2019-04-09 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2019-04-09
Time	missing
Venue	missing
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: Regular Meeting of the Board of Education - April 9, 2019

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interpretation espanol Luba cartel board members are there any items in the business agenda that you have questions on this does not include individual action items listed on tonight's agenda any questions okay student and public comments first I'd like to review the guidelines for public comments the board thanks the operative 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 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 miss Houston or Rosanna Powell the board manager guidelines for public input emphasize respecting consideration of others complaints about individual employees should be directed to the superintendent's office as a personnel matter if you have additional items or materials you'd like to provide to the board or superintendent we ask that you give them to Miss Houston to distribute to us requests to make public comments should be made ahead of time by contacting the board office or checking with Miss Houston prior to the start of the board meeting to see if there are spots available once the board meeting has started we can no longer accept new requests for public comment ok miss Houston do you have anyone signed up for a student or public comment yes our first two speakers are laura de and Marie Taylor okay before you start you'll 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 okay so my name is warden Hussain and my last name is hu SS e i-n and I came to talk about mindful studies so when I first came in to mindful studies my counselor suggested that I should take the class to help ease with the stress of high school when I was a sophomore and I came in without an open
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mind because my family they came from Somalia which were immigrants and they didn't I think my family dynamic really didn't understand like or believe in mindfulness and they didn't think that it'd be helpful or effective at first I thought it would be an easy Abe it was more complicated than that because with that came with just like coming onto coming into class and participating so throughout the year mindfulness has slowly helped me deal with stress in and outside of school and the tools that they taught me I took it outside of class without myself knowing and it really helped me deal with like stuff like anxiety jealousy family problems and also opened my mind to new coping mechanisms that helped me cope with stress and depression and anxiety and it also taught me healthy ways to deal with most of the problems in my life that I wasn't dealing in a healthy way and mindfulness is mindful studies is very impactful and useful for high school students where most teens go and deal with stress and it's a way to unpack and help students deal with certain situation so I don't think that we should take off mindful studies because it's really helped students and it's not just an easier to get in class it's like really effective for students because I'm all had teens like throughout high school like in the sort of way they're stressed so this is a way to help them unpack everything and just calm down and it's a way for them to just rest through all the stress of high school yeah thank you hello I thought this started at 6:30 I'm sorry I'm Marie Taylor and hello members of the board thank you for your service on behalf of our students I'm a teacher at Madison high school and have the good fortune of teaching yoga and mindful studies two years ago I sat in this chair to speak to you about the importance of providing adequate funding for the mindful studies programs across the district I spoke to you with a sense of urgency about how we could best support our historically underserved populations creating equity across the district so that schools such as mine which serve primarily low-income black and brown students could support the mental health needs in a classroom setting despite not having a foundation to pay for it funding was restored and since then the mindful Studies program has expanded to include Roosevelt and Alliance at Benson bringing the total to nine high schools in the district which offered this program as an elective class about a month ago the principles learned that the district was canceling the contract with peace and schools altogether this news came at a time when schools were finalizing forecasting numbers fortunately James level and committed funds from one section per school with the intent to seek further funding while the good start principles were put in a position of having to decide whether they should trust and hope that additional funds would come through and open the appropriate number of sections based on forecasting or play it safe and simply put one class in the schedule some schools such as Grant had enough kids forecast for three classes but aren't offering any for the upcoming school year overall assuming an average class size of 25 there will be about 250 fewer Portland public school students getting the opportunity to learn and practice healthy communication skills learn how to get navigate negative self-talk examine their coping strategies and dualistic thinking in short learn and practice skills to support their mental health for the rest of their lives these skills matter and for some are truly a matter of life and death I appreciate that Paul Anthony has come out in support of this program and I know that when Amy constan visited my program two years ago she was moved by the experience she had there since my last is that we've had a doctoral student from Johns Hopkins take a look at the genesis of this curriculum by surveying students and visiting programs at Lincoln Cleveland and Madison the preliminary findings suggest that the curriculum we teach in the community we build significantly supports our students furthermore the researcher found that the students in our classes have higher higher than average Asus scores meaning that they have experienced more disruptions in trauma than their peers this class also draws a relatively high percentage of LGBTQIA students again another student another group that especially needs this space and these tools I'm concerned that it might be too late to restore the current number of sections back to the high schools for the upcoming year but I employee to figure out how to prioritize funding for this program I understand that we are experiencing cuts as a district but this is a relatively small piece of that budget about $11,000 per Section that is a very small cost for the benefits that are afforded these students can we please look at comprehensive multi-year contract with peace and schools that prioritize serving our most vulnerable students and giving them the skills that will have long-term benefits not only for themselves but for everyone they interact with as you know it's a much harder to restore programs once they've been cut than to maintain and build upon existing programs we need to just demonstrate to the students of this district that we value their well-being
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by committing to stable long term funding for this partnership Thank You chair Moore can I make a quick request to see to what extent our programming is leveraged by their external fundraising because we've had this situation before where we have offerings with partners we make a cut when in fact our students are receiving 4x the value of services for our investment so when we're making those type of budget decisions I want to know how much our dollars are leveraged by outside funds from our partners Claire you're looking at me quizzically so if we could just get that information for peace in schools and for any other partnerships that we have where we're recommending it cut I'd like to see how our dollars are leveraged by outside partners thank you we're gonna be first of all just personally mr. Garre oh I haven't got to say what a cool powerful thing to see a Latino like yourself in a position of leadership I'm sure you know how important it is for representation my name is Jessica Doyle I'm a 5th grade Spanish immersion teacher a regular elementary a few weeks ago I toured Beaumont with my 5th graders so that they could see what awaited them in middle school what opportunities they would have and who their teachers would be they were extremely excited to see the band play and see the art projects being created but when they asked me about electives enrolling in art or playing a musical that liked her playing a musical instrument I didn't know what to tell them when their parents asked me why am urging students at Beaumont don't have the opportunity to study music or participate in art or drama things that often critically transform a student's perception of school the catalyst for getting them out of bed in the morning I do not know what to tell them my fifth graders like all students especially those that have been historically underserved survive and often thrived when given access to a whole education as you stated mr. Guerrero in your column in the August 28th Oregonian it was the violin teacher who saw and cultivated music talent in within me our regular students won't ever have a story like this unless something changes you have the power to change it the most confused I'm sorry migrant students have dropped out of DLI so that they can be in band this Sophie's Choice is simply unacceptable the district starts programs supposedly to address cultural and linguistic inequities only to have cut only to create barriers were only white wealthy english-speaking families can augment cultural peace for the kids how does this make sense finally our regular community has endured occupying Arvin Cindy yellow the most confusing aspect actually of this reality is the lack of true communication between the district and the affected schools we have had to pry and cajole for information at every step of the way for the last year and more earnest dialogue with the community is important for any leadership community and for any leadership committee and this is a clear opportunity for improved engagement finally our regular community has endured a disproportionate share of hardship over the years we've lost families to gentrification teachers and principals to turnover typical of lower resource high poverty schools and mothers and fathers of our students to ice agents but we are a community that sticks together and digs in for the long haul we believe in the potential of our students and I hope that you believe in them too [Applause] my name is Anabelle manana that's Emma's and Mary you and as a Nancy a and as a Nancy a and this is my seventh year as a sixth grade Spanish immersion teacher at Beaumont I'm here on behalf of my current 6th grade students and I'm here representing them today my students and I have an RJ circle restorative justice circle at the beginning of every week we use these circles to build community and trust today our topic was about how not having an elective affects our overall mental health and self-esteem I will be quoting three of my students since I'm here for them today student 1 I feel that this is racist for regular students to not be provided with the same elective opportunities as Alameda students it stresses me out that I have to choose between an English language arts class in my band class student 2 it's not fair because band is not diverse there is no opportunity for regular students to receive instruction in music the whole band is white student 3 most students in the Spanish immersion class come from a spanish-speaking culture we have the right to learn in our native language and it feels like we
