2020-04-07 PPS School Board Special Meeting
| District | Portland Public Schools |
|---|---|
| Date | 2020-04-07 |
| Time | 17:30:00 |
| Venue | Virtual/Online |
| Meeting Type | special |
| Directors Present | missing |
Documents / Media
Notices/Agendas
2020 04 07 Public Notice Special Meeting (aaf356b3508e3d3f).pdf Public Meeting Notice
Materials
20 04 07 Index to the Agenda Special Meeting (35e19b6a7f8ad406).pdf Index to the Agenda - Items for Individual Consideration
Minutes
2020 04 07 Special Meeting Overview (50d4b7e18b651fb0).pdf Meeting Overview
Transcripts
Event 1: Special Meeting of the Board of Education April 7, 2020
00h 00m 00s
okay there's a board meeting at the
Board of Education for April 7 2020 is
called to order this meeting is being
audio streamed live on channel 28 and
will be replayed throughout the next two
weeks
please check the district website for
replay climbs this meeting is also being
audio streamed live on our PBS TV
services website on April 3rd 2019
Portland Public Schools received a
formal written complaint regarding the
accidental lockdown at Wilton High
School on April 1st 2019 and the delay
in completing security upgrades On June
9th 2019 and peel to the board of
equation was received on June 25th 2019
the Board of Education passed resolution
591 which held complaint number 20 1903
in abeyance until December 3rd 2019 and
allowed for staff to resolve concerns
brought forward by the complainant on
December 3rd 2019 the complainant agreed
to postpone the appeal to allow time for
facility improvements to be finished
which had been delayed due to
difficulties in obtaining contractors
because of the high demand for
construction projects in the city at
that time staff at making numerous steps
to address valid concerns raised in the
rank including safety training and
stepped toward completing facility
improvements welcome miss Hutchinson
thank you for being on the line and
being with us tonight the purpose of
this meeting is to consider complaint 20
1903 in accordance with board policy
4.50 oh three 2p the district sets forth
the specific procedure for resolution of
formal complaints by students parents
guardians and people who reside in the
district in order to resolve formal and
informal complaints in a fair and timely
manner we will begin by asking deputy
superintendent Hertz in five minutes to
please provide an update on the
improvements and safety training that
have taken place in response to your
complaint Ms Hutchinson you will then
have five minutes to provide your
comments tonight following your comments
board members will be able to follow up
with questions for you or staff deputy
superintendent Hertz can you please
share with the board what training and
improvements have been completed at
Wilson High School since the complaint
was last before the board
good evening this is Claire Hertz and
I'm happy to do so and in July of 2019
Wilson High School has had a new
principal Phillipe reseach and we our
security and the Emergency Management
team met with the incoming principal to
discuss safety and security plans for
Wilson high school and they also the
security team at that time also attended
three days of training with law
enforcement partners and school resource
officers on keeping our schools safe in
August's emergency response posters were
sent out to all schools for all
classrooms and all staff are required to
take the emergency preparation and
response course on on our online
professional development portal on
August 8th 2019 the Portland Public
Schools security services personnel
presented to the school in central
leadership on security resources and
emergency management plan planning in
August and September campus security
received two and a half days of security
training and then on August 26 the
Wilson staff received critical incident
training and first-aid training and an
August 26th a vulnerability assessment
of Wilson was conducted with campus
security agents and security services
supervisor in September
both the Portland public in the city of
Portland police officers attended and
proctored Wilson's lockdown drill and
then in October all substitutes required
to take the emergency preparation and
response course on online professional
development prior to beginning work in
schools and then in November again a
critical incident and life-saving
training training was delivered to
substitutes at the fall substitute
training workshop in terms of facility
improvements I'm happy to report that
the security improvements have been
completed at Wilson High School the
testing was done during
the spring break week and the what has
been installed is electronic access
control systems including video in their
comms and electronic locks at the main
entrance and the main ATA entrance of
the school that public address system
speakers in common areas such as
hallways gyms cafeterias auditoriums and
playgrounds were installed and new
signage that directs school visitors to
the main entry and and requires check in
00h 05m 00s
at the main office were installed so at
the that covers the training and the
facilities improvements that have
occurred at Wilson high school deputy
superintendent Hertz does that conclude
