2019-06-11 PPS School Board Regular Meeting, Work Session

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District Portland Public Schools
Date 2019-06-11
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Meeting Type regular, work
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Event 1: Board of Education Regular Meeting -June 11, 2019

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okay sorry for the slight photo-op delay this regular meeting of the Board of Education for June 11 29 is called to order welcome to everyone present and to our television viewers for tonight's meeting any item that will be voted on this evening has been posted this meeting is being televised live and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the board website for replay times this meeting is also being streamed live on our PBS TV Services website we also have interpreters with us this evening and I'd like to ask them to come forward at this time introduce themselves in the language into which they'll be interpreting and inform the audience where they'll be located in the auditorium should someone need their assistance well I want to start this memo Danielli waste our personal interpretation español para los que les necesita muchas gracias hearing about a star this column at NASA and juvy now we can Tom lick finger Vietnam sin queef is out what would you say a court decree in geography come on goofy so much is IO she awoke a hominid I so many so you know your pony I'd also like to take this opportunity to welcome Kara Huff who has now joined the board office and we're very happy to welcome her so we'll start with student in public comments before we begin the public comment period I'd like to review the guidelines for public comment the board thinks 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 you actively listen with our electronic devices turned off and papers put aside one quick reminder any any signs any oversized signs need to be in the back and signs in the audience should not be held in a way that obstructs anyone's view board members and the superintendent will not respond to comments or questions during public comments but the board office will follow up on board related issues raised during public testimony if you would like a response please contact Miss Hough 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 materials or items you'd like to provide to the board or superintendent we ask that you give them to miss Hough to distribute to us presenters will have a total of three minutes to share your comments please begin by stating your name and spelling your last name for the record during the first two minutes of testimony a green light will appear when you have one minute remaining remaining a yellow light will go on and when your time is up the red light will go on and a buzzer will sound we respectfully ask that you conclude your comments at that time we appreciate your input and thank you for your cooperation miss Hough do we have anybody signed up for student or public comment yes we do we have Kira Swint and Aruna Bharati hi there my name is Kiera swim swim spelled s WI n th and I am a junior at Cleveland High School I would quickly like to thank Scott Bailey for attending our spring CrossFit showdown at the Cleveland track back on May 31st thank you there are not many days that stand out in my mind like the day that I did my first pull up while this simple movement may seem like not much it represented so much of my journey to finding self-worth and empowerment I entered the Cleveland CrossFit program my freshman year of high school with the intention of fulfilling my PE requirement I had no desire to pursue such an intimidating and intense sport I walked into the weight room the first day with a lot of baggage and I soon learned that my mentor Mandy instructor our Mandy Weaver excuse me made it her goal not only to help me find purpose in my physical education but to also unpack this baggage to help me find purpose within myself I entered
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the class with self-doubt and very little confidence I even told Mandy in the first month of my freshman year that my body's proportions made it so I would never be able to do a pull-up Mandy little by little chipped away at my self-doubt it was simple reminders here and there that I was good enough it was her kindness it was the example she set a little over a year later I walked up to the pull-up bar with a new mindset yes I can I can do a pull-up I can do just about anything this transformation of confidence is in part due to the unique community that our CrossFit program fosters but it is also impart due to Mandy's unwavering support for girls like me unfortunately Mandy has been unassigned from Cleveland for the 2019 2020 school year a second time for her in the past two years with the loss of Mandy as my teacher I am concerned for the program and girls like me who may not have someone to support them on top of this without Mandy Cleveland will have no female staff member present in the girls locker room area because there is no other female PE teacher this presents both physical and emotional safety concerns furthermore I wonder if not having a female PE teacher in the gym weight room and specifically girls locker room is potentially a title 9 violation under 9 students participation in athletics and of course academic programs should avoid and prevent programs with disproportionate enrollment based on sex and ensure that sex discrimination is not causing any negative effects to students access to equal educational opportunities currently the CrossFit program under Mandy's leadership has increased the female student participation by 3% each year resulting in more girls in the weight room also gender non-conforming and trans students have expressed to me that they feel more comfortable in the gym where it is often hyper masculine we're often hyper masculinity has been the norm mandy has created an inclusive environment for all students and our concerns go beyond our female identify ting students at at Cleveland based on forecasting numbers there will be just under 100 students who will not be able to take cross but next year because the number of sections has been reduced to 3 our CrossFit program is thriving as a community of support and love but the funding is not reflecting our growth we need help and we need support we need girls to feel welcome and safe in athletic spaces and we need instructors like Mandy Weaver hello [Music] ok I'm gonna ask some indulgence tonight this is Kara's first time hitting the buttons so I think we all have to give a little grace here and it's not an easy thing so hello my name is Aruna rowdy and I'm a sophomore at Cleveland high school growing up in a refugee camp me and my family didn't have many opportunities to do what we wanted to do and how to do it after my home town was destroyed by India and China taking over we had to flee from the place we called home soon after I learned that me and my family were going to have a new home in Portland it was very hard for me to adapt to the new culture making new friends and learning how to speak a new language but I did and finishing middle school was really hard for me because knowing that I was about about to go into high school was very stressful I always saw that little people such as myself got bullied in movies and I didn't want that for myself I decided to take speed and strength training which is the entry-level CrossFit class instead of PE because my sister told me it was empowering for her and she learned a lot about herself throughout that class first day of speed and strength training and I'm scared I think to myself I'm 80 pounds I cannot lift I go downstairs and see Mandy Weaver telling the class the workout of the day as the year went on I did activities with the higher level CrossFit class and formally met Mandy many made me feel welcome and encouraged me to take CrossFit at for sophomore year she made me feel like CrossFit was a place for me that I could be successful and in the class it inspired me to persist through challenges that I experienced in other spaces dominated by men such as wrestling I'm the I am one of two girls at Cleveland High School Oh on the Cleveland high school wrestling team and it is due to CrossFit that I see myself as a strong independent athlete who was equal equally capable as all my male athletes however I am concerned for my safety next year in CrossFit if Mandy isn't there I feel like I can talk to her about my experience as a female athlete and almost about anything going on in my life she makes me feel included as a female athlete in her class this is the goal of title nine right girls like me have the opportunities to feel welcome and safe in athletic spaces having a few months structur is fundamentally fundamentally to my safety in the space I see myself I've seen a law in my life it's often hard to feel like I have a voice and a community that