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are being punished for doing so and I need you to know that here today we are at basically the last resort where we need your support in your help to move this forward thank you [Applause] next we have Laura Moulton and Mary Darrin good evening I'm Laura Moulton I'm the its MOU LTO and I'm the parent of a freshman at Madison High School and a sixth grade immersion student at Beaumont I'm also a member of Portland Friends of music and they're here today some of them wearing pink to support equitable access to music across the district and in fact there are people here tonight from many different schools administrators students who care about music and arts enrichment opportunities so as Annabelle and Justin alluded to students from Rigler arrived last fall with great expectations to discover that they were not able to access music and art electives and parents wrote letters and made phone calls because there had to be some mistake Shirley the district wouldn't allow half of a middle school the mostly white affluent side coming from Alameda access to these things while the other half from a title one school predominantly kids of color no music education kinder through fifth grade were excluded and but that's exactly what happened the number of kids of color and MS planks band dropped immersion students who had played instruments for a couple years already were forced to quit and again as they referred to we're looking at exactly the same situation unless something changes and we feel like this is damaging for a number of reasons but here are a few this sends the message that arts and music enrichment are for some students but not for everyone which is a terrible lesson for the kids who are able to participate as well as the kids who are left out kids without music and art are in academic classes all day so they don't have that creative outlet Beaumont's currently investigating why we have such statistics on numbers of kids of color especially black kids pulled for discipline from classrooms and these are the same kids who don't have their hands in clay or a chance to play the saxophone and finally this effectively kills the band program at Madison High School which is already spread thin there's one teacher directing the band teaching drumline choir and if the Madison feeder schools like Harrison Park and Rose Way Heights don't have banned programs and the number of students from Beaumont continues to decline there won't be students entering with any kind of musical experience to form a band that's an impossible situation to put on that teacher meanwhile when I googled and looked grant high schools websites showed that there were something like five full time performing arts positions so if we're striving to bring this up you know to any kind of equality we're off the mark still I was a parent rep at the committee meetings of the Task Force on middle grade core requirements each session we were reminded to view our work through an equity and social justice lens that focus they said was prioritizing the needs of historically underserved students we understand that balancing core requirements alongside electives is a vexing issue district-wide and we appreciate recent conversations about possible solutions but in the meantime there is still no fix and it doesn't matter what language you use to explain to students why half of them can access music and art and the other half can't out of this disparity emerges a very stark picture that speaks louder than any words thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Mary Daren dar I am I am a PPS speech-language pathologist as well as a PPS parent I am speaking today in response to the decision to reduce the speech-language pathology technical advisory position from point 6 to point 2 FTE this position is vital to the cohesive functioning of over 90s LPS and should not face a reduction slps do not have a Tosa position nes LPS in any administrative positions and are often isolated in buildings from my knowledge no other group of educators in this district has a similar support system or lack of and our TA position is vital to our case of functioning the TA position used to be full-time until about a decade ago when it was cut to point 6 at that time we also had a licensed speech-language pathologists in
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administration which is no longer the case our supports have already been eroded and further cuts are unbearable I wanted to detail a few of the many ways that I have personally been affected by having ta support in the past few years countless number one countless questions answered I did a quick check of how many questions I had emailed or ta my first year at PBS in one month there were 17 questions I asked that she answered quickly these were questions seriously important questions about evaluation special education procedures as well as law and service delivery some of these were time-sensitive and I fear that a TA who works one day a week will not be available for quick responses number to work with calibration of assessment and services this rule is essential as SOPs are often isolated in buildings as we look at practices district-wide we need to ensure equity of eligibility standards and services I personally have adjusted my practice to reflect district trends that would not have been apparent to me without ta support professional development that reflects needs it takes a good amount of time to assess what collective skills are needed and to organize training that reflects actual in the district and the last thing communication with administration we know that our special education administrators are extremely busy I worry that without our groups concerns being funneled through a single voice that we're gonna overwhelm the administrators I also want to be clear we are not asking for extra FTE but to be allowed to set aside 0.6 for our TA position that will come from our general SLP pool as we have done historically the cost of the district is minimal but the benefit for collaboration and consistency of speech-language pathology practice is huge consistency and service delivery and assessment professional development that reflects actual need and cohesion of speech-language pathologists have direct effects on some of our most vulnerable students thank you lastly we have Cynthia Velazquez and Ellie Baumgartner members and super intendent get at him my name is Cynthia Velasquez and I work as a special education ESL Tosa and bilingual school psychologist school psychologists provide an invaluable service to Portland Public Schools in regards to providing supports to our students families and school staff our base and purpose is and best practice and equity and understanding the impact of our decisions we abide by the standards of the National Association of School Psychologists but we cannot exist within best practice if we exist within the margins and the bare minimum of the law in PPS we have 50 5.6 school psychologists and to maintain best practice we strongly and without doubt rely on the school psychologists technical assistant Kristen Irwin our school psychologist Technical Assistant has provided the following creation of the student intervention team form on the PPS dashboard which our school teams access to collect academic and behavioral evidence as well as examining factors of underrepresented culturally and linguistically diverse students what creation of the multi-tiered systems of support training that has provided training to over 35 schools in Portland public collaborative creation of the cultural linguistic versus disability matrix which assess assists us and gathering and determining of culturally linguistically diverse students meet key factors for special education I've provided that form in front of you that matrix numerous hours in the development of monthly and specialized trainings for the school psychologists including equity focused trainings and discussions of the impact of her work actively recruiting perspective school psychologists participation on the interview committee supporting newly hired psychologists training them continuously throughout their initial experience in Portland public supporting evidence based practices application of research and providing training on new and updated standardized assessments collaboration and shared professional trainings with the speech pathologists and school counselors collaborations with the MTS s Department ESL curriculum student success and health department case by case consultation in regards to individual students and school team guidance I could continue on but sadly this position is being cut from point
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from point 6 to point 2 where will that leave fifty six fifty five point six school psychologists but a greater question where will that leave our students our families our school staff what are the repercussions of this decision the repercussions are dire and they aren't great we will truly exist within the margins of the law and within the margins of equity we will no longer have the wealth and depth of in of knowledge we will no longer have cutting-edge information research and training provided to us so I urge the school board to consider the implications of this decision in regards to I'd urge the school board to think of our students because they are ultimately the ones who we serve we must do better thank you [Applause] hi my name is Ellie Baumgartner ba um GA RT NER it's so nice to see so many of your faces again outside of the weekend work of the PBS visioning process it was exciting to get to dream big together to collaborate and to create future profiles of students and adults that we want to see in PBS and in our communities part of that work was reimagining what PBS could look like and it fits perfectly with why I'm here today it is my great pleasure to be here to advocate wholeheartedly for two positions that fully embody that work the technical advisors for speech-language pathologists and school psychologists I ask each of you to remember that most of our students who receive special education begin their time in PBS in general education like it has been mentioned the TAS expertise is critical in collaborating across departments especially with our new and emerging MTS s Department in our practices of accurately identifying students in special education the most common special education eligibility categories are communication disorder and specific learning disability each of which are evaluated by SLPs and school psychologists respectively however we support many students across all special education categories including mental health attention deficit Down syndrome etc in order to best serve these students we have to have TAS we do not have administrators who have the level of expertise embodied in Kristen Irwin and then Megan Brown the TAS the most important things that they do is coordinates evidence-based professional development create and sustain newer efficient systems to make equitable data-driven decisions in our schools serve as liaisons in our communities and with university experts to help shape both of these science driven fields and to help us cohesively navigate complex changes at the state and federal level the SLP ta supports over 95 speech-language pathologists across the districts from focused classrooms to Learning Center's in K through 21 classrooms we serve 43 hundred students across every eligibility category the TAS are people who guide practices as we teach students how to use assistive technology work with students who stutter who have hearing impairment who have learning in language impairment autism dyslexia and other disabilities we conduct thorough rigorous evaluations with the help of community agents and parent input we do this across languages races socio-economic statuses and the TA is critical in aligning and calibrating that work with a racial and social justice focus in order to fully implement these best practices we will need more time with fully funded TAS to see outcomes of this investment I am hopeful that with fully funded TA roles for slps and school psychologists that in special education our students best days are yet to come thank you all again for your comments please feel free to connect with the board manager Roseann Powell if you have something specifically you want to followup with the board or board office okay I'll give just a minute while everybody files out okay can we move on to the student representatives report do you have anything population that's left
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go for it okay I'm gonna go just real quick so I want to put out to the public that I'm really excited tonight we the DSC has been working really hard in the past couple of months to get our first or our student representative and DSC policy first read and is now there so we're super excited to introduce that later in tonight's meeting I really want to thank all the kids that have been or the students that have been helping me work on this and it's been really fun and I'm glad they were able to work through this process as well I think everyone's learned a lot about how policy works it's been a great time to do that and then I just want to give a quick shout out to all of the juniors and seniors at all of our Portland high schools because in about a couple weeks they're gonna get started on AP testing and IB testing and I know it can get stressful and a little worrying so I just wanted to wish good luck to all of them as well so good things coming okay the next item on the agenda is a proclamation celebrating national Arab American Heritage Month and I'm gonna ask director Bailey to read the proclamation aloud thank you I guess it's just gonna be noisy out there so go for it so this is April that's national Arab American Heritage Month we're asked for over a century Arab Americans have been marked making valuable contributions to virtually every aspect of American society in science medicine law business education technology governments military service culture and whereas Victor George attea who serves as the 32nd governor of org from 1979 to 1987 was the first Arab American elected as governor of the state and whereas since migrating to America people of Arab descent have shared their rich culture and traditions with neighbors and friends while also setting examples of model citizens and public servants and whereas it Arab Americans have also enriched our society by sharing in the entrepreneurial American spirit that makes our nation free and prosperous and whereas the history of America Arab Americans in the United States remains neglected and individuals are harmed by misconceptions bigotry and to anti Europe hate in the forms of crimes and speech and whereas Arab American issues such as civil rights abuses harmful stereotyping and bullying must be combatted in the forms of education and awareness and advocacy all had and whereas Arab Americans join all Americans in the desire to see a peaceful and diverse society where every individual is treated equally and feels safe and where as the contributions and heritage of America Americans have helped us build a better state and nation now therefore we announced that Portland Public Schools celebrates the contributions of ebon that Arab Americans have made to society and hereby declare April 20 19 to be national Arab Heritage Month in Portland Public Schools and we encourage portlanders to join us in the special observation thanks ok the board will now proclaim April as national Arab American Heritage Month do I have a motion in a second so move second director Brad words moves director Bailey seconds yeah okay the will now vote on the proclamation all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all opposed say no any abstentions okay the proclamation is approved by a vote of six to zero and student representative Nick Paisley yes thank you okay standpoint that anything that is happening this month in celebration that be shared with the board or the broader community as we have with the other months recognizing different groups Thanks okay superintendents reports I would in fact thank you sure more good evening directors students families community here and viewing it at home we're heading into the home stretch for this
