goal is to make a decision on whether to close schools by 5 30 a.m of that day and that we broadly communicate clear messages about any delayed starts or cancellations to families we understand that preparation is key so we have held already some early morning rehearsals and exercises and are working to ensure rapid and effective communication throughout the school system in the city should we need to make a change to our regular school day schedule the next edition of the pulse e-newsletter will feature a guide for families on how they can expect to receive word on school cancellations change bus routes or other critical information I'd like to spend a little bit of time talking about something that's of critical importance but oftentimes doesn't get a lot of air time and that's our work in curriculum and instruction as a new Administration we have been working to develop a comprehensive curriculum to be implemented over time at every school in the district at every grade level the goal is simple yet transformational you should be able to enter any school in our district from the West Hills to the Eastern boundaries and have as a student the opportunity and access to rigorous well-defined and state-of-the-art learning this is very much work in progress but what we are doing is introducing the notion of a standard space educational program at PPS under the leadership of our chief academic officer Dr Luis Valentino we're calling this our guaranteed and viable curriculum and in order to improve outcomes and raise those graduation rates for all of our students we need to have some key educational ingredients curriculum that offers a clear path and opportunity for all of our students to be successful professional learning opportunities for our Educators and our adults and assessment so that we can monitor student learning and apply supports more strategically all of this is part of a continuous Improvement Loop and is the bread and butter of high functioning school districts here are some of the ways we have begun developing and implementing our move toward a comprehensive curriculum thank you to the participation and Leadership of teachers throughout PPS development of standards-based units of study and Sample lessons have begun to be posted here's just an example from sixth grade science under the general category of life science cells and body systems we have a sample lesson titled for molecules to organisms structures and processes it calls on students to conduct an investigation use rigorous techniques to prove that living things are made up of cells every sixth grader in every school should know not just the basics of the way biology works but the rich details of how life forms grows and becomes complex here's an example from our first grade literacy curriculum identify words and phrases and poems and stories that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses again every first grader should be able to start identifying those key elements in their reading not just for comprehension but also for the sheer Joy of it this is the kind of curriculum work that's occurring not just in core academic areas but also in areas like health education for the 1819 school year under the stewardship of Dr Jenny withicom PPS is implementing a comprehensive K-12 health education program our health education team is working to create and curate a robust set of instructional materials aligned to K-12 Health guaranteed viable
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curriculum provided by content area experts such as from the American Heart Association Multnomah County Health Department and others to support the GVC a series of professional learning opportunities have been provided to all six through eight teachers and opportunities for K-5 teachers are also planned these are just a few examples of the ways our ongoing work will continue to provide our Educators with instructional guidance that will continue to become more refined over time and ensuring that this work is accompanied by professional development opportunities is critical so to date we've held nine full day workshops in September and October alone for K-5 teachers we've had a workshop for ESL teachers coming up later in this month we have scheduled workshops for kindergarten teachers in February and March our curriculum work has also been the central focus of our monthly learning and leading together professional development sessions with our school administrators this is the direction we're heading are we there yet no we're just getting started but every department is working towards this goal we understand that successful Public School Systems have a well-articulated and coherent curriculum and instruction being implemented across the school district in this new District administration we have new leaders who are rebuilding entire departments to make sure we are delivering on all the functions that support teaching and learning among all the others by the end of the year we will have developed a vision with all of our stakeholders in our board in partnership with other internal and external stakeholders and will have begun to outline a strategic plan to lay out how we will make this Vision become a reality my expectation is that anyone paying attention to PPS will notice that we are talking more about literacy about what rigorous math instruction looks like that is accessible to diverse Learners how to design a Middle grades education experience that creates a foundation for persistence through high school and how we calibrate our high schools so no matter which one you attend you are thoroughly prepared for college and career choices and that we recognize where those best practices and promising experiences are already occurring so that we share those across the school system this is the right path I'm glad we've started down it the board can look forward to an upcoming presentation on how our first administration of our new formative assessment the maps and what we are learning from this first assessment so earlier today Stanford children had an important event and fundraiser I was invited to provide the keynote but more importantly I wanted to express congratulations to four of our high school students who were recognized in recipients to of scholarship Awards we just heard from one earlier for beating the odds they shared some video vignettes and our students are amazing for the way they they have persisted and demonstrated resilience and are clearly on the path to realizing many of their hopes and dreams we have some amazing students we also have amazing Educators our 2018 Oregon Teacher of the Year Matt bacon brennis has been bestowed with another honor he was awarded a Horus Man Award for teaching Excellence Matt will head to Washington DC for an Nea Foundation gal in February and to collect a ten thousand dollar prize and he will be one of five finalists for our 25 000 prize so we know we have a lot of dedicated passionate Educators in our district schools and it's always great to see one of ours recognized by folks and in this case one that is so widely known and respected congratulations to you Matt I also want to highlight another one of our Educators from Grant High School when Grant High School moved into Marshall last year it gave rise to a wonderful partnership between the grant Coral program and the choral program at Lane Middle School Grant began inviting Lane singers to join them at their performances Lane choral teacher Judy Rose began spending time with Grant students and Grant teacher John Eiseman who returned the favor by revisiting Lane to show her gratitude Ms Rose composed a song specifically for the grant choir and we can only do it justice with the short video clip I'm Judy Rose and you're at Lane Middle School one two one two [Music] [Applause] when Lane Middle School's music director isn't instructing her students on whole notes and rhythms she is a composer
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jubilant day was a gift to the Grant High School choir well obviously when you have a piece that's written specifically for your choir it's it's going to be um it's going to have investment from the students they're going to be invested in that because they understand the effort and the work that goes into creating something like that it's really a gift I don't know I listened to it the first time and I was like oh I love these chords because like they're they're pretty I don't know they're interesting hey No Trouble Over Me I had worked with their Choir in the spring right before they went to district and also right before they went to State and really connected with the kids and it really sparked a really intimate friendship a mutual respect and generosity towards each other's Endeavors to be better music educators and impactful people in our community when she walks into the room we all sing better we all stand better we all do everything better because we're just her presence is really awe-inspiring in the way that it's incredible to watch and hear her sing and to um but but additionally she brings out the best in our choir yeah I think it's inspirational and I think it's more meaningful for the students to be performing pieces that um that their teacher has composed I've learned much about my instrument and much about myself I believe I'm she's out there is one of as one of the best teachers I've ever had this Rose is passionate about teaching music changing young lives and believes composing is simply her gift of choosing to create Beauty in the world foreign [Music] [Applause] congratulations again to our outstanding Educators and to our recognized student scholarship award winners that concludes my report thank you the next item is a legislative priorities and agenda the board has been working on its legislative priorities and legislative agendas since an August work session when we had a more than two-hour discussion of intergovernmental relations including a very extensive discussion of a proposed legislative agenda for the upcoming session I'd like to ask Courtney whistling director of government relations to provide a brief report on the background for the proposed agenda that's before the board thanks everybody so as chair more detailed when August work session where we went through kind of a high level document and you all indicated that you wanted more details and I said yes I'll go do that but also knowing that there's a lot that we don't know so we can't get too specific on exactly what bills we're supporting because we don't know what they are yet we don't even have Bill numbers so this is meant to be a guiding document that we align what comes out of the legislative you know the when the legislature starts to introduce bills and drop numbers we can look back to this and say okay does this align with this document yes or no do we want to put our weight behind it do we think this is worth our energy or is it something that we are part of a coalition and just sort of how do we engage around each of these measures there's going to be a lot of measures this is a long six-month session some some bills will be introduced and immediately will know um based on conversations that we have internally at the legislative with legislators that things don't have a path forward and then other things do so we'll game that out when the time comes but right now this is meant to be a guiding document for the board to take position on on the policies and sort of the platform and the priorities that you want to stand behind so that's the background and I'm happy to take questions any questions from board members do you want me to walk through it I didn't ask you that yeah okay so obviously um we have a pretty rare opportunity going into this next session because we now have a super majority in the legislature which means we can make decisions around Revenue taxes those kinds of things um uh because you have to have three-fifths so that's interesting we don't know what that's going to look like yet it's only been a week exactly since the election so um there's a lot of conversations happening a lot of conversation happening behind the scenes right now about what that's gonna you know what's gonna come out of that um so I'm just giving that as a
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background so what a lot of folks are talking about is how do we adequately fund our schools it's like the Talk of the Town um and so the first part of the first section of this document is titled funding the reason that it's such a long section is because it's we can't do anything without money bottom line and we've been inadequately funding our schools for more than since I was probably in grade school a couple Generations um and you know so I think a lot of folks are continue to be disappointed by that fact and that we need to um look for robust funding this next session so that's a big one and within that so there's the state school fund that's where the majority of our funding comes from um that's a formula based on who our students are and so there's that bucket of money and then there are other separate buckets for that's the general fund but there are other separate buckets for other programs so for example measure 98 was a separate bucket of money there's a lot of interest around that funding measure continuing to fund measure 98 because folks have um explained and shown great progress and shown a lot of success because of that investment so robust funding for the state school fund is a huge priority another big one that we talked about in the work session is the the need to really look at how are we handling social emotional well-being and social emotional needs of our students and how do we back that up financially unfunded mandates have no place here if you're not going to fund it you know please leave us alone a little bit because we don't we can't just continue to fund things without additional um additional money and then I think let's see a couple other things I'm continuing to invest in cap our Capital needs we've had help from the from the facilities matching grants when we pass bonds we can match it that's helpful it's especially helpful for smaller districts that don't have the community support that we do and then also seismic retrofit grants which we've had again been awarded annually for the last few years and that's been very helpful um so that's the funding piece and then the other priorities which are not meant to be secondary to funding but you know a lot of this has to have funding anyway so it all goes together um of course welcoming safe School environments uh that's critical that's not just about Security in our buildings but also around um inclusivity uh the another big one of course responds to the Whitehurst recommendations making sure that we are protecting our students against misconduct so that will be a big part of the legislative session on the non-funding side uh and then of course academic achievement why are we all here if we're not seeing our students graduate and do well and achieve their goals and um you know continue to prepare them for College and Career in life and then I mentioned measure 98 so kind of a separate call out because it's a separate stream But continuing to support those not only Investments but also programs and then I think finally just um our and this is not to meant to be last last but not least important to invest in professional development and uh recruiting diverse diverse Workforce that reflects the student body so that's a bit of a summary adoption of these priorities I'm just seeing the platform itself it's in the business agenda I think I think I believe so I don't know if I'm allowed to do that director con Sam um a couple of questions um I don't want to pick anybody because I don't think that's my role so I will leave it to the chair okay go ahead so has PPS hired a contract lobbyist yes okay and who is that John Eames um John Eames Consulting yeah it's represented us last session um so this is a question and I'm just received it that it's about the qem so part of one of the um items on the agenda supporting um of 10.7 billion dollar appropriation so I had a question for the deputy superintendent about what what that means and for Claire yes
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um could you come explain the so the question I had was so based on our current formula funding formula of the state has if we were to go to a 10.7 and it was fully funded what would that mean for PPS and how is that diff what's the Delta between what we currently have and the fully funded qem and I appreciate you sending it to me but it would be useful I think for other people to understand what what that means so our current biennial funding level is 8.2 billion Statewide in our qem funding level would be 10.7 billion and the difference per year um rather than a biennial difference difference for the biome is 2.5 billion but for per year 1.25 billion and so we have about 58 000 admw in the state out of a 708 000 at the state level and so that makes us 8.2 percent of the state school fund formula so I'm not making any adjustments this is a very rough number but it's about 102 million annual funding difference just about the size of our also our local option one of the things I wanted to mention that we had talked about in our work session and that we've talked about every time we've discussed these issues but actually is not specifically called out under funding priorities is we say We'll advocate for major Revenue reform to support increased investments in education and other services but we didn't specifically call out advocacy to increase the length of the school year which is um I believe it's implicit in our priorities because it's something we've discussed and is an underpinning of our strategy but I wanted to call that out a great call out that was the second item on my list is the longer school year so if we're looking at ways to provide more instruction so that our students can achieve their goals that seems like a basic thing um so I'm just a can I just comment I think it's an excellent idea and we need funding in order to make it happen so I completely agree and if you want to call that specifically do we need to amend the resolution I don't have the resolution printed out here with the business agenda I just have the platform but I would like to amend it to include that in that second bullet point um I can't read it out exactly because I don't have them I really want to do that now or do we have further discussion discussion do you want to take a minute to to write down some words and then we'll come back to you sure okay okay so um just make a couple mechanics and then some content questions so um do we have any what specific bills do we have in ledge Council being drafted now what are the topics Whitehurst report bill that is our concept is still in the in the drafters hands I chatted with her last week she was focused on the department of education's Bills first that's typically how they do it so I haven't seen language yet she said before Thanksgiving so I've been trying not to hassle but I'll be pleasantly pushy when I need to be if I haven't seen it but you know by by the end of next week or before the holiday um so when I and when I have that of course I'll share it so we have just one build so that's all these other things are we drafting behind osba or yes with our colleagues and our associations or the Oregon school boards Association um and then just some content so last year there's a fair amount of discussion about the difficulty that we had in hiring custodians and there was some discussion that staff was going to advance some sort of modifications to the Civil Service Board to make it um yeah easier for us to um you know have a full force of custodians and I'm wondering um what happened to that and why it's not in our agenda yeah I mean I just so we had some initial discussions over the summer with the eight with folks from HR with Frank um for maintenance uh to start that conversation we talked with our partners at SEIU it became pretty clear that this was going to be a little bit of a not a I won't say a challenge in a negative way just that it's going to take a little bit of time to work through it
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um and then about a probably what eight weeks ago Claire um convened a meeting where we talked about maybe you could want to come up and tell me where we are with us now because I I lost it a little bit but um to chat through what can we do without legislative legislating it to know where we can move first because we may not need to do it first and it's also it's political as is everything so when you read the administrative rules and the statute that apply to it they've been in place for many decades and they are not very specific and so I think we have been operating in a way that we have always operated in and when you go back and actually read through everything we have much more leeway than we've been maybe we've been just continuing to operate as we have for decades so we're now engaging in process and conversations about how we're changing our hiring practice and our testing we're still doing testing but we are no longer we're streamlining that process so there won't be as many it won't take so long to get them custodians hired so it is in process it still needs to be worked on I it's whether it's there is um the union component compared to um it seems like we should first utilize all of our way of going through the Civil Service Board that we have in place as well as the rules that we have in place and see what we can't accomplish that way okay so you think we're able to fill our fill out the custodian ranks um without having to I'm hoping to do a better job of filling job the openings without a legislative change can I just to follow up on that um am I correct in thinking that this is a statute with the universe of one it applies only to PPS yes we object to that in principle yeah and it's by a population of the city right and and conveniently the threshold is placed in such a way that it is a universe of one correct that also means there's a universe of one that wants to that would want to change it um so if we don't right um try and change it then um we have to take this in other alternative so so we have streamlined the hiring process and we are getting more applicants because we've also our HR leadership has we have radio ads now we have um promoting it in much different ways than we have in the past so Deputy superintendent hurts will you report back to us on your progress on that front you bet okay so on the issue of advocating for measures that will help us to attract and retain a diverse Workforce so I've been in that business for almost 20 years now and you know we've made little strides in Oregon mostly through the colleges and universities that have done some external grant writing but the states that have been on a better path and has really been successful have state some State support of financial support So as we Advocate I mean we've talked for years at the state of what we can do that to have some kind of a funding mechanism long term yeah there's a lot of interest around this issue um I think you all saw what I sent was it last week from Cosa their proposal that um that the legisl that they submitted to the Joint Student Success committee has a Workforce educator Workforce piece and it's got they're asking that there's a funding attachment so what that looks like again you know this is all worked out in the once we get into the Capitol and you know everybody starts to shake the trees and talk about numbers but that's uh that's definitely something that's being discussed so what I also know about educating um particularly diverse pre-service teachers to recruit them and retain them take substantial funding I mean there seems to be kind of a threshold because most of them you know have families that are working again looking at the data from other states would be helpful if there's a threshold that seems to be the minimum amount of support that they need would be helpful and then the second piece that I um I don't see here called out specifically probably under supporting and advocating for academic increased academic outcomes for all students and it closed the opportunity gap for historically underserved I want to call out specifically including students in special education because we continue to have you know bigger gaps between our funding and the needs of our students with IEPs and it's important I think for the state