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supports me after having lived through all the different circumstances Mandy reminds me of the voice and makes me feel at home in CrossFit next Brady Russ and Rebecca Hannah Finn okay hi my name is Brady nickel Ross ro SS I'm the parent of two high school students at Cleveland and I'm an educator myself I'm here today to talk about the decision to let go of the CrossFit coach Mandy Weaver this decision has many consequences that I don't think have been properly addressed by the administration first of all coach Weaver is the only female fitness instructor I'm aware that health and PE fall into the same Department therefore evening out the gender representation however Mandy's departure would effectively mean one female is in a coaching role in PE representation matters time and again studies have shown that young girls benefit from seeing women in various roles especially once I've introduced a traditionally reserved for males only as in the case of weightlifting coach Weaver has an unparalleled effect on the female population who take CrossFit she represents a female role model in a predominantly male field we're moving her would once again give the indication that CrossFit and weightlifting are male endeavors as only as the only other coaches for those activities are male similarly the locker room poses an issue because it is an enclosed semi-private space bathrooms are the same kind of space incidences of bullying violence harassment Alcohol Tobacco drug use vandalism eating disorders and self-interest behavior which girls are more likely to engage in or hire in these types of spaces not having a female instructor as a supervisor or to do random periodic sweeps the locker room leaves those female students vulnerable although female health teachers are on campus they're not around during these times to make sure if female students are safe this seems like a liability as a parent of two students there I'm dismayed that student safety has not taken more seriously today I took a look through public school policy on locker room supervision throughout the u.s. overwhelmingly schools make sure to have someone in the locker room for safety purposes even just knowing a teachers in the locker room area or in adjoining office can cut down on behavioral issues lastly I have to mention that coach Weaver has gone above and beyond her job to involve people from outside the school in terms of community outreach and building across as a sport based on community Mandy Weaver has proven she is a coach who reaches out to the public at events to build community and raise money Mandy has shown an ability to bring people together and to shine a positive light on Cleveland high school as well as the work the kids and coaches are doing recently you should put together an event that brought together 210 athletes from 18 different CrossFit and fitness facilities and raised over six thousand dollars and this one event throughout the district to raise six thousand or throughout the district students learn not only personal fitness and weightlifting they're learning about how to be a part of their larger community as of right now roughly ten percent of the current population of Cleveland take CrossFit I think that that should matter good evening my name is Rebecca Hannifin I'm a member of the PBS dyslexia advocacy group I'm here tonight to thank you for listening to the concerns and recommendations of the dyslexia community over the last year you are taking meaningful steps to become a national leader in the arena of literacy acquisition for all students and in creating an environment that supports learners with dyslexia there's a growing awareness among school districts across the nation the current practices for reading instruction do not meet the needs of 20% or more of today's students this statistic has devastating impacts on children who struggle or fail to learn to read these are the same students who are most likely to drop out of school due to frustration early learning success and appropriate supports for learners with dyslexia is fundamental to a quality k12 education program scientific studies demonstrate that learners with dyslexia can be taught to read and techniques that work for struggling readers have benefits for all students having a system that meets the needs of all types of learners is also a key equity issue low-income black brown and indigenous families are least likely to be able to afford private
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tutoring we strongly support your decision in the 2019 2020 budget to hire a dyslexia coordinator to invest in professional development in support of effective early literacy teaching methods and to conduct a gap analysis we hope that the work of the dyslexia coordinator is largely dedicated to working with internal and external partners to assess the entire k12 system and to develop a comprehensive plan to close the literacy gap for students by providing appropriate supports for learners with dyslexia major components of the district's dyslexia plan are likely to include continued professional development and teacher training intervention tools for tier 2 and tier 3 learners technology solutions and changes in policy and instructional practices developing a good road map for the systemic changes needed to achieve literacy for all is fundamental and we support this important work we continue to recommend the establishment of a PBS dyslexia advisory group that would include parents students and educators this advisory group would be useful in developing the district's dyslexia plan and in providing feedback for implementation measures the dyslexia family information night that was held on May 30th of this year is a great example of a positive collaboration between the dyslexia community and the district that meeting was very successful it was very well received by folks in our group and we look forward to continuing this type of partnership in the next school year thank you again for your leadership and for engaging so openly with our passionate and knowledgeable dyslexia community that Natasha Lenhart and Emily Queen hello my name is Emily Junie giu gni and I'm here as a regular parent and the PTA president first we want to express our most heartfelt gratitude thank you so much for finding the way to get electives for incoming regular students at Beaumont having music and the arts available for our kids will have such a positive effect on engagement I'm especially grateful to hear that you are potentially considering a part-time music teacher at Rigler and Scott itself what impresses me most about this is the big picture planning that supports and ties together the whole Madison cluster you show an interest in setting our kids up for long term success and an understanding of the interconnectedness of these things by doing this you are setting up the fantastic Madison music teacher jeremy Dell to have a successful high school program hopefully contributing to the improvement in graduation rates that we all want to see I also have a grave concern we understand that next year's plan is to have 31 students in each of wrigglers two third grade classrooms this is absolutely untenable all classrooms at Rigler overcrowded next year we are losing all our EAS and yet parents agree it's third grade we absolutely must have a third teacher we know Rigler with 31 kids in the classroom at our school no education will occur in this critical year 31 kids it won't work will either have a mass exodus of families or we're gonna have to put in a band-aid teacher in October for rebalancing creating more structural chaos at rig'lar these classrooms will be madness I have been a parent at regular for seven years I feel like I can talk with authority on this as I've been there longer than any teacher and I have been there longer than almost any staff one more third-grade teacher will still have class sizes at over 20 per class this is a si si school do we really want to bring in a band-aid solution in October when we have already endured so much change this will have a ripple effect on everything third grade is a critical year we absolutely must get kids reading