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school year we still have a full and weighty agenda to accomplish our upcoming meetings are going to be an opportunity to learn about the state of the Arts arts education across Portland Public Schools and I'll also be presenting my recommended budget to the Board of Education just as a little bit of a sneak preview there we're gonna be describing our next level of proposed work given our constrained resources which will include a description of work in a few key areas are continued core curriculum development work our enhanced special education services and our differentiated supports to schools so we're looking forward and are preparing those that information for our board which will be sharing soon tonight however I want to pay tribute to our students as we close in on the school year there are a great number of accomplishments and celebrations and we would like to remind ourselves of why we do what we do why we love what we do and want to dedicate this evening's report to recognizing the achievements of our brilliant talented and artistic students some of these celebrations focus on individual efforts some of them on teams and some of them on collective work that we do as educators leaders and advocates for our students I'll start by saying this is by no means an exhaustive list it's just a snapshot of some things we want to celebrate it goes without saying this is partly in public schools there are on average over 300 different arts related showcases going on across our school we hope our directors have had a chance to attend some of the events happening this month are all the single occasions when our students are showcasing their talents last week Portland had the opportunity to host the national a national level educational technology conference I had a chance to open in our Lincoln High School Jazz Band was able to perform for over a thousand attendees so it's instances like this where it's nice to remind ourselves that we really have some talented students out there so starting with with yesterday actually Monday PBS hosted the statewide Metra conference it was actually hosted by West Sylvan middle school for those of you who may not know Mehta stands for movimiento estudiantil Chicano that's LAN it's the biggest gathering for Latin X students in the state of Oregon this is the second time historically that the conference has been hosted by Portland Public Schools in the second year in a row I don't know what the coincidences there are to service the host district but it was an uplifting afternoon for me and I know a busy and productive day for more than 600 students who attended that's 600 students coming in on a day that otherwise might have been a day not in school so they attended workshops there was a college fair that took place I want to thank PCC Linfield and among the other colleges who participated we heard life stories from Multnomah County Circuit Judge schemata Torres as well as our chief of engagement Jonathan Garcia what they heard were similar tales of undocumented children of immigrants rising above expectations and taking on the challenges that prove that that barriers can be overcome and that struggle can lead to strength those were some of the themes and in my own afternoon keynote to them which apparently Lincoln is tweeting as quite a poetic event so Saturday many of our directors were present at the Ahlborn in conference this is also an annual gathering of parents students educators advocates and others who want to see change and progress and how we include students of all abilities in our schools and programs more than 500 people were in attendance which demonstrates a continued high level of interest and commitment in this subject this year PBS was the top sponsor of the program and with good reason special education is a critical part of our work we do as a district and in partnership with our families and local partners we need to stay at the forefront of best practices and inclusionary thinking I was happy to be invited to provide the welcoming address and looks like the attendees the message resonated for many of them given the feedback but just to give a little bit of a sneak preview of the kinds of system shifts that we're looking for many of them that are emerging as part of our visioning process is this notion of acceptance and awareness of difference and disability and the understanding that special education is a service not a place moving from inclusion as being a special education responsibility to inclusion as
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also being the general education responsibility and just moving from low expectations too high expectations for every one of our students and a greater understanding among all educators regarding disability we still have a ways to go this will be a journey but after spending time at the conference and interacting with parents and other stakeholders I can see that there's no shortage of determination to make those system shifts on my way home stop by Concordia University and to observe the UB the chemists competition this is this happens state-by-state across the country there'll be a nationwide sort of final competition but we had a number of PBS students all from access Academy just to be clear what I observed was a chance of students had to answer in rapid-fire fashion questions on topics like nuclear fusion molecular chemical formations and other questions I just simply couldn't comprehend as a music history major I was I left incredibly impressed that our access Academy students placed so well so I want to give a special note of honour to four of our access Academy students who made the semi-finals in two we're in the final competition special shout out to science teacher Alfonso graziotti ola for inspiring his students to learn and compete at the highest levels these are Jason Lee's students running their morning mile which happens every Friday this is a weekly run and one of the reasons why Jason Lee is one of the only three schools in the state to receive an 1819 organ school wellness award from the Oregon Department of Education the honor rewards outstanding efforts to improve child health and make the connection between nutrition physical activity and academic achievement achievement last week representatives from OD e and the organ dairy and nutrition council presented principal Cardona and his staff with a 25-hundred dollar prize principal Cardona has incorporated physical movement into various parts of the school day when benefit is that the school has reduced its number of student exclusions the schools also starting programs to allow staff and parents to engage in physical activity including yoga classes for son parents so congratulations to principal Isaac Cardona staff and our very healthy students more honors for our outstanding students this is the James Jon team taking home first place honors for elementary students at the annual statewide battle of the books contest students read from a list of assigned books and asked to answer questions about what they have read competing with other schools from around the state congratulations to the James John Elementary for your award not to be outdone the West sylvan team also won first place in the middle school division so congratulations to both of our schools and to our very devoted student readers for an incredible sixth straight year grant magazine won a national gold crown award for scholastic publications that means it ranks among the top student publications in the United States a little like the Pulitzer Prize for student journalism so the awards are presented by the Columbia scholastic Press Association and the magazine staff led by editor-in-chief Narine Dube got to travel to New York to accept the prize and on a related note Lincoln senior and pardon my pronunciation cigar Sagarika Ramachandran has been selected as the winner of the organ student journalist of the Year award she serves as editor-in-chief of Lincoln's newspaper the Cardinal Times so congrats to our student journalism leaders we know that we had an outstanding year and girls and boys basketball the names of Oregon's Allstate basketball teams have been released and pil teams are very well represented starting with the girls no surprise on first team cierra Ellington who helped the Benson Texters win the state championship we also had for second team taylor lady another texture and a number of honorable mentions also from among the boys who made the all-state team first team Marcus Soni from Jefferson and Aaron dallona from grant second team ty Rankin from Grant also as well as some honorable mentions as well you may have heard this story Benson Tech sprinter Michael Williams is off to a very sizzling start as we enter the spring track and field season he won gold at the New Balance Nationals Indoor Championship in New York and in March blistering the 200 meters and 6.6
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seconds this is the third fastest time ever by a high school athlete incredible to our scholar athletes to our book lovers to our young scientists our young journalists to our students who overcome barriers every day to grow it even thrive one 1/2 my thanks congratulations on your accomplishments wanna end almost on one final note you'll see some pictures up on the screen here it's national assistant and vice principal week everyone and as a former principal I know the challenges and hard work it takes to be in a school leadership role and can definitely appreciate the important role that our APS play in the daily life of a school so a big thank you and appreciation goes out to all of our outstanding assistant principals and vice principals here at PBS and I think a my wrapping up there do we have a video clip we have a video clip so I think we're going to show a very short video just as a little precursor to a state of the Arts presentation coming up to the board inviting you to a full stage production at Jefferson and remind everyone again to check our school web sites for an assortment of plays musicals and other performances going on all around the district this is a particularly unique opportunity at Jefferson who I don't think has been on a drama production [Music] I'm Samuel Perrin I play wodsworth the butler and I just hit the mic I'd like you to come see our show clue it's the 12th and the 13th of April I think that there should be a theatre department at every school because I mean I mean there's a lot of kids that have an interest in it and it's it's really fun like I just go on stage and I do my thing and I hope for me it's all about that collaboration piece I hope they realize that the struggles and the joys of working working with others and sharing interest helps create starts at 7:00 it's a really great show we have a really great cast and it's a it's a fun show about a comedy murder mystery and I'd really love you to come see it we invite everyone to check out clue a theatre production at Jefferson High School on April 12th and 13 and I apologize to our viewing public for our technical difficulties we're going to remedy all those issues thank you okay thank you you weren't on the track team weren't you you were like football and wrestling that is true I only did one season of cross-country it just was too much because that time for how many yards and how many seconds are you asking for a fact check it's it's probably 60 meters it was fast not quite that fast clearly I wasn't paying attention to the math I think we're featuring the student athlete on our home page so we invite everybody to check it out okay thank you I'll take it up with staff in the morning thank you your penance is you're going to have to race him and we will time you okay next item is inter district transfers and super antenna Carrera would you like to introduce this item I'll certainly be happy to bring up staff Judi Brennan from our enrollment office who will provide some context and describe for you what's what's on deck here your every year around the same time to speak with you about something that affects so several hundred students they're coming in and out of Portland Public Schools every year many of those families are really anxious to get the process rolling state law requires that its school districts that make