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to recognize The increased costs very careful what I might prompt you into saying so let me just assert something and then you can react as appropriate I am hearing that the issue of Statewide collective bargaining for teachers and a Statewide teachers contract have not gone away I think those would be very bad for Portland Public and that we should have a plank in the platform saying that we oppose them I see you nodding so thank you I'll I'll offer an amendment then and I was well what I was going to say was um there is conversation about aligning contracts with the biennium that's been um I've been hearing a lot about that or reading it and hearing it so I think it again that's another one that will time will tell but yes do you want to offer some language uh yes I uh two simple oh you want it on the table okay and them okay I'll come back to you for language oh so as far as the resolution right now does not go into the specifics of the platform it's just really a boilerplate endorsement of the platform so I'm wondering um without regard to what you just raised Paul um if see having seen no disagreement to including language on the second bullet that would be including funding to increase the length of the school year and then having seen no disagreement to Julie's language on the fourth to the last bullet which should just be comma including students in special education just to in a friendly way amend the platform itself and then we don't have to monkey with the resolution and then I would also the second from the bottom second from the last bullet um PBS support some will advocate for measures and funding that will help districts attract and retain a diverse Workforce and measures and substantial funding yeah adequate at least okay the second one just to add okay before we vote we're gonna go back and do all the changes any other comments um yeah so I'm now figuring out the syntax and language if we're leading something we're drafting our own bill for supporting something or getting behind something that osba or Post hours some other larger body that we're a part of set uh because with the uh it was kind of following up your point uh Julie I had also circled the um increasing the diversity of our teaching for us as a key issue and you know why aren't we leading on that why aren't we put pushing something there's a lot a lot of these are already out there so it's not too late we can be more uh we can we can I mean there's no we're not prevented from initiating a bill later on if we want to but there's a lot of this is being led by our Coalition partners yeah now I understand that but I think this is just hugely important yes it is um I had the same question about custodians and that's been answered um and I just got to say uh to me uh I'm on record on this continue to be on record I really don't support measure 98 I think school districts should have been doing it anyway and certainly had the power to do everything in 98 and it's kind of shameful that some districts had to be forced into it through a funding mechanism I see this as a measure 98 as a carve out of the full you know it's not money that came from you know Dropped Out of Heaven it's part of the education budget that got carved out um but political reality it is what it is
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and I'll I'll live with what's here that I I I don't see it as a model for going forward in the future I I would just like to wholeheartedly support director Bailey's comments and to point out that if the money that went to fund measure 98 in this biennium had just gone into the state school fund that would have brought Portland Public another one and a half million dollars which they shorted Us in the implementation of major 98. distribution of that money was done very inequitably so lo and behold if major 98 hadn't gone through we could have had another 15 CTE teachers in this District how about that bitter about it well wait a minute before we move on to other language does somebody want to offer some language to get to point the directors Bailey and Anthony just made actually I don't I wouldn't support that I was going to the direction of having full funding for ballot measure in 98 it was approved by the voters and I think that they sent a clear message of valuing this and it was a way in which voters sent a message of what what they prioritized um College and Career readiness for technical education policies around absenteeism and Support classes and I would go want to go in the opposite direction to ask to have it fully funded which is fulfilling the will of the voters I absolutely agree and support that and even on this very day heard a lot of incredible statistics about the difference that it's making across the state and how school districts are deploying it so we are seeing it make a difference Okay so maybe or Carson language um so I I think the the broader point that director Bailey was making was that carving out money for specific mandates at the expense of um flexibility District flexibility in the use of funds and um you know sort of limiting the ability of districts to to provide for the full spectrum of Education um I might offer a friendly amendment to one two uh the fourth bullet point on the first page under funding currently reads PPS opposes unfunded mandates that do not include the requisite funding to successfully implement the mandate um I might amend that to PBS opposes both unfunded mandates and car routes so maybe PPS opposes carve out is kind of a jargony terminology do we want to Target Investments yeah well no targeted investment sounds like a like a good thing you could yes that's the point well if you call it aside implementation often turns out to have unintended negative consequences well maybe we should just issue an edict that the legislature should do what the voters pass in terms of additive funding which is the voter's intent the voters pass measure five and measure 47 measure 50 as well there you go all right let me think about language Paul you had something good yes on the subject subjects plural Statewide collective bargaining and a Statewide teachers contract I would propose two sentences and I think they need to be very pedantically broken out into two because I do hear people conflating one with the other PPS opposes Statewide collective bargaining for teachers and para Educators period PPS opposes a Statewide teacher's contract period so um that's introducing a really big concept into our legislative agenda that I don't think we've had a discussion about nor know necessarily we don't know what the
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what that's going to even look like yet or is it or if it will but I guess my question for us to take a definitive position on something which we haven't had a discussion I'd be interested in our labor negotiators point of view the superintendents just adding it in without so I mean obviously we can offer the amendment but I it's not something that I would be at this point it's not a just immaterial I agree I think there's a difference between kind of wordsmithing and adding in a whole new policy without knowing yet what's out there and having had absolutely no conversation on the matter well we can have a conversation now and this has been floated on I heard about it first last Jan last July from one of the co-chairs of the joint Student Success committee it's up to you as a board I have not seen anything I couldn't even share anything with you any proposal or any anything in writing that's that's official Beyond what's just being tossed around while this is a broad expression of our priorities there are also potentially many issues that could emerge during the session that we will want and need to respond to withdue consideration so just because something is not included in our platform that we're endorsing Now does not mean that it restricts our ability absolutely take a stance that will direct our lobbyists there will be more opportunities and there will be regular updates you'll know a lot more about what's coming when we know what's coming oh well that I hear this is certainly coming it's coming with the full-throated endorsement of some Statewide business interests and it's uh done as so many education related bills and issues are in the state uh without any thought important public at all uh it's an attempt to that use a back door to bring down first costs and health care costs and wages yeah and the impact of it if they impose anything like what they have in nine tenths of the district in the state is that we are going to end up hemorrhaging teachers to Washington uh where they're much better paid and where they don't have to put up with this nonsense so I think it's very much in our interests to see that it doesn't happen uh also it's liable to be a yet another backdoor way for the legislature to attack our Health and Welfare Trust and and that's going to have an enormous fiscal impact on Portland Public and it's going to absolutely torpede our Labor Relations because forcing our people into oweb is going to really hurt them in ways that go far beyond their pocketbooks Paul Owen meaning o web is the Statewide Teachers Health insurance program Oregon educator benefit board can I ever get a couple more questions can I continue on so um there's been a fair amount of discussion um about the funding or lack thereof or inadequate funding for tspc which is a teacher standard and practice commission which plays a really important role in the state of Licensing our teachers and the discussion has been about how underfunded they are some of their investigations or when they're reviewing things take a long time it's my understanding that we often have people on paid administrative leave for a long period of time while that's happening and I thought what I'd heard was that there was support for um increasing the funding for tspc and I'm not saying anything in the legislative agenda and I'm wondering um so why that is we don't have anything included in our draft our concept language about adding investigators Senator roblin's Bill does tspc is a fee-based agency so they and they just increase licensing fees I think in 2015 so I don't think there's an appetite to do that so it would have to be a separate funding of I don't know actually what the mechanics would be but the the draft that um that
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Roebling has submitted includes adding investigators specifically at tspc right but why wouldn't we call that out on our legislative agenda well we do it in the I mean the point in that well yeah but most of this is pretty I think I think there's there are a lot of things that we could add to this the direction I got it early on was to keep it um not short and sweet because we don't want to you know leave anything out that's not important but to keep it pretty high level and focused and so if you want to change that direction we might not want to vote right now or what might be helpful is if we could reference other documents that we have been working on for example the our our work plan for the implementation of the Whitehurst investigation specifically calls out reform to tspc as a legislative strategy and there are there are included in our bill so which is pretty you know on the document it's specifically talks about educator misconduct which is the White Horse recommendation right so maybe we could reference those or even in the bullet point around capital investment we could reference some of our statements around support for Capital investment okay um I'd like to offer an amendment around the measure 98. if we're going to have something like that in there then we need a clause to say that it would be equitably distributed to school districts equally or equitably equitably we're all mad Equity here right so I guess the question the question I would ask is why did others school districts get greater funding is that they had I mean pps's poverty rate um is dropping and is it that other districts had greater rates of poverty or um they don't have a local option we're quite blessed with the generosity of our taxpayers I I don't know why we received what I'm talking about a general principle here you're talking specifics I guess I I don't know what I'm trying to think what how you're we're defining equity and I guess I wouldn't want to know why the inequity occurred before I'm taking we're taking money from it so the state the state school fund already through ADM has adjustments for poverty as adjustments for special education a number of other factors I guess I don't have any problem with the resolution because the state probably would say we already do it equitably by their definition that's why I was trying to get at is what's the difference in how they end up where they were versus maybe our definition of how it seems to us and I I think the organizing principle from the state school fund is um equality in funding with some with some relatively small adjustments based on demographic information but but the principle is equal funding because we are they are certainly not taking into consideration cost of living disparities across the state we have a resident expert my body language in my chair must have been giving me away so um it is considered an equity formula it has waitings for um first for just a student you have a full waiting if you're a special ed student you have a second waiting so that you'd be a 2.0 if you have a if your English language learner you have a half a waiting so you'd be worth 1.5 there's poverty weightings are 0.25 this is the ADM correct yes okay which is the average daily membership right so this is the state school fund however how it waits funding and there's as director Moore said there's small differences between districts well when you compare you know I've traveled across the country quite a bit and when you compare it to other states ours nationally is considered an equity formula rather than an equal formula and part of that is so compare it to
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Illinois for instance when they have a whatever property taxes they collect in their District they get to keep it so they have the most impoverished districts having the lowest amount of funding which is where we were in 1990 right so because we're not um it's not by the our property taxes are pulled together Statewide and then we're paid by the number and type of students we have rather than each district equal formula to everyone would be keeping their own property taxes rather than Equity formula which puts it all in one big pot and then redistributes based on the type of students you have there's also a small school districts get a bump as well there isn't a there's teacher experience small school Rural High School I think that's it I think foster children teacher experience teacher experience the average of your District compared to the state average teacher experience in 1997 there was a pretty extensive PPS push um to get a cost of doing business added to the would reflect the greater costs of the metro area and it just had a constitutional problem that there was enough legislators in the metro area to get that added to the the formula I mean making a change to the formula I think is um really tough a very very difficult but there was there was a run at it um and I think they did for Portland they tried to make some other adjustments that's the year that we got um the desegregation money the gap on money um we have teachers with poor experience so we wait they're well and I think one of the things that has impacted um PBS in terms of funding through the formula is that we have less poverty now than we've had in the past because of the housing prices and it's moving into the Far Eastern districts our ell waitings and our poverty have gone down okay um so we have do we any other comments or suggestions a couple more questions sorry okay so um in the third to the last bullet it says PPS supports increased access for high school students to high quality post-secondary programs with seamless transferable for ability of credits earned is this the audible credit or is it the um I know less legislative session there was a bill that would have um required the public universities to accept a um like an AP score of X or an IB score of something else is this is that what this is referring to yeah um so I think it would be um I mean this is more to get into the details of legislation but I know from talking to individuals in higher ed that there's concern that the courses some of the AP courses don't exactly match what are the basic courses at some of our public universities and the concern that if they get automatically waived in and the syllabuses aren't the same that you will have students missing sort of a building block year because they get waved in and it's not the same syllabus that the requirement and therefore they're not ready for the 200 series of something um so I I think we should be thoughtful and talk to our higher ed Partners especially the total faculty senates of the universities have a really strong point of view about this they do I think the um the reason that this is high level is to um note that this is an issue that K-12 is working on this is not something we're going to be able to do in a vacuum we're going to have to work with our partners in higher ed and um so I noted so um I've been since our oeib days um continuing to be involved in this work around the Dual credits and the other part that is a part of this conversation is how do we make sure that the courses are the same courses and the assessments are the same so you may remember the different promises Western Oregon and Willamette promise used the model of using plc's where College instructors or professors were
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in the same room with high school teachers developing the syllabus developing the course and developing the assessments there were other universities who said we don't want to do that method um and didn't want to participate so there were those universities like Western that participated work closely with the teachers there was a lot learned um High School teachers increased rigor sometimes and professors got more information about why students have some gaps when they get there I believe that is the model that is being recommended with this is that those courses will be developed with professors and high school teachers in a PLC to determine that course and so there will have to be some way of determining whoever gives credit around those courses is participating in some way in that development so is that more dual credit versus the AP and the IB because can I make a suggestion this is deep in the weeds yeah well um I the intention behind this legislative agenda is to be a high level kind of statement to principle to to guide work as as we get into the session um I think we can take these kinds of questions offline and deal with them at a later date I agree I think the intent was to make sure if students do take a class that's commensurate that they couldn't end up at an institution and said sorry we don't agree and so we're not even going to look at it and you can count it as an elective credit instead of that course because some students were having to take the same course again for credit in that area so the high level is just making sure it's on the side of the students Okay so so any other high-level questions that we need to so just secretary is around the language of PBS having a moral obligation some of the issues that are raised are actually sort of city and county um obligations and I think I think Courtney's going to do a great job and we've got an excellent external contract lobbyists but I think there's going to be a limit they're going to need to use their political capital I think maybe a better way to approach it instead of um using the word that we have a moral obligation to be lobbying for that at the state level is for us to be having a lot of these issues as director Bailey has mentioned um having conversations with City and County Partners about the environment and sort of supporting services for students and families but I am concerned that we may lose focus on what is our key fiduciary responsibility which is providing an education experience and that's not at all dismissing the foundational items I just think we need to be encouraging the other partners whose governmental Partners whose responsibility that is to take on that responsibility I think the key issue here is that we don't want to get into I mean and we've seen this in the past in Oregon where there's been a fight between education and Social Services when there needs to be an alliance we want to State clearly I think that we're all on the same team that it's all important we saw from the Secretary of State's audit as as director Anthony has pointed out several times that was it four out of the five key items affecting graduation rates were not education per se but those social determinants here so I like this statement I want to keep it in and I think also it doesn't it doesn't say we have a moral obligation to advocate for that it says that on the ground our our teachers and our building Personnel feel morally obligated to respond to students and are responding to these needs of students so it's saying let's advocate for support for this work that we're already doing director Anthony thank you I'm a third generation Roosevelt Democrat I have never voted for a Republican and I want you to know that because I want you to know it takes a
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hell of a lot for me to speak the words I agree with Dennis Richardson the Secretary of State pegged the top three barriers to high school graduation in this state has lack of access to affordable housing lack of access to Pediatric Health Care and child hunger that's what we have to tackle and I think it's perfectly fine to Bear Down on the city and the county and everybody else who's falling on down on the job and failing Oregon's children but this has been going on for 29 years and it hasn't worked yet so I think we need to form that Alliance director Bailey is talking about and I'll just pile on a little um if we increase funding for K-12 education and it comes at the expense of the social determinants of education and health right Mental Health Services physical health services oral health services for kids anti-poverty programs housing in and all other Investments to support the well-being of students and families we might as well burn the money we will not improve outcomes for students so we need not only more money for K-12 education we need more money period for everything everything in this state is underfunded all essential Services have been underfunded for almost 30 years and I think it is important for PPS to put a stake in the ground and make it very clear that we at least are going to advocate for fundamental tax reform to produce huge increases in revenues not tiny little increments to make somebody feel better and throw a little bit of it at K-12 we need to completely restructure the tax system in this state in order for our people to thrive so I'm in favor of keeping this in okay um anything else okay you you wanted to add some language about school year okay did did you get all the changes that were I just want to talk about governance piece here a little less than straightforward because the resolution does not formally attach this document as an exhibit so One path is to amend 57.50 to references exhibit a this document with voted on amendments as you go otherwise I'm not sure if you vote on this without that attached it'll be clear what you're voting on The Welcome other approaches but no absolutely okay that's what it is this platform right okay so first thing we have to do is move it and second it and then we'll amend it right okay so do I have a motion in a second so moved sorry okay director director Bailey moves uh director Anthony seconds um okay do we have an amendment I suggest that an amendment is offered to incorporate this document is exhibit a which would amend the resolution language to say the board adopts the 2019 State Legislative platform attached here to as exhibit a just remember the amendment okay I think that's the first step amend the platform itself okay did you get that language it needs to be offered by one of you can I offer that uh you're suggesting that we um offer the legislative platform as written as an amendment and that the quasi-friendly prior amendments don't fly that we'll need to address those in a more formal way I think you will in part because it's not clear I think in the record in some instances what the exact language is and in other instances whether they're sufficient votes I agree okay Okay so so um