your report yes okay miss Hutchison um
would you like to provide your comments
to the board at this time
um yes I had prior to receiving this
correspondence on the claritin read from
I didn't receive that until yesterday
afternoon I had sent her an email to the
board just you know again outlining my
my concerns about safety I am glad to
see that these things have had finally
taken place I might
the additional concern that I'm sitting
here with Roma and Lindland
and part of the issue that led us to
this complaint was that in an accidental
lockdown things that we were told had
taken place were not implemented so
although that sub we were told had had
training the sub did not know what to do
and so my largest concern in the fact
that all of these things have been done
quote-unquote now is the proficiency
level where's the evaluation component
or are we waiting for another incident
you know last year many of the intercoms
in the classrooms didn't work the phones
didn't work I was told that folks were
sent out to fix those phones is there a
schedule for ongoing maintenance and
assurances that the things that have
taken place will actually really work in
a situation it's one thing to say okay
now we've put locks on the doors but I i
sat in the parent coffee many many
months ago in the fall with a mom who
has a student at Wilson and a student at
an elementary school that has those
locks on the doors with the video
cameras and the system was too
cumbersome for the elementary school to
deal with so they just stopped using it
so it it's one thing to have it and it's
another thing to again have a process in
which you are proficient at it and that
you are actually using it there are
several times in this memo where it
refers to the stop the bleed training
which I've also taken and my children
carry the kits with them but no teacher
has those kits in their classrooms and
so on paper it looks fantastic and that
saved a child's life in LA many months
ago when there was a shooting because
the choir teacher had that stopped the
bleed kit in her classroom Wilson does
not have stopped the bleeds in teachers
classrooms someone would have to go to
the couple that exists in the building -
I believe the defibrillator station or
maybe the fire sticks - I don't even
know and when I asked I I was I was sort
of given part of an answer to that but
no teachers gonna wander around a hall
looking for a stop the bleed kit even
though they know how to use it if they
don't have it then it's not useful and
so that's my concern for all safety at
Wilson and PPS schools is that it's one
thing to put this wonderful document
together and I'm finally after a years
thrilled out of my mind
that that these things have actually
occurred and I I know that you all want
children to be safe but the the process
of ongoing monitoring and management of
a safety and security system for people
who are required my children are
required to be in a building that I
still don't feel has a grasp of security
and and I I would like to feel that and
my children would like to feel that and
my children have these kits in their
backpacks because I know that they don't
exist and so if you're telling parents
oh we took stop the bleed training
parents might really believe that in an
in an actual incident those might be
used but no one's gonna run through the
halls looking for them the the largest
thing that's missing in this is the
cameras and one of the the most grave
safety issues that our children and my
children of color deal with every day is
the hate speech and the hate symbols
that still are ongoing in this school
00h 10m 00s
and without the cameras knowing you know
oh well this was found in this classroom
and you can look at a camera and go oh
well these are the people that went in
and out of that classroom in this time
period we now have a pool of people
let's let's look at that let's let's
really try and and have a process that
that looks at the entire physical
emotional safety of the children in the
school this pandemic is another instance
you know I got many emails and I was
thrilled to get them that said they were
going to be doing more surface cleaning
well that is amazing and would provide
great security if in fact this is
transmitted on surfaces but when asked
what surfaces were being cleaned
I could not be given a list of surfaces
so I I know that those desks get chairs
put on top of them every night I know
that they get taken down every morning I
know that children sit at those tables
and chairs every day so the just of
different levels of security and safety
that our health and physical and
well-being and mental well-being I think
really need to more holistically
be looked at in in this process of
safety at the school and with regard to
this particular complaint the pieces
that are missing are the follow-up and
follow-through aspects of each of these
things that it you know video intercoms
and locked doors I'm very happy to see
but if they're cumbersome and they're
not being used then it's not it's not
helpful at RORO do you have anything no
Dylan do you have anything okay the kids
said that they don't have anything else
hello hey thanks so much board members
do you have any questions of miss