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by the third grade right now we are at 20% benchmark thank you for showing concern for all of the Madison cluster one last thing our teacher was unable to attend and we would like to have a substitute person speak on his behalf if that would be possible based on your testimony because as we know regular now is an anomaly in terms of being a non lottery dlci school and all of our lottery programs have caps on the number of students and so this is something I'd like to see an explanation of from staff as to why we do limit class size and our DLI classes and all of our other immersion schools and yet because it's not a lottery for wriggler we're not adhering to the same class size threshold so I'm just making that information request superintendent please thank you and thank you for your microphone my name is Natasha Lenhart LAN har T and my issue is of a personal matter some years ago many years ago I unfortunately was unable to graduate high school however I went on to get an a a a BA a master's and be admitted to the MSW program at Portland State a few years ago I decided that I wanted my high school diploma that was the only spot on the wall that was empty so I went about calling who I thought could help me do that and in fact I saw many shows on TV about people being given their high school diploma after the fact so I spoke to approximately 20 people over a three-month period nobody said no but nobody gave me any direction or focus mostly they just gave me another phone number at Grant I even spoke to the principal at the time and offered to speak to the at-risk youth do some kind of a group meeting and tell my story anyway no takers so finally my brother who is a retired school teacher the other day said why don't you go why didn't I come here so here I am and it seems nobody knows the policy that was the first issue nobody could tell me why grant high school couldn't give me my high school diploma from 50 years ago even though I had fulfilled all the requirements and in fact I have all the documentation so I guess the two issues today are I would at least like to know what the policy is for Portland Public Schools and issuing me a diploma why I can't have my diploma and if the policy does not include my issue how can I get it anyway to fill that hole on the wall thank you can you can you give your contact information to ms huff and we'll follow up with you okay thank you do we have any more speakers yes we have Steven Weller and Anthony Tessa good hello my name is Steven Weller and I am the site support instructor at rig'lar Elementary and I'm here to speak about our our need for smaller class sizes I know this is a difficult decision I don't know what the level of
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need is across the district in other schools that might also be facing similar situations but I want to advocate for Rigler this is my second year teaching there and we're doing everything we can to help our students to grow in their independence using skills to deal with conflicts between each other to take control of their own learning to give them the reading and the math skills and the thinking skills that they need to continue to grow we're doing as much as we can to reach reach them with a message of positivity and hope that's the the best thing that I've seen at Rigler is that we love our students and that we tell them that we believe in them and that we show them that they are valuable people we're doing our best in that effort and we're always working on getting better having 30 students third graders having to walk be inside the school building for the first time having to walk upstairs for the first time in a small classroom that's too small and that gets hot in the summer at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the school year will be a very big challenge if it's in the budget to give us another teacher for third grade next year that will have an effect that will help out our teachers and students a great deal so I know it's a tough decision but I'm here to ask for another another third grade teacher for Rigler for next year thank you all again for your comments and please feel free to connect with Roseann Powell or Ms Huff tonight if you have something specifically you want to followup with the board about so superintendents report superintendent Guerrero good evening directors good evening good evening directors as the 2018-19 school year comes to a close this week last day of classes for students being tomorrow followed in a few days by our teachers it seemed like a natural time for in tonight's report to sum up some highlights from the school year and to showcase some end-of-the-year achievements and celebrations I believe this year has been one of much progress in the district along many different fronts all focused on becoming a better organization one centered on supporting our leaders and educators to positively impact on our student outcomes this is transformative work it's a process of continuous improvement and I'm appreciative of our school leaders educators support staff for their hard work and dedication so as we close out the school year we're already getting ready busy we're already getting busy as we engage in a lot of planning this summer for a continued successful launch in the coming school year so just to take a quick look back I know it seems like a long time ago but if you recall on the first day of classes this past August I was able to be joined by a board and p80 leadership and was able to be present at our two new middle schools Harriet Tubman and Rose Wei Heights the doors opened to more than a thousand students who now have access to a comprehensive middle grades education I think this is evidence of our commitment to continue redesigning and improving our middle grades offerings and to expand offerings to students particularly in underserved communities we also put a tremendous effort into the ongoing rollout of a standards-based core curriculum across all grade levels in Portland this begins to establish a scope and sequence of instruction that will continue to support our educators with guidance in teaching and learning and that has included a great deal of professional development which will continue for our teachers and principals as far as outcomes our graduation rates continue to edge upwards we're getting more seniors across the stage this includes continuing to focus on engaging and offering students with a rich array of CTE programs advanced coursework which includes partnership with colleges and universities multiple pathways and graduation and a concerted intervention and Student Success teams and focus on attendance remarkably black and african-american graduation rates went