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determination every year of whether to accept or release any sum or no students through the standard inner district transfer process we've provided in your packet some recommendations these are largely in line with the recommendations that we made for you of last year and in recent years working together as a staff team representing multiple departments we believe that they're consistent with your overall philosophy around transfers that are reflected in PPS policy so the package that we have in front of you we hope that through resolution maybe your very next port meeting you'll be able to approve and give us permission to prioritize the students who have lived in one district have made a recent move and would like to stay in their current district so that's our first priority students who have been affected by some mobility and you know for in some cases that's by choice and in some cases for families it's not but those are the students that we'd like to accept all of if they're going to be remaining in their current PBS school last year we had I believe 300 sorry we had 143 students went through the process and stayed with us through that category last year and we'd also agree that it makes sense to release any students in that similar category so if you lived in another district are now a PBS resident and would like to remain in your current district we would release you based on those grounds no limit to the number of those students last year I think we have 23 students who yes remember that we are the biggest district in the region we share a border with about seven other districts most of our population changes happen along our eastern border so we generally will have more students who are moving out of our district and wanting to remain then we have students moving into our district from from elsewhere so it's a higher flow in than out along those lines we also ask you to allow us to accept all incoming siblings of students who have already been approved to be in PBS so if the older child was approved say two years ago and the family wants both kids to be in PBS if there's space at their request at school we'd like to accept them and similarly if we've already released a student to another district and a new sibling of that student would like to be released we ask that you give us permission to do so an additional category that wasn't in place last year but we are asking for your consideration of is to allow students who attended a public charter school for at least three consecutive years and are completing the highest grade of that year to be allowed to be released to remain in that district this is in place in part so that we can provide consideration for students who have been at Trillium charter school live in other districts who may want to remain in a PBS school afterwards this would give them higher priority than other students seeking the to remain in PPS it wouldn't be a guarantee there would have to be a space at their request at school and they would still have to receive permission from their resident district but it's one additional step that we could take because that is something that those families didn't anticipate happening and they've already made a home in PBS if they'd like to continue this would help and it's a small number of families been working closely with some of these families they're really hoping for that opportunity and that's one stuff that you could take that would help us get there finally we'd like to just have some space for students who who would like to come to PBS who aren't in PBS yet if we have room in our current schools when we say room and our current schools you know for a fact that many of our schools are full and based on our strapped staffing thresholds there there there isn't a lot of room but if we've already staffed a school and the principal believes that there are maybe two or three spaces in that fourth grade and we have applicants who would like to come we'd like to be able to accept up to a hundred of those students we would cap it because our intent here is not to grow our district while other districts might be losing students but it is simply to recognize that we have some space and where there's interest you know we we would support that so that's essentially the package that we have before you it's written with more details there are some charts if you're interested in the flow of
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students in and out and I'd be happy to answer some of your questions make some clarifications so that we can move towards the final package thank you very much we appreciate that and we appreciate the very complete memo I've got an eclectic set of questions though the first one is probably you're probably the wrong person to ask but I do know this on your graph you've got young mark ola virtual charter school are we cracking how the kids are doing in that my office does not track how students do in virtual charter schools there may be the potential for that we could certainly maybe check in with our pretty limited system planning and performance team I know that there's forecast 5 data so I mean I can make some enquiries oh ok that that would be terrific if you could think not just how many students are there about how they are doing yes I'm not sure if there is a way to disaggregate student outcomes by by district school not enrolled school but I will try and find out thank you very much I've heard concerns from some other real physical existing districts around us about how their students are doing virtual charters the other question I wanted to ask I understand that the Russian immersion program at Kelly is now being cut back to just one year or one string of kindergarten and can we address that if we vote for your recommendation the next meeting can we get that corrected will that throw open more opportunities for more students and maybe before you answer I'll pile on with them I I had a question about Kelly as well so are there any exemptions for that program because the majority of those students are from out of districts so they still fall within the parameters of these constraints here or is there an exception since it's a collaborative multidistrict program well it's not technically set up in any way that would allow for any exemption every student who enrolls in Kelly has to follow the standard process particularly this year because the open enrollment provision that did exist in state law sunset last year right through open enrollment we were able to maintain a higher number of non-resident students as newcomers in the program because we were not required to receive a release from the other districts so remember because there's a two steps in the process even and to maybe answer your question director Anthony even if PPS accepted all the students who were interested in the program they still have to be released from their resident district our experience over the past couple of years when open enrollment hasn't been in place is that we didn't wind up receiving enough students to generate full classrooms so then we'd have small cohorts that only became smaller over time so that I think it's been three years now that we've been in this almost teeter-totter like state of trying to determine whether it's better to start small and maintain a full cohort or to start with smaller class sizes and to like say 1617 students in two classrooms knowing that eventually you're going to have to compress down to one the the figures regarding Russian immersion for next year are based on the interest of resident students that have been received through our lottery process to date so we start with our resident base mm-hmm there is room to add on additional non-resident students it would take a significant number of non-resident students and we're I would say in in my opinion it's unlikely that we would achieve enough to get to two full classrooms however it's definitely not up to us in the transfer office to determine how many sections you want to have there's a whole other process
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through staffing and otherwise that that'll my concern is well about several concerns but if we only have one kindergarten class by the time that class matriculates d'Alene and then Franklin will have evaporated it's becoming increasingly unsustainable yeah would would you perhaps be able to poke your colleagues with a sharp stick right and I was I think you read my mind on this question I think dr. I think thank you to director Brennan I think she probably elaborated a lot of what we would say regarding sustainability in the enrollment maybe dr. Valentino can add a little flavor on the programmatic but I think the ultimate question is what does this mean when there seems to be but there there there in residents in a neighboring district thank you when you would you inform the board with the the truth of the matter is the numbers and so the options then are extending time for for potential student and it's the whole internal to provide opportunities for more families to take advantage of that opportunity going outside of the school district there are other school districts across the country who actually work across district there is the opportunity to share space and teachers and students but that would mean a collaboration across bordering districts that is also an option the other is to recruit outside of Portland Public Schools to those districts that might not be aware that that opportunity is still available to them so there are options there just not options that the district has had to avail itself of or that's made the decision that it wants to maintain a two-strand program at Kelley element well I know that the Russian community advocates very strongly advertisers very strongly and it certainly crosses the borders as Miss Brennan as I understood your response the issue is not a lack of parent and student interest it is getting their home districts to release them is that's just the way that the state law works around inter-district transfers at this time is that districts can't take into consideration when they're releasing students the type of school that they want to go to factors such as native language and the like simply aren't allowable I've been here speaking with you about this when we were talking about the return to Albina options as well so as long as you have like a really blind state laws around these types of transfers there's we're stuck in a lot of ways now some districts are very flexible others are less flexible we the students interested in Russian immersion come from a range of districts who make decisions at very different times for example david douglas typically doesn't make decisions about the students that they release until the first week in August that leaves us very little - so if we're counting on students from that district and some of them don't win we have very little time to adjust those are all factors that that that's just some of the environment in which these decisions I mean if I can chime in here I think we have organized ourselves in a way that we have maybe created constraints sustaining or growing specialized programs and I think I would suggest that if we're planning to do a focus option review across the board for the district I think it might behoove us to consider reconsider our model of DLI programs and because I can imagine that there there might be considerable interest across some districts for families to participate in some of the really specialized DLI programs that we have you know we've got Russian we've got Vietnamese both of which are having
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difficulty attracting enough students within PBS but when those programs were created way back when they were located in areas that had I mean there was an enormous Russian community in Portland for a very long time they have since migrated mostly to Clackamas which does not have a russian language program so I mean if we could explore some kind of collaborative arrangement that that would allow us to circumvent to use another way to to get students into those programs I think that would be helpful like Terramar I think you're bringing up some some important variables here it's it's hard to have that this is not these are not decisions we can make in isolation because they're there they are across district quarters it's it's this would be a great multi SD mo Noma you know getting getting my colleague superintendents around the table to have this exact discussion plus Clackamas in this case because we only have the indication of demand through the requests that are made and we have no reason to believe that there's that there's a critical mass it seems to be diminishing so if there's some some other way that we could we could legitimately sort of plan on then we'd like to know that but it's a conversation we need to have with our neighboring superintendents who are seeing their own shifts and enrollment pockets so I think well as a next step sort of reach out and see if we can get a table on this topic and I agree really I think it's good to include the other languages as well just to clarify one point as I recall and maybe correct me if I'm wrong we can't advertise targeting other districts exactly isn't that correct it was very explicit with open enrollment it isn't in statute with the standard process it was explicit with open enrollment which has sunset get those billboards go well and again I think that it's really difficult when you've got families who are jumping through every hoop we can and they get all the way down the road and then the answer is no for reasons that they're because you know they're one of many many many families seeking transfer out and they can't consider these things so I wouldn't say don't advertise but just remember that that if we're setting I'm hope that we she is with her address districts that fly in the face of that the other thing with their Russian immersion program was there an issue of family sticking with the k5 and then going back to their home district after that as well which I believe we've seen some pretty significant attrition and particularly between screed five and six from non-resident families yeah which which adds to the difficulty of sustaining a program in the younger grades I have a separate question and the staff recommendation so back to the piece about the charter schools which I do really appreciate adding that particularly at this moment for Trillium but students who attended a public charter school for at least three consecutive years and are completing the highest grade this year can you describe the rationale for that caveat we pulled this right out state statute there's a set of priorities that you could consider and this is boilerplate from there so we thought it would be fair enough and certainly pass any scrutiny if people had any challenges they took it to the state level but we wouldn't have to include that our completing the highest grade level we wouldn't harder I think if I understand the intent and with which the the legislature added this two years ago it was you know they wanted some evidence of stability and and that it would be you've gone as far as you can but you want to stay in a district of course with Trillium every grade is the highest grade this year right so that would apply termination right but this would be what also could also apply to a student who lives in Parkrose districts has been an Arthur Academy through k5 and might be interested in a transfer to remain a PPS for grade six as opposed to just any student who