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we need to move and second the amendment right okay so um I can I move yes sure okay I move the amendment to stipulate that we're attaching this as exhibit a do you have a second second okay director constant seconds um now we vote okay so discussion or vote and then discussion so it was a pre-amended version that we're attaching okay so the original document yes as as posted okay and then we can amend that if we want okay so um where are we in the process you need discussion in a vote discussion any discussion on this attaching the original platform on the attachment any discussion okay all in favor say yes yes all opposed say no any abstentions okay yes okay okay so the amendment is passed unanimously um okay now we go to the underlying exhibit a exhibit a thank you okay so we had a number of suggestions for changes we're going to take each one of those separately and vote on email right yes uh so I move that we amend the exhibit a the legislative platform um by um adding a comma at the end of the second bullet and concluding that bullet with including funding to increase the length of the school year and Julie would you like me to also add what we just um and in the same Amendment I would like to amend the fourth to the last bullet by changing the period to a comma after underserved students and adding including students in special education okay do we have and and there was one more which was sure students receiving special education services and then the third one was um on the second to the last bullet point change that to read PPS supports and we'll advocate for measures that will help PBS supports and will advocate for measures and funding that will help districts attract and retain a diverse Workforce reflective of the students they serve okay we have a proposal for an amendment right do we have a second okay director Bailey seconds uh moved by director constant seconded by director Bailey any discussion on those changes okay we'll take a vote um those those and those for this amendment word changes that were just offered okay okay all in favor say yes yes all opposed say no any abstentions student representative yes okay so the amendment the wording amendments are accepted unanimously are there any other changes to the language did you want to address the issue about adding the term set aside or carve out in the fourth bullet okay not in this amendment okay that's already passed that's done um okay I'll offer it and we'll see we'll see so fourth bullet points PPS opposes um budgetary carve outs for mandated uses and unfunded mandates that do not include requisite funding so the new language would be budgetary conrades for mandated uses second okay second on that well let me just okay so director Bailey seconded I moved
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director Bailey seconded discussion okay um so I think that potentially could be an unwise thing to have in this because almost all the discussions to date including with most of the education players is the way they're they're not going to just hand over two billion dollars um to schools and say spend it however you want is that um it likely will be a series of targeted Investments because that is what the general public is going to support that's what the polling shows and I say this is broadly accepted as that's how like we may not like it but I guess if we put it in there and that's how we get it are we going to turn down the money because it's attached to something because that is probably how we're going to get it and that in fact was called out in the language from the Student Success committee about how they were going to advocate in the legislature around targeted Investments and accountability I think it's very important that this board take a position opposing that position because we've got many many many years of experience with the legislature that shows us that their judgment on this is absolutely terrible if you want to talk about the will of the voters well it's the will of the voters that put us seven little pinheads up here to make the decisions about how we're going to spend the money we shouldn't be allowing certainly the legislature to second guess our judgment our superintendent's judgment our staff's judgment on this and I think we need to say that really firmly really loudly and over and over again I would be supportive of any narrowing of the agenda that makes sure to include high quality Early Education early literacy social emotional development secondary redesign Arts education gifted and talented education and enhancement of special education services so as long as they're narrowed to some of those areas I think we're okay you can figure out how to spend it so and uh dare we say anything about our maintenance backlog for the state of our facilities I mean it it goes across the board I'm in favor of the legislature doing its job and allowing the rest of us to do our jobs if the legislature would actually do what they were elected to do I don't think we'd be having these Arcane discussions about pennies I think we'd be we'd have enough money that that we could actually allow individual school districts to to allocate resources in in the most logical and rational way to serve its students I I don't think the legislature is an educator either collectively or individually for the most part and I don't think they ought to be telling us what to do and and yes I understand that the politics are such that we will almost certainly get money in the form of mandated carabouts but I don't have to like it and I think we have the right and the obligation to say out loud that we think that is not a wise use of legislative Authority so I'm curious uh director brim Edwards what what do you think one of those for example or director constant what do you think one of those directions might look like success and I'll say um this is Republican Democrats labor unions that are saying this um I mean if one one of one of the I'm asking for a specific right so it could be a 180 day school year or Pre-K Pre-K fully fund measure 98. or and the the reality is social emotional health legislators are listening to the public as well and usually the Public's response is because they're seeing something not happening and that's why I think we end up with targeted Investments um all the polling I saw after measure 97 is one of the big um issues with it was we're you know pretty much lost roundly all over the
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state was that one of the reasons people gave when you asked why they voted no was that it didn't they didn't see the connection to some tangible thing that they wanted addressed and the fear was it was going to go to Salem into the big black hole and they weren't going to see something so I'm not saying I I like the legislature telling us what to do I'm just speaking to the reality and I think it's probably the best way so I I think it's I mean easier maybe a better approach since we're not going to be driving the ship is like if there's a wave you know catch it and so like what what is it what would we like them to fund so if we're gonna we're gonna get it let's let's be specific about things that we want we would want the money to to go to but I think us saying just give us you know schools giving us a billion dollars and um you know we're gonna decide um is not a politically viable position for us to take and I think it will result in us not getting money actually um if we're we don't support some sort of targeted investment so that's that's the danger you could say we don't you know we want it without any strings and it's like well you're not you're going to get a lot less because that's what we feel our constituents are telling us they're willing to give so it's I would also like to take a stab at answering director Bailey's question uh Oregon business industry so far has been perfectly clear that they are willing to give us another 600 million dollars but that they want that to go exclusively to early childhood education and to postgraduate uh job training and they have described K-12 as the pig at the trough so yeah I think if we don't come out and Advocate strongly for full funding of the QAM with no strings I think we're going to end up with nothing [Music] approaches is to say if Portland Public Schools had X more money here's how we would spend it here's what you would get for those dollars and it could be quite different from what Salem needs quite different from what yoncala needs it's quite different from what Ontario needs and I would argue that in any advocate Advocate around Revenue reform or increased allocations that's exactly what we're doing we're saying this is what we need it for and we're backing it up with data okay you know and that's to me the crazy thing about measure 98 is local voters have elect school boards that could have been I mean just like Portland Public did nothing around CTE four years and then what three four years before measure 98 passed started ramping up CTE all on its own within its own budget okay so I'm gonna call it um so this has already been moved and seconded right okay so let's take a vote um all those in favor of those suggested wording can you please read that again uh PPS opposes budgetary combat to for mandated uses and unfunded mandates that do not include the requisite funding to successfully implement the mandate okay okay all right all those in favor say yes yes all those opposed to say no no no that was three uh okay well let me see if I heard it right now so no no no no you were a yes okay okay so um any any abstentions student representative yes okay um so I believe this passes by a vote of four to three just the amendment just that a minute yeah okay are there any other changes I think I'm going to call this because we are way over yeah um so I'd like to uh come back at a later date around measure 98 language and get some research and data and um so that we're so that I know what I'm talking about
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I'm sorry really quickly point of order oh okay any other Okay so um so we have a an amended resolution 5750 is there any public comment yes we have two Rebecca Hannaford and Elizabeth Israel Davis hi my name is Rebecca Hannaford h-a-n-n-a-f-i-n I am a member of the PPS dyslexia advocacy group we believe that the proposed legislative agenda is strong but it could be more specific as PPS steps up its support of children with dyslexia the biggest challenge is increasing teacher training and awareness having two dyslexia advisors in every Elementary building doesn't change the fact that most teachers have no idea how to help their dyslexic students kids in middle school and high school are on their own my son was diagnosed with dyslexia in first grade every year I go to school in the first weeks of classes and I teach my son's teachers how to teach him I explain assistive technology I send links to articles and seminars about structured literacy I remind them not to make him read out loud in class I introduced them to his tutor so that they can work together I should not have to do this teacher credentialing programs should be teaching our teachers how to teach struggling readers scientifically proven dyslexia curriculum has existed for decades the international dyslexia association's knowledge and practice standards for teachers of reading are used at universities around the world University teaching programs should be using these standards in 2015 the Oregon legislature passed a law requiring teacher credentialing programs to provide instruction on dyslexia and other reading difficulties in 2017 the Oregon teachers standards and practices commission adopted final dyslexia instruction program standards Oregon's teaching universities immediately banded together to push a legislative amendment that gave them the option of delaying compliance with the standards until 2020. essentially they said we don't want to do this right now and the legislature said okay my fourth grader will be in sixth grade by the time all of Oregon's teaching universities start teaching teachers how to help him by the time that first batch of teachers find their first jobs my fourth grader will be halfway through High School last spring the PPS dyslexia advocacy group met with a senior PPS administrator who told us there is a huge problem with new teachers coming into PPS needing professional development on foundational skills specifically with regard to teaching reading there is no reason for PPS to be wasting money training teachers to teach struggling readers it is completely consistent with the district's legislative agenda to seek increased funding for teacher training hire only fully trained teachers and insist that teaching universities move quickly to implement existing dyslexia instruction standards much of what helps students with dyslexia will help other struggling readers ESL students and those without rating differences all boats rise with the interventions needed for students with dyslexia it's the largest school district in the state PPS should be challenging other districts the Oregon legislature and Oregon's universities to ensure that every single teacher in every Oregon classroom has these essential skills thank you thank you hi my name is Elizabeth Israel Davis ISR AEL hyphen d-a-v-i-s and I'm here to ask you to prioritize lobbying in support of State legislation in regards to teacher training and reading instruction currently teachers are entering the classroom with little to no understanding of how to teach the fundamental skills of reading the burden and cost for this training then falls on our district and even worse our students and Families a few years ago as Rebecca has already stated legislation was passed that made me hope this would change hb242 which became ors-342.147 originally required educator prep programs to align their curricula and content with International reading standards it technically still does but it was stripped of any impact it might have had when our University's successfully lobbied to be able to decide for themselves if they are in compliance um so I'm basically asking you the same thing not quite as eloquently as Rebecca PPS has a lot of power to be able to influence this and not only for students
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who have dyslexia but for for all students I am a reading specialist in PPS and anything that I have learned I've had to seek out myself um I have a master's degree from Lewis and Clark I have a reading endorsement and I had to do all this myself and find it myself our University should be preparing teachers so that they come into the classrooms knowing how and I think PPS as a is a strong force to lobby for that to happen thank you I just want to say that as amended this platform which we included the um Amendment around including students receiving special education services absolutely we will carry forward your recommendations about dyslexia as part of that and that is still an ongoing discussion at the state so thank you both for your work so does that cover it it doesn't cover what our second um what Miss Israel Davis was referring to around General reading instruction curricula but we just have a very general statement about strongest supporting measures that enhance stability of eps to advance student achievement yeah that's a standalone Clause it's not very specific as a generic statement our platform is generic and I this is kind of unsatisfactory okay so I don't know where to I don't I don't know quite what to do yeah I don't know where it fits in the legislative agenda either but I do want to say to our two speakers that said issue that I've been calling out exactly like that being part of the university and kind of knowing the politics behind that and I have also spoken a link to administrators and human resources that we do need to have certain competencies that teachers are coming out of the training programs with but I I don't know that that is something that's for the legislature or something to work with our University partners with and I'm happy to continue that conversation I was just going to say I've I've been in touch with Lisa Lyon about the challenge with teaching teachers how to teach to kids who are who are dyslexic or have been diagnosed probably by their families because they had to pay for it which is the challenge we heard about earlier so um I'm not sure it's probably too specific to include here but something that we can continue talking about and I know Gretchen mentioned to me this issue so um we're we're talking internally and as I said I will continue to advocate for the training and uh investment in that area and I'm happy to come to your meetings and I've talked to her about that too to keep in touch about what these issues look like so thanks Courtney okay okay uh do I have a motion and a second for the amended attachment a yes you've already voted on each of these two amendments yeah we voted on it but but don't we it's already been moved in a second it was the original overarching piece so you're ready to vote ready to vote on the resolution 5750 okay go ahead um uh prior to voting while there's no potential or actual conflict of interest under ORS chapter 244 I'm providing notice that the entity that employs me will be engaged in the 2019 Oregon legislative process and I may be involved in work relating to individual legislation I also want to just explain I'm going to be a no vote on this and it's not necessarily the substance um I don't think you ever agree to everything it's more the process about three weeks ago we did have a general conversation in August about it and three weeks ago we were told there'd be a work session in November and then of and then a vote in December and we all received this although I asked for it last week when I noticed it was on the agenda we didn't receive it until Friday so which I I don't think gave most board members an opportunity to weigh in prior to it getting in its current form and also in order to allow the public I'm frankly you know I applaud the two people who must have been watching the website over a
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three-day weekend to see that something had been posted but certainly I don't believe we had adequate opportunity for the public to weigh in on a pretty important legislative so I'll be a no okay ready to vote all in favor of resolution 5750 as amended please say yes yes all opposed say no no no any abstentions student paisler yes yes okay the resolution passes by a vote of five to two okay um now we are much delayed but I'd like to ask Kevin Spellman to present the bond accountability report um chair more directors superintendent um before we get into the report I wanted to just remind you all that the committee's been operating a little short-handed um recently both Lewis uh fontenau and Willie Paul left the committee this year and they were both um had been both on the committee since its founding in 2012. and so we missed them dearly however we now have three proposed Replacements Karen Weyland Dana White and Dick Steinberg Karen and Dana are here today and we also um Tom Peterson's here with me his his term is up and you'll be considering his reappointment and assuming that passes Tom and I will be then be the only two remaining original so we're we're frankly really looking forward to the um uh new energy New Perspectives we have a lot of challenges as you know so um I think you've seen the bios of the uh of the nominees and I think they can bring a lot to the table um we held our regular quarterly meeting on October 17 and at this time it may seem like a fairly quiet time with the bond programs but in fact a whole lot is going on there's construction work at Grant High School the health and safety work covered by the 2017 bond continues close out of phase three construction at Roosevelt is underway and final closeout at Franklin and Fabian and of course planning and design work for Madison Lincoln Benson and Kellogg before we get into the specifics of the program we want to express concern about the situation at osm osm has been short staffed for some time now not not its fault it's a very challenging environment but there are some key positions still unfilled they're working hard to try and fill them but nevertheless there's a enormous load of work for a short-handed organization and um and now on top of that um Dan young has taken on management of facilities and asset management on on an interim basis but and we understand the needs of the district certainly but our role is to understand the needs of the bond and we're very concerned about that further spreading of managerial Talent while these challenges are so um uh potentially overwhelming I'm going to talk about the 2012 Bond then Tom will go into the 2017 and then I'll come back and attack a couple of other metrics generally the work covered by 2012's proceeding well there are still some significant challenges most obviously I think at Grant High School considerable amount of work is being done there and the current cost projections continue to show it will be completed with in the current budget but there's significant concern about that the
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contingencies are shrinking fast and it may well be that there there'll be a need for additional funds to complete the project fortunately the program overall still has some contingency funds that certainly should be sufficient to take care of any overrun them as you know the location for the softball field at Grant's been agreed on again I want to be clear though that those costs are not included at this point in the cost projections for the bond closeout is still being addressed at Roosevelt and there are some mechanical issues there at least partly probably due to the nature of phase construction that can be a challenging thing um uh you may or may not know that Roosevelt high school project was honored with a demuro award from restore Oregon for recognizing create quote creativity persistence and craftsmanship in outstanding restoration projects it's the only school project in the state to receive that recognition Franklin's final costs will be right on its 113 million dollar budget Fabian still expected to run over slightly but as I said there's still um we still expect the foot the scope total scope of the 2012 bond to be completed within the available funds okay regarding uh 217 obviously the big issue with 217 is the budget uh with a 190 million unfunded uh that's going to be a challenge throughout the uh the course of this next few years um you know we are uh it's nice though that we finally got resolution on the budgets for Kellogg Lincoln and Madison the challenge now will be how do we make sure we stay within those budgets going forward um and um you're going to hear a little bit more this after or later this evening on what the osm is doing to try to do value engineering and maintain those and um please what was what we saw him hopefully he'll he'll be feel the same way um the I want to comment we did have a great presentation from the Madison team and it was a great good demonstration of the value of having your contractor on board and working collaboratively to figure out how do you address these budget issues and they presented a number of innovative ideas and and techniques that were help keep the budget and yet still deliver what was it was intended so that was very encouraging to see that um however we're still waiting for the next uh round of estimates and so hopefully we'll we'll still be in line but that was encouraging they're also one other advantages of that type of a Contracting is that you have some flexibility in how you go about procuring and so they're going to do a strategy that we did uh quite often at the Port which is where we bring in some of these key and challenging subcontractors on early during pre-constructions so you can negotiate and work with those folks and they can also help with some of the ve and so I think that will be a a good thing on Madison and and I suspect we'll probably see similar strategies on the other projects as they as they develop um one point of I guess or somewhat disappointing was that the Kellogg project some of the overruns were due to the fact that we were doing Ed specs designed concurrently and it's like we kind of thought well geez I thought we learned that lesson in 2012. hopefully that won't occur again in the future and that was disappointing but it looks like they've got the budget established so um hopefully we can manage it um and stay within the budget going forward the health and safety program is moving along two things maybe of note it's given the marketplace it's challenging to try to get the workforce you need within a constrained periods of time so some of the summer work we have this really fiction window is is different and so the Melissa may have to approach that a little differently and bite it off in a little smaller chunks that they know they can get it done without it being so challenging but that's kind of the times we're in and then um let's see what else would I want to bring up um oh along the same lines we think it's important that there's good communication on how we're proceeding with the health and safety work obviously that was a I'm going to add on to the bond measure