Hutchins center of staff any follow-up
questions so this is this is Julia can I
go ahead yes so I'm just curious from
staffs perspective whether they have any
response to the issues that were weird
raised by the complainant so I would
have to check with Wilson leadership to
see about the specifics of the kits for
stop the bleed I don't have that
information with me I will tell you that
performers would completely agree with
the Shelly Hutchinson that we would like
to see security cameras in all of our
schools and we intend we have as a staff
recommendation in a future bond for
installing security cameras so that is
certainly something that we would like
to see as well this is a what about
those points that miss Hutchinson raised
about that evaluation component and the
ongoing maintenance I think you know as
we look at multiple areas of our system
that this has been a place where we have
struggled as an organization with that
continuous evaluation and continuous
maintenance and is there a plan in place
for these pieces related to safety and
how are we executing that so in in terms
of
the ongoing maintenance of especially
our security systems we've hired an
electrician so we have work orders that
come in and so that we can maintain that
on an ongoing basis and we're also
adding a second position in this next
year as more of the systems come online
that so we'll have an electrical one as
well as one that works with the
programming on the security systems so
we actually have added one FTE and we'll
add a second in the coming year to
support those systems in terms of she
also mentioned the cleaning for the
pandemic we do have lists and
instructions to our custodians of what
they're to do on a daily basis for
cleaning high-touch areas so I'm happy
to forward that on to her so she knows
what custodians have been asked to do
that'd be great
mm-hmm anyone else with questions I'm
curious about the safety aspect we
talked about some of the facilities
related improvements that have been made
and the fact that there will be school
resource officers but what have we done
to or do that well these systems address
the the hate the incidence of hate that
we're seeing it Wilson is there a way to
for instance with the installation of
the video cameras be able to identify
students that are that are you know
marking up the school in these awful
ways so at this point we have not
00h 15m 00s
designed what those systems will look
like we know that where we have frequent
frequent requests from our high school
leadership teams to have additional
cameras in their schools so we'll be
working with you know a design team to
design the security cameras that will be
placed in our schools but it also takes
it will take time for us to put a bound
out of the community and that would you
know so it's not something that's
happening imminently but it's as soon as
the board sends forward a package and
then we would recommend
a component of that be not only the
security-camera so we're also wanting to
put the handsets on the doors the door
handles that allow staff to lock the
room without a key and from inside the
classroom so there's we have multiple
things that we're bringing forward as a
security package for the board to
approve in the next Bond campaign I
following on that question do we are the
school resource officers I don't
understand you know exactly what their
function is but are they there to my
students or like watch for watch for
incidents of hate crimes before and
after school I guess I don't really
understand what how they operate in
Wilson in particular so school resource
officers are not in every school every
day there's only a few of them across
the district so they I would say our
campus security agents that are actually
our employees are the ones that are in
our high schools every day and our have
developed relationships with our
students in are there to observe and
just help keep the keep things running
smoothly and working with students in
watching for anything that's out of the
ordinary so I would say our campus
security agents are more involved in
that day-to-day component of safety of
students oh go ahead
yeah I wanted to ask about kind of a
maintenance of effort so the you
mentioned that we have added a couple of
FTE or or we'll have I think two more
FTE and it sounded like they were going
to be doing sort of physical maintenance
and I think one of the questions was the
maintenance of efforts and training like
this
it's it's not one and done so how how is
it refreshed are they doing like
security drills the way they do fire
drills that kind of thing so we have a
you know security team that works with
all of our principals and as we open up
school we have first of all mandatory on
online training for all personnel and we
offer safety and security as well as we
have on-site training with our safety
and security staff and with
instructional staff and trainings and
especially our different protocols
around the lockdown lockout
shelter-in-place components so there is
an ongoing staffing and that is
available to schools
there's certainly it's mostly done at
the start of the school year but
certainly is available for ongoing you
know tabletop exercises we respond to