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happened to be at Arthur Academy from another or who had been in a charter school just for three years regardless of the year that they were in any other questions I have a kind of this is very much an oh by the way 2014-15 we had a net influx of 485 students with 634 students coming in in 2018 19 we have a net of 145 so between those two years there's been a steady decline our world changed like that's when the policy change happened that the state law change happened and if you see the footnote by way down on the bottom on that footnote from 2014 and every year prior every students agreement had to be renewed every year starting in 2015-16 you could be approved through whatever whatever duration a district decided what what we have before you today is your approve through the highest grade of your current school so that means a student who was approved to a k-8 is here in PPS for nine years as long as they want to stay instead of having to be renewed every year oh I get it so this is just an artifact of the approvals absolutely not a count of non-resident students it might actually be helpful to see that on the bottom but it also may not there's more than 1100 non-residents across PPS including in our charter schools some of those students don't have to go through the standard inner district process most of them do that's the cumulative effect so we share with you the one dose and then when you went across the district that's the cumulative so we'll be voting on this at our next meeting yes okay okay one other question and it applies to miss Brennan's comment about we know we have overcrowded schools aren't we supposed to get an annual report on enrollment high spots have we we did not this fall okay next item is first greetings and information about three policies and I'd like to ask director Broome Edwards who chairs the board's policy and governance committee to introduce the first readings of the following policies capital asset renewal funds and plans communities school buildings and facilities in student representative I'm not even sure we are gonna need you this is a pretty simple adjustment so the very first policy that we have under consideration for a first reading came out of the committee with a unanimous recommendation to make some minor adjustments to it an existing policy into the capital asset renewal funds and plans policy eight point seven zero point zero zero four and I'm gonna provide the short if you look at the red line version of the policy a very short minor some changes but I think actually it's a set of changes that will give district staff greater flexibility and how we utilize our capital funds and I think also give us the flexibility to address those capital capital improvements that need need to be prioritized so essentially the policy allows for the construction excise tax and the capital asset renewal funds to address capital improvements issues in any improvement that meets the different definition of capital improvement as as a capital improvement so essentially how this originally was set up it was fairly restrictive and we are changing the definition to make it less restrictive providing more flexibility and this was a policy change that was requested through the deputy superintendent for business and operations and from the facilities and
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asset management department and again this came out of committee on a 4-0 recommendation and we're recommending it be first read and put out for the 21 day public comment any questions by it's yummy to roll into the next one okay so I'm gonna so that'll be out 420 sorry guys and bottoms line it's not necessary to come up unless we have let's just see if we're on a roll so again that'll be out for a 21 day public comment but it came recommended to us from staff ii first reading that came from the committee again a unanimous recommendation out of the committee is the is an amendment to the community use of school buildings and facilities policy three point three zero point zero one zero and this one actually came as a suggestion from a community group from from scott school and they noted that our current policy states that the public shall be expected to reimburse the district for for use of our facilities to ensure that funds intended for education aren't used for other purposes and the district receives our fair value for the use of the buildings and facilities which is a prudent position for the district to take our facilities are primarily for our students and our educational mission and so when others use our buildings for non school uses that there is a range of fees that are charged but the issue that scott the scott school community raised which is not just unique to the scott school is that if there are sort of school affiliated groups PTAs PT o--'s booster clubs who are using the facilities that they may have civic use of buildings fee waived but under some circumstances they may still be charged custodial fees which again is another I think imprudent management and operational approach for groups that aren't school groups but as they noted things that other schools if they have the resources can easily pay out of PTA phones or PTO funds or foundation funds for the custodia stat not all schools have those same resources and that it really limits in some cases their ability to have school-wide hosts school-wide events in their own school building so this amendment I'm just gonna read it so people were clear that the only change in the policy is through administrative directive the superintendent shall create a custodial fee waiver process for organizations directly affiliated with a PBS title one school schools with the majority of historically underserved students and schools identified for improvement as designated by the district that shall allow the district to grant a limited number of custodial waivers for community events as more fully defined in the administrative directive so essentially this creates in our policy and mechanism that those custodian custodial waivers can occur if we look at the the impact in schools what this changed proposes it would be about 32 schools and the allocation that we for this because we want to make sure that we also don't create an unlimited sort of benefit that it's six hours what's being proposed it's about six hours of custodial service which is about also being one opportunity and I think this is as it heads out to public comment we I think we'll get some useful feedback whether that's sort of there we've had the right mix of schools that would be covered I think we've done a good job identifying those school communities that potentially would couldn't he'd need those waivers and the question I think there may be a lot of detailed questions that ultimately will be answered by through the administrative directive of how they decide on you know what which school event but I do think this may be a case
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where there's some things that we haven't thought about or anticipated maybe we may get feedback in the public comment period that we might want to do something fine-tuning but the intent is to provide a level of equity that school communities don't have the entire some of their fundraising event or community event those resources going to pay for a custodial service is the parentheses AG PTA PTO booster clubs part of the amendment it is and I didn't read it because I think it's at the wrong point that's exactly it needs to go after organizations on the first red line gonna suggest a for an I amendment because it's it's organizations such as thank you I specifically didn't read it because it was like that's in the wrong place I think that should be an immaterial change because it's just actually correcting the sentence structure to reflect what we actually intended any questions for from board Rivers who weren't on the committee just want to say thanks to the committee and to staff for responding so quickly to just got community and as part of our new protocol but the Communications Office will be working figure out a way to send this out so we can get feedback from school communities to see if we've hit the mark I think we had good discussion on committee and tried to come up with something that was fair and addressed the issue that was raised but if there's additional public comment make those changes the third issue and it's very exciting to be able to bring this from the committee tonight finally as Nick might say is the student representative duties policy 1.2 zero point zero one two and as board members in the community may recall earlier this year we made a very small change to this policy to correct some statutory issues that we were trying to address a primarily technical but tonight we are bringing a set of pretty significant changes to the student representative it's now called the steam representative a district student council policy forward and I'm gonna turn it over here in a minute to our student representative but just want to acknowledge that this has been almost two years in the making our previous student rep Moses Tran this was a particular focus for him during his ten year and served on the policy and governance committee suggested a fair number of changes he then handed the baton to Nick and the current district student council and they have spent the year I think fine-tuning the recommendations and looking at how we can elevate student voice so with that I'd like to ask student rep to share that sort of highlights of the changes that we're recommending the committee is recommending for this super excited about this too and I want to thank director Edwards for working with us as well through this process so yeah as the first thing I'm just gonna kind of run through the few main major changes and additions that we made to the policy this year so we did rename it it's the student representative and district student council policy now so it retains both the roles for my position as well as the role and like the role of directionals for the district student council so the site of the first start kinda starting the first page one of the first things that we added this year was more language on how the student representatives shall learn more about shall learn more about the board meeting procedure and central office staff and contacts from boards staff and the outgoing representative before that before that elected student representative takes their positions so they know more about how the district works and how the central office works before they start their positions so they hit the ground running the moving forward moving down we decided that the council will be composed of two representatives from each district high school including alternative high schools and programs and one of the students will be elected and the second representative which is technically the backup representative will be the
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student body president of that respective school being further down we added that the district student councils received sufficient funding from the superintendent's office to carry out our operations and events namely the PBS students summit which we've held for two years now and moving into that we also wrote that the district student council shall hold at least one PPS student council summit per year to promote student voice it's promote student voice foster communications and promote the work of the council as well we've done this for two years now and it's an amazing event and we have a lot of fun planning it and we just it's a great way to bring students together so we really wanted to get that in there moving further down we're gonna work with a student engagement or a sorry we also rather the superintendent shall appoint an individual at PBS to serve as the lead liaison with a district student council and the student representative the superintendent's designee shall assist the district student council and student representative on matters of interest meaning represent maintaining representation on the council and meeting planning so for the past couple of years we've been with and without an adult position at PBS to kind of help us with our ways and means and communication to the district so we're really really looking forward to having an adult position at PBS to help us out at the district as well as do our work and spread our communications throughout the district as well so that's a really important part and on the second page it just further goes over that the superintendent's designee the liaison shall assist the council the DSC and connecting with people in acting with the PBS superintendent board members and district staff for support and for help and yeah those are the main points of mainly what we went over so there was a few you know sentence changes and moving things around and I guess actually the one other thing I would say is that we did add a big part of this year's we had we had a major increase in representation from alternative students from alternative programs in PBS on our council this year so I want to thank them and those students have really helped out those students have really spoken up about how they wanted to be included in this policy and they weren't before so I'm super happy that that's in there as well so that kind of wraps up yeah yes I'm just happy to see that sorry director Bailey I'm going to go ahead to see the piece about the staff liaison in that it is included in our budget proposal because that has really thwarted some student advocacy in the last couple of years the later start times for high schools is a really good example of that it's amazing student advocacy and frankly we've just dropped the ball in terms of staff analysis of the impacts and really helping the students move the issue along so I think to have someone accountable for really serving the students in their agenda will be helpful I'm happy with some of the changes here and I think there's some things that are confusing and needs fixes I'm confused as whether there's two representatives from us from each school or whether there's one and there's an alternative an alternate means that means there's one it seems in the first section that says there are two reps and 2a it says that there is a rep and the student body president is the alternate so I'm confused are there essentially two voting members or is there one that's a good point actually I think you just caught that I think there's it's supposed to be one voted representative and the alternate right so I think that's what compose saying too in the beginning so is that a cleaner that needs to be fixed or clarified I still think the initial job description is pretty weak I would like to see something in there and I think the first time around when we made the technical