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in light of some of the and so I think it's important that we share what we're doing and and we're making progress with those issues and then the last thing I forgot to mention is regarding Benson um there's uh similar situation going on you're probably aware where you have a master plan going we're on the design but yet we still don't know what the district's CTE program is it was a problem for us on Roosevelt and you know we'd encourage you to try to make sure that gets resolved so that the Benson program isn't adversely impacted by a change down the road related to a wide GTE program that's all I have to share so as you know we track a few other metrics as well and the the first one is equity certified business participation of the two programs combined is now at 17 still not at the 18 percent aspirational goal but it's certainly been creeping up and we're optimistic about that apprenticeship trade hours are at 25 above the 20 goal um I know this is of particular interest to you the new new performance audit team is uh up and running uh they met with a with numerous stakeholders um three or four weeks ago now including representatives of the BAC and we're looking forward to working with them as they go forward and they're from just so you know uh they're very clear that their phase one work is at your direction to focus on the estimates for the 2012 Bond um we've really skipped a year of performance auditing here so there is no at this point there's no quote audit for the year 2018 which is mandated by the bond programs uh there have though been Costa audits on Franklin and Roosevelt and we think that if if osm designates those as the program audits that would satisfy the bond mandate Appliance issue um something that an audit that was required again it's not a question for you okay well I think I think I can answer it at least in terms of the process um the the procurement that we had a new performance auditor so I think the intent expectation was the the performance audit would satisfy the Mandate from the bonds but with a new auditor and procurement Etc right um so in summary um 2012 bond is still on track to meet its final schedule goal and stay within the program budget and no surprise to you major challenges uh remain on the 2017 Bond thank you so I just want to just clarify the point about the missed audit so I guess the refinement is not necessarily that we missed an audit it's being replaced with something else that's that's our recommendation yes is that the recommendation or would the deputy superintendent with that meet the obligation I hate to think that we'd be missing an odd the missing an audit each of each of the bond programs in the bond measure has a commitment to an annual audit it's not specific about performance audit Financial audit uh or whatever um from the outset of the 2012 Bond the performance audit was an annual one and certainly satisfied that requirement there was no performance audit for 2018 but there was a financial odd there was a financial audit cost audits on Roosevelt and Franklin and since that those projects constitute such a large part of the expenditure it seems like that would qualify so it's not really a missed audit it's
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just a a different audit that's what we think we think you need to it needs to be designated or satisfy everybody it's one thing for BAC to say they recommend that that would be the replacement it's another thing for us to actually commit and commit and do it because then it's not a missed audit if we've committed and done it we already I I would think osm could just state that those audits satisfied the 2018 requirement so um I have a comment about something in your report that you didn't mention here tonight which is uh disappointment that we have not seen external cost validations for these 2017 projects and this is something that the BAC has repeatedly called for this is something that I have called for our board has discussed partly because we know I mean you say Franklin came in on budget at 112 million well well we're double that only four to five years later which we know is more than just the escalation that we see in the market so we really need that information to be able to look at the cost per square foot that we're committing to these buildings and to know whether that actually is you know what we have uh uh Justified right to expect in this market at this time or whether there is something more we could be doing and I at the same time I really appreciate the other materials in here um around the the granular value engineering exercises that go through every category of Labor every category of materials so I know that that we are doing really extensive value engineering work but I still think that those some sort of external cost validation in comparison to other projects um something that I need to see to feel certain that um we we have done our due diligence on these these new projects that are so significantly over budget so as far as you know is there any movement in that direction or uh or maybe the deputies no at least at the time of our meeting no but there was not and osm you know to be fair to them they raise significant issues in getting that data so that it can be helpful and those issues are uh certainly valid but still we have not been able to find any data that supports the current budgets for Lincoln and Madison and that's our concern it may be that it may be that the um level of quality that PPS is requiring is more than others but it's the same meds specs I know yeah I want to say I really share that concern this is something that we've been asking for and I know it's it's not easy but if if our team believes that it's impossible to come up with relevant comparisons then I'd like to at least hear justification for that but in the meantime I'm I'm really uncomfortable with the budgets that we have without being able to see those kind of direct comparisons have one question so I noticed on the members that are retiring from the committee and and thank you for all your hard work um there was uh it appeared to be at least one diverse individual there and as we're looking at Equity issues I'm wondering about the makeup in the committee and just reminding us to look at the different voices on the committee as well and in our recruitment efforts and I'm just a piggyback on that I made some several attempts to reach out to try to diversify but unfortunately it wasn't successful um and then um the two individuals the two ladies that are here this evening they were both folks that I told about and so I reached out to them and they both expressed an interest so it's something we we considered we made an attempt great um but um but it's not just maybe as diverse as we would have liked it to be and and I I would like to add that frankly we don't feel that we necessarily have um the right number of people so if
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there are others we we certainly we don't want it to be totally unwieldy but we're not saying that we filled every slot we're not interested in anybody else so maybe the community absolutely we would love more voices there thank you so I just just to piggyback on that um so I do want to applaud um the candidates they have deep technical expertise and really um great um it's great that we have access to them um and I also applaud the gender diversity um as well on the committee um I will say that currently the charter has says seven members I think that we should be really clear that um that we can go beyond that and actually again this is sort of applies to any of our appointments whether it's the um you know budget advisory committee or any um board appointed committee that we really should be looking at through an equity lens so we get especially with our aspirational goals that we'd like them to be at to we'd like to realize them the other thing that I um so I would hope that we could have maybe a sense of the board that we would expand the charter beyond the seven members so that we are able to get more diverse members um from the community the other thing I think we should just be mindful of is the geographic location I think it's wonderful that we have people who don't live within the Portland Public Schools boundaries who want to help I do think it's important and we have a lot of talent here that we continue to try and have the vast majority of the members being those that are sort of have skin in the game and live within the boundaries of PPS so that um because we're we're all anybody who's living within the boundaries is obviously paying taxes and understands the ramifications of all these votes and when we're not at not hitting our cost estimates or not being able to you know manage the projects in a way that we would think we could so I've asked for to just be cognizant of keeping sort of the not having a residency requirement but just being mindful that we continue to have people who sort of live within the boundaries of PPS also serving on the committee um but I will say I think the candidates that were recruited would be up be able to provide outstanding contribution going forward and I want to thank them for agreeing to step up can our new BAC members give us a wave so we know who you are out there all right thank you very much welcome so um under the other issues page you have goals for student engagement have been up met for 2018 although every opportunity will be explored over the rest of the year so can I just get an overview of what the student engagement was for this just because I just don't know um it um it varies from almost one-on-one situations with internships with uh with PPS also with the contractors and design teams to it varies from something as simple as that to Regional having students attend Regional construction um um Outreach efforts and everything in between we we've also in the past had individual teachers who introduce elements of the construction program into their daily curriculum whether it's in applied you know geometry or something like that where they bring the contractor in with a real world problem that they're working on and just try to integrate that way as well thank you okay any other questions um I would just like to ask Miss large weather um if we went beyond the seven members in the charter do we have to formally do something or are we allowed to just recruit more members director Brian Med with that's a that's a really good uh question because assuming you appoint those three that would bring us to wait correct so yeah oh so we're already exceeding so you may not see me any so I I will convince I have not reviewed the charter but my my advice in the moment is that you would you would amend the charter to reflect to increase the capacity for the number of members what what is the well period so I'd like to offer that we allow up to nine members um and maybe we could add
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this into the resolution um on the appointment of the um I think that's that's fine I don't believe you have a resolution for that before you this evening I thought we're approving them I believe I I think actually they are appointed by the board yeah I think at least I I um I I think we're going to have to have a resolution in in the business agenda at the next meeting in the meantime we can make the charter changes superintendent will make recommendations the school board for six committee members and a chairperson so yes it's up to you so we can we can do both at the same time with one resolution we can you can also the minutes will the meeting will reflect the action you can take the action tonight we can you can have an oral motion to amend the charter and appoint the the members and um vote on it here and it will be it will be binding it isn't your usual practice but you can do that as well is there any objection well let's uh figure out what the wording would be instead of shall consist of seven I would say up to nine do we want to have a minimum number do you want to have a minimum number how about seven to ten yeah you know I at our view is um the number really isn't that important so long as it doesn't become unwieldy it doesn't need to be an odd number we don't take votes you know hear opinions and try to reach consensus right um so you know certainly at least I'd be I'd be happy if we had 10. I think that number would be would be fine okay director brim Edwards moves director constant seconds um any discussion about it okay should we take a vote all in favor say yes yes yes opposed say no abstentions yes representative okay um this do you want a motion on passes unanimously the charter is offended the charter is amended yeah a lot of motion on accepting the new appointments um so the next Road have been it order of business would be um ex appointing the three proposed members chair more and the renewal of those who uh whose term is expiring Mr Peterson you want to keep me you thought you were going to get off well it hurt my feelings if you say no okay um all in favor say yes yes yes opposed say no sir do we get a motion in a second oh okay so okay second okay director response brand moves director Bailey seconds um all in favor say yes yes opposed say no any abstentions student Representatives paisler yes okay you are hereby appointed by a vote of 7-0. I'd actually just a question um Kevin sorry about your we got into the appointments and then got into voting um you said that the Franklin projects and Roosevelt projects were done um substantially oh that's okay close out yeah well there's there was a board resolution on the things regarding the items that were not not to add specs because I just I don't want anybody from the Franklin or Roosevelt Community thinking that it's done because the board has um if Tom curler was sitting here he'd be bringing up the Roosevelt CTE we have security projects at some of the buildings and also the baseball and softball field of Franklin as I'm sure some other things so I just want to make sure that we're not closing out so substantially well we are closing the contracts at least not not necessarily the projects okay I'm sure
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that we don't get a rash of um hey you told us we were going to finish things yeah yes contract okay okay all right thank you very much thank you thank you okay next item quarterly report 2012 and 2017 bonds um from staff I'd like to ask Dan young senior director of school monetization provider reports good evening chair mower directors and superintendent uh thank you for your time this evening with me I have Scott perala who is our bond program manager uh Tom and Kevin I think did the heavy lifting for us tonight so I won't go through most of my notes it'll be a repeat of what you heard from them uh but I would like to point out that in your packets tonight you have information regarding the status of the 2012 and 2017 Bond programs the materials provide are substantially the materials that provide to the bond Academy committee on October 17th including a copy of the PowerPoint presentation the ballot scorecard and the financials uh one document to call out there for specifically for your attention is a memo regarding osm's approach to cost analysis and value engineering there had been some questions in the past of what that process is and how we go through that so there's a memo in there that details what that iterative process is and also has an analysis of both Madison and Lincoln in their as well and then just the last item was actually already brought up by Kevin and Tom about the bond accountability command committee members and then has already been voted on so with that Scott and I are happy to answer any questions you take a crack at the same question that I asked about external cost validations I can't take a crack at that uh so the osm did look at potential projects that would be similar to the ones that we're proposing now and we presented that I think over the summer I think and I won't put words in anyone's mouth but none of those projects were in Apples to Apples comparison um I would argue I don't know if we were if we continue digging if we're going to find an Apples to Apples comparison we can keep looking at for those things but I don't know if that is really going to turn up anything so I I think I might ask the question is what what questions would be informed with additional data I'm not that's more of a rhetorical question of what are we trying to dig at and get at here the focus on the cost side including what this memo addresses is the osm puts a lot of effort into was is confirming that our designs are efficient designs and then our costs are representative of the market if those two things are true then the costs are are validated if you will you're saying this is an efficient design and your cost represent the market and we have a number of strategies and the memo outlines number of those of how to get there trying to find other like projects can give us information I don't know what that's going to inform or what different decisions we're going to make with that information that said we're happy to continue to look for other potential options does that answer your question I mean it does the the heart of my question would be whether it is your joint professional opinion that the difference in the cost per square foot of the 2017 projects relative to 2012 is reflective of the escalation that we see in the market and that we could you tell us that we can be assured that these aren't design standards differences in design standards or inefficiencies or any other factors that are leading to really dramatically different costs per square foot for these projects sure I think the way I'd answer that question is the answer is probably it's a lot of those things and it's hard to pin down either one or what percentage they might be certainly we can look at data and even data that's specific to Portland and say construction costs escalation in Portland is five percent or seven percent or whatever it is that said that's probably really valuable if you build Walgreens or something because you're building the same thing over and over again our projects are really unique we even had a conversation with a contractor on Franklin about comparing that to Madison and specifically looking at those dollars per square foot and so the feedback we got is they're so drastically different Viesta large high schools yes they're historic one's a wood structure one's a concrete structure they're really not Apples to Apples so what we end up doing when we try to find these other projects that are similar to our PPS projects is it becomes an exercise in why they're different not look they're the same therefore we get a lot of data out of that so I don't know kind of a wordy answer and maybe not overly satisfying but it's just hard to pin the exact pieces down same the and I would Echo Dan's comments the the idea that
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um you were trying to align is virtually possible Steel versus CMU versus wood the difference of the the HVAC systems along whether you're using single top uh gas packs are up on top of the roof versus a centralized plant all lead to different cost per square foot even the idea of the size of say a gym the larger the gym the cost per square foot for the gym will go down because you simply have more square footage cost does go up for the larger square footage but because by volume you have more the cost per square cost per square foot goes down so trying to align all those elements starts to become exponentially harder as you're trying to find that pure Apples to Apples comparison and for what it's worth it an anecdotal conversation with one of our Architects is like this is what's happening in the market okay then how about we move right into the bond value engineering analysis absolutely so in your packets is a copy of the memo that looks like this uh I won't obviously read it verbatim so I'll just cover it very quickly the intention of this was uh into director brim Edwards comments about going and looking back at the previous projects and what was value engineered out that resolution has two deliverables and at least in our mind one is that and the other one was this discussion about value engineering so the intention of this was to outline what exactly our process is and to note that it's iterative it's something that happens continually throughout a project doesn't happen at one point in time so this this document outlays how we go through that process at each different design phase we get a cost Testament that comes in from our cost estimator We compare that to either a third-party separate cost estimate or a cost estimate from our contractor and then we do an alignment of the two and they have to be within 10 or else we don't move on to the next phase um value engineering is something that happens during that cost estimating comparison but also throughout the life of the project and depending on what the scope of the value engineering or the cost reduction is sometimes that's something very small that can be made at the project level or sometimes it's something that's more significant that needs to come all the way up to the board it really depends on what the level it is and the impact is of that change a good example of value Engineering in the process I think that has gone well is the Madison gym originally Madison gym was intended to be renovated it was very costly and it carried a lot of risk as a very large structure that had a lot of hazardous materials when we brought our cmgc on board they took a look at that and said hey I think we can get the same equivalence here of space if we tear that down build it back new we'll actually reduce the schedule so that that was our critical path item so reduce the schedule it'll cost less you'll have a brand new facility and you'll have less risk because you won't have all those unknowns when you're trying to renovate yourself I think that's a good example of value engineering when it works out really well and the importance of bringing on those General Contractors as soon as we can so that's what the outline is of this memo and it goes into a process that we do with our high schools now is we take the data that we have with with Roosevelt and Franklin and Grant we put them on a chart and we break it down by CSI division so that's when you talk about construction there's these different divisions that are two 32 something I got 34. and so we look at each division and we see where is there an outlier so is concrete and outlier for Madison or is steel or concrete for a Lincoln which it is because it's steel structure and we go through and we validate on each one of those why if there's an outlier why is it an outlier do we have a good rationale for it is because Link in the steel structure so it's going to be higher uh or is or is there not is there is there something we need to look into a good example is on Madison their structure was a lot higher than some of our previous projects so we brought in a third-party structural engineer to do a peer review and they came up with some cost-saving options that we that we took into place there so that's just an example some of the processes that we go through no this was great this was really helpful I did think it was an awfully good memo I don't say that usually it's a really good memo but I do have a question I
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don't want to seem to be the dead horse but yes the medicine gym that's a wonderful example of value engineering working well uh it hasn't always worked well for us uh say for instance the irrigation system at Roosevelt which was value engineered out so all the Landscaping died that probably was not the most cost effective thing the district's ever done was the irrigation system removed at Roosevelt altogether it was I think there was some that was not but it was also it was put back eventually discuss again yeah so not to dwell on the specifics of that but how are we going to have a second set of eyes on it certainly God knows don't want to have the board second guessing you at every step of the way right you do not want me second guessing you every step of the way but how are we going to eliminate those kinds of mistakes going forward sure that's a great question uh We've made a lot of process changes between the the early projects and the projects that and we're in design and planning right now uh one of them is the steering committee so all the new projects have steering communities which is a representation across the leadership of the district and we use these these groups as opportunities to share any value engineering or cost reduction options so that those groups those teams are up to speed also at every phase of the project we do what we call Page turns or we sit down with the different shops here grounds and the mechanical all the different shops and we go through the current status and get their feedback on the design and what we highlight is any change from the previous phase also any deviation from our design guidelines or our ad specs so we're making sure that we're constantly getting eyes on those of the subject matter experts so we we think that will will help greatly great uh can I just ask about the phasing the the closeout issues that Roosevelt that could be attributable to the phasing of the project and what have you learned from that that can be applied to the Benson project because we're going to be phasing that as well so one of the things we're doing essentially what we're dealing with is on oftentimes as over a multi-year project we've installed many components of the HVAC system in phase one they go into operation that starts our warranty by the time we get through the third phase we're into the third year we're just finishing up with some of the the equipment and some of the plant however the first pieces of the plant are now out of warranty the stuff in phase two is about to come out of warranty in different stages so one of the things we've been exploring is the idea of working with say the cmgc contractor Madison of when we go to do the project what would the cost value be to extend the warranties by the the GC to maintain all of the systems to bring them up to a complete Handover at the end of the Final Phase those are the I know Madison is a single phase project but Benson would be we will be paying a premium in the mechanical package however the long-term operational cost will be reduced because our mechanical shop will be getting a complete system handed over at one time so that's that's one example of how we're addressing that extended warranties are generally speaking a lousy idea but I think this is the exception yeah any other questions okay thank you thank you okay um next item West Side boundary correction uh last spring the enrollment and forecasting committee voted unanimously to send this item to the full board for a vote the board received a report on this item at their at the November 6th work session and a recommendation from staff I'd like to ask Judy Brennan of enrollment and transfer office to explain the rationale for the proposed boundary change foreign the rationale for this change is um to correct uh two errors that were recently identified in a decision that the board made in April 2016. one of those is simply we named a street incorrectly in the resolution that the board passed the name of that street is not one that we've been using to decide boundaries since that time so we're asking for a correction to correct the