requests on a regular basis and support
our principals in that work and I do see
that Joe LaFontaine has had his hand
raised for quite some time
I just wanted to share that I know that
principle he stitches new this year he
knew about some of these concerns and
that the staff has engaged the
anti-defamation league in training some
of the students to actually begin up
some work in the student body around
around anti hate speech and behaviors
and actually training students on not
being just bystanders and that this has
been an ongoing work that they've been
doing at least the first half of this
year and I just wanted to share that
piece because I had some knowledge about
that
thank you this is Haley and I also just
wanted to express to the Hutchinson
00h 20m 00s
family my regret that you all felt
unsafe in your school and I know the
parent of a high school student in our
system that there are days when those
same sorts of fears happen she's
experienced lockdowns in her school as
well and so I really appreciate your
advocacy for safety because I know that
that is so important that students feel
secure so that they can learn
successfully so I just wanted to express
that to your whole family
so great point director Lowry so I had
just additional follow-up for Claire a
deputy superintendent Hertz regarding
the security measures so this the 2017
bond had a allocation of at least 150
million for health safety and secured
health safety and accessibility and I'm
assuming that this would fit on this
could fit under this umbrella if the
opportunity for us to go out for another
bond ends up being extended extended
farther into the future is this
something that the district would
consider utilizing 2017 bond funds for
so we have already doubled the amount
that we spent on security than what was
originally listed on the bond from the
original package so we have already used
additional resources because we felt
strongly that all of the measures that
we were bringing forward were in all of
our schools so so at this point that was
fine that was five million right right
but it's where I think we've spent nine
million or worse we're scheduled to
spend because we're still in the process
of its process of installing but truly
[Music]
district staff has the same goals in
mind in providing the highest safety for
all of our students and right now as you
know the 2017 bond is fully spoken for
and certainly if resources free up that
allow for additional security spending
it would be something that we would put
on on the list for moving forward
because it is a high priority item do we
have any further
questions from the board this is Scott
Bailey last question would be maybe the
last question would be about substitutes
because we're there's probably at least
one substitute in every school every day
how are they integrated into security
routines so at Wilson High School in
particular so all substitutes before
they're allowed to work go through the
same online training that all personnel
are required to do and then when they
come in and pick up their packet of
things they have a insert about the
security for Wilson High School and we
last year delivered our protocol charter
safety protocol chart so that there's
one posted in now in every classroom so
that when someone when a lock out or a
lockdown is called out it's very clearly
it can be found in any classroom what
which is what is meant by each type of
security protocol so there is as they
check in with their person in the
morning they're given that that
information for that school thank you
anything further okay the board will now
vote on resolution number six zero eight
six resolution to uphold the
superintendent's decision on a step
three of complaint number 2019 - agree
do I have a motion salute
I believe that was direct pass moves and
director Scott seconds the motion to
adopt the resolution six zero eight six
the board will now vote on resolution 6a
eight six all in favor please indicate
by saying yes yes all opposed please
indicate by saying no any abstentions
00h 25m 00s
resolution six zero eight six is
approved by a vote of seven to zero so
director our chair Khan Sam I would like
to thank the Hutchinson family for
bringing this complaint forward because
it helped the district align all of our
practices and really take a thorough
look at what we were doing kind of in
pieces you know it where each section
was being done separately and so this
allowed us to look at it overall and
really better prepare us throughout our
system so thank you
Hutchinson's we really share your
interest in the safety of our students
in our district I appreciate that thank
you deputy superintendent Hertz and I
would agree that the benefit extends
beyond just the students of Wilson High
School here so thank you again they okay
for allowing us the opportunity thank
you okay this special meeting of the
Board of Education is adjourned board
members will reconvene on our other call
for a regular board meeting thanks so
Sources
- PPS Board of Education, Archive 2019-2020, https://www.pps.net/Page/15694 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:49.341831Z)
- PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)