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up 6% this past spring our visioning development of a vision we spent months engaging thousands of students families school and district leaders as well as community members in a deep conversation about our developing a shared vision for the future of our district and of our graduates together we have begun to describe and develop a graduate portrait what we want our future graduates to know and be able to do in their quest to become global leaders we also identified and collaborated in identifying educator essentials and system shifts necessary to support our students this has been an ambitious community engagement project Thank You directors for your active involvement in leadership the outcome of this collaborative work is going to help to guide our decisions and actions for years to come this year we also commenced the development of our master arts education plan we've taken stock a full inventory of our arts discipline offerings across our schools and we have ambitious goals to continue expanding Visual and Performing Arts opportunities for students we continue to make steady progress in the safety and modernization of our schools Grant High School will be opening to students this August and will start building Kellogg and reconstructing Madison Lincoln and as our next projects we are grateful for the generosity of our local taxpayers for their deep commitment to providing excellent and inspiring teaching and learning environments for our students here in Portland's and there's a lot of work happening over the summer new seismically strengthened roofs will be built at sitting in regular elementary schools in jackson middle Rigler in row city park we'll get new elevators will work will begin seismically retrofitting Hayhurst Jefferson High will receive fire alarm upgrades a new fire sprinkler system other schools are going to be getting fire alarms this summer davinci community transition Jason Lee Ainsworth Maplewood and West Sylvan asks best ocean projects are going to be taking place at Lane Woodstock vestal Marysville Beaumont wriggler and Capitol Hill lead paint stabilization work is also in full swing the summer with improvements taking place at 30 sites and the work on the first group of 26 schools getting security upgrades will begin in July with a second group of schools underway later this summer our third group of students will commence their work in the fall finishing all together in the spring 2020 close to 3,000 students are in their high school diplomas in the past week and we had some wonderful graduations last week just a quick photo tour Benson Cleveland and Franklin I'm glad you noticed grant Jefferson and Lincoln Madison Roosevelt and Wilson all in their school colors Alliance at meek Metropolitan Learning Center and Alliance at Benson I want to thank our communications photographer Beth Conyers for some wonderful photography our directors for participating in many of our ceremonies and I want to thank Oregonian reporter at her Campuzano credit for supplying us for the Alliance at miik photo and his coverage of the ceremony this shows a snapshot of alliance student lexi morris getting her diploma from principal lorna fast buffalo horse you can catch lexi story of overcoming barriers and the of our multiple pathways to graduation programs recently detailed in Oregon life over the years our culturally specific student groups have celebrated their academic and peer leaders and achievers in a variety of ways and ceremonies this year we tried something a little different and established a single night to honor our students of color an all-star event that featured food entertainment and a host of inspirational words from our students themselves and community leaders the evening by all accounts was a success and I'm Casey I'm guessing we've started a new tradition here in PBS I want to make sure to credit our strategic partnerships and engagement team for coming up with and putting on the event especially a Camille at adapt dome thank you congratulations to you and to all of our PBS all-stars our students are not the only ones getting recognized these days we're coming off a pretty eventful time here in Portland celebrating its own traditions and events our own Benson Tech principal was knighted by the Royal Rose Ariens and henceforth will be referring to him as Sir Curtis Wilson lent Keita 8 was also awarded a first-place award in the Junior Rose fest parade taking home the blue ribbon for best theme way to go leopards and I want to make sure we recognize Pride Month will have a strong contingent in the Portland Pride Parade this Saturday June 15th on the waterfront
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next year hopefully when we're doing a look backwards we'll be talking about our substantive progress in a few areas to include climate justice dyslexia arts education offerings middle school redesign and other work strands that we're looking forward to to embarking on in the coming school year so sometimes the best way to to sum up our accomplishments is to hear directly from some of our students and educators from across the district so a short video clip for you we are the leaders our students are waiting for you are the leaders they're waiting for let's have a great school year for here at Rose Way Heights middle school it's the first day of school here in Portland and we're really excited it is our first day sixth graders only and Wow a great day we're really really excited about seeing the wonderful smiles on the first day of kindergarten it's going to be a fantastic year for all of our schools and all of our kids I've been dumpy and over a long time it's been great I've been sitting in Mandarin class hi I'm Camille nice to meet you I had a lot of questions about college and she made sure to answer them so that was good and we support our own school community we support the odyssey needs and the ainsworth needs we add like a protein and fruit and vegetable and some fresh produce to you check them once they see what it can do and what they can do on their own that we're going to do some like more formal lessons where they'll do very specific things like for all of our concepts like you know for language arts for math for science we start building those habits of minds for young students we have behind me is a tiny Alice on i-24 the trailer that our students have constructed the middle part right behind you with the living area I have always been a physical learner so having this class is a nice break and something that I see myself doing in the future and today we have a group of students that are gonna come see grandson for the first time some that I've seen it before and find out what they think about it so you can see we put in this second floor we rebuilt the skylight you know painted the trusses painted the ceiling and it's in the art building and I think that's really cool [Music] well today was a celebration for our benson lady Techsters just to recognize the incredible feat that they accomplished in winning a state championship so one thing that we've heard from our community is that they they want to be part of the conversation they want to be part of the process and be part of dialoguing with our administration so the world cafe format really offered the community and opportunity to have meaningful conversations with members of our senior leadership the exciting part of the morning there's a lot of turnover here we got to move to the other side and there's just a few shovels so we're gonna have to take some turns to everyone here today we present you the graduating class [Music] thank you to all our principals our teachers our support staff everybody that keeps PPS running for your hard work and dedication we know you're doing a well-deserved summer to our students and Families we hope you have a safe and rejuvenating summer and we'll we'll look forward to seeing you back here in August that concludes my report thank you it's been an eventful year so reiterating the superintendent Guerrero thank you to everybody who has helped students this year graduates get promoted move into you know explore new things and learn new things looking