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record name the appropriate Street the second is that we believe that it was the intent of the board at the time to draw a portion of the boundary line between West Sylvan and gray middle school between Lincoln and Wilson High School in a way that both sides of Shoals Ferry Road would be assigned to the same middle and high schools unfortunately the way the resolution was written it actually put in place that it split that area and one side of Shoals Ferry Road has been going to Lincoln and the other would eventually be assigned to Wilson now because of delays in implementation we haven't exactly we haven't actually experienced that yet so this would be the first year that children would experience that difference community members from the area raised the concern thus last spring showed us versions of maps that were available at the time um and based on that we've come back with a recommendation to modify that line it's a slight modification it affects a total of 55 households 17. students who are currently enrolled in PBS in grades K through 12 so it's about one to two students per grade level and has very minimal impact on the schools affected it does mean that the students who live in that small area about a mile long along Shoals Ferry Road would have the same access to schools regardless of which side of that road you live on the underlying logic of the original boundary decision was based on Transportation that was available to those students and the kids on the east side of Scholl's Ferry have the exact same Transportation constraints as the kids on the west so it doesn't make sense for them to be subjected to actually really challenging Transportation issues so technical necessary fix and some very astute and dogged families that have pursued this over the last year and a half so thank you to them okay did you just as long as students have a choice of Transportation that's easier for them I'm good to go okay well wait a minute the board will now consider resolution number 5751 School boundary revision for gray and West still in middle schools in Lincoln and Wilson high schools director Bailey moves director responders Brown seconds um is there any public comment there's not okay is there any further board discussion okay the board will now vote on resolution 5751 all in favor please say yes yes all opposed say no any abstentions student representative paisler yes Okay resolution 5751 is approved by a vote of seven zero thank you thank you okay next item is Franklin mascot naming process in May 2018 the board reviewed a complaint requesting name change of the Franklin High School nickname Quakers asserting that Quakers is the name quote Quakers is the name of an organized organized religion and as such as inappropriate offensive and unconstitutional unquote the board voted by resolution at that time for staff to bring forward a community engagement process to determine a new nickname for Franklin that process is now before the board and I'd like to ask Cameron Vaughn community and public affairs manager to provide the report good evening uh again my name is Cameron Vaughn the um let's see I'm just going to kind of whip over here based upon previous School naming processes done during my time here at Portland Public Schools I tried to model best practices for what worked at Harrison Park Roseway Heights and Beverly Cleary schools the public engagement processes there were successful in school community members felt heard in only one instance there was not consensus on the best name which was at what is now Harrison Park School the committee presented several names to the superintendent and none of them truly resonated the spirit of the community and the names were rejected in a new and more appropriate name Harrison Park was quickly selected and approved Franklin High School's principal Chris Frazier who's here this evening and I met to discuss how the process might proceed once the board approves this plan for the committee we have a healthy timeline and we both feel confident in the committee's ability to find an
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appropriate representation for Franklin High School within the allotted timeline we have a robust Outreach plan and a multitude of ways to engage the community in helping this process to be successful if the board has any questions I'd be happy to answer them but I do want to point out that there is one change which should be in front of you on page three it's highlighted in yellow and we would like to remove that sentence and the single s down at the bottom of the page yes and I uh it is not consistent with the policy that you put forward it's actually from previous language and we need to strike that so I want to thank the communications department and um I think they've got a good process laid out where the community will fully be heard and I think once we get into it which tonight is the sort of kicking off of it there's going to be a lot of excitement among the student community and the broader Community about um redefining what's Franklin's next century is going to look like and how they're how they're going to show up in the community so I really want to thank um I think for the work that's done done putting together a pretty complete process um and for shepherding it through and Mr Frazier I know you're going to do a great job and I can't wait to hear what the community recommends to the superintendent and the board so I just have a slight worry about the um about the Community Charter so on a list that makes up the group there's six adults members of the community from the school and I only see two students on that committee is that a limit or is that is that the number that is going to be like that's there's just gonna be two students well at present that is the limit that we put on it we tried to be deliberate also having it be an odd number in case there was an issue with people not agreeing on the name so I'm gonna say that what's our number at Franklin Now six 1500 16. this number of students 18 15. so 1800 students go to Franklin and I'm I am just personally concerned that there are not enough students I mean there's an over at this ratio there's an overarching amount of adults in this committee sure there's 1800 kids at Franklin I mean have has like I you know I would say certain Affinity clubs can reach out to this have student government reached been reached out to leadership kids um I think a lot more students are going to be like interested in being part of this committee so I would recommend that there's a good increase in the amount of students in this committee I I really don't think two is enough we'd be happy to change it to whatever you recommend okay I would support yes or introduce an amendment to add more students so that we can have a diversity of perspectives from students and I would count what that requirement is that is a minimum requirement which is at least one teacher and one classified employees that otherwise it says including current students staff Community Partners alumni and any other key stakeholders so we're it's not a limitation it's right well maybe put some language to that I would say I would have representative students from each of each grade level um on on the committee yeah so representatives from each grade level um with that you know that that could be from student governments from each of the grade levels um and as well as I think for future going forward if this happens to other schools maybe certain students who are involved in Infinity clubs that have to deal with this I know this is a real um a name a centered around religion but there might need to be names in the future that are addressed around you know other issues so I think maybe some clubs need to be reached out to and I'd say the leadership kids as well need to know that that's a great recommendation we'll absolutely do that I don't know so do we want to put a number on it yeah like you said one for grade levels but yeah so six one per grade level plus two other representatives of affinity groups so that's that's six total I I would venture do we just have to be an odd or even number does it matter I would probably venture to say maybe eight because I would like I would because I think having some students from a leadership class as well just because they're working in the entire school would be a good thing so okay
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or just a thought another way you could approach it is to um add to the designation of alumni um you know so alumni within the last five years that's actually a good point or something like that I mean I'd leave it to you but that's recently graduated what if I were to come up with a um just a couple of new words here and send it out to you tomorrow for your review well don't we want to pass this tonight okay so um so I'm gonna direct this to Google Council um so we're we do not have a resolution on this we're taking a vote so it's a sense of the board does that provide any additional leeway in the wording do we need to Wordsmith this now or can we staff in consultation with the student representative determines the composition to increase we're ex we're accepting this proposal for an engagement process the resolution that we passed last spring when we change said that they are going to change the name had the District staff would bring both an ad and an engagement process for the board to review and approve so this is the approval it seems like you just do a simple amendment can you just can we just do a range can we just do a range like say four to eight students yeah yeah I I would probably maybe eight to eight to ten I think for me okay no I know I'm just hey that's it's there's four grades 1800 kids I mean I think for eight times starting to get to a committee gets to be a little too big yeah is it too big so I mean one one thing I will say 12 is a battle this is all designed that um the committee part of the process is the solicit broad-based um feedback from the community and when they when the committee makes a recommendation to the superintendent they need to be able to show what sort of Outreach has happened what sort of support the recommended name has so they'll in addition to um serving on the committee I think there'll be lots of opportunities for others to be part of the process you know it seemed like you could have four students who were in addition to being a junior were also a member of an affinity group when I look at the community engagement plan there's nothing here about supported languages you know it doesn't talk about working with Community culturally based organizations or anything so I think it's just important um more to our communication problem uh Department probably that whenever we talk about our community engagement plan that we're looking not just English speaking parents but the Outreach to you know the diverse community at large and some specifics on how we're going to go about that even though some schools may not be as diverse as others it's still our diverse community we'll make sure we do that yeah and and that's uh when it says the committee May hold public meetings do you want that to be will hold yeah um and that might be a a place to insert a clause about Outreach to historically underserved well and I think in the engagement program needs to be something specific yeah I was curious about the balance of adults to community members from the immediate community as opposed to say only one teacher or you know a pretty passionate Alumni Association or um which there is there at Franklin High School yeah um they are yes um and so is that just generic people who live in the neighborhood is that I think because this is our first one it's sort of a learning curve for us as to the best way to put together this committee and I look to your leadership to tell us what it is that you'd like to you know who you'd like to have represented and we want to make sure that we mirror that we reflect your your wishes so I'm guessing I'm I'm thinking it's fine to have you know sort of generic Community member um and I'd put more weight on somebody who
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has more of an attachment to the school our demonstrated attachment to the school and I don't know exactly what again I don't want to get two in the middle like ptas or foundations like someone who's connected like a Community member that's connected through that to specify you know would two parents be better than two community members and switch two and one I feel like I'm really micro that that's I want to just give their reflection but so a suggestion may be that we expand the students and then we um ask that Mr Frazier or principal Frazier come back if um it feels like there needs to be something else added or we're missing something um but that just go with this as a base with the added students and yeah I agree okay so probably so what kind of what kind of wording do we need to make this work made to will in terms of holding public meetings so I think those are fairly discreet and probably like we did the last one we take the motion to approve this motion second offer the amendments and then do I offer another amount of languages of the community plan yes I have a question about the will that doesn't mean they all have to do that there's going to be times um so Fisher's running a school as well there'll be there'll be times when you for sure want to have well I mean host public meetings together the input and probably when they have decision making but I want to make sure that we don't say like every single time the committee meets it has to meet all the you know the requirements of what we would consider a public meeting I just want to be careful that we're not making that a this is the only way yeah this is a public meeting to hear comment from typically cast as an Outreach meeting okay yeah it also provides for other meetings okay um well as long as we're on this let's nail down some language so um how about if we say up to 10 Franklin High School students okay that gives some I'm I would move forward with that yeah because I just I mean I don't like to sit here and limit myself on student representation because I think that's something that's not addressed so I don't want to limit it yeah so up to 10 up to ten okay um because so if I'm adding correctly that would make uh 15 Members Plus the principal as meeting facilitator which is kind of the outer limit of a functioning committee pulled aside how many student members are on this you can have up to 10 but someone's going to have to decide is it six is it eight so frankly I don't think we should have more than 12. um I mean just to be able total total um this can't become a huge all-consuming yeah I mean uh how about if we inserts at least in front of this list and maybe bump the students up to at least four or at least something that keeps us total closer to 12 and so if there's you know two incredibly passionate alumni members we've got flexibility around that if there's a couple of parent leaders we have some flexibility about that and leave that in the hands of principle and not the board what's your minimum four I don't know four yeah yeah I mean that gives me that gives them one per grade so okay okay so at least four good minimum and minimum yeah okay so I guess I'm gonna just say I think we should have two
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parents um this has been a five-year project by parents yeah in the Franklin community and um they they drove this and just to have one parent on the community I mean Alumni Association member and two other community members so that's four four adults from the community there I'm saying they're we're a cohort of parents who spent three years on a complaint with the school district parents in one Community okay do you have all these changes I do it through all of these changes individually or can we do a blanket and then we could do a blanket Amendment unless someone insists on pulling one out I'm I just when we put the at least language in I don't think the current Charter is clear as to who makes that decision so that's my I was going to make a similar comment so we definitely list Principle as the meeting facilitator but it doesn't really clarify in the first paragraph who selects the committee members so I would argue we should have a balance of students and adults on this committee and the principal that we entrust upon him that he will select a well-balanced representative committee did staff discuss did communication staff discuss who would show who would choose the committee members yeah well in here it states that the principal and a staff member from Communications would help to make that selection okay how about we do this um this committee and that's quite an acronym out there um uh this the committee will be chosen by the Franklin High School principal who will also serve as meeting facilitator with a membership to include community members teacher and classified staff parent leaders high school students and and alumni a number of adults okay there we go there you go okay did somebody get that language thank heavens for instant replay online okay okay we good okay um just just to be clear that principal is not a non-voting member just doesn't make a distinction that seemed to be what you were implying what would you like what would make more sense um I'm just trying to get it nailed down one way or another it six adults six students principal acting as a tiebreaker that's a lot of pressure yeah well that's that's why principals get the big bucks so I think I think yeah we should get a different name I very much okay okay I I I don't think we should try to anticipate every possible permutation of this process from up here okay there's nothing here that says he can't vote so okay but let's clarify he he or she how long who knows how long it's going to take um gets a vote we know exactly how long it's going to take okay okay um okay are we good can we just take a Voice vote that includes all of this board member would like to pull out any of those individualized amendments does anyone object
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yeah plus the right right plus the in all the supported languages and communities yes yes to include right yeah and it can also be in the community engagement plan where you spell out okay we ready to vote okay okay do I get a second okay director Bailey moves director Esparza Brown um seconds uh the adoption of the Franklin High School mascot identification naming process as amended no we don't have to she said it's okay we're good we're good okay okay all in favor say yes opposed say no abstentions okay student representative paisler yes okay we adopt the communication plan unanimously by voted 7-0 thank you I look forward to receiving your recommendation principal Fraser at some point this school year yeah and thank you for all your work thank you and have fun with it I can't wait Ashley it is a fun part yeah very much okay okay all right exemptions to instructional hours at our August 14th meeting the board received a staff Report with recommendations heard public testimony and had an extensive debate on the merits of the State Board of education's proposals to allow some flexibility for families to determine the most appropriate schedule for their high school students by a majority vote the PPS board voted to support all four proposed categories of waivers for instructional hours those positions were subsequently conveyed to the State Board of Education to consider in their deliberations the state board approved all four waiver categories in September after a substantive debate in consideration of feedback from school districts all over the state under the new rules local school boards must vote on whether they intend to Avail themselves of those waivers and notify the State Board we have rescheduled the vote on whether to reaffirm the board's existing positions on the waivers to December 18 2018 in order to allow for further public engagement and review of data tonight the board will hear a report from staff regarding additional data on current exemptions to instructional hours so I'd like to ask area superintendent of high school's Joe LaFontaine to provide the reports thank you director Moore directors superintendent morale um thank you for that Lee that takes care of my first slide pretty quickly we do want to try to give you a little bit more information about some current data and answering some of the questions have been provided by the board on this topic we're going to be focusing primarily on the exemptions two and three in the law where we're looking at seniors who are on track for graduation and who the students are who are taking accelerated coursework this chart here helps to identify exactly what the current state is of our school now if you examine the First Column where it talks about 17-18 school year you'll see that this identifies what our rate was of identifying students as being fully scheduled fully scheduled in Portland Public School means that that they have eight eight classes in our high schools we have an eight period day there's four periods each day they're each 90 minutes long a student that has eight periods of classes assigned to them is fully scheduled so according to this chart in 1718 Benson had 63.31 percent of their students fully scheduled and a grand total in the comprehensive high schools of 70 percent as you know the state threshold is 80 percent for each school to have um recognizing that last year Advantage just to clarify yes sir the state defines fully enrolled as 990 hours yes correct that's correct we have different definitions that is correct currently we satisfy the 990 hours through an eight class schedule that is correct okay yes thank you um currently um last year when we recognized that we had um rates that were not going to make the threshold for the law this year our office directed high schools to