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fix I had suggested some language on your the role the student rep is not only to be here and as a student voice in our discussions but also to hold the district accountable for having student engagement when we're doing policy when issues come up when there's district initiatives that one of our questions off the top should be does this direct really impact students do we need to hear student voice and I don't I you know it's sort of touched on but I think I think that's a crucial role for you and your successors to play and I think I'd like to see that called out the second paragraph says the student rep will learn about and contribute to the board's work I don't think we'd have a passage for elected board members to say you're gonna learn about that to me sounds condescending you know maybe it doesn't do you but but when I read it that's participating yeah it's like you've got junior after your name and yeah I'd take learn about out but that's that's me you know I think and maybe there could be different word but I do think there's a different process by which the student rep gets to the board than the rest of the board members so maybe a better verb choice but there is a little bit different on ramp than everybody else which we should recognize it and I I'm not sure I don't like I participated in a big on-ramp right but I mean it might be a slightly different process but it's similar to you know you get elected or whether you're the student rep that gets elected or a board member gets elected there's a there's a huge learning curve and I think to call that out for the student and not for the elected reps is you know I see you as so it would be and I I mean I agree with that so to make it I mean it is the same process that's like I'm coming at you know this position was coming in as an elected official and it's you know they should be educated and shouldn't how so just I think we could work to be guess I'm all I can say is like beef that beef that sentence a little bit well there really has been no I mean I think you and there's work to do with that whole orientation process well that's exactly so I mean I the reason that's in here and we put this in mainly I put this in here as well is because I didn't really get much of anything this year I mean I kind of my ways and I had a lot of help from board staff but I'm gonna be working with the council and especially next year's representative to kind of craft that I'm already working on it on the ways to get them to know about the central office and the staff before I even leave so that's yeah we're in the works section 2a seems to be more about the council rather than the election of a student rep and I wonder if that belongs in the first section organizationally to most of to a has to do with the election of the council and who's the alternate and it seems like that should that's not part of the OL mmm-hmm the student rep election that's part of the district student council and so should go in that previous paragraph okay so keep going another issue is that the redline wasn't exactly the same as the
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non red line that's you can't do that folks which which one is right yeah so it's not because it it's the right version of the the redline or the right version you know what we did get a revised one by email so we did by email but that's what I asked for when we came in but I'm not sure this is it or if this is the prior version we did get a late-breaking but can 2f in the event that the DSC is an envelope to fill its fulfill its obligations under this policy either due to its termination if it's terminated we violated the policy and I that makes no sense to me to have something in a policy about if the policy is violated if the policy is in place then we have a DSC and we can only terminate the DSC if we change the policy so I don't and I don't get why that section is in there and then to talk about a student assembly that's democratic what does that mean ensure adequate and equitable of representing there's there's a lot of very specific wording in there anything else and the second part of F seems to be on a different topic than the first part of F so maybe should be G [Music] yeah it was just that whole section I didn't quite get why it was there anything else don't worry well so just a question about the wisdom of putting a specific events that carries out a goal into policy what if next year you go well that's that student summit was a good idea but a better way of doing things is to do something else you're stuck with policy that says no you're gonna do a students demo student summit whether it's the best thing to do or not is in policy better just to really focus on a goal level rather than a specific way to carry out that goal sometimes although this is I guess somewhat is could be interpreted different ways policy so just yeah well I mean yeah I mean I think the main thing is to just hold an event like a conference so I mean it's in no way is it meant to be completely specific I think the main idea behind it is just like you should work towards hosting something that more students that you can bring students into and bring students together so and that was one of the one of the things that you guys were most passionate about making sure that it was included in policy so that it happened every year then some annual convening right to turn it into is ongoing animal right you've got my two cents worth it okay oh there's a reference to leadership
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advisors oh how the issue of leadership advisors this school's administration leadership advisors so it's it's lower case some schools have multiple some schools have a teacher that serves as the director or so you're missing a period after da I that's everything I have oh there wasn't yes weird I'm gonna come back to your comments any other questions or comments from so I'm gonna director Bailey thank you for the thorough reading and the suggestions and in the spirit of wanting to help get this over the finish line in a way that we didn't with the last student representative I'm gonna ask if I can offline work through each of these I think there's some very easy ways to remedy the issues you've raised I mean some of them are just moving things around clarifying some things I think there's two places where there's substantive maybe one or two sentences dad so I'd like to work with you to to make those changes and then we'll circulate it to the rest of the board so that we can so I'm I'm gonna just really keep pushing I appreciate this forward and I do appreciate and we also want to do it well so maybe the three of us can come with language and we'll send it after the rest of the board will make sure it's posted but just to keep keep things moving we're not gonna wait to the next committee meeting is that okay some clarification I think these changes are significant enough that they will warrant another purpose another first reading so what I'm going to ask is so here's what I'm thinking just in terms of process-wise so that if director Bailey and I and Nick come up with a set of changes that we think addresses the issues they address we send it out what is going to be required if we're going to seal Nick's legacy is that people need to review that and before the board meeting provide any feedback if we've missed the mark in some way because otherwise we will come to the next board meeting assuming we have a first draft ready to be and I can add to that note - I mean we're and we've been in direct contact - with Jonathan Garcia about these about this policy as well and he's looking forward to next I mean it doesn't stop here there's always new changes and additions you can make so I know he has some great ideas for next year as well as adding that liaison position to help us out as well so I think this foundation getting this foundation through and the next year coming back over the summer and then next year coming back and building off there is a great way to go so it will continue I have full faith that we will follow through on the spirit of elevating student voice including things like a onboarding student handbook for DSC members a series of events plus a sub minute we're looking forward to this work and speaking of legacy one the Statue so so I think the the goal here
01h 45m 00s
is that work will be done over the next week and we will come back next week hopefully with a draft ready for another first reading right correct and again thank you director Bailey and just ask everybody to if we wait to the next meeting to catch additional things I think it's also worth noting that we've had a couple times where we've had some just either typos or other things is that always staff has the right to make those changes and they're in material and we need they're just part of the process okay so so for the first two policies they have now been first read it said to read read first first anyway they're posted and open for public comments over the next 21 days the last day to comment on the capital asset renewal funds and plans and the community use of school buildings and facilities policies will be April 30th 2019 the board will hold a second reading of the policies at the May 14th meeting unless there are substantive changes that emerge from the comment period okay and we will be returning to the student representative and district student council policy okay okay moving on to the next item Local Option levy this item has been discussed in the legislative and intergovernmental relations committee and this will be the first time we've had a fairly extensive discussion in committee and we're bringing it now for a full discussion about about decision making around renewing the Local Option levy and I'm going to ask director Bailey to lead the discussion so Stephanie were you planning on running through the time line or is you happy to do that so just as a matter of introduction it's an opportunity for us to say thank you again to voters for supporting students by passing the local option levy in this current year and thank you as Hertz for the information it's contributed about ninety four point nine million to our budget supporting roughly nine hundred and fifty teachers it's an integral part of our operations now and the last levy that we passed expires after next year and so you could take it away and I'm just I'm sharing a document that was in your packet covers just a few basic deadlines and milestones you'll need to consider when discussing renewal of the levy and so what we would recommend is that other committees talked about establishing political action committee and campaign we anticipate in our normal course of business educating the public and stakeholders about the benefits of the levy and also the capital bond so that will continue as we've been doing we according to the Multnomah County elections division you would have to have a decision discuss and have a decision if you want to refer by August 28 in order to meet the September 5th deadline for filing and then the november 5th is the general election date okay I think there's a number of considerations about when to go out but
01h 50m 00s