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forward to another eventful year next year the next item is a Franklin mascot named the Board of Education received several complaints from community members regarding the name of Quakers being used as the nickname for Franklin High School mascot in school identification the Board determined that the name Quakers as used by Franklin High School violates policy number two point two zero point zero one zero two 1 B 3 because Quakers is the name of a religious group the complainants sought a change to the name of the Franklin High School a nickname of Quakers asserting that the name Quakers is the name of an organized religion and as such as inappropriate offensive and unconstitutional in response to the complaint the superintendent submitted to the board a request for a few of PBS's naming school district property policy the Board of Education conducted a comprehensive review of the naming School District property policy and made numerous changes to the policy including revised criteria for the naming of school district property including schools mascots symbols and other images considered for representation of a school or district following this change to district policy the directed district staff to commence a public committee review process to determine a new mascot identification for Franklin High School Superintendent Guerrero would you like to walk us through this yeah this is a long waited item and speaking to this agenda topic we have Franklin High School's very own principal Chris Fraser here this evening and I also want to give kudos to Cameron Vaughn from our communications in public engagement office I think this is her swan song here and helping facilitate a process and I think we have the privilege of hearing from one of our student leaders as well so I think they're going to come up and speak to the item thank you good evening superintendent and board members my name is Cameron Vaughn and I am manager of community engagement my last name is V a u GH a n in November of last year I presented to you a plan for engaging Franklin High School community in helping to select a new name for the school mascot and identity under your guidance we crafted a plan to pull together a well-rounded multi-generational and culturally diverse committee whose purpose was to come up with the new identity to replace the century-old quakers mascot knowing this name change is a sensitive issue for Franklin High School alums principal Fraser and I personally reached out to alumni members so they could be part of this historic change I'm so glad we did four we were lucky to have alum and former business manager Steve Matthews back on campus and I would not have met Bob earnest and Alex Rodriguez otherwise their input was invaluable during our meetings we advertised the committee membership in November and December and received numerous calls and emails from interested people it was great to be able to connect and find out why they wanted to serve and what they hope the outcome would be in the end we had a 19 person committee and thoughtful participation at every meeting having eight student members on the committee was vital as they were insightful fresh and smart and their logic Flora often surpasses that of some of us older members for me it is a great reminder of the reason for the work we do and they are going to be the ones who were impacted most by the name choice we had current and past parents staff community members students and alums we had six meetings between January and May all of the meetings were open to the public and the time and place were publicized on the PBS website we had a dedicated email phone number and we put together a survey which was distributed throughout Franklin High School feeder schools PIL groups affinity groups parents Neighborhood Association and local businesses immediately around the school as well as neighbors and alums we delivered flyers to houses and businesses around the neighborhood and received nearly 1,700 responses to the survey as well as approximately 100 right in named suggestions following the survey we reviewed the name suggestions one by one and there were some colorful and creative contributions sasquatch the inventors flamingos the Volt's the turkeys the Benjamins the meerkats and so on but none of the suggested names sparked the sense of excitement of the original six names the committee came up
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with after speaking to peers students staff and friends after much review and a final vote the committee ultimately chose lightning as their number one choice and there were was zero dissension among the membership lightning has historical connections as Benjamin Franklin experimented with lightning and was the first to recognize its electrical properties the last six months were a great experience and I know our membership is happy with the outcome thank you for this opportunity to help the committee make Franklin history good evening superintendent Guerrera on board members the Franklin high school mascot identification committee was a collaborative and inclusive process which followed the requirements set out by the committee charter in working with our staff and partners we essentially recommend who were recommended through ASB leadership step up son-in via teacher recommendations we were able to identify what students would be able to participate in this epic video our school in our community students were also given the opportunity to self nominate or to nominate a peer for their participation the names that were gathered were reviewed to assure that within the that our community was represented by each grade level as well as reflected the diversity within our school and also met the requirements of the committee charter we worked with the understanding that a good representation of our students from different cultural communities was necessary to be in part of this process I've been held an introductory meeting with all the students to discuss the objective the process and the time commitment with regards to how our meetings were conducted the meetings were facilitated by myself and with the supportive district provided personnel Cameron Vaughn the meetings were struck - were all members students parents teachers staff alumni community members and coaches all had an equal voice regardless of their affiliation or role within the school all the meeting times were posted on the Franklin high school mascot committee website and were open to the public our first meeting in January we reviewed the background we talked about the committee charge where we reviewed the Charter we talked about the board policy as well as the admin directives which would support this process as well as discussed the naming process the action item that came out of that meeting was for each representative to meet with their constituent groups to come up with potential mascot names in February the idea was for us to report out on those mascot names and go through a narrowing down exercise also in that meeting we identified what are the priorities with regards to the name selection we looked at things that resonated with Benjamin Franklin or our school specifically we looked at our southeast community or our neighborhood and also something that was gender-neutral and non-offensive the idea was also to create a survey using the top six names that were created which Cameron just spoke to and create a survey that would be presented to the entire community so that we could receive feedback the survey was issued out through the principal newsletter through school announcements school messenger clubs student affinity groups we canvassed the neighborhood physically we shared with our feeder schools as well as posted on the Alumni website and with the idea of implementing the survey in going live