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enroll all freshmen sophomore and juniors this year to full schedules to see what that would do to our actual enrollment our projections were that it would get us get those schools to over 80 percent so when you look at the the chart on the right you will see the 1819 school year and the actual impact of that recommendation that recommendation was done verbally and we've talked about putting it into some form of a directive formal directive we currently have not formalized it yet but you can see that just verbally that directive increased the rate by 12 percent we still have a few schools we have three schools that are on the cusp of making that 80 threshold Lincoln would round up we have two schools that still would fall short though without having any exemptions these are all without exemptions um if you wanted to look more deeply at what that looks like across the different grade levels you can see that the top chart here shows you what the student body look like for freshman sophomores and juniors and overall in 1718 versus 1819 you can see the dates are one year apart freshman last year at this time 99 had a full schedule is defined by our district you can see this year it's a hundred percent you can also see the growth there again in regards to the total number of students at 81 percent enrolled unfortunately that's not the number that the state uses but it does show that we are making progress when we are explicit about our expectations for enrollment now this is specifically about seniors who are on track to graduate and this goes to superintendent Guerrero's point which is we Define students on track for graduation differently and people Portland Public than the state of Oregon does and so state of Oregon also expects the first student to be on track for graduation that they have 18 credits accumulated at the start of their senior year in Portland Public we're more explicit about that we actually um if you would we actually have very explicit expectations for where those credits are acquired so that we know that the student is actually tracking toward graduation instead they don't have 20 PE credits or whatever it might might be uh last night we looked at some of the data um but apparently we might just correct me if I'm wrong because I I didn't get an answer to this but the to get a credit towards graduation you have to get a a d that's correct so you could if you go back to the other slide yes you could get six D's in ninth grade and PPS would still or do we have some some PPS if if a d is a passing grade then it would be counted they'd be on track for graduation with six D's yeah theoretically have a one point and be on track to graduate that's correct under our standards under the state of Oregon standards in in our standards both and our standards as well yes um I share this slide just to show that it's more explicit in how we try to identify what is on track for our for our students and that does vary from some schools to others because we have some schools that have very specific programming like Benson has and we also in Portland have this report that goes out to parents that sent out a semester this helps the parents know if their students are on track and if they're accumulating the proper credit so that they're moving toward graduation and this helps drill down exactly where their kids are at moving forward it's a really nice tool for parents to have and what I would like to point out for you is when we talk about the the exemption for seniors on track when you examine the data from the accumulated data from the last three years 96 percent of the students when we Define them as being on track in Portland Public 96 of our students that have been on track have graduated at the end of the year so um so I share that because I think that's a really significant point to understand that it's a it's a I see it as a pretty reasonable threshold for what a student is moving in the right direction toward graduation well I I you've made it that far yeah obviously yeah yeah there's there's something yeah there's some real research about marathon runners not stopping in The Last Mile right yeah so yeah I can't explain that but again that that doesn't necessarily because we accept a d as a you're earning a credit that it's not mastery it's it's not mastery that's correct but there are lots of other supports supports play
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those kind of results absolutely even though technically they send you on your way toward graduation absolutely there's there's a number of challenges that our students have not everybody comes into their freshman year fully ready to be engaged in every form of curriculum that we have there's a number of students while beyond the four percent not represented there that have challenges but but it'd be easy to uh get a distribution of the grade point average of seniors kids who start senior year on track I gotta I gotta get for that data so it should um I think I think I think we're actually working on it great thanks yeah now these are just semanticdotes we asked some counselors to give us some anecdotes of how this would apply to seniors and these are three that were shared with us that first generation college student wants to have fewer classes so they can use extra time to work on scholarship applications college essays and balance a part-time job to support their family while they are still able to take six classes maybe in a full load they use that other time to maybe do some of these things much like a 504 student need some more time for supports in the work that they're doing as well as a student on the on the other end of that Spectrum needs that time for the more challenging coursework that they might find in AP or IB dual credit classes this this is this chart shows you what the data is for this year for students that are on track so the Benson currently has 190 seniors who are on track toward graduation that's 18 of their population okay that's how this chart reads So currently we have 18 percent of our population that are on track to graduate coming into this school year using Portland Public's definition of on track for graduation good evening I'm gonna talk about the advanced coursework and there were some questions regarding Advanced coursework at the August meeting and so I have some data points that we're asked for so these are just some starting data points around students who are involved in advanced coursework in our district so that includes International Baccalaureate classes the ibdp that includes advanced placement as well as dual credit courses and so some of the data points around Advanced coursework is that those courses require two to three hours of homework per week per course and in the 1718 school year 94 of seniors who participated in advanced course work classes graduated on time and 85 percent of Juniors who participated in advanced coursework were on track to graduate by their school year and the students in advanced coursework also have a higher GPA at 3.26 compared to the average of 2.89 additional anecdotal examples that were given from counselors at the high schools they gave us an example of a student who's taking six IB courses and is also involved in an intensive dance program and so uses those extra periods to complete homework and study and another student who is in five AP classes and also a dual credit course and then also participates in the Timbers Youth Development team um but the data that you have in here shows that the vast majority of students take one and even lower numbers take three yes so my guess is those are complete outliers they're they're going to be some but well but the date the date that's what the data shows is that I mean for example but those outliers are at the schools where the 80 percent comes into play and so they're outliers in the system as a whole so so is the student on track to graduate with the one point yeah but or two points or two five well um just one point well we don't we don't have the data I guess is that was a theoretical question one of the other things I would just say about those that are taking only one course is that maybe those that are trying to enter into that level of study as well and that's something that we as a high school team have been trying to endorse and support is them challenging themselves with that higher rigor and so that may be some of the result of those members we've seen increased numbers of participation in these courses I was going to say so along those same lines of what Julie was saying so you get the exemption you can get the exemption if you're only taking one advanced class you only have to take one and what about
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um do you have to take the test or get a c or better is that qualification around that too not at this time okay well you wouldn't get the test results until the end of the year anyway so use it but okay so so correct me if I'm wrong isn't the whole point of an exemption to be able to take account of the outliers isn't that the whole point like we're not dealing with the means yes we're not dealing with the average we're dealing with individual students who have individual needs who may need some flexibility yeah and this allows us to give them some flexibility to create a program that will allow them to succeed right right rules were written the State Board of Education the 80 percent was the flexibility and there was a fair amount of discussion at the state board meeting about if you already have flexibility that 20 of the students don't have to be enrolled in it in a full day of school that there was a question why additional flexibility was needed because you already had flexibility built into it which is actually where all of our high schools are virtually so it's also important to keep in mind here that even though it would be sensible to enact the exemptions we don't have a whole system that is in need of taking advantage of them we are we're basically right at the cusp of every single one of our individual schools meeting the 80 percent standard it's important to point out that's correct these are the number of students who are enrolled in advanced course org at each of the high schools dual credit AP and IB and so when we talk about ID we're only talking about the diploma program that's available to students in the 11th and 12th grade at Cleveland and Lincoln here's some information for you regarding just the differences in the advanced coursework and where at which High School each of the options is available so in 2016 I believe the board passed the ape IB student Bill of Rights and do we know that um our Advanced course offerings are aligned with with that really the intention was to provide a lot of supports and to be much more directive as a system to support historically unders served students taking AP in IB courses I mean look looking at the data it looks like we still have a ways to go but I'm curious just on how just the accessibility of the of the classes like numbers of sections there was a patient here that said by some group but then there was no information and I it was um it was provided to you as a part of your packet as um as a couple of additional Pages it was so intense of data it looks like this director Brown just two pages I believe it was included with your packet so much I'm sorry anyway and it and it just Aggregates by grade by race okay um to answer as best I can your question about the student Bill of Rights for for those classes um that that information just came to our attention just recently actually when you shared that with us in an email so we're still looking into some of the details of that we I think that some of that stuff is in place but I also believe there's room to still be for us to still support that to the full measure of the language of that um and that like I said that was new information for us I wasn't on the board but was passed unanimously as my understanding by the board with a real intent on creating equity in the advanced courses yeah yeah and so we have recently looked at the document and many of the practices shifted after the adoption of the Bill of Rights so I know that because of that Bill of Rights is there was additional funding for IB schools and for testing fees and so I'm not sure that at this time we're meeting each of those line items so that we will
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be looking into that in the future but I anecdotally know that there have been some practices that have changed in according including dropping an advanced course so I know there's a form for the students that they have to fill out that has a parent or Guardian signature a teacher signature and an administrator signature so I know that that for example had been a concern so there there's definitely evidence of some practices having shifted as a result of that but I can't speak to if we're meeting every single line item and that's true not just of dropping a class but also for having less than eight classes um which Joe you mentioned at the beginning of the conversation that it was a verbal directive but it also included that extra step that parents had to sign off and formally a petition less than that's correct it required a parent signature and a signature of the principal yeah yeah dual credit opportunities for CTE specifically and I do apologize the Jefferson slide app they're offered at PCC so I have the list of courses that are available at PCC I don't I apologize somehow that's weird and then these are research findings around students who participate in advanced coursework so generally speaking participation in advanced coursework has positive outcomes in regards to graduation rates college entrance College completion rates and yeah um first bullet point it's courses so I believe when the state did a lot of work earlier on on this is that the research is three college level courses so three apib dual credit um and that increases um with graduation but also it's a great indicator of college readiness and also College completion so it's actually the research shows it's more than it's much higher than the standard that's in the current state um exemption requirement okay which is one against causation or correlation what do you need college or at college and [Music] hopefully under a system every kids are going to be taking AP and IB of course some of them well well but let's not every kid is going to want to take AP or IB but we do know that it correlates to graduation and and college readiness and college success and it is actually part of our measure 98 funded Suite of on-time graduation initiatives to encourage more students and particularly historically underserved students to enroll in AP and IB classes and Beyond the beyond measure 98 component it's part of the high school's four-year Plan before right to formally make those moves so I know that there had been a question around this the student grades in advanced coursework so this is from the 17 18 school year by grade level and then this is the grade that they achieved in the course so and for example 287 ninth graders last year earned an A in an advanced coursework and another question that had come up is desegreated this Sacramento so um it's just part of part of the Nuance of this assuming that exemptions are allowed is where the exemptions are actually individually applied so it's one thing for the board to approve its usage is another thing of How It's applied um and I'm curious about whether the standard would be if you took a course and failed or you could apply it to any of these other indicators you know when we get this got a gram of grades um the the discretion of the applying of the exemption
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and having some having some sort of Standards So currently the data looks like half our high school students would be exempt so we would so technically if wholesale the board said we support all these exemptions and you know whoever wants them can take them that we could have half of our high school students again not taking a full school day so the the question of the discretion of when or where to apply the exemption is probably relevant because my assumption is it's not a wholesale blanket exemption for anybody who that's one of these pretty broad categories that's really for you to direct us to do um I would just like to say that the numbers that are represented here are are current I'm sorry this is actually last year's okay so um the numbers that we shared with you on some previous slides show that 81 percent of the students are in a full schedule and we still are seeing an increased number of participation in these Advanced course offerings which I think is a I'm actually proud to State because we're offering kids things that that they are willing to try and move forward I'm glad they're not in part of this conversation because and also our practice which hasn't been formalized in will be formalized an administrative director directive is that 9th through 11th graders will be scheduled in 11 classes regardless of whether some of that is AP so the or excuse me eight classes my kids would be paying attention kids would kill me 9th through 11th graders will be scheduled in eight classes yes and so the uh further exemptions would only apply to seniors so that's not 50 percent of our high school students but I let I'm confused about that because um it was sent out as a here's the ad and then when I asked about it it was that it wasn't yet completed and then it's not clear what policy it's related to and and if we don't actually have it in place then the then it then it's this is not a directive until it's actually in place and again I'd be interested in what policy it's connected to so I'd like to respond to that um the ad I think was uh the attempt to try to answer as many questions as we could without having a chance to vet it and really work on it as a team we actually don't need an an ad what we need is procedures and expectations about how we would apply those and we we haven't had a chance to have that conversation but I know that aligned with our superintendent is we would be very careful about how we applied that and expect a process that would have principles you know working with the student and the families the counselors whatever to see if it is the right thing for the student because what we see those exemptions for are for those unique situations it's not just to put a group of kids in and say okay we can just let you out without actually looking at what the kids are doing remember we are moving to trying to create a district that is more systematic and is and um more operates like a system but right now there are so many things that operate differently at every high school that we haven't even had the chance to really vet with principals to have the conversation with our superintendent so all that needs to happen but I guess I would just want to assure you that we would be wanting to take the highest standard we could because we want our kids to be prepared for their next steps so I know that sounds to me like there's been some assumptions that we are setting the bar low but we don't want to set the Barlow it's just that we've been we're addressing a district that didn't have any directives like this or expectations we have a year where we went forward with that with just a verbal it worked now we have to work more with our principals and counselors to say how did that work for the kids what are their gpas look like where would we apply those exemptions what's the bright process we need to do
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so I think there is an engagement process we need to do to determine that but we don't need an A.D we just need to come up with the procedures and expectations and I don't know if you want to add to that Guadalupe so just a comment on that and that did you have a response go ahead well there were there's been a few questions that have been pointed out but what I don't want to get lost is something that assistant Sue Fontaine uh mentioned and that's uh we have we are seeing a pretty uh impressive increase in the instructional time that our high school students are spending in 9th 10th and 11th the reason why staff continues to advocate for the flexibility in the senior year is because we believe that's a conversation that needs to happen between counselor teachers family and student I do agree it's a difference when you have a student with 18 credits and a 1.0 versus a student who has 18 credits several APS and a 3.5 it's a different conversation but it's a conversation best had in the counselor's office and we do have some work to refresh our institutional practices including referencing our counseling manuals and some specific sort of logic models around you know when these situations make sense so their students are supported and we want them on campus we want them getting supports and we want them there those 990 hours in my mind that doesn't necessarily mean eight classes because it might mean some other support that's important to that student um so but we need we need that kind of flexibility to do that work it is a conversation that needs to engage our high school principals and our counselors as a whole so that we can codify some of this whether it's an A.D or a counseling manual This Is Not Unusual Work for school systems to be doing in their high school or secondary redesign work and there's actually a few other preliminary steps like course calibrating across all of our high schools they the syllabus should mean something similar across campuses and so we still have work to do there never mind proficiency based grading and continued conversation around Mastery of standards and we need to have the more meaningful level of conversation so that we're not just checking off boxes but our kids are truly ready to persist through through college so I'll leave it there well I have a just a clarifying question because there's unfortunately some misunderstanding I think would there ever be a circumstance in our district when a student would be denied the opportunity to enroll in eight classes no I can't well I mean it seems obvious but there is conversation in the community that um that seems to think that that is possible and I it that's because we did have that as the norm my eldest child group was in high school in the time of part-time school when the norm was for students even sophomores to have six classes and you saw these kids walking around downtown Portland you know in the middle of the day and they were either denied a full eight period schedule or they were stuck in a non-academic study hall so I mean that's why people are sensitive to it but I just wanted to make that clarification explicit about that you couldn't do that but that's that's that was the case until the parents got that fixed but it's that's not the issue it's the the how they get advised like should they I mean this is where the Educators and the counselors should really be advising like yeah if you this if this is what your aspiration is to go to community college to go to technical school to go to a four-year University if you need Merit money this is what you need to do or the class types of classes you need to take the sequencing that you're going to need you might need four years of math so it's to Amy's point that there was a time when the entire district with the exception of Roosevelt and Benson students were told they couldn't take a full day of school so it may sound Preposterous but it happened for it does 83 percent of the student it happened for 83 percent of the students so this is I think one of the issues is the players in this building have all completely changed and there's still a lot of the things that you reference that our improvements are because parents like the signing off that was totally driven by the parents Coalition that the parents had to sign if their students were taking less than a full day that scorecard on on track to graduate that was designed in cooperation between the staff here and the parents Coalition so those are all