I think having November 5th is sort of our current plan is where what we'd recommend there's questions about what else might be on the ballot and there is a chance that if there is statewide tax reform for example that that would be put on the ballot for the November election it might most likely January but if November is still not completely out of the question depending on the timing the one ballot measure we do know that's planned for November is the renewal of Metro's parks and natural areas levy so in the same instance if you chose to continue the levy the PPS levy at the same rate Metro is also extending theirs at the same rate so it would be no increase on taxes the timing our this local option expires the end of the 1920 or the 2021 school year 1920 1920 so if we if we didn't go in November May would be our last opportunity in order to well in order to get into lace before the start which has obvious implications for our planning and staffing everything yeah that's a lot of teachers and again this these funds are dedicated solely to paying for certified staff is that the technically what's in the letters okay so certified klappas staff also included as well as classroom teachers per se also librarians okay that's what the current levy is but it's not the requirement by law correct okay and we do keep a separate fund in our books specifically to show each money coming in and specifically that is spent for teachers and I believe our citizens budget review committee has given said yep that's what they're doing yet the community budget review committee reviews the the financial information around the levy every year delivers a report annually to the board accounting for the use of the funds and it's delivered to the board generally at the same time they may opine on the superintendent's budget given that this past year we've had I think two sort of notable events that received widespread sort of community attention that I think we also should sort of provide sort of corresponding follow up on is because they both I think go to the heart of how we how we spend our money is the state audit and then also the the bond audit while we recognize that they're separate buckets of money one being op X and the other being our operations and operations and the other being capital that I think in the community it's it's all taxpayers money and that I would recommend that over the next year and I know we've already started this is like on a quarterly the quarterly basis at our full board meetings have reporting on both both of those issues I think it's built in but just not just having it at the committee level because I think that's gonna be part of whether voters sort of their comfort level with a you know it is still a big ass Portland voters have been always been very generous especially on the local option and supportive I just think we've had two events that likely require us to have continuing an ongoing conversation with the community about and providing information like tomorrow night's I think we have in the audit committee the
01h 55m 00s
first discussion of the the bond a performance spotted and then they'll be coming to the full board at some point but again to having a broader transparent conversation in the community about those issues anybody else wanna so I think we have we have it's the word contracted with a consultant to help us with with campaign strategy and planning and there'll be a kind of you know a relatively slow build up over time as you know to develop the strategy and and work with and work with the consultant on the collaterals the the information that we want to provide to to voters as we get closer to the election date we not being schools the board yes but not this not the not the board is clear that the district has not consulted with a campaign contractor it's the political action committee in I mean the reality is any anybody I think of the patent traditionally in the past has been a community member who has been the treasurer and set actually set it up and board members have done a lot of the fundraising but traditionally has been too outside of even the board and thanks director Bailey for taking a leadership role on this good times anything else when when is this gonna come back to us again so um just I think there we're gonna benefit from another conversation so this week or the next couple weeks there will be a very large I'm anticipating investment package and tax package coming out of Salem or that will be proposed and likely voted on and I think it probably merits a discussion because I do think there will be confusion in the community like Oh a two billion dollar tax package that should take care of all of our issues so again just as with sort of like on the accountability side and the auditing I think it's worth an ongoing conversation with the community so people have all the facts because I do think there will be and this will be sort of the bittersweet part for local districts that people if there is a big infusion at the state level there will be many communities where the cents will be that is going to be the the solution instead of local additional funds so I just think there's benefit of having an ongoing conversation so we so our community understands how this fits into a larger package even if there is a large investment at the state level something that the district can communicate clearly with stakeholders there's different funding streams and then if something and that's still a big if something comes out of Salem and then again that might be in the ballot there's just a lot of ifs and we need some certainty again this is a huge part of part of our budget so we communicate that very clearly I think we all want to be prudent stewards of the public resource I think it is going to be important to sort of convey the value add we are hopeful that there is an infusion and maybe that will move us up the list from 48th to maybe 46 and we can talk about arts education and libraries and all the other things that are that our students deserve
02h 00m 00s
any other discussion okay thank you okay the next item on the agenda is the board's 2019 2020 budget would you like to come up in case there are additional questions okay so so you all have copies of the proposed budget a spreadsheet with the proposed budget and an explanatory memo outlining the assumptions that went into creating this budget there's a couple of things I want to point out there has been an increase in the board in the total number for the board budget between last year and this year and [Music] almost all of it is attributable to three items the first is the addition of two auditors who together account for about one hundred and ninety thousand dollars we we have one auditor who has been hired and one position that is still vacant but presumably will be in frozen in process second item is a board professional development opportunity that we have been offered by the Council of great city schools it's the the board development Institute's that will be taking place at javed I had to get that in there and that accounts for approximately $28,000 and the third item is the the the dues associated with the Council of great city schools in the amount of $38,000 which is not an an increase in that represents a shift [Music] just a reallocation from the superintendent's office to the board office where it should more appropriately be be located well just as just as the board office pays for the OSB a dues it makes sense to also have the Council of great city schools dues come come out of the board office rather than the superintendent actually it's it's a budgetary wash this became this recommendation from the budget director and CFO it's consistent with what they've seen in other districts across the state which is why we put it there so if that's going to transfer I I think I'm with director ronnstam because I don't feel so we have a designated representative but I don't feel that unlike OSP a where I feel like we can just pick up the phone and we'll be responded to that the board individual board members has the same access to services from the Council of great city schools so I'm not seeing it I'm seeing it being we get some tertiary benefit but it doesn't seem like it's I definitely feel like we have good access on governance issues when and when we need it but that the primary you know the benefit there is for all the superintendent and all of our staff who have relationships with their peers around the country and the ability to share best practices in a variety of work ways and also now that we are becoming more of a participating member in terms of sharing our data and sharing our KPIs this the benefit is really gonna be used and situated among all departments in the district so it's you know it's coming out of our global budget so it's not really a big deal anyway but it is not primarily the board that uses those services or the board that primary it's a it's an institutional membership so the council again is made up of 74 urban school districts the council is made up of half score school board members and half
02h 05m 00s
superintendents and districts two different differing levels have availed themselves of different kinds of services so it might be governance it might be budgetary it might be instructional that's partly up to us to sort of get in the queue of which we haven't been for over a decade really was the last time the council I think did an audit at our request so we certainly will canoe to be a much more active presence and starting with talking about our ongoing work there's actually a call for RFPs to share that work at their annual Fall Conference but I'm kind of agnostic about where it sits at wherever it suits the board but I do encourage us to take advantage as appropriate where we want to get some technical assistance or participate in the opportunities the council affords so it isn't just what superintendents get out of the council it's the fact that throughout the course of the school year they sponsor convenience for rolla likes so our Chiefs of HR all come together a network our instructional leads come together and network and so the benefit of those networks and to share where people are in their work and strategic planning I think is invaluable and we're glad to have the opportunity to participate in their inaugural board governance Institute this summer which you know having been participating you know almost ten different summers with different district teams and board members they've they've always felt what an important investment that was will certainly sort of do some outreach to see if there's any external sort of support for that and if board members have any leads happy to follow up on those but I do think you know investing in our human capital that includes our governance and district leadership is important I just and I just it's available for board members and I think it's worth noting that we are we are currently getting we the board are currently getting a substantial amount of assistance on board development and and board governance from the Council of great city schools and I think this is I think this represents the first time that I'm aware of that PPS has availed itself of any of the resources that are available through just to lend a little further transparency given I said on the executive committee we are regular evaluating the membership so folks who have not been participating or paying their dues for that matter or a long list of districts who want to become part of the council as a matter of practice oftentimes they're being turned down in joining the network so you know there are certainly benefits to being part of the council so I would just say that I think you know based on the statements have made that it certainly warrants a split versus just coming out of the board office budget and then the other thing I would ask is that we have some sort of mechanism in place in that all the information gets shared across the board not just whoever is the designated rep to the council but I think it seems much more equitable to split that split the dues versus especially given the superintendent sits on the executive committee because if you don't go to their their conferences the actual inner interaction as an individual board member is some other items that we've got a number of other items where either we were budgeting low and actually spending a lot more and local meetings 11,000 last year 26,000 this year other items like that I think if we're gonna spring for some extra money to go to Harvard then maybe we make some you know hey we're looking at a cut budget then we should look at cutting back of
02h 10m 00s
our Airport travel and other categories I totally agree I actually think if that the Harvard Institute we should try and secure private funding to for that or some sort of philanthropic our foundation support okay well I think that's really important because I do agree if we're gonna be cutting days or cutting teachers or making other reductions I think message we can maybe swap out one of our out-of-state trips for the state trip yeah director Bailey on the local meetings costs that's where the food for board meetings no budget and last year last school year you did not meet most every Tuesday like you do now so the budget was is quite a bit higher we estimated three times per month with that dollar amount I think that's a good target for cutting and there's also coverage for the OSB a Fall Conference in there as well so there's some other local meetings and development that's at the counting floor printing costs so I personally would say we you know even though I really like printed stuff in hand to read I'm willing to forego that in terms of the board packets and the courier service just posted online thank you agree your board book is a really good option because there's ways that you can like do comments and things like that yeah so I'm just going to speak up here that's that I want to continue to get a paper copy and I didn't use any personal reimbursement funds last year and I'm willing to not do it again but absent me getting a printed copy I will be spending my evening printing it and because that's how I work and I serve on accept all the boards that can be upset I get that it just I'm willing to use my resources in a different way because I just I don't have a color printer at home but the right sizes and it's not how I do my work so I'm happy to have my protein costs be absorbed by my potential travel but I didn't but I don't do - Kay reimbursement I don't need either that's and that's you know so we just we deserve to have that as an option I'm not saying take that away so yes that is that is an increase it had been 1,000 dollars a year and we are now going to a system where in order to get reimbursement you're going to have to actually track expenses and I can tell you that expenses if you track them are almost certainly more than a thousand dollars a year well you know I mean if we some people most people don't have the luxury of donating both time and money and if we want to ensure that school board service is not the sole preserve of the wealthy the independently wealthy then we need to make accommodations so that just plain folks can actually make this a doable gig and in order to do that lord knows school board members make plenty of sacrifices and they should not have to take a financial hit on top of it or at least any more than they're going to anyway I don't think it's unreasonable to allow for the possibility that a school board member might ask for reimbursements for travel and parking and if they actually track it I can almost guarantee you because I've done it it is going to be more than a grant so so I think it is a reasonable increase for next year's budget what's the mileage reimbursement rate it's I assume it's the government the