our March meeting consisted again of reviewing the data from the survey as it was now live and again narrowed down the names that was suggested also recognizing that as part of the survey there was an option for individuals to add in and so that's how we come up with Sasquatch and some of the other names that again were very creative through our March meaning it was a very authentic conversations as we sat around with lots of and and really embraced the diversity within the group based upon age based upon gender based upon race as we look to align the priorities of our name with the priorities of our mission we also looked at other ways that we could promote this event so how can we get the information out to our larger community in the event that we happen to miss some so we looked at publicizing at the PTSA auction we looked at a school events ie choir concerts athletic events in April we then came together and again reviewed the data from the survey which Cameron provided and also look to how we would reach out to additional affinity groups who again was missing I attended several student and parent affinity groups to ask for their recommendation and advice to assure that our potential names would be one that would be not only supported but also not be seen as culturally insensitive again reaching out to our family leadership team step up family parents the i.m Academy our Black Student Union our Latino Club as well as our athletic teams and finally in April we all came together which was the big day for us as a school where we were looking as a committee to vote and discuss the process for submitting the recommendation to superintendent
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Guerrero and the PPS school board this process was transferring it was inclusive and collaborative the media attended our last meeting and it was comforting knowing that the proposed mascot names were vetted through a principal process was done the right way and had the support of everyone in the room with the names that were put forward this process as you can well imagine could have been seen as divisive or problematic as changes not easy however it was the strong support of the staff the community our students and our alumni association members that assisted in this transition we recognize that regardless of the name it is how we support our students in treat one another in our community that matters most and how we will truly be remembered and now I'd like to introduce a student commentary Laura Pollak my name is flora Pollak and I had the honor of being asked by principal Frazer to serve on the Franklin mascot identification committee being a member of Franklin's ASB I was excited to have another opportunity to represent my peers and a process that would be forever a part of Franklin High School's great history at first I felt nervous to meet with such a large and diverse group many of whom were older than me however I soon realized that we all shared a common interest in Franklin high school and a mutual goal in choosing an appropriate new mascot each meeting was very exciting as we brainstorm various name suggestions some were based on brain Ben Franklin's history while others found meaning in the literation within these meetings respectful debate was had on different names after surveying numerous stakeholders our committee was able to wholeheartedly agree on a new mascot the Franklin lightning throughout this process I was able to use social media as well as my position as ASB publicity chair to communicate updates with my peers after a proposal was announced it was exciting to see community members discuss the name change in multiple forums hearing and reading various comments I felt proud of our final decision sitting here in front of y'all tonight I'm cognizant of the historic decision I've been able to be a part of knowing that this mascot will live on much longer than my time at Franklin High School representing my neighborhood in Southeast Portland it is a truly gratifying field thank you thank you I just want to thank principal Fraser Franklin students in the broader community for the thoughtful and deliberate process Thank You Cameron we've reviewed your process and we're forwarding the recommendation for the board's approval this evening I just think it's a really striking name mascot but I've just have gotten really charged up listening to you okay let's do the motion first and then we can discuss okay do I have a motion second director Brad woods moves director espacio Brown seconds the motion to adopt resolution five nine zero zero is there any public comment okay okay any board discussion so I think over the last year I've got all the public comment no lack of it so I'm not going to call out that principal Fraser is not even wearing the school colors tonight so I just want to recognize I don't have any questions for you but I want to recognize just the sort of persistence of some people in the Franklin community that about five years ago thought it was time to make an important change at Franklin and but knowing also that it wouldn't be an easy change and the last time that PBS had a mascot change was in the 80s at Cleveland High School and so the a group of parents and community members primarily parents filed a complaint with the district it didn't go anywhere they got sort of got the runaround then they filed another complaint and I want to acknowledge that when that complaint came before the board a year and a half ago we had we received a recommendation from the superintendent too that it was time to change adjust her policy because actually our policy still allowed for the current name and that started a process by which I thought we had a great discussion about what names and symbols and images mean
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and the impacts they have on people so something that some people may hold dear can be deeply offensive and hurtful to others and I think that was a really good discussion and it gave us an opportunity in the committee process and then further at the board process to align our policy to our values so thank you superintendent for that recommendation and to the board members for your work and I think a sort of courageously changing things even because change is hard and we had a really valuable assist from the office of the General Counsel thank you mr. Kane for the work that you did in changing the policy and I think where we landed gives us a policy that really will stand the test of time and I think then ultimately it made the decision that we needed to have a change of the mascot much easier it was really clear what we needed to do when we had the right framework I had an opportunity to attend the kickoff meeting and everything that was related here really I captured this beard of the conversation even though you had people who were sort of ardent Quaker alums in the room and students in a really diverse group that it was respectful and I believe really trying to honor [Music] creating and creating a new future I don't want to underestimate that this is going to be a big change from the Franklin community so having been a resident for 50 years in Southeast Portland there's a lot of people who grew up in the neighborhood went to Franklin and are very proud of their high school and part of that the tradition is the connection to the current soon to be a former mascot and they're they're proud of Franklin which is a huge asset to the community they believe in Franklin strong they love their school and they love their traditions so it's not going to be easy and I really have a lot of respect for camera and the Communications Office and principal Fraser and all the participants on the panel because it could have been a divisive process and it was not and I think the fact that we're here tonight with no dissent is a symbol of that so I guess the the one thing and I have heard a lot from people in my neighborhood lots of people who attended Franklin that I guess the message