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things that PPS most of the steps was um coerced into to doing it it was not done voluntarily so this is a pivot moment but if you wonder why there's um like a lack of trust it's that for six years nothing was easy in terms of adding the teachers back or getting kids scheduled back in those classes and getting rid of useless study halls so there is a I'm pleased to report I can just say unequivocally and no yeah okay that's not an option okay and I'm also pleased to look at what our numbers are now as opposed to what you shared with me they were like before I think that we're on a very positive upward Trend here in regards to our high school instruction some of that articulation of uh curriculum that superintendent Guerrera was talking about we're actually working on on Thursday at the high school but all the principals will be getting together to start that work and so we're we're much more intentional about the aims and the outcomes of our high school students that maybe we have been in some time and I think maybe some of that work that was done has helped get us here but we're at a different place today than we were then and I feel very positive about the work that we're doing right now and I know I made a commitment to you on the phone but to the whole board we definitely want to engage parents and especially parents who worked very hard to ensure that students were going to have a full day in thinking about how we want to go about applying the exemptions so I guess I want to be crystal clear that we don't want to just like kind of like open the gates and now a whole bunch of kids are going to be out we don't want to go back that direction it will be much more intentional and not just with that just about everything that we're doing we we realize there's a lot of kids who've been falling through the cracks because there haven't been systems in place to First clarify expectations and supports both for the schools and the teachers as well as the kids and all of that work is what we're working on right now so I don't think you've heard anyone say that we would deny a student access to a full course schedule in their senior year if they choose it we also don't want to give the message we want to make it compulsory for the student who's that graduation requirements um and is looking for other opportunities to prepare them for their post-secondary plan we're just suggesting that's a conversation for the family the student and the school to to have uh you know it's unfortunate that it's only until recently that things like individualized Student Success plans at the high school level or on track reports these are things that the major Urban school systems have been doing for a decade so uh we're doing we're doing some catch up and we're going to get stronger in this area but you should expect more of that kind of progress monitoring so everybody's really clear about their status and more importantly that we're able to direct supports and interventions to those students absolutely want to be the dead horse but I really appreciated the comment that director constant was saying and the way that she said it I am hearing the same thing and not just as a generalized anxiety I'm hearing from specific people in specific School communities that there are specific classes that principals are planning on dropping because there will not with this exemption they'll be able to cut back on the FTE that they put towards specific courses and I want to be very clear my expectation and I expect I would be shocked if I didn't speak for the board when I said we do not want to see this used as an excuse to narrow opportunities for any student at all the first time I've heard that explanation uh I I've heard quite a bit of it thank you I also want to say though as we work on the high school schedules and we look for what is needed and we're actually looking at the students there will be changes in the course offerings because we also need to provide more support so one of the options we can do for example at the Freshman level is that kids get grade level content and then maybe they also get a support class in that same skill area that they get elective credit for so those are ways to not overload them with too many courses but instead to support them many high schools have already done that in this state um that just had wasn't the priority before it was more to us to some of us who are just understanding it looked more like a priority around how many electives we had versus really looking
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at what are the pathways that starts with the core and the basic skills and getting them up to a high level of rigor and achievement so there's a lot of work to do so there will be changes you will see though so I don't want assumptions to be made as we make those adjustments that it's all because of an exemption right yeah student representative well yeah I mean I just continue the conversation that I think this flexibility will allow many students will take stress off of a lot of students if I mean I can name students that are the like one of the main provider for their family and they have to go out and get a job and they're scheduled like they're the Freshman to Junior schedule doesn't allow them to do that so um and I I mean I don't want to see it be a limiting factor either and I don't think it will be in in my mind I'm thinking I think this is going to take a lot again doesn't take a lot of stress off of students um and it's just gonna it's gonna allow them to do what they need to do to support their families um and you know if I mean I hate to use example but with what I've been going through this year with applying to colleges and dealing with that whole jumble and you're really playing the game is that I mean a lot of my friends a lot of my peers are going out and getting jobs right now because they're concerned that they're not going to be able to I mean they know are in concerned they're not going to be able to pay for their college education and so you're we're seeing this trend of like I I need more time to work and do other things because my family can't afford and so I have to pitch in so I'm hoping that this will be a very this flexibility will help students take it'll take their stress off of their class load so thank you director constant did you okay um I'd just like to note we're about halfway through your presentation I think we're further okay maybe just over halfway uh would you like to finish this slide shows a snapshot of the 1718 school year and the number of students who were enrolled in one course at least in one Advanced coursework um is in blue and then the orange line is students who are in three or more courses last school this slide shows the students grades so across the bottom is the the grade that they earned in the course and then at the top the bar chart at the top shows the score they earned on the AP exam so students who take an AP exam is a scale of one to five and students who earn a score of three or higher depending on the University can earn college credits or so if this is there questions about the slider I can move to the next Okay so you can get us over the head with your takeaway take away absolutely so this this slide was uh okay absolutely so these slides were created specifically around questions that were asked at the August meeting so I know that that was a long time ago so I apologize I was so this slide just pointing out that we have a number of students who are enrolled in advanced coursework whether that's dual credit AP IB the number of students who are taking three or more of those classes in one school year is dramatically lower as I think director brim outsour Edwards had pointed out earlier but this is definitely a goal that we are working on to increase exposure so I think the high numbers in blue are exciting because it means we're increasing exposure to students in College coursework college level coursework and also shows some of the work we have to do to increase the number that students get to take each year so we're assuming more students taking three college level courses here in high school this this chart just shows what what the line was for how many are actually earning three credits that was the question that was asked of us is what does that look like in regards to how many total students were taking it let me clarify I think it would be clear because we have it broken down by
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um by race here so I think what I meant is that I think that we would like that orange bar to be more level so that students of all races have right Equitable access to courses and preparedness and rigor and opportunities for rigor so the question that came I apologize regarding um this slide was around how are students doing in the courses and then how do they perform on the AP exam so sorry is there a question so so the slide so at the bottom so I'll give you an example so if we're looking at the three column that those are the number of students who earned a three on the AP exam and then below was their grade that they earned in the course so in the class 420 students earned an a and um and then so in the grade a right is correlated to the number of students who earned a three there is there grade at the top correct three is a passing an AP four for IB varies by higher it does institution correct what you get five five at it like a Place selective well so for are we talking about College correct based on IB so I can say for IB um IB credits with testing goes a lot further in state schools but if you're going to go to private schools you have to have at least a score of a five on the test and the test and class has to be at a higher level higher higher level HL class so it's a it's that that range shrinks drastically when it comes to that so and this is the same slide but for as uh our student rep was discussing the IB exam so IB exams are different than AP and that they are on a one to seven scale and earning a four or higher on an IB exam can earn you college credits and again there are two levels of IB courses SL standard level or HL Which is higher level and then also the exam score so this is um and again we offer the IB diploma program at two high schools Cleveland and Lincoln so the the status just reflective of two high schools so looking at it roughly we do sort of observe bell curves both in AP and IB so that the exam scores or outcomes seem to be matching letter grade yeah so as you might expect the fives the sevens you'll tend to see more of the A's being yes because I think that that was the question are we putting students in these courses who are then not able to perform on the exam and so generally yeah and then this is for dual credit so dual credit uh doesn't have the exams at the end that are required for credit so students who are in the courses and then enroll in PCC earn college credit hours so this is this slide represents the um students who are enrolled in a dual credit course and the reason that it's different is that not all of our students who are enrolled in the Dual credit course are earning the college credit and so there's a few different reasons for that so um one of them might be that the Dual credit course they're taking doesn't necessarily align with what they imagine as their college path and because there is limits to financial aid they can still take the Dual credit have the exposure to accelerated coursework and then have it not have it count on their college transcript for example and they but they still receive high school credit yes and hopefully the answer to that question is never that they couldn't afford to pay for the fee to receive the credit wait are there fees attached to dual credit courses yes we pay yeah that we pay that we okay they're a lot cheaper than the in Rome what it would cost if you were enrolled at the higher ed yeah I'm not quite sure I understood what your explanation was so there are students taking dual credit courses who
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are passing those courses who are nonetheless not getting college credit correct why they're mastering the nope they're choosing not to pay the fee because for whatever reason they don't think it's going to be okay but so that's my question are there are there fees attached to dual credit courses that have to be paid by students by students no Okay so so why would someone I mean okay is there so my understanding my understanding is is that if they are if they acquire credits in some cases if they require credits that are not part of the the um their plan for what they have to take toward graduation then it can actually reduce what they can apply for for credits in the future for uh for scholarships and stuff so sometimes it's strategically wise for them to not take credits for some of the courses that they're taking because it doesn't align to the course work that they wanted to take isn't that correct yes okay and that ladies and gentlemen is just another example of how stupid our pre-k through college Continuum is how just saying how unseamless unseamless not a word but long term yes long term right yeah so after you graduate from high school so it's not that they don't want the if they could get the credits and not have Instagram they probably would take the credits absolutely by taking the credit it impacts their overall amount of financial aid exactly that's exactly that that qualifies as stupid too but that's the financial aid yeah which which is part of the system well just saying that's exactly correct where you can touch on the fact too just across the board with dual credit IB and AP if you're on free and reduced lunch as well I think if not if most of it or if not all is paid or is they don't students have to pay anything right for free introduced lunch right there and just to be clear there are substantial fees attached to AP and IB courses tests IB tests are very expensive students like seniors this year are I think they're people some of my friends are writing checks for seven 750 800 850 to take five four or five tests so yeah about 200 bucks huge but that's not being paid for if your historically to serve student current District covers it Financial need redesurgently understand yeah some of those some of those details regarding finances on this chart right here for you okay so the flip the flip side is 800 bucks is a lot cheaper than um forty thousand dollars in tuition right if it applies to your school right yes right exactly which you don't know until after until your score yeah credits in statistics okay moving on okay so the next question that had been asked was what is the course drop rate for students who are enrolled in advanced coursework and so uh in the last school year 1718 only four percent of students who had enrolled in advanced coursework dropped the course between the 15-day drop deadline and two weeks before then and so um we know that you're considering all four exemptions this evening and we just want to be able to provide you more detail about exemptions two and three senior on track and the advanced accelerated coursework options we wanted to provide you that detail I'm going to just skip this chart just because we don't have Sean here to go into the details of one of those columns which I know you're going to ask me questions about um can we go backslide no no we cannot it's broken it doesn't um and so um the staff still is in a position where we still endorse um and recommend that the board consider all four exemptions we've also requested the possibility of of exemptions voting at when you do choose to vote that you vote on exemptions for um 1920 as well it does help with us in projecting our course catalogs and all that other work that we have to do as we go forward but I'll leave that in your capable and and then what would be the follow-up um with regard to what we were discussing with Deputy superintendent Curtis about um codifying procedures not policies but procedures
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around 9th through 11th graders um being scheduled for a full school day we're not far from that right now I mean we can certainly bring those recommendations back to you to make sure that they're aligning with your your desires to support part of the current practice Yeah okay um and we'll be seeing you again next month so more to come okay okay thank you okay thank you so just I had a host of other questions that I know that um Dr Curtis had said that um you'd be responding to so I appreciate that I'm happy to share the questions with the rest of the the board um and most of them are around sort of what is really on track mean and um I think I want to just Echo also director constam's comments because this has been a it was a huge reach of trust between lots of parents who had students in high schools and the PPS and I think people are going to want to sort of feel be able to see it and feel like what is it going to look like um and then actions build trust but the numbers are much better it's just there's been years of um that wasn't the case so appreciate that okay and um at some point talk about schedule for high schools and whether it makes sense to have an eight course schedule for students in high school ninth grade through 12th grade when do we get to talk about that on the work plan sorry is that a policy discussion that supports the board to have around graduation requirements and course loads and well I don't know I mean I I think a lot of what we're what we are spending a great deal of time talking about is driven by the fact that we have students who are entering their senior year with an extraordinary number of um of credits that far exceed the number that they're going to need to get a diploma and in the meantime how many kids are dropping out in freshman year and sophomore year and junior year because they cannot cope with an eight course schedule you should have that conversation with parents and students and counselors and find the right equilibrium and balance so that they actually persist through high school and don't drop our comprehensives and be one of the 20 of the students in alternative programs there are so many pieces to this that we need to analyze and get more information about I would suggest that we don't just jump to saying we're going to change the schedule because [Music] that create that will create a ton of Fallout what it would be better is to say let's be intentional about helping kids decide what they're going to take because um the research does show when kids take more of those Advanced courses and persistent in them even if their grade points lower that they are better prepared for staying the Course once they get to college so that is one reason why having them take those courses is something we've been encouraging um yes we're all I think concerned about the number of kids that are in alternative Ed here in PPS but I think there's multiple reasons so we have a lot of work to do to figure out what that is and we're finding that when we do make a mandate that says this is why what we want you to do and why we want you to do it our our high schools are cooperating and getting things done as best they can so I think the interest of everybody is to do the best we can for students it's just that a lot of people haven't been looking at certain things right Echo there was I really it I mean this has been like the big elephant in the room because we went to eight periods not because it was better for students we went to eight periods because then we only then we could tell them they weren't going to go to school all day and it was cheaper that's why we went to eight periods so it wasn't an instructional reason so and this has been the ongoing conversation that we've had and so when people say it's just too many we can't have kids in school all day it's just like then we must have too many classes or something so right but we don't have a conversation there's multiple ways of dealing with it it's a good conversation around the advantages
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of block schedule that 45 minute period yeah particularly when you get into the CTE classes I mean that's a whole I mean there's a whole there's a whole there's a whole lot there's a cool conversation lines I'm happy to have it a whole Pandora's Box here um so I'm gonna shut it now because it's now 10 20. um and we have a a quite a few things left to go so thank you thank you and I just want to make sure director Brown did you have this information I'm gonna give you my copies I don't think it was in our package I'll make sure that you all get a copy okay thank you okay um okay so I am going to deviate from the agenda um I have received a request from the student representative um that he be able to provide a presentation and his student reports before we launch into all of the board policies discussion which could be a little a little lengthy because I do believe he has to go home and do some homework a lot of homework okay so in in the interest of student-centeredness I'm going to make an executive decision to allow him to do his report now can't we Grant him an exemption from doing his homework no because we oh yeah and we want to hear his report I want to be successful okay so um so please make your reports and then leave when you have to um and I think Brian's still in the back but I'll announce it when we get there um so I just want to go over um on October 25th and 26th I along with a few other board members in the executive leadership team uh attended the fall Conference of the Council of Greater City schools in Baltimore um I had the privilege along with seven other students from around the country I was the only one from the very West Coast so that was actually kind of cool um we're able to speak out on live stream about topics and issues ranging from youth voting stopping climate change and and stopping climate change and just all issues involved with education students um uh not to my surprise we had 10 uh questions we were supposed to get to in 10 topics but we only got to about three because so much was so much had to be said um I was actually the first student to speak on the panel that day I got the first question about young voting um and how to increase voters of my age about or about making it to the polls um and I really just want to I really just started off by saying that I think a lot of vote a lot of kids my age don't really know how or don't really know how voting affects them not aware of how much it actually matters and how that they're how or how much they can actually impact when they do make it to the polls um and so I started advocating um that we need to get into schools more and advocate for for voting it needs to be part of our curriculum to show students really how much it means to them um also during the panel we went over the topic of gun violence and fighting gun violence in this country um and I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago but a student was present that actually survived the major e Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland Florida um and after her response I left room and I just stood for a few minutes and I thought to myself no student ever should ever have to tell that story that shouldn't have had to be expressed and in the future that should just that shouldn't happen um and so I think we saw a lot of like motivation that day to for motivation student motivation to reform gun control um I also got to meet a student named Joshua Lynn who holds the exact same position as I do on the um sorry uh who who holds the exact same position that I do on the board of education for Baltimore city schools and we both advocated together that day that this position needs to be more widely spread throughout the country to the other greater districts um in the United States um okay and then I think there's a small video of the panel that we're able to play just go over it as we'll hear from students who have traveled from all across the nation to be with you today it's a secret that we are in the middle of a critical election year whether you're liberal conservative or somewhere in between a quick scan of this election cycle will reveal that so much is at stake would you support changing the voter age to 17 so that you could vote while you're seniors all of you not just the ones that turned 18 before November yes yes I believe that students at 16 we work in your state we you take our taxes we deserve to vote you have our taxes so we I definitely support 17 but 100 a thousand percent 16. if we bring back Civics if we do like voting um like class president class vice president when we did that and you know not
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everybody wins you know like it was at a young age till now then yes we will have a a more educated um 16 17 and 18 year olds I think we're very smart this is a smart panel so yes I wish you were able to vote and you know everybody's telling us like you need to understand what it's like in the real world we are in the real world this is the real world we experience it every day we see everything that goes on around us and we're aware of our surroundings and if we're educated about how to make decisions in our own communities then you know we can get further and further all of us on the panel today I think that we tend to represent a very small amount of students that are civically engaged but the fact that only 16 of age group or 16 of our age group said that they have voted I think that has a lot has a lot to do with it students don't really see how their voice and their vote can make a difference and have more discussions with entire schools I mean have assemblies with entire schools and really get students involved in certain issues because we all come from different backgrounds and I think the more students know the how they can be connected to voting will help us in the long run I think that what's important is is that each of us especially those that come from a place of privilege that we're extending a hand to those that feel that they don't have a voice and again that we're stressing that no matter who you are where you come from your background the income that your parents make I want to hear your perspective because your perspective is valid I feel like me speaking on this panel today is a huge opportunity and a blessing because I can speak for the students who can't speak upon their situational awareness who can't have a voice for themselves who can't speak for every other kid that they see that's just like them so the order that's around in the school I feel like advocating for it I can develop it make it better somehow [Applause] so that's just a little snippet of the session that went I think over an hour longer than it was supposed to because again there's so much to say but I'm very thankful that the superintendent made this trip happen along with the executive leadership team and it's something that I'll never never forget um also last week on October 8th I was invited to attend grant grant High School's race forward um Equity event that took place or that took place at Grant or the Marshall campus but was centered around having conversations about race but specifically which we mentioned before like Native American History Month um and so we held conversations about that um and with Equity issues surrounding that topic and then following that presentation grants a student Equity team along with administration at Grant had been working hard to fly the first Native American flag in PPS which I thought was a really huge deal and something that maybe there's something that should have I say this that it's about you know it's about time something that happened a long time ago you know um in that sense and I know Dr Curtis was there as well so it was really great to see that happen and I think this is more we're moving more towards recognizing um underserved communities and underserved groups in our district um and then looking for the District student council which I just met with met with today we're still planning our annual Leadership Summit but it is scheduled for December 1st from 10 a.m to 2 p.m at Cleveland High School and we're hoping we were reaching out to all the high schools leadership leadership classes as well as social justice and Affinity clubs and are hoping to get maximum representation from around the district so yeah that's it thank you thank you um can I just wax poetic a little bit about the panel student panel um there was there was you were great they were all great there were a number of people on that panel that I wish I could have voted for on Tuesday and I trust at some point we will be voting for them um it was I mean it sort of restores Hope in the Next Generation and uh I'm glad you were able to go you you um you represented well thank you I have to chime it as well because I think as the student panel just went down the road introducing themselves I felt like an incredible underachiever uh what an impressive group of young adults and thank you for representing us very aply we're very proud of you yeah yeah the main point of it was that I think students do more than people think we do I mean we're working hard I mean it's 10 30 I'm here I want to represent all the students in this District so we're doing