02h 15m 00s
regular government rate so it'd be like 3,000 miles or so on the interpreters I noticed that we're looking at potentially making a change based on the current usage and I think we this is something we wrestled with of how to more effectively utilize what we view as an important concept so I know there was a proposal to have it just be on now that they'd be available with prior notice is that what this budget is based on so a community member with the exception of meeting of things like special board meetings or budget hearings will provide child care interpretation so a community member had a suggestion on a way that we could but somebody who does interpreting occasionally for the district a way that for a pretty low-cost way that we could potentially not have with prior notice really be in effect a word we don't offer it because nobody ever knows and nobody ever asks is that potentially having one of our staff interpreters record a message it will have messages in the five major languages and then use an for those meetings which we think may there may be additional interest from the broader community to do like an auto dial and that if you have staff interpreters doing it there's no cost to having them do that and we have an automated phone system anyway so as a way to do some specific outreach without any cost does that make sense yes it does for those of you who don't know me Stephanie Cameron senior director of communications and my team handles the interpretation and translation for the district and in the next fiscal year in fact in this fiscal year we will have a new opportunity that we haven't had in the past as we add captioning to our live broadcast of board meetings and that will give us then a new opportunity for translation of those captions we don't have all of the details of that ironed out quite yet but I think it's going to provide us with another opportunity to provide translated information to those who are not here in the boardroom with us I think we would still have a need for some sort of interpretation for those who want to attend in person but there is another option with that technology that we will have in the next fiscal year that's great yeah I think it's great but I'm just worried if we have it be well you have to ask in advance like how do people know - how to ask in advance so having some sort of mechanism whether it's polls emails where things translated or again having like our interpreters our staff interpreters do an auto auto dial in the five main languages so that people know if they come to a meeting there or here's how if you want to come to the meeting here's what you need to do in order to request and answer to a question it's 58 cents a mile how much is it 50 88 cents we just standard government rate so in addition in this document and I don't know if this is just a discussion document but there's a under 3e it talks about boarding or travel funded by district departments and I think it's a separate discussion because it's not really the budget discussion but that there should be some sort of criteria again this is to just best practice not to have things funded for specific for individual board members from district departments which is essentially what that sits right what I what I was saying is that there should be you there's an exemption under exceptional circumstances so what under what circumstances what criteria would that be I don't know I mean an exceptional circumstance would be exceptional well I'm just suggesting and not as part of this budget document but that's a conversation to have you know what is the correct criteria for the exceptional circumstance and for an individual board member that just keeps both the district staff and board members
02h 20m 00s
I want to say our biggest value I think we get from the board office budget is our staff we get great support from Rosana and Karen so I think that's the most important support we get as a as a board any other so I think the lingering question is paper versus digital I think there is okay I'll just make it'll make this an i statement i like paper as much as anybody I mean I'm old so paper is the thing but a I'm being buried in paper and the current system that we have does not allow for any kind of searchable database for for board materials if you're trying to find something that is that has happened at a board meeting if you don't know the approximate date when a board meeting happened that discussed whatever you're looking for you're it's essentially not playable if we did a digital version either the the board book or I mean there were a couple of options it would in in addition to you know saving some trees actually quite a few trees over the course of a year it would create a searchable database of materials that would make it much easier for I think all of us to keep track of what we're doing on a weekly basis and you can group documents sequentially I mean you you know is all kinds of ways you can organize things at that point which is not possible when you're when you're talking about PDF files reams of paper so I currently serve on two boards Morgan State University's board and Pacific University and they both have electronic board books and I will say that there are definitely advantages and half of the board still gets paper versions because that's an effective way for them to work in the other half it's all available on the board book but not everybody uses it and there's definitely shortcomings with that so while it's certainly an option and I think from a historical standpoint may provide a easier way to access it it individual board members have different ways of working and what I found is just because you have it doesn't mean that that's the preferred and best way for all board members to get it think to summarize there's ways we can lower a couple of these budget items and make some trade-offs in terms of board travel we I don't think we in this in a cut-set vironment we we can't and shouldn't have it all so and I'd be happy to work on some kind of counter balancing thing or if somebody else is in the middle of taking time that's great and I think there's opportunities for reducing not eliminating copier costs and I understand perfectly what you're saying about paper versus electronics but we I think there's opportunities there that for letting people opt out of that we're gonna go in the meal diet what we're gonna go in the meal diet no can I just I think we need to be a little careful about how we how we treat board
02h 25m 00s
travel the travel is not really travel I mean it's not like we're going to Maui no you're still not going to Maui I mean the board travel is is an allocation for board professional development and I don't know about you but I think I think we could stand some board professional development it's tremendous thieves and it is it is revelatory to go to a conference in here how other school districts talk about what they're doing and informally to talk with other people who are working on the same things in other places and I think you know if we if we forego those kinds of opportunities then then we only know what we know and what we know has been less than optimal I think in terms of both district functionality and board functionality I'm just saying we're making cuts okay and you know we had some very persuasive testimony tonight at that point six year and 0.6 there right that's that's so I mean if we're gonna try to look for cuts I think we need to make judicious cuts and and we need to we need to be thinking about long term implications of whatever cuts we make and jerry' more just just to underline because we do want to be responsible about precious resources precisely because we're a billion dollar plus organization to not take advantage of opportunities not even just conferences to participate in opportunities like this institute which I think are going to tackle issues that other districts are tackling as they develop strategic plans and have multi-year vision to implement and have a chance to challenge themselves about where the efficiencies lie and where the high leverage strategies are that will impact on student outcomes elected board members don't necessarily have the educational background or the management experience or there's always gonna be a variability there so any time to to bring folks together to do that training is almost it could be argued the responsible thing to do to to be effective in your roles so we as staff will proceed at the board's direction on however you want to shape your budget but I I will always speak to the importance of building professional capacity and organizational learning so if that's one area where we're gonna emphasize this summer and the board wants to look at other areas I just want to make that pitch I'm director Bailey I just think it could be a really tough year and yes it's a honor to be receive an invitation to attend something at Harvard so I've attended 3 differents you know not in this capacity but 3 different summer Institute's over a period of year but the question I think the community will ask is you know is this the only place you can get it is this the cost so I just think we have to be mindful of the ways that we're cutting other things or I mean I'll just take tonight the custodial fees we've set a $10,000 budget for title 1 schools to have they're tight their custodial fees waived and said you know we're gonna limit to one one event a year that you can have your fees waived and you know it's within those contexts that I think we have to be able to justify our budget that's just the question I think we need to ask ourselves are we getting what we need that professional development and the most of a cost-effective way yeah and we're talking one year if we're gonna do a big bump up for a Harvard thing then we've for ghosts I'm saying we can forego some other things this year and do them next year so it's not like we're disinvesting in I mean we're increasing our budget for PD just in that one I'm thinking long and I feel like support that going there just a process question so we're gonna take this discussion and
02h 30m 00s
it's gonna be loaded into the overall budget is that correct yep okay so once we get our budget we're gonna have a huge budget dropped on us and then I'm not dropped on this but we've had some previews of it but we'll get it and then it'll be sort of a sprint through to approval and then adoption one thing just given our fiduciary role is I would like to have a similar discussion about the superintendent's budget given that that's the only employee that the board manages and that we're accountable for those expenditures as well I think that's I mean just like last year they came around as this right I just don't want it to be as part of here's 200 million dollars and spend just this like we spent some time tonight on our budget which I know will all be accountable for how that money gets spent but we're also accountable for the one employee well the two that we have the also the auditors but that's the other place where we ultimately are have some accountability as well so I don't want it just to be as part of the six hundred million dollar view chair more I have no outstanding issues with the business agenda and I'm departing for my kids game word budget okay all right um so we'll move on to the business agenda the board will now vote on its business agenda miss Houston know there any changes No do I have a motion in a second to adopt the business agenda so moved director Bailey moves director Anthony seconds the adoption the business agenda is there any public comment there is not okay is there any board discussion on the business agenda nope okay the board will now vote on the business agenda all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes opposed say no any abstentions yes okay the business agenda is approved by a vote of six to zero with a student representative pace or voting yes do we have any committee or conference reports superintendent gave them so I'll just say the audit committee is meeting tomorrow from 5:00 to 7:00 and the two topics are going to be a continuation of the state audit and the preparation for the quarterly report and also the the bond performance audit that we recently received and regarding the variance between the approved amount of the bond and the ultimate cost of the bond projects and the documents will be posted online and I know the board has got has received them but any community members we should have those posted so that people can see the what the finding the findings were and they'll be an ongoing discussion I'm sure we'll bring it to the board any other reports any other business okay the next meeting the board will be held next week April ninth 2019 and this

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)

2019-04-09 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

Documents / Media

Notices/Agendas

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Minutes

Transcripts

Event 1: Regular Meeting of the Board of Education - April 9, 2019

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