would be to Franklin alum that tonight's action doesn't erase your history or invalidate it in any way but tonight just begins a new chapter for the Franklin community and Southeast Portland and one I think that will be inclusive reflects our values and I think the biggest challenge is we're all going to learn how to correctly spell the word lightning but I so again I want to thank everybody involved and also to the parents who sort of kicked this process off five years ago and persisted because but for that we wouldn't be here tonight any other discussion so principal Fraser is it lightining or lightning okay we'll greet that with thunderous applause oh my gosh okay we could all do that will refrain okay any other commentary I think it's a I think it's a testament to the to the process and the fidelity with which you carried out the process that that this gives all the appearances of being a welcome change and that that was not a given 18 let's go so thank you for all the work okay the board will now vote on resolution five nines Arrow's ero all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed say no any abstentions student representative you don't get to vote I just wanted to say I'm really friend of no I'm really proud of my friend flora because she's worked really hard on this and like just watching all of her hard work on this project I know it's been hard to talk with all of our students because we have a lot of them but I'm just really proud of her and the
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whole committee and I'm really excited that I get to represent the lightening next year on the board I want to just piggyback on Maxine's comment which when we were trying to create the process for this way back when we had a lot of passionate adults both who had sentimental attachments from the past and adults who are currently involved in Franklin and we made a decision to go heavy on student representation in the process and on the committee we had some discussion around that and I'm glad we did and I know you guys all were really the leaders of this process so I hope you're excited for how it feels next year okay just to make it officially official the resolution passes by a vote of seven to zero thank you okay I'm now going to recess the board from its regular meeting and convene as the Budget Committee superintendent Guerrero would you like to make any comments about amendments to the 2018-19 budget I know that our deputy superintendent and budget director likely want to hello Borden I am here on behalf of our CFO tonight who is not able to join us we have what I believe is a pretty straightforward budget amendment resolution we're asking the board to move appropriations within funds no new appropriations nothing from contingency just moving from one program to another in fund 101 from support services to instruction and fun to a five the same both of those caused by thank you well fund 101 is general fund fund 205 I do not know my head of revenue well we have to sorry so in fund one 101 in front 205 which is general fund and special revenue fund we are moving from support services to instruction this is just due to increased investment in instruction it has to do with how we code payroll positions primary cost drivers on both of these are payroll expenses in fun $2.99 which is where we account for our grants we're asking to move 50000 from support services to facilities acquisition and construction between the approved and adopted budget process for 2018 19 this change happened and nobody currently on staff knows why but there was a $50,000 planned expense for facilities acquisition and construction so we're gonna ask the board to basically revert that appropriation back to the approved budget level and then in fund 450 which is where we account for our bond construction projects we're asking to move 100,000 from facilities acquisition and construction to support services to fund an increase in our insurance expenses if those are the only hanging chads that we have from that whole process I think that's pretty good okay any questions or discussion okay the board will now consider s resolution 5 9 0 for amendment to the 2018-19 budget for school district number 1 J month on the County Oregon do I have a motion in a second second director Bailey moves director konstanz seconds the motion to adopt resolution number 5 9:04 miss huff is there any public comment okay any further board discussion or any discussion at all okay the board will now vote on resolution 594 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed say no any abstentions resolution 594 is approved by a vote of 7 to 0 okay thank you thank you I will now adjourn the board is the Budget Committee and call the board back into its regular session okay the board will now consider the remainder of its business agenda having already voted on resolutions five nine zero zero and five nine zero four are
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there any items you want to pull four separate discussion and a vote yes I'd like to pull out the headstart resolution okay miss Howe are there any changes to the business agenda no okay okay so we'll pull out the discussion of the head starts and superintendent Guerrero do we have anyone present who can we have some of our early ad team here present this evening to take any of your questions directors [Music] so I had a couple of programmatic questions oh sorry I'm Eileen I am co-director of Head Start I am Robert Cantwell so I had one sort of legal question maybe it's a future legal do you have to answer it so I'll ask my legal question okay first and then questions so in the resolution it has that we're there federal requirements that were the governing board and just in terms of being in compliance with federal law what what are the requirements at the nest just approving is that the question you were prepared to answer what I can do I have under Section it's under 42 u.s. code it's the federal guidelines as a governing body which school board is you sorry you you have the legal and fiscal responsibility for head starts and so what there's a there's a long list of responsibilities mainly it's about oversight maintenance insuring annual review the things that you're being asked to look at today in terms of ensuring that there is the approving financial management of the system reviewing and approving policies for the head start program reviewing the the performance and ensuring that those data points are met with you know your annual goals the annual training requirement to for the board right now did that in February I believe great um could you share that I can share this document with you I'm sorry that's right that I can also share but kind of guys our work which is the performance standards from that we're redundant 2007 I believe and there's a whole section on program governance that I actually sent in today and then there's also the head start Act which gives a lot more detail which I need to share with you as well in section 6 4 2 c1 e of the Act and it kind of outlines all the different items that we need to have our Policy Council look at approve make recommendations to and then share with the board get board resolution so - tonight we're reviewing your self-assessment and the goals for next year the financial piece is is that done as part of our annual but is part of when we so the budget which will come with our grant for next year so every year we have to renew our grant it's a continuation ban it's a five-year grant we're going into year two of the continuation grant so that will be we will ask to have that reviewed this summer and the budget will be attached to that okay great what I can do to provide you a detailed memo of governing bodies responsibilities so you have that for reading through the resolution is like oh do we have greater responsibilities here then it's sort of other programs and it sounds like it I'll do that for you I think one other thing to share is that most grantees are not in school districts we're very unique in that way and we are fifty-four years in to this with Portland Public which is pretty exciting we're one of the originals but other school board
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other boards have there's a configuration of what you need people need to be on that board but in the app that says that if it's a elected school board that were exempt from that because we do have layers of other supports we have financial people we have a curriculum people all lawyers all those kinds of things that are supposed to be on a head-start board so I just had two questions about the plan I want to thank director Esparza Brown who's been the head start and designee for schooling me or educating me on all things had Head Start some two questions I had one was around attendance and the attendance numbers for last the goal was eighty five person there was a goal related to attendance and we had sixty seven percent of the students having attendance eighty-five percent or greater and I'm recalling from the last year the number was similar and I'm and I know there's a strategy in here but I'm wondering what the long-term trend is because 67% is low and is and then the following question is should we is there something we can do to increase the attendance directors bars around to talked about the having unfold full-day programs had been helpful but I'm just curious is there something we should be we could be doing as a policy body so that we have much better attendance in our full-day programs because there are so many more parents working and going to school now with the economy the way it is so part of a last resolution we asked that we actually dropped 25 slots to create more extended day we don't have any more money to do it but we will fill those slots we found that the half-day sessions has quite poor attendance in their heart to keep full so that's one thing the way we look at attendance is much deeper now and our overall attendance per month is supposed to be at 85 and if it's not you we need to research why and document but we have had really good attendance overall but when you dive in only 67% of the children had 85 or better so there's a new performance standard that came out and if a child is below 80 percent in their attendance the families advocates have to go to the family and work out a plan to help the family have better attendance so that's kind of new and this is a new way of really looking at it like so how many kids really are at 85% and if they're not what are you doing differently another thing we started I think we're in year two or maybe we're in year one because we talked about it all last year is we do I helped me grow tree and it's very colorful one of our parents created for us but we we download the data for that particular child on what their attendance is and talk to the parents about that three times a year in our fall conference our winter conference and our spring home visit and then really emphasize the importance of good pre-k K attendance is a good indicator of their grade reading and graduation from high school so we are very aware of the importance so between adding making more full-day slots and having a plan if they drop below 80% we do you know our ultimate goal in five years was to be have 80% of our kids at 85 or better and we know we're at 67 so we just know we have to keep monitoring that and work hard with the families and then the other question I had related to the ensuring every all children of families are receiving support to be healthy and ready to learn there was data relating to dental and vision and and number screening the referrals and then treatment and as you move across the spectrum there seems to be a fair amount of drop-off of those that actually then get treatment and it we know that they've challenged the board or the district that to reverse those numbers well we reverse them but I guess improve them so that students are getting with right because we do a great job of
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screening for dental and vision you know we work with the KCI Institute I mean we've got a lot of great screening tools it's the follow-up that we really are trying to focus on and we we look at actually lists of kids like who are these children what classrooms are they in where do they attend and who can support us so do we go to our family service worker do we have the nurse reach out to those individual families so that's all part of the strategy of trying to figure out okay so you've got these numbers what are you going to do about it what what strategies do you have what supports do we have we have contracts with dentist if they need dental work and they don't have an insurance but a lot of our families as you can see ninety-four percent of our families do have insurance now we help them access that and get the support they need so it's not just it's not just this program that has a problem with follow-up to screenings this is a statewide problem and I think it speaks to the need for better integration of healthcare which is unfortunately beyond our purview but I think it's I think it's something that we should all be individually if not collectively advocating for on a state basis and I did have one question about the 94% I think insurance rate with health insurance I'm curious it's high but it could be a given Medicaid expansion it probably could be higher yeah and I think that's something we have to help families navigate sometimes um you know there's a lot of a lot of issues some families are dealing with and sometimes that's not the focus but we're lucky to have family service workers that help families navigate systems so there there might be some external resources to PPS that we can that we could tap into to help with that that would be wonderful and and and it also one the follow-up program is responsible for the screening and then beginning treatments I'm just looking at the vision 16% refer to the 16 60 percent completed treatment so it implies that 40% of the students who needed some sort of vision direction or correct assistance didn't get it is this Head Start they're your responsibility just to I guess like the rest of PPS just to do a referral or is it that we have some sort of more formal arrangements for like we give them a referral or they get the results of the screening it's really up to families or well it's up to families to get to the appointment and maybe that's where we can help but the k-ci Institute OHSU I mean there's a lot of resources out there it's just getting the family to the resource we found out this year that Kaycee Institute I don't know but they would even provide transportation so we just need to really understand that information and know how to access it for families yeah I mean I just gonna say somebody who couldn't see the top learner in the eye chart that I mean that can have profound impacts on the students abilities learners are just a socialize or everything else so if we can unlock that it seems like that would be really living up to our giving all students you know really being ready to learn okay thank you thank you okay are there any other okay let's do the motion first do I have a motion to adopt and it's a motion and a second to adopt the business agenda so move second director constan moves directors buzzer Brown seconds the motion to adopt a business agenda is there any other board discussion on the business agenda okay
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we will now vote on the business agenda all in favor say aye all opposed no the business agenda passes by a vote of seven to zero okay so I will adjourn in a moment but we are going to adjourn this regular meeting and then move upstairs to the Mazama room for a work session next Tuesday June 18th we'll have another work session and the next regular meeting of the board will be held on June 25th okay meeting is adjourned [Music]


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