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a lot for our future I think we've really realized that going forward Guerrero because it was actually your idea that you brought to the council to have the student panel and to make sure that Nick was there representing us so well and it was absolutely a highlight and such a good reminder that you know you guys have the answers more often than not yeah I was going to talk about you during my report of our trip to council but um you were fabulous in that panel was just outstanding thank you it was definitely a highlight too be part of that yeah thank you don't stay up all night okay um I think we'll have more commentary about the council conference later yep and also just to note that apparently now we do have a link to the entirety of the student panel yes so we can get that up on the website because it is to everybody out there all 16 of the people watching this it is absolutely worth watching the entire thing it's incredible yeah yeah okay so we're gonna move on to the policy stuff um so we're gonna start with a second reading on the preservation maintenance and disposition of District Real Property policy um so the board held the first reading of this policy on October 2nd and the policy has been posted for public comments since that time the board is now ready to vote on the amended preservation maintenance and disposition of District real property which will also include a rescission of the real estate transaction policy that was first read at the same time we need to incorporate it in to the policy and then vote on the underlying policy just as a recollection we okay had that separate Amendment which is we took it out of the the policy that we're rescinding and we transported it uh that we agree standing first okay so the board will now consider an amendment of resolution number 5760 of the policy as amendment number one to the preservation maintenance and disposition of District rail property okay this is written okay the board will now consider resolution number 5760 amendment of disposition of surplus real property 8.70.40 p and rescission of real estate transaction policy 8.70.041 p yes I think the script has missed the amendment so before we get to that there's been a first reading of the amendment number one to the policy and now that needs to be voted on so that when you vote on 57 60 you're voting on it as amended so I would move that we add adopt amendment number one to the draft policy okay do I have a second okay moved by director Brian Edwards seconded by director constem do we have any discussion do we have any public comments you do not okay all those in favor say yes yes opposed say no any abstentions okay the amendment is approved by a vote of seven to zero okay so now the script okay so now um can I get uh motion and a second on resolution 5760 as amended okay director constant moves director sponsored around seconds the amended resolution 5760 was any board discussion I just want to note that it came out of committee with you know this recommendation to approve the
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recommendations and this is part of the board's effort to sort of maximize and optimize our physical assets which the previous policy did not okay do we have any public comment okay any further discussion okay the board will now vote on resolution 5760 all in favor please say yes yes all opposed say no extensions abstentions okay the resolution passes by a vote of seven to zero okay moving on to Second readings policy rescissions yeah I'm going to ask director Brennan Edwards to okay we can carry this forward move through these pretty quickly so um these um if everybody will recall um earlier this last month we had a first reading on a number of rescissions these are policies that are duplicative out of date or not needed and so we had a public comment period on all of these uh rescissions there were no there was no public comment and so tonight we're considering um several of them and once we vote on them they'll be removed from the policy manual so we have the public information program policy which is 7.30.010 we have the teacher transfer policy 5.20.060 we have the administrative recommendation on employment of relatives policy and that just by the way it's been superseded by a new policy that we adopted last year which was the conflict of interest nepotism policy and then we the last policy that we previously first read for rescission was a non-contractual grievance procedure that creates a collective bargaining like grievance procedure for administrators over those who claim violations of civil rights laws or assurances can be a district um the policy was adopted in 1997 has not been amended since it's not a widely used policy and creates unnecessary grievance procedures so those are the four policies that were second read and again um they've been distributed by the board to the board there was no comment from board members no public comment and the they came out of committee on a unanimous the recommendation that we rescind the policies okay thank you okay so the board will now consider resolution number 5761 revision uh rescission of uh Public Information Program policy 7.30.010p the teacher transfers policy 5.20.060p non-contractual grievance procedure policy 5.40.020p and recommendations on employment of relatives policy 5.06015 p okay do I have a motion so move uh director constant moves director responsive Brown seconds uh resolution 5761 is there any public comment no okay do we have any board discussion okay the board will now vote on resolution 5761 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all opposed say no any abstentions Okay resolution 5761 is approved by voter 7-0 I just want to make a comment with these policy decisions I want to thank Liz large for your yeoman's work on all of this housekeeping is decidedly and glamorous but necessary and overdue and thank you very much it's good to get through this thank you I know that there are folks on a number of teams doing this work in their own subject areas in HR and legal in Risk so yeah there's a lot going on behind the scene as well thank you thanks to all okay next we have a first reading of the district performance auditor policy 1.60.040p I'd like to ask director brim Edwards to introduce the item so this is another item that's um being recommended for first reading coming out of the policy and governance committee unanimous recommendation I want to thank um Deputy superintendent Hertz for working with the committee essentially We There were some um amendments we're making to this is an established policy uh we're making some amendments to it to clarify that the district Auditors are District employees
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they report to the audit committee but they have a data line um to the deputy superintendent for business and operations for ministerial or administrative employment related matters um the proposed amendment also clarifies that the board retains the ultimate authority to hire evaluate and terminate the deployment of the auditor very important sort of accountability mechanism um the proposed amendments also if you look at it there's a number of things that have been removed and they really were duplicative because we're aligning are policies or in the work the Auditors are doing um to the government auditing standards um and so it's not necessary for us to re repeat some of the standards in the policy um so it's this is very timely to come to the board because we're in the process we put into this year's budget funding for performance Auditors they're posted and it would be great to have the policy um ready for a the new Auditors when they get here and um so we've got the first reading tonight and then going into public comment period we get a marked up version yes okay any questions or comments okay the proposed policy will be posted on the website in the public comment period is 21 days with the last day to comment being December 4th 2018. contact information to public comment will be posted with the policy the board will hold a second reading of the policy at their December 11th meeting okay first reading policy recessions we'll now have a first reading of several policy decisions and again I'd like to ask director brim Edwards to introduce the item so um you know the first four that we had tonight were just really getting us rolling um so we're gonna clean up our manual and get things out of it that really I think clutter up the manual so we have a whole host of rescissions and just as a reminder what the rescission is and the process is we're going to be removing this and deleting the policy from our policy manual um and we have a first reading there will be an opportunity for the public to comment if anybody disagrees with the rescission they have an opportunity within the 21 days and then when we vote um the second time after the 21 days of the policies will be rescinded they're all posted online the last date for comment is the fourth and then we'll vote after that so I'm going to just move through them again these all came out of the policy and governance committee on a unanimous vote starting with the reporting statement of economic interest 1.40.020 this policy states that ORS chapter 244 does not apply and allow for voluntarily filed statements at the discretion of the board the policy is simply not needed we're not required to fire file these the board does plan to adopt additional conflicts of interest policy and in fact the one we applied earlier had a whole section related to the board we're also going to have an upcoming training as a reminder either refresh or new for the board on ethics and conflicts of interest but this is just not needed because it basically says we can file them if we want next there's a policy in the method of board operations 1.70.010 this policy unnecessarily defines the board actions as needing to comply with applicable laws and regulations which is true regardless of the existence of the policy so it just says we'll follow the law that next um we're posing rescinding job description 5.10.010 this policy merely restates the obligations of Oar 581 -022-75 715 which no longer exists and it was the last amended in 1995. um we have a employee suggestion award program in policy 5.10.040 this policy does not reflect a current District practice and was last amended in 1988 next we have tax deferred annuities policy 5.10.070 this policy does not reflect a current District practice and was last amended in 1979 when I graduated from high school um next there's orientation of teachers 5.20.040 this policy
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relates to onboarding the district leaves and appropriately onboarding all this new employees this policy is not needed to affect this practice we have it in our HR department this policy has not been amended since its enactment in 1971. when I was in elementary school compensation related benefits miscellaneous maybe we'll get through um miscellaneous 5.60.050 it's a policy that allows for the board to determine certain benefits for administrators is not necessary it was the last amended in 1977. next there's an alternative to military leave policy 5.50 0.063 this policy Endeavors to State what qualifies for military service under a federal statute and is unnecessary it has not been amended since enacted in 1971. next employment in institutions of Higher Learning the restoration of health 5.50.067 teacher leaves of absence are governed by collective bargaining agreements this policy has not been amended since enacted in 1971. next administrative in-service requirements 5.60.080 administrator and service requirements are governed by collective bargaining agreements or I'm sorry administrative not administers administrative and services requirements are governed by our collective bargaining agreements this policy has not been amended since enacted in 1971. next retirement permanently disabled 5.20.140 permanent disability eligibility is determined by Statute this so this isn't needed this policy was last amended in 1992. then there's the administrative clerical Personnel salary schedule 5.70.055 this policy covers employment terms and conditions that are covered by collective bargaining agreements and or other policies resolutions practices it was last amended in 1980 and then lastly we have three you know four policies that actually contain no substantive policy Provisions literally it's just a header um just a title so um those four are Educators Council 5.40.030 professional compensation 5.50.010 professional improvements 5.50 dot zero four zero and professional growth incentive 5.50 [Music] 0.043 and again none of those contain any substantive policy so we're just eliminating them because if we actually want people to use our policy manual or virtual policy manual we'll eliminate things that are just create clutter sorry our audience we have two people on the phone okay well hopefully when we get these rescinded it will make the stuff that people need to find easier to find um and actually you know just it's much better practice so those are the okay um policy revisions that the committee is recommending for first reading okay okay so just to remind everybody uh these proposed policy rescissions will be posted on the board website in the public comment period is 21 days but the last data comment being December 4th 2018. the board will hold the second reading of the policy recipients at the December 11th meeting one comment I have on one of these which is uh I do not object to its proposed rescission but on employee suggestion award program obviously this is not something we practice or have funded in our budget but I would love to invite superintendent and your staff to consider a proposal like that if you think it's a best practice in our next budget cycle around employee suggestions or an innovation fund for educators because other school districts do that with great success and it's you know energizing for employees to feel like their input is being solicited in that way so I'd love to see us have something like that if you guys are interested okay um we're almost done business agenda board members resolutions 5752-5759 have been removed from the business agenda the board will now consider the remainder of its business agenda having already voted on resolutions 5749 through 5761 Miss Houston other any changes okay do I have a motion and a second to adopt the business agenda so move um director constem moves director brim Edwards seconds the adoption of the business agenda Miss Houston any public comment there's not okay any board discussion okay the board will now vote on the business agenda all in favor please say
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yes yes all opposed please say no any abstentions okay the budgeted and the business agenda is approved by voter 7-0 um Okay so um almost almost to the end okay board committee and Conference reports um we already heard from the student representative okay and um do so director brim Edwards has and so they're just part a partial report so the committee report almost 80 of it just happened um there were three other policies that were considered by the committee and actually um one of them had been targeted for a second reading and approval tonight and that's the professional con conduct um a policy that we have been working on and we did receive public comment we discussed it at the meeting there is an amendment that we're going to make and I don't do I need to discuss what the the amendment or I guess we have plenty of time we have plenty of time yeah so there is a we did receive some public comment on the um policy so we're going to be making some amendments but we also didn't bring it to the full full board for a second reading because we have a demand to Morgan from the Portland Association teacher so we'll want to listen to their concerns about what's in the policy any suggestions they might have um in terms of before we adopt this policy so we'll engage in that activity but that's why I didn't get second read this evening and then there were two other policies that we were going to move out but were waiting not waiting we would welcome staff input on them one is a district policy relating to field trips and the second is and that was another policy that came out of the Whitehurst report and the second the other policy um was a proposal from um director Moore on boundaries and these are the real boundaries physical boundaries and we are welcoming staff input before we move that out of committee so I think we'd asked to have some com stat comment by the 15th and then at our next committee meeting we'll consider it those and potentially move it out okay um does anybody have any conference reports we've had a few so so director Spas Brown as Nick mentioned earlier several of us so board member constan board chair Moore and myself along with superintendent Guerrero and other senior leaders attended the 62nd annual fall Conference of the Council of the great City Schools um and Nick already gave you that reported wonderful video of the student panel which was a great experience and thank you for recommending that I'm sure that is the first of many panels that we'll see in the upcoming years so what's important to note I think when we go to conferences is the importance of the conferences and what's the learning from it the council is as a coalition of the nation's largest urban school systems aimed at providing the greatest public education possible in urban schools so the conference really offers an array of workshops that is relevant to both boards and to District to District folks with great opportunities for dialogue kind of smaller sessions there were also amazing keynote speakers that included Michelle Alexander who's the author of The must read the new Jim Crow Zircon constitutional Advocate and the ever Inspire Angel Biden who had us all in tears and then on Saturday superintendent get at her on myself attended the annual executive committee meeting and their packet was like 200 pages long they do a lot of work within a year and what's important also to note about council is the they offer an array of services to its partner school districts and I think that there are several that we will be looking at benefiting from in the future such as Audits and also board development services so they've also they advocate for critical issues that have impacted schools such as you know tougher gun legislation so all in all they're really a great group to be a part of the channel the conference is always fabulous and it was a great experience lots of good learning
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anybody else wanna this is that a question um I know that there's a requirement if it's an out-of-state conference to report to the board is there a similar requirement for in-state I'm just wondering a number of us went to the osba conference but is that only is it a requirement it's out of state just out of state yeah it is a policy that you have to report on like you go to an out-of-state conference at the next board meeting Okay so now that they'll put it right away not yet okay um anybody else want to say anything about the Council of great City Schools [Music] it was it was a great conference um okay let's move on to osba I would stop you aren't best practices yes and on that same note I was going to say that there's a bit of a bug a buzz among our colleagues about the transformation that we are undertaking here and it's nice to hear that from our colleagues and our friends and to feel the support and to feel people you know really wanting to reach out and share their resources and um there really is a sense of appreciation and understanding that Portland Public Schools is on the move so I didn't I'm sorry well I was just the last part of that was and um a great deal of respect for our superintendent and his staff I don't want to interrupt that at all um I did pull up the policy and it requires yeah that it shall be the duty of board members attending state or national meetings at District expense to make a report to the board yeah so if you seek yeah if you seek reimbursement of any costs associated with the meeting than it is subject to reporting at a board meeting you'll be happy to report on it oh because it's International so there was a number of us who attended the Oregon school boards Association in addition to the superintendent and um the focus was clearly on Revenue like you couldn't get in an elevator and like go to the bathroom or anything without seeing these big projections about Revenue so um I think a number of us attended um the pre pre-session or the pre-conference on Thursday where the topic was Revenue reform advocacy and engagement uh and then as we got into the um the next two days there was a whole host of you know great workshops um my favorite was the all students on track moving the dial on College and Career Readiness um but just also a great opportunity to network with other other board members and sort of talk about our plans ahead both our districts and also with the legislative session so I guess if everybody kind of attended different sessions as well it was good I just want to mention that the osba board meant for one of its regular meetings immediately after the conference and there again it was all revenue reform all the time the board and its resources are very very serious about making real change in this state and I sure hope that we will be able to work well with them uh one of the items on the business agenda I also mentioned the community budget Review Committee we added the members to it and it had its first meeting this last week with all of those people we are bringing some real intellectual Firepower under that committee and those are very definitely people we will be able to leverage putting them in front of the state legislature so hope that we will be considering that yes okay I guess I have to say something required by policy by policy okay um I mostly went to the revenue sessions oddly enough and um and I was very happy to hear a level of
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commitment and seriousness about pursuing substantially more Revenue um than I've heard in the past and um I am cautiously optimistic that we're going to get uh some additional funding for K-12 um and I think we as the largest school district in the state have both an opportunity and a an obligation to do what we can to support those efforts [Music] okay having fulfilled our obligations for reporting is there any other business okay we are adjourned thank you [Music] thank you

Sources

PPS Board of Education, Archive 2018-2019, https://www.pps.net/Page/14001 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:50.174924Z)
PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)

2018-11-13 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

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Event 1: Regular Meeting of the Board of Education -- November 13, 